Heavenly Sword - review

Playstation 3 only
Released September 2007

Lets get this out of the way right now: the star of this game is not the crimson-haired Nariko. She may be the main character, but the real star of this game is her surrogate sister Kai. She is the soul of this game, and without her, the game would have just been a generic brawler. She is the single most expressive character in video game history, her performance is so nuanced and brilliant, and I dare anyone not to fall in love with her during the first 30 minutes of the game. The fact that her acting performance is entirely rendered in the game engine is astounding. She made me laugh out loud on several occasions, and in one particular sequence, helped fuel my rage towards a boss character during an important fight. Twing, mother 'effing Twang.


Now lets talk about the game itself.

Heavenly Sword is essentially an action brawler similar to games like Ninja Gaiden, God of War, or Devil May Cry. You play as Nariko (most of the time) and use sharp objects to slice your way through 5 chapters spread out over the last 5 days of Nariko's life. As in God of War, Nariko dies in the opening, so I'm not spoiling anything by mentioning it. There are some aspects of other action games noticeably absent, however. The most glaring being the lack of a jump button, and the absence of puzzles. This game is action through and through. There are well-placed moments of quiet to break up the action, but there are very few places in which you are actually required to think. This was somewhat jarring at first, and disappointing. However, once I got a handle on the combat mechanics, I began to appreciate the overall gameplay.

When it comes to Nariko and the heavenly sword, you have 2 standard attack buttons, 3 stances, a special move button, an action button, and a quick evasion move mapped to the right analog stick. Enemy attacks come at you in a rock/paper/scissors format. If an attacking enemy has a blue aura, they can be blocked and countered in the default "speed stance." If their aura is orange, it can be countered in "power stance" by holding the R1 button. The third stance is "range stance" and is mapped to the L1 button. These 3 stances have their own combos to unlock and learn, their own counterattack moves, and their own special moves activated by the circle button. Switching between stances is fast, efficient, and can be done during combos to make things even more interesting. Counterattacks, if timed properly, lead to instant-kills. As you rack up successive hits, you build up your special meter, which allows you to perform instant-kill moves. As the game progresses, you unlock longer combos for each stance, and up to a 3 level special meter, which if fully charged can kill anyone within 20 feet of Nariko. All of these different elements blend together beautifully in combat, and honestly feel like an elaborate dance.

The short time spent with Kai is completely different. Kai is much far more fragile than Nariko and uses a massive crossbow to take out enemies. Her controls were a bit frustrating at first until I learned how to effectively use "after-touch." After-touch allows any flying object in the game to be guided through the air in slow motion towards it's target. This is usually done via motion-controls, however I found it easier just to switch to analog control. Once I understood how it worked, I used after-touch on everything. It brings a great deal of satisfaction guiding an arrow into an approaching enemies neck in slow motion.

While playing as Kai or Nariko, the game is peppered with quick-time-events similar to those found in Resident Evil 4, God of War, or Shenmue. This seemed almost an afterthought, but is a rather simple addition to the game that simply helps to involve the player in cut-scenes.

Overall, in the gameplay category, I do wish there was a bit more meat to the game. I have to say I was very surprised at how satisfying and varied the combat is throughout the game, though it's best not to come in expecting much beyond the fighting. If I had to rate the game based on the gameplay alone, I would have to recommend passing on Heavenly Sword. However, that would be unfair to the game, and it's developers.

This is, hands down, the best looking game I have ever played. That's a bold claim that I've made before, and it seems each time I say it, another game comes along and one-ups the last. I still stand by it, however. There has simply never been a game before that has had characters this realistically animated. Performances are sometimes subtle and nuanced (in the case of Kai) or over-the-top brilliant (Andy Serkis plays the eccentric villain Bohan). With truly believable performances by the cast, I found myself more emotionally invested in the characters than I expected in such a short time-span. The story itself seems to be missing just a few parts, and sort of thrusts you into the narrative without much history. Why is Nariko cursed even before she uses the Heavenly Sword? What does Bohan even want with the sword? He seems to run the whole known world anyway. I understand why he wants to destroy Nariko's clan, but the Sword itself just seems like a trophy to him. Despite these missing pieces, I still found myself eager to see each chapter play out.

Which brings me to the last problem I have with the game: its length. Heavenly Sword can be completed in one sitting. In fact, I would have done just that if I hadn't stopped to watch Heroes for an hour. As I mentioned, it's only 5 chapters spread over 5 days. It's solidly directed and consistent all the way to the end, with a very satisfying finale that manages to be somewhat touching. But the entire thing is 5 hours long. I'm sure you could drag that out a bit by playing through again to unlock more bonus artwork, but the game lacks enough content for me to justify spending $60 on it. I guess if it came with a free cake, or 5 bonus chapters featuring Kai, or a replica of Master Chief's helmet, then it would be a steal at that price. In it's current state, it's worth renting. It's a game PS3 owners will want to own to pull out every now and then to showboat the power of their system, but it's still not worth more than $40. I wish I didn't have to say that, since it's obvious large amounts of money were spent in the development, casting, and motion-capturing. I hope they are able to make a profit, because I'd love to see a sequel or spin-off someday.

I would usually put the trailer up, or a video showing gameplay, but instead I give you 2 videos showing off the games most valuable component. Ladies and Gents, I present my dear friend Kai:



Personal Score: If price is not a factor, this is a must buy. If $60 is too much to spend on 5 -7 hours of gaming, then just rent it.

Stuntman: Ignition

Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Playstation 2, & PSP
released August 2007

Ah Stuntman. I still have the videos I recorded of my misadventures with the original PS2 game. The original game was a brutal, unforgiving game that had you racing along set paths in a variety of vehicles in an attempt to hit a series of stunts for a feature film. It required precise timing and course memorization, and resulted in more restarts than any game I've ever played. The main portion of the game was torture, but looked pretty for it's time. The most compelling thing in the game was the stunt construction arena. It allowed you to place different ramps and destructible objects in a large arena and just go to town. I spent hours sending cars off ramps into school-buses and exploding barrels. The car damage was so extensive and realistic that I'd record them on my VCR and watch them in slow motion. Pieces and parts flying everywhere. Beautiful. Stuntman: Ignition is the next-gen follow-up, and I had high hopes for it. You see this look on my face? It's disappointment.

Where does Stuntman: Ignition go right? Well, actually, just about everywhere. The new career mode is far more forgiving than the original, allowing you to miss up to 5 stunts per run, and still have the chance of getting a perfect 5-star score. This is done by allowing players to string stunts together with various style moves such as power-slides, wheelies, jumps, and driving on 2-wheels. For you Tony Hawk Pro Skater players out there, think of this as the equivalent of adding the manual and revert moves to your trick line. They aren't very flashy, but they keep your combo going until you can find something else to grind or trick off of. This works on the same concept.

The game inspires perfection. I should stress that it inspires, but does not require perfection. If a course is just too difficult to string together, I had no problem just accepting a 3-star rating and moving onto something more fun.

However you will have those runs where you find yourself saying "I know I can string this whole thing. I know I can." Another great fix is the lack of load times between restarts. You will end up restarting it a dozen times before you actually pull it off. But thankfully, you will see no loading screens whatsoever. It's an immediate reset at the start with a 3 second countdown. It seems trivial, but the lack of load-screen between restarts was a major plus for me.

Controls are also much tighter in Ignition than it's predecessor. The new motorcycle stunts are a welcome addition, and finishing a perfect run on a bike gave me a great deal of satisfaction. The stunt-runs themselves benefit from better design as well. The previous game required pinpoint accuracy on passing through gaps, scraping other vehicles, or overtaking other drivers. Sometimes you had to learn not only where the stunt spot was, but at what angle you needed to drive through it for it to count. Ignition is far more forgiving in this area, and lead to far fewer thrown controllers.

The original game's strength mainly relied on it's visual department. This is, surprisingly, where the new game fails. In career mode, it's hardly noticeable since you're speeding through a level at breakneck speeds. But when I fired up the stunt construction arena, all the excitement the game had built up within me quickly evaporated. Each time I finished a stunt in career mode, I'd unlock a new part for the arena. Stacks of cars, ramps, billboards, etc. I spent 10 minutes preparing my elaborate death course and prepared to see the glorious power of the Xbox 360 in action as I sent my exotic car soaring into the air towards stacks of cars, semis, and gasoline barrels. I expected some evolution of the fantastic physics engine from the first game. Sadly, the car you drive is nearly indestructible, as well as the other cars you can place in the field. Boxes and gas cans break nicely, but that's about it. I was driving what I could only describe as a cardboard box with wheels. Some of the sides my get crinkled up if you hit something hard enough, but gone were the days when your car came apart at the seams.

Watch this clip of the original Stuntman constructor set, and remember this was on PS2 five years ago:


And now the only clip I could find showcasing the modern version of the constructor:


I didn't cherry-pick these either. The original Stuntman had a remarkable physics engine that made for some amazing crashes. The new one does not. This disappointed me. It seems the game itself was designed on the weakest platform it was being developed for (the Playstation Portable) and then ported up to the higher-end systems. The 360 version does have higher-resolution textures and fantastic lighting effects, but it's physics engine actually feels like it was built for the PSP.

My issues with the game don't actually take away from the fact that it is actually an excellent follow-up to the original. They've introduced an interesting stunt competition multi-player mode that might entertain some for a few hours, and I have to stress how much of an improvement the career mode has seen. The game can be finished in a few days of casual play, but for those who quest for perfection, it could last weeks. For me, the game was a rental, but I can definitely see the appeal and plan to rent it again in a few months. I just wish more time had been spent developing the stunt constructor mode.

Megaman Maverick Hunter X - review

For PSP
Released January 2006


The PSP is still struggling against the might of the Nintendo DS for it's place in the portable gaming market. Some blame the lack of quality games for this, but the more PSP games I play, the more I think this excuse just doesn't hold up. Maverick Hunter X is a perfect example of a great PSP game that has been brushed aside as everyone clamors for the newest touch-screen gimmick game. I, for one, am still a big fan of traditional gaming (I like pushing buttons, what can I say?), and Maverick Hunter X is as traditional as it gets.


Maverick Hunter X is a remake of the classic MegaMan X for the SNES. It's been completely remade with 3D graphics, but retains the level design, power-ups, and game-play of the original side-scrolling masterpiece. However, if that were all there was to it, I'd call it a rental and be done with it. After all, I played through the original dozens of times as a kid. Thankfully, Capcom jammed the disc full of extras that will please fans of the original, and entertain first-time players as well. These extras include a 30 minute prequel movie detailing the events leading up to the destruction of the city and Sigma's rise to power.

Many of the attempts in the past to animate Megaman and give him a voice have been cringe-worthy. This time, I was pleasantly surprised. It's still got a few groan moments, but overall, the voice-acting and animation are top-notch. The game script itself has also been reworked and includes the same voice-actors from the movie. A few minor changes to the script ended up creating a very interesting relationship between our hero, X, and the first boss in the game, a Boba-Fett inspired maverick named Vile. This rivalry is fleshed out in the movie sequences, and upon completion of the game, we are treated to the most satisfying extra in the package: Vile becomes a playable character.

I will keep the review of the first play-through rather brief. You play as Megaman X. You run through levels with your trusty mega-buster. You get power-ups that increase your abilities, and upgrades to your health. You fight a robot boss at the end of each level, and upon vanquishing them, you take their weapon. Rinse, repeat. In my opinion, it was the pinnacle example of Megaman game-play, and nothing has been changed about it. The real treat, however, comes from Vile's play-through.

Vile plays very differently than previous Megaman games. The closest thing I can compare it to is the Megaman Zero series, in which you play as Megaman's former partner, Zero. In Maverick Hunter X, Vile starts each level with 3 main weapons, each assigned to a different face button. Square is your typical straight ranged shot, triangle fires a mortar style cannon at a 45 degree upward angle, and circle fires a napalm device that bounces along the ground and then explodes. Vile has no dash ability, and gets no suit upgrades like X does throughout the game. This is not just some extra mode tacked on at the last minute. Vile's game has a fully animated opening and ending sequence (and I must say I was very impressed by how grim the ending was), completely new script for each boss encounter, and dozens of new weapons unlocked after each stage. Vile's play-through felt like it should have been the main game.

The main difference in the game-play between X and Vile is the weapons, obviously. X can change to use the ability of any boss he has previously defeated simply by switching to it in the pause menu. Vile, however, must chose 3 weapons at the beginning of each stage, and is restricted by a power gauge that prevents you from simply equipping the 3 most powerful ones. You've got your ranged weapons that vary from the slow, armor piercing Distance Needler, to the enemy-seeking Infinity Gig rocket punch. You've got your shoulder cannon equipped with weapons such as the boomerang-like Homesick Crescent, to the high powered Necro Burst laser cannon. The ground attacks can range from the napalm style grenades such as the Bang-Away Bomb, to underwater flamethrowers like Sea-Dragon's Rage. You decide which 3 weapons suit your playing style and the environment before you begin the stage, and then set out. You must play through the entire stage with that selection. This adds a nice twist to the classic levels (some of which are altered to compensate for Vile's abilities) and forces players to adopt new strategies during boss fights.

This is, hands down, the most entertaining Megaman game I've played in over 10 years. Classic gamers should come for the remake of X, but stay for Vile. It's worth seeing through all the way to the end. Is this game worth the cost of the PSP? By itself? I'd say no. But with the upcoming remake of Castlevania Rondo of Blood (which includes the remastered Symphony of the Night), and the remake of Final Fantasy Tactics on the way this year, the PSP is shaping up to be a great investment for 90s era gamers. Maverick Hunter X is a fantastic start to a trend I hope continues.



---edit----ouch, just checked Wikipedia and apparently sales weren't very good, and the director has no interest in making further remakes of the X series. it's things like this that make me want to rush out and buy new games the day they come out, instead of waiting so long.

Review - Crackdown

Xbox 360
Newish Release
$60

In Crackdown, one plays a superhuman cop wandering around a large city, looking for nests of criminals to kill. It is a lousy, shallow game. The stages are uninventive and repetitive, each one consisting of a buttload of generic thugs with a tougher boss in the center of them. As the game progresses, the number and durability of thugs increases. Combat is simple and dull, with autofiring ranged combat, a single melee attack, and the cool factor of being able to throw at people wears off once one realizes that it is stupidly hard to hit anyone with those cars.

Yet, as cruddy as this game is, I’m almost glad I bought it, and not just for reasons rhyming with “Shmalo 3 beta.” You see, the city in this game is built vertically and the badass hero character is capable of jumping increasingly great distances. This means that one can spend the game climbing buildings and leaping rooftops. Running and jumping and climbing were some of my greatest pleasures as a child, and Crackdown rekindles those passions. There is real joy to be had from Crackdown by climbing as high as one can, and seeing how far across the city one can get before being forced to cry “No more roof!” Crackdown might be the first sandbox game where traveling to your objective is consistently more fun than achieving your objective.

The city in Crackdown is large, beautiful, and built for climbing. I generally place a higher premium on gameplay than on graphics, but the first month I had my 360, I was playing Crackdown just to soak in the visuals. From a high enough vantage point you can look all the way across the city, and this game is all about high vantage points. I enjoyed the map so much it made the lack of anything in the map all the more frustrating.

A game that manages to be fun in spite of its actual gameplay is an odd anomaly. Does a video game actually have to be a game? Could a game that provided a city to stomp around in without any objectives or goals be a worthwhile, complete product? People who enjoy Animal Crossing might believe in non-games, but I haven't seen a satisfying game built to those specs yet. Jumping around Crackdown was genuinely fun, but ultimately it was an empty exercise. Playing it, I kept wishing I had something to do, something to justify the game. Climbing buildings and looking for hidden orbs (I found 498 out of 500 Agility Orbs before giving up) just didn’t add up to a satisfying experience when all was said an done. I think video games need concrete objectives.

Warhawk Review

Playstation 3
$40 via Playstation network store
$60 retail w/ pack-in blue-tooth headset

Watch the Trailer

The Playstation 3 got a price drop, and I got a Playstation 3. Funny how things work out.
Two months later, I finally purchase my first physical Playstation 3 game, Warhawk.
Within 60 minutes, I wanted to throw my Sixaxis through a window and take the game back.
Two days later, I played 5 hours straight without a break, and it drove me to actually sit down and write a review.
So let's discuss Warhawk.

Warhawk was the first game I fell in love with on the original PSone (we called it the PSX back in my day). Developed by Singletrac, it was on the demo cd that came with the system, and it was the first exciting flight combat game I'd ever played. It was pretty (for an early 3D game anyway), and if you put the demo cd into a cdplayer, you could listen to the epic music from the game (which I loved). Sadly, I never owned the game. I was young, and on a limited budget. But I played the demo countless times and loved every second. Many people must have done the same thing, because Warhawk never saw a sequel. It faded into obscurity, overshadowed by Singletrac's other major franchise, Twisted Metal.

Years have passed. Twisted Metal was sold to 989 studios, who promptly ruined the franchise. 989 studios shut down, and sold Twisted Metal back to it's creators, formerly Singletrac, now known as Incognito. Twisted Metal Black put them back on the map. War of the Monsters came from Incognito a few years later and showed they still had the ability to make genuinely fun games that didn't involve blowing up cars. But as the years continued to pass, Warhawk was only regarded as a forgotten gem.

12 years later, we finally see Warhawk reborn on Sony's newest system, with the original developers still at the helm.

I could talk for several paragraphs about the games difficult development, and how the final product is only half of the game that was originally planned. But this is a review, and I should focus on what we have now, instead of how we got here.

As I said earlier, after 1 hour of play, I hated this game. There is frustration, then there is Warhawk. The game itself is an online multi-player action game. To be clear, there is no single-player campaign at all. There is also no tutorial whatsoever. When you pop this game in, you had better have read the manual. My recommendation would be to read it once before playing, then again after the first couple hours. Once you log in and find a server with room (more on that in a bit), you're dropped into a battlefield with little to no knowledge of what you are doing, surrounded by people who want to kill you. And kill you they will. For the first several hours, I amassed maybe 5 kills total.

You start on foot, 20 seconds later, a guy in a tank blows you up. You start again and find a jeep. Some guy on foot blows you up. You start again and hop in a jet, some guy in another jet blows you up. You will die over, and over, and over again. I can't stress this enough. This game hit me with an Enrage plasmid that got me more upset than any game I've played in years. But I could see what potential there was, and I stuck with it. I'm glad i did.

The game offers a wide range of game-play styles and tosses them all into 5 giant battlefields. Your on-foot combat give you access to 8 different weapons, with enough difference in each that none of them feel ignored. Your combat knife is a one-hit kill weapon which makes you invisible on radar. Your pistol has infinite ammo and can be fired as quickly as you can hit the button. Your Machine gun is your classic pray-and-spray weapon of choice. Your RPG is useful against vehicles and has a lock-on function. Sniper Rifles are just what you would expect. Proximity mines make defending choke points plenty of fun. Flamethrowers are a nice alternative to the standard shotgun; relatively close range with lots of damage. And my personal favorite, the Binoculars, used exclusively for designating air strikes. You also come equipped with standard issue frag grenades. If it weren't for this weapon selection, you'd have little reason not to jump in a vehicle at the very start of a match.

The ground vehicles and turrets are simple by design, but still useful. You've got heavily armored tanks that seat 2, light but fast jeeps equipped with a mounted machine gun that seats 3, AA turrets, and Missile Launcher turrets. These all play important roles in the large scale battles.

Finally we have the Warhawks. These aircraft can hover like helicopters, and streak through the skies like jets. They have access to 8 different secondary weapons, in addition to the primary machine guns. Mines, unguided bombs, lightning guns, remote guided missiles, etc. The variety of aircraft weaponry is just as diverse as on-foot.

Controls are fairly easy to come to grips with. The triggers are usually for forward and reverse, left and right shoulder buttons are for primary and secondary fire. However, if you try and use motion-controls, the learning curve becomes much sharper. It's recommended that you learn to master the motion-controls for flight, since they give you the ability to aim independently, but I found it too difficult and just stuck with standard analog controls.

So the first knock I have against the game is the aforementioned learning curve. With no tutorial, and no single-player campaign, it really does become a trial-by-fire. Many people will be turned off by the repeated deaths and brutal opposition. But when given some time, the game begins to shine. It's got a strong balance between the different forms of combat, and successfully gives the player the feeling of being in a major large-scale war (in 32 player matches anyway).

The second knock against the game is against its ranking system. In games like Socom, Halo, or Gears of War, I always found myself playing the game for kicks. I'd jump online, join a few random matches, have a good time, and log out. My rank never entered into my mind, due to the fact I hardly ever had time to play. When I did play, I just wanted to have some fun. If I wanted to, I could focus on my rank. It was easy to join a ranked match and see what I could do. But I didn't really care. However, Warhawk's character customization options are tied to your rank. There are plenty of interesting skins and paintjobs you can unlock by increasing your overall rank. And ranks aren't gained just by getting kills. There are certain objectives and achievements you have to meet in order to go up in rank. Connecting rank with customization encourages players to play in ranked games. I consider this to be a wise decision. The problem comes in when you look at the number of games available to join. Out of 800+ servers up, you may find 6 or 7 currently hosting a ranked game. 4 of them will have a ping of over 250 (which means your connection would suffer), and the last 3 or 4 will be full. Sony hosts ranked games on banks of PS3s stationed around the country. Players can also host ranked games on their PS3s as well, but cannot participate in them. It's the consensus among players online that the real challenge to getting a high-rank isn't in defeating other players, it's in actually finding a ranked match with an open spot.

These issues regarding rank advancement and open servers will mostly likely be solved withing 3-6 months. The lack of friends-list integration will also be getting some attention soon. There has already been one patch regarding some rank problems within 1 week of it's release. Hopefully the only remaining complaint in 6 months for a new player will be the steep learning curve. The game is beautiful, and the gameplay itself is varied and balanced. The simplistic design choices make it accessible and addictive, but the server issues and online competition may ruin it for some. And as a $40 download via the playstation network store, it seems a bit pricey for just 5 maps, no box, and no manual. Your best option would be the $60 retail copy that comes with a pack-in blue-tooth headset.

So if you're looking for something to justify your PS3 purchase, Warhawk is definitely worth picking up. If you're looking for a reason to pick up a PS3, Warhawk is not it. It is definitely the best PS3 exclusive out at this point, but I still wouldn't call it a "killer app."

Personal Score: Z 4 Q Q Q and the Batman Symbol out of The State of Illinois.
Subjective Score: It's fun. See above.

Review- Space Giraffe

Xbox Live Arcade
New Release
$5
Trailer

If you are able, you must try Space Giraffe. Space Giraffe is something so brilliant and so weird that most people will hate it. Video games of this sort don’t come along every day. It is special.

A hard game to describe, Space Giraffe is like if the classic arcade game Tempest had a baby with OMGWTF-Sweet-Zombie-Jesus-seriously-what-the-hell-is-going-on., and that baby was a KLF fan. Space Giraffe is a game that sure looks poorly designed but is actually staggeringly clever. Space Giraffe is very divisive. Space Giraffe is magic.

One has to mention Tempest when talking about Space Giraffe, since the game is so strongly reminiscent of that classic. In point of fact, the game's designer, Jeff Minter, designed the popular Tempest sequel, Tempest 2000. And indeed, on first glance, the game appears to be nothing more than a cheap clone of Tempest with overly busy graphics. This is a trap, the game’s first subversion, because when one first plays the game, one wants to approach it as if it were Tempest. Even if a player has never played Tempest, anyone familiar with twitch shooter video games will instinctively want to play this game using tactics that just won’t work because Space Giraffe goes to lengths to defy traditional patterns of play. The first key to Space Giraffe is understanding that, appearances to the contrary, this game is truly not Tempest.

Space Giraffe's next subversion is it's graphics. Some will love them, while many will hate them. Space Giraffe has a uniquely crazy landscape. It looks like it is set inside a music visualizer, inside the last 20 minutes of 2001, inside a psychedelic trip. This is very pretty, but it is horribly cluttered, and it makes the onscreen action very hard to follow. A classically grave design sin, Space Giraffe has carefully and deliberately given this game poor visibility, and this partial blindness is essential to the Space Giraffe experience. The second key to Space Giraffe is accepting that not being able to see what is going on can be a good thing.

If somebody told me that a game APPEARED to be poorly designed but that it gave that impression on purpose, and that if you didn’t like it, this was because you didn't "get it," well, I would be skeptical. Space Giraffe requires a leap of faith. It breaks cardinal rules of design and this makes it an uncomfortable experience. A Space Giraffe player is going to die “cheap” deaths. A Space Giraffe player must play first and understand later. A Space Giraffe player must learn to abandon reliance upon that which they see. Only when a Space Giraffe player has shed their preconceived notions of gaming can they accept the game on it's own terms.

The game starts with a tutorial, and it is a cruel thing. It teaches the mechanics of gameplay, while it purposefully obscures the game’s required techniques and strategies. One starts the game with no indicator of what to do. From the beginning, a Space Giraffe player is expected to teach themselves what they need to navigate the game. There is no roadmap.

Players are nudged into learning different techniques one at a time. After they have the basics down, they must learn that sound is very important in Space Giraffe. Your eyes will fail you. One can’t see the entire field at once, so one needs to listen for important cues of what is happening while one’s eyes are elsewhere. The game will lead the player into placing greater and greater trust upon what they hear. Once you have learned to balance the auditory with the visual, once you are comfortable, this too will fail you. Players don’t get to be comfortable playing Space Giraffe.

The threats in Space Giraffe feel less like enemies and more like hostile ecology. Players need to learn to intuit the threats’ behaviors, as in the later stages, what one can see and what one can hear will not be enough to navigate the game. Over time, a dedicated Space Giraffe player will learn how the various elements move and interact, and the player will come to react in a way that bypasses conscious awareness. Intuition informs movement, balanced by what one sees and what one hears. The entire game is spent learning how to play it.

The game is filled with a steady stream of nonsense and non sequiturs in the form of text and sounds and visuals. It is filled with references to chaos and to chaos worship and to the practitioners of such. It is played in a psychedelic environment, a deliberately poor environment for a structured game. All of this creates an atmosphere of Discordian mystique that I feel is reflected in the gameplay. I truly feel that Space Giraffe is a work of chaotic magic.

The whole of the experience of Space Giraffe is one of finding order in apparent chaos. The game is a journey of enlightenment disguised as a twitch shooter. You are in an environment with rules unlike the ones you understand, and every step of the way, the road changes. And as you travel the path, you learn. You find yourself able to play something that looks unplayable. It forces you to alter your perception to gain enlightenment. It transcends gaming and becomes mysticism. Many people will not enjoy this, and many will not understand it. But for the right sort of person, this is perhaps the most amazing game ever made.

Twelve Rebuttal

I felt the need to respond to Isaac's article about classic gaming found right here.I do admit I love the idea of being able to play my old games on my new systems (ps1 on ps3 or psp etc). I was, and still am, a big fan of using custom firmware on the PSP to play my old SNES, NES, Genesis, and Gameboy games on Sony's beautiful little handheld. Sony hates people like me, I know, but the system itself is shaped like an SNES controller. It's like a childhood fantasy come to life. An SNES controller with a giant vibrant screen, with all the games on it I could ever want to play. Ah, what I would have given for a PSP in 1992. But I digress.

So on the one hand, I agree with Isaac's article. However, there is still a part of me that loves holding the SNES controller in my hand and playing Super Metroid or Illusion of Gaia . In fact, I recently visited a friend at his new house. He was giving the standard new-house tour and we came upon his back room. In his back room was an ancient wood frame TV set like my grandparents and parents owned in the early 80s. Hooked to it, he had his NES and Atari 2600, and a ratty old couch in front of it. He still had an Xbox360, a big screen, and booming surround sound set up in his living room, but the classic gaming room was almost like stepping through a time portal back to 1989. As soon as i stepped into the room, i felt like a kid again. I couldn't say whether or not this room was an accident, but the feeling it brought me was something I honestly didn't expect.

So i guess I'm torn between both worlds. i love being able to play FFVI on my DSlite at the park, but I also love holding a worn out SNES controller in my hand and playing FF3 in the back bedroom. Same game, but almost completely different experiences for me.

As I thought about this, I had to question why they are 2 different things for me. I recently played all the way through Chrono Trigger again on my PSP while on breaks at work. It was great. I spent a lot of time going through the side quests and building up my characters and getting the best weapons. I played it on the PSP for the game (if that makes sense). Yet when I started up the SNES at home a few days later, I loaded up my Chrono Trigger file from years ago (where i had finished it 15 times) and started running through a newgame+ with maxed stats. But after about 10 min, I was no longer in the mood. I had fired it up on the SNES just for the feeling of playing it the way I used to play it. Holding the controller, feeling the callous-causing d-pad on my thumb and the concave X&Y buttons. I remembered that, as a kid, I never liked the X button for some reason. Sitting up on the top of the diamond layout like that. It just felt different than the rest. The point is, I played it on the SNES simply for the experience.

So while philosophically speaking, I agree with Isaac with regards to backwards compatibility and downloadable classics, there is still a 26 year-old gamer here who sometimes likes to relive his youth. My ideal situation, inconvenient (and possibly expensive) as it is, would be to keep all those vintage systems, and hook them up in a different room. Step into that room and sit down on your 1993 couch, turn on your 1993 game system and your standard-def TV, pop on a Metallica CD, and play Donkey Kong Country like it was meant to be played.

Giraffe-ing 2

I cannot review Space Giraffe because I still have no idea how to play it. I tried for 30 mins, but could not understand some of the basic mechanics (such as why I was dying). I must admit it's quite unique, but I'm not sure if it's for me. I will continue to try it though. I want to get at least one achievement and possibly figure out what I'm doing wrong.
I also keep procrastinating when it comes to writing legitimate reviews. Hopefully I should be able to review The Darkness, Bioshock, Metroid Prime 3, Capcom Classic Collection Remix, Kirby's Canvas Curse, Motorstorm, Flow... I've got a backlog of games that I've finished and failed to write about. That either means I'm lazy, or there are too many games coming out for me to keep up with.
Maybe if I stopped trying to level up my Night Elf Hunter each night before bed...

GIRAFFING

I CANNOT REVIEW SPACE GIRAFFE BECAUSE I CANNOT STOP PLAYING SPACE GIRAFFE!!!! IF YOU HAVE A 360 PLAY IT!! IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A 360 BUY ONE FOR SPACE GIRAFFE!!!

Just remember, it isn't Tempest.

New Super Mario Bros. - Review

Nintendo DS
New Release
$35

In 1985 Super Mario Bros. was a nuclear bomb of gaming. This game was a revolution, attractive, innovative, and brilliantly designed, Super Mario Bros. established the side scrolling platform genre of gaming, single-handedly reversed the fortunes of an industry that had gone terminal, and made Nintendo the face of video gaming.

The game was that good and that important. It invented dozens of gameplay conventions that continue to be copied to this day. To date, it is the best selling video game of all time, at the time it was arguably the best video game ever made.

Weirdly, it was followed up by not one, but two games called Super Mario Bros. 2, and even weirder, neither of them exactly are remembered as true Mario games. While they were both solid games, the Japanese one never had wide exposure, and the American one crowbarred Mario in a port of a different game.

However, in 1988, Super Mario Bros. 3 was released, and once again Mario was starring in what could be argued the greatest video game ever. With more and larger stages, vertical (and diagonal) scrolling, an assload of innovation, and a grand scope (Mario can freaking fly!), this game made the genius original game look quaint.

In 1990 Mario starred in one more side-scrolling masterpiece: Super Mario World. Considered by many to be the best platform game of all time, Super Mario World added further depth and size to the formula, with hidden exits, secret worlds, hell you could even replace the appearance of the entire world with an entirely different set of backrounds and sprites. This was the high point, for Mario, and for 2d platformers. After this game, the Mario franchise would transition to the 3d platform genre. Many people prefer these 3d games, but purists such as my self had been abandoned. Sixteen years would pass before there was another Super Mario Bros. game.

Finally in 2006, a new Mario Bros. game was released, called matter-of-factly, New Super Mario Bros. Given the legacy of the series, compounded by the very large time delay, this game had high expectations to meet. This game was expected to be the fourth great Mario game.

It isn’t. It doesn’t come close to meeting the expectations created by the franchise. This game, the one that compelled me to purchase the only true handheld system I own, is a complete disappointment, and a horrible waste of potential.

The game’s designers clearly love the old Mario games as much as I do. It is a love poem to earlier Mario games, calling back numerous elements from all the installments and also the 3d games. And while that may sound good, really it is a horrible thing. They spend so much time recreating elements of earlier games that they don’t leave room for what made the earlier games great, namely creativity and innovation. This game feels like an amateur remix of the original, 3, World, and 64. It has no voice of its own.

The game’s big addition to the formula is a pair of new mushrooms: one that makes Mario absurdly tiny and one that makes him absurdly large. This is a decent enough idea, worth exploring, but it isn’t given space to develop. These elements don’t feel integral to the gameplay, rather they feel tacked on and unnecessary.

I don’t know if the developers were concerned about the smaller screen of the DS or if they thought the portable market had a short attention span, or if they were just lazy developers, but the whole gameplay experience is short, subdued, and unambitious. Mario has lost his ability to fly, and with it he has lost most of the exploration elements. The stages are shorter, and unlike past games, they aren’t packed with secrets to discover. You follow a straight line from start to flagpole. You can actually see how far along the line you’ve progressed, because the bottom screen has the line and a pointer showing your location on it.

The game has ditched 2d sprites for 3d characters on a 2d map, and the models look uniform to how they do in established 3d games. It looks awful. Mario’s 1, 3, and World each had a distinctive, attractive art style that oozed charm and personality, whereas this game looks sterile, forced to fit a corporate dictated stylesheet.

Now, I may hate this game, but it isn’t crap. The levels are competently designed, there is some fun to be had, it is worth a play through once, especially if you love Mario. Actually, there are a few really good stages in there, a few points where the game briefly seems interested in doing something that hasn’t been done before. But only a few. The game just lacks spark, a decent game in a franchise of brilliant ones.

The Mario Bros.

Adam: Mario was originally a carpenter. Only in Mario Bros did he become a plumber. that's why he is climbing girders, using a hammer, and... saving women from monkeys? Not sure about that last part. But Mario was originally a carpenter.

Stephanie: I wonder what made him change professions.

Adam: He dabbled a bit in the medical field back in the late 80's. He doesn't even have a job anymore. Just parties all the time.

Stephanie: I think he is busy cleaning graffiti. Last time he and I hung out, Luigi was vacuuming a ghost house.

Adam: The Mario Bros. don't save the world anymore obviously. They just party party party, then spend a few days cleaning up.

Mike: Lest we not forget his stint as an artist.

Adam: Jack of all trades, master of none. That's how I look at it. You can't really depend on the Mario Bros., if you ask me.

Stephanie: They don't come across as competent plumbers to me.

Isaac: Hey. You go into the sewers and kill man-sized crabs. Then you can attack the Mario Bros.' plumbing chops.

Mike: This is true. I think they need to work on their navigational skills though. I mean, how many fucking castles do you go to before you think to yourself, "ya know, I think I should make sure my princess IS in this castle."

Isaac: I think someone's feeding him bad intel.

Mike: I knew that fucking Toad was no good!

Stephanie: Who is the architect for these castles? Why are there so many pits? I can't imagine anyone wanting to live there. The resale value must be horrible.

Isaac: Well, in 3 and and in World, Mario just destroys those things. Torched earth policy. So, the Koopa Clan would be able to collect on the insurance.

Stephanie: Well they are mostly dead.

Isaac: That's a good point. Mario has killed, what? 15 of King Koopa's children? There is no chance of truce.

Stephanie: Basically they were living in their graves.

Twelve

I need a DVD player to watch all of my movies. With my iPod, I can listen to all my music. In order to play all the video games I own, I have an Atari, an NES, a Super Nintendo, a Sega Genesis, a Sega Saturn, a Nintendo 64, a Playstation 2, an Xbox, a Game Cube, a Game Boy Player, a Nintendo DS, an Xbox 360, and a personal computer.

I’m not a collector. I don’t consider myself to be a “hardcore gamer.” I just like playing older games as much as I like playing newer ones. Why the hell do I need twelve systems? Why can't I play all the games worth playing on the current consoles?

Historically, the video game culture has been very focused on the future, often at the expense of the past. For any given hardware generation, only the largest hits have been kept in print, and once a new generation of systems are cycled into place, the vast majority of the earlier games are never re-released. The few games that do get a reissue are all too often plagued by a hideous need to give the re-released games graphical facelifts or to tweak gameplay, usually making them easier. To make matters worse, backwards compatibility is often unreliable if it is implemented at all.

The bottom line is, as hardware moves forward, older titles are left behind. To play older games legally on a couch, (as opposed to illegally emulated on a computer) one needs to keep and maintain a dozen aging consoles and likewise aging cartridges and discs. That, at least, is the current state of affairs.

However, attitudes have been changing, and things are improving for archivists. The Greatest/Platinum Hits model of republishing hit games for bargain prices has been brilliant for keepings games in print longer. Playstation One games are now being re-released for the PSP. Although poorly implemented, every current system has at least a head nod toward backwards compatibility. And most significantly, all three current home systems have created a means of selling affordable downloads of classic games.

Xbox Live Arcade. Wii Virtual Network. PlayStation Network. All three systems have a structure in place to sell you classic games for a low price point. This model of selling older generation titles is still new and unproven, but I suspect that it will be huge. Hardcore gamers like to have big libraries. Casual gamers like smaller, cheap games like they used to make. Finally, there exists an economically feasible way of maintaining a body of classic video game work.

This is good. Not only will this allow us to have more robust libraries and richer play experiences, it will also strengthen the art form. Gunstar Heroes and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night are brilliant games that helped shape the face of gaming. How absurd is it that they have spent years out of print, available only to those hardcore enough to pay collector’s prices? How can one discuss the impact those games have had, or learn better design from them if they aren’t available to anyone who wants a copy? As the video game culture finally adapts into a form where anyone will be able to play classic games on current generation hardware, the whole culture is enriched. A deeper intimacy with the entire history and spectrum of video games can only give the culture greater insight, and the medium greater legitimacy.

I don’t have to keep a record player to listen to The Who Sell Out. I don’t have to keep a VCR to watch The Graduate. Why should I have to keep an NES to play Metroid?

Final Fantasy 12

Final Fantasy 12

Developer - Square Enix

PS2

So, I finally put aside my dislike of the over-franchised Final Fantasy series, and gave Final Fantasy 12 its just play time. After about five hours of playing it, I almost wrote my review, wanting to give it a perfect 100. After calming down, and holding off, I continued the journey in the game, up to about 20 hours, and again, almost wrote my review, this time exceptionally disappointed with the way the game had treated me, and wanting to give it more like an 87. But again, I knew that a game of this caliber deserved a level head, so I waited on writing my review again until I finished the game. Now I have done just that, and I am very glad I did, because neither of those partially-informed reviews would have done the game justice.

Never in my life have I experienced the feelings of awe and excitement I got in the first 30 minutes of playing this game. Well, that is a lie – I have experienced that kind of reaction, it was just always reserved for particularly amazing movies. I have never seen a game like this before. It plays just like a high-end movie, and for the first time in my life I was crawling through the dungeons just to get to the next piece of story. I have never felt that way about a game before, it was phenomenal. The game opens up with some of the most impressive CG I have ever laid eyes on, and begins to weave its tale of empires at war immediately. There is no slow going here, there is no boring tutorial killing rats or wolves – you are immediately fighting for a cause – and the implications are astounding.

First of all, the thing that most impressed me with this game was the script. I often speak in absolutes, which is generally bad for someone reviewing a game, but believe me when I tell you I have put a lot of thought into my next sentence. This game has the greatest script in the history of video games. Period. There is no contest; there is nothing that comes close. Whoever wrote this script deserves a raise. And a trophy. And their own holiday. Lucky for us, the script is almost completely voice acted to perfection. The guys and gals that were hired for the voices are top notch. They deliver their lines with style and aplomb, and more than once I found myself laughing out loud, or gasping audibly in my living room. Good stuff.

The next thing that caught me was the animation. Not just the fighting animations, which are great mind you, but the cut scene animations. Many of the cut scenes are not CG pre-renders, they are in-game graphics, and the animations are all custom for each scene. “Lifelike” doesn’t even begin to describe it. They truly look ALIVE. They have different walks, and ways of standing, that all show the character’s individual personalities – and not in an exaggerated way. It is very subtle, but it shows. The facial animations are expertly done as well, and when I watched the credits, I saw that they actually had multiple people that worked on nothing other than facial animations. It paid off, let me tell you.

The game plays a lot like standard action RPG’s of late, but with some really nice twists and systems. For starters, there are no classes in the game. Skills, power ups, and spells are all acquired through a “License Board”. Let me explain; there is a large grid, with various power ups in all of the squares. Each one relates to a certain spell, ability, etc. When you slay enemies, you gain points that can then be allocated to various squares on the board, and when you learn one of the licenses on a particular square, the corresponding adjacent squares become available for purchase. This has been done before, but FF12 takes it a bit further.

Also on this grid, are squares for all of the equipment in the game. Every weapon, piece of armor, and accessory has a certain square, and in order to equip these items, you must first acquire the license for it. Now, at first I was elated at this system. I love it when a game gives the diligent player opportunities to advance themselves far beyond what is standard for their stage in the game, and I mistakenly thought by grinding down monsters and earning more license points than I really had a right to, I would then gain the ability to over-equip my character, or learn some particularly awesome spells earlier in the game. I was wrong. Not only do you have to possess the license for a piece of equipment, but you also must have progressed to a point in the game’s story where such things were available to you. It gave the game a very structured, almost claustrophobic feeling. Even the abilities you could buy licenses for required a trip to a store or a rare drop from a monster to get the actual ability, and you can bet they kept close tabs on when you were “allowed” to get certain things. I hate when games do that. It is one of my biggest pet peeves.

Also, I found that the license grid did not result in “classes” forming, but rather the opposite. When I first started into the grid, my original intent was to make a standard “fighter” character, and a standard “wizard” and a standard “healer”. I could have done this, for instance by buying up all the Black Magic spells for the “wizard”, and all the White Magic spells for the “Healer”. But they mete out the new items, abilities and spells so slowly, compared to the rate the characters advance, that within a relatively short amount of time, I had three clones of each other. There was no reason not to equip White Magic on everyone, not just my healer, so everybody became a healer. Everybody had the exact same spells and abilities. The only time a difference arose in the party, was when I found some piece of equipment that I only had one of. And that did NOT happen very often. In fact, when I defeated the last boss, every single one of my characters had the exact same of everything – all the way down to weapons and armor. For an RPG of such depth and sophistication, I find that unacceptable.

The gameplay itself was a joy, however. The fighting was fluid and tight – and I never felt bogged down or like I was “grinding” monsters. Each kill was quick enough to keep the pacing fast, but slow enough that there was an element of strategy to it. The control scheme was simple, with standard menu driven combat, but done in such a way that speed and quick thinking still played into whether you wound up dead or not. Simple, elegant, engaging, with a slight sense of urgency. Each time I fought an enemy it felt worthwhile. It felt like I was DOING something, instead of the traditional mind-numb that you can fall into when playing RPG’s. How this game got me to enjoy killing 100 enemies in a single stage before I could progress, I will never truly know, but they did it.

One thing in this game that I have never seen done before, in any way shape or form, was what they called the “Gambit System”. Gambits are a way of customizing the AI of your two party members. See, most games just have some type of traditional AI that the party members use, and you usually have no control over it. Sometimes it is good, and sometimes it is bad. A few choice games even game you some control over how your party members would behave – but nothing like this. Each character has a certain number of “Gambits” they can have equipped at any given time, and you get to write these Gambits yourself. Each Gambit is made up of two parts, basically a trigger and a response. For instance, a fairly simple Gambit you might want to make early on, would be something like “Player Any - <60% style=""> Clearly, this offers many possibilities.

By the end of the game, each of my characters had around 10 – 12 Gambits active at any time. When I needed it, they would cast Haste on me, making me attack much faster. When anybody got low on health, they would heal them. When they were affected with a status change, they would cure it. You can use any spell, item, skill or action in a Gambit. So, if a monster has Reflect on (it makes spells bounce off of them and hit the caster), a character’s gambit can tell it to stop casting spells on the creature. Things like that. AND, you have to find or buy each of the pieces of the Gambits in your adventures. So as you progress through the game, and gain more Gambits, your AI options become more robust, and you can rely on your party members more. I really enjoyed the Gambit system, and thought it worked very well in the context of the game. And for you hard cores out there, you can also manually control all the characters yourselves, even with Gambits turned on. Your manual control will take precedence over any Gambit that might activate, and after your command has been issued and performed, the Gambits will take back over. All in all, a great idea that both enriches the gameplay while at the same time simplifying it.

The sound is also just fantastic, and it is readily apparent that enormous amounts of time, money and talent went into the score. It feels like it BELONGS in the world you are playing in, and they never resort to overly dramatic music to tell the tale for them. The voice acting, script, and animations do that for you. The score is there to enhance, not overcompensate – and the result is a subtle boost to the overall feel of the game.

The graphics actually looked a little dated, even for the PS2, most particularly the textures in the terrain. I know, I know, the PS2 is yesteryear’s hardware, and I should cut it some slack, but I can’t. The low-resolution maps might look just dandy on a smaller screen, but on a big screen, the jagged lines and blurry details detracted from the overall appearance. This isn’t to say that the graphics were all bad, mind you, the character models and corresponding maps were top notch. I mostly had issue with the terrain, buildings and locales themselves.
The game is also just jam packed with extras. Hours and hours of side quests, special monster hunting missions where you play bounty hunter to the world’s most dangerous foes, and more. You could easily wring 100+ hours out of this game and never get bored. When I finished the game, there were many MANY spells, abilities and pieces of equipment I had never found – and I am contemplating going back into the world to find them.

This game brings a lot to the table, and no real RPG fan should go without at least giving it a fair shot. Even if you hate the gameplay (which I doubt), you will still have gotten to experience those first 30 minutes, where the story is laid out for you masterfully in a piece of fine cinema. Even if that is all you take from the game, it will be time well spent, and more likely than not, you will become hooked by the compelling tale, and want to continue this epic adventure. All in all, pound for pound, I would say this is Square’s finest hour, which is a truly remarkable feat indeed.

Score = 98%

Subjective Score = 95%

Counter-Review - Odin Sphere

Playstation 2
New Release
$40 New
(I borrowed Mike's copy)


Odin Sphere is a polished, unique, well-executed video game that I don’t like very much. Actually, I like half of it, and can’t stand the other half.

The thing I should love about Odin Sphere is the game's courage to blend action brawler elements with RPG elements with farming elements to create a unique gameplay experience. This is not what draws me to Odin Sphere. The thing about Odin Sphere that blows me away is that it is so damn pretty. It is an absolute 2D feast for the eyes. Playing this game on the PS2, it felt like I was looking into a window where video games had gone another way, where polygons hadn’t killed the sprite.

As a fan of 2D beat-em-ups, I really want to like Odin Sphere. It has a tight combat engine with well-considered strategies and balance. An engine that tight on a game this pretty, this should be a slam dunk game. Problem is, this game isn’t a straight brawler. It is an action-RPG hybrid, and the RPG elements grind away my joy in playing it. I’ve spent years coming to terms with the fact that I don’t like RPGs, and this game has all the elements I hate in the genre.

When you play Odin Sphere there is a general pattern of clear a board, manage resources, repeat. And the game’s resource system is very clever and very elegant. It is also not at all my idea of fun. I don’t want to spend half of my time in an action game brewing potions from complex recipes, I want to kick some ass and then kick some more ass. Unfortunately it felt like managing your items took more time than clearing the stages.

I tried to look past my annoyance with the micromanaging, but when I learned that you can add an item to a bottle of “materials” to make it more potent, and then do the same again with a second bottle, and that each potency would be measured by a number, and then you could mix the two bottles together, and that the resulting mixture would use multiplication to create a super potent mixture, and that you had to pay attention to what the ones place and the tens place of the new mixture were… well, that was when I realized that I hated Odin Sphere.

If the idea of multiplication in an action game doesn’t offend you, you’ll probably love Odin Sphere. Personally, I wish they would make an ass-kick remix of the game that keeps the killing and ditches the cooking.

Okami

Developer: Clover Studio
Platform: Playstation2
MSRP: priceless

The Chef-d'oeuvre

It's amazing, as Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo drag us kicking and screaming into the next generation of video game consoles, the Playstation 2 still manages to provide a home from some of the most artistic and innovative games released today.
Okami is the penultimate title released by independent developers Clover Studio. Their premier franchise was the Viewtiful Joe series, and their final title is the mediocre Godhand. They've recently closed their doors, no doubt due to financial issues; Okami is another game that just refuses to pander to the mainstream, and therefore has not sold well enough. Damn shame, if you ask me.

The first thing that strikes anyone when they begin playing Okami is the visual style. It makes unique use of cel-shading to create the look of a Japanese ink painting come to life. For some, it may take some time to adjust to the visual style, but it does lend itself to some truly picturesque scenes.
The game itself can most easily be compared to the modern Legend of Zelda series. It's a massive game, spanning well over 40 hours. It combines many different gameplay styles and elements, from sidequests to minigames, platforming sequences, stat-building, action adventure exploration, and the unique paintbrush mechanic. All of these different elements are executed beautifully and make this one of the finest games I've played in the past 5 years.
Your role in the game is that of a white wolf who embodies the spirit of the Shinto Sun Goddess, Amaterasu. An ancient evil is unearthed in the onset of the game, which resurrects Amaterasu (or for the sake of brevity, Ammy) after 100 years of slumber to combat said evil. Ammy and her annoying, diminutive, yet strangely entertaining partner, Issun travel across a mythological ancient Japan/Nippon in an effort to set things right. As a god, you quickly learn about the gameplay element that makes Okami so very unique: the Celestial Brush.
The Celestial Brush is a core component to the gameplay. By holding down a shoulder button on the controller, the game world becomes a flat ink painting on a scroll, and a ink brush hovers over the parchment. You may use the brush to draw on the landscape and effect the world or enemies depending on which brush technique you draw. I was concerned, at first, that this would be a simple gimmick, but it is used heavily and effectively throughout the entire game. Every boss fight, every dungeon, every city. The Celestial Brush is to Ammy, as all secondary items such as the boomerang and hookshot are to Link: crucial for progress. I was very pleased by how well it was employed throughout the game.
The only downside to the game that I found was the lack of voiceacting. Normally, I wouldn't consider this a problem, but unfortunately, all speaking is dubbed over with repeating gibberish while text appears below. I feel it ruins some of the atmosphere in the game, and covering up the amazing musical score to the game with this noise is almost criminal. Fortunately, I did learn to overlook it after the first few hours.
In closing, I must restate that this is one of the best games I've played in the past few years. I would recommend renting it first, since the first 4 or 5 hours are somewhat of a deal breaker for the game. Otherwise, this is a definite purchase. Great story, amazing variety in the gameplay, and a unique vision. Well worth the price of admission.

Personal Score after 1hr: 7/10
Personal Score after 40hrs: 9.5/10