Monday, July 30, 2012

Chrono Cross review - for those Radical Dreamers

"For those Radical Dreamers"



Unfortunately for some Chrono Cross was not what they wanted, they wanted a
direct sequel to the outstanding game Chrono Trigger (Which I will be
review this week as well) but for those who didn't care that it wasn't a
sequel like me, it was and will always be one of the greatest RPG's of all
time.



The gameplay in Chrono Cross is one of my favorite for a list of reasons.
First they followed Chrono Trigger in suit of being able to see the
creatures before you fought them. Yes, yes, yes I know that other games
have done it in the past and present but it's nice to know that they kept
some things similar to the original. You can escape from just about every
battle, in fact (It's been a while) I don't remember a battle in which you
couldn't. What other game had that, and if a game did have that what game
could let you run away as fast as this game does? The battle system is one
of my all-time favorites. It's a little confusing at first but once you
figure it out it's a breeze. It's a little hard to explain but here's a
short version when you start a battle everyone in your party starts with
7.0 Stamina that you use for Attacking, Defending, and Magic. You can
restore your stamina when your other party members attack and when you
defend. There is also a Field Effect Grid which tells you/shows you what
color or magic the field is made up of. If all three parts of the grid are
one color magic for that color is increased and you can use a summon of
the corresponding color. The battle system is very complex but its
downright awesome once you get use to it.



What's really nice about this game is there are 2 worlds, your "Home"
World and "Another" World. In both there are differences and similarities
and because of that you can do things in one world that you couldn't do in
another. it really adds another layer of depth to a game full of stuff to
do.



Speaking of being full of stuff to do this is by far the most characters
filled RPG that I've ever played. There are something like 44 characters
that you recruit from both of the worlds. (It's a really great feature)



The graphics are really good here, the colors are vibrant and nothing here
looks dull/boring. Even the world map(s) look great. The bosses are hard,
they are challenging, are some are really, really really annoying. But one
thing they almost all have in common with is how freaking amazing they
look. The people being the designs did a fantastic job with not only the
characters design but the design of the bosses as well!



The story is surprisingly really good. It isn't the whole boy saves girl
saves the world (Well it kind of is but the main story isn't) the story
has some bleh parts in it (What game's story doesn't? heck what story in
general, game, movie, life doesn't have bleh parts in it) but on the whole
the story is always in the back of your mind because it's literally linked
into everything you do, everywhere you go, and everyone you meet.
basically the story is that Serge (the main character) is at the beach
with your childhood friend Leena, when all of a sudden you hear a strange
voice calling your name. You look at into the sea and notice some kind of
weird rift opens and a black and white group of images appear. A tidal
wave is coming and is about to crash into you when some kind of magic
force appears below your feet. When you wake up from whatever happened you
go back to your village and find out that you not longer in Kansas
anymore. You're in "Another" World and you find out that in here you died
10 years ago. This is where you story takes flight. You're on the quest to
find out what happened to you and how you can go back to your real World.



The music in the game is outstanding. The scores in this rival the music
in Chrono Trigger. (There are few that can beat Chrono Cross) One of
coolest things about the music is that there are different songs for both
the Home World and Another World. I even found myself buying the
soundtrack because it really is an amazing piece of art. The sounds of the
game are also pretty dang good, from the sounds of the world to the sounds
of battle there is hardly any dull moments.



Replay in this game is huge because like how I said that Chrono
Trigger and Chrono Cross have some thing in common this is another one of
them, it's called New Game +. In case you don't know you can start the
game all over again with all of the items you had before like weapons,
armor. All of it is back (sans key items).



All in all it's a really good game with a good story that does tie into
that of Chrono Trigger (Albeit loosely) but it's still one to play because
forgetting that it's not a sequel to one of the best RPG's of all time and
you see Chrono Cross as it should, an excellent RPG and one of the best
that's ever been made!



Bottom line is I give this a 9.5/10

Saturday, July 28, 2012

My Road to completion

My road to complete of my gaming backlog begins now! I've started to play Final Fantasy ! on the PSP. Once that is over it's on to FF II on the PSP. Then I'll be going back and fourth between Dissidia: Final Fantasy and Legend of Dragoon.

I have no clue how long it will take me to beat FF 1 and II (Never finished the game) but I'm hopeful that it should be done before the end of August.  I'll be posting my updates mainly on my Playfire Account (See Below) but there will be many good information on here.

https://www.playfire.com/HappyBiscuit

Also I'll be posting some gaming footage soon (Not sure what games but due to things not in my control I can't upload footage from my PS3 for a long time) but they are still going to be fun!

Right now I'm at Elfheim in Final Fantasy I grinding to get some more spells.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Tony Hawk's Undergrouns Review GBA - Originally Posted: 10/31/03

"Tony Hawk does it again, this time underground" - T.H.U.G. - GBA

Introduction - For those of you that may or may not know, T.H.U.G. or Tony Hawk’s Underground, was spawned from an excellent line of skateboarding games called Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, I-4.

T.H.U.G. is the best skateboarding game there is to this date, and probably has revolutionized the ideas of more skateboarding games to come. Now, before I post anything I must admit to something. The Tony Hawk Skateboarding games have changed my life forever. Now I'm not alone when I say that this game got me hooked into skateboarding, I never really bother with caring for skateboarding that much, until this game came out. Now I watch it on TV whenever I can. Now onto my review!

Graphics - 10/10: The graphics are way better than the other 3. I also like how you can see the tricks flow, the character animations are pretty good, I would have like to have seen better and there is little to no problems with frame rate. The parks are designed extremely well.

Sound Effects/Music - 09/10: The sound effects are better than the music. It’s my opinion, but the music is really bad. It sounds like an old buster CD player that skips a lot is on a train that jumps up and down. Now, some of the sound effects aren’t that great either, when you take a sharp turn, you can hear that wheels skid, now that cool, but it gets annoying really fast!

Gameplay - 10/10: You can jump off from your skateboard, and walk, finally. The controls are simple and easy to learn. Tricks are easy to perform, once you learn them in the story mode. You'll also enter competitions where you compete for medals, especially the gold medal. You can also unlock secret parks, characters, and more things. The game also offers arcade where you skate for points, and Free Skate, which basically serves as a practice mode. It helps a lot to practice in this game. But in an overall, this game is major fun even if you're not a skateboarding fan.

Replay Value - 9.5/10: You have so many things to accomplish in this game. Earning points, performing tricks, earning medals, this game has it all. The practice mode will have you playing as well, but you'll spend a lot time unlocking the game's secrets. Have fun!

Difficulty - infinite/10: You can finally change the difficulty, if it's either too easy, or too hard for your liking.

Overall Factor – 9.75/10: One of the best, if not the best skateboarding games ever made, Tony Hawk's Underground, better known as T.H.U.G. really shows how the sport of skateboarding evolves throughout time, and on the skateboarder him/herself with the new story mode. So, stop reading this and go get the game NOW!!! Trust me, try it and you'll like it. I know I did.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10 | Originally Posted: 10/31/03

Hot Shots Golf 3 Review - PS2 - Originally Posted: 12/11/06

"Talk about a Hole-In-One!" - Hot Shots Golf 3 - PS2

Introduction: Hot Shots Golf 3 is not you average golf game, it's better. With a power shots mode and fun and interesting characters, Hot Shots Golf 3 is a very enjoyable game.

Graphics: Obviously they aren't up to par with some of the newer golf games that are out there but that doesn't mean that they are horrible. The Graphics are very crisp and very beautiful. Whether you're on the green or in the water the graphics are very nice.

Gameplay: HSG3 is relatively easy and hard at the same time. The learning curve for when you're starting off (well at least for me) was roughly 30 minutes. The power and accuracy meter are one in the same, you press X to start the meter you press X when you have the power level you want and you press X to get the accuracy that you're looking for. However you can and will mess up your shots so don't worry it happens to us all. You can also get Super Topspin where you press down while setting power and up when setting accuracy, if you get 100% accuracy than you'll get the super Topspin. Super Backspin is the same way except you press up during power and down during accuracy. I wasn't great and I wasn't too bad but now that I've had many more days of practice I can now at least do as well or better. You have many different choices when you're playing they are as followed: Single play has Stroke Play where you try to beat your best score on any course. Tournament Mode which there are seven tournament classes with four tournaments inside of it bringing the total tournaments ( that I know of there might be more) 28. VS Mode where you play head-to-head against 15 characters. Training Mode where you choose a certain course and a certain hole and try to see if you can get better on those tricky holes, and finally National Tournaments where a long time ago there were tournaments that you could input the code and play a real tournament. When the tournament was over you would than get a code to place on the official website to see how you rank with other people. You also have Multi-Player modes such as Stroke Play and Match Play which is a 2-Play head-to-head on 18 holes, 9 holes, 6 holes, or 3 holes. You even have a short course mode which is a 9 hole course that is comprised of only Par 3's.

Sound: The sound in the game is a double-edge sword, what that means is the wind howling, the ball landing on the fairway, green rough, the cup and even the water is spectacular. The downside is the constant annoying speeches that can plague you to miss a shot. I've missed many outs with these “careful” and “calm down!” I don't know why HSG3 had the idea to riddle the green with these but it's not that big of a deal but it's something to listen out for.

Difficulty: Hot Shots Golf 3 can be easy and difficult at the same time because of the fact that you might just miss pressing the X button right when the meter gets to 100% accuracy but hey other than that the casual tournaments aren't that hard, some of the characters that you play in VS Mode can be tricky at most, especially when you're having a bad day with golfing.

Replaying: Would I replay this game? Yes I would I love this game some much from the awesome sounds to the funny animations from either getting par or getting yet another bogey this game will still be fun even if it was 10 years from now!

Overall: This game is very excellent I recommend that you pick it up. If you think that this game sounds and looks cool well guess what? It's fun and it's very excellent!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10 | Originally Posted: 12/11/06

Madden NFL 2004 Review- PSOne - Originally Posted: 04/01/04

 "Boom! Now that was a hit!" - Madden NFL 2004 - PSOne

Introduction:

For those of you who are familiar, and for those of you who have never heard of this game, you should listen up. The Madden franchise has yet again created another masterpiece in the form of the most realistic and better looking football game ever! It’s fast, and it has a couple of new features, but most of all it’s fun. So gear up and meet me on the field!

Graphics - 9/10:

The graphics could have been a little bit better, but their working with this game on the PSX so there will be some limitations. However, I like the graphics more on this version than on any other madden game for the PSX.

Sound effects/Music – 10/10:

The sounds in this game were impeccable, from the sound of the quarterback yelling hut, to tackling men on the field, the sound effects are some of the best ever. Yes John Madden (creator of the madden franchise) is repetitive with all of his saying, however they did make it so that he doesn’t reiterate everything like a broken record player in the 2001 version. Now on to the music, the music in this game is CD quality. I had fun going into the sound options thing, or just waiting to play a game, so I can hear the music. They have a huge selection of great music for you to listen too, and trust me they are worth waiting to play a game so you can hear them.

Gameplay - 10/10:

I’m going to be mixing story into this part, ‘cause it goes with it. The gameplay in this game is very excellent, some of the best ever. You can chose from a whole list of things to do like go all the way in season (story mod, see how far you can get) franchise mode, and even practice. But the one mode of play that I thought was amusing was the Classic Madden game. You play a game; well I only played it once, but its fun, in the original style madden game. Yep that’s right those crude graphics, but don’t shoot it down ‘cause of its graphics, it is fun to play! Another thing in madden that’s been in the game for a little while now, are the Madden Cards. When you play a game, you can get tokens from completing Madden Challenges. For every forty tokens that you have, you can trade in for a pack of the Madden cards. I can’t remember if you get fifteen or if you get sixteen cards in each pack.

Replay Value - 10/10

The replay value in this game, are high because of people ambition to either get to the super bowl with all of the teams, and win it, or they can try to get all of the Madden Cards, so they can unlock a very special team. Either way the most that anyone will play over, and over, and over again, might be an exception, just a game between two teams and you can get tokens from there.

Difficulty – 10/10:

For some people, like me when I started, it was really hard to pass in this game. However I soon learned how to react better when passing. They mad it really easy to run I this game, you can run for twenty to eighty yards, and that would be easy. They did keep the difficulty settings so if the game is too easy, pump it up, if it’s too hard then pump it down.

Overall Factor - 10/10

I really enjoy playing this game, I hope that my review peaked an interest in whether or not your going to check it out, well I have this to say to you; if you haven’t played football games in a while, rent it, or play it over at a friends house just to see if you would like it, and if you like it, then definitely buy the game.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10 | Originally Posted: 04/01/04

4 Small review to come starting with Digimon Digital Card Battle Review PSOne - Originally Posted: 03/30/04

I have a few of my old reviews to put up here. I've lost a lot over the years (40+) I'm gonna try to do a least 1-2 reviews a week. besides these  4.

 Digimon Digital Card Battle - PSOne

"Were going digital"

Introduction

Welcome to the wonderful Digital World, where darkness and light intertwine with each other for the ultimate card battle game ever made! So strap in, while we become digital, so we can submerge our self into a new world!

Graphics - 10/10

The graphics in this game are some of the best for the PSX. First let's talk about the card details and other stuff like that, and end with the polygon battles. The card details and all of the other graphics that make up the world are nice. They are so smooth, and Bandai did a great job with the resolution, and the frame-rate is great. The polygonal battles, (where you can see a 3-D view of the two digimon attacking each other) are excellent. The frame-rate is pretty good, and could be a little bit better, but for me, it's perfect. The best part is that you can turn the polygonal battles on or off, at least giving you some control.

Sound effects/Music - 9/10

The sound effects, and the music in this game, are perfect. The only thing that I didn't like, is that the music is a little too repetitive, but most of the music I don't mind, but it can get rather annoying after playing this game for a couple of hours. The sound effects from blasting your opponent with a boom bubble, or a pepper breath is awesome.

Gameplay - 10/10

First off, this is a very fun and exciting game to play, you'll every minute of this game, like I do! The controls seam a little bit hard when you first play the game, but after a few minutes of playing, you soon start to learn that it's really easy. This game is full of challenges, and side quests, that have a twist. The twist to the side quests is that if you don't do them, you might not get some cards. Which I won't say, but they're are 12 special cards in the game.

Story - 10/10

The story in this game is so full of challenges that will test you ability's as a master tamer. There are mysterious characters, and some characters that you'll recognize if you watch the animated digimon shows. You start off as a boy, and yes that's the only person that they have, sorry. And your goal is to become the best card player in the world, along the way, you'll gain new partner cards, and you'll meet up with good and bad characters a like that you will eventually have to battle against. As I said before, this is one of the most detailed and longest story in a card game, and it might even be a long game in general. Now I don't want to give away too much, but this game is broken up into three seasons.

Replay Value - 10/10

The replayability in this game is so great, it's off the charts. You can keep battling everyone so you can have a one-on-one chance to battle BlackWarGreymon, which you need like some 300 battles in order to do that. You also have to try to collect every card in the game, so you can create the best deck in the entire world.

Overall Factor - 10/10

This is one of the best, if not the best card games ever made into a video game. It is filled with suspense as you work your way towards him in the first season, or them in the third. If doesn't matter if you just started the game, or if you almost completed the game to a 100% on everything, you just keep going back for more. I play the game at least 3 - 7 hours a day 'cause it's addicting. Well I hope that my review help you out with understanding how this game is played, and what to expect when you pick this game up.

Rent or buy - BUY!!!!!

I don't need to say anything else about this game anymore, 'cause I know that you like it already.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10 | Originally Posted: 03/30/04

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Here is my current backlog of video games

Here is my current backlog of video games:

PS1:

Chrono Cross - Beaten Before
Grandia
Legend of Dragoon
Final Fantasy Anthologies
Final Fantasy VII - Beaten Before
Final Fantasy VIII
Final Fantasy IX
Final Fantasy Tactics

PS2:

La Pucelle Tactics
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3

PS3:

Final Fantasy XIII (Last Chapter)
Fallout: New Vegas (Lots more to go because I love to explore everything)


PSP:

Dissidia: Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy I
Final Fantasy II
Persona 3 Portable
Star Ocean: First Departure
Star Ocean: Second Evolution

PC:

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!! I DON"T EVEN WANT TO BEGIN THERE JUST YET!!!!!!!!!!!

More to come I just have yet to go through my games. These are just the games around me at this present point in time!

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Tekken Hybrid Review

Tekken fans have you been missing something awesome to play on your PS3? Would
you like to play your copy of Tekken Tag Tournament from the PS2 on your PS3
but can't since there's no BC anymore? Well now you can!

Let the Tournament begin! For a third time. This time in HD!!!

Tekken Tag Tournament was and is my favorite Tekken game. I use to play it in
the Arcade for hours everyday! It was different because I don't remember there
being any 2 on 2 Tag fighting games. Also your characters while they are on
the sidelines heal up and get a damage boost when your active character takes
damage. It's a really great fighting system and now you can play it on your
PS3!

Tekken Tag Tournament (TTT) was given an HD facelift and I'll admit it looks
pretty dang good. It doesn't and would never look as good as other fighting
games from this generation like Tekken 6 but what do you expect from an HD
version of a PS3 fighting game. Sometimes the characters and environments can
look a little blocky but other than that animations are mostly crisp and
flowing pretty well.

As far as the sounds go (voice, music) nothing here has been altered or
changed and it's a good thing. Sometimes things that get changed "For the
better" hurt it more than help it. The sounds of Tekken Tag Tournament makes
you relieve the great sound of yesteryear and it floods my brain from memories
of playing this in an Arcade and on my PS2.

if you've never play Tekken Tag Tournament then your in for a trade because it
doesn't have a few modes to play, it's pack with game modes from Arcade to
survival all the way to Tekken Bowl! Yes you heard it correctly! Tekken Bowl
is a bowling game in TTT. You choose 2 characters to bowl and you play a round
of bowling. Now while this game is great, you don't have the ability to change
some options like how many games to play. You play one round of bowling to try
to top the list, after the game is over your back at the main menu and you
have to click on Tekken Bowl again. despite this it's still a crazy good game
that seems like an odd addition to the game. There really is no story per Se,
mostly cinematics that play after the Arcade mode is cleared. One thing that
is missing from this but it doesn't bother me is online games. Now I'm not a
game creator so i don't know how it works but I think that it would’ve taken
too much time to make this complete package and work on their new game Tekken
Tag Tournament 2. (Which will probably contain online gameplay)

Replay ability in my opinion is not as good as it once was on the PS2 because
they "cheated" let me explain. Tekken Tag Tournament on the PS2 made you play
the game over and over again to unlock hidden characters. The more you play
the more characters and modes (Like Tekken Bowl) were unlocked. I don't like
that fact that everything is unlocked from the beginning because working hard
at TTT and getting to know the ins and outs really hooked me into the game.
With that said this is still the same killer game that was released as a
system launch lineup title, that still can hold it's own against many fighting
games to have come out in the previous years.

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Prologue is a fancy way of saying DEMO. While it's not
as robust as Gran Turismo 5's demo, it's still a great example of what we
should be expecting from Tekken. You can only play as 4 characters (The main 4
focal points of the movie which is on the Disc) Xiaoyu, Alisa, Devil Jin, and
Kazuya. The sounds of the demo are amazing the gameplay is good, (wish they
could have added 2 more characters) and most importantly the graphics and how
smooth they are is just gorgeous. Not once did I feel that I was experiencing
and kind of slowdowns even with full on attacking from me and from my
opponents. The characters designs are stunning from how fluid the characters
and their cloths move to how they react at certain times.

TTT2 does have one MAJOR FLAW!!! MISSING MOVE LIST!

Seriously people??? was it really that hard to include a move list so I'm not
have to spam buttons to randomly do something cool? If they demo had this it
would be a really awesome fighter demo with amazing character details and
graphics.

Instead it's a really good demo showcasing character details, sound and
graphics but lacking on the learning curve of the fighting.

Tekken Blood Vengeance movie in my opinion (I've never seen any of the other
movies and stuff) is a decent movie despite what other people say. Is it true
that there is sparse action throughout some parts of the movie, yes. However
it's important to note that even though Tekken is a game series they've done a
great job of character development in their games and they want to project
that into the movie. The story is a tad on the weak side too, but only because
it was made simply to bridge the events of Tekken 5 to Tekken 6. Basically the
plot of the movie is Jin Kazama and Kazuya Mishima are trying trying to gather
Intel about a mysterious student named Shin Kamiya. There's more to the plot
but that's the meat of the plot right there. I'm really glad I gave this movie
a shot because even though the plot was a little on the eh side it was still a
stunning piece of CGI with good character development and a decent amount of
action to keep you hooked through the movie. Also please make note that this

movie is not just in 2D but in 3D as well. Make sure that when you select 3D that

you have a 3D TV. I don't so I didn't use that option!

All-in-all this is a great deal if your a tekken fan or just want to try one
of the greatest fighting games that came out on the PS2. Even though this game
has it's flaws (and seriously what games don't have flaws?) they negative
points I made are so outweighed by the positive ones that this is certainly
the best gaming package I've ever had the pleasure to pick up and it certainly
won't be the last one!

on a scale of 1-10 I gave this complete package a 8.6/10.

While there are really great things about this the lack of more than 4
characters, and no movie list really hurts the demo's score. Also the movie
could have a few more parts of action into it to make it more rounded. Also
the fact that everything is unlocked at the start doesn't make me want to play
it endlessly like I've done on the PS2.

If your a Tekken fan and most importantly a Tekken Tag Tournament Fan, than
this is perfect for you!

Stay tuned for information regarding my gigantic backlog and more reviews!

Got any comments or question please feel free to send them to me!

Welcome

Welcome to my video game backlog of doom! I'll be posting a list of my current games in my backlog along with reviews of those games and others.

First let me tell you about myself, I like to play video games. (DUH!!!) but I'm more fascinated in talking about them. I've wrote reviews for places like gamefaqs, and other video game sites. I've even wrote some for my friends who really wanted a complete breakdown of a game. I don't sugarcoat anything when it comes to my reviews. If I hate the game I hate the game but I give reasons why. I'm also not bias when ti comes to my reviews! If I love a game I'll tell you I love the game but there's always something I hate and I'll definitely tell you what I think sucks about said game.

Stay tuned because the first post will be a review of Tekken Hybrid that was actually denied by Gamefaqs, lulz. Most of my reviews will be of older games like NES/SNES, PS1, etc. That's how I roll. If you like that then please stay and hang out, if not then leave!