pros:

-multiplayer. probably has the best replay value of any fps game i’ve ever played in my life.
-probably the best game on xbox 360 today, imo
-does a pretty good job of concluding the halo story
-doesnt fucking pull a cliffhanger ending like halo 2 did
-challenging difficulties – not too much that you get overwhelmed, and not too little where you feel like its too easy
-4 player co-op over live
-constantly loading off the disc, so you rarely have to wait (unless its a big cutscene or event)
-controls are spot on
-forge is great
-HUD looks like master chief’s visor this time, which is a nice touch
-graphics are pretty polished, especially for 1080p upconverting
-sounds great in dolby digital 5.1
-constant patches and updates
-DLC, like new maps to use for multiplayer
-if you die, you respawn at your last checkpoint, which is really convenient and nice
-everyone fucking plays it
-saving replays is just sweet
-its TOO awesome online, especially with 16 people in a map and if you know most of them

cons:

-you will probably give in and end up buying an xbox 360 just for this game ( :p )
-quite a few bugs that need to be fixed
-single player campaign feels a bit short (less than 10 hours)
-sound cuts out sometimes
-this game needs more AA…badly. (AA = anti-aliasing)
-dialogue sometimes isnt in sync with the subtitles and game
-the chief hardly talks in comparison to his allies and even enemies
-the arbiters role seems overrated
-those new to the series will feel lost (go brush up on wikipedia or something)
-game will sometimes just freeze for no reason (single-player), wont even tell you that its loading
-why not make your own custom levels in forge from scratch, instead of modifying existing ones?
-sometimes you’ll run out of ammo too quickly and wont realize it
-bungie recommends that you DONT install the game to your xbox hard drive…because it was “optimized” for the disc, but who cares really?
-you need a hard drive to play online and to play DLC maps (okay minus 1 gametype…but still)
-why wasnt there 4 player local co-op?
-idiots over xbox live
-idiots over xbox live who are cheap
-idiots over xbox live who just sound stupid and retarded

but you wont care about the cons it has, or how “crappy” it looks, however many idiots are on xbox live, or however many glitches and exploits and WTF moments there are, because its just so damn fun to play.

rating 9/10.

if you have an xbox 360 and you dont have this game, go out and fucking buy it now. i dont care if you play through the single player or not, i dont care if you think the game is too expensive, just find change, borrow money, steal some from the bank – you NEED this game…at least for the multiplayer. thats how good it is.

http://www.tu4ar.com/ there is a countown on that site. thats all i have to say.

for those of you who dont know what tu4ar is, tu4ar = take u 4 a ride = character select music from marvel vs capcom 2.

and screw the 360 version and its bogus d-pad. PS3 all the freaking way.

and bobby still owes me my marvel vs capcom 2 ps2 case as well.

and just in case no one knows what the song sounds like….here you go:

Finally, the Zelda that’s supposed to dethrone ocarina of time and become the new king to beat…or is it? Read on to find out!

Introduction:

ocarina of time is probably the best game ever created (right next to mgs4). i mean, there really cant be another game, let alone another legend of zelda that could possibly be any better than ocarina of time…

and twilight princess would have been it, but its just several years too late, and it does a few things wrong (even after you would think nintendo would smarten up).

Graphics:

now, you have to realize that twilight princess was (and still is) meant for nintendo’s gamecube, and NOT the wii. the entire game was just ported, with the only “enhancement” being 16:9 widescreen (thank you god or else i would have been mighty pissed off). dont get me wrong though, the locations, models, and everything else looks plain awesome and is typical zelda (better graphics after every generation of game), but unfortunately (and sadly), there is HORRIBLE aliasing (jagged lines on everything) everywhere. in the end, its just gamecube graphics which had widescreen tacked onto it. at least it supports progressive scan (480p).

Sound:

for some reason, nintendo doesnt want to support dolby digital, but only dolby pro-logic II. even the ps2/xbox supported it, and the wii is supposedly “much faster and superior” than both of those old-gen consoles. apart from that, the sound is quite good, as every sword slash, enemy footstep, and distant background noise is heard. the music is great too, although i wish they could finally go to real orchestrated sounds (like mario galaxy) as opposed to midi like they’ve been using all these years, though nintendo never falls short in sounds or music, which is a good thing. i just they would use true 5.1 as opposed to upconverted stereo to 5.1.

Gameplay:

its zelda! what more do you want? run around, collect items and equipment, get keys, defeat enemies and bosses, discover hidden secrets, and explore hyrule. it gets tedious sometimes, but it never, ever gets boring, even after the last 5-6 zelda games. i do wish nintendo would try something new/fresh though, as they clearly went conservative/tried-and-true in twilight princess (wind waker was a total departure from the other zelda games).

Presentation:

excellent. typical zelda, typical “sucking you in until the game ends or until you read the gamefaqs message boards”. the story is nicely told and its just nintendo at its best. the opening cutscene (press A/B) is just simply amazing. Midna ties into the story wonderfully, as well as zelda herself, but i have to ask what the FUCK was up with turning link into a wolf? that was more of a hindrance than another “character” to enjoy and play as.

Multiplayer:

doesn’t have any…obviously.

Singleplayer:

same as every zelda game…nothing else i can say really.

Extras:

getting all of the equipment, extra items, golden bug catching, fishing, heart pieces, hidden skills, poe hunting, rollgoal, and the cave of ordeals. thats way more extas than i ever expected in a zelda game, although for the most part, they are really…easy to do. and whats up with not adding more challenging extras too?

Conclusion:

twilight princess could have been the best zelda game ever released, but it falls quite short. the graphics didnt really WOW anyone the way the past zelda games did (partly because its honestly a ported gamecube game and that the wii cant display anything higher than 480p). also, the gameplay was very conservative and tried-and-true like ocarina of time/majoras mask, and didnt really reinvent or try anything new, and about the gameplay, my gosh its like a tweaked version of ocarina of time. i dont know if thats a good thing or a bad thing (personal preference).

if you are a zelda fan (like me of course), you will definitely enjoy this game even with its obvious shortcomings, but nonetheless get irritated at the fact that this game could have been SO much better if it wasnt a port and how it felt kind of…neglected in a way.

8.5/10.

Introduction:

1997 was an awesome year. my family got a brand new car, a brand new computer (a dell dimension xps266 – pentium II 266Mhz FTW!), my bro was getting complete unrestricted/unfiltered 24/7/365 T1 internet access, so that meant the rise of piracy and all this new software/hardware that ive never heard of. well, that was because he went to an accelerated/smart people high school. anyways, i would always always always wait for him to come home on the weekends, cause i would miss him a ton, but moretheless see what new goodies he would bring home. one weekend though, my dad and he came home an hour or two later than usual and i was kind of getting antsy/worried. where the heck did they go? maybe my dad was stuck at work, or my brother had to finish stuff up at school, who knows. all i know is that when my brother came home that day, he immediately raced to the computer with a plastic bag with a huge box inside. knowing me, i followed him and he was like completely excited beyond belief. i read what the box was and strangely, it was called “diablo”. i was like “wow, this is scary and looks pretty stupid. i dont want to play it at all.” but thank GOD my brother made me watch him play. i didnt care about SNES/Sega Genesis emulators or descent or jazz jackrabbit or quake anymore..because Diablo is probably one of the best (and one my personal personal favorite) games ive ever played, and to have ever come out on the PC.

btw, i am going to write this review with a mix of a 1997 and 2008 perspective…

Graphics:

from a 1997 perspective, this game BLEW away whatever was out at the time (of a 2D rpg genre of course). everything was nicely detailed, the cinematics were superb, the dungeons were amazingly polished too. every weapon, piece of armor that you put on would dramatically change your heroes look. well, mind you there were only 3 different types of armor class and depending on which one you wore, it would redecorate your character accordingly. still, the graphics were amazing at its time.

Sound:

Town, Dungeon, Catacombs, Caves, Hell. Those 5 pieces of music would endlessly play on each respective place, and even though they would loop, i never ever got tired of it. my favorites happen to be the caves, the town, and the catacombs especially. this music perfectly fit in wherever you would go. hell sounded like a place that would quite literally scare the hell out of you, the caves sounded old, rugged, and full of undead creatures, while the dungeon/cathedral sounded exactly like a church that was taken over and the catacombs…oh man, you have to hear it to believe it. usually with most games that you play over and over again, one would get bored with the music (aka turn on your ipod, winamp, itunes, whatever you use), but with diablo, this never ever happened. simply. freaking. amazing.

Gameplay:

Click click click click click. its a simple point and click game. click to move, attack, use magic use/move/equip items, potions, scrolls. easy to play, simple to pick up, brilliant design. Keyboard shortcuts were also included so in case your fingers/wrist got tired from moving too much. absolutely perfect at the time, and the same still holds true today (WoW, starcraft, warcraft 3, etc).

Presentation:

simple to navigate menus. large, nicely written text that anyone can pick up and read, to even just the evil that looms over the town of tristram…this game is VERY well presented. everyone looks happy, scared, or simply doesnt care.

Multiplayer:

this was the best part of diablo. completely free 4 player online. anyone can just hop online and quest together to beat diablo, trade items, or even do pvp (player vs player). i spent most of my time online (hours/days/weeks/years literally) questing and collecting items (i was too young to realize that most of the “good” items were hacked/nonlegit/godly), and killing pkers (player killers). the only other game that ive spent even more time online was *drumroll* diablo 2. and if you didnt want to do battle.net, blizzard also nicely included modem (2 players only), ipx (before the current LAN/tcp-ip stuff you see in todays games), and even direct connect. games could also be raised in difficulty and even be password protected so only your friends could join. best idea ever blizzard, im SO glad you brought battle.net out with diablo.

Singleplayer:

you could pick from 3 characters, the warrior (my favorite), the rogue, or the sorcerer. the warrior would be awesome in physical combat, but suck at magic, while the rogue would be the balanced character, and the sorcerer bringing up the mage type. everytime you started a new game, you would get randomly assigned quests, which was a good thing. the only drawback is that you could never ever get every single quest, because the game would automatically predetermine which quests you get. of course most people would get bored playing the game by yourself, especially when this game was made for multiplayer. still, it was a good idea.

Extras:

There was an unofficial expansion packed called “hellfire” from sierra, but honestly, it wasnt up to blizzard quality standards and it was hard to find. i did manage to get a copy from my friend (no not torrents you fools – i actually legitimately borrowed the game from my friend in oklahoma) and play through it. to be honest, it was okay. nothing spectacular and nothing game changing..well i take that back, hellfire did give you the option of running in town, which was nice, and also editing a command.txt file which allowed for even more heroes and quests. besides that, after you beat the game with all 3 characters, and beat all the quests, there isnt much else to do except level up and collect more loot/treasure.

Conclusion:

Diablo is in my top 5 games of all time, and probably is my #1 PC game of all time. the music, the story, the gameplay, the single and multiplayer (battle.net fucking rules hands down – fuck you xbox live, it has NOTHING against diablo – at the time of course), everything about it was so perfect and SO amazing. 3 different heroes to pick and choose from, basically an infinite number of combinations regarding your equipment (godly plate of the whale and kings sword of the haste for all your battle.net peeps). obviously most people will think im crazy because “zomg diablo 2 is so much better, and starcraft just blows away diablo” or “diablo is soooooooo old” “there are WAY better games out there now”. i know all that. i know that there have been excellent games to have come out within the past 11 years…but..the facts are the facts. im not alone when all of the other gaming review sites on the web state that diablo is quite simply, the best game of the year and the best game for years to come…on the PC of course.

10/10.

Introduction:

I first got into the Soul Edge/Calibur series during the Dreamcast era. My first character was Lizardman and the reason why I picked him is because I thought he was cool with his sword and shield (stupid/nerdy i know). Soul Calibur II came out a few years later for the PS2, Xbox, and GCN, and while I was already in love with other fighting games like Marvel Vs. Capcom and the Tekken series, I wasn’t really interested in picking up another fighting game that didnt interest me. Well, a few weeks before Soul Calibur II came out, scamco…er, I mean Namco announced that each console version would have a special “guest” character – Heihachi from Tekken for the PS2, Spawn on the Xbox, and Link on the Gamecube…wait a second, WTF? Link from the Legend of Zelda….in a NON zelda/fighting game??? Are you serious???I immediately got hooked. I wanted this game so badly…but there was one reason stopping me from getting it – i didn’t have a gamecube. Luckily, earlier in the year, my brother had bought one when Zelda: The Wind Waker had come out, so that problem was taken care of. When the game came out, we both spent HOURS playing it, as it probably became one of the best fighting games ever made. Then Soul Calibur III was released a bit later…none of my friends bought it or played it. I figured it wasnt even worth looking at so I didnt bother picking it up. Nothing “exciting” or interesting was in the fighting game genre for a long time…until now (man that sounds so cheesy!).

Graphics:

This game has OUTSTANDING visuals. It’s definitely the best looking out of all the fighting games I have played (well, Virtua Fighter 5 and DoA4 come pretty close too). From each lightsaber hilt, to Siegfrieds’ armor, to even clothing on each characters clothes, everything is well drawn and animated. However, there are quite a few jaggies everywhere, and i’m not a fan of the “artwork portraits” of the characters when you pick them on the character selection screen. And 720p only scamco? What the hell is up with that? You could have easily made this game 1080p, as konami did with mgs4, and they had even BETTER graphics.

Sound:

Thankfully, it redeems itself with full Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. Every single effect, footstep, background noise, stage noise (the star wars stages especially) and whatever else can be heard from all directions and speakers. Excellent job there. The music is pretty good too, but definitely not as good as soul calibur II, but on par with soul calibur III. Thankfully, Scamco is allowing DLC and just a few days ago, it released all the music from soul calibur I to be used as alternate music for the stages. (now hurry the fuck up and release the soul calibur II music!) As for the voice acting…i know Scamco has a history for cheesy dialog, but seriously, this is supposed to be a “next-gen” game, so why not go all out and do a much better job with the voices? Some of the lip-syncing needs work too and boo/hiss on the fact that you cover up some of the characters mouths when they speak to lower the amount of lip-syncing work.

Gameplay:

To me, soul calibur has always been about button mashing and once in a while, you’ll find a move or two that will be unblockable, do lots of damage, or just will plain look cool. of course, if you ever want to be good at it, you should probably learn all the moves of whatever character you want (or create your own!). once in a while, someone (aka podar) will find a cheap move that you can do over and over again for a TON of damage and might even be tough to get out of/unblockable. all the usual tactics are there, guard impact, block, run in all directions, crouching, etc. in this game, you can now break certain pieces of your opponents armor, making them a lot more vulnerable each time. also, they have added something called a “soul gauge” that changes color each time you block a certain amount of times. when that gauge turns red, you lose a piece of your armor and become temporarily stunned. this is a good thing that namco did, because this will definitely stop the “turtling” that noob/cheap players do. i HATE when people just sit there, block, and dont attack. luckily, nameco has added something called a “critical finish”, which is similar to a final smash in smash bros brawl, but WAY harder to pull off, as it requires the opponent to have lost all his armor and have his gauge become red and be stunned. most of the time, you’ll never have a chance to do a critical finish, which blows. also for the star wars characters, they have another gauge called the force gauge, which is there to limit how often/much you can use their special force attacks (which is a good thing!). this is definitely not the most advanced fighting game out there, compared to DoA, virtua fighter, tekken, street fighter, but it is a simple pick up and play for hours without learning the controls and moves game. thats what i love about soul calibur and why i love this type of gameplay.

Presentation:

Now usually, namco would be pretty good with menus, openings, and the like. unfortunately, i have to admit that they really havent done a good job here. the opening isnt as…exciting/thrilling/awesome as they have been in soul edge/soul calibur I/II. the menus are just bland, and they have a bit of lag when going from a menu screen to the next. the announcer could have put a LOT more effort/depth into his lines, but the bottom line is, he isnt that good. even worse, when you load a match up, the announces comes and says a line of dialog pertaining to soul calibur, but sometimes, his line will extend all the way past the stage intro and into the characters dialog! its a minor quirk i know, but again, scamco could have done a better job of cleaning all this up. soul calibur II completely owns soul calibur IV in terms of presentation. sc4 is like…60-70% of what sc2’s presentation is.

Multiplayer:

Again, scamco has dropped the ball here. only standard and special versus are here. there is no team battle, time attack, survival mode, etc. only just 1vs1 battles. W.T.F???? this was present in soul calibur 2 (cant comment on 3, never played it) so why is this NOT here? thank GOD there is online, and you can play your own created characters online too, complete with their abilities/weapons/clothing/everything.

Singleplayer:

Story mode is a joke, with only 5 stages, but some stages have up to 4 opponents to face, one after another. the last boss is ALWAYS the same character, algol. he has double health of what you have, and he is cheap. there are only two difficulty settings, normal and hard. arcade mode is here, but when you play it for the first time, you will want to throw your controller out the window. the AI is incredibly cheap, and if you play as darth vader against the apprentice, vader will get destroyed so easily by him. either the cpu gets tuned up when you fight against the apprentice, or its a extreme difficulty change compared to the other battles you face in arcade. another example of this is when you are playing against astaroth (you are still vader though). astaroth is like…level 9999999999 when you face him. i dont know what the balls namco did, but he is mega cheap, buffed like crazy, and fucking fast as hell. luckily they have added training mode too, otherwise i would have been really mad. as usual, there is a “tower of the lost souls” mode, which places you as whatever character(s) you want (they can be all customized and equipped however you wish though luckily) against opponents who must be defeated in a certain way across a tower of 60 floors, ascending and descending. some of these battles are easy to win, but some are just godawful hard. its as if they want to baby you for a few levels/floors, but then ramp up the difficulty to extreme cheapness in where you cant do anything against the cpu because they are GAY as hell. whatever, this mode could have been much better, but it isnt.

Extras:

if you got the premium edition of either console version of soul calibur IV, you get an unlock code with it, and if you use it, you will unlock every single characters best and joke weapon. the apprentice and darth vader (or yoda if you have the 360 version) are awesome guest characters, although they are cheap. the 5 “hidden” anime characters are just clones of certain soul calibur people, so its kind of pointless for them to be in here. the museum mode, artwork, illustrations, and all that is in here. it also sucks that you have to get TONS of gold to unlock every extra, but then thats how the replay value is there. Again, its definitely not up to par with soul calibur II, as that game had character demonstrations, weapon profiles, etc. the premium version also includes an XL t-shirt, a cool poster with a tournament bracket on the back, a nice artwork and comic book combo, as well as a sharpie!!! to write down the scores/names on the bracket, the case is also a nice tin case with a see-through plastic cover that goes right on top of it. also, wtf is up with the “honors” in this game? thats just a blatant rip-off of achievements from the 360 version. there was no need to put them in the ps3 version. thats why sony added trophies support, but of course, you didnt take advantage of it.

Edit: Since this review is quite a ways old, scamco has released yet more DLC, allowing for Yoda to be purchased on the PS3 and Vader on the 360…for $5 each. wow, i have no words for that.

Conclusion:

If you want a good looking, good sounding, and awesome gameplay in a fighting game, soul calibur 4 is a pretty darn good choice. if you are going to be playing this game by yourself, or if you want a deep technical fighter, you’re better off just renting it (unless you’re like me and love soul calibur in general and cant get enough of it). the fact that the singleplayer in general is sucky/nerfed, the multiplayer modes from sc2 are gone, the presentation is just plain stupid, the extras could have been better, the online disconnects half the time, adding “extra features” that are already on the disc and making you pay for them, makes this game feel rushed and you feeling cheated out of your money. all scamco really did, in my opinion, is take the gameplay, graphics and sound and make them next-gen, and they really did a great job with it, but left everything else to the dogs, and it shows; because when it all comes down to it, all these extras feel like an afterthought. it was added because they needed something to make it compete with the other fighting games out there. namco could have easily done a lot better job with everything else else if they just took their time and polished it up like soul calibur II…but they didnt.

7.5/10.

PS: this game still rocks for multiplayer battles, and dont get me wrong – i dont hate the game, i like it a ton. i just wish they could have made it so much better and made it stand out from the competition, like they did with soul calibur II.

Introduction:

I’ll be honest with you – I’ve always hated Metal Gear Solid from the very beginning. I vividly remember when all my friends were raving about how MGS on the original Playstation was “soooooo much better” than Zelda: Ocarina of Time on the N64. Actually they were raving about how the PS1 > N64, but whatever. If you know my geek/nerd/otaku side, you obviously know that Ocarina of Time is my favorite game of all time. It is THE definitive game, absolutely nothing comes close to it. Super Metroid, Final Fantasy VIII (8), Smash Bros. Brawl, none of them can ever beat Zelda. It is simply that good…until now.

I can wholeheartedly say, with confidence, that Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of The Patriots is completely superior to Ocarina of Time in every way.

Graphics:

This game pushes the PS3 to its limits…I mean, this ENTIRE game is completely rendered using the in-game engine. That means that there is absolutely no CGI involved – it is all real time 3D. That alone is a remarkable achievement. If you want to get picky, there are a few “bad” textures out of the insanely polished and stunning atmosphere and surroundings, and the framerate isn’t constant at 30fps (which they should have done, in my opinion). Otherwise, this game (so far) is the best looking game on the PS3 and easily one of the best looking games currently to date out of all consoles/PCs.

Old Snake looking badass.

Sound:

Uncompressed Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. That alone makes it worth it to even show off what the ps3 can do, and even show off what your surround sound system is capable of. This game sounds amazing, period. Every explosion, footstep, gunshot, you name it, is heard clearly and distinctly throughout all 5 speakers. The voicework is probably the best ive ever heard in any game to date. Top quality actors/actresses make this game sound and play SO much better than it already does. It’s what makes MGS work (part of it at least). The soundtrack is also equally amazing, again done by Harry Gregson-Williams (who did some previous MGS soundtracks as well). If you want to play this game right, get a decent 5.1 system setup. Trust me on that one.

Gameplay:

At first, the controls seem weird, especially if you have played MGS1, 2, or 3 before. The old controls had you pressing multiple buttons just to do one thing (ex: grabbing an enemy required you to press X to crouch, then unequip a weapon, then press square or triangle or circle, whatever it is). Now for MGS4, everything is simplified. One button to do everything. Press X to crouch, but continue to press and hold X to crawl. Just small things like that add up to MUCH better and not fiddly controls. It does take a bit of getting used to though.

Watch where you’re aiming th…what in the…? Why is he floating??

Presentation:

The opening is just awesome. The menus are simple to use/read/navigate, and they look good too. The cut-scenes are some of the best in the industry, easily surpassing some movies. This basically sums up why i love MGS – the cutscenes are what makes the game. The gameplay is phenomenal, but i’m really here for the story and to watch it. Some people will disagree with this, and some people wont, but that won’t deter me in any way. 10/10.

Multi-player:

Think MGS4 but with 15 other people as well. There are plenty of expansion packs to keep the game fresh as well. I haven’t played it extensively so i can’t really give impressions on it though. As for online play though, it’s pretty darn smooth.

Work as team, survive as a team.

Single-player:

What more do you want? It is the terrific MGS gameplay, just with an even further improved MGS3 – Subsistence free-roaming camera and better controls.

Extras:

Kojima has put everything you could imagine in this game. From a 2P digital camera mode, to a completely functioning in-game iPod (that has the full iPod menu with scroll wheel) with hidden songs, to flashbacks where you see old MGS1/MGS2/MGS3 cutscenes and pictures, to MANY weapons with multiple attachments each. There’s even a…heh, i’ll save that for the people who don’t want to get spoiled. Too many extras are in here, and its a damn good thing.

Conclusion:

This is the best game of all time, bar none. While Zelda is in a class of its own (coming from a 2D sprite-based game to a completely 3D world and making everything about Zelda 10000x better), MGS4 just surpasses it. This game has it all; cinema quality voice acting, excellent graphics (1080p ftw), 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound (uncompressed too), TONS of extras, the best story telling ever for a video game, and more. It even has a pretty decent multiplayer to boot, but I dont think it’ll be a Halo 3/COD4/CS:S killer anytime soon. That being said, if you were waiting for a reason to buy a ps3, here it is ladies and gentlemen. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of The Patriots is it.

Rating: 10/10.

“You cheater! You slept with my girlfriend!” “No…i swear…”

Introduction:

It has been 7 years since Super Smash Bros. Melee came out, and like most of my friends, played the hell out of it. Of course, I am nowhere near as “good” as Cary Zhang, people from smashfests, and the obvious tournament going people, but thats not to say I suck (average, i might say). I’m pretty darn sure that no one LOVES the game as whole, like with how the stages are designed, how the adventure mode seamlessly (and randomly) integrates all the melee characters, etc, and not just for the gameplay (like 100% of the people i know) either. I’m also sure that no one listens to smash music on their computer, in the car (dont worry guys, you’ll STILL be listening to it years from now lol), and even on their phone as a ringtone.

But anyway, enough about melee. This review is about its successor – brawl.

Graphics:

To start, I think the graphics are HILARIOUSLY improved over melee. Honestly, it makes melee look like a complete joke, as if it was drawn and created in some guys spare time in a coffee shop. Really, melee looks impressively bad after you play brawl, and that is a good thing mind you. Hell, it better be a good thing, because these guys have had years to develop the game. You can zoom in during matches and see the stitching on links tunic, see how furry Donkey and Diddy Kong are, and even see how…detailed Mr. Game & Watch…er…looks like…yeah. But anyways, you get my point. This game looks pretty damn good for a Wii game, considering the Wii is a GameCube x2.5. And thank god it runs in 16:9 widescreen and 480p.

Notice how Sheik and Marth actually have real fingers now!

Sound:

Three words. Oh. My. God. This game has probably the best soundtrack I have ever heard in my life, hands down. There are over 250 songs (258 to be exact, and well over 300 if you count the various misc songs that arent in the sound test) and they all sound wonderful. The absolute best part of this game (and I am not joking about this) is that you can customize what songs play on each of the stages. Seriously, one can (and SHOULD) buy the game just to hear the music. I know most people dont care about it, but i do. It really makes the game 1000000x better than what it is. Bravo Nintendo…seriously, good job here.

Yay! This person has the right taste in Zelda music…or does he?

Gameplay:

Some people hate the fact that brawl got “noobified” so that everyone can pick up a character and have the same chance as the other person to win. Now personally, I think that is a great idea, because this is supposed to be a party AND a competitive game. Wavedashing got removed (thank god, i dont miss it at all) and I love how Sheik plays so differently now, considering she was overpowered in melee (f-air comes to mind). Everyone is buffed/nerfed for the better. In fact, i dont even think buffed or nerfed can be used in brawl…the simple truth is that everyone is “brawlified”. This game is NOT melee 2.0. You are NOT supposed to wavedash, l-cancel, use tricks that melee had, and etc. Everyone is SUPPOSED to be different from melee, not the same. Falco isnt supposed to be wavedashing all over the stage while hopping crazily and shooting his reflector, and Marth cant just do ken combos and f-air f-air f-air f-air f-air, d-air spike. You get my point. and to be fair, the gameplay isnt perfect, and i’m sure 100% of people who play brawl will agree with me. One word – tripping. Tripping is a pain in the butt and should have been removed. I really have no idea why that piece of garbage is in this game. It happens randomly and its so annoying! All of a sudden I will be running and then just randomly trip. Someone sees that you are on the floor and then BAM, they own you in the face and you lose a life. How fair is that???? Not very.

Presentation:

The menus are great…and honestly, I used to not like the white background, but as you play it more, it grows on you. It is also nice that the menus are big and easy to read and navigate, so for common people/party going people who want to just pick up and play, it’s a good thing. The opening cinematic is also wonderful, a mix of CGI and in game graphics as well as the music, but the 15-20 second “now loading” screen before it is not so wonderful. Also, the fact that the Wii cant read dual-layer discs is a minus, so brawl loads a bit more slowly than melee did. Of course, this is because brawl is packed with data and the wii has a cheap laser that was NOT designed to read dual-layer discs to begin with (cheapos – they could just put in for like 1-2 bucks more, resulting in a nice laser…oh well). I should also point out that melee is a fairly small game (data wise) and was on a 1.5GB gamecube disc, so it read pretty fast, and the game loaded really quickly. Unfortunately, this didnt translate over to brawl (as talked about above), even during single-player (i will mention more about this later).

Single-Player:

Classic, All-Star, Adventure, Multi-Man Brawl, and more. Even better is that most of all the single-player modes (except for like 2-3 of them) can be played cooperatively! The biggest addition by far of this game (besides the music) is definitely the new adventure mode, which is called “The Subspace Emissary”. Now this mode actually takes more than 6-7 hours to beat, and is one method of unlocking all the characters too. The story-line is typical for a game (spoiler alert if you care – bad guys take over, good guys come together, defeat bad guys, etc), but the way it’s presented, even though there isn’t any talking, is simply awesome. I mean, the creators did an excellent job of weaving everyone from the 35 character roster together (even sonic – although his role in SSE is REALLY small lol).

The only few gripes i have with this mode, is that after CGI cutscenes are finished, the game takes 10-20 seconds to load the next level (again this isnt brawls fault, but it is Wii’s cheap laser). I’m also knocking the fact that there IS NOT any voice acting…they could have easily added voices to Pokemon Trainer, Ike, Marth, Captain Falcon, and other people. It just makes it sound way more realistic, instead of just watching the characters all the time. As for the levels, they can sometimes get repetitive, and backgrounds wise…some can be really good in detail, to just rehashed or even sub-par 2d backgrounds (the caves where you get wolf is a good example). Aside from SSE, the events mode also didn’t have enough depth to them. Melee really just had better events to begin with, and to be honest, even without the difficulty levels in brawl, it was still better. Otherwise, the rest of the modes are fine and awesome.

Multi-player:

Really now? :p

Ouch. Poor Captain Falcon. If only he knew what was going to happen.

Online:

Now i am really glad that nintendo actually included SOME sort of online play…but i am REALLY pissed that its completely barebones. I mean, come on…in this day and age, we need more than just typing in crappy friend codes (no joke). There is also no voice chat either and you are stuck with 4 customizable taunts, which are of course limited to like 20 letters/characters. Although you can brawl however you want (like set options, items, cpus, etc) if you have the persons friend code. If you do not have the persons friend code, you have to brawl “with anyone”, meaning any random person around the world. now this sucks because you cant set any options…it is limited to 2 minute matches and it depends on which person has items on/off and what stage everyone picks. As for the lag, i’ll get right to it – its pretty bad, especially using the with anyone mode, so most people are better off just getting everyone’s friend code and playing them only.

I mentioned lag before, and have to admit…if you are competitive, a technical/geeky/nerdy person (like me for example), or just hate button lag (pressing a button and it performs it like 1-2 seconds later), you absolutely NEED to get the USB to Ethernet adapter. i know it is $25, but unfortunately (as far as i know), Nintendo has blocked every non Nintendo branded adapter but their own, so you have to pay for their high priced one. Playing over wi-fi/wireless is acceptable…i mean, I play over it all the time and its really not so bad, but i KNOW i have to get a usb to ethernet adapter soon. I also love that you can do home run contest and Multi-Man Brawl with a friend too. Lastly, the fact that Nintendo sends you a new stage, replay, and screenshot every weekday is awesome. Of course, you can choose to opt out of that service if you wish not to receive anything.

Edit – My friend Leroy has informed me that buying the USB to Ethernet adapter does no good – it’s still quite laggy on a very fast connection. Stick with friendly, non-competitive matches here folks.

Extras:

500+ trophies, 700+ stickers, 250+ songs, a master collection of old school video games to test out (brawl calls them “masterpieces”), replays, save screenshots, sticker book, trophy hoard (set them out on a platform, take screenshots, etc), a challenge board to see what you can unlock, album viewer, a coin launcher game to get new stickers and trophies, and more. 35 total characters (14 are hidden), 41 total stages (12 hidden ones), and COUNTLESS other things. It’s nostalgia and extras at its absolute finest. You will never run out of things to do in this game, period.

Conclusion:

Overall, this game is fantastic. From the unheard of and unprecedented soundtrack to its millions of extras to its cleverly themed stages, his game is packed with everything you can possibly imagine. Everything that you love about Nintendo, Smash Bros. 64, Melee, or anything about having a fun time in general, is all here. It will easily go down as one of the best games in the history of video games – really. Buy this game IMMEDIATELY if you havent already. It is that good. There are minor flaws, such as laggy online, tripping, and the annoying loading times, but they are easily forgotten once you get used to the game. Otherwise, brilliant job nintendo. It’s a fantastic title.

Rating: 9.5/10.

“OMG GTFO!!!!!” “Pikaaaa…CHUUUUUUU” “no…Pikaaa…FUUUUUUUU”