The Final Fantasy franchise was always the staple barometer to the J-RPG genre, and with a couple of years of wait, can FF13 be the one to grab others? almost.

*Disclaimer*

Reviewing this game was to see if a non J-RPG fan would like the genre or the FF series specifically, the knowledge or lack of terms are foreseeable, so be aware that this review was done without having any experience with J-RPG’s or with any FF game. The game was reviewed with playing fully on the FIRST DVD  and a small amount of gaming on the SECOND DVD on the 360 version, tha main rason i did not passed beyond that, is because i was stuck on a boss, even with help, and for that the game can take a good or a bad turn in any aspect, but this is my view of it from what i played, take that with a grain of salt.

Presentation:

Saving Cocoon, that is the primary goal from all characters to the universe, and while the regular people did not see a Pulse in the eyes before, things are about to change, this is an epic tale of couple of characters that had nothing in common before, but now they are at one to save Cocoon and to fulfill their destiny.

Stunning cut-scenes with fantastic lighting and detail, beautiful In-Game environments with plenty variety, character models look good, but not great, some of the enemy design is quite flat and blend, but for the most part, FF13 have a lot to sell, great story with nice plot twists and turns, with pretty substantial character development with some great dialogues, sadly, its inconsistent with its set-pieces, while most characters are intriguing, some are just boring, and while some of it works on the narrative side, gameplay wish, its just plain. A big part of the game is the linear style game with directed fighting sequences, and while it could be fun, the structure and the design could have been a lot better. Clear menus with plenty to upgrade and discover can be good for the ones that are not familiar with the lore or the basics of the combat mechanics.

Visuals:

Most areas look really impressive, but some look rough and un-inspired, but for the most part, the game look gorgeous with nice environmental detail that is clear to the eye, most enemies design is not really appealing, but at least the cut-scenes makes up for it for the grander moments of the game, going between flashbacks, real time and basically an overview of the plot is nice visually, since most of it look great, some minor hick-ups regarding the frame rate, but it is not crucial by any means.

Sound:

Somewhat fitting music at points, but overall im not a big fan of the music, some parts are just plain weird to the setting you are in, and some are just annoying regardless, and even though the effects are pretty awesome in-game and cut-scene wise, its not enough. The voice-overs in the game can be a hit or miss, some of it is related to the script, but there is a big problem with some of the characters, especially when the game goes to a more emotional level, plus side characters sounds awful with really bad accents that does not fit at all to the setting.

Gameplay:

As a semi turn based RPG, the game can take from 10 second to 15 minutes, depending on your skills, party members and tactics, and obviously on the enemy that is in front of you, while it may seem easy at first (i would say it was easy for the first two hours) the game picks up after a certain point, but even with that, someone like me who never had experience with these games, it was manageable to get the hang of the different classes, abilities and pre-made tactics.

Upgrading and purchasing weapons, potions and accessories can be done via a simple yet effective portal, which also work for saving the game, and it is placed at the right area, mostly  after a big fighting sequence or a few small encounters, giving someone like me, a compulsive saver, a good place to make a mistake and try again, even though the game have a tendency to checkpoint right before a cut-scene instead of after, which is weird, but i can attest that the game is more friendly at the combat, at least for a while, after browsing through the different skill trees that you can evolve, i found myself upgrading minor yet effective skills that i didn’t even know i can upgrade, and perhaps it is just me, but i find it abit complicated to know what to upgrade or what is the right direction to go with the skill tree. Upgrading weapons and accessories almost essential for getting a substantial EXP boosts and rewards, which leads me to a small yet problematic situation the game, at parts you can use differnt shrouds to avoid or to use stealth of some sort to pass along enemies, but the structure of the main areas and side ares for rewards pickups can be deceiving, granted, there is a risk and reward situation for getting extra items with fighting, but it misses the point of the spell if there is no possibility to advance without having that fight done.

Linearity can be a problem, and even though i have no reference to something else, it is a massive problem because the structure of the fights and missions design is flawed, adding repetitive encounters to the area you are in, with the same weaknesses for the enemies can be a big grind for almost no rewards, and it is mandatory. Part of the problem is the un-appealing characters that you have to play with, even though they are great for the narrative, their weapons or skills are just weak and boring to use, and with the almost mandatory party members that the game throw at you, it could be frustrating, especially when it become hard for no apparent reason, even if it works on the narrative side.

The big and most challenging part of the game is the need to use tactics with the party members you have, if any, being a medic and assigning a commando party member can help with some, but can be slow or un-effective with other, finding the balance between what to trigger a stunned enemy  and loosing health can be a problem at later levels, but once you are set with the main role for each party member you have and trying to evolve their skills with that mindset, could help quite a lot.

Pros and Cons:

Pros:

Fascinating story with some good character development, even if it is not perfect, it is surprisingly appealing.

Stunning visuals with hick ups, mainly the cut-scenes that are really impressive.

Easy to learn- hard to master fighting mechanics, it can be deep, but it can also be quite flat for the unfamiliar gamer.

Using different tactics and use age of different skills from the party members can be a crucial yet a fun thing to experiment.

Cons:

Facial animations\expressions can be quite rough, there isnt a lot of detail to it aswell, and it shows in the emotional parts that game have.

Lackluster music and twitchy voice overs.

Linearity can be a problem, not a big one, but it does exist.

Character motivations and acting could have been better, mainly the side\smaller ones.

In-game characters and enemies are lacking detail.

Battle ending statistics are annoying.

Structure to the fights and some of the main missions can be a problem for some.

Brutal boss battles at points, even if there is a way to scan the boss weakness, executing it can be quite hard.

Scoring:

Presentation:

9 Great story with mostly interesting characters, the banter is good.

Visuals:

8.8 Stunning cut-scenes and some amazing looking environments are being deluded with some roughness with character detail and animations.

Sound:

8.5 While most of the voice overs are solid, unfitting music can be a big downer.

Gameplay:

8 I like the battles and i really enjoy the tactics, but the structure and design of the game can be a big problem.

Replay Value:

9 This is a big big game, not sure if there will be a need for a second run, but I’m sure one run will do it.

Conclusion:

Final Fantasy XIII is a great game with flaws, for me, the inexperienced J-RPG player, the flaws are not necessarily a problem with the genre or the series, but at points i can see why people would love it, but at other points, i can see them seeing it like i did, where it was a bit stretched at points, but for the most part, FF13 is a great experience, if not for the gameplay, its for the narrative, which is weird for me to say, since i don’t have any interest in J-RPG’s or the FF series in general.

Final Score:

8

If you are a Resident Evil fan then you’ve probably already picked this DLC up and played though it. If any of Evolved Gaming’s Staff Writer’s owned a PlayStation 3 version of Resident Evil 5 then a review of it’s DLC would have been more timely. But as it turns out Drew, @FrustratedFury, is the only one with a copy and its on the Xbox 360. Therefore as we a community website we turned to the community to find a gamer that still owns Resident Evil 5 on the PlayStation and is willing to still play it. Now we did have to go all the way to Peurto Rico to find said gamer but @HECV stepped up and helped out with the following “Guest Review” of the fist Resident Evil 5 DLC “Lost in Nightmares”. Stay tuned for his review of the second RE5 DLC “Desperate Escape” in the coming days.

Also if you didn’t know the Resident Evil 5 “Gold Edition” is being released this coming Tuesday, March 9th, 2010. On the PlayStation Blu-Ray both DLC episodes will be included. The Xbox 360 edition will contain Voucher Codes for the DLC. Now on to the review.

Resident Evil 5: Lost in Nightmares Review
By Hernán E Colón

This DLC takes place in Ozwell E. Spencer estate, one of the key founder’s of Umbrella. Resident Evil fans will notice how familiar the place looks. Doors will open slowly in first person view and you can examine the main door three times to enable the classic camera mode; and there are more references to the classic Resident Evil throughout.

The atmosphere is just as creepy and tense as classic Resident Evil games. The only new bits of story are found in diaries and most of the cut scenes are the complete flashbacks you see in the main game. The new enemy is called Guardian of Insanity and is very powerful!, but walks slow because of a huge anchor that it carries. Throughout this chapter you will find different types of weapons depending on the difficulty you play and the Guardians will show up in different places randomly which adds a bit of replay value. There are a total of 18 hidden stars to find but only help on your final score for the leaderboards.

It took me 1:37 to finish it on my first try. One thing to note is that there is no saving system and that means you will need to finish this DLC in one sitting. A total of 5 new achievements/trophies to collect. You also get to play as Barry Burton and Excella Gionne on the Mercenaries mini-game.

If you’re looking for more Resident Evil 5 or want an excuse to come back, this DLC is a good chance to do so. For 400 Microsoft Point or $5 on the PSN I’d say this DLC is worth a try.

Well there you have it. DLC that is actually worth picking up! Let us know what you think of the Lost in Nightmares Episode in the comments below and look for a review of the second DLC Episode Desperate Escape in the next few days.
A big thanks from everyone here at Evolved Gaming to Hernán for doing a review and for Capcom for providing a review voucher token.

Two of RJG Staff members chose to fight the everlasting battle between Alien vs. Predator. Which side did they choose, and how did the fight turn out, find out more after the break.

Developer: Rebellion
Publisher: Sega
Genre: Sci-Fi Firs-Person Action
# of players: 1 player offline,2-18 online
Price: $59.99
Consoles: PS3, 360, and PC

B4’s Opinion:

I’m not too knowledgeable of the Aliens vs. Predator franchise, and have not played too many of the video games based on it. I’ve seen the one okay movie(AVP), and the one terrible movie (requiem), and played the arcade game, but that’s about it. What I felt like this series was missing was a storyline that actually brought you in,and made you care about what was going on. I’m sad to report that AVP has not faired much better in this regard whatsoever. That, tied in with the glitchy controls, bland level design, and lack of polish in the MP modes makes AVP an afterthought in my opinion.

I’m not saying that the concept here isn’t intriguing at all, it’s just not very well thought out. The idea of splitting the story into three different sections (Alien, Predator, and Marine) is a nice concept if, and only if it actually keeps the storyline consistent amongst all three campaigns. All you need to know is that the Marine Campaign requires you to escape from the fight between Alien and Predator, the Alien campaign requires you to destroy the predator, and vice versa for the Predator campaign, that’s about it. Argue it with me all you want, but it was the best way I could put it all together for you.

The variety as to what you can do with each of the three different characters did make the gameplay unique to a certain extent, but each one faulters in one area or another, making the experience more tedious than fun most of the time. It was fun to be able to jump from the top of buildings, and do stealth kills as the predator, but the melee attacks were awful, and wouldn’t respond half of the time, especially when you were fighting the aliens. This was also a major problem when you were playing as the Alien.

The Aliens had an excellent sense of speed to them, but the mechanic of climbing up walls could often leave you feeling disoriented. The Marine Campaign did have solid first-person shooter controls, and was very helpful in telling you where to go next because of the straight-up hud system that it had, but the flashlight would only illuminate a short distance in front of you, and the gameplay itself was just lacking any sense of excitement, until the end at least, but I don’t want to spoil it for you.

The overall design wasn’t bad, but it was bland and repetitive. I would have like to have seen a campaign that spanned across three different, but what I got instead was the same levels from a different characters point of view. The character models of the different creatures looked really good up-close, and the voice acting was decent, but very cheesy. The music was tense, dark, and moody, and really played into the idea of making you feel scared. I won’t go into too much detail about the multiplayer modes, but I will say that they are very fun to play, but using your xp just to unlock skins instead of actual character upgrades did piss me off a little bit.

To sum it all up, AVP was a somewhat fun and unique game that to a certain extent captures the style of the franchise. What it lacks in polish, it makes up for in some fun first-person action and creative ideas. (C+)

- Matt H.

X3R0’s Opinion:

If you’re looking for a game that does a decent job combining all the aspects of the Alien vs. Predator series, then this game is something to look at. If you’re looking for a new game to play, then this game isn’t for you. Yes, the 2010 release of Aliens vs. Predator is, in my opinion, the best in the series, but it falls short at becoming a game that everybody will rant and rave about. Aliens vs. Predator is filled with issues, beginning with occasional glitches, poor combat mechanics, and an overall simplistic storyline, but it does have some qualities that makes this game stand out.

The overall story of AvP encompasses all three arcs into a cliché story. As I mentioned before, the story is short and simple, either run to safety, escape, or hunt…that’s it! There seemed to be potential of this game having a very good solid storyline if there was more time spent with it. It was exciting to see the story split up amongst the different characters, but the shortness of the overall story took away from getting connected with the characters.

Besides the story being short, the overall combat system wasn’t the greatest. The Marine combat is by far the closest to a straightforward shooter while the others are based on stealth and melee, and the melee isn’t anything to right home about. As the Predator you’re able to jump around from tree top to roof top utilizing the Predator equipment found in the movies. You first start off with just the basic, wrist blades on each hand and a laser. As you progress through the Predator missions, you begin to pick up more weapons that make the game more enjoyable, but you’ll still be utilizing the wrist blades more for attacks, which was a burden majority of the time. The burden comes from encountering some glitches and unresponsiveness while I was battling the Aliens and it felt like you were playing a bad boxing game…punch, block, punch-punch, block, rinse and repeat.

As you played the Aliens, you have the opportunity to move about practically anywhere you want to via the walls, ceilings, or floor. Your enemies stand out a lot more than the other two characters as the alien recognizes living beings based off of pheromones. The alien utilizes no weapons other than melee, but the speed and openness makes up for that. Between the speed and the open exploration, you’ll end up disorientated quite a bit.

The biggest complaint I have about the game is the sense of direction. If you don’t pay close attention to what is going on, you will end up not knowing where you have to go and spend countless minutes figuring it out. The Marine’s radar had an arrow showing you which way to go, the downside to that is, it floats all over the place. It seemed too sensitive to location. The Predator uses a beacon design, only showing you the end location, so it is up to you to figure out how to get there. Playing the alien has the worst direction help I have ever seen in a game. I simply doesn’t have anything.

It may seem that this game was a complete failure, but there are quite a few things that make this game unique. The way the story is separated and kind-of interweaved into the other story arcs is very interesting. As you play the different characters you’ll see subtle events that either happened or hasn’t happened yet in other story arcs. The graphics of the Predator and Alien looked sharp! There were a few times between the sounds and the visual effects, I thought I might have been watching a Predator or an Alien film. There were many sound effects that seemed they were taken from the films, i.e. radars blips, sounds of the Aliens and Predators, the gush of air when the Predator takes his face mask off, and the transition between the sight modes.

The multiplayer is probably the most exciting part of the game! With its seven different modes, you’ll have no reason to say there’s nothing there for you. Game variants range from Death Matches to Domination, with dash of a “Horde” and “Zombie” modes. The only complaint that I see about the multiplayer is the lack of encouragement to keep on playing. The experience you gain won’t benefit your online characters, except in looks. That’s right, the only thing I noticed that my experience got me was more character skins.

Although AvP gives a decent video game nod to the franchise, it needs more substance than how many ways can you kill an enemy. The game is very creative giving you the three sides of a basic story, but it lacks at drawing you in, leaving you with no emotional connection to the characters. The multiplayer experience is fun, but with no perks, other than character skins, you’ll soon be shelving this title for one of the many other games coming out this spring. (B-)

- Mike K.

The video game market today seems to be filled with an abundance of tower defense games, with one not being too different from the other. Even though the concept is the same for the IPhone Game Crap of Defense, the style and simplicity in which is represented sets itself apart from the crowd. That, and the fact that the developers of it had a brilliant marketing idea by contradicting themselves by saying this is the “worst game ever” makes Crap of Defense one of the most unusual, and fun titles that I have ever played.

Developer/Publisher:IFun4All
Genre: Tower Defense
# of players: 1
Price: $1.99 in the App Store
Console: IPhone
Rating: 9+ for Frequent/Intense Cartoon or Fantasy Violence

The concept here is simple, you are a tank on the bottom left corner of the screen, and you have to defend yourself by destroying oncoming soldiers from the right side of the screen. All you have to do in order to accomplish this task is simply hold your finger on the area in which you wish to shoot your cannon, wait for your power gauge (top left) to fill up, and then release your finger form the screen in order to attack your enemies. You can also acquire powerups(by touching them onscreen) that can do many different things such as rockets that can destroy multiple enemies at a time, clocks that slow down time, bombs that can destroy large areas of enemies, etc. There’s nothing much more to it than that, the idea here is to make the control scheme as simple as possible, while putting more focus on making the game a challenging and fun experience, and trust me on this one, it is alot of fun.

Even though Crap of Defense’s main focus is on killing as many enemies as possible, the game changes things up on you every once in awhile to keep you guessing. There are times where you might be able to only kill one type of enemy, or you can only kill them by hitting them into a wall, or instead of just killing a certain amount of enemies to move on to the next stage, you might have to survive for a certain amount of time. And to add even more strategy to the experience, you can only allow a certain amount of enemies to pass before you lose the mission. I think that by adding these objectives to the game, the repetitive idea of killing enemy after enemy becomes an afterthought, as now you have multiple things to worry about, but in a good way.



The true essence of what sets this title apart from most games that I have seen is in it’s simple design. Everything you see here looks like a little kid drew some soldiers and tanks onto a piece of paper, colored in a solid color behind them, and someone turned it into a game. Even some of the words are spelled wrong, or flipped upside down to make it look like little or no effort was put into the design whatsoever. The music itself was great, and the sound effects were extremely powerful. Everything here is basically a background for all of the hectic action that takes place on screen, and in short, it works.

There are only two different modes to play(Survival and Mission), so the experience is over rather quickly if you are not interested in trying to beat the game on a higher difficulty setting. Keep one thing in mind though, each and every level becomes progressively harder and harder to beat, so the amount of time it will take to complete the game will depend solely on your skill level. For me, it took about three hours to beat on the easiest setting, and unless I want to try to get a better score in survival mode, there is really not much to do outside of the main quest.

There is replay value for those who choose to be completists. You can play each mode in one of three difficulty settings, and try to earn medals in the mission mode, so there is some incentive to play this game more than once. More often than not though, you will play Crap of Defense over and over again just because of how fun it is.



I applaud IFun4All for taking a interesting approach to game design, and for making a fun, yet challenging tower defense game that I will be killing time, and enemy soldiers with for months to come. (A+)

-Matt H.

Iphone review: BattleBlasters
Littleguy Games

BattleBlasters is a one on one “fighting” game. You have a small section of real estate to move at the bottom of the screen, your opponent has the same at the top. You can only move left or right as the swipe up and down buttons are commands to shoot or shield attacks. Combat can be fast paced and hectic or slow and methodical depending on which of the six playable characters you use. You start out with two characters unlocked while the remaining will be unlocked as you play the game.

Now while I would not normally categorize this as a fighting game, I believe I have no other choice as there is nothing else that fits. You and your opponent can only move left and right, you have quick attacks and strong attacks with the repel/shield move. Each character has there own special move used by tapping on the character. Players must battle each of the six charicters and win to unlock the remaining. The gameplay changes depending on which soldier you are using. “Space Marine 1″ is slow moving but very powerful, while “obligatory hot chick 1″ is fast with almost no defense or power. I found each playthough taken with a completely different approach and was very please that it made me stop and rethink my play style. Multiplayer is offered and has a quirky way of playing. You and your friend each hold an end of the iPhone and control your own character. This brings to mind violence at the airport while waiting for a flight. Overall a fun experience when you have a quick minute waiting in line.

(B+)

- Joe R

I still remember the first time I laid my eyes upon on the beauty of Rapture, I recall hopping into a bathysphere not being prepared for the amazing journey I was about to endure, I remember being greeted by the soothing voice of Atlus, I remember the hair on my back of my neck standing [...]

It has been a few weeks since the guys have gotten together to talk games. And it just so happens that community member, Pimp/Dark Method 10K, has come to take the whole WiR episode over. He had guns. Lots of em!

Topics include:

- Stoked: Big Air Edition
- Bittos+
- Drawn to life: The next chapter
- NBA 2K10
- Blood Bowl
- Army of Two: The 40th Day
- Mass Effect 2

Intro & Outro music selection performed by “A Wilhelm Scream” off their album “Ruiner”.

Direct download [right click, save as]

Developer: Planet Moon Studios

Publisher: THQ

Genre: Action, Adventure, Puzzle, Platformer

Rating: E for Everyone

Price: $29.99

Dante’s inferno is a game where the hook of the story is essential to survive its gaming elements and mechanics
Can the 9 stages of hell be fearsome and interesting?  Unfortunately, not really.

Presentation:

The tracery of Dante is the cause of all problems leading his wife Beatrice to hell, and from there, the road to saving his wife is brutal. Your goal as Dante is to save Beatrice from her path.

The mix of animated, CGI and in-game cut-scenes gives the game something unique, but the in-game cut-scenes are not pretty! The animated sequences on the other hand have a lot of fascinating direction and design with some gruesome violence and sex. Also the animated segments give you flashbacks about what happened with the people and events that were inflicted with death and sent to hell. The CGI segments look really good and detailed, its usually to give points to the main story and characters, brutal detail to the blood and really good animations. The big difference to the game is the choosing between the “holy” and “unholy” path regarding actual gameplay mechanics and also narrative decisions that you will make.

Visuals:

The game looks decent, most areas are not as sharp as they could have been, the gore is there but its not enough, especially since the game is trying to convey violence, even if some of the finishing moves do have brutal decapitations. The variety in the environments is there, but not all the environments are interesting or unique, same goes for the enemies, most of them are just dull to fight or to look at, most of the attacks that are available are great to look at, especially the air attacks.

Sound:

The voice-acting in the game is good but not great, the main character Dante couldn’t been more standard and rough, sure, the actions that happen should evoke something from a character, but its too much standard, the background music is not doing anything to the game, its just there, and its not good, it takes out any small vibe and atmosphere feel that the game have. Weapons and attacks sounds good, but Dante’s reactions could have been more varied.

Gameplay:

As a 3rd person action game with platforming and RPG elements, the game is varied with its challenges, but most of the gameplay is very dull, the action itself feature quite a lot of combos, attacks and healing upgrades that changes the game quite a lot, but sadly the problem is more with the enemies and bosses the game throws at you, the action set pieces are weak and sometimes not well thought out, the big bosses are boring to fight, the quick timed parts are small which is good, and they are fun to do at the most part since its basically larger than life actions that you wont be able to do yourself, also the big beast segments are awkward to handle. The platforming and rappelling mechanics are awkward aswell, it works well, but its not obvious at points where or what you need to do, also the animation transition with some of the puzzles and jumps are weird, the puzzles are boring with no fun or challenging elements besides one or two. The RPG elements are shown with the combat and sparring or saving sinners, the right thing to do is to go through the entire game with one decision in mind, meaning being evil or savior throughout the game, since you get holy or unholy EXP “souls” that open your upgrading options with the choices you made, evolving in exp works simple and easy, but i have to say, the entire element of holy and unholy works well regarding what combos\attacks you will get (there are two tablets, one is for each, and basically when you evolve yourself with that side, you will get up to 7 levels and get more unlocks in that tablet).

Replay Value:

The game is quite short, its around 6-8 hours, if you have any interest to go through the game twice to have both sides and get different upgrades, it will add value obviously, but for one play through it is quite short.

Pros and cons:

Pros:

Great attacks and combos to unlock and use, the variety is not fully there, but its enough to use each attack against different opponents.

Really gorgeous CGI cut-scenes, interesting animated  cut-scenes as well.

Cons:

Boring enemies and boss fights.

Lackluster story and characters.

Dull music that takes you out of the immersion, if its even there.

The in-game cut-scenes are not impressive to look at, same for the actual script.

Scoring:

Presentation:

6 The biggest aspect that i have disappointment with, the premise and the narrative seemed so intriguing at first, but the actual story and characters are just boring.

Visuals:

7  The inconsistency with the sharpness, detail and the design can be a disappointment, since there are a lot of really neat areas with some well thought out design.

Sound:

6 The voice-overs are good besides Dante and some minor characters that appear,  also the lackluster music  can be  problem, but the weapons sound great.

Gameplay:

7.5 The actual gameplay is good, but the control scheme is hard to get used to, and some of the animations are weird to play with, especially the rappelling one, the RPG elements combined with the holy and unholy decisions are a unique design to give variety to a potential second run. 

Replay Value:
5.5 The game is short, sure how much can you stretch a 9 levels? i guess not enough, playing a second run could potentially be good, but only if you will like the mechanics and set-pieces.

Conclusion:

Dante’s Inferno fails with what the narrative and presentation that it seemed to have, the gameplay is known to the genre with some interesting ideas, but because the story is so boring, its just not good, since it was the big hook for me, despite that, if the love for the action genre is there, its a decent game to experience, but sadly for my view, it was the lack of an interesting story.

Final Score:

7

The definition of classic.



Whoever said great graphics don’t make a great game must have played the Game and Watch collection for the DS. It’s simple design, and addictive gameplay make it one of the most fun titles that I have ever played for this system. The only problem is that you need a Club Nintendo account, and register enough Wii and DS titles to get 800 coins just to have the chance to play this great game. The real question here is is it worth all of the time and effort spent entering all of those codes for a game like this? My answer is absolutely yes!

Developer/Publisher: Nintendo
Genre:Action, Compilation
# of players: 1
ESRB: E for Everyone
Price: 800 Club Nintendo Coins

Let’s get one thing straight right off the bat, there is no story to speak of, and the music and sound effects on offer here are primitive, but it’s from 1982, so you can’t expect perfection. You are given three direct ports of Game and Watch games from 1982. The games included in this collection are Donkey Kong, Oil Panic, and Green House, as well as an alarm clock, which is nice to have, but adds nothing to the game as a whole. All of these titles are simple in their design(literally outlines of character movements are on the screen), as well as in their control scheme, but all of them are extremely fun to play. Let’s go over each one real quick, and talk about some of the good and bad things about them.



Donkey Kong:

If you are familiar with the NES game, then you will be quite familiar with this one. The idea here is the same, jump over barrels, and climb up ladders until you reach the top, then rescue the princess. The only difference with this version is that you have to hit a switch to activate a crane, then jump on the crane to release one of the four hooks that is holding the bridge together, rinse and repeat until the bridge falls apart, Donkey Kong falls, and you earn points. You use the d-pad to move left and right, and to also activate the crane switch, press up on the d-pad to climb up ladders, and press the a button to jump over barrels, simple, easy, and effective. The idea here is to get as high of a score as you can before you lose all of your lives, and you can do this by jumping over barrels, releasing the hooks, etc.

The Good: Controls are simple, Gameplay is challenging and addictive, A and B version are different in difficulty, which adds some replay value to the game, watching DK fall of the bridge never gets old.

The Bad: Crane is hard to reach at times, that’s about it.



Oil Panic:

The concept of this one is to fill your bucket with three oil drops that fall from leaky pipes in the ceiling, then follow the person who has the drum on the bottom of the screen, and dump the oil out of the window that they are under, and you earn points. The controls are simple, you move left and right with the d-pad, and press either y or a to dump the oil out of the left or right side of the screen. I think you know by now that the idea here is to get a high score, so I won’t say anymore about that. Keep in mind that if you miss one of the oil drops, or dump oil onto a pedestrian instead of the oil drum carrier, you will lose a turn, do it three time, and then you have to start over, that’s about it.

The Good: Same as Donkey Kong, with the exception of missing the drum, and hitting the pedestrian in the head with the oil, only to watch them scold you, is fun to watch every single time.

The Bad: Sometimes the controls can get a little clunky, especially when you are under alot of pressure, you will tend to miss your target more than you would like to.



Green House:

Quite possibly the most fun of the bunch(probably because I had a higher score in this than the rest of them), Green House is all about keeping worms and spiders away from flowers by spraying them with your bug spray. The idea here is to try and protect all of your flowers the best you can by keeping these insects away as long as possible. You use the d-pad to move up and down a ladder in the middle of the screen, and press the a button to spray the worms and spiders away in one of the four corners of the green house. Keep doing this to earn as many points as you possibly can, and that’s it.

The Good: Same as the other two, protecting four flowers is challenging and fun, and adds a unique sense of strategy to the game.

The Bad: As challenging as the gameplay is, it can get overwhelming at times, especially when there are enemies in all four corners of the house.



To sum it all up, the game and watch collection is a fun game to play despite it’s flaws. Granted there could have been more games, or a versus mode included, but as a free gift from being a Club Nintendo member, there is really not much you can complain about. Fun in small doses, and nostalgic as ever, it is well worth the coins I spent on it.

(B+)

- Matthew H

One quick tip, if you earn 300 points or more in each of these games, you will regain either all of your lives or turns that you lost during gameplay.