Gaming on the Go! - 27/11/08

1#: REVIEW: Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff (DS)
2#: The DS celebrates its 4th B-Day!
3#: MTV gives 'Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII' the Portable Game of the Year award.
4#: REVIEW: Rocky Balboa (PSP)
5#: New Releases this Week.
6#: Dragon Quest IX Screenshots Released.
7#: LOOKBACK: WonderSwan Color
8#: Help me out?
9#: Preview for next weeks 10th Issue Spectacular!

REVIEW: Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff (DS)

Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff - Official Website
Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff on MetaCritic

Before any idiots say that this review is nostalgia-based, I want everyone to know that I've never played a Tecmo Bowl game before this one. Most likely because they've never been released here in Australia, so I came into the game with no expectations. But apparently the NES/SNES versions were incredible, so is the DS version FUCKIN' AWESOME, like everybody says it should be?

Well, I'm saying this straight off the bat. Coming into the game, I had almost no idea what the rules were. All I knew is that you score by running into the End-Zone, and that you can throw it forwards. But after playing 2 or 3 matches, I quickly figured out the rules, and it helped me to set up strategies to beat some ass! The game is accessible to almost anyone, because the game is really easy to learn how to play.

The game's camera is set up so you have a Side-On view of the field, and you can only see about 1/3 of the field at once. In order for them to fit all of the players on such a small screen, you might think that they'd need to cram them on there. But surprisingly not! The game looks awesome, and the characters on the screen don't look crammed at all. For proof of this, check out this screenshot:
CLICK TO SEE SCREENSHOT

The game isn't just run, tackle, run, tackle. You actually need to use some strategy to win the games. There's a few different types of plays you can use to move up the field. You can Run, Throw, or Jump through the pack, so there's a bit of variety. When you Run or Throw, depending on what play you try, your team will move differently, so it's not always the same. Altogether there's 9 different plays you can use, and you have to change your strategies constantly, otherwise YOU'LL GET CRUNCHED!

You have Total Control over 1 player on your team per play. You can change your character each play though. It's really fun trying to avoid people that are obviously faster than you, I kept zig-zagging and I got a 60 yard try! You can't just run forwards and zig-zag randomly, you have to use the 3 different types of plays. Throws only make it about 50% of the time, so you'll be running quite a bit aswell. Woot!

Since Tecmo couldn't acquire the NFL License, they had to use fake player names, and fake team names. Many, many douchebags are complaining about this. But I don't care, mainly because the only names I know from the NFL are the New England Patriots and Tom Brady, (Thank you, Family Guy!).

There's some pretty weird Team Names in Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff too, like the San Fransisco Zephyrs, the Los Angeles Supercocks, the Cincinnati Sinisters and the Phoenix Horntoads. I mean... SUPERCOCKS!?!? What were they smoking? Meh, I always play as New England anyway, so I don't care either way.

So overall, this game's a really fun, pick-up and play experience that doesn't feel at all like a cheap cash-in, because the only handheld that a Tecmo Bowl has been on before is the Gameboy. I also love how the game didn't try to go 3D or anything stupid like that, and it just enhances the Retro experience.

BUY OR NOT TO BUY: If you've liked previous Tecmo Bowls, or you love quick, fun action, pick it up!

The DS celebrates its 4th B-Day!

Nintendo DS Launches at Wikipedia

Wow! It's already been 4 years since the Original DS was launched. There's already been 3 redesigns of it, so on average, it gets redesigned every Year and 4 Months. That's pretty insane!

Well, since its been 4 years since the DS was released, how much impact has the DS had on the Gaming industry? Well, it's been one of the highest selling consoles ever, selling around 84 million units. The Gameboy sold a bit more than 110 million, so the DS is catching up really fast. Nintendo has a real knack of making its handheld consoles fly off the shelves, (the stupid VirtualBoy doesn't count!).

So, what should you do to celebrate the 4th B-Day of the DS? Well, I recommend playing some of the Launch titles. You could play Super Mario 64 DS, Ridge Racer DS, Asphalt Urban GT, or even Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt, if your DS came with it. It's surprising to know that there weren't that many awesome launch titles, but there were enough games to keep us interested in the system.

Oh, by the way DS, here's your cake.
Looks, err.... slimy?

MTV gives 'Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII' the Portable Game of the Year award.

Official MTV Site with Results
Crisis Core: FFVII on MetaCritic

At MTV Germany's recent 2008 Game Awards Show (MTV has one of those?), Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII for the PSP was awarded the Best Portable Game of the Year award.

So, if this game is so incredible, then why haven't I picked it up yet? Well, first of all, IT'S THE MOST EXPENSIVE PSP/DS GAME AVAILABLE! 70$ for a PSP game? No way.

After Crisis Core has received so much praise from many different critics, including a:
9/10 from Gamespot
9/10 from IGN
8.6/10 from EGM
8.3/10 from 1UP
I really owe it to myself to eventually get this game, especially me being a huge RPG fan. Crisis Core, and Chrono Trigger should certainly last me for months to come.

So, what were the games that Crisis Core was up against? It was up against some absolutely spectacular titles. The complete list is God of War: Chains of Olympus (PSP), Guitar Hero: On Tour (DS), Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS), and Patapon (PSP). It's a great line-up, and all of the games are kick ass. The quality of handheld games released this year was absolutely amazing.

REVIEW: Rocky Balboa (PSP)

Rocky Balboa (PSP) on MetaCritic
Rocky Balboa (PSP) - Official Website

Dammit! I bought this game thinking that it was a UMD movie, because it only came with the disc, not the game case, and the sticker was covering the label. So, I thought I might as well do a review on it.

The game came out a year after the movie, so it wasn't a very smart choice releasing it way after the movie was released. But the real question is, is the game good? Is it better than the other Rocky games?

I bought the game Pre-Owned for $5 from Cash Converters. What a bargain! Imagine the poor Shmuck who sold it to them, he would've got $2.50 for it! I can imagine it now: "I DON'T CARE HOW MUCH YOU GIVE ME FOR IT! GET THIS DAMN GAME OUTTA MY LIFE! PLEASE! I'M BEGGING YOU!"

What can I say, the music, IS EPIC! Rocky is known for having some awesome music, and the moment you turn the game on, the first screen you get, is the epic Rocky theme! It's slightly remixed, but it's still as awesome as it ever was. The song really got me pumped off for the game... what a damn letdown.

So, right off the bat you have 6 Different Choices to pick from, they're:
Historical Fights - Play fights from the Older Rocky movies.
Exhibition - Which I'm guessing is just a Single Match.
Fast Lane - From what I've seen, is the exact same thing as Exhibition.
Multiplayer - I doubt anybody would even want to play this with me... I have no idea.
Mickey's Corner - Basically gives you tips on how to play, it's alright.
Options - Change your Difficulty, Controls, Sound, Save your game, and View the Credits.

So now, let's get onto the gameplay. How do you play? You have a 3rd Person Perspective of your Character, and you press a Face Button to do an attack. But the attacks are so delayed, and your opponents are so good, there's no chance of using strategy to win. Not that exciting.

The commentator. Oh my god, the goddamn commentator. He says the stupidest things! Like:
"That was literally stunning!" - What, as opposed to un-literally stunning? (is that even a word?)
"A CLEAN LEFT BY...... Lang." - I hate it when they change their mood mid-sentence.
"I guess that's his definition of Face-Off!" - OK, I admit it, that's kinda funny. =D

The strength of your competitors is a real mixed bag. I use my special moves, takes off maybe 1/10th of their health, tops. And the rounds only go for a minute, AND THERE'S ONLY 4 ROUNDS? WHAT IS THIS? No chance for a knockout. But then, what's up with the random ass-kickings? My opponent just turns blue, and whenever I do my special punch, they lose like half their health! Talk about inconsistent. I mean, I don't even know how to activate the freaking move! If I felt like going into Mickey's Corner, I could figure it out, but I don't feel the need to, it just seems like a stupid gimmick.

For me, this game is just a button masher. I realise there's loads of different strategies you can use, but the moves are just too hard to pull off, and there's way too many buttons to have a fun pick-up and play experience. So I just alternate between Square and Circle, and I usually win! No strategy involved at all.

So, thanks for another excellent product there Ubisoft! Another quality addition to your handheld line-up, add this game to the incredible titles like Imagine Babyz, The Dog Whisperer, My Weight Loss Coach, Imagine Teacher and My SAT Coach. You know what's really sad? THOSE ARE ALL REAL GAMES!

BUY OR NOT TO BUY: Get it if you're a huge Rocky Collector, otherwise stay away from this pile of ass.

New Releases this Week.

Check out Upcoming games at VideoGameCountdown.com
There's loads of awesome titles that came out in the past week, so here's the best of the bunch:

Chrono Trigger (DS)
YES! IT'S FINALLY HERE! I haven't picked it up yet though, because it's not released in Australia yet. But I have ordered it from GPStore though, $80!?! That's frickin stupid! Damn you Square-Enix!

Age of Empires: Mythologies (DS)
I sorta liked the other Age of Empires for the DS, so this game will hopefully be awesome. It also got decent scores from critics, so I might pick it up, just because I've enjoyed previous installments.

Disney Club Penguin: Elite Penguin Force (DS)
I definitely won't be picking this up, but maybe you or your kids want to pick it for some quick fun. It also has Wi-Fi, and it can connect to your PC Club Penguin account, which is a pretty cool feature.

LocoRoco 2 (PSP)
LocoRoco 2 is now released in Australia, and sorry everybody from the US, I still have no idea what the Release Date for it is over there, really sorry. I'll have fun playing it, while you all cry! PWN!

If you could only get one of the these games, you shold get Chrono Trigger. But all of these titles are worth getting to some extent, so have loads of fun playing some awesome new games this week!

Dragon Quest IX Screenshots Released.

See the Full Screenshots Gallery at DSFanboy

Wow! These actually look awesome! I'm not even a big Dragon Quest fan, and I'm sorta looking forward to this game. Square-Enix has done a nice job at showing us what we can expect from the game.

I don't even know what I find so interesting about the screenshots, is it the art style? Is it because it's in 3D? Is it because Square-Enix made it? Well, I really have no idea, but oh well.

I know what you're thinking, "The screenshots look CRAP!". Well, they don't. They're stretched so they're big enough to see from a distance. If you want to see the smaller ones, click the link under the picture.

I'm not even a fan of Dragon Quest, the only Dragon Quest that I've played for more than a few hours, is Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime. Hopefully this game will get me into yet another RPG series.

I hope you're looking forward to this game too, I hope more screenshots and footage emerge soon.

LOOKBACK: WonderSwan Color

WonderSwan Color on Wikipedia

The WonderSwan Color is the follow-up to Bandai's first handheld, the WonderSwan. It was only released in Japan, so you probably haven't heard of it. surprisingly, some awesome games were released for it!

So, the WonderSwan Color was released about 1 Year and 9 Months after the original WonderSwan. Both of the handhelds were released inbetween the Gameboy Color and the Gameboy Advance. So the WonderSwan Color had a huge advantage over the GBA SP by being released first.

Bandai, the company that made the WonderSwan Color, had a deal with Square-Enix, which let them re-release the first 4 Final Fantasy games on their system. Though FF I, II, and IV were the only ones that were released, because Final Fantasy III was cancelled.

Most of the other noteworthy games for the system were anime/manga-based. They include 8 Digimon games, 4 Inuyusha games, 2 Guilty Gear games, a Dragonball game, 5 One Piece games, 6 Gundam games and a Naruto game. Other notable games for the system include Riviera: The Promised Land, Golden Axe and Secret of Mana was also planned for the system, but it was eventually cancelled.

The WonderSwan Color is actually bigger than the WonderSwan, which isn't very common, but there was good reason for it. The screen was larger, and there was more inbuilt RAM.

2 bundles were available for the system. An FF I bundle, and an FF II bundle. They both came with a themed System, and the game. Wow, they only go for like $25 on eBay, that's fricking awesome!

Why did it fail? Because Squaresoft (now Square-Enix) and Nintendo, so now Square's titles will be on the GBA instead of the WonderSwan. So Nintendo now had all the Classic Nintendo Franchises, plus all the Squaresoft franchises, so Bandai was pretty much doomed after Square moved over.

Overall, the system was pretty good, especially with Final Fantasy. It had loads of titles to keep their customers interested, but it still fell against the might of Nintendo like the rest. If they released it in North America, Europe and Australia with some more franchises, it may have stood a chance.

Help me out?

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But wait, it's not over yet...

Preview for next weeks 10th Issue Spectacular!

This cat just read my preview. It's that damn good. Infact, it's so damn good, IT'S A SPECTACULAR!

So next week is my 10th issue of GOTG! So in the next issue, I'll be celebrating with:
2 PSP Reviews - God of War: Chains of Olympus & LocoRoco
2 DS Reviews - Chrono Trigger & Metal Slug 7
NEW SECTION: Classic Reviews - Killer Instinct (GB)
LOOKBACK: The very first handheld ever, the Milton-Bradley Microvision.
Plus of course, all the news for the week aswell.

So until then, have a nice week everybody!