Willy105

THE GOOD: Perfectly polished, one of the best looking Gamecube games out there, fantastic music, epic scale.

THE BAD: Not a Wii game, nothing to do after you finish the game.

The Legend of Zelda has been an ongoing series since the 1980's. Enjoying both critical and commercial success, it goes right up there with the greatest game series ever made. So every time a new sequel comes about, the hype is always intense and mesmerizing. An example of this would be The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the N64. This was the biggest advancement of the series ever, as it was the first to go fully 3D. The translation was almost perfect, retaining the same principles from the 2D games and translating them into an immersive 3D world. That game is known by most circles as the greatest game ever made. The game brought new players into the series and created a standard for 3D adventures. This has both blessed and cursed the series. Every time a new installment comes along, expectations go thru the roof. This game is no exception.

Although this game was started in 2003, many fans believe it was created in Spaceworld 2000, as a tech demo demonstrating the Nintendo Gamecube's capabilities. According to fans it was everything they wanted from a Zelda game. However, the next year, The Wind Waker was born. Unlike the tech demo, which featured realistic graphics with a dark tone, The Wind Waker featured cartooney graphics with a light tone. This caused mass unrest over the game. However, when the game actually came out, everybody was impressed how good looking the cartooney graphics were. Almost all of the hate of the original art style were gone, and people grew to like it and accepted it as the permanent art style of the series. Four Swords Adventures and The Minish Cap also featured this art style, making people more at home with the graphics.

However, at E3 2004, Nintendo shocked everyone when they unveiled the next installment in the series. This game threw away the cartooney graphics and reverted to the Spaceworld 2000 theme. Reports say that fans cried when seeing the trailer, not because they missed the original cartoon art style, but that they remembered how Zelda used to be four years ago. The game was held with anticipation for years. Well, that game is finally here, not just for the Gamecube, but also for Nintendo's next gen system, Wii. Has the game lived up to all the hype? Yes. Has the game evolved a lot from past installments? Yes. Is it fun to play? You bet. After numerous delays and changes, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is here.

The game retains the same basic Zelda formula it had since Ocarina of Time. But is has been polished in a lot of different ways. You can now swing your sword while walking, attack while on horse back, and learn a bunch of new moves, stuff that you could not do in previous installments. The overworld is many times bigger than previous games, and it will take almost 10 minutes to go around them in horseback. It may take almost an hour, by walking! Also, the dungeons, which were a bit of a pain in past installments, are now actually fun to play. You never feel frustrated, yet you always feel challenged. At the end of these dungeons, you will meet a boss. Sounds normal right? Well, these might be considered for the absolute best boss fights in the history of video games. They are very fun to play and very cinematic and exciting. A bit on the easy side, but the difficulty is getting to the boss, not the boss itself.

The most apparent change is the control scheme. This does not apply for the Gamecube version, as it is pretty much the same. But the controls had to be redesigned for the Wii, as it is a Wii launch title. The controls work surprisingly well, and perhaps better than the Gamecube version. Unfortunately, the controls still feel like they were on the Gamecube before. The game does not use the Wiimote to it's full potential. In fact, it doesn't even scratch it. For example, the swordplay is done not by actually swinging your remote 1:1 with your real life actions, but it works by just wagging the remote. It feels better than a Gamecube controller in the end, but it's still just a fancy button. However, the biggest improvement the Wiimote offers over the Gamecube is aiming. By just pointing at the screen, you can accurately shoot an arrow straight into it's target. It's far better than the Gamecube version, which works fine, but it's slow and clumsy compared to the Wii version.

Those are not the only improvements. One of the biggest improvements from the lasts installments are the various items that you find throughout your journey. There are a bunch of impressive new items, such as the Magnetic Boots, the Spinner, and the Dominion Rod. The best one is the Spinner, where it briefly transform the game into a Tony Hawk-like ride. The Spinner attaches to a line on the wall and rides it at high speeds like a train, and it never gets old. The Magnetic Boots allow you attach to magnetic surfaces, whether it be the ground, the wall, or even the ceiling, giving a sense of freedom in dungeons. Another upgrade is the Boomerang, which is now called the Gale Boomerang. It's not as fun as the Boomerang from Wind Waker, since it's not tactile, it can lock on to any surface, making puzzles even trickier. However, the fighting is not as funny as it was on Wind Waker. In Wind Waker, you could mess with your enemy, and have some funny moments with the smart AI. But the AI is not as comical as it was back then, it is now more serious and smarter. So it's not as fun. Another cool feature is to combine items. Combing a bomb with an arrow, will create Bomb Arrows, and they will become very useful. Late in the game, you can combine two Hookshots together, so now you can swing like Spider-Man thru the roof. Very impressive how much things have advanced over the years.

Now the graphics. A controversial issue with the graphics is that while the graphics are unchanged between versions, is that the game came with two different versions, one for a current gen system and one for a next-gen system. The graphics are exactly the same for both games. Well, on it's own right, the graphics are phenomenal. Amazing lighting, character models, and special effects make this game a treat for the eye. This is one of the best looking games for the Gamecube, pushing the hardware to it's very limits. They clearly deserve a 10 by current gen standards. But I can't say the same thing for the Wii version. The graphics are still amazing on Wii, but not as impressive, because it's running in more advanced hardware. There were a few times were the framerate dropped on the Gamecube, but it runs silky smooth on the Wii. It is not pushing the Wii hardware at all. So I can't give it a 10 on Wii. But the graphics are still very good looking, no matter what platform it is. Also the Wii version is in widescreen, while the Gamecube sticks with a standard aspect ratio.

Many may complain that Nintendo chose NOT to orchestrate their music for Twilight Princess. Yes, all the music is in MIDI. Some people might complain about it, since the Wii has a bigger storage disk capacity than the Gamecube does. But with music this good, I cannot complain. Master composer, known in most circles as the John Williams of the game industry, Koji Kondo has written an amazing score for this game. The music will stick to your head and you will never take it off. All the tunes are catchy and memorable, especially the new overworld theme. And the MIDI quality is so good, you almost can't tell it is not orchestrated, literally. MIDI also allows for far more flexibility than MP3 files do. Because the music is generated in realtime, the music can change at will with absolutely no loading times or pauses what so ever. This becomes apparent in boss battles. The boss's theme creates a lot of suspense, but once you disable him, the music will change into a the main theme of the game, showing it is time to strike the boss. The end result will give you goosebumps. Nintendo sure knows their MIDI, and it would not be possible any other way.

The story has also taken a more serious route. Although you still have to read...a lot in the game, it's always exciting. It's like reading a very good book. The cutscenes have been improved immensely. It always feels like a Peter Jacksonian epic, with movie quality animations and music, it always impresses, even if nobody talks. They are also in a much darker tone than past games, some of them are even frightening! It is always impressive. However, the game is not perfect. The game is long, probably the longest adventure game ever. But it ends far too quickly. Even if you played it for over 40 hours, you still want more. There isn't even a Master Quest version to play after you beat the game. There is the Cave of Ordeals, which is very challenging, but the end reward is just like the end reward after you beat Super Mario 64, useless. You get stuff that will aid you in the game, but you already beated to game, so what is the point? There are lots of sidequests, but even they have an end, and those sidequests were supposed to be done before you finish the game too, because the reward is something that becomes useless after you finish the game.

In the end, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is the biggest improvement of the series since it went 3D, and it's not because it's on Wii too. It's because it makes the series fun to play. The last Zelda games were known for ridiculously hard challenges and frustrating dungeons, Twilight Princess fixes all that. It's always fun, always exciting, and always impressive. If you had to decide between the Gamecube version and the Wii version, the Wii version is better. But if you don't have a Wii, and you probably don't, since it has been selling like the next Tickle-me-Elmo, the Gamecube version is always an option. The Gamecube version is also the original version, so if you are a purist, you can get the Gamecube one instead too. But the Wii version plays better though. The point is don't miss this game, no matter what version you are gonna get. Just play it for yourself. This game marks the grand finale for the Gamecube, and it also marks as a superb launch title for the Wii.

THE GOOD: Stunning graphics, spot-on controls, best cutscenes ever, inventive boss fights.

THE BAD: Terrible level design, disappointing story, hard to use online play, lack of excitement during most of the game.

Nintendo wanted to create a brand new Zelda game for the DS that would be controlled entirely by using the touch screen. This is a great challenge, considering you wouldn't think of a Zelda game, which has always had very complex controls, to work on one touch screen. But somehow, they actually pulled it off. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass is a full Zelda game that works entirely on touch screen controls, and there is not one glitch in the entire game. But unfortunately, Nintendo should have spent less time working on perfecting the controls, and instead spent some time actually making the game design fun.

When you first start the game, you will be amazed. This game includes the most impressive opening cinematic ever on any system I have played, mainly because it's all in real time and it's running on the DS. It's not impressive because of the huge number of polygons or the high resolution textures, it's because this is the most flawless animation I have seen since a PIXAR movie. Just about all of the main cutscenes are like this, and the one at the end of the game is worth the ticket price alone! You have to applaud Nintendo for being able to pull of something on the DS that has yet to be seen even on the PSP.

But these big budget cutscenes are worth near to nothing when there isn't a good story to tell. This is very true here. The game has probably the most disappointing story I have ever seen. Even the Halo 2 cliffhanger is barely nothing to cry about compared to this game's story. This game is supposed to be the sequel to The Wind Waker, which had the best story in all of the Zelda games. At the end of that game, the story was open for a sequel, as Link, Tetra, and the pirates went off to find a brand new Hyrule. This game completely forgets about that. Instead, the game deals with they looking for a ghost ship [?], and Tetra gets kidnapped and turned into stone with Link in hot pursuit. Those looking for a continuation of The Wind Waker will find nothing here. This is more of a spin-off than an actual sequel, and it would have been smarter for Nintendo to create a sequel to one of their most touching and well-written plot lines they have ever made instead of this.

But hey, a Zelda game doesn't need a good story to be good. In fact, the original Zelda game didn't even have a story. All you need for a Zelda game is great dungeons and motivation. Unfortunetaly, this game has neither. Controlling Link is near perfection, but that's nothing if the dungeons are so boring. The dungeons on Phantom Hourglass are repetitive, short, and easy. In past Zelda games, you could spend from a day, to a week, or depending on the person, a month on a single dungeon. With this game you could complete a dungeon in a couple of minutes. Sure, we are talking about a handheld game, but even with that in consideration, the dungeons are just way too short and easy.

Boss fights are another story. They are challenging and fun. It's impressive how the controls make each and every boss fight unique. For example, in one of the temples, there is a boss that is invisible. But in the top screen, it shows from a first person point of view what the boss is seeing. Even though you cannot see the boss itself, you can use both screens at the same time to know where the boss is and attack. In another one, you have to use an item you got to create a trampoline that will deflect enemy fire. The boss fights are very nice, but unfortunately, they have no backstory to them. In Twilight Princess, all of the bosses had a backstory, so there was a reason they were there and what they are. But there is nothing of that on Phantom Hourglass. It's very odd going to a boss and wondering why do you have to kill it other than to get the item it's holding.

But the most insulting fact is The Temple of the Ocean King, a huge dungeon that you have to revisit many times during the game. This dungeon is HORRIBLE. Absolutely horrible. Everytime you complete a dungeon you have to go back to this dungeon so you can open the next dungeon. This alone will kill the game for most people. This is because the dungeon resets itself everytime you get out of it. You have to go through the whole dungeon multiple times and it gets frustrating. This literally makes no sense. Whatever possessed Nintendo to put something like this into the game!?! It's frustrating, it makes you cry, and it stops you from liking the game. This is more absurd that Nintendo made this for the casual in mind. If this is too much for a hardcore gamer, how in the world would a casual respond to this? This absolutely terrible level design is the reason this game is so disappointing in every way.

But wait, there's more! This is the first Zelda game to have online play! But it's not worth your time. The multiplayer component is badly designed as well. The rules of the game and what you have to do is ok, but what is bad is how you do it. Connecting to Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection takes a year, and it takes even longer to find an opponent. What's worse, is that the gameplay is a lag fest. Mario Kart DS doesn't have lag, but yet somehow this game does. So much in fact, it makes the game UNPLAYABLE, because the opponent actually disconnects because of all this lag.

After the near-perfect Wind Waker and the great Twilight Princess, Phantom Hourglass had a lot to live up to, and it did not make it. The story sucks, the level design is terrible, the online play is broken, and the game is overall boring. But the stunning graphics and cutscenes (especially the one in the beginning and the one in the end) and the perfect control scheme makes the problems a little bit less frustrating. It just could have been a lot more.

THE GOOD: Online play is fantastic; best soundtrack ever; superb 60 fps graphics; huge selection of fighters and stages; flawless fundamental gameplay; great fun when playing with friends.

THE BAD: Loading times are horrible; you can't play user stages online; if you don't have friends or an online connection, then this game is not for you.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl is here and I have been playing it for a while. But with all the reviews that I have read and seen, I couldn't agree with none of them. For some reason, their experience of the game was different from mine. For closer inspection, I noticed that every reviewer's experience of the game was also different from each other. From hours of playing the game and inspecting the whole thing, I finally got it. How every player chooses different characters, how every character chooses different stages, how everybody uses different control schemes, and how nobody can agree with anybody. This is the review of the most perfectly balanced game ever made yet.

First, we will get to the most important and the most used part of the game: the online play. By my experience, it's the best part of the game. After you have entered the friend codes, you can immediately play with them by looking for your friend in the online menu. It shows if your friend is online, offline, playing a brawl, is in spectator mode, or if he's looking for a match. To join the match, just select your friend, and you are immediately thrown to the Select your Character screen. Once you have selected your fighter of your choice (which we will get to in a moment), you can choose from all the stages you have unlocked. Yep, all stages in the game (except the ones made by you) are fully playable in online. This is including the classic Melee stages!

Because there is more than one player in an online match, of course, you just vote on the stage you chose. The one voted by the most players will be the stage you will go in. If you all chose different stages, then the game will pick one out of the four chosen. It's a very easy, fast and satisfactory process. When playing online, you can assign short messages to your taunts. By performing a taunt, your message will pop up. You can show any of the four messages during the battle. They may be short messages like "LOL", "Owned!", "DUNDUNDUNDUN, CAN'T TOUCH THIS!", or "GOAAAL!", but they get the point across nicely and quickly. Voice chat would have been nice, but this makes a fun substitute.

After collecting dozens and dozens of friend codes, you will have a huge list of many people, and you will very quickly forget that this isn't Xbox Live. It works a lot like a server browser on a PC game. Just look for somebody hosting a game and you are easily playing. And a great feature in this game to make getting more friends very easy is that you can request friend codes. In the character select screen, under the players name it shows a button "Friend Code Request", and when you click it, both of your friend codes are added automatically into both of your rosters. This is a fantastic online system, and I cannot complain in it's design.

But that is not the only part of the game! There are a couple more online modes other than playing with friends. The other one is Team mode, where you and another online player team up to fight dozens of baddies. There's also the Home Run minigame available to play online, you and a co-op friend work together to throw the sandbag as far away as you can. There is also a Basic Brawl to play without friend codes, but apparently nobody plays this mode, since I could not find another person in the game playing this mode. There's also spectator mode, where you bet on which players will win with coins. The game goes and spies on somebody else's game and you see them fight. If the one you bet on wins, then you get a lot of money! But if the guy you bet on loses, then you lose money. It's like gambling, and a fast and tension-inducing way to get a lot of money for other parts of the game. You also get snapshots, replays, and user stages free from the WiiConnect24 daily, which is always nice. The online play is usually lag free, but sometimes, there are spikes of lag that makes the game unplayable. But this is rare an only happens with players that just logged in to a match. The game synchronizes and actually fixes the lag after a couple of seconds.

It has a great online, but what exactly is Smash Bros? It's a fighter, but it's not very violent at all. Think the old Tom and Jerry cartoons of the 1940's. You punch your opponent and they actually go flying! In fact, the way to KO them in these series is by throwing them away from the stage, not by actually killing them. Unlike other fighting games, this game is also funny. It's very comical and you get a blast playing with friends in the room. The game itself has not changed much since it's last installment 7 years ago, and that's a very good thing. It has however been improved. This is thanks to its new physics engine. Brawl is the first game in the series to use the Havok physics engine. The big change is not very apparent first, but it does become apparent when you start playing the game at a deeper level. When you throw an opponent, they will bump into another opponent if they are in the way, something that did not happen in Melee. Objects thrown roll down surfaces accurately (although in exaggerated speeds), and surrounding objects get thrown in the air if there is an explosion.

Also unlike other fighting games, there are items. You can use these items to help you play defensively or offensively. In fact, items make Smash Bros what it is. There has been people saying that the true way to play Smash Bros is with the items turned off. Which is the stupidest thing I have heard yet. They say only "noobs" use items, but it takes a pro to be able to dodge the items. Turning off items just says "we are not good enough". There are two new kinds of items in Brawl, and they are Assists Trophies, and the Smash Ball. Assist Trophies are like Pokeballs, but instead of Pokemon coming out of them, characters from hundreds of different games come out of them and create havoc in the stage. Some trophies, like Shadow, can change the speed of the game to be in slow motion, and trophies like the Nintendog, can obscure the whole playing field, so you have to rely on your memory of the stage to make sure you don't fall to your death. These items are a lot more fun and impressive than your average Pokeball, but it would be nice if these were playable characters, considering how great and detailed they are.

The other new item is none other than the Smash Ball. They are the Smash Bros equivalent of the fatalities of the other conventional fighting games. When your character breaks open a Smash Ball, they instantly get a super power that they can use to make a spectacular KO. For example, Fox will fly to the sky and fall with his huge Landmaster tank and run over and fire at his opponents. Ness will call out his PK Starstorm power and make a huge rain of meteors far into the stage. Sonic will turn into Super Sonic and turn extremely fast, making people run for their lives, if they can. As I said before, some people will complain it makes the game unfair. It doesn't. You can avoid a character's final smash.

This brings me to how this game is balanced. Although it doesn't initially sound like it, this game is perfectly balanced. It may not seem like it when you pick, for example, Kirby and then you get pummeled instantly by Ike's seemingly unavoidable sword attacks. But you actually can avoid them, as all characters have weak points, and you have to find them. For example, Ike's attacks need to charge, and small projectile or a fine kick in the butt from behind will cancel the charging process and he will be left vulnerable. Strong characters are slow, and super fast characters are weak. Some stages are designed for a certain character and final smash, and other stages are designed for the other kind of character and final smash. It's all in tactics and strategy. Knowing your characters strengths and weaknesses are essential to becoming in success. So if a "noob" comes with someone like Ike, you know what character to use and throw him into shape.
This is the game where "noobs" cannot survive with an experienced player.

Yet it's very accessible. Unlike other fighters, there are 15 different controller configurations that all do different attacks. In Smash, there are only 3 different buttons that do attack: normal attacks, special attacks, and grab attacks. Normal attacks are done using the main button, be it 2 or A depending on which control style you are using. These are punching and hitting. Special attacks are unique moves that each character has. They can range from a small gun, to a jet pack, depending on the character. These moves can be used to fight from far away, or get back to the stage if you get thrown out, or to deflect projectiles. These can be done by the secondary button, be it 1 or B depending on what controller you use. And the third button is for grabbing, shielding and dodging. This can be B, Z, L, or R depending on what controller you use. When close to somebody, press the button while pressing the D-Pad or Analog Stick, depending on your controller, in the direction they are to grab them. By grabbing them you can hit them and increase their damage while they are trapped, and then you can manually throw them off the stage. Do the same thing, but by facing away from your opponent, and you can dodge, great for dodging attacks, projectiles, and other hazards your opponent throws at you. This is crucial to be a pro at the game. Also, pressing the button without moving will create a temporary shield that will protect you from most attacks, but after time runs out, it explodes, and you are left unmovable for a couple of seconds, making you highly vulnerable to a one way trip to the losing screen!

So why so many options for buttons? That's because you can play Smash in 4 different ways. The first way is the Wiimote sideways. This is most like a NES controller. It's quick, fast and easy. The second way is the Wiimote with the Nunchuck attached. This gives you use of the analog stick and access to motion controlled activated smash attacks, which are very helpful. The third way is by using Nintendo's Classic Controller and the last way is for the Gamecube controller. Both of these play mostly the same way, except with the control stick being in different places, obviously. This part has a lot of controversy, as everybody seems to want to use the Gamecube controller. This is just because is the one they are used to. However, I have been using the Wiimote sideways as my main way to play, and I have found myself being a lot better at the game. Only the "noobs" are using the Gamecube controller, as far as I have seen.

The game has a lot of characters to choose from. You can choose from Mario to Solid Snake to Sonic. Literally. Plus, there are 31 stages in the game! And if you add the returning stages from Melee, it makes up all the way to 41 stages! What is better yet, when you get tired of playing them in a year, you can go ahead and create your own stages! These stages won't have the same production values as the official stages, but you have enough tools to create a great layout to play in. It's a real shame you can't play these online, because that would have been incredible.

The graphics have gotten a great improvement from Melee. This is greatly apparent on the character models. They are absolutely incredibly detailed! If you thought seeing Mario's overalls in Melee was impressive, wait to you see Diddy Kong's and the Ice Climber's fur effects, Ganon's clothes and hair, Sonic's fluid animations, and Fox's equipment in his belt! The stages are also impressive, since the environments have a great sense of depth and action. They are always moving too, like Final Destination, Summit, and Port Town. If you pause the game and move the camera, you can see how much detail went into the stage even on the parts that you don't see in normal gameplay, as the stages keep on going well into the sides! Phenomenal light effects, fireworks, and moving parts make the game a joy to the eyes. All that and in 60 fps, it incredible. The game is not as 'pretty' as Super Mario Galaxy in that is does use of next-gen graphical effects like blur of depth, bump mapping, and other gizmo's, but it uses of what we had always had for years and creates a fantastic show out of it.

The main production attraction of the game is its soundtrack. The whole thing is licensed, and it only has one new music piece, the main theme made by the same guy that made the Final Fantasy music, in the game. But with 200 tracks of superb music remade and remixed by over 40 artist and composers just brings awe to the work that went into the music of the game. It has new orchestral compositions of classic tunes, and it has remixed modern versions of other tunes from many different games. The amazing orchestral version of the Star Fox theme and the string arrangement of the Smash Bros theme are examples of the hundreds of songs that are on the game. Of course, you may think that quality over quantity is what counts. But what is incredible is that all of these songs are just plain amazing, catchy, and great made. The sound test is actually one of the most visited parts of the game in my experience!

But the game is not perfect. In fact, it's not very polished, believe it or not. The game has absolutely horrible loading times. Well, compared to other games, they actually aren't that bad, but considering this is an actual Nintendo game, where it has a perfect record of their games not having a single loading screen ever, it's a big shock on how this was missed. It takes almost 3 seconds to load a regular match and almost 10 to load a Subspace Emissary (the single player mode) level. It's just unacceptable from Nintendo. The single player mode also could have been better. The level design is rushed, as it feels it wasn't designed for Smash Bros' gameplay. However, the story is fantastic, and the cutscenes are greatly made, even if they look like they could be made in real time. In fact, most of the times the in-game engine looks better than the CGI videos.

There you go. That is why Super Smash Bros. Brawl is the most perfect multiplayer game I have played yet. This game is the most perfectly balanced, most addictive, and funniest game you will play with friends. But if you have no friends and don't have access to online play, then this game is not for you. But if you have more than one person living with you, and have a Wii, then this is a game you cannot go wrong with. It surely deserved the biggest review I have done to date.