Thursday, October 25, 2012

An update to my Mayflash review

This stick's rating has now gone down.

I have no problem on Soul Caliber 2, Marvel VS Capcom 2, Tekken Tag Tournament 2.

However when I used this on Street Fighter IV it's just plain awful.

The quarter circle moves are a pain in the a$$. I will be replacing it some day, just not sure when.

In the end anybody who buys a Mayflash should know that the stick will have to be replaced for games with moves like Street Fighter IV.

The score is now an 8.5 out of 10

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

mayflash Universal Arcade Stick Review

This was going to be put up yesterday but I couldn't test on my PS3 until last night so now that I've done some testing here's my review:

Arcade Sticks VS Controller, this has been a debate between many gamers for a while now and while both have points for and against not only their own products but each other (you as an arcade stick user can make valid points to using the regular controller, and vice versa) both of them understand that an arcade stick is more of an extension of oneself.

A typical good quality arcade stick can run you about $140+ while some decent ones are considerably less. This arcade stick is neither, it's unique. It's the cheapest/one of the cheapest arcade stick you can buy. However we're not talking about quality here, I mean price wise it's either the cheapest or one of the cheapest sticks around.

It has surprisingly sturdy quality to it, it doesn't feel like it's going to break anytime soon. It's the perfect size for me (that's one thing to consider about arcade sticks, do you want a bigger one or a mini one or somewhere in between). The buttons 1-8 are a little squeaky when you press them in (cheaper buttons) but they respond quite well. The joystick is also a cheaper quality one but it's not like you hit it once and it breaks, far from it. The stick is a little loose but that doesn't bother me a whole lot, I like things to have play/give to them. Allow me to clarify, I only like give in them if it's minute like this is. I don't want the thing to always be leaning to one side or another. The unit is loud from the joystick itself to the buttons but that doesn't bother me at all.

It has Turbo button and Clear (Obviously to clear the turbo settings) and on top of the regular 8 big buttons it has 2 more smaller buttons 9-10 those are the select and start buttons.

This Arcade Stick is universal to almost all video game systems, well almost and some you ave to pay more to get it to work. Brand new out of the box it supports Playstation 2 via the PS2 plug, Playstation 3 and PC via the USB cable. It's a cable that goes from the Arcade Stick itself and splits to two cables. It can support the following systems:

Gamecube, Wii, and the Xbox 360.

For the Gamecube and the Wii you need an adapter called the Mayflash Gamecube Joy Box, and for the Xbox 360 you need the Mayflash Max Shooter adapter.

I understand that you need to have an adapter to be able to hook up into other systems but they should not call this a Universal Arcade Stick. By default this is for PS2, PS3, and PC. This is not universal at all, not no way, not no how! This is an Arcade Stick that with adapters can be universal but is not by default.

Now I know what your asking, how can this be a good fight stick for anyone if other ones are made with better quality parts, etc. Easy the mayflash is completely moddable! Other sticks might be too but who would really mod a $160 arcade stick? I wouldn't. You can get quality Sanwa Push buttons and stick and you can add them into this unit. be warned though that soldering is required in order to get everything in and working. You can also change the color scheme of the buttons from the default black to whatever you want! White, blue, red, black, yellow, green, etc. So in the end it will be an expensive Arcade Stick but it would be more of yourself than just buying one off the shelf. I would much rather build one and at least mod one then spend the exact same amount on one already built. It would give me a sense of pride and joy that a shelf bought one just wont deliver.

In the end I give this little buddy an 8.5 out of 10.

Falsely stating universal while you know that people have to buy special adapters is not a good thing, I also wish that the buttons were a little less squeaky. The stick will have to be replaced for games like Street Fighter IV because the quarter circle moves are a pain to pull off with this stick. It's restricted enough to mess it up.

Here are some pictures, there are not mine but this is what it looks like and what the box it came in looks like too. I don't have a digital camera, sorry!



Wednesday, October 17, 2012

My internet was wacky for the last few days but I'm back + Tokyo Jungle and NFL Blitz Review

Here are 2 reviews for not being so active. I will now though since everything is working perfectly now!


NFl Blitz PSN review:

Before I get started this does not have the same feel or energy/excitement that the original had. However this is still a very cool game.

NFL Blitz first appeared on the arcades, which where I spent most of my time was on two machines. One of them is Tekken Tag Tournament and the other was NFL Blitz. This game does have some of the same feel as the original. You still need the 30 yards for a first down, you can still make awesome tackles and long bomb throws down field. Why does this not seem like the original you ask? Simple they took the fun out of them game by removing the late hits. You know, when a play ended you could still tackle someone and cause a massive blur of carnage. Or you could while still as the ball carrier keep making dives and looking like a fool. All of that added to the games originality, and uniqueness.

You can't change the length of the length of the quarters, well for the most part a game that has so much potential has come up way short. I want to have full length games, I want to customize my game in any way I feel that I should be able to. There are some cool things though, like the Blitz Gauntlet which pits you up against a bunch of teams that you go up the ladder to beat. During the gauntlet you face BOSS teams and upon winning earn codes to use in games. You can also use codes before a game starts I believe there's a trophy for entering something like 10 different correct codes before a game starts.

In the end NFL Blitz is a fun game to play, but it's nothing like the original, maybe one day we can get a Blitz game that truly feels like the original. This game does come really close though, hell very close!

9.0 out of 10

Not having the customization that we should and not really offering that much in extra has hurt the score, slightly!

Tokyo Jungle

How much can I say about this game? About a game that is only about using animals to survive and thrive after humanity has vanished? Actually quite a bit!

Tokyo Jungle takes place years after humanity has vanished, there are traces, logs that can lead up to why this happened. (I didn't finish the game, only started playing some today)

There are 2 modes Survival and Story, but you can't just play Story mode. You have to first play survival mode and unlock extras and discover what happened to unlock Story mode.

There are something like 50+ animals to use (you have to unlock most of them) before you can use them.

The game is played by moving from left to right and either up on top of buildings or down into sewers. The goal is simple survive. You must kill other animals and eat them to keep your hunger and life in check and you must also find a mate and reproduce in order to ensure the survival of your kind. You will come across easy foes like baby chickens (Which I believe is one of the types of animals that you can use to try to survive) to fierce animals like hyenas and wolves. You can pick up items like medical supplies that help with healing your health and radiation levels. To customizing your animals with clothes like a helmet for better protection, etc.

It's a simple sounding game but it's not easy, with moving food (you must kill it) to radioactive rain and environments  to larger animals that want to eat you too. It's easier sounding than it looks, you will be pushed to the limits  nothing is easy. This is pure survival, only the strong survive. Survive and thrive, or roll over and die (You see what I did there?)

In the end this game gets a 9.4 out of 10

Forcing you to play survival mode is stupid. let's be honest here survival mode comes after you beat story mode, like beat story mode with animal X and you unlock survival mode for animal X.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Review

Sorry that this was not up on Sunday/Monday, I had a problem with my PC that was causing problems for me.

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is the sequel to one of the best games (Tekken Tag Tournament) which started as an Arcade game then was ported to the PS2.

The game is different from other Tekken games because they normally had 1v1 fighting but now you can have tag or 2v2. It sounds simple but is very effective with the possible tag combos that you can create.

There are over 50 playable characters and each one of them have multiple costumes (well from what I've seen I'm assuming each one has at least one extra costume)

Fan favorites are back like Jin, Jun, Heihachi Mishima, Ogre, Bryan Fury, etc. as well as some extra characters that are new to the Tekken Tag lineup such as: Bob, Zafina, Miguel Caballero Rojo, etc.

The lineup is amazing, but the gameplay is even better than I thought that it was going to be. It is smooth, fluid, and I never felt that the I was hindering myself and not the game. It's great to see that as a whole the moves have not changed. They added new moves and new counters, but they didn't really mess with what was already working for them in the first game. The take downs are the same, the combos are still the same, but they execute these moves better than ever. You can also buy items to customize your characters. You buy these items by collecting money from your matches. The better you do the more you can make.

The multiple stages make this game feel fresh and new during every battle. Even if you've played that stage a few moments ago the stages have surprises in them which keep the feel alive.

The music in the game is okay, I preferred the music from the first Tekken tag game, but fear not. They have released music track DLC (one for each of the earlier games 1, 2, 3, and tag) or you can buy the whole tracklist at a decent price. I wish that they would've added these into the game from the beginning but then again how can they make more money out of this game.

The plot is well what plot? To be honest it's kind of like the first Tekken game where there is a mini plot when you beat it but nothing that really adds to the game. It also doesn't really take away from the game all that much either, it's just a filler spot to be honest.

Tekken Bowl is missing! Really??? Why did they not include this? In case your new to the whole Tekken Tag universe let me fill you in. In TTT there is a mode call Tekken Bowl. It's a mini game in which you select 2 people and play a game of bowling. It's sounds stupid but it's fun. This time they substituted it for a new mode called Fight Lab. You play as a Combot going through fight simulations and basically training for the game. This mode is flawed like nobody's business and doesn't really help anyone out all that much. I guess you can say that this does have a plot to it but it's not all that good of a game mode. You are better off playing in practice or just play the arcade mode to get better than try this mode out, it will waste your time.

There is a lot of cool online features like Ranked Match, Player Match, etc. One of the coolest features isn't a match per se, but it's what you can do while it's searching for an opponent. You can do a practice game with  the AI to just get you ready for a fight.

Well all in all this game is loaded with awesome new features while still retaining what made this game great. There are new characters that came out for the game in recent updates with more characters still yet to be released (fingers crossed) hopefully this month we'll see at least the rest of the regular extra ones. This is a very fun but challenging game, a must have for not only just people who are a fan of fighting games or Tekken games, but use who really love the Tekken Tag Game (The only Tekken game I've ever played is the first TTT).

I give this game a 9.8 out of 10

I wish that they would've added the Tekken Bowling game into this or at least some other cool mini game but oh well!