Oh, the Humanity

At exactly 3 PM on February 24, 2011, Danny Ainge made the executive decision that he no longer wanted the Celtics to win their 18th championship. Because at this time, Ainge found it necessary to ship off Kendrick Perkins and Nate Robinson to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Jeff Green and Nenad Kristic. Translation: The Celtics shipped off the best defensive center in the NBA not named Dwight Howard for a backup wing who will get no more than 25 minutes a game, and a soft Euro. Danny Ainge further shocked the world by trading Semih Erden and Luke Harangody, two competent bigs, for the Cavaliers’ 2nd round draft pick in the year 2046, in the hopes of drafting Larry Bird’s grandson. After this inexplicable flurry of trade activity, Ainge claimed he “had the munchies,” and proceeded to trade Marquis Daniels, Pierce’s backup, for a bag of skittles. “It was the tropical flavors kind,” Ainge argued.

It would not shock me if this is what actually happened. Without any rhyme or reason, Kendrick Perkins, the anchor, the only center truly capable of defending any opposing big on single coverage was dealt swiftly and quietly. The only reasonable explanation I can perceive is that Perkins’ injury is far more severe than any of us realize. Why would the cost of re-signing Perk NEXT YEAR ever figure into the equation? What bearing does that have on this year? The plan was to win NOW, and it seems that our window of opportunity has been sealed shut, then smashed, and then boarded up. The starting five that has never lost a playoff series has been forcibly torn apart.

Perk was outwardly emotional with the decision, shedding tears when he heard the story. This was a dedicated man, who knew and understood loyalty, an embodiment of the blue collar Celtic. I’m at least glad he went to a promising team, in the OKC Thunder.

I can’t see us sneaking past the Magic, Bulls, or Heat, come playoff time. Our lineup is too small, and our defense has taken a major hit. I can see Dwight Howard wreaking havoc on this front line, and Wade and James slashing to the cup with ease.

As I type this, I see a Patrick O’Bryant clone named Chris Johnson wearing a Celtic uniform, and playing the center position, on national TV. Oh, the humanity.

How to Revitalize JRPGs

When one thinks of JRPGs (which stands for Japanese Role-Playing Game, for those with a social life), one imagines strange-looking characters with pointed faces, big eyes, spiky red, purple, and blue hair, who inexplicably emit mushroom shaped clouds whenever they speak. When one thinks of the type of people who play these said JRPGs, they probably conjure up images of acne-ridden, chubby, unemployed people who dwell in their mothers’ basements, possibly dressed as their favorite JRPG character.

JRPGs seem to have been stuck in time. While the production values have naturally been ratcheted up over time, the core gameplay elements have remained the same. Here are some simple ideas to improve the genre.

Plot: JRPGs follow adhere to similar plot lines. A simple, teenage boy with blue or green hair reluctantly becomes a hero, who eventually has to go up against an evil empire/emperor. Break the mold, craft something unique and creative. Throw in plot twists that come out of nowhere (Baten Kaitos). Spice things up, and don’t turn the story into that mini game where I keep mashing the A button to scroll through text.

The Crew: Limit the number of characters in the main cast. Throwing in too many characters into the mix makes developing meaningful character plot lines very difficult. This isn’t the Brady Bunch. The ideal cast should consist of a badass hero/heroine (Kaim from Lost Odyssey), a goofy sidekick for comic relief (Jansen from Lost Odyssey, or even Mario and Luigi from the Paper Mario series), and the insightful/studious third wheel (Velma from Scooby Doo), who keeps the crew headed in the right direction. Also, I never want to see a child in the main cast ever again (Karol from Tales of Vesperia, Sam and Cooke from Lost Odyssey, those two irritating kids from Infinite Undiscovery, etc.). Prepubescent characters only provide banter on nonsensical topics and an inordinate number of fart jokes. Honestly, who wants to deal with that?


This crew is a bit too motley


Strategy and skill: JRPGs boil down to selecting the biggest and baddest sword at your disposal, and then swinging it around for 60 hours by pressing a single button, only to pause the screen to use healing items (Tales series). Imagine a JRPG where skill actually mattered! I’m thinking about properly timed button presses (ring system in Lost Odyssey, many of the ideas in the Paper Mario series) and timed decision making sequences (Baten Kaitos Origins). Level grinding will always be a JRPG mainstay, but make it challenging and fun! The bonus board from Star Ocean, in which you rack up combat bonuses based on how well you perform in battle, is a neat idea.

Villain: The villain should actually strike fear into your heart much the same way that Scar did when you watched Lion King for the first time. But, if the game is going for the more blasé we-don’t-take-ourselves-too-seriously approach, then I guess a blundering idiot villain like Eggman from the Sonic series would suffice. Just give the villain a consistent personality, one that matches the tone of the game.

Choice: The one category that western RPGs absolutely demolish JRPGs is in the category of choice. Games like Mass Effect, Oblivion, and Fallout 3, give the players an incredible amount of freedom, and every choice has a consequent repercussion some time down the road . Remember in Fallout 3, where you actually have the choice to BLOW UP one of the towns?!?! JRPGs are comparatively far more linear. The Tales series does a good job in giving players numerous ways to traverse large world maps, and go anywhere at any time. But the plot rarely changes and character development is scripted. After you beat the game, few things change in the second play through.

Dialogue: Make dialogue funnier. Please, that’s all I ask. I’m sick of this pseudo-epic Dragon Ball Z nonsense. If you need an example, look at Jansen from Lost Odyssey. He was actually funny.



Dude was actually funny.

Hub Cities: Make them varied and unique (Eternal Sonata). Find a way to make hub cities more than just places with a market, an inn to rest in, and a person to talk to in order to advance the story. Populate the cities, make them come alive, toss in NPCs Mass Effect style. Throw in hidden items, sprinkle in the occasional mini game, add some non fetch-quest side quests, and now you’re in business.


Now that's a baller hub city.

Well, these are just a few that I came up with off the top of my head. If you have any more ideas, post them under the comments section…let’s see if we can get at least 1 comment!

Video Game Review Series - Star Fox Adventures

Today I will be reviewing Star Fox Adventures for the Gamecube.

Background: Star Fox Adventures has been widely criticized by hardcore Starfox fans since the day it came out for being much different in its core gameplay from the previous games in the series. Instead of being a 3-d space shooter like its predecessors, Star Fox Adventures saw most of its gameplay occur on foot in the style of The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. What most people don’t realize is that Rare had initially been developing this game as an N64 release titled Dinosaur Planet. When Nintendo realized the aesthetic similarities between the main characters of Dinosaur Planet and its beloved Starfox franchise, they decided to bring the game into the Starfox universe and release it instead for the Gamecube. While the transition from space shooter to land-based action adventure seemed out of place, (think Call of Duty sequel in the form of a real-time strategy); Rare’s final collaboration with Nintendo proved to be a very solid action adventure title.

Story: The story of this game is merely there to drive the gameplay. In short, Fox gets a mission to save a planet from exploding because the magical Spellstones that hold it together have been stolen. He finds a mystical staff along the way and in addition to saving the planet has decided to save its owner Krystal by collecting various spirits along the way. Nothing really happens beyond that, with the exception of a MAJOR plot twist revealed at the end. Overall, 4.0/10

Graphics: I’m going to get straight to the point here: the graphics in this game are spectacular for a title released in 2002. In fact, they rival and even surpass most of the Wii’s library in terms of graphical quality to this day. The environments look and feel alive, water and fire look very detailed and the character models, especially Fox’s, are wonderful to look at. No complaints here. Overall, 10/10

Your friendly neighborhood Warpstone

Sound: There are both very good and very bad aspects to this game’s sound design. The good is certainly the soundtrack that you hear from start to finish. Most of the songs composed for this game fit the environments they correspond to perfectly; some of which will stick with you even after you complete it. The down side to the sound in this game is that there are many sounds that will become very annoying, especially when you hear them for the 50^th time. For instance, every single time you pick up a new item in this game (which is a lot) a tune plays for a good 7 seconds (accompanied by an unskippable cut scene) that may seem tolerable at first, however it gets frustrating to listen to even before you complete the very first area of the game. There are also various enemies and even your sidekick throughout the game whose voices are fairly irritating. After a while I merely turned down the volume on my TV so as to keep my ears from bleeding. Overall, 7.2/10

This song plus tropical paradise equals heaven

Gameplay: I was tempted to do this review in two parts, one for the first 40% of the game, and the other for that point until the final boss. The reason for this is that by about the 40% mark I was quite bored and hoping that the game would pick up soon. Luckily, the second half of the game did just that. I’ll explain more about that later on. As far as the core gameplay goes, it’s fairly straightforward action-adventure fare. You’ll be running around fighting simple enemies and collecting items in a very linear progression (very similarly to Zelda games), which will in turn lead to puzzles and more collecting until you reach the final boss.

The collecting in this game is very plentiful and can get very boring. The linearity of each level means that you’ll essentially have to collect every necessary item in an almost completely pre-determined order. Some of these collecting ‘side quests’ actually require extensive puzzles to figure out, especially later on in the game. However, most of the items can be found simply by telling your sidekick Tricky to dig a hole in the ground (It’s very obvious where to do so) so you can bend over and pick them up. This takes no skill and no thought whatsoever to accomplish, resulting in a fair amount of tedious exploring. Also, as I mentioned in the sound section a cut scene plays every time you pick up a new item, which actually becomes so irritating that after a long time it just made me laugh at how ridiculous of an idea it was to include in the game. Artificial lengthening of a game is never a good thing.

This is the cutscene (minus Krystal) you'll be forced to watch 50+ times

You’ll also be doing a bit of platforming in this game. Unfortunately, the game falls quite flat in that respect. Instead of having to time your jumps like in most traditional platformers, the jumping is done for you by the game when you reach an edge. This isn’t an issue in and of itself, however it did lead to multiple frustrations. Early on in the game as I was walking along a walkway, I accidentally ran too close to the edge whereupon Fox immediately leapt into the air, allowing me to steer him back onto the platform and avoid certain death. A while later as I was running on another ledge I again ran too close to the side. Instead of jumping as it had done before, Fox merely stumbled clumsily over the edge and fell to his death, causing me to have to use up one of my life-restoring bafomdads. A little consistency would be nice, Rare. The rest of the platforming consists mainly of dodging enemy fire and walking on increasingly thin ledges, both of which aren’t difficult at all to do. And then there’s ladders. Oh boy Rare, you really dozed off on this one. Akin to Prince of Persia, there are many ladders and brick walls to climb throughout this game. If you’ve ever played Prince of Persia you would know that this was never an issue because the Prince climbed fairly quickly. The problem with this game (and one of my biggest pet peeves with it) is that Fox takes incredibly long to climb these obstacles. I honestly believe that I could climb these ladders faster than he does, and I’m afraid of heights. Now, if these ladders/walls weren’t very high it wouldn’t be a big deal, but there are some ladders that LITERALLY take Fox up to 30 seconds to climb. Thirty seconds doesn’t sound like a lot, but sit there and count to 30 in your head. It feels like forever! Again with the artificial game lengthening.

Throughout the course of the game there is also a large amount of combat, ranging from very simple enemies to a couple of entertaining boss fights. The basic enemies, mainly Sharpclaw, are extremely easily defeated. All you need to do is hold down the guard button ‘R’ and wait until they stop swinging their weapons, after which you are free to mash ‘A’ as much as you want to defeat them. Thus is the problem with the majority of the combat in Star Fox Adventures: it’s very simple. And I don’t mean simple in that it’s easy (though it is), but the fact that most of the combat boils down to just mashing ONE button as fast as you can. It’s embarrassing, really. Although it’s common to have simple combat mechanics in action-adventure games (even very good ones), the fact that Star fox Adventures forces you to fight SO many of these basic enemies begins to deter from the overall experience. There are certain types of enemies that require you to utilize various staff powers that Fox has at his disposal, however this combat just feels too systematic to be any real fun. Basically, you can’t be creative with the combat at all and it makes these sections quite boring.

It doesn't matter how many enemies surround you, you'll never be overwhelmed

Aside from all the combat and collecting, this game is chock full of puzzles to solve. Some of these puzzles tend to really make you think and thus make them highly entertaining. In fact, the parts of the game that I found most fun were the areas with multiple challenging puzzle rooms in a row. From early on in the game, your sidekick Tricky will be there to help with puzzles. The puzzles that exclusively require him are very easy though, and taking care of him ends up feeling like a mere chore. Even Fox doesn’t want to take care of him in the game, so why would I? In fact, there were many points in the game where I’d be better off leaving him in a ditch (and trust me I wanted to).While the puzzles in the beginning of the game require little to no thinking to complete, that changes for the better later on.

This is actually part of the reason why I felt the second half of the game was so much better than the first, and thus why I could have easily split up this review. For one, the best levels in the game (besides the hub area which is actually my favorite) come after the half way mark. It truly seems as though every bad aspect of gameplay in Star Fox was piled in towards the beginning of the game. The combat is forced upon you (doors will not open if you don’t defeat the enemies), the puzzles are very simple, and frankly the main areas are less than spectacular. Once you reach a certain point in the game, you are able to run by a majority of the simple enemies and the puzzles get harder. Most importantly though, you will have climbed the highest ladder in the game (and won’t have to go back to it). Three out of the four major bosses are also in the latter part of the game, all of whom are fun to fight against.

There ARE flying sections resembling the previous Starfox installments and fast-paced racing segments that are actually well done here. Unfortunately you won’t get to do these types of missions often and they are very short as it is. Regarding the difficulty, if you are looking for a challenging adventure game then you might as well look elsewhere. About 90% of this game is very easily beaten. There are two or three tasks though that can be very difficult and thus aggravating, especially for casual gamers. Overall, the gameplay earns an 8.2/10

Replayability: This is a long action adventure game, which on first playthroughs may take up to 18-20 hours to complete. The only additional secrets in this game you could try to find that aren’t crucial to beating the story are Cheat Tokens, which allows you to play a mini-game and unlock certain cheat codes (such as playing the game in sepia color tones). Honestly, it’s not worth playing the game again just to get or use these. The only reason to play the game again would be for nostalgia, as it does have quite a high sense of nostalgia once you’ve beaten it. This is due to the memorability of some of the levels in this game and the music that accompanies them. Overall, 3.0/10

To sum it up, Star Fox Adventures is a very well put together adventure game that can be easily nit-picked. It has its faults, mostly towards the beginning of the story, but none of these feel like they ruin the game. If you have the patience to get through many of these minor setbacks, the game picks up pace just before the halfway point and ends on a high note. While I don’t believe it is one of the crucial must-have games for the Gamecube, Star fox Adventures is a fun game that is well worth playing through to the end.

Overall, 8.4/10

Video Game Review Series - Baten Kaitos Origins

Alright faithful SNSG subscribers, time to retape your glasses, and polish your pocket protectors, because it’s time for another video game review.

Today’s review focuses on one of the most underrated, underappreciated, under loved games of all time, including soccer. I’m talking of course, about Baten Kaitos Origins. Just how did such a fine piece of art, a work of absolute, unblemished genius, slip through the fingers of so many noble gamers, and receive a paltry 77.54% on Gamerankings? Well, it’s because the people reviewing those games are idiots, and since the title of the game did not contain the magical letter combination of H-A-L-O, or C-O-D, the game never surpassed the mythical 90% mark.

But it’s not all about the numbers. Sometimes, games with really good numbers can be bad (Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo Reach, Halo ODST, Halo WTF). And sometimes, games with really bad numbers can be good! Like Shadow the Hedgehog for the GameCube! Just kidding. Still can’t believe I shelled out $50 for that worthless mess. The game disc didn’t even make for a good frisbee. But for games that fall in that no-man’s-land of mediocrity, only the true fanboys, or the truly delusional will give the game a shot. Alas, Baten Kaitos Origins falls into this category, and it is completely undeserving of this nefarious title. Let’s see why.

Background: So this game takes place about 50 years before the original Baten Kaitos game, making it a sort of prequel. You don’t have to know what happened in the first game (which chronologically happens after this one) to appreciate BKO.

Story (8.4 – that’s right, it’s not a multiple of .5): In most video games, the “story” to me is a sort of mini game, where I keep mashing the A button until the text boxes disappear, and I can continue to play the game. You see, most Gamespot reviewers probably do the same thing, except they don’t admit it, but that’s a different tangent. In my eyes, Super Monkey Ball 2 had as good a “story” as Tales of Vesperia. What I’m trying to say is that I skip the story aspect of most games, EXCEPT for a select few. BKO, if you haven’t guessed already, has my blessing as one of the few games where I actually paid attention to the story. The story is great. The pacing and progression are excellent, and the plot twists are some of the most earth shattering sequences of any video game story I’ve paid attention to. There is also a very interesting time shift mechanic in the story line, which leads to greater plot depth, and helps to explain some of the events that occurred in the first game.



The main characters, Sagi, Guillo, and Miliarde are the characters you control, and constitute the bulk of the story. They are largely a hit-or-miss cast. Sagi should have done a cameo in The Breakfast Club, because he is a perfect embodiment of teenage angst. Guillo’s voice casting must have been done by combining the voices of Fran Drescher and 50 Cent, because it is one of the strangest sounds I have ever heard in my life. Miliarde, aka Milly, has all of the charm and charisma of a metal table. In most JRPGs, (Lost Odyssey, Tales of Vesperia, Star Ocean 4) the characters get progressively more and more annoying… except for the Star Ocean 4, where the characters are so annoying to begin with that you end up not playing the game. But strangely, in BKO, these three characters, who seem to have no cohesive personality at first, all complement one another in a strange sort of way. Sagi emerges as the hero from the beginning, Guillo is the trusty sidekick, and Miliarde, who at first is only a “wench,” according to Guillo, eventually proves her worth when her skills are most desperately needed. As the plot thickens, you begin to really feel for these characters. Or, you may not, because as I said before, the cast is hit-or-miss.

Graphics (9.0): I’m a sucker for good graphics. While you can always skip boring storylines, or turn off bad music, if the graphics are bad, there really isn’t a quick fix. Since BKO was crafted near the end of the GameCube’s glorious regime, one would expect it to have sufficiently high graphical standards – and it does not disappoint. BKO is a beautiful game, with charm emanating from the screen. Since the worlds are all on a fixed 2-dimensional plane, there is a profusion of highly-detailed environments, with plenty of NPCs milling about, each just bursting at the seams for you to interact with them. It looks like a painting that has come to life. The battle sequences are very busy, with plenty of flashy special effects that scale based on the damage dealt. The enemies are also quite detailed, and the same enemy types are not recycled too often. One complaint I have is that one of the bosses was used over and over throughout the game, but this was an integral part of the storyline. Unlike many modern games, there are no load screens, or graphical slow down ever. Overall, this is a very pretty game.

Sound (8.6): I have some of the music in my iTunes library. Bear in mind, that BKO is not a game that one would describe as “mainstream.” So for me to have gone through the trouble to get some of the songs in this game means that the game has good music. That is all.

Gameplay (9.5): Alright, so I sort of skimped through the sound part, because honestly, who cares. Chances are you have an mp3 device or a cassette player or something nice to listen to anyways. I really wanted to talk about the one aspect of every video game that people actually care about. In fact, if you skipped all the other parts of this now long-winded narrative just to read the gameplay section, I would feel slightly offended, but would also applaud your practicality.
Let me preface everything by saying that Baten Kaitos Origins has the best battle system of any RPG, JRPG or otherwise, that I have EVER played. “Alright Captain Superlative,” you may say, “but what makes the system so great?” The reduction of luck as a deciding factor, and the emphasis on skill and decision making as an integral part of the battle mechanic are the reasons this game is so great.
The game is a card-based RPG, where every attack you perform is determined by a card, which is called magnus, which you play. As the game progresses, you find and can even create bigger and badder cards. You control all 3 characters, who all share the same deck. You can chain cards and create longer and longer combos, by going up by the magnus number listed on each card. So, you can play a card with a 1, then a 2, then a 3, and then finish by unleashing a finisher, which are numbered 4 or higher. If you build up a sufficient burst gauge, by playing non-finisher cards, you can activate a burst, which lets you play a nearly unlimited range of cards, providing you go up by ascending order. The relay mechanic allows you to chain together complete combos of two characters, which can deal absurd amounts of damage.



Magnus fall under the categories of attack, defense, healing, equip, and miscellaneous. Each of them has a very distinct purpose, except defense, which are just pointless. Pro tip: don’t use defense cards because they suck.
You have a time limit to play each card, and if you can’t make a decision quick enough, the character’s turn ends. You also have the option to discard cards in a character’s turn, to try to get a better combo for the next character. So you sort of get the idea of where this going. In a limited amount of time, you are trying to maximize damage, while keeping your characters alive. This is why you have to be skilled! You can’t just sit around and keep abusing the most powerful spells, or chopping up your enemies with the most powerful sword. *Cough* like in almost every JRPG *cough*.

Deck management is also key. Throughout the game, you will uncover new and more powerful magnus, and will be modifying your decks constantly to adapt to the constantly changing array of enemies that the game throws at you. This = luck minimization.

Also, the fact that you are only tasked with managing three characters is a blessing. In literally every other JRPG, you end up having to switch between a small army of useless clowns, many of who are repulsive little children who even some of the characters on Nick Jr. would find annoying. (Karol in Tales of Vesperia, Sam and Cooke in Lost Odyssey, every character in Star Ocean 4). The fact that you use the same 3 characters throughout the game builds a sort of unity amongst the trio.




So we’ve got this incredible battle system, which forces you to use skill. But what bogs down the game then? Well, when you’re not fighting, you’re in one of those JRPG towns, with the market and the houses that you can’t go into, and the townspeople that are content but worried about some sort of an invasion, you just wish you could keep on fighting. And Tri Crescendo realized that, so they added in a Coliseum, which you can enter any time, and just keep on fighting and fighting and fighting. But if you do that, you won’t progress very far in the story.
So to progress in the story, you have to complete some usually dull and monotonous task, which tests your patience. This really serves to hinder the flow of the game, and while some segments are necessary for story-related reasons, other could have been left out. You go from the adrenaline-pumping battles to the yawn-inducing scavenger hunt to join some little kids’ play group (that actually happens, sort of).
But overall, the battle mechanic, and deck creation aspects are nearly flawless. The bosses are challenging, and the enemies are varied. If it weren’t for the scavenger hunts, the gameplay would achieve perfection.

Replayability: Took me 60 hours to beat it the first time around, and about 50 the second time. Yeah, it’s a long game, and you’ll have a fantastic time playing it.

FINAL VERDICT: 9.1/10

Video Game Review Series - Metroid Prime

As my first review in this series, I will be discussing Metroid Prime for the Nintendo Gamecube.

Background: The Metroid franchise took a surprising turn when Retro Studios announced that their addition to it in the form of Metroid Prime would be in the style of a 3-d first person shooter. Long time fans of the series were outraged and extremely skeptical. People were questioning how Metroid’s back-tracking puzzle based gameplay would translate into 3-d. They had notions of Retro Studios turning it into a run and gun style FPS, which helped give it the title of “Halo-killer” before it was even released. It turns out that when the game was finally released in November of 2002, all of that skepticism went away and the gaming world was taken by storm.

Story: While I don’t believe that a bad story can completely ruin a game, a good story can certainly make a good game great. The story of this game isn’t that difficult to understand. The beginning premise is that Samus finds a distress signal coming from a deserted space vessel and in doing so uncovers secret experiments of a highly technological race of creatures. The unique thing about this game’s story is how you go about figuring it out. Instead of getting fed millions of 10 minute long cut-scenes ala the newest Metal Gear games or Final Fantasy, you are given a Scan Visor which is used to learn about the surroundings. You can scan EVERYTHING in this game, and if you want to get the most out of the story and atmosphere it is highly recommended that you do. While this may seem like a humongous chore, (it most certainly can be), if you actually read the scan logs that you collect it will make the atmosphere truly come to life. Some scans tell about the life of the Chozo, a sentient race that called the planet their home before the space pirates arrived. Others tell of the nasty experiments and their results that the space pirates are taking part in. And some scans will even be useful in forewarning you of the dangers to come. It’s a very unique system that may be tedious at times but it most certainly works. Overall 9.0/10

Graphics: The very first thing you’ll notice about this game is that the graphics are stunning. Now, this game came out almost 9 years ago, however if the game were released today it still would look pretty darn good. The environments that you explore are extremely detailed, Samus and her powersuit are textured beautifully and the developers even included many subtle graphical spectacles such as how mist will fog up your visor when you walk past a steam vent. The enemies all look very lifelike in the way they move and attack, and some of the bosses just look very intimidating. One hiccup in the graphics department is the lava, which actually looks like no effort was put into programming it. While it does look very hot to the touch, I could honestly take a red and orange crayon and draw the lava found throughout the game myself. Overall, 9.8/10

Sound: I want to begin this subsection by saying that I have the entire soundtrack for this game in my iTunes library right now. In fact, lately I’ve been listening to a couple of the songs daily when I need a good refresher. Basically, the music in this game fits perfectly. Every atmosphere is accompanied by a fantastically paired soundtrack and when it comes time to do battle, well there are songs for that too. After you beat the game, many of the songs WILL stick with you.How many games that come out nowadays can you say the same for? Not too many. The weapons sound like they should, the roar of some of the game’s larger enemies will strike fear into your heart, and the rewarding sound that accompanies the finding of a missile expansion will always give you hope. Overall, 9.6/10 (.4 off because that Phazon Mines theme still gives me nightmares).

Here's the menu theme. This song means business

Gameplay: Ahhhhh gameplay, the most important aspect of any game. I’m looking at you Crysis, get your fancy shmancy graphics out of here. Basically, this is where the skepticism lay before the game was released. This game isn’t a true FPS, and it’s certainly not an RPG (though you’ll be doing a lot of collecting). It basically has many elements and combines them brilliantly.

FPS’ing: Yes, the game looks at first glance like an FPS. However it controls nothing like your typical run of the mill style shooter. Instead of moving with one control stick and aiming with the other, you’ll be moving and turning all with the left control stick. The aiming system is a bit complicated, however after the first 10 minutes of playing you’ll become fluid with it. In order to aim you must press the R button and then use the moving control stick to look around. However, Samus has the ability to lock on to enemies, and trust me when I say you’ll be using this all of the time. At first the system is awkward but it works wonders the more you play the game. Fighting using this control style is actually quite rewarding. You’re probably thinking, “Oh well if I can lock onto enemies where’s the skill in that?” My reply would be to go fight the Omega Pirate, die, die some more and then we’ll see how much skill it takes. Pummeling enemies efficiently comes more from knowing (and scanning) their weaknesses and utilizing the guns you have at the right time to take them down before they deplete that last remaining energy tank.

ADVENTURING: This game forces you to explore, and explore, and explore some more. In doing so, you will be exploring very interesting environments using the abilities you have gathered over your adventure. This does (in the style of Metroid) require a fair amount of back-tracking. HOWEVER, at no point does this truly become tedious. The rooms you go through will at first glance have a lot of secrets that you cannot reach (and many hidden ones), so when you do go through the same rooms multiple times it’s always with a new ability that will let you get to those secrets. This creates a very rewarding experience and when you do inevitably see those abilities being put to use, it’s amazing how much detail actually went into the layout of the game world. If you think you’ve exhausted every last corner of the world, trust me you haven’t. In fact, there are so many hidden secrets that it would be pretty much impossible to find every single item without the use of a guide. This game also has many environment-based puzzles. One of the major players in the puzzle department is Samus’ trusty Morph Ball upgrade. At the press of the X button Samus will roll into a small ball and be able to roll around quickly, bomb jump into the air, and eventually cling to special magnetic tracks. This actually makes for some very entertaining physics based puzzles. You’ll be pseudo-skating up and down half-pipes to reach unreachable ledges, you’ll be clinging to walls and bomb-jumping where you wouldn’t be able to go normally. It’s a whole lot of fun, and even after multiple playthroughs of the game there are still some puzzles that put my Metroid skills to the test.

CHALLENGE: Some games are so hard that they require a bazillion retry’s just to get past a boss or some tricky platforming. Others are so easy that a one armed (finned?) platypus could beat them. The truth is, this game falls right smack dab in the middle. A lot of this game is exploring, and a lot of the exploring in this game comes at a fairly easy pace. You won’t (for the most part) be pressed by a time limit at any point and you’ll be able to pretty much explore at will without too many hindrances. There are some difficult puzzles but they certainly don’t require mashing the restart button to complete. A little bit of thinking goes a long way in this game. There are a couple of difficult boss fights in this game, especially for a new player. One of which, the Omega Pirate, may have you screaming for mercy for a while. Fortunately there is a save point right before his room and with a little practice he goes down fairly easy. All in all, the game is highly beatable without too much frustration (it’s no Battletoads) but it does provide enough challenge to force you into being involved with the game. Oh, I forgot to mention, there is a Hard Mode that becomes unlocked after beating the game once. If you want a real challenge, give that a try.

Basically, the gameplay for Metroid Prime can be broken down into a few parts. You will explore, figure out interesting puzzles, fight some baddies, and become immersed in the mind-blowing world that Retro Studios has created. Overall, 9.9/10

Replayability: I know what you’re thinking, “replayability for a single player game? That’s nonsense.” This may be true for your precious Halo or Gears of War, but the fact is there is SO much stuff to do and find in this world that it’s only natural to want to go back after beating the game and explore every nook and cranny. There are probably a hundred or so suit upgrades and expansions to discover, and there are special endings and galleries to unlock when you get certain completion percentages. But really, the game is just so fun and rewarding that there’s a good chance you’re going to want to be immersed in the world all over again. Personally, I’ve been through the game a good 3 or 4 times and I loved every minute of it. Overall, 8/10

The Whole Package: It may seem like I’m very biased hearing all this praise about a single game. However, it’s just that good. It’s a long game on the first playthrough that will not disappoint. The graphics, sound, and gameplay all come together with the story to provide an exceptional atmosphere that will drag you away from reality while you play. If you own a Wii (doesn’t everyone?), get a copy (it’s like 4 bucks now used) and a gamecube controller (which is also amazing) and play what is arguably the best game on the Gamecube and in my opinion one of the best of all time.

Overall, 9.8/10

Video Game Review Series

Hello faithful blog readers! Due in part to my boredom with school and also my love for video games, I'm going to be starting a series of game reviews very soon. Unlike Gamespot's reviews (and various other 'professional' gaming sites), the scores for these games won't be completely off the mark! I will try to get around to reviewing games on the N64, Gamecube and PC, as those are the systems I'm most familiar with. Thank you, and happy gaming!