1 Step Forward 2 Steps Back

So some of my friends have jumped on the next gen (now current gen) bandwagon and bought PS4's, I am sitting on a backlog of games I still want to start and or complete before moving on up to a deluxe console in the sky. LAst week I plucked down $20 on my PSN account and picked up a couple things, first I picked Legend of Mana, this gem from the PS1 era...hence 2 steps back. I had bought this game back in 2000...13+ years ago....DAMN that makes me feel old! And when I played it then I was kinda disapointed, I guess I was looking for something more akin to the original, Secret of Mana.

Which happened to be my very first RPG I ever played. The game is gorgeous which is truly a testament to it's quality visually and audibly...I find myself retreating from the chaos of GTA V and the frustration of trying to get back in fighting shape for USFIV with SSFIV AE with this 13 year old gem!
And it was only $5.99! So while my friends are rushing head first into the new gen, I decide to go old school...



Next I bought the Okami HD dynamic theme that just came out....vurrry purdy!



If you're on my PSN friends list you know I have about six different Chun Li avatars I switch between on the regular plus some others like RDR, Hyper Dimension Neptunia, so I picked up one GTA V avatar....guess which one.

Being the nice guy I am I let my wife buy something on the PS Store, I figured she'd get some PS mini game like candy crush or something.....nope.

She bought this....

Sony: the Evolution of the PlayStation and the Future!

I remember getting my PS1 at Kaybee toys in the summer of 1995, I got tired of waiting for the "Ultra Nintendo". I remember walking to Penn Station and seeing a store with a PS1 running Battle Arena Toshinden and being very impressed with the 3D characters. This console really did have the most amazing library od new original games and took the video game industry to a new level of public awareness...no longer were video games for kids and anti social basement dwellers! Gonna throw out a few titles that made the PS3 the dominant console for over a decade....Metal Gear Solid, FFVII, Resident Evil, Twisted Metal 2, Tomb Raider, Final Fantasy Tactics.


My PS2 was a day 1 purchase I remember going to pick up my PS2 at the Software Etc. in the Roosevelt Field Mall at the crack of dawn and driving home giddy as a school girl! Backwards compatability, CD/DVD drive, online connectivity! The games that were most memorable to me were Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater, Socom2, FFX, FFXI, God of War 1 & 2, SSX! Thru this console I met a lot of great gamers, to name a few XxOuTLaWxX, XxJavenxX, XxKopernikuzxX, XxBlizzardxX, XxSinexX, XxEvoxX, XxKillerxX, XxSpliffxX  XxBeNTiDuSxX, XxRipperxX, XxWolfcryxX, Darcy, NuclearMayhem, Siviard, and last but not least Krogenar!
Favorite memories from that generation seeing all the Kontract clan green up in the Socom lobbies during a war, all the adventures I had in Vana Diel, Facing The Boss in that field of flowers, Defeating Aries in GoW, Impailing Kineticlops with a steel girder in War of the Monsters, Racing thru Mercury City in SSX3 on line!

 When the PS3 leaks started hitting the web I was definately on board, and I remember listening to some employee at the Gamestop on Hempstead Turnpike in East Meadow hyping up the XBox 360 and telling the guy how Microsoft's next console was going to obliterate the PS3....to this day I swear M$ paid out GS to promote the shit outta the 360.
I didn't buy the PS3 at launch, a year later during the 2006 holiday season I got a 60 gig backwards compatible (via emulator) PS3 (thanks hun!). The first few years were tough for the Playstation brand, M$ clearly had a significant lead on Sony but as the PS Network firmware updates kept coming the PS3  experience continued to grow and improve and now in 2013 the PSN is huge! With a vast library of games, add on content, music and movies as well as the PS+ incentive program that actually has worthwhile benefits to gamers there something for everyone from the most casual gamer to the hardcore gamer.
Never before in all the years I've played video games have I been more back logged on games!

 And now with tommorow's event at the Hammerstien Ballroom Sony is gonna announve the future of the Playstation brand! And with that the first shot of the next console war will be fired and all the hateraide will flow once again!
Check your tents and sleeping bags folks it's almost time for store front camping 2013!

Game Review: Final Fantasy Origins

My obsession with playing every numerical Final Fantasy title continued with the release of Final Fantasy Origins! This compilation was a must have for a few reasons, first and foremost it would be the first time Final Fantasy II would be released in the west and with this compilation I now can say I have played and completed FF, FFII, FFIV,FFV, FFVI, FFVII, FFVIII, FFIX, FFX, FFXI, and FF Tactics!
As with FF Chronicals and FF Anthology the two games in FF Origins come with updated graphics, new cinematics, beastiary, art galleries that include some fantastic work from Yoshitaka Amano.
The games are 15+ years old and for newer gamers that will be an instant turn off, I for one look at these as classic games in video game history that are worth playing to understand and appreciate our hobby and especially if your a fan of the Final Fantasy franchise.
8/10

Game Review: Vagrant Story

From the creator of Final Fantasy Tactics comes a new adventure in the world of Valendia called Vagrant Story!
The thing that grabbed my attention first was the art style the game used, I liked the comic style text bubbles and the character design was unique. I loved FFT so when I found out this game was developed by Yasumi Matsuno, the same person responsible for FFT I didn't hesitate in buying it.
The story of Vagrant Story has a very similar feel as FFT with the political intrigue and shadowy characters with hidden agenda's.
The game has a heavy focus on Weapon creation and the battle system is one I've never experienced before, when you are moving thru an area you don't randomly encounter enemies ala Final Fantasy they are all on screen and you can try and avoid them or attack. If you attack a wire frame sphere appears around Ashley (the protagonist) and depending on the weapon type determines the size of the sphere, ie Pole, Sword, Ax, Crossbow.
When an enemy is within the target radius you choose a particular body part to attack Head, body, arms, legs, then you attack and try to chain attacks by timing them based on on screen prompts (not easy), defending works similarly by pressing either triangle, circle, square or X at just the right moment(!) Ashley will either block the attack or counter it depending on what action you have mapped to the corresponding button (again not easy).
I love the atmosphere and lore of Vagrant Story, but make no mistake this IS NOT Final Fantasy and if you are not skilled at map reading, sense of direction and inventory management you might find Vagrant Story too much of a challenge, as I suspect was intentional when it was being developed. Hell I've hit a brick wall in the LimeStone Quarry, I have plenty of powerful weapons to deal with everything from humans, dragons, undead and evil things but these creatures are too damn powerful looks like some serious grinding is needed!




8/10

Retro Review: Street Fighter Collection 2

Better late than never I suppose, I played the shit out of my copies of Street Fighter II and Street Fighter II Turbo on the SNES back in the day.
Right now I'm totally enjoying Street Fighter Alpha 2, but if you get the urge to play the classics this collection is for you!
Street Fighter Collection 2 includes Street Fighter II The World Warrior, Street Fighter II Champion Edition and Street Fighter II Turbo Hyper Fighting.
As far as I can tell this is a pixel perfect port of the arcade games, each tittle comes with Art Collections, Tips (like we need them at this point), Secrets and Cast info such as Chun Li's D.O.B etc.
Oddly enough the game doesn't offer an auto save function.
I really don't see anyone other than Street Fighter enthusiasts picking this collection up five years to the month after Street Fighter II Turbo Hyper Fighting was in arcades.
9/10

Game Review: Gran Turismo 2

It's time to race on a higher level....

Polyphony Digital brings the Real Driving Simulator back for a second lap with Gran Turismo 2. With over 500 cars, more than doubling GT1's 160, 38 manufacturers tripling GT1's 11, and 6 licenses vs GT1's 3 buckle in it's gonna be a long ride.

GT1 showed you how to drive like a pro, GT2 is gonna see if you were paying attention!

Drivers education 2.0...

Lets go get our license to drive. First thing you'll notice is there are six licenses to acquire now B, A, IC, IB, IA & S. The tests are much the same as GT1, braking, cornering, S-turns, handling variances between FF/FR/4WD etc.

Lets go buy a car, GT2 Has four districts representing the four corners of the world and their respective manufacturers.

+=New Manufacturer

North City:

Aston Martin

+Audi

+BMW

+Jaguar

+Lister

+Lotus

+Mercedes Benz

+MG

+Mini

TVR

+Opel

+RUF

+Volkswagon

South City:

Acura

+Chrysler

Chevrolet

Dodge

+Ford

+Mercury

+Plymouth

+Shelby

+Vector

East City:

+Daihatsu

Honda

Mazda

Mitsubishi

Nissan

Subaru

+Suzuki

+Tommy Kaira

Toyota

West City:

+Alpha Romeo

+Citroen

+FIAT

+Lancia

+Peugeot

+Renault

+Venturi

Gran Turismo 2 adds 11 new race tracks to more than double the amount GT1 had!

+=new track

Autumn Ring

+Apricot Hill

Clubman Stage R5

Deep Forest

+Grindelwald

Grand Valley East

High Speed Ring

+Laguna Seca

+Midfield Raceway

+Red Rock Valley

+Rome Cicuit

+Rome ShortSpecial Stage R5

+Seattle Cicuit

+Seattle Short

Super Speedway

+Tahiti Road

Trial Mountain

+Test Course

GT2 offers four separate events, the GT league, Special Events, Endurance Races and Rally Events. GT2 takes the Races and Championships from GT1 and adds a plethora of new races, cups and challenges like the K-Cup, Luxury Sedan Cup, Convertible Car World, Compact Car World Muscle Car Cup, Historic Car Cup, Station Wagon Cup, Grand Touring Car Trophy

80's Car Cup, Gran Turismo All Stars, GT300 & 500 Championship.

Gran Turismo2 expands the Endurance Races from GT1 with the return of the Grand Valley 300km (60 laps), Apricot Hill 200 km, Seattle Circuit 100 miles, Laguna Seca 200 miles, Rome Circuit 2 hours, Trial Mountain 30 laps, and SS Route All Night.

Polyphony Digital added Rally Racing to GT2 and was toying with drag racing but opted not to include Drag Racing at the last minute. The Rally Events include Smokey Mountain North/South/reverse, Green Forest Roadway, Tahiti Maze, Tahiti Dirt R3/reverse, Pikes Peak Uphill/Down hill Challenge.

Grand Turismo improves on the original in every way, the graphics show improvement, the sheer number of new manufacturers and cars is astounding, the handling is vastly improved which says alot considering the first was revolutionary, the addition of Rally races expands the franchises influence but needs a bit of work on the way the cars handle off road....they handle too similarly to when they're on a track in my opinion. The inclusion of muscle cars of the 60's and 70's is a great addition and is cool pitting A Dodge Viper GTS against a 71' Dodge Charger!

GT2 is a fun ride!

9/10

Retro Review: Street Fighter Collection

Street Fighter Collection is a must own for fans of Street Fighter, the collection comes on two disks. Disk 1 has Super Street Fighter II and Super Street Fighter II Turbo.
Super & Super Turbo offer Arcade Mode, Versus Mode,
Disk 2 has Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold.
Alpha 2 Gold comes with Arcade, Versus, Training, Survival, and Akuma modes. Additionally SFA2 Gold includes Evil Ryu and  Killer Bee Cammy.
I actually traded in my copy of Street Fighter Alpha 2 for this....common sense! I got a better version of SFA2 and Super Street Fighter II and SSF2T.


For the price any fan of Street Fighter should get this collection!
9/10

Retro Game Reviews: Bust a Move'99 & Bust A Move 4

My Friend Krogenar got this game for my girlfriend after discovering her dark secret addiction to puzzle games. Funny....Bust a Move 99 actually was originally  released in the arcades in 1996, then in 1997 on the Dreamcast and finally on the Playstation and N64 in 1999.
Basically players control Bub...some super deformed dinosaur that operates a "bubble cannon" and the objective is to shoot the colored bubble up to a corresponding colored bubble above before they drop down to the bottom of the screen. Similar concept to Tetris but kinda reversed, there is strategy to the game which lends itself to the games multi player mode where players can choose from eight different characters to play.

5/10

BAM4 hit arcades and PlayStation in 1998!
BAM 4 has updated graphics and many additional modes to keep players popping bubbles till they're blue in the face.
Puzzle Mode Stages A-Z After beating stage A choose stage B or C, beat stage B and choose either stage D or E, beat stage C and choose stage F or G.....
Story Puzzle Mode
Story Vs.Mode play the game and learn the fascinating story behind the game...
Survival Mode self explanitory...you can unlock hidden characters like Woolen, Monsta, Packy and Maita
PvP self explanatory
Edit Mode create stages for others to play!

6/10

Game Review: Crash Team Racing

I haven't played any of the Crash Bandicoot games yet and I have only owned the original Super Mario Kart, which provided hundreds of hours of split screen kart combat mayhem once I finally convinced Krogenar that S.M.K. was not a kiddie game and was actually alot of fun.
Since SMK it seems like every franchise has attempted to cash in on the Kart Racing phenomenon... none till CTR have been close to being sucessful. Naughty Dog has made a Kart racing game that is just as fun as SMK with characters that are quirkier than Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Bowser and those guys.
CTR has many similarities on the surface to SMK but the game has much more to offer those willing to go the distance. CTR offers eight selectable characters: Crash, Coco, Pura, Polar, Dr. Neo Cortex, Tiny, Dr. N. Gin, and Dingodile.
CTR offers plenty of ways to play; Adventure (single player campaign), Time Trial and Battle Mode. The Adventure mode is basically the same as SMK but goes a little deeper, after beating a level you gain access to Relic Races which are basically time challenges, and CTR challenge races where you race against the CPU and need to also collect the letters C, T & R.
Time Trial is self explanatory....drive the best you can on a track to set the best time.
Battle Mode is exactly the same as SMK PvP using power ups to defeat your opponent, you can have up to 4 players via the multitap.

CTR is the only other worthwhile Kart game out there in my opinion and has much better tracks than SMK  (not all flat tracks)!
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and CTR takes the genre SMK created, uses the formula and kicks it up a few notches with over the top characters and solid gameplay a good soundtrack and a lot of enjoyable race tracks.



8/10

Retro Game Review:Street Fighter Alpha

My first Street Fighter game on a home console since   Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting on my SNES in 1993!
I only played this game a handful of times in the arcade and I was very happy to see it come to home consoles. The core aspects of Street Fighter are intact and in Street Fighter Alpha we are introduced to a few new techniques such as Alpha counters, a tiered super meter, air blocking and recovery rolls. These added aspects aren't just mindless additions but do enhance the strategic dynamics of the game.
SFA takes place before the original Street Fighter (1987) so we get a fresh look at Ryu and Kens humble beginnings....notice Ken's long hair? Notice what it's tied with? Notice Ryu's headband...what color is it! There are many references to The Street Fighter Animated Movie within SFA most notably are the shoto clones but also Chun Li has a fresh new look and probably the coolest addition to the roster is Guile's friend Charlie! Other cool fighters in the roster are Birdie from the original Street Fighter....this isn't the birdie from 1987, the only distinctive feature that was retained was his Mohawk, I like the new design for Birdie but some may have an issue with the redesign. Another Street Fighter Alum that gets the alpha treatment is Sagat's pupil Adon, Capcom did a great job updating this classic character.
SFA also brings two fighters from the Final Fight franchise Guy and Sodom, they fit perfectly in the Street Fighter universe with move sets taken from FF and enhanced to work in Street Fighter.
SFA also introduces two brand new characters Rose and Dan.
Rose is an interesting character, unlike the more traditional fighting styles Rose fights with her cleavage and a mystical scarf O.o
Dan is Capcom's response to SNK's Art of Fighting Ryo Sakazaki and is, for all intents and purposes a joke character.Dan's Back story is actually quite interesting as it ties into Sagat's storyline and why Sagat has an eye patch.
Sagat, M. Bison, and Akuma (returning from SSFIIT) are the final bosses in SFA and are character specific ie: M. Bison is Charlies final boss (for obvious reasons) Sagat is Dan's final boss Akuma is Ryu's final boss.
The graphics are fantastic and is almost an arcade perfect port, the sound track & effects are fantastic and sound amazing on a 5.1 surround sound home theater.
The new additions to the Street Fighter game engine are well implemented and add new depth to an already deep and strategical fighting system.
The cast is great and it's awesome to see characters from the original Street Fighter re imagined.

Being a fan of the franchise my review might be slightly biased, but I give Street Fighter Alpha
9/10

Game Review: Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete

I bought the collectors edition of Lunar Silver Star Story complete on a whim. After playing Final Fantasy VII I was on an RPG binge and  I am so glad I did! What L:SSSC lacks in graphical power it more than makes up for in unforgettable characters, story and overall quality of the product! Working Designs put so much work into this port from the games gorgeous cut scenes to the soundtrack, the hardcover  instruction manual and cloth map to the sound track that this game should be in every RPG fans library! 

Regardless if Alex's story is the most cliched in RPG history the sub plots and character development of the entire cast is so well developed that it really doesn't matter, but thankfully Lunar's story begins simply but excels to such fantastic heights....thanks to the incredibly well developed characters ...that it is a journey that you will not soon forget. 

10/10

http://www.lunar-net.com/sssc/

Retro Game Review: Alien Trilogy

In space no one can hear you scream....in your living room they can!

Unlike most people who have been playing the FPS Doom, this is my first foray into the FPS genre. What better franchise to put into this genre! The controls took me a little while to get accustomed to but once i got comfortable moving, shooting, strafing and jumping the carnage really goes into overdrive, The learning curve is fair and by the end of the game you'll feel like one bad ass colonial marine or Ellen Ripley if you prefer playing as a chick (I highly doubt any girl is gonna play this).
The atmosphere is great and really draws the player into the game, there are times where the silence is so un-nerving and then there's times where the action is so intense you think you're chest is gonna explode....see what I did there?
The graphics are impressive as well as the sound effects, the video clips that are incorporated into the game add a smidge more beleivability  that you are on the Nostromo or on LV426 or the Sulaco.
The game is not easy and I'll admit I broke down towards the last chapter and put on my "pink acid boots"...
Any fan of the films will be impressed and FPS fans aught to check this game out!
9/10