Army of Two - XBOX 360

Army of Two for the X-box 360. This game had a good amount of hype surrounding it but fell a bit short on delivering the goods of a fun 2 player shooter. Not to say it wasn't fun, it was at certain parts of the game, it was just over all bland, and for a "shooter" the shooting was off and felt weird and broken.

When I first got the game I played 1 player. Big mistake. You really need two people to get the full enjoyment out of this game. You see, when you get shot a bunch you don't die right away. Instead the other player can drag your body to safety and revive you. This is fine on two player but on 1 player the guy that's supposed to save you is the CPU. The CPU doesn't drag you to safety, he drags you.... well... around... you know.... sometimes somewhere better but mostly just right into enemy territory.

Also I just ignored most of the story. It was pretty crappy and really uninteresting but enough of the negative...

So I stopped the one player game and called a friend over for two player. The game got a lot better. So for those of yous without friends- Don't get this game... avoid it. This game is way better with two people.... and some beer.
So lets re-cap:

1 player 6/10
2 player with a friend, some beer, and ignoring the story 7/10

So if you and your buddy want to get an okay game to play through, wait for this one to hit the bargain bin.

Children of Mana -Nintendo DS

I am so glad that finally finished this game. IT was so boring. You know its bad when the designer of the games don't put any effort into making the game diverse.

1) All the weapons and armor all looked the same and didn't change the appearance of your character, regardless of what type of armor or weapon you were carrying. Sword, bow, hammer, and flail. There you go,now add Hammer 93 Sword 58. ...exciting. WOW!..I just got the Golden douche sword..it gives me power of water and is 63 attack. But It looks just like my other sword.



2)All the worlds were poorly designed and all looked the same, except some had sand, others were white for ice, others were jungle. but they all had the same design. Now this wouldn't matter if you played through the ice world once and went , that was ok. But you have to go back to these worlds to do the smaller quest that you need to do to level up. Thinking that the world will at least have different paths to go through to get different items.. nope, its the same 4 or 5 levels just stuck on shuffle and you play through them at nauseam.






3) The game play is repetitive. I could look up from the DS, watch TV and keep pressing the attack button and the look back down and all the enemy's were dead. hack and slash, a Great thumb workout.

4) I don't like 95% of Anime and this game is well, Anime. So of course it has the weird story line of mana god and made up words (Tunestone and Marklepart)that don't make any sense and characters that I can't tell if they are female or male. The main boss in the game, I never did find out if it was a girl or a boy. You decide, I conclude its a chipmunk in disguise.

Over all, it was really boring, but because I believe in not starting a new game till I have finished one that I have. I played through the whole thing and boy was I glad that it was over.

The funniest part in the game was at the end when it asked me, "did you enjoy the game". unfortunately I couldn't give my answer in any form besides yelling at my DS.So the game went on so say, "you'll just have to wait for the next Mana Story".

no thanks, I'm done with Mana....
2/10

Written by: Darryl

Transformers The Game - PS3

First off, I have to say that I am a big transformer fan. I'm not a hardcore fan, but I do collect their toys, but they don't have to be in boxes and never opened, I don't care about that.

I've played every transformer game that was made to date, even the old NES game that made Optimus' truck form useless. Well he could go faster across the ground, but what was the point of that if something was in your your way that you had to shoot and then you smash into it?..but anyway, I am here reviewing the Transformers based off of Michael Bay's Movie, Transformers.

I equate this movie to having a ugly baby. I had to buy the game, I read the reviews, heard the feedback, and still I had to go out and get it. It may not be pretty , but its mine. UGLY BABY!!..
The game itself looked nice, I read that the characters were actually used using the same models that the movie used. If thats true than I guess all their effort for the game went there, the robots and seeing them transform over and over is the best part of the game. Thats quite sad when you think of it....your flying over a building has Starscream..and you hit the transform button and he lands, you hit it again and he takes off...hit it again and he lands...repeat until you want to see another robot transform from a different angle. The cars on the other hand launch themselves into the air when they transform, which makes it kinda hard when you are speeding around the road way and you need to be a robot and hit the button and sail across your objective and land 50 ft away from where you were suppose to be.

Anywho, Diversity is a big thing I like in games, they could have done so much with this game, but instead stuck with generic across the board. Each transformer has 2 different weapons, a heavy weapon and a lite weapon. Now, the difference between the two besides one being called Heavy and the other lite. Nothing, (thats not really true..each robot fires different projectiles..but besides that) ..Nothing!!...they are useless..I have missiles that shoot outta my wrist...I shoot the baddie..he blocks all my shots..infact ALL the robots block my shots...the only thing I can successfully hit with my arm weapons are the humans and their cars. So the only way to blow up other transformers is to punch them..no cool moves like the Prince of Persia games..nope..punch punch kick..kick kick punch. Can you feel the excitement?!

So, their weapons suck if you are attacking transformer. Although I did have fun has Blackout blowing up the army base.He has the coolest looking weapon in the game. But really, any game is fun when you are left alone to your own devices and you make a game outta something that shouldn't be a game, like how far can I throw this tank?, is it a set mark?, or does running before I throw it make it go further?.
Another thing I wanted to do was climb the tallest building in the city and jump off of it in robot mode and transform in midair and smash into the ground, GREAT FUN!!...but it won't let you. ALL TRANSFORMATIONS have to happen with 2 feet firmly stuck to the ground. You can't run and jump and transform...you CAN run ..then jump..then transfomer, but god forbid if you do it in midair.

Anywho, you can collect things around the game, find all the thingamagigs and it unlocks new skins. These skins are the best part of the game, besides transforming. But you can choose to have Optimus and jazz and Megatron in their old G1 styles. Thats pretty neat. They should have had alot more stuff like that.


The game play and level designs and ..well everything else , it all seemed very unfinished. It could have been a great game, but I think they rushed it to get it out to have a money maker to go along with the movie. And it really shows in all facids of the game. I bought it, I have it..its mine..and I'm not proud of it....
4/10

Written By: Darryl Blake

Silent Hill Origins- PS2

Silent Hill Origins starts off on a high note. Good story, excellent visuals and nice "dark" gameplay make up the majority of the things that were really good about this prequal to the series. One problem though- The game just feels like it wasn't finished yet.

The first thing that struck me about this was the "weapons" glitch in the inventory screen. Highlight your shotgun for a reload and the image of said shotgun turns into a handgun. Same problem with some of the other weapons too. It's just the image that changes though so it doesn't really change the gameplay in any way, but something small like that just comes off as lazy.

Another glitch is sometimes a health drink won't restore health. This wouldn't be too bad, but health is so scarce in the game, every little bit helps. You'll be looking everywhere for it (And it seems to be extra scarce right before boss fights.)

But that brings up another problem: Your character "gets tired" after about running for more than 4 seconds, and needs an energy drink to keep on going fast. This wouldn't be such a problem if it weren't for the enemies in this game being so damn fast!

When the enemies do catch up to you most of them try to have monster sex with your character. To avoid this they have the stupid God of War type "hit the button at the right time or your fucked" gameplay which is really annoying now that every game has it. It's really not that good of an idea. It's just annoying.

Another bad idea would be making the weapons breakable. Something like a tire iron breaks after about 5 times using it and your stuck using your fists. I don't know why but using weapons in a game against monsters can still be scary, but for some reason when your playing as a trucker punching monsters in the face, the game is just turned into something funny. Maybe I'm just sick in the squash.

Okay so enough of the stuff that doesn't work. Time for the stuff that does. The game is classic Silent Hill with newer places to explore, (I really liked the theatre) and the enemies look more messed up then ever. The story is pretty good (not as good as Silent Hill 2) but entertaining enough to make you want to play more, and being able to control between light and dark Silent Hill was a nice added touch.

It's not the best in the series, but well worth the $20 for a weekend of fun. Be sure to play with the sound up and the lights off.

7/10

Written by: Josh

StarTropics - NES

Boy, was I a happy camper when I got this for Christmas. Seeing all the previews for it on TV, the talk on the gaming shows. It was all very hyped up for me. I stuck the game in and away I went.

And I wasn't disappointed with what I got. Great graphics and gameplay for its time. Some really fun and not insane puzzles (up to a point) Fighting with neat weapons. Its a a bunch of fun.

Now....I was a kid that didn't throw anything away. If it was up to me, I still have all the boxes and booklets for all my toys and games. Which thinking about it, I guess my parents didn't want a bunch of empty boxes sitting around the house. But there are 2 things that my mom threw out on my when I was a kid. 1- I just got a bunch of new Starwars guys for Christmas, so I put all their weapons in a little baggy. My mom threw out the baggy thinking it was garbage. 2-She threw out the map and booklet that came with STARTROPICS. Now that didn't bother me has much has the starwars weapons, because I didn't realize what was in store for me.

Lesson learned, don't leave anything lying around or my mother would throw it out. So I continued on in the game and got to a point where I need to travel to another island in a sub. but theres a little robot there who wants a 3 digit code to continue. Wheres this code I wonder..whats he talking about..put the map in water?!...what map..I didn't find any map in the game?!....the map...oh god the map??..NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!This game had a map that if you put it in water it would reveal a code to continue the game. Smart!!..My map was in the dump.

Unlike times of today, you just go look on the internet, I didn't have that luxury, all I had was a crappy Gaming tv show with a red head teen who was way to excited to be giving put codes. So I figured, well, its only 3 digits, that means theres only 999 combinations. I can do that. So off I went.........and the magic number is 747. I did it , I'm awesome and sad at the same time.

So very pleased with myself I continue on with the game. What I remember next is a parrot that has me to play keys in a certain order. I don't remember how old I was when this came out, but I remeber not knowing what the heck I was suppose to do, where do I get this info to continue?? Where, did I miss something??....So it was at this point that I actualy gave up on a game. The 3 digit code had taken all life outta me...I didn't have any left to figure out what correct keys to play and what order by color or note. I was done.

Now that being said, I did enjoy playing the game, it was fun. The puzzles after you get to a certain point are stupid hard, or they were for me. Did I miss something, am I suppose to learn to read music to figure out parts. Next I would have to learn Brail or a second language to get past the next puzzle.

Its sad I know. But recently I picked it up again and started playing it again to finish it this time. Its not bad, it was and is a decent game. The puzzles are nuts, but thats what the internet is for today. Despite all this, I did enjoy playing the parts of the game I played. But I remember looking at the game sitting in my room and it making me mad, stupid key notes and 3 digit code....

7/10

Written By: Darryl

Super Metroid

Ahhhh time for me to explain my favorite game.

Super Metroid was kick ass! It had a variety of different levels such as a haunted ship, an "Aliens" type level, and a level that I can only describe as Hell (just to name a few.)

The power-ups were great and the game play itself was really smooth. Also the monsters looked really good even for the 16-bit graphics at the time. I still think they look pretty sweet!

Now the game itself just came out on the virtual console on the Wii. If you don't have this game or have never played this game, get it, love it, and then try to speed run this sucker to get the bathing suit ending which isn't that great at all. (sorry fellas)

See.... looks like a dude in drag. But the game still rocks!

The music for this game was also something that was really good (given the lack of memory size on the cartridge.) It was eerie, moody and exciting when it needed to be all in the right places. It also has the metal band Stemage doing covers of all the songs under the name Metroid Metal.

Now if you're way to cheap and/or can't bother playing through this game I found a speed-run on youtube, but I really recommend playing it yourself for the full experience.

Origin of PAC

Myself (Blake) and Josh created a blog devoted to all things video games. A blog where we can rant and praise video games alike, spanning all consoles and throughout the ages. Legit and often crazy reviews of games we liked or thought would work better has door stops.

The title of the blog is an amalgamation of our all time favorite games. Mine being Ms PAC-MAN and Josh's being Super Metroid. So for my first review I thought it be fitting to review Ms Pac-man. You have to look to Josh for Super Metroid, I only every played the NES version. I died and got lost alot.

Why is this old game my all time favorite game. Well, because it can stand the test of time!!..Its a game that I can keep going back to again and again and enjoy it now just has much as I did when I was a kid. Now I know there are a ton of games that look and play better than this one, but for me, it was a great then and I still love it now.

It was way better than pac-man for the main reason, it had levels, levels that looked different. My gosh, what a premise. They weren't just the same level with a different color, they were built different, different mazes. It was great. Each level had its own unique fruit or food item that would prance across the screen enticing you to leave your dot eating ways and run after it and risk getting caught by the stupid ghost.

Of course the levels got faster and alot harder the further you got into the game. And instead of saying you got 300,000 points you can say, "I made it to the pretzel level!".....And there is another reason why I keep going back to this game. Its been around for years and I have never rolled Ms Pac-man. That means, in the old days, you could reach the end of the game, and it would start from the beginning again. I've never seen the end of Ms Pac-man. IT even has a story for cryin out loud. How many games back then had story's. I GOT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS TO MS PAC-MAN!!

Its a game that I always go back too, between the PS3 and X-boxes, its some great nostalgia.
And there you have, my first review. Keep coming back and we shall be updating this often. Read and enjoy.