Super Smash Bros. for 3DS Review

Super Smash Bros. for 3DS

Publisher: Nintendo Developer: Sora / Namco Bandai Platform: 3DS Players: 1 (Solo), 1-4 (Group), 2 or 4 (Online) Release: 2014 Genre: 2D Fighter / 2D Platformer Rating: 9.3 \ 10.0: Excellent

Above are four players battling on the Paper Mario stage.

I have been waiting quite awhile for a new Super Smash Bros. game. In fact, I listed "Too long a wait for the sequel!" as the only flaw of Super Smash Bros. Brawl., a game that I awarded a perfect score of 10.0. After years of waiting, my wish has been granted! I was very hyped for this game, but a little skeptical because HAL Laboratory was no longer the developer. Instead, those duties have been given to Sora and Namco Bandai. Sora is the developer of 3DS masterpiece Kid Icarus: Uprising, while Namco Bandai is behind the Tekken and SoulCaliber fighting series, as well as may other games both inside and out of the genre. Series creator Masahiro Sakurai is a member of Sora and is still the director, but who can't blame me for being a little nervous. Not surprisingly, the game ended up being incredible. The main modes of the Super Smash Bros. series are still present. Of course, you can still have a one-to-four player brawl, and customize the rules to your liking. Those who didn't think that four players was enough will be satisfied with the new limit of eight players! This can be accomplished by an owner of the Wii U version selecting the 8-Player Smash mode. One player can use the GamePad, up to four players use Wii Remotes, and you could even have eight 3DS users can link up to the Wii U mode. If eight players on one screen simultaneously isn't enough, than I don't know what is! Quite a few new characters are joining the brawl: Duck Hunt Dog (from Duck Hunt), Bowser Jr., the Koopalings, and Rosalina and Luma (from the Mario series), Robin and Lucina (from the Fire Emblem series), Palutena and Dark Pit (from the Kid Icarus series), Wii Fit Trainer (from the Wii Fit series), Shulk (from Xenoblade Chronicles), Greninja (from the Pokémon series), Little Mac (from the Punch Out series) and third-party characters Mega Man, Pac-Man, and Ryu from Street Fighter (who can be purchased as DLC. Returning from Super Smash Bros. Melee are Dr. Mario and Mewtwo, the latter of whom is available as DLC. Of course, there is a handful of new stages. The 3DS edition of the game includes stages based on Nintendo's handheld games that are not included in the other version. Some of the new battlegrounds are from 3DS titles, such as 3D Land (Super Mario 3D Land), Reset Bomb Fortress (Kid Icarus: Uprising), and Tomodachi Life (from the game of the same name). Exclusive to the 3DS version is the new Smash Run mode. In this mode, which can be played with three CPUs or with three friends over local wireless, you have five minutes to explore a large map and defeat enemies from nearly every franchise represented in Smash in order to acquire stat boosts. After your time is up, there will be an event that can be a free-for-all, a team battle, a race through an obstacle course, or something else. You're also able to choose what tracks from the game's vast library of music will play during the five minutes. I've become addicted to this mode, but it's a shame that it had to substitute the Adventure mode from the previous two games. The Subspace Emissary Adventure from Brawl was so good it could have been a great game on its own. Smash Run doesn't have as much depth and can get repetitive due to there being only one map, but it's still very fun. Another notable new feature is the ability to customize the abilities of any fighter. You can unlock new smash moves and substitute the default moves if you don't like them as much. Additionally, you can pick a set of powers to use in Smash Run. You are also able to apply stat-changing badges. Each badge increases a stat but in turn decreases another stat. Some badges also have special effects, like granting you a ray gun at the start of every battle. I like my fighters a little on the Bruiser (higher damage) side. In addition to being able to customize fighters, you are able to create your own Mii Fighter. When you create a Mii Fighter, you are able to choose from three classes: Brawler, who's attacks are primarily melee-based; Swordfighter, who combines sword attacks with some medium-ranged weapons; and Gunner, who's attacks are all projectile-based. You are able to unlock clothes for your fighter, some of it Nintendo-themed. If you think Toads from Mario are adorable (and who doesn't?), then it is possible to have a mushroom cap and look as adorable as a Toad... kinda. All of the single-player modes, including All-Star and Classic modes remain in the game. All-Star's concept of defeating every fighter in the game without dying remains untouched. Classic mode, in which you face a series of battles concluding with a duel with Master Hand, has been changed. Rather than completing a predetermined series of fights, you are able to choose your path. Additionally, you are now given two lives per fight rather than five to use throughout the entire series of skirmishes. Another change to classic mode is the 0.0-to-9.0 difficulty wagering scale that is heavily inspired by the Fiend's Cauldron from Kid Icarus: Uprising. You are now able to purchase Nintendo-themed trophies, using either in-game coins or Play Coins. Super Smash Bros. Brawl added online features. However, you were only able to do a free-for-all. You now have a lot more freedom. You are able to fight For Fun, in which you can battle with items and no stats are recorded; or For Glory, in which there are no items, stats are recorded, and you must play on the flat Final Destination-inspired Omega variants of stages. The online mode suffers from occasional lag, but not enough to be annoying. The main letdown of this game is that while there is a tremendous deal of content, one of the only major addition is a new mode, one which replaced a better mode, at that. It's also disappointing that this game features no animated intro like the last two titles. Equally disappointing is how much harder it is to play with pals. Sure, you can still have extremely fun four-player brawls with your friends, but they all need to bring a 3DS with a copy of the game-- no more pick up and play. My final quibble addresses the underwhelming 3D effects. The game looks smoother in 3D, but I was expecting my rival's faces to pop out when they were sent hurtling into the front of the screen by a Bob-Omb. The flaws keep this game from being perfect like Brawl, Super Smash Bros. is still an incredible game that any 3DS owner or Nintendo fan should add to their library, no questions asked.

Ups
Tons of new characters and stages
New Smash Run mode
Fighters can be customized with new moves and badges
Finally, Mii Fighters, and you can dress them up!
Trophies can be purchased
More diverse online options
It's Super Smash Bros. What do you expect?

Downs
No Adventure mode or animated intro
Occasional online lag
Lack of major additions
Less accessible local play
Underwhelming 3D effects

ESRB: E 10+ Content: Cartoon Violence, Comic Mischief, and Mild Suggestive Themes Price: $39.99 (Retail / Download)

Destiny Review

Destiny

Publisher: Activision Developer: Bungie Platform: Xbox 360 Players: MMO Release: 2014 Genre: First-Person Shooter / RPG Rating: 8.8 \ 10.0: Fantastic

Above is a Warlock unleashing a nova bomb, its Super Charged attack.

From the company behind the Halo franchise (up until Halo 4) comes another sci-fi shooter, which is an MMO, interestingly enough. The story begins in the present, when astronauts discover  an alien being on Mars. The discovery of this being is followed by the Golden Age, an era of peace, exploration, and technological advancement. During this period, humankind spreads throughout the Solar System and develops colonies on other planets. After several centuries, the humans are pursued by alien races that seek to extinguish the power that the aforementioned alien being, the Traveler possesses that is known only as Light.  These aliens drive humankind nearly to extinction. This power is wielded by a group known as the Guardians, who are now the human's only defense against the "Darkness" wielded by the aliens. Following the "Collapse", a group of Guardians are salvaged by the Traveler, and are gathered on Earth at a place known as the Tower. You assume the role of a long-deceased Guardian who has been revived by a Ghost. A Ghost is floating AI that much resembles Halo character 343 Guilty Spark in appearance, and is very similar to Cortana in its purpose. This and other elements from the Halo series are present in this game.

You must pick from one of three classes, each of which offer two subclasses. Your options are Titan, a bulky class that draws influence from Halo's Master Chief and Stormtroopers from Star Wars; Warlock, which uses attacks that resemble magic; and Hunter, which is based on "space cowboys", particularly Han Solo. Each class has an extremely powerful Super Charged attack that can be used after a meter gradually fills, which can be sped up by getting kills. This attack is used by pressing the left and right bumpers simultaneously. Each subclass also has its own melee attack and grenades. I prefer the Warlock class, because the scatter grenades and nova bomb Super Charged attack are very effective at clearing groups. That's just my opinion. After you complete the first mission, you are taken to the Tower, located in the last city on Earth. The Tower will serve as your hub for many things. You can purchase weapons, speak to the master Cryptarch decode engrams, accept bounties (side-quests and challenges), store gear, speak to the Vanguards, who are the highest-ranked of the Guardians, purchase new vehicles from the shipwright, and many other activities.

As you advance, the Vanguard of your class, the Gunsmith, and the Cryptarch will give you rewards. Weapons and armor can also be earned as a reward for completing an objective, a reward from completing a mission, or from opening a loots chest. There are hundreds of weapons and pieces of armor to obtain. You can hold three weapons at once: A Standard weapon, a Special weapon, and a Heavy weapon. Any equipment that is ranked Uncommon or rarer can be upgraded. You will also eventually obtain a vehicle that can be summoned anytime aboveground. You start off with a Sparrow, which looks and sounds just like a Landspeeder from Star Wars. The rewards yielded from leveling up usually are not that great, but it's very satisfying you get to higher levels and gain access to Legendary and Exotic gear. When I became level 20, I was thrilled to finally be able to use a Legendary machine gun that I had been holding onto for what seemed like forever, and was also rewarded with Legendary boots that had more defense points than my chest armor! There are three types of missions: Story missions, which progress the game's plot; Strikes, which are "boss raids" that must be played with the assistance of two fellow players and require Xbox Live Gold; and Patrols, which allow you to explore the world freely and complete small objectives as you go. Everywhere you go, you'll likely encounter other Destiny players, as this is an online game. It's not uncommon to stumble upon another player's battle, and enjoy helping out a player in need. By pressing the arrows on the controller's D-pad, you are able to dance, point, lie on the ground, and perform another action based on your class. If you're facing the direction of another player when you activate one of these emotes, it will be brought to their attention on their screen. Each of the game's three enemy factions are reminiscent of those in Halo. The Fallen are similar to the Covenant, the Hive are similar to the Flood, the Vex are similar to the Sentinels and Prometheans, and the Cabal are similar to Brutes and Jackals. If you don't really fancy completing missions, you can head down to the Crucible for some PvP action. The Crucible is enjoyable, but it's very unbalanced due to the fact that higher level players have extremely powerful weapons and armor and are often put in games with players they can easily dominate. The game's visuals are beautiful, and push the Xbox 360 to its graphical limits. Anyone seeking the most visually impressive version of Destiny will be satisfied with buying the game for any console, as the new-generations. versions bear no noticeable improvement over there previous-gen counterparts. Many of the game's muscial tracks are good, but the score is inferior to Martin O'Donnell's work with the Halo series, as this is one of his weaker performances, in my opinion. This will also likely be Marty's last soundtrack, as he has been terminated from Bungie's staff "without cause".

Destiny is another great sci-fi shooter from Bungie, and I certainly wasn't disappointed. How could I be unhappy with the spiritual successor to the better Halo games? This game is certainly not without flaws. My explanation of the plot makes it clear that the story is clichéd at parts, and much is left unexplained. Furthermore, the game updates too frequently, with the occasional compatibility packs taking hours to upload. The servers occasionally suffer connection issues, which possibly the largest annoyance. Do you know how frustrating it is to be told five times in a row that "Destiny has lost connection to your partner services", despite the fact that I have perfect Internet connection when playing online in other games? At that point, I just pop in one of Bungie's Halo games and hope tomorrow will go smoother. You'll meet plenty of people when playing the game on the 360, but there is no cross-system play, which limits your social experience. Those seeking to play with others will prefer to play on another system, as I can only assume that the Xbox 360 version has the least players. This is because not only do people prefer new-gen systems nowadays, but PlayStation owners get additional content, which I hate! The less players there are, the longer it takes to make matches. Those who love the game can download its first expansion, The Dark Below, for $20. Destiny isn't as good as Halo, but it still is incredible. It's oozing with potential, but it's got a few flaws that need fixing. Any Halo fan that misses Bungie's work on the series such as myself will be satisfied.

Ups
Tons of gear to unlock
Awesome Super Charged moves
Satisfying progression
Various mission types
Lots of Halo influences
Social features

Downs
Clichéd and partly unexplained story
Updates are too frequent
Occasional server connectivity issues
Xbox 360 version has least players
PlayStation versions have more content.

ESRB: T Content: Animated Blood and Violence Price: $59.99 (Retail)

VVVVVV Review

VVVVVV

Publisher: Terry Cavanagh Developer: Terry Cavanagh Platform: iOS Players: 1 Release:

2014 Genre: 2D Platformer / Puzzle Rating: 9.0 \ 10.0: Excellent

Above is the room V-Stitch that, despite easy to complete, is rather spikey.

This game is a mobile partly remade port of indie developer Terry Cavanagh's 2010 brutally difficult puzzle-platformer VVVVVV. The game casts you as Captain Viridian, whom after a sudden "dimensional interference", is separated from the members of his or her crew who are now scattered throughout a trap-filled space station (I wrote "his or her" because Viridian's gender is never specified, though many players believe that Viridian is male). It's up to Viridian to rescue each of his five crewmates, all of whose names start with a V (Six Vs!). The gameplay is simple-- you can't jump, but you instead tap the right side of the screen to reverse gravity. How Viridian can do this I do not know. His / her inability to jump is most likely due to his / her lack of knees. As I said before, this is a pretty tough game, as every hazard will kill Viridian with a single touch. The game does have checkpoints, represented by a C. This leads to some creative and fun gameplay. Each of the game's several stages introduces a new concept that spices the gameplay up and adds more challenge. Every room has a different name, many of which are humorous. For example, one room is titled "I Love You". Deadly hearts fly across the screen in this room. The following room is called "That's Why I Have to Kill You", in which you must avoid a greater number of broken hearts. The game's dialogue garners chuckles as well. Doctor Violet even states that she has a crush on Chief Verdigris, and is unaware that he has feelings towards her as well. VVVVVV may be challenging, but I was hardly ever frustrated. Despite the difficulty, the adventure is a rather short one. It took me about three-and-a-half hours to complete the game, and I died over 1,400 times. Even so, perfectionists will have a tough time collecting the 20 hidden shiny trinkets. A small quibble of mine is that the touchscreen controls can be a little slippery, causing me some undeserved deaths. This is the only thing that ever caused me frustration. Additionally more modes to enjoy. There's Flip Mode, which flips every playable part of the game upside down; there's Intermissions, in which you are able to play any of the segments where you escort a crewmate back to the ship; eventually No Death Mode will be unlocked-- Die and it's game over; You can also play the very challenging minigame Super Gravitron via the Secret lab mode. You are also able to play a handful of user-generated levels. This game, like many indies in modern days, has retro-style graphics. Many of those games don't look much like one from the 1980s or 1990s but VVVVVV nails the appearance of an '80s PC game, which give it tons of charm. The chiptune soundtrack by Magnus "Souleye" Palsson is incredibly catchy and one of the best I have ever heard. If you are at all into chiptune music, please do yourself a favor and download the track "Pushing Onwards" from the game's soundtrack album PPPPPP (or the whole album, better yet). VVVVVV is an amazing game that manages to entertain and challenge with little frustration.

Ups
Fun and creative gameplay
Lots of humor
Additional modes
Charming retro graphics
Incredible chiptune soundtrack

Downs
Frustrating on rare occasions
Slightly slippery controls
Short game

ESRB: E 10+ Content: Fantasy Violence Price: $2.99 (Download)

Super Mario World Review

Super Mario World

Publisher: Nintendo Developer: Nintendo Platform: Super Nintendo Entertainment System Players: 1-2 Release: 1991 Genre: 2D Platformer Rating: 8.6 \ 10.0: Fantastic

Above is Mario riding Yoshi.

Back in 1991, Nintendo released their 16-bit system, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, better known as the Super Nintendo or SNES. The console launched alongside Super Mario World, Mario's first 16-bit adventure. Here's the story: Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach go on a vacation to Dinosaur Land, where Bowser kidnaps Peach, and you must save her. In order to get to Bowser's fortress and save the princess, Mario must first storm the castles of Bowser's children, the Koopalings. The most notable new feature of this game is Yoshi, Mario's lovable dinosaur steed. Mario's dino pal couldn't yet perform his famous flutter jump, but still proves very useful with his ability to eat enemies and walk on hazards, the latter feature of which is exclusive to this game. Mario games have always had secrets, but Super Mario World was the game in the franchise to include secret stages, which are abundant here. Perfectionists will have a tough time discovering the many secret exits of levels and unlocking all the stages of the hidden world. Among the new enemies are new colors of Koopas. Each Koopa shell color has a different effect when consumed by Yoshi. Green shells can simply be spit out to plow through enemies; red shells allow Yoshi to spew out a small cluster of fireballs; golden shells cause a tremor that defeats nearby enemies when Yoshi touches the ground; blue shells cause Yoshi to sprout wings, granting him temporary flight. The game's world map has been improved, and the visuals are still charming. Additionally, you can hold a backup power-up, which will be dropped when you take damage. However, while the game's main theme is catchy, it is remixed and reused in many of the stages, making the soundtrack slightly repetive. Furthermore, the game can be too difficult at certain times, especially when you are required to find the secret exit in a ghost house stage. Oh, how I, and the entire Mario fan base dread those ghost houses! They're so annoying that I consider it a flaw that this title introduces those stages to the series! Despite these minor flaws, Super Mario World is 16-bit classic that should be given a try by all fans of Mario and platforming.

Ups
Yoshi. Enough said
Secret stages
Various Koopa shell powers
Improved world map
Visuals still are charming
Backup power-up

Downs
Catchy but repetitive soundtrack
Too difficult at times
Ghost houses, GAAAH!!!

ESRB: E Content: Mild Cartoon Violence Price: $7.99 (Download)