Love that cake! It's too cool!
I was interested in Chronicles of Mystaria, but $15 is too rich for my blood. Maybe PS+ will put it on sale.
Rayman Legends also looks cool, but I still haven't played the last one... which is in my pile of shame...
Post-Birthday Reviews
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 On 09/21/2013 at 08:23 PM by Cary Woodham See More From This User » |
Here’s just another collection of game reviews I’ve written in the last month or so. There’s some good ones this time, so I hope you all can read and comment on as many as you can. And thanks to everyone who read my birthday blog last time and gave me pretend birthday presents! It’s not too late if you still want to give me one. Anyway, here are the reviews:
September 3DS StreetPass Meetup for the North Dallas/Plano, TX Area
But first is an announcement on the next 3DS StreetPass meetup in the North Dallas/Plano, TX Area. Same time, same place and all that. The one we do next month will be really big because we’re going to have it right after the release of Pokemon X & Y!
And speaking of birthdays, last week a co-worker made a cake for me, and it was pretty cool looking so I posted a picture of it. You know, I don’t like my day job a lot of the time, but the people I work with there are very nice. OK now onto the real reviews.
While I didn’t get into this one as much as other 2-D platformers like the Kirby and Klonoa games, I still gave Rayman Legends a good review. I’ve been playing video games for more than 30 years and have been reviewing them for half that time, so I know a good game when I see one.
I have a funny Rayman related story that I’ll tell you all real quick. Back when I was writing for The Dallas Morning News, I went to E3 that year and Ubisoft was showing off Rayman 2 (yes I’ve been reviewing games that long, I’m old). Anyway, to show off the game, they had a stage show where an animated Rayman was talking and interacting with the audience using some sort of roto-scoping technology. At one point, Rayman called me up on a green screen on stage and we talked and did some silly stuff for a bit. After that, they gave me a video tape of what I did on stage, and when I got home, I showed it to my little brothers, who were very young at the time. On the video it looked like I was sitting on a mushroom in Rayman’s world talking to him, and that just BLEW THEIR LITTLE MINDS AWAY! My little brothers thought I was really in a video game talking to a video game character! I think I still have that tape somewhere. Anyway, playing Rayman Legends made me remember that.
Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara (Wii U)
This is MY kind of D&D! I would’ve rather reviewed the PS3 or 360 version of this, but Capcom sent me a Wii U code. Oh well, it’s still fun and I’m glad I finally got to play these two beat ‘em up classics since I wasn’t really into them at the time they were in arcades (I was just starting college at the time). I usually play as the Elf, Thief, or Dwarf. Can you guess why?
Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse (PS3)
I never had a Genesis as a kid, so I don’t have any fond memories with this one. I much prefer Capcom’s SNES and NES Disney titles. But with that said, I still really enjoyed this remake. I think that if you don’t consider the original game a sacred cow that can’t be changed, you’ll like this remake, too. SEGA added some things to it so it’s not EXACTLY like the original, but I think it’s a better game for it.
TMNT: Out of the Shadows (360)
I was expecting something a little more arcadey, as this 3-D brawler based on the TMNT franchise is just a little more complex, with combo attacks and upgrades to your weapons, as well as stealth moves and such. But while it wasn’t what I was expecting, I think TMNT fans will like this one anyway. And there is an arcade mode, too, but you have to unlock stages in it by playing missions in the main game. Other problems I had were unclear goals and dark graphics that made it hard to see things sometimes. But like I said, I think TMNT fans will still like it.
My history with TMNT is a bit spotty. I remember friends who liked the comics, but I only remembered them for the silly name. When the cartoon came out, I thought it was dumb, but later on I started watching it when I knew someone who was working on it. I was a little too old to play with the TMNT toys, so I never got into them. Really the only thing that got me into TMNT was the original arcade game, which I played to death. I ever had the SNES Turtles in Time game. My brother Jeff and I still joke about when he was little bitty and we’d play it and he’d whine to our mom if I accidentally got the pizza in the game! I always played as Raphael for some reason. So that’s kind of a brief explanation as to why I like TMNT, but I’m not a HUGE fan of it.
Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F (PS3)
This is a music game featuring the popular Japanese Vocaloid characters and songs. While I didn’t like the song selection and I felt the game was too hard and the graphics were distracting, I did have fun learning more about the Vocaloid characters. I’m not a fan or anything by any means, but I am a sucker for cute characters in games. Maybe one of you reading this is a Vocaloid fan and can tell me more about what you know, and maybe what characters you think I would like.
Unfortunately, I didn’t like this music game at all. And I really wanted to like it, too, as it was made by Zen Studios, who also make all those great Pinball FX and Zen Pinball tables. KickBeat is a music game with a martial arts theme, but I thought it was too hard and all the songs were just hip hop, rap, and metal. Genres that I don’t like too much. And in order to play as the girl character, I’d have to beat the game as the guy character, so you know that wasn’t going to happen.
OK the last few games are a few iPad titles I reviewed. Monster Match is a unique mix of a Pokemon trading card game and Bejeweled. You have to have the right monster cards in your deck to battle others, but you perform attacks by matching jewels in a puzzle game. I got kind of addicted to it for a while, so it is pretty fun, but it also has many of the pet peeves I have about free-to-play games.
It’s just a simply put together Sudoku game using shapes instead of numbers. And for that, I do like it a little better. I think Sudoku fans will like it, too.
Just a simple yet clever touch screen puzzle game where you must tap matching slugs to make them disappear with a linked lighting bolt. Fun if you like puzzlers.
In this educational game, you must run around a maze eating letters in the right order to spell a word while avoiding roving enemies. So yeah, it’s a lot like Pac-Man. One of the maze types even mimics the old game. Only problem is it’s a little too hard for younger kids. The enemies are really smart, like Crush Roller smart (if you’ve played that, you know what I mean). And the words you spell are really only used to get rid of letters in Scrabble games. I think I had a good idea about what they could add to it: an option for parents to enter in the kid’s school spelling words to use in the game.
Reader Review: Electronic Super Joy (PC)
And lastly, I had my friend review this PC super hard platformer. He’s going to be reviewing a couple of other games for me, too, so watch out for those.
And that’s all for now! I really appreciate you all reading and commenting on my reviews! Later! --Cary
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