Geekscape Games Reviews: ‘Call Of Duty: Black Ops III’

by Josh JacksonDecember 30, 2015

I’m going to have to be honest here. I haven’t really dived into a Call Of Duty game since Modern Warfare blew us away so many years ago. Sure, I’ve dabbled in the various sequels over the years, but I rarely felt compelled to give it too much time since I never felt that subsequent games changed things up enough to keep this never ending war interesting. Yet somehow, when Black Ops III was shown off during E3, Activision and Treyarch caught me by surprise with the wide open areas, high tech upgrades, and increased mobility that I would have never expected from the long running FPS. It was almost as if it wasn’t Call Of Duty at all! I couldn’t help but be intrigued (or dare I say excited), for how these new, potentially bold steps forward would shape the popular franchise. After spending an extended time with the game however, it’s clear that while some positive strides are definitely present, it doesn’t do enough to shed its decade old mechanics, for better and for worse.

Taking place several decades after the last Black Ops game, it’s clear that despite what Ron Perlman might try to tell you, war has changed quite a bit between games. With a greater emphasis on technology, ground warfare is dominated by mechanically augmented soldiers, as well as a machine army that serves fortunate enough to be their buyers. After a rescue mission with your team goes horribly wrong, your character, (which can be customized with a few limited options,) must literally be rebuilt to stay alive. Now with a new body equipped with a variety of advanced abilities, you and your team are tasked with unraveling a conspiracy that’s seemingly headed by one of your own.

Considering the premise revolves around becoming a killing machine, it’s safe to assume that this would come with a ton of awesome ways to wipe out your enemies as you traverse through each of the game’s 11 campaign missions. In this aspect, Black Ops III delivers well enough. Featuring its own level up system that’s separate from the multiplayer modes of the game, killing enemies, completing special tasks and playing on higher difficulties rewards soldiers with upgrades that they can take with them into battle. Moves like double jumping, wall running and machine hacking join up with some more unconventional abilities like summoning incendiary insects to help make the experience your own. This is aside from the abilities you start with, like built in night vision and tactical vision, which lets you see enemies behind cover as long as any one of your allies has eyes on them. These advancements are further highlighted by a by the numbers story that’s brought to life with the help of some incredible looking scripted events, not to mention Hollywood talent like Christopher Meloni of Law and Order: SVU fame.

But while these abilities are all well and good, the campaign experience falls apart somewhat due to the fact that most of these abilities are either impractical when it comes to picking off enemies in the much improved open environments, or are so situational that you rarely have a use for them. In fact, aside from the tactical vision, (my personal favorite,) it felt like the most efficient way to progress was by taking cover until you heal, (a nifty android power that you had before your robot transformation for some reason,) shoot, rinse and repeat. If that sounds familiar, it’s because this is essentially what you have had to do in every COD game for the last 10 years. The robotic enemies go down almost as easily as the humans, and aside from the occasional mech or vehicle fight, the combat feels pretty standard. Despite offering custom load outs, all those awesome new powers, and a variety of new movement options, none of them really matter when there’s no point in using them.

Despite these abilities largely falling flat, one area where Black Ops III really shines is the amount of content it features. Aside from the campaign and multiplayer, Treyarch’s latest also features not one, but two zombie modes to delve into. The first one is the Zombie Mode you may be familiar with from past games. Except this time around, the experience is anchored to its own story, featuring four *really* awful people who are locked in a 1940’s era city that’s swarming with the undead. Tasked with finding artifacts that unlock even bigger secrets, this mode is about as crazy as we’ve come to expect. Being able to spend points earned through combat to transform into tentacle monsters, gather bubble gum that gives players additional perks, materialize weapons, and set traps, all while conversing with a disembodied voice, is the norm when exploring this feature. Zombies is a nice break from the standard modes, as a much more lighthearted, arcade style mode compared to the proper story.

Speaking of the story, the undead have finally been introduced into the game’s narrative, so to speak! Featuring a new Nightmare Mode, this second zombie focused mode acts as an alternate version of the campaign, where a new character fights alongside the soldiers in the main game across the same maps, except each one is swarming with monsters. Since this character is pre-established, she comes with many of the powers you had to unlock originally, receiving improved mobility from the start. Easily the most “video game” part of the package, the floating weapons, breakable crates, floating over hordes of enemies, and possessed teddy bears feel like a call back to games of old, when things didn’t have to make sense! Still, by reusing the maps from campaign, Nightmare ends up feeling like a bit of a chore to get through if you finished the main story first, since all of it is just a retread with different enemies. Still, it’s a fun distraction that helps the game get a lot more mileage, especially with friends.

And friends are what really make Black Ops III stand out. Even more than the new abilities or the expanded modes, the most enjoyable part of the overall package to me was the ability to team up with friends in every mode in both online on local modes. Sometimes, it’s the simple things that make a game most enjoyable, and considering how it seems like games these days are going to war against split screen, it was so refreshing to be able to plug in the second control and run through all these modes with the wife or friends and just go crazy. So what if the graphics take a huge hit? All I know is that those bland fights that I was talking about earlier were a lot more enjoyable when we could tackle them from different angles as a team. Couple that with the tactical vision I mentioned, and the strategic possibilities increase quite a bit. And if the dip in visuals bothers you that much, online has you covered! The only mode that makes little sense to include co op is in multiplayer, where preset loadouts don’t really work when you can see what you’re opponent’s doing in the corner of the screen.

Speaking of multiplayer, you can’t talk COD without talking about the online modes, which is essentially why people keep coming back for more. This time around, in addition to customize your loadouts, weapon appearances and perks, players can pick one of nine Specialists, each of which have a special weapon or ability that’s unique to that character. Much like the campaign, movement has been improved quite a bit, with the wall run, slide and double jump abilities all being available from the start. But unfortunately, again, like the campaign, none of these added moves feel like they give you any real advantage. After all, why wall run into a double jump over a balcony when you can just as easily get killed by a sharpshooter or a nearby camper? Considering COD is somewhat notorious for quick deaths, it doesn’t take much for all of that effort to go to waste.

Aside from these new features, nothing much has changed in terms on online multiplayer. Kill streaks still net extra abilities, most matches are still a mad rush to the middle where everyone drops dead, only to start it all over again, and you’re more than likely to hear a bunch of strangers screaming in your ear. The maps were fairly small considering how many movement options you have, but my biggest issue was the lack of players in each mode. While not necessarily a fault of the game, it’s annoying when I would really want to play one of the capture, escort or defend modes, only to get constantly booted out because everyone’s in Team Deathmatch.

When it comes down to it, the most frustrating part about Call Of Duty Black Ops III is that it takes so many positive steps forward that give us glimpses of what the series can become, but ends up falling back on its tried and true conventions. For those who still love the formula, I’m happy to say that you’ll find an enjoyable, yet safe experience. For the rest of us, the improvements made don’t make enough of a difference to change the minds of those who have tired of the series years ago. Yet, its numerous bonus modes and two campaigns, all of which are playable in both single and multiplayer co-op, help breathe new life into what feels like the same old song and dance when you’re by yourself. If you have a bunch of buddies to go to war with, still love the multiplayer, or haven’t tired of the campaign, Black Ops III is a great way to spend a few evenings, but it won’t change any minds either.

Final Score: 3/5

Geekscape Games Reviews: ‘Yo-Kai Watch’

by Natalie KipperNovember 24, 2015

I’ve heard a myriad of people liken Level-5’s latest RPG, Yo-kai Watch, to the ever-popular Pokémon franchise. And looking at superficially, I suppose I could see what they mean. The game begins with a pre-teen hero in a small town (whose gender you can select at the start). And yes, there are over 200 “monsters,” or rather Yo-Kai, available to do battle in your stead during the fighting sequences. But if you look even the slightest bit deeper, you’ll find a journey that stands tall on its own merits.

The plot of Yo-Kai Watch is far more light-hearted than most that I’ve come across this year (especially as far as RPG’s go). Your hero, we learn, has a love of bug-catching (and a bout of laziness) and after one particular outing near the local mountain shrine, comes across a rusty old gachapon machine (the ones where you insert some currency and out pops a totally Pokeball-looking capsule) begging you to “feed it.” Being the curious young person that you are, the hero inserts a coin and, in return, is rewarded with the self-proclaimed “Yo-Kai butler,” Whisper. The cartoony ghost creature then gifts them with the Yo-Kai Watch, a device that allows the hero to see and befriend wandering Yo-Kai.

The soundtrack is also charming, if somewhat forgettable. The only melody I can summon from memory is the catchy battle theme. The other issue is the lack of musical variety in the game. I was, however, thoroughly impressed with how many soundbites there were for the Yo-Kai during battle. When using techniques and special moves or even just switching them into the field, I was frequently treated with a phrase from the user.

The locales in the game, for the most part, have a Japanese aesthetic as one would expect given that the game seemingly takes place in Japan. I particularly liked that every house has a genkan next to the front door to leave your shoes. It is little touches like that show how much love was put into this title. I loved how Level-5 chose to make the locations more welcoming; no spooky, blood-stained walls or creepy dolls here.

Like many role-playing games, you have access to a only a small area towards the start of the game and your world expands as the story progresses. And while Yo-Kai Watch‘s map may seem smaller than other titles out there, I didn’t mind. There are so many nooks and crannies to explore in every section of the town that I found myself spending hours in one neighborhood, simply exploring.

The main mechanics of Yo-Kai Watch center around finding and befriending Yo-Kai. You may encounter Yo-Kai in a story-related event, during a side quest, or simply from looking in hiding places like under cars and vending machines or in rivers and trees. They may even be found out in the open in certain areas. Engaging a Yo-Kai involves holding the cursor, or lens, over the hiding creature until the Yo-Kai Watch’s meter fills up. This may sound easy enough but later in the game, those Yo-Kai move quickly and sporadically and, if the Yo-Kai evades the cursor long enough, the meter will drop and eventually reset. I found that stylus worked best later on but you can get by using the analog nub to control the cursor for at least the first few hours.

The battle system is a fun mix of smart AI-influenced teammates and special actions, usually involving the stylus. Those actions could initiate your yo-kai’s special “Soultimate” ability by tapping bouncing orbs, tracing shapes, or spinning a circle. Similar activities are involved in “purifying” your Yo-Kai of status ailments. If you want to sit back and let the AI take over, but you don’t want the fight to drag on, a simple press of the “X” button puts the battle in fast forward (this function can be used even if you intended to use the stylus as well).

Battles also serve as a means to recruit Yo-Kai. Making friends with them post-battle can be influenced by gifting them their favorite foods during the fight. Certain Yo-Kai skills also increase the likelihood of a successful recruitment. This feature added another layer of strategy because figuring out what type of food to give them was at times puzzling. Sure, it stood to reason that kappa prefer vegetables like cucumber, but figuring out many Yo-Kai’s preferences were based solely on trial and error.

Yo-Kai Watch is one meaty game, chock-full of side quests and NPC requests. Taking on these extra challenges will earn you experience points, money, items, and occasionally a new Yo-Kai companion. The menus for keeping track of tasks is similar to one of Level-5’s other RPGs, Fantasy Life, with tabs for each quest/request which display a quest summary and your progress towards your goal.

The one aspect that I didn’t particularly like was Terror Time. It’s a random nighttime event that send the hero into an alternate world, filled with a giant Oni and their smaller lackeys. You’re forced into a stressful round of hide and seek as you make your way to the zone’s exit. Good luck getting those treasure chests hidden in the area. I have only managed to collect two and both times, I was later caught by the boss and beaten. Thankfully, this does not lead to a game over but rather starts you back at your bedroom. It is more an annoyance than anything else.

To sum up, I give Yo-Kai Watch for the Nintendo 3DS my seal of approval. Weak music selection and Terror Time aggravation aside, the title is one that I have enjoyed playing more than 90 percent of the other releases this year. I’ve recently switched it to be “My Favorite Game” on my 3DS profile on My Nintendo, so if that doesn’t speak of the quality of content, I don’t know what does!

Yo-Kai Watch scores a cool 4.5/5! Will you be picking it up? Be sure to let us know in the comments below!

Geekscape Movies Reviews: ‘Jem And The Holograms’

by The_aczNovember 10, 2015

Jem and the Holograms was always a special case when it came to children’s programming.

Much like the recent success of My Little Pony, Jem and the Holograms premiered on October 26^th 1985 with the intention to be just another tie in cartoon aimed at young girls through Hasbro’s eyes. However, the team behind the show decided to treat the show with as much respect as they would with any regular TV show. Some of its appeal came from the fact that it was an animated soap opera that both boys & girls of all ages can enjoy. You’d think that with Hollywood’s recent obsession to make crazy experimental movies off of 80’s-90’s properties with big budgets that surely Jem would fit in perfectly.

Enter 2015’s Jem and the Holograms, a film supposedly “based” off of said beloved franchise. Directed and produced by the same people who made 2 documentaries centering on Justin Bieber and the production house that made Paranormal Activity, surely this could only end well right? Sadly, what follows is an under budgeted, cheaply made, clichéd rags to riches story that feels more like an after school special and barley even resembles its source material. Where do I begin?

Let’s start with story. Here’s the synopsis of the animated series lifted directly from the season 1 DVD:

Upon the death of her father, Jerrica Benton inherits Starlight Music and finds herself the new co-owner executive alongside the greedy, power-hungry Eric Raymond. Eric is on a mission to seize complete control of Starlight Music, as well as, use it to launch to stardom his latest discovery — rockin’ rebel girl band The Misfits.

With the help of Synergy, a computer holographic machine created by her father, and a pair of special jemstar earrings, Jerrica is able to transform into the megapop sensation named Jem! With her sister, Kimber, and their band, The Holograms, Jem undertakes a battle-of-the-bands competition against Eric and The Misfits for control of Starlight Music. Can Jerrica keep her superstar identity a secret? Will The Misfits rock the charts? Will Synergy fall into the hands of evil? Watch and find out!

Sounds pretty cool huh? Well forget about all that because nothing mentioned above is carried to the film. Instead, we get a story about 18/19 year old Jerrica Benton who’s insecure about her singing. One night she throws on a pink wig and some make-up to record her singing under the mysterious name Jem. The next day Jerrica wakes up to find out that her sister Kimber uploaded the video to YouTube, and now Jem has become instantly internet famous to a point where she is offered a recording contract for only having 30,000 views on her video. This quickly turns her whole life upside down and now she has to struggle between her 2 identities to find out who she really is.

As you can tell, the plot follows the generic, paint by numbers story of some regular Joe Shmoe that’s all of a sudden thrust into popularity. It also doesn’t help that just like Jerrica; this movie suffers heavily from an identity crisis. At one point it wants to be a modern teen drama movie, other times it’s trying to force in un-necessary subplots that add virtually nothing to the film. Some subplots include going on a tedious treasure hunt trying to find the missing pieces of their robot Synergy so they can recover a hidden surprise that Jerrica’s father was trying to hide. The other includes a very tiresome and cliché story of Jerrica, the evil corporate band manager, trying to force Jem into signing a solo contract.

The only problem is that the movie is so confused on what it wants to be that nothing comes together in the end, and as a result, the movie just ends up being a giant mess. It also doesn’t help that the characters are more bland and dry than a loaf of white bread sitting out in the sun. I’ll give them credit that the cast at least tries to make their roles convincing, it’s just too bad that they have to suffer due to the clunky script or awful mis-casting. Such mis-casting is 28 year old Ryan Guzman as Rio who in the movie is trying to pass himself off as an 18 year old college intern/son of Erica Raymond. It’s so laughably bad the dialogue he’s given that it’s impossible to take him seriously every time he’s on screen.

Another major problem with the movie is the music. In the show, there were usually 2-3 songs per episode that lasted about 45 seconds to a minute, making for some quick, but catchy songs. The movie however, tries in some areas, but sadly ends up botching them. Besides sounding like the most generic and manufactured pop songs, are too long and very forgettable.

This is another area where the movie really fails hard since you need good music in a movie adaptation that’s all about music. The worst thing about the audio is that they don’t even use their own background music. During what’s supposed to be a tense or emotional scene the background music chosen will start playing. The problem with this however, is that these BGM’S are taken from random people on YouTube playing their own music and for some reason the film seems to think randomly cutting in grainy low quality footage of said music videos would be a good idea (it isn’t.)

Thought you heard the worst? Well I’m sorry to say, but the worst is yet to come. When it comes to scene changes and transitions they will more often than not resort to using Google Earth. I know this film was made on a small budget of $5 million, but do they really have to be that lazy. I counted at least 6-7 times where they used this lazy excuse of transition (you can still see the Google Earth logo lazily cropped in the lower right hand corner of the screen.)

Finally, the worst part of this film is it’s mis-treatment of fans and lazy excuse of “cameos.” Throughout her rise to fame, the movie will start random cutting to cameos talking about Jem. These include Chris Pratt, Jimmy Fallon, and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. The only problem? It’s all archival footage. The Pratt interview was taken from a Lego Movie Interview with USA Today in which he talks about growing up with the Jem dolls and pretending to date them. The Fallon interview comes from an old episode where he and a guest reminisce about the 80’s cartoon. The 3^rd and most offensive is The Rock’s cameo which was just a very low quality video that was actually about him praising Taylor Swift’s song Bad Blood.

At the end of the day though, the fans themselves were treated the worst. When the film was originally announced, they made it a point to tell the online world that they were doing open casting for the film and that you had a chance to land a starring role in the film if you expressed how much you love Jem to them. What ended up happening was that they ended up using that footage randomly throughout the movie to show her rise in internet popularity. The absolute biggest insult to this is that throughout all the videos you’re constantly seeing the 80’s logo and show in the background and right in front of the camera. This alone was enough to pull me out of the movie and feel sorry for all the fans that got gipped of a proper appearance as initially advertised.

The only good thing about this movie was the end credits scene. That one scene was the only time the movie actually felt like it was actually putting in effort to be a real Jem movie. The only problem? The film ends after that.

So, after all of this should you still go see Jem and the Holograms? Yes. This is one of those rare movies that comes along every couple of years or so that completely fails in what it’s trying to do and is so horrendously bad that you have to watch it to believe it. If somehow there’s a theater near you showing this film, you should either try sneaking into it, or just going to another movie and then catching the end credits scene at least. If you want to see a more faithful adaption movie, go see The Peanuts Movie.

FINAL RATING: 0.5/5 WATCH IT! (or just watch the after credits scene)

‘Until Dawn: Rush Of Blood’ Revealed Exclusively For Playstation VR!

by Derek KraneveldtOctober 27, 2015

Briefly: Well, it looks like I’ll need to get myself a Playstation VR.

The headset looks well designed, but up until this point I hadn’t really seen a compelling reason to actually want one (especially over the sure-to-have-more-support-but-also-need-a-powerful-PC Oculus headset). Sure, it could (and might) turn out like another EyeToy or Playstation Move, but with the huge surge of VR in the industry, I hope that Playstation VR has the staying power to actually be worth its price of admission.

If you’re a regular around these parts, you’ll know just how excited I was for this Summer’s Until Dawn, and just how much fun I had with the title once it was finally released (read my review here).

I fell in love with the characters (except Emily), fell in love with the world, and was beyond eager for more as soon as the credits began to roll.

At the ongoing Paris Games Week, Sony officially unveiled the recently rumoured Until Dawn: Rush of Blood, exclusively for its upcoming VR platform.

President of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida stated that “The thrill of the ride won’t just come from the track ahead, but from a terrifying world that is out to get you.”

Take a look at the trailer below, and let us know if you’re into this one!

Geekscape Games Reviews: ‘The Jackbox Party Pack 2’

by The_aczOctober 16, 2015

The Jackbox Party Pack 2 is anything but an ordinary party game. It’s an experience.

Releasing almost a year after the first one, The Jackbox Party Pack 2 is more of the same wacky humor you’ve come to expect, but with completely different games. So, is this the party of the year, or should you not bother with an RSVP? Just like my Rare Replay review, I’m not sure if I can do this game justice by giving it a regular review. That’s why I’ve decided to take a look at each of the 5 games separately and talk about what did and didn’t work.

Fibbage 2:

Out of all five games in the original party pack, this is the only returning game to the sequel, but for a reason. Fibbage 2 is still as charming and funny as it was when it debuted. For those who don’t know: Fibbage is a game where the players are given a true statement with a missing answer. The players, then, type in their own lies in hopes of the other players being fooled into thinking that it’s real. The updated sequel adds hundreds of new facts as well as a new DeFIBrillator which for one round can get rid of all lies but one, thus leaving you with only two choices. There’s really nothing bad to say about this game as it’s one of the best in the collection. Definite play if you’re picking the game up.

Quiplash XL:

Originally starting out as a small Kickstarter project earlier this March, Quiplash is another pre-existing game that has been updated for this new collection. This game tasks players with competing against each other to see who has a better response for the current on screen prompt. What do you NOT want to find in a burrito: A half-eaten turd or a dead rat? If there’s a downside to this it’d have to be that the game can end a little prematurely with only 3-4 people, so it’s best you play with at least 6-8 people. With 100’s of different questions and the ability to have over 1000 people playing at once, you’re in for one game you won’t forget anytime soon.

Bidiots:

Now we’re getting into the new games. Bidiots is a new drawing game that’s been stated to be the spiritual successor to one of the previous party pack titles, Drawful. In this game, you and your friends are a group of people at an art auction, and it’s your job to create and sell art for the auction in order to please your rich art clients. In-between rounds, you’ll get hints from your clients telling you what the prices on specific items are so you don’t end up over or under bidding on it.

You can also get free $1000 loans from the bank in order to ensure you have enough money to buy art pieces. Beware though, because at the end of the game you lose 1,500 points for each loan you take. Even though the game has some really good ideas and potential, the game ends up becoming a bit confusing at times with people not knowing what to do. While I do commend the team for trying something new with drawing games, it ultimately ends up being the weakest game of the pack. It’s good for a play every now and then, but not all the time.

Earwax:

I’m just going to say it right now in advance. Out of all the new games in this collection, Earwax is the game you’ll have the most fun with. Think Apples to Apples or Cards Against Humanity, but with sound effects instead. Each round, a judge is picked to determine a category, and afterwards, the rest of the players must choose 2 options from a list of 6 randomized sound effects. Once everyone’s done, Players get to vote on what they think was their favorite answer, but in the end it’s up to the judge to determine the winner. Sound effects are very varied and range from things such as an anvil dropping on someone’s head to a crying baby.

Not to mention Fart Noises. Lots and lots of fart noises. If there was one problem with the game though, it’d have to be that you can’t preview the sounds you choose. So, the first couple of times you play it might be a guessing game to see how well some sounds interact with others. Although, I can see why they didn’t as that’d make the game too loud and give away your answers. All in all, this is a must play if you’re planning on buying this game.

Bomb Corp:

This game is just weird; like really weird. In Bomb Corp, you and up to 3 players are hired at a bomb defusing company. Your job is to defuse as many bombs as you can in one day (while also filing the occasional paperwork.) The only catch with these tasks are that depending on how many people are playing, instructions on how to complete the tasks are scattered throughout everyone’s devices using the game. The humor is spot on as most of the characters joke about how they can die at any moment while also talking about other nonsensical things during their break. If you want to take a serious shot at beating this, it’s best to play by yourself, but if you and all your friends are drunk or just want to yell at each other, this is another great party game to play together.

Overall:

Overall, The Jackbox Party Pack 2 is the most fun I’ve had with a party game since last year’s Jackbox Party Pack. The team really tried something new with these 5 games and didn’t want to just re-skin the 1st pack. While Bidiots feels like a slight misfire, other games like Earwax, Fibbage 2, and more make this collection even more memorable than its predecessor. If you haven’t picked up the game yet, I strongly suggest dropping $25 on both collections if you haven’t yet, because you’re going to be in for one hell of a family game night. The Jackbox Party Pack is Available now to Download on PS3, PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Amazon Fire TV.

Final Score: 5/5 BUY IT!!!

Geekscape Games Reviews ‘One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3’

by Josh JacksonOctober 2, 2015

Name: One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3

Platforms: PS4, PS3, PS Vita, PC, (Reviewed on PS Vita.)

Publisher: Namco Bandai Games

Developer: Omega Force

MSRP: $59.99 (PS4), $49.99 (PS3, PC), $39.99 (PS Vita)

If there was one thing that I learned last year, it was that I REALLY like Warriors games… With the right coat of paint. After giving up on these types of games years ago, it wasn’t until I was taken in by the Legend of Zelda universe in Hyrule Warriors that I fully understood the joys of taking on thousands of enemies single handedly. The reason for my change of heart was simple: playing with generic soldiers or characters based on historic Japanese figures was boring. Playing as characters I recognize and have an attachment to on the other hand, is way more exciting! Keeping this in mind, I loaded up One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3, the Warriors title based on the long running One Piece anime and manga series, (though I’m sure that goes without saying,) with the expectation of wiping out waves of enemy pirates with some crazy, over the top attacks as the Straw Hat Crew. In that sense, it delivers and then some, but won’t do much to sway non-fans of either the anime, or the genre.

Like previous games in the Musou genre, Pirate Warriors 3′s main focus is making you feel like an unstoppable monster as you take your favorite pirate and begin tearing apart entire armies with your various skill sets. While being so powerful is always satisfying, games of this nature tend to get repetitive quickly as limited combos, similar characters and a lack of growth tends to sap the fun from the novelty. This is less of a problem with One Piece, because even though complaints about repetitiveness still holds true, this version does a great job of masking it with a large variety of highly varied characters. Whether you’re rapid punching the Marines into submission as Luffy, showing off your series of stylish kicks as Sanji, or anyone in between, each of the 37 unique characters, (not counting the variations of the same characters post time skip,) feel distinct enough to keep the combat fresh as you experiment with new combos. As you play, each character will gain EXP that extends their combo trees as well, so the more you play, the more the possibilities open up. It’s not much different than what you start off with, but I found mixing up my game plan and finding ways to empliment new attacks into my repitoire was one of its highlights.

When you’re not beating hundreds of enemies simultaniously, you’ll be defending your friends and territory thanks to the light strategy elements present in the genre. Some missions will task you with protecting a particular partner, while others will ask you to find certain items in the field. Oftentimes, defending land that’s being protected by your allies while claiming enemy territory through sheer force will help reduce the amount of enemies on the field, which is often key to winning your latest battle. The best missions however, are when you have to go up against an opposing general with abilities similar to yours. Sure, the AI is rarely challenging, (on the first run at least. Multiple hidden difficulties force you to think before you act,) but it’s still fun to go against someone who’s considered more of an equal, and less of a glass cannon like the rest of the fodder.

But when your own skills won’t be enough to ensure victory, you can always rely on your friends to lend a hand. By introducing the new Kizuna Rush attack, up to three of your CPU controlled partners can join in to create a huge, screen clearing onslaught to destroy your opponents with. By building up the Kizuna Meter by having your partners help extend your combos, these are some of the most over the top attacks you’ll find in the game, and they’re oh so satisfying to pull off. And when you want a little more intellegence to go with your partner’s assistance, you can jump in either online or locally, and wreck stuff up with a friend.

If online isn’t your thing, there’s plenty to do by yourself. Pirate Warriors 3 is highlighted by its extensive story mode, which takes both single and multiplayers through the beginnings of the series, (when Monkey D. Luffy recruits Zoro to be the first official member of the Straw Hat Pirates,) past the time skip and up to the most recent storylines with an original ending to cap it off. If you’ve kept up with the series off and on, you won’t have any trouble following along with the story missions, which do a good job of setting up each scenario with limited time both before, during and after missions, all of which are fully voiced by their Japanese actors. Outside of the actual storytelling portion, the in game content is strong, with unlockable coins and side objectives which can be used to unlock characters, abilities and upgrades for your crew. As what I see as a way of rewarding fans of the series, some of the story sensitive objectives have certain details hidden until you complete the stage. If you found them on your first run, congratulations, you know what you’re doing! If not, then the objective becomes spelled out on a second run, making it easier for beat em up fans who aren’t as well versed in all that is One Piece.

The real meat of the game however, is in the Dream Log, a type of mission mode that has players choosing whatever character they like and taking on specific challenges, which usually leads to some of the best unlockables. Ranked in difficulty based on how high your level should be, each completed island will branch off to others, which usually leads to an increase in difficulty. By alternating between Story and Dream Log, grinding is kept to a minimum, (while still necessary to an extent,) to keep up with the more demanding challenges, but is rarely too tough to handle, (again, until the harder difficulties are unlocked.) It’s a well balanced, properly tiered method to unlock content over time, which helps keep the addiction factor up even after the game play gets stale.

Unfortunately, the stale game play is Pirate Warriors 3′s biggest flaw. No matter what the coat of paint is, and no matter what ways the developers mask it with its character variety, you’re still mostly just mashing buttons for hours on end. That’s not to say it isn’t fun, especially if you’re a fan of One Piece, but the experience is likely to wear thin before you’ve beaten every Dream Log Island, seen every Story Mode cutscene, and before you’ve bought all of the many unlockable items with the money earned in battle. It’s a flaw that’s hard to stamp out since the repitition is part of what makes the genre what it is, but it’s still worth noting that if you’re not a One Piece fan, and especially if Musou games bore you to death, this won’t do anything to change your mind.

In the end, One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3 is a hidden treasure in the world of Warriors style games. The large cast, character variety, varied missions and trove of unlockables will keep fans of either the franchise or the genre playing for hours on end, eithe with a friend, or by themselves. At its core however, it’s the same kind of game we’ve been playing for almost 15 years, so if the unique style of the game doesn’t do it for you, or if you were burnt out on the genre long ago, you’re not going to find anything here to change your mind. Other small nitpicks, like it not feeling like a big enough evolution from its predecessors, or not allowing all modes to work with online play, do little to detract from the overall fun factor, making Pirate Warriors 3 a journey One Piece fans will do well to embark on.

tl;dr:

+ One Piece and the Musou genre make a great combination, with rewarding, over the top attacks.

+ Mission and character variety keeps the game fresh for longer than expected between the Story and Dream Log modes.

+ The story is well told, easy to follow and manages to stay concise, never letting the player feel lost, even if they haven’t kept up with the 800-ish chapters of the manga.

+More unlockables than you’ll ever need.

+ Local and online co-op!

– Still repetitive, even if it has longer legs than most games in the genre.

– Doesn’t do much to differentiate itself from other Musou games outside of the One Piece name.

– Not all content is online compatable.

Final Score: 4/5

Take A Sneak Peak At The Upcoming Yu-Gi-Oh ‘High Speed Riders’ Booster Set!

by Josh JacksonSeptember 29, 2015

As we posted last week, the next Yu-Gi-Oh expansion, High Speed Riders, is right around the corner. Promising to bring back some of the most popular cards of the 5D’s era, (focusing especially on some of Jack Atlas’ trademark monsters,) while introducing new monsters, spells, traps and archtypes to boost your deck, is it hard to see why we’re excited?

We got the chance to open up some preview boosters packs from the set, where we found a good mix of old an new cards alike, with the classics getting some surprising rarity changes to go with their repackaging. Here’s what we pulled from our four boosters:

Common:

Red Dragon Archfiend

Synkron Resonator

PSY-Framegear Alpha

Serene Psychic Witch

Speedroid Menko

Krebons

Speedroid Double Yoyo

Dark Resonator

Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice

PSY-Framegear Epsilon

Armoroid

Mystical Space Typhoon

Future Glow

Psychokinesis

Resonator Call

Synchro Cracker

Psychic Overload

Red Cocoon

Supercharge

Rare:

Speedroid Razorang

Speedroid Ohajikid

Shock Surprise

Dice Roll Battle

Super Rare:

Speedroid Terrortop

Hot Red Dragon Archfiend

Stardust Spark Dragon

Speed Recovery

Click below to see close ups of our Rare and Super Rare pulls:

As a nostalgia junkie, it’s great to see these 5D’s cards getting more love, complete with their straight reprints, or added support from some of the new cards featured. Even then, the best is yet to come, with featured cards like Goyo Predator, PSY-Framelord Omega, and Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Abyss still eluding us. Let’s just say you’ll know what we’ll be tearing open on the October 2nd release date.

The full set includes:

27 Commons

12 Rares

10 Super Rares

6 Ultra Rares

5 Secret Rares

Do any duelists have questions about the cards we pulled? Let us know in the comments! High Speed Riders launches on October 2nd at an MSRP of $3.99 per pack, and will include nine cards each.

Saint Mort’s Nostalgic Nightmare – The Sentinel Blu-Ray

by SaintmortSeptember 27, 2015

The Sentinel is one of the better releases in Scream Factory history. This isn’t a diss to Scream Factory. I love the fact that because of them I owe schlocky gold like Motel Hell and Shocker. If not for Scream Factory my life wouldn’t have Phantom of the Paradise in it, that alone is enough reason for me to feel I owe my entire existence to the Scream Factory Gods.

What I mean is that The Sentinel is art. It’s this little rarely talked about gem that should be looked at through the same lens as classics like Rosemary’s Baby and The Shining. Yet we never talk about it.

The Sentinel is a classic horror filled with beautiful cinematograhy, freaky practical effects, a great twist ending and fantastic acting. The final sequence is genuinely freaky and super effective.

The film follows Alison Parker who rents a brownstone house divided into apartments. While there weird things begin to occur with the various “neighbors”. It’s not long before she begins realizing something weird is occurring in the house.

This little film has an impressive cast including Chris Sarandon, Burgess Meredith, Christopher Walken and Jeff Goldblum (just to name a few). The transfer from Scream Factory just makes the movie ever more beautiful.

If you’ve never seen the Sentinel there’s no better time than now. This Blu-Ray also contains two commentary tracks as well as an interview with assistant director Ralph S. Singleton. Pick up your copy today.

Geekscape Games Reviews ‘Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls’

by Josh JacksonAugust 31, 2015

Danganronpa had caught me completely by surprise when it hit Western territories early last year. Released on the Vita as enhanced ports of the Japan only PSP series, its first exposure outside of the Eastern market left a lasting impression. With it and its sequel, these titles pushed beyond what we’ve come to expect from text adventure titles with its dark, yet humorous premise, memorable characters and ambitious mix of game play styles. So much so in fact, that I named the series my favorite games of last year! Now, about a year later, the series takes another bold step forward with Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls, the first original title the series has seen since 2012, built specifically for the Playstation Vita. Ditching the visual novel format, this spinoff takes on the third person shooter genre while bridging events between the first and second game, all while delivering the same ambition and creativity the main games are known for.

Ultra Despair Girls follows Komaru Naegi, the younger sister of the first game’s protagonist, who is being held prisoner by an unknown assailant. As time goes by, Komaru gets used to this life of solitude but her world takes an unexpected turn when a bloodthirsty Monokuma robot breaks into her makeshift home with the intention of killing her. After being rescued by an enigmatic group known as the Future Foundation, Komaru is tasked with surviving the Monokuma onslaught. Unfortunately, since her kidnapping, the world has fallen into ruin. Finding herself trapped in the isolated Towa City with a team of sadistic children known as the Warriors Of Hope, these kids plan on killing every adult they come across, including Komaru herself. Armed with a hacking gun that can fight off the robot army, and the schizophrenic fiction writer / serial killer, Toko Fukawa, (from the first Danganronpa), at her side, can this ordinary girl become the ultimate hope to fight off the despair?

Death and destruction has never been so cute.

Split into multiple chapters, Ultra Despair Girls primarily plays in a similar style to over the shoulder survival horror shooters similar to Resident Evil 4 or Dead Space. Using a variety of ammo types, Komaru will find herself blowing away countless waves of Monokuma robots, relying on a steady aim to take them out in most situations. Shooting them in their glowing red eye with the standard Break ammo deals extra damage, rewarding players with bonus Monocoins, which are used to upgrade the hacking gun or Toko’s alter ego, Genocide Jack. Each kill rewards experience, which levels Komaru up and allows her to equip more upgrades at a time. As the game progresses, the hacking gun gains a variety of “Truth Bullets”, each of which has its own strategic use. Are a group of enemies lined up in front of an electric car? The Move bullet will force the car to drive forward, running them all over. Is there a Siren Monokuma in your way, who will alert nearby enemies when it spots you? Shoot it with the Dance bullet to make its light set off an irresistible disco flair, forcing it and its friends to boogie uncontrollably, (and vulnerable to your attacks.) Or you could just do your best Bioshock impression and electrocute every enemy standing in water. It’s this level of variety in both the weapon and enemy types that help the combat stand out, helping it emerge as one of the better executed third person shooters in recent memory in terms of weapon variety. Naturally, weapon variety doesn’t matter much if there isn’t enemy variety to go with it, which this game has in spades. Between the variety of Monokuma types and the bosses at the end of each stage, you’re constantly asked to approach situations differently, even if they rarely provide a challenge, (but more on that later.)

The game offers a good amount of enemy variety, like this terrifying thing.

With so many attack options available, it wasn’t just enough to create a level of variety as you progress through the story. As you explore more of Towa City, you’ll come across Challenge Rooms, most of which you’ll encounter through normal progression. Here, Komaru is asked to accomplish a certain goal while only using certain Truth Bullets. Some will have you sneak to the exit without being spotted, while others will ask you to destroy all the robots with one attack. While most of these rooms aren’t particularly difficult, they play the role of helping us think outside the box in terms of how the game can be played, all while teasing our brain a bit in between all the shootouts. Then again, you CAN just kill everything in the room however you want, but it will hurt your end of stage rank, which becomes tempting in a handful of rooms where the objectives are explained poorly. Confusion, trial and error are never fun, but these moments are so few that they do little to hurt these challenges as a whole.

Surrounded? Just make them dance!

Speaking of killing everything, what kind of serial killer would Genocide Jack be if she doesn’t murder anything? When not serving as the absolute best escorted NPC ever in a video game, (seriously, Toko NEVER gets in your or the camera’s way despite always following right behind you,) Genocide Jack can be called upon at will to slice up her enemies with her trademark scissors as long as you have enough battery power to sustain her. A fast, invulnerable melee attacker, Jack is used as a kind of power up, helping you get out of jams or clearing the screen in an instant with her comical special attacks. Using a variety of combos and charge attacks, ripping through armies of Monokuma robots is a joy to play. Unfortunately for fans of the character like myself, her role as a temporary fighter minimalism her role in combat. Outside of a handful of story sections where you’re forced to use her, the game discourages you from swapping out too much since your end of chapter rank can also drop if she’s abused. Naturally, you can always start the game in Genocider Mode, where using her becomes unlimited, but be prepared to watch your rank plummet as you do so.

With this in mind, the question must be asked; if the serial killer is a hero, how evil do the villains have to be? Heading into Another Episode, I must admit that I was disappointed in the direction the game decided to go in in terms of introducing a new set of characters as antagonists. After all, the end of the second game created the perfect set up for a whole group of villains that we could already be invested in. Thankfully, the Warriors of Hope turned out to be far more memorable than I could have ever expected. Sending conflicting messages, the game has this uncanny ability to show the children committing horrible acts in their pursuit of an adult free world, then shortly after, make you feel their mindset is justified. Each child has their own set of motivations that are pretty twisted, making me put my head down in disbelief as some of these details slowly became apparent. Let’s just say if you thought the premise of the first two games was sick, (forcing high school students to kill each other, while the culprits would get slaughtered in an often graphic, yet always comical way when caught,) some of the content in this game tops it, and then some. You’re a monster if you don’t feel uncomfortable at some point during your play through.

New and old faces alike make appearances.

Outside of the Warriors of Hope, the story is Danganronpa‘s strongest point once again, quite possibly serving as the best in the series so far. Told through a mix of anime cutscenes, in game dialogue sections, (making use of the very expressive character models,) or the grim, 2D cutout style found in previous entries throughout the story mode, the game offers plenty of insight into the characters from the first game, somewhat logical explanations for some of the events that seemed impossible by the time the initial killing game came to an end, and plenty of foreshadowing towards the events that would take place in Danganronpa 2. If anything, the story’s biggest problem is that it doesn’t do enough to bring the two games together. If this was meant to fill in the gaps between the two main games, it’s as if it only filled half of it. Seemingly doing more to set up a second Another Episode game rather than answer the questions left behind in the second mainline title, which left me feeling like the closing moments ultimately amounted to nothing aside from some cool references.

Aside from the anticlimactic ending, the amount of story content disrupts the pacing often throughout its 18 hour run. Sounds good for a shooter, but when you take out the cutscenes, that 18 hours is cut down to about 8 of actual play time, and that’s being generous. Considering that this is spun off from a visual novel, lots of text is to be expected, but 30 minute scenes constantly popping up really hurts the flow of an action game. While expertly acted out by some of the top voice actors in the business today, sometimes you just want to get on with shooting stuff. Oh, and can the cast stop calling Komaru weak and a coward throughout 75% of the story? It’s hard to make that argument when she’s the only one destroying an army of killer bears. I think she’s earned the right to complain once or twice a chapter.

On the flip side, it may be true that Toko has grown as a character since surviving her previous ordeals, (which is a trait she displays many times,) but not so much when it comes to Byakuya, her crush from the original. Her calling him “Master” throughout the game is slightly humorous at first, but becomes grating as the game goes on. The amount that her self confidence has increased in every other aspect is a welcomed, (and natural,) progression when it comes to her character, but going in the opposite direction when it comes to Byakuya doesn’t match up. It’s not worth it to compromise Toko for a few laughs that ultimately fall flat, even if she does still manage to shine.

Komaru and Toko are amazing together… Sometimes.

Either way, the two girls will need to find a way to work through their quirks to fight off enemies as threatening as the Warriors of Hope… Or maybe not. Unfortunately, another one of Another Episode‘s biggest flaws is that considering how dangerous they claim to be, the Warriors of Hope don’t put up much of a fight. Even on the hardest difficulty, the game is almost insultingly easy, with enemies doing very little damage. Throughout the entire game, I died a total of three times, once when I didn’t know a certain enemy would self destruct, once when I got knocked off a ledge for an instant death, and once when I made the mistake of playing in the sunlight that made my screen hard to see in the final moments of the 18 hour play through. Even then, if you are killed by a standard attack, Toko has the opportunity to save you with a timed tap of the correct button at the cost of one of a segment of the Genocide Jack meter. If that wasn’t lenient enough, if you time the save just right to where the prompt closes in on the blue portion of the prompt instead of the yellow, the save costs nothing, essentially giving you infinite lives. Oh, and if you’re expecting this to change with the boss fights, don’t. The fights themselves while interesting at times, are just as easy as the rest of the game. Even if you have trouble, every time you’re low on health, the enemies are kind enough to start dropping hearts all over the field. Combined with certain abilities, each one will replenish your health in full, making battle feel more like a formality than a challenge or reward.

The Warriors Of Hope never lose their sense of humor, even as you breeze through their plans.

Then again, maybe the light difficulty is better than raging over unfair deaths due to the in game camera. While I never experienced any major issues with the sometimes unwieldy view, it’s still prominent enough to be addressed. The game essentially has three ways to control the angle, two of which are formal while the other is the very first power up Komaru is given at the start of the game. Auto is the default setting, where the camera sticks to your back by default. As the most ideal mode, this creates issues when trying to explore the environment for its many hidden items, since its hard to walk and search with the camera constantly moving. Second is manual, where the camera is rotated by the right stick and stays wherever you leave it. A quick tap of the R button will center the camera behind Komaru, but while minor, this causes the player to lose control of her for a brief moment before adjusting the direction she’s moving in. Ideal for exploration, it makes basic traveling an annoyance, especially since the only way to run and move the camera is to hold the Vita like you have a claw hand. The last, (and unofficial,) camera control method is the auto aim ability, the first power up provided at the start of the game. Coming in handy for most of the campaign, this move lets you automatically target the closest enemy to you. Considering how slow aiming is, this function is a life saver when you need to shoot quickly. However, when you’re surrounded, it has a terrible habit of targeting the wrong enemy if they’re slightly closer than your intended target. Each method has its strenghths and weaknesses, and while a consistent camera would have been ideal, alternating between these three modes is the way to go, even if periodically switching shouldn’t be the case.

On the subject of its aiming, I have no idea what the developers were thinking in this case, but the most apparent head scratcher was the design choice to make lining up your shots move painfully slow. I say design choice because rather than offering the option for aim sensitivity, the game instead offers faster aim as an unlockable power up, one that doesn’t even increase the speed that much. This makes the auto aim ability feel almost mandatory, but as mentioned, when you’re surrounded, you’re lucky if you target the enemy you’re trying to. As the only huge game play flaw, Spike Chunsoft made sure to make it count.

The Warriors Of Hope’ s strongest weapon might be forcing Komaru to use such awful aiming.

And finally, I can’t let the game get away with its terrible handling of collectables. This game has a huge amount of pick ups to find throughout its five chapters, which range from notes that explain the history of Towa City and its citizens, additional power ups for Komaru, ID Cards that offer insight on the pasts of the first game’s cast, and even an adorable story about Socki the Sock. These amount to what must be close to 100 items, many of which are must finds for Danganronpa fans. But good luck with that, since the game gives you no clue as to what items are in what chapter, or if you’re even missing anything in a particular section. Once you beat the game, a completion list tells you the percentage of each item type you found, but that does absolutely nothing to help you narrow down where you’re missing these flashing pixels. Naturally, this is a nightmare for people who don’t want to rely on a guide, but if you want to save yourselves hours of scouring stages, you might have to.

Despite its flaws, Danganronpa: Another Episode is one of the most refreshing shooters I’ve played in a long time. Rather than relying on tried and true methods set by other games in the genre to dictate its gunplay, Komaru’s adventure marches to the beat of its own twisted drum. Its unique ammo sets create a variety of strategic possibilities, which range from destructive to adorable, all while its story sets up so many gruesome scenarios. The strange part? It still manages to be so charming, just like the main games before it. Sure, the pacing of the game is hurt by its constant dialogue, the slow aiming feels like an example of forcing a handicap on players to force them to use power ups, the camera an collectables can be a pain, and the story ultimately goes nowhere, (even if its an amazing journey before the ending disappoints,) but in the end, Another Episode‘s can’t miss narrative and creative game play help it stand strong as one of the Vita’s best games this year. Don’t fall into despair, make sure you check this one out!

tl;dr

+ Creative game play that constantly asks you to approach situations differently, either in the field, or in specialized challenge rooms.

+ Decent enemy variety.

+ A deceptively dark, often shocking story, even by Danganronpa standards.

+ Unexpectedly scary.

+ Expertly voiced by a strong English cast.

+ End of chapter ranks, lots of power ups and collectables, will keep you playing.

– The game is way too easy, rarely offering a challenge, even on Despair (Hard) Mode.

– Long story scenes break the flow of game play, while its climax falls flat and some of the characterization feels out of place.

– Aiming is made slow to encourage power ups, while the only real solution doesn’t work properly when surrounded.

– Multiple camera options; none of which are ideal.

– No way to track missing collectables.

Verdict: Buy

Final Score: 4/5

Geekscape Games Reviews: ‘Until Dawn’

by Derek KraneveldtAugust 30, 2015

It’s hard to believe that Until Dawn is finally here. First announced for the Playstation 3 back at GamesCom in 2012, as a survival-horror fan I was instantly enamoured with the idea of playing through a slasher flick. The first-person perspective, Playstation Move-based title was to be the game that would have me dust off my Move controllers, and the immersion of actually controlling the character’s flashlights would likely prove too much for me to handle.

Then, Until Dawn disappeared, only to re-emerge at GamesCom 2014 as a Playstation 4 exclusive. In its transition to a new generation, Until Dawn lost its first-person perspective and Move support, and gained some gorgeous visuals and a talented, recognizable cast. Pretty fair trade, if you ask me (though that Move support actually looked awesome).

https://youtu.be/4yQsa3uwkR8

Now it’s August 2015, and Until Dawn is finally here, though unless you were waiting for its release, you probably had no idea, as Sony’s marketing machine is apparently turned off for this title. It sort of makes sense, as earlier this year the publisher released another very cinematic, short (really short) title (The Order: 1886) that had gamers polishing their pitchforks because ‘it wasn’t a real game’.

The story is rife with horror tropes, and for the most part, they actually all work pretty well. You’ll take control of eight (old looking) teens gathered at a remote (Canadian) mountain lodge over the course of one night. They’re there on the one-year anniversary of the disappearance of two of their friends (who disappeared from the same remote mountain lodge), to remember them, and to, of course, party. Things turn sour pretty quickly, as the group discovers that they’re not as alone as they thought they were. It’s then up to you to ensure that they survive UNTIL DAWN… Did I mention that the surrounding area also contains an abandoned sanatorium and a partially collapsed mine with a terrible history?

Yep, the story is cheesy (and campy) as hell, but every trope and cliché actually lends itself quite well to the tone of the game. You feel as though you’re playing through a slasher flick, but a fun slasher flick that never takes itself overly seriously. Until Dawn builds a phenomenal atmosphere, and can be truly terrifying at (many) times, but you’ll find yourself laughing just as often as you feel your palms sweating from fear. It’s really a great balance that’s designed to keep you playing the game, which is a huge paradigm shift from all-scary games like Alien: Isolation (which I love but can only play in 20-minute chunks).

Now, to really enjoy Until Dawn you’ll likely need to be a fan of either horror (duh), David Cage style games like Beyond: Two Souls or Heavy Rain, or at least open minded to an atypical gaming experience. Just like the aforementioned titles, Until Dawn plays like more of a heavily interactive movie than it does a traditional video game. Sure, you’ll get to walk around a lot of tense, dark, scary locales, but most of the ‘action’ is regulated to tough, time-limited choices and quicktime events. Things start out fairly forgiving, miss a quicktime event and you’ll likely have a chance to recover, but later in the game I found times where one missed button press led to a character’s demise. There are also some truly terrifying (and clever) ‘Don’t Move’ moments, in which you must hold the DualShock 4 controller as still as possible in order to remain hidden. These were definitely some of the most stressful moments in my play through of the game.

As I mentioned earlier, you’re taking control of eight potential survivors over the course of the game. The evening is broken up into ten chapters that seem to split playtime fairly evenly between most of the characters. Between each chapter you’ll have a therapy session with Dr. Alan Hill, a creepy as hell psychiatrist who analyzes your fears, which characters you like and dislike (you’re going to dislike Emily), and tells you just how much you’re screwing things up. According to Supermassive Games, every character can survive the night, or everyone can die, depending entirely on the choices that you make. This means that you’ll probably want to replay the game (I know that I did the instant that I finished it), and that things can turn out starkly different each time you play. As always, there are a variety of collectible ‘clues’ to be found that provide you with some interesting backstory, and (of course) gets you closer to that cherished Platinum Trophy.

Visually, the game is gorgeous. It runs on the Killzone: Shadowfall engine which seems to have aged extremely well over these past two years. There really isn’t an aspect of the game that doesn’t look good. Indoor and outdoor environments have a very real feel to them, trees and branches sway in the wind, your characters leave tracks (or even blood) in the snow. Cinematography in the game is simply brilliant, constant, tense camera angles echo the early days of Resident Evil and Silent Hill, and do a fantastic job of making you feel as though you’re seconds away from the next scare, even if you’re nowhere near it. The characters themselves look and sound phenomenal; Supermassive used recognizable talent like Heroes Hayden Paettiere, Mr. Robot’s Rami Malek, and many more, and performance capture technology akin to Rockstar’s LA Noire to skyrocket the game’s production values and make it feel even more like an interactive film.

Optimization, however, leaves a bit to be desired. The game can go from silky smooth to a stuttering mess from time to time, which can really break the fantastic immersion felt the rest of the time. There’s the occasional lip sync issue, and I had a few instances where sound effects seemed as though they didn’t hit at just the right time (which is, of course, immensely important to a horror title). Other (non-technical) issues are few and far between; a so-cheesy-its-bad line of dialogue here and there, etc. I’ve read a few opinions stating that the story took a too-crazy turn for its third act, but I found the misdirection to be incredibly clever, and the third act to be, by far, the most tense section of the game.

If you can’t tell from the 1000+ words you’ve just read, I had a freaking blast with Until Dawn. I played through its ten hour journey in just three sittings, and it was one of the hardest games in recent memory to actually stop playing. I’m itching to jump back in and just see what else I can discover, see how many characters I can actually save, and to dig deeper into the troubled history of the mountain.

Until Dawn scores a campy 4/5.

+ Visuals, sound, atmosphere are phenomenal

+ Extremely well paced, interesting plot

+ Stellar performances

– Occasional technical issues

– A few lines that are too cheesy for their own good

– Emily is the worst

Coolest feature that I wasn’t able to test: If you own a Playstation Camera, the game will actually record your reactions to certain scary moments. Super clever.

SDCC 2015: We Throw Down With Tiny Robots In ‘Little Battlers Experience’

by Josh JacksonAugust 17, 2015

Robot battles are awesome, aren’t they? It’s too bad we haven’t seen too many awesome games using the concept in recent years. While games like Virtual On and Custom Robo hold a special place in our hearts, there’s definitely a void that was left by the lack of new content when it comes to this genre. Thankfully, Level-5 is taking the controls and leading charge with Little Battlers Experience, a long running anime and game series that is finally seeing its Western debut on the 3DS this year. Playable at Comic-Con in the Nintendo Lounge, we took the chance to get into a 3-on-3 skirmish with our fellow con-goers.

With a variety of robots to choose from, each cardboard battler has a variety of special attacks, ranged fire and melee skills at their disposal. In addition to general stat differences like speed and attack power, each must be considered when trying to match up the perfect robot with your play style.

Once we hit the field, our teams clashed with the goal of knocking out the opposing team first. This wasn’t as easy as it sounded, since each robot has a limit to how much they can attack before they have to cool down. Try spamming your best skills, and you’ll be left behind as a sitting duck with no way to defend yourself. However, if you manage your skills well while landing flurries of attacks, you’ll gain access to a super attack, that does huge damage to the unlucky opponents who find themselves in your way.

What helps is that movement is exactly what we would expect like something from robot gaming’s past, relying on locking on, circle strafing, and boosting around the field while avoiding damage. The team dynamic made this Vs. mode more interesting as well, since the winning team would usually coordinate their attacks to either defend partners in trouble, or gang up on an isolated foe to rack up those KOs. Attacking wildly would usually lead to a loss, so working together definitely had its advantages.

After walking away with victory in hand, I couldn’t wait to try more. If you’re a fan of games like Virtual On, then LBX is looking like it will definitely scratch that mech battle itch. With an expert team like Level-5 behind it, would we expect anything less? All I know is with the awesome looking robot design and fluid game play, this title is high on my radar.

Little Battlers Experience will release for the 3DS on August 21st.

Geekscape Games Reviews ‘Yu-Gi-Oh: Legacy Of The Duelist’

by Josh JacksonAugust 11, 2015

Platforms: PS4, Xbox One (Digital Only, Reviewed On Xbox One)

Genre: Trading Card Game

Price: $20.00

Publisher: Konami

Developer: Other Ocean Interactive

Available: Now

What used to be a franchise where multiple releases across nearly every platform every year was considered a sure thing, the world of Yu-Gi-Oh has really dialed it back in the video game department in recent years. For many, (including myself,) the games were always a great tool to gain access to hundreds of potential strategies to experiment with, while developing a firm grasp of new rules as the game evolved. With the recent release of Yu-Gi-Oh: Legacy Of The Duelist, the first game in the series for PS4 and Xbox One is a return to form for the long running series, serving as the most comprehensive game yet! Despite its card pool that reaches over a decade back and heaps of nostalgia however, a few head scratching snags keep it from being the Duelist Kingdom we were hoping for.

Pendulum Summoning is one of many summoning types in the game.

As mentioned, Yu-Gi-Oh: Legacy of the Duelist goes as far back as the beginning of the series, all the way up to cards that were released early this year. With over 6,600 cards in total,this is easily the most comprehensive console version released up to this point. If you don’t know the difference between a Blue Eyes White Dragon or a Galaxy Eyes Photon Dragon, if you think Xyz is a dragon cannon, or if the last time your dueled was when you were getting your game on with Jaden in GX, this is far from a problem. Thanks to the game’s campaign mode, (where the bulk of the single player content lies,) each of its four main stories contain about 25 duels, all of which cover the most important events through each anime series. Using text dialogue ripped straight from the show, jumping into each generation starts off with a comprehensive tutorial explaining the new mechanics that were debuted at the time. Even though it’s annoying that veterans can’t skip these, or that the first series has such a long explanation of the most basic mechanics, (I probably wouldn’t be playing if I didn’t know what a Normal Summon is,) its an invaluable tool for those who dropped out throughout the years and want to get caught up with the game a little bit at a time.

Story mode often serves as a game of patience, which in some ways, simulates the struggles each character faced on the show. These scenarios give the player a Story Deck that simulates the cards that were actually used in the episodes they’re drawn from, which can be a blessing and a curse. On one hand, though the decks do have a fair amount of cards they never used, (which is expected when episodes only featured about a dozen cards out of a 40 card deck,) but are mostly accurate, with each staple monster, spell and trap making an appearance. On the other hand, these decks SUCK by today’s standards, especially when starting with the early series. Their only saving grace, (often to our detriment,) is that single player throws ban lists out the window, so its not uncommon to be sent into a deck kicking rage after enduring multiple Dark Hole, Raigeki, and Swords Of Revealing Light cards. Luckily, your opponent’s deck is usually worse, but that luck runs out when it comes to Reverse Duels, unlockable battles where you take control of the losing character. Using their Story Decks makes it almost impossible to win, often having to rely on “the heart of the cards”, to sneak away with a victory. This is why the campaign giving you the option to use custom decks is a gift from Ra, because some of these duels would be almost impossible to beat otherwise. Then again, relying on them took away from the fun found in playing with cards you might never use on your own.

Winning unlocks new Booster Packs based on certain character, cards from the defeated Duelist’s deck, and points to buy new cards with. Lastly, if you want to face these protagonists of the past with a little more challenge, Duelist Challenges allow you to play against them with updated decks. Seeing Kaiba and Yugi using Synchro and Xyz summoning is a sight within itself, while keeping an already lengthy single player mode fresh. If all this content isn’t enough, some of the missing story duels are featured as DLC, many of which had no business being left out, (Jaden vs. Yugi anyone!?) Basically, if it wasn’t featured on U.S. TV, you’re going to have to pay extra for it.

Key moments from the anime play out with dialogue ripped from the show’s script.

Duels themselves take the form of a variety of phases per turn, with each card having different functions as each phase goes by. Without going too far into detail, each card falls into one of three types. Monsters are used to attack or defend against your opponent, (most of which come with secondary effects,) Spell Cards unleash effects that have the potential to turn a duel around in the user’s favor, and Trap Cards spring surprise effects on the opponent, usually putting a stop to their moves. Speaking of Traps, (and Quick Spells for that matter,) unless you’re brand new to the game, you might want to switch the default settings for Duel Notifications off. Unless of course, you want the game to ask you half a dozen times per turn if you want to use it. It’s all pretty straightforward presentation and game play wise, but the only real issue I came across was with how slow the game moves. Previous versions had ways to speed up turn animations or skip them outright, whereas Next Gen gaming doesn’t seem to have the option to do so. And while seeing signature cards come to life and attack using 3D models, these just drag the game out after you’ve seen them repeatedly with no way to pass them by.

Elemental Hero Neos makes his entrance. Oddly, Flame Wingman doesn’t get the same treatment.

As a real duelist, part of the reason some have had trouble getting into the game is those handful of players with bad attitudes. As we know, the Internet tends to make this attitude so much worse, which is why the acceptable Online Mode is best played with people you know. If you’re expecting to have fun, competitive matches with players around the world, you’ll surely be disappointed by the large amount of rage quitting that takes place. While I wouldn’t normally hold this against the game itself, the fact that it doesn’t give the remaining player the win, or even that it takes so long to make the win official, it gives quitters so much time to sneak away with their record clean. Since there’s no way to Mind Crush over Xbox Live or PSN, avoiding them or accepting this fact going in are your only solutions.

Online play is fun with friends. With strangers, prepare for rage quits.

With so many cards, even veteran duelists might feel a little overwhelmed with gathering the best cards for their deck building needs. Thankfully, the game is generous with its allocation, giving you a variety of ways to unlock them. Primarily, cards are purchased from the Booster Packs mentioned above using Duel Points, (or DP,) which are rewarded for playing and winning duels. Outside of the character packs, Battle Packs make their video game debut, which mirror their real life purpose of building decks right out of the pack. Featuring some of the best cards in the game, Battle Packs test your duel knowledge, forcing you to play a best three out of five series either against the CPU or other players with the same blind deck. Win or lose, you keep the cards for your own deck building needs. Character packs provide their reward immediately, with each set being loaded with cards from each generation. Sadly, with a new console generation comes some of its annoyances, since many of the very best and most up to date cards are locked behind DLC pay walls.

Yet, while having thousands of cards is definitely a great thing, Legacy Of The Duelist‘s biggest flaw is how poorly it handles card management. For one, there are far too few Character Packs, so each one is full of archetypes that the booster’s namesake never used. For example, if Pegasus had his own pack featuring Toons and Relinquished instead of them being forced into Kaiba’s packs, it would make it easier for Seto’s fans to gather up Blue Eyes cards rather than plod through a ton of cards they don’t want. This wouldn’t be a huge problem normally, but the game does a terrible job of filtering out repeats, leaving me opening packs with three of the same card at times. With each set containing hundreds of cards, it makes it almost impossible to get that one card you’re desperate to find without potential hours of pack grinding.

Oh, and the worst part? There is no in game card list telling you what’s in each pack. That’s right, absolutely none! The cards you buy don’t tell you where they came from, and there’s no list telling you if you’re missing anything. With so many cards available, this creates a huge problem for those who want to keep track of where to get more than one of the same card, or who wants to let their friends know where they can find their favorite cards. The only sign of relief is that beating the CPU duelists repeatedly will eventually reward you with their entire deck, but this answer is far from ideal. An online trading system, a card password system like what was used in the past, or a simple list would have gone a long way to improve this aspect of the game. Instead, it serves as its biggest flaw in an otherwise comprehensive title.

Does anyone know who drops a Dark Magician!?

Featuring over 6,600 cards spanning nearly 15 years of history, including the newest Pendulum Summon mechanic from the Arc-V era and the debut of Battle Packs, there’s plenty of reason for new and old duelists alike to be excited for Yu-Gi-Oh: Legacy of the Duelist. Best used as a tool to get back into the game, learn it for the first time, and test out a near limitless vault of cards before buying the cards for yourself, it serves its purpose well. A nostalgia filled campaign will keep you playing for hours while Duelist Challenges update the game for your favorites, but its poor online management, thoughtless card management system, slower pace and DLC locked content keep it from being the true king of games. Still, if you wanted an excuse to get your feet wet in the dueling arena, there isn’t a better way to learn the game than Legacy of the Duelist.

tl;dr:

+ Over 6,600 cards to use, featuring nearly limitless possibilities.

+ Comprehensive tutorials that explain the new mechanics from each generation in a progressive, easy to understand way.

+ A lengthy campaign mode skims every anime series thus far, using mostly authentic decks. Challenge Duels update these characters with modern cards, keeping your favorite characters relevant.

+ Battle Packs make their first video game appearance, creating an unpredictable way to play.

– Duels move slow, with unskippable animations for certain Monsters.

– Online is poorly handled, creating an environment where its easy to rage quit with no reward for the winner.

– Booster Packs contain far too many cards, making it hard to find your favorites. Having no card list to keep track of your finds make this so much worse, and the lack of a trading or password system means tons of grinding.

– Key cards and story duels locked behind a DLC paywall.

Verdict: Buy

Final Score: 3/5

Geekscape Games Reviews ‘Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold: The Fafnir Knight’

by Megan HaleyAugust 11, 2015

With so many RPGs out on the market for portable systems, it’s easy to let some slip through the cracks. Despite word of mouth being strong for the Etrian Odyssey series, I had never had a chance to pick one up before, (or any first person dungeon-crawler for that matter). Taking on such a huge game can be intimidating to some, but thanks to Atlus and their newest 3DS release, Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold: The Fafnir Knight, and its new features to make the game more accessible to beginners, I decided it was finally time to dive in. After over 50 hours later, and what I discovered was a deep adventure with seemingly limitless content to uncover and a rewarding level of difficulty, but not without a few snags along the way.

Being the first Etrian Odyssey game I’ve ever even glanced at, I had a lot to orient myself to. Drawing and marking your maps is an integral part of properly exploring this game. Cartography is something I have never even considered the possibility of being a fun thing to do. Of course, I have been known to obsess over making sure that I uncover every darkened pixel of the map of [insert choice of RPG here] so I had an idea of how much time I would be spending with the map tools. The rewards are well worth the tedium though, as it will save you tons of time on back-tracking through the later floors trying to find certain items, locations or enemies if you have marked them previously.

From what I understand, the map-making elements in this latest Etrian Odyssey have been made much more accessible through animated map icons, such as the bridge icon that lets you know whether a bridge is up or down and what side it needs to be accessed from to be lowered or raised. You also have the ability to leave yourself notes on elements that you have found, there are a ton of different colors to mark your map with, and it is always visible from the lower touch screen of the 3DS. Auto-mapping is also super useful and saves you a ton of time while exploring by automatically drawing walls and floors where you walk.

As useful as the auto-map feature is, I ran into a snag within the first 20 minutes of the game. Auto-mapping is automatically turned to ON from the beginning of the game to help first-timers successfully complete the only mission in the game where completing your map matters at all. While exploring the cartography features and trying to map all of the little squares how I thought they should be, I attempted to fill in every square that’s auto-generating green with the red color and draw walls in places that made sense to me. Flash-forward to the next two hours full of despair, as I re-draw the map over and over, running back and forth to the town to see if it will let me turn in the mission as completed. I finally conceded defeat when I hit hour 3, asking my Geekscape compatriot to start a new file, and lo and behold, auto-mapping took care of the mission necessities and he was able to turn in the mission within the first half-hour. And the lesson of the day for this game is: Don’t be overzealous with your map-making. Not only so you don’t tire yourself of the game in the first hour, but there are a ton of floors to map.

With the first mission fiasco behind me, Sir KagoMegan and party continued on through the world, fighting in random battles, finding hidden items and secret events along the way. The game has a nifty color coded danger bar that alerts you with a short quip from one of the characters in your party if an enemy is about to pounce. This comes in handy when you are trying to avoid the large, stronger enemies that circle certain paths on the map, referred to cleverly as “F.O.E.”s. If you enter a random encounter in the visibility range or path of an F.O.E. (depending on the type), they will move towards you every turn until the random battle ends. Early in the game, it can be as good as a game over if you accidentally engage a F.O.E. before you’re ready to face it.

To defeat some of the stronger enemies in the game, you’ll need to enter battle with a sound strategy. Typical of a lot of RPGs, you may organize party members in FRONT or BACK lines according to their talents. Archers, healers, mages are best suited to the back row as they have the range, need to be protected and often have less defense and health while more defensive characters and strong attackers with melee weapons go in front. Of course, the choice on how to utilize your characters is entirely up to you, as you have the option to change a character’s weapon specialty and upgrade tree at any time in the game back in town.

Every character also has what are called FORCE abilities, which will be integral to your battle strategy when fighting some of the game’s more challenging enemies. For example, Ariana’s FORCE ability allows her to extend her ORDER command, which includes healing, attack up and defense up, to the entire party, as opposed to a single character or line of allies. FORCE BREAK will allow you to use a powerful move, but you will not be able to use your FORCE move again for that character until you return to town, so it should be used as a last resort.

The most efficient way to restore your Force Gauge is to stay at the hotel in town. Every time you stay, there is a chance to get extra dialogue with characters currently in your party. These are fun little additions which sometimes add a nice unlockable, animated picture to your in-game gallery. In town, you can accept extra missions, purchase new equipment and even cook recipes for useful stat bonuses in dungeons. In the bar where you accept your extra missions, you can access all of the DLC you have downloaded which includes a bunch of optional boss fights if the regular grind is just not enough of a challenge for you.

Grimoire stones are introduced a couple of hours into the game. They are created randomly through battling enemies and can produce a variety of skills including enemy skills, some of which can be quite useful early on. Grimoires allow the character that equips them to take on a new ability that they don’t have or enhance any ability that they do have available. You can visit the town to trade Grimoires with other players through Streetpass using stones you don’t need. You will also get the occasional random visitor with a nice stone or two, so make sure to check that area frequently.

The level of challenge that I experienced while playing Etrian Odyssey was refreshing to say the least. Being a person who enjoys a solid challenge in their games, I was thoroughly impressed by the level of strategy that I had to employ just to progress through the story of the game. There was never a sense of being over-leveled for any dungeon, and all of the bosses required a good amount of time and effort to beat, but it really just made me feel like I truly earned every victory. After almost 50 hours into this game and I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface. Etrian Odyssey is a fun, exploration-driven dungeon-crawler with great characters, and a crap-ton of content, which is sure to satisfy RPG lovers for a long, long time. Whether or not you’re new to the series or are a dungeon exploring veteran, you’d do well to check out The Fafnir Knight.

Verdict: Buy

Final Score: 4/5

Geekscape Games Reviews: ‘Project Spark: Conker Play and Create’

by The_aczAugust 3, 2015

Over one year ago during E3 2014, Microsoft showed off a trailer for one of their upcoming titles called Project Spark. For those who don’t know, Project Spark is a creator driven game along the likes of LittleBigPlanet in which the game’s campaign mode is made entirely from the in game level editor. This makes it possible to perfectly re-create those levels, or even design your own. At the end of the trailer, everyone was greeted to a nice surprise; as it was announced that Conker the squirrel would be a playable character in some form or another. It was also announced that he’d be voiced by the creator of the Conker series himself, Chris Seavor.

Flash forward to about a year later, where it’s now revealed that the Conker content for Project Spark will be an episodic series of games along with creation assets, so fans can make their own Conker games. Now, even though the creation pack has been out for some time, I’ve only now gotten around to it, because Project Spark is celebrating their first successful year after launch. To commemorate this, many expansions and bundles are half priced including the Conker set. I figured I’d check it out since I had $5 in Xbox credit from pre ordering Rare Replay.

So, Is the Conker Play and Create Bundle a steal of a deal, or does it have the makings of another bad fur day? When you buy the Bundle you get 2 things. These include Conker’s Big Reunion Episode 1, and Conker: Hail to the Remix. Let’s start with Conker’s Big Reunion First.

The story of Big Reunion takes place 10 years after the events of bad fur day, but instead of being a direct sequel, it’s just a side story. The plot synopsis is as follows: 10 years have passed since the events of Bad Fur Day, and to celebrate, Conker is hosting a reunion for all of his friends at his favorite bar, The Cock and Plucker. Once he arrives, he is unable to enter because he is told by Birdy the Scarecrow that he has a $300 bar tab he needs to pay off. From there, Conker sets off on a brand new adventure to pay off his tab and join his reunion.

Art style & Sound

To start off with, the art style is very nice. The game takes a bit more inspiration from the original Bad Fur Day instead of Live and Reloaded. Environments are bright, and Conker and co. are very nicely re-designed to look a bit more simplistic, but also very detailed. Everything from Conker’s fur to Birdy’s loose hay, to even the Tediz fluff and hand stitched texture are really welcome and suit the characters very well.

Sound is also pretty top notch. Original BFD composer, Robin Beanland, returns, once again, to score Big Reunion. Most of them are just slight updates of previous Conker tunes but are still as catchy and memorable as ever. The voice acting is also top notch. Once again, Chris Seavor, creator and voice of everyone’s favorite squirrel himself, returns to voice the titular character himself and all of his friends. Seavor is just as sharp witted as ever and never misses a single joke or beat.

Gameplay

Gameplay is identical to Bad Fur Day. Conker can run jump and even use his tail helicopter to double jump and hover across large gaps. He also comes equipped with his trusty Frying Pan which he uses to clobber any Tediz in sight. There are 3 specific areas in this episode that you’ll be exploring; each of which comes with their own gameplay style.

There’s the Tediz secret hideout which consists of a first person shooter segment, and a battle that you could say is very BALLSY. The Tediz brewery, which focuses on platforming, and even getting drunk enough to bypass a wall of beer that is aggressively spraying you off the edge. 3^rd and final, you have the Tediz lumberyard, in which you have to sneak your way through the forest Metal Gear Solid style and even face off against a chainsaw wielding maniac with a twist. There’s some more stuff in there, but I’ll save that for if you decide to play through it. The different gameplay styles are very welcome and help the game from becoming too repetitive and stale.

The only real downsides are that the game is on the very short side. It’ll only take you about 30 minutes – An hour to complete the game, and there really isn’t anything to go back to after you complete the episode. Other than that, Conker’s Big Reunion is a fun, if not short, fun tribute to the series. Hopefully we won’t have to wait much longer for the developers, Team Dakota, to make the 2^nd episode.

Hail to the Remix

The last thing to touch upon is Conker: Hail to the Remix. This is the creation pack that you get when you purchase the play and create bundle. This creation pack comes with everything seen in Big Reunion Episode 1. Everything from Conker, to Birdy, to even Fajo the Money Wad is there. It even comes with the Windy Grasslands Biome used to make the setting for the episode. The creation tools are very extensive and have given way to some very cool community levels. I’d recommend trying out R.T and Conker’s Other Bad Day Tribute just to name a few.

You also get a Conker as a playable champion for some of the other modes in Project Spark including Crossroads Adventure and Champion’s Quest: Void Storm. In these modes, Conker comes equipped with his Baseball Bat that he used in Live and Reloaded and his trusty SMG. He also has a special ability you can activate. When you defeat enemies, they will leave behind a wad of cash which Conker can collect. Once Conker collects at least 4 of those, you can summon a giant Context Sensitive Button out of nowhere and unleash a devastating special attack. Depending on your level, your special attacks can be anything from Deadly farts and throwing flaming cocktails, to turning into a giant lizard monster and calling in poo air strikes.

Final Verdict

All in all, the Conker Play and Create Bundle is a love letter to all things Conker. People who have played Bad Fur Day, wanting desperately for a long awaited sequel won’t find that here. However, they’ll still find enjoyment in it. This is also great for people who need a quick Conker fix before Rare Replay comes out. I was able to snag it for only $5, but even $10 is a steal for this pack and definitely worth picking it up. What’s even better is that Project Spark is FREE on both Xbox One and PC.

So what are you waiting for? Get out there and create some awesome new Conker games!

Final Rating: Buy

Geekscape Games Reviews ‘Lost Dimension’

by Josh JacksonJuly 27, 2015

Stop me if you’ve heard this before. A diverse group of young people with special powers come together to save the world from an all-powerful threat, or in other words, half the role playing games that have come out of Japan. But when it comes to the concept of Lost Dimension, the latest RPG from Atlus, that’s about all it has in common with prior releases. Because you see, it’s not enough to climb the dangerous tower that the team is locked in while destroying their foes along the way. And it’s not enough to defeat “The End”, a mysterious enemy that’s responsible for threatening the world, The only way to climb each floor is to sacrifice one of your own, one of which may end up being a traitor to the team. Your decisions determine whether or not you kill a loyal comrade, or a snake in the grass who is looking to double cross you when the time is right. Feeling the pressure yet?

As a tactical turn based title, most of your time crawling through Lost Dimension‘s dungeons will be spent completing objectives for each mission, most of which involve completely defeating the enemy squad. Basic game play lives and dies by the team assisting each other while positioning them to do the most damage. Every team member has a certain amount of space they can move in, with the idea being to get into attack range while avoiding a potential counter attack. Each character specializes in a particular weapon, (outside of their abilities, which we’ll talk more about below,) ranging from pistols to knives, swords and even their fists! Each weapon has its own range, accuracy and power, which is only increased by closing the distance between you and the target. If members in your party are also in range, they’ll follow up your attack with one of their own, allowing you to pile on the damage. Keep in mind though, that all of the above strategies apply for your opponents as well, so you’ll want to think twice about throwing your units to the wolves.

Carelessly placing units between enemies will lead to disastrous results.

Each of the 11 member squad of psychics have their own specialties, (or Gifts as they’re called,) ranging from pyrokinesis to teleportation on top of their standard attacks. As you complete missions, earn EXP and level up, each member can expand their existing abilities or branch out towards new ones, with an impressive amount of options to unlock. You’ll obviously want to exploit enemy weaknesses with these Gifts in a variety of ways, ranging from using the right elemental attacks, boosting your party’s stats between clashes, luring enemies into small groups to take them out with area attacks and so on, but abusing your abilities drains your character’s sanity.

Losing your sanity is a double edged sword, because while that character does gain the benefit of boosted attack power and full health regeneration, their defense sinks while teammates around them get weaker due to being overcome with fear. The berserk teammate becomes CPU controlled and attacks friend and foe alike at random, so unless you’re using it as a last ditch effort to inch out a win, you’ll run a real risk of killing your own team. It’s all or nothing mechanics like these that make the combat that much more interesting, especially when the game comes off as an attempt at a “My First Strategy RPG” with how easily exploitable the fighting mechanics are with no real consequence to dying outside of earning a lower end of mission rank, and highly repetitive enemies. That’s not to say the game isn’t fun, (on the contrary, I found myself addicted more often than not,) but seasoned gamers should be able to blow through both the side and main quests pretty quickly.

Overusing gifts has its own consequences. Choose wisely.

While Lost Dimensions puts you in direct control of so many powerful psychics, players will primarily play as Sho, who The End seems to hold an unknown grudge against. Sho would have to hold some kind of amazing power to draw such ire from the main antagonist, right? Well at the start, Sho demonstrates his power to… shoot really well? In reality, his main power is the ability to read minds, which comes in handy when it’s eventually revealed that there’s a traitor on the team. At the end of each mission, (whether it’s replaying an old one or completing a quest for the first time,) Sho will hear thoughts from his team in the most extreme game of Guess Who anyone’s ever played. By mixing up your team of six, you’ll have to find the correlation between who’s on your team when these negative thoughts pop up, narrow it down to a few red herrings and the actual mole, then use your limited “Deep Vision” to dive into their mind and discover the truth. And if you’re thinking of using a guide to cheat your way through, don’t bother. The traitors are randomized during each play through.

Then again, as if Lost Dimension was trying to be as much of a reality show simulator as it is a video game, just because you know who you want to get rid of doesn’t mean your friends will agree. The balancing act that the game presents is that your team will trust whoever fights more often. Yet, the only way to pinpoint who the suspects are is by bringing them on missions. When quests wrap up, one or two comrades might ask your opinion in order to sway the votes a bit, but while this concept is great in concept, it becomes more of a chore to keep playing missions just to change the opinions of a few people until the vote is leaning towards the desired outcome.

Examining your comrade’s thoughts is vital for rooting out the traitor.

Outside of the simplistic game play and the somewhat grind heavy parts that slow down Lost Dimension, its biggest flaw is a byproduct of its amazing concept. Since each character can be killed at the end of every chapter, outside of a few personality quirks, none of these people stand out at all. They don’t have strong ties to the main story, their personal backstories, (which can be uncovered by building relationships with them through optional, limited conversation choices,) came off as shallow and rarely left me attached, and uncovering them as traitors provides no explanation as to why they’re trying to destroy the world outside of a Scooby-Doo-esque, “darn, you caught me” speech. Motives are implied through hidden notes and a second run through New Game + provides more details on the overall narrative, but it’s hard to care about when your party members die off if you weren’t interested in them to begin with. The only real loss is being unable to expand their powers, but whatever you unlocked up to that point can be equipped to a living member, making sure those skills don’t go to waste.

Eh, no big loss.

So now that my time with Lost Dimension has come and gone, I’m left feeling like I’ve witnessed what could be the start of a truly innovative, potentially game changing series if these concepts are given more time to grow, but one thats not without its weak points. Small annoyances aside, (like not being able to skip enemy turns, the camera getting stuck on walls when displaying far away enemies, having to restart your entire turn to adjust your movement range and Nagi’s levitation leaving her stuck on people’s heads to name a few,) it’s unique ideas are held back by a weak plot and little reason to care about who lives and dies. Its simplistic game play and relatively short length for an RPG don’t help matters, and its grind heavy methods for altering votes make eliminations more tedious than they have to be. Still, the large amount of customization options when it comes to Gifts, the pressure when trying to find the traitor in each chapter, make this one of the more memorable games I’ve played this year. I truly feel like we have something special with Lost Dimension, it just needs some more refinement to execute its ambitious ideas.

Final Score: 3/5

Saint Mort’s Nostalgia Nightmare “Cellar Dweller & Catacombs” Blu-Ray Review

by SaintmortJuly 13, 2015

It feels so great to be back! Welcome once again to Saint Mort’s Nostalgia Nightmare! This week I’ll be reviewing Scream Factory’s Double Feature release of Cellar Dweller and Catacombs. This will be my first time watching both of these films but I’ve heard good things for both of titles so I’m kind of excited.

Before a single credit comes on the screen we are introduced to Jeffery Combs playing a comic book artists in 1958. Suddenly his comic monster comes to life (along with the comic victim). it immediately reminded me of the Korman’s Kalamity episode of Tales from the Crypt (although the movie pre-dates that episode by a few years). Combs’ role is short lived but he manages to take the cellar dweller down with him. Flash forward to present day (1988) and another animator accidentally brings the Cellar Dweller back endangering herself and her friends.

This movie was a ton of fun to watch. It’s a quick film (a brisk 77 minutes) and fairly funny. The Cellar Dweller looks pretty good as far as low-budget creature effects go and the acting isn’t as bad as you’d expect from such low-budget schlock. The film was written by Don Mancini (one of his few non-child’s play writing credits) and directed by John Carl Buechler who directed such 80’s classics as Troll, Friday the 13th VII: The New Blood and Ghoulies Go to College.

Now on to Catacombs

Catacombs is a little slower. It’s not a bad movie but it’s not a movie for me. However I know a ton of people who would LOVE this movie. It has great sets, fantastic performances and definitely is a film that should be more well-known. I can admit this even without particularly liking the film.

Perhaps the biggest disservice for the film is that I watched it immediately after Cellar Dweller which was the superior film. However Cellar Dweller has no special features, Catacombs comes with a director’s commentary.

Either way this double feature is worth owning because Cellar Dweller was amazing and Catacombs is worth watching at least once.

The Cellar Dweller/Catacombs Blu-ray is available today from Scream Factory. Also released today is the double feature of The Outing/The Godsend and Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf.

Matt Kelly is the host of The Saint Mort Show and co-host of Horror Movie Night. He’s also the writer of the Every Damn DVD blog.

Geekscape Games Reviews ‘Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 3: V Generation’

by Josh JacksonJune 30, 2015

When I heard that Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory was getting the remake treatment in the form of a third Re;Birth game, I was curious to see how that would turn out. After all, part of the purpose of creating the remakes in the first place was to improve on the first two games by designing them with the game play mechanics of the third title. So when it came to recreating Neptune’s most recent canonical adventure in Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 3: V Generation, the game takes chances with tweaks to the game play mechanics, more plans to create, new story scenes, and larger environments. While it’s reassuring that the game is more than a copy paste job, not all of these updates are for the better.

Our return to Gamindustri is met with complete apathy from our CPU heroines. After enjoying years of peace after the events of the previous games, Neptune and the others have spent their time playing video games all day while neglecting their work, (which hits a little too close to home.) As word of restless citizens forming an organization that seeks to create a world without CPU’s spreads, Nep is finally forced to create some goodwill by getting off her butt and working for the people. As we’ve learned many times over however, work sucks, which is proven since Nep’s questing results in her getting transported to an alternate universe based on gaming in the late 80’s. Now stranded without her CPU powers, Planeptune’s goddess must help Plutia, this dimension’s constantly sleepy, (and secretly sadistic,) goddess of Planeptune, and the alternate versions of Noire, Blanc and Vert, while restoring her strength, fighting off the mysterious Seven Sages who look to rid Gamindustri of the goddesses, and building up enough energy to return home.

It wouldn’t be Neptunia without endless gaming references.

For those who thought the second game was had toned down the humor too much compared to the constantly lighthearted story of the first game, V Generation takes the narrative back to its roots along with its original protagonist. Rarely serious, the story serves as a parody of the game industry from the NES days, with bits and pieces of modern gaming mixed in. One of the highlights of the dialogue aside from the constant fourth wall breaking and gaming reverences galore, (does anyone else remember Fighting Vipers?), is to see how events such as the rise of Sony, the fall of Nintendo, and Xbox’s oversees struggles play out. These scenes are an interesting love letter to those who have been following the industry for so long, acting as a reward for playing in its own right. With that in mind, the experience would be even more enjoyable if more of it was voiced. It seemed like the dialogue here was only displayed through text more often than its predecessors, which was a bit disappointing.

Exploration is essentially the same as its always been, choosing which country you want to go to by selecting it on an overworld map. In addition to obtaining missions through the guild, shopping for items, or talking to the citizens of Gamindustri like in past games, a news based broadcast called the Nepstation debuts to break up the action at the start of every chapter. Usually delivering a humorous retelling of past events, selling bulk items, or offering in game trivia, I found this to be a small, yet memorable addition to the map. Once in a dungeon, the leader of the party plays an even larger role, with unlockable leader abilities that boost the whole party. Special challenges increase stats or award Plans as they are achieved as well, so actions like running or jumping a certain amount, attacking enemies in the field to initiate battles, or even accomplishments in battle like taking damage or landing a certain amount of hits all lead to these boosts, giving players an extra reason to rotate their party and its leaders.

Nearly every action, (or non-action,) will boost your stats.

Game play wise, battles are largely unchanged, but the way special attacks are handled was altered into a different beast, resembling something more similar to what was featured in the original version of the second game. In this full range turn based battle system, characters move in real time while they position themselves to center as many enemies as they can in their attack range. Each weapon and ability has its own attack area, making positioning vital to achieving victory, (no pun intended.) Broken down into three types of attacks, Rush builds up the EX/SP meter faster with multi hit moves, (we’ll talk more about the meter soon,) Power does more damage, and Break weakens enemy shields, allowing more damage per hit when completely broken. Starting with three attacks for every turn, unlocking EX attacks that trigger based on how full your SP bar is, and using items to synthesize extra attack slots now give each character the opportunity to use five attacks each round.

While this all sounds almost exactly like the previous games, the biggest change comes with the removal of the EX meter and integrating it into the SP meter. In the past, the SP meter was used to pay for special attacks, and was replenished by attacking, using items or leaving the area to recover it in full. The EX meter on the other hand, was a separate bar that was shared by the party. It could only be filled by attacking, and could be used to allow EX attacks, (as mentioned above,) or pay for EXE Drives, ultimate abilities that served as the quickest way to defeat bosses. While this system was admittedly easy to exploit and abused to breeze through tough fights, the new system makes it much harder to do so.

The flashiest attacks now come with a huge price.

While trying to strike a better balance is all well and good, I found that aspect to be the only advantage of the new, (old?), system. With the two meters combined, the SP meter is divided into four segments, which also act as the levels of the EX meter. Using EX attacks drains the meter, while each character gets their own instead of sharing it. Draining the bar at the wrong time will leave your characters stranded with their standard attacks while they rebuild their SP, so wasting it is a surefire way to crash and burn. The reason why this comes off as much more tedious is that leaving dungeons no longer replenishes the bar, forcing you to either use a ton of items, or grind out hits against weaker enemies until it fills. Considering how even transforming now costs a fifth of the bar on top of the EXE Drives and SP attack costs, you’ll find yourself spending more time than you want to fighting for the sake of having fully functional teammates again. But the absolute biggest flaw is that unlike past games, most of the single character EXE Drive attacks have to be unlocked, while the ones unlocked throughout the story are mostly double team moves. While powerful, these attacks use up 50% to 75% of the meter for BOTH characters, making half of your four person party essentially useless against bosses unless that attack was the finishing blow. Even if it is, guess what? More SP grinding!

Once you reach the late game chapters, you’ll be begging for the exploitable EX meter to return too, if for no other reason than to keep yourself from shattering your Vita in a blind rage. While Re;Birth 1 had its share of difficulty spikes, and Re;Birth 2 was a bit too easy for my tastes, this third game literally goes from one end of the spectrum to the other, sometimes in the same dungeon. There’s nothing more frustrating than blowing through all of the standard enemies in a dungeon with one turn KO’s, worried that you’re over-leveled, to getting one or two hit KO’d by bosses in those very same dungeons. I’m all for a challenge when it comes to my games, but I would also want it to build up over time. Re;Birth 3 doesn’t do this, making grinding, item hoarding, or blind luck a must to advance through the late game, a factor I didn’t encounter with its predecessors.

You’ll need those extra attack slots to survive the late game battles.

That’s not to say that Re;Birth 3 doesn’t have its fair share of improvements. Most prominently, the frame rate in battles and dungeon exploration has been improved to display a smooth, steady pace. Big attacks don’t chug along as noticably, and running through the maps are free of the slowdown that served as an annoyance in the prequels. Ironically, it’s with fixing another past complaint that the slowdown rears its ugly head again. Another long running issue is the amount of reused maps. While this game doesn’t do away with them, new dungeon designs constantly pop up while old ones are expanded with new or bigger rooms, with the ability to expand them further with the Remake system. In fact, while some are reskins, Re;Birth 3 contains more dungeons than any other games in the series by a large margin. However, when the bigger maps show up, so does the slowdown, biting off a bit more than the system can chew processing wise. The same is true with battles, since some feature many more enemies on screen at once. As you can probably guess, more enemies means more slowdown. That’s not to say we don’t appreciate the effort to expand the scope of Gamindustri, it’s just funny that these expansions undue the improvement to the more stable framerate.

Outside of these areas, Re;Birth 3 has also revamped some of its side content, including treasure hunting, creating plans, and the dreaded Stella’s Dungeon scout mini game. Instead of scanning the area for hidden items, each map hides at least one invisible Nep block. Mirroring the exploits of a certain plumber, hitting these blocks uncovers coins to buy items with, while weapons, armor or plans appear in rare instances.

Iris Heart tends to terrify friends and foes alike.

Speaking of plans, there are so many more this time around, bringing the best out of the Remake System. Basically a form of synthesizing from other RPG’s, the Remake System creates everything from new weapons, items, armor, outfits and dungeons, to changing the menu voice, battle music, adding attacks, changing the difficulty, and unlocking solo EXE Drives amongst many other features. On top of the discs that can be burned to create custom perks for your character, and its clear how customizable this game can be, more so now than ever.

Lastly, the Stella mini game from Re;Birth 2 returns, but manages to actually be enjoyable rather than terrifying and tedious. By equipping her with her own armor, weapons and partners to boost her abilities, Stella now climbs the Neptral Tower as she collects items for the party and herself. If you send her farther than her abilities can sustain, she’ll be KO’d by monsters, losing her armor and partner along the way. What helps me maintain my sanity this time around is that good equipment is easily obtainable if you do lose, and partners are recovered in a snap as long as you can reach the floor they fainted on. But most importantly, each map only takes about an hour or two of real time to passively progress depending on how far you are, even in sleep mode. Unlike the dungeons that could take literally over a day at their worst, only to fail right at the end, I would eagerly turn on my Vita JUST to check on Stella’s progress. Considering how much the original was universally reviled, to the point where separate DLC was released to make it manageable, to say this change is for the better would be an understatement.

You’ll actually want to play Stella’s Dungeon this time around.

When my time with Re;Birth 3 drew to a close, I found myself with an enjoyable, more ambitious effort than the previous games, with some fundamental flaws that keep it from being as great as its predecessors. Victory players will appreciate the expanded story, new translation, improved plan system, new maps and bigger environments. Re;Birth newbies will still find the laugh out loud humor and addicting battle system intact with the third game, with further improvements to Stella’s Dungeon and treasure hunting. Unfortunately, difficulty spikes, a tedious change to the SP Meter, and a story that’s a bit drawn out hold it back. Still, this retro trip through an alternate Gamindustri is one worth taking, and continues Neptunia’s trend of being one of the best RPG series found on the Vita. Want a lighthearted, self aware romp through a video game about video games? You can’t go wrong with Nep! Now, bring on Victory II!

tl;dr:

+ Neptune is back with the same laugh out loud humor we’ve come to expect from the series.

+ The game runs smoother than before, with a more stable frame rate in most cases.

+ While some of the dungeons are still repeats, plenty of new maps compliment the old ones, which nearly received universal expansions.

+ Stella’s Dungeon is actually playable!

+ Both the Remake and battle systems feature many more options, and are expanded in ways to keep them as addicting as ever. With that said…

– The new SP/EX Meter mechanic renders EXE Drives nearly useless, forcing unnecessary item or battle grinding to replenish.

– The later portion of the game suddenly spikes in difficulty and suffers from poor pacing.

– While bigger dungeons and more enemies on screen is appreciated, these areas are when slowdown rears its ugly head once again.

– The story drags, with no clear goal or progression from about the half way point through right before the end of the game. Not to mention the villains aren’t all that threatening.

Final Score: 4/5

Geekscape Reviews ‘Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection F’ (Possible Minor Spoilers!)

by Josh JacksonApril 12, 2015

*Note: While there won’t be any major plot reveals in this mostly spoiler free review, small details will be covered throughout the review. Read at your own risk!

In the years that I’ve been a Dragon Ball Z fan, it’s been really easy to get caught up in things like power levels and storyline hype. As time has passed, my memories of the classic anime series has shifted from the impressive power of villains like Majin Buu to a growing appreciation for what Frieza represented as a character. The self proclaimed emperor of the universe brought DBZ to a much darker place by serving as both the one responsible for the plight of the entire Saiyan race with his immense strength and the perfect antithesis to the eternally pure hearted Goku. Arrogant, powerful, and cruel, the only likable thing about the guy was that he was so much fun to root against! So to say I was thrilled when the follow up to Battle Of Gods would revolve around the revival of the iconic villain would be an understatement, but not without a few worries. Namely, how would Frieza be able to stand a chance after the main cast had grown so much since their time on Namek? Fortunately, Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection F does a mostly satisfying job of giving the villain the showing he deserves, with plenty of surprises to keep Akira Toriyama fans as a whole happy. However, it’s not without a few concessions to the established lore.

Resurrection F wouldn’t be much without an actual resurrection, which comes to pass thanks to Sorbet, who continues the trend of food based names. As a member of the famed Frieza Force who has taken over as its leader since the destruction of Namek, Sorbet and the remnants of the army have had to bide their time before being able to accomplish their true aim, the return of their leader. After tracking down some familiar faces on Earth who have accumulated six of the seven Dragon Balls, Sorbet intimidates them into giving up their wishes after uncovering the final ball, leading to the return of one of Goku’s greatest foes. Except… he’s revived in the same form as he was when he died. So… in pieces. After a trip to the regeneration pod and a bit of plot magic, Frieza is fully restored, and eager to pay Goku back for the humiliation caused by his defeat.

Golden Frieza shines in his battle against Goku. Get it?

Right off the bat, Resurrection F amps the audience up for what’s sure to be what promises to be an adrenaline filled rematch that revisits what I feel is the most iconic battle in franchise history, and it delivers on all fronts. Being able to watch Frieza be so unapologetically evil is just so much fun, whether he’s terrorizing his enemies, or abusing his henchmen. Even more impressive however, is how this fairly early enemy is made to seem like such a threat early on. Veering a bit into spoiler territory, the most impressive reveal of the entire film to me was when the catalyst for his much talked about Golden Frieza transformation is the result of him training for a mere four months. While not a big deal on its own, it’s mentioned that he was so naturally powerful, that he had never trained before this point. Sure, it’s a bit of a convenient plot point, but the fact that four months of training puts him at a level where he can go toe to toe with Goku, who has an additional decade plus of experience since their previous fight, helps explain where his characteristic overconfidence comes from.

Naturally, an antagonist is only as good as the protagonists he goes against, leading to the assembly of one of the most varied supporting casts in any DBZ movie. While most movies revolve around the Saiyans and their immense power, it was great to watch forgotten favorites like Tien, Krillin, and even Master Roshi, (who hasn’t had a significant battle since World’s Strongest), take on hundreds of foot soldiers in an incredible fight sequence against an entire army. Knowing that a common complaint of the series has been about how most of the cast has been pushed aside for Goku and Vegeta, you wouldn’t be able to tell in this film, since each gets a decent amount of time to shine. In fact, even a non Dragon Ball character gets a chance to show what he can do, but I won’t give away the surprise here.

Master Roshi with some much needed screen time.

Speaking of, the attention paid to the cast goes for both inside and outside of fights, since a few refreshing scenes show what life is like in the world outside of the fighting bubble. Despite some of these scenes dragging to the point that it slows down the movie a bit, it was great to see how normal society functions for those who aren’t shooting energy out of their hands. I mean, Krillin has a job! Doesn’t get any more real that that.

But despite each character getting their moment in the spotlight, the focus eventually shifts back to Goku, who remains as simple minded and kind as always. Picking up after Battle Of Gods, him and Vegeta have spent the last few years training with Beerus, the God of Destruction, and his handler, Whis, in order to master the Super Saiyan God form. At this point, it’s expected. I mean, when are Goku and Vegeta NOT training? But get this… Is it possible that these two actually get some character development from Whis’ guidance? When the inevitable battle on Earth takes place, Goku’s usual demeanor won’t cut it, leading to some shocking developments that force him to change the way he approaches his enemies. Will it stick? Probably not. But it was an interesting development to experience as a longtime fan, especially when anime movies have the reputation of being mostly irrelevant to the overall story.

Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan? Or is it Super Super Sayian God? Super Duper Saiyan?

Sure, this all sounds super serious, but I’m happy to say that in between all the doom and gloom surrounding revenge plots and threats of planetary destruction lies a strong sense of humor that was more often found in the original Dragon Ball series compared to Z. If Battle Of Gods had one flaw, it was that it was too silly, leaving some fans dissatisfied with the amount of action that came with the final fight. While I might have been afraid of a knee jerk reaction to eliminate all humor going in to Resurrection F, I was pleasantly surprised to see every character, from top to bottom, delivering laugh out loud moments even during the fights. And yes, even Frieza gets to have a few lighthearted moments. Just one thing though, Toriyama really needs to drop his pink, swirly poop obsession.

It might be impossible to put together all these plot pieces without creating a few continuity issues. All things considered, this film does an amazing job of re-establishing old characters into a post Majin Buu world. Yet, the film’s biggest flaw lies with ignoring previous established rules that ended up being ignored. Why can Goku turn into a Super Saiyan God without the help of other pure hearted Saiyans? Why is Gohan degrading in power even more than before? Why does he even need to go Super Saiyan when Mystic Gohan was supposed to be his stronger, permanent form? Why is Frieza’s version of Hell, (which is hysterical, by the way,) so different from the established Hell he was in at the end of the Majin Buu saga? And on that note, while I appreciate addressing Majin Buu at all, why does Frieza act like he didn’t know Buu was awakened when he was watching Goku fight him?

Considering that these small nitpicks are the worst the movie offered, it shows how solid of a film Resurrection F truly is. Acting as a crowd pleasing film that satisfies on all levels, and what we get is one of the most well rounded films in the DBZ catalog. Dare I say, though I might need the hype to die down a little to say for sure, as of now, I feel like F is a strong contender for best movie in the entire franchise! Featuring a more varied cast, a great sense of humor, incredible fight scenes and a surprising ending, F is a can’t miss experience for any DBZ fan. And honestly, who isn’t?

tl;dr:

+ Solid writing that manages to create believable scenarios, character growth and endless excitement.

+ Gorgeous animation that isn’t reliant on 3D animation.

+ Manages to find a near perfect balance of humor vs. action.

+ Satisfying scenes that find ways to surprise while making every character feel important.

– Inconsistencies with the established canon is bothersome.

– Middle portions of the movie drag a bit.

– Toriyama’s strange poop obsession.

Final score: 4.5/5

Saint Mort’s Nostalgia Nightmares “Invaders From Mars” Blu-Ray Review

by SaintmortApril 7, 2015

After a brief break Saint Mort’s Nostalgia Nightmare is back! This week we’re reviewing the Scream Factory release of Invaders From Mars. I’ve seen it once before this Blu-Ray came in the mail and raises the question if I’m the wrong audience for this movie.

Before I talk about Invaders from Mars I want to discuss the fact that I’ve thought it was directed by Joe Dante for a long time. I guess it just feels like something Dante would make, a fairly innocent and non-offensive movie about a child in a weird situation with occasionally adult moments. It’d felt right in with Gremlins and Small Soldiers, but instead this movie is directed by Tobe Hooper which might not work to it’s advantage.

Tobe Hooper has had an uneven career and that’s speaking as someone who defends more of his movies than most people. It’s undeniable that Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a masterpiece and whether or not Poltergeist was directed by him or Spielberg it’s still a great movie. That being said, I’ve also defended The Funhouse as an unappreciated masterpiece, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 was a brilliant ‘fuck you’ to people forcing him to make a gorier sequel, I found Lifeforce to be a complete blast, and I don’t even completely hate Eaten Alive.

Somehow I never knew this movie existed until I was in college. The peak of my horror fandom was in Junior High during the very early years of the internet. I had no clue what IMDb was back then so I wasn’t checking into filmmaker’s filmographies and even then Tobe Hooper wasn’t really at the top of the list of directors whose filmographies I felt I needed to see anyway.

Anyways, when I worked at a video store I stumbled upon the VHS of this and watched it. It was okay, nothing to write home about. I remember thinking it was probably Joe Dante’s worst movie (see first paragraph). This might sound like an insult but Joe Dante has had a pretty solid career and even at his worst he’s still damn good.

Invaders From Mars isn’t a great movie, but I don’t think anyone is pretending that it is. Not even Scream Factory. But it is a fun movie. It’s that awkward combination of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Monster Squad that makes this movie more fun than I originally remembered. The screenplay was written by Dan O’Bannon and follows in line with Return of the Living Dead’s subplot about the Army coming in and handling the situation.

There’s plenty of great performances in this movie (including a great role from Bud Cort) but the star of the show is Stan Winston’s monster designs. The creatures look so cool in that super 80’s way (specifically one alien who looks like Krang from TMNT).

What hurts this movie is its undecided tone. The movie keeps trying to be a genuine horror movie and a kids movie at the exact time, since it never seems to settle on a tone it constantly feels awkward and uneven. The ending is cliche’d and infuriating

I also can’t believe how many times they say the name David Gardener in this movie. This movie should be shown to writing students as a reminder to limit how often people refer to each other by name.

Invaders From Mars is available on Blu-Ray from Scream Factory today. Beyond a beautiful transfer of the film it also contains a commentary track from Tobe Hooper and an amazing behind the scenes feature. Pick up your copy today!

Matt Kelly is the host of the Saint Mort Show Podcast and co-host of the Reddit Horror Club. He also runs the Every Damn DVD blog. Instead of eating Ham and Mashed Potatoes with his family on Sunday he watched Invaders from Mars FOR YOU! Show up how much you appreciate his handwork by getting him something off his Amazon Wishlist to watch.

Geekscape Games Reviews: ‘Kirby And The Rainbow Curse’

by Josh JacksonFebruary 25, 2015

Early in the lifespan of the Nintendo DS, the good folks over at HAL Laboratory released an experimental title in the popular Kirby series that used nothing but the stylus and touch screen to navigate Dreamland. During a time where Nintendo’s latest “gimmick” was declared dead in the water with the emergence of Sony’s first handheld, it was a brave move to take such an established franchise and change the formula so drastically on a system that was still trying to find its footing. Thankfully, this risk was rewarded when Kirby: Canvas Curse became a fondly remembered part of the character’s history, highlighted by its innovative level design, high amount of replayability, and its advanced difficulty, but with little expectation that anything like it would ever see the light of day again. Nearly ten years later, I wasn’t the only one surprised when Kirby and the Rainbow Curse was found on the show floor at E3, bringing this brand of excellence exclusively to the Wii U with an added co-op mode and a gorgeous Claymation art style. But despite our fond memories, does Rainbow Curse prove that the formula still works?

Rainbow Curse reintroduces us to Kirby and his foe turned friend, Bandana Waddle Dee as they’re kicking back and enjoying the peaceful life. Out of nowhere, a black hole opens in the sky, draining Kirby’s planet of its color and freezing everyone in place. It’s not until Elline, a fairy fleeing out of the hole, uses her power over paint to reanimate Kirby and Waddle Dee back to life. In order to save Dreamland, the three heroes travel through the portal in order to stop the one responsible for the color theft, while saving Elline’s world in the process.

If you’re unfamiliar with the premise of these touch based Kirby games, the pink puffball is almost always in ball form. It’s up to the player to help Kirby through each of the game’s stages by drawing paths on the Game Pad for him to roll on. As the game continues, what simply starts as drawing paths becomes creating obstacles to reverse his momentum, drawing barriers to protect him from stage hazards, and building momentum to move him into hard to reach areas. When enemies become a problem, a simple tap of our Kirby ball performs a charge attack, defeating enemies in his path while destroying most objects that might block his path.

As hidden areas become harder to reach and enemies, (such as bosses,) become more resilient, the combat abilities that Kirby has at his disposal become more varied. To start, collecting 100 stars, (or tapping the Kirby amiibo on the pad,) activates a charged rolling attack. This ability wipes out anything unlucky enough to be in your path, as well as causing huge damage during the game’s boss fights, (assuming you can tap the screen fast enough.) When rolling won’t get the job done, Elline helps add some variety by transforming Kirby into one of three vehicles, including a tank, submarine, and a rocket. Each type plays drastically different from each other, offering some much appreciated variety into the mix. The tank involves tapping the screen where you want Kirby’s missiles to land, while the sub navigates the game’s often hard to control underwater sections with ease while automatically shooting off torpedoes, and the rocket flies in whatever direction you lead it to, forcing the player to stay on their toes while trying to reach the end of each level. All three control well and are fun to play in their own way, which definitely adds to an already enjoyable experience.

The game supports these three Amiibo figures, but good luck finding two of them.

But what about your friends who might want to join in? Thanks to the aforementioned Waddle Dee, they can do just that. Supporting up to three additional players, the Waddles play much more like you would expect from a traditional game in the long running series. Using their spear to attack and a multi jump to climb hard to reach areas, they serve as a strong support character to help advancement through the stages easier. The fact that they can’t die and can’t advance past where the main player is, all while getting pulled ahead when player 1 decides to advance, establishes a somewhat restrictive, yet strangely addicting way to play with a group, since no one is able to keep the group from advancing, (which is a major flaw in co-op platformers such as New Super Mario Bros. Wii and even Kirby Epic Yarn.) Certain game play elements are even added specifically for multiplayer, including a mid boss fight in certain stages where floating hands that only Waddle Dee can damage attempt to carry Kirby out of the stage and towards certain doom. It breathes new life into the story mode, making it feel like a unique experience in its own right.

Still, as addicting as it may be, Rainbow Curse does come up short in a few key areas, especially when compared to its predecessor. First off, Kirby’s abilities are fairly restrictive, even with the extra vehicle levels. His trademark copy ability is missing in action, so what you have at your disposal in terms of attacks at the start of each stage are all you get. It’s true that you can use the Meta Knight and King Dedede amiibo to unlock their abilities, (assuming you can find them,) but only being allowed to use them once a day on one stage almost defeats the purpose. Kirby is also the only playable main character, so if you were hoping for a playable Meta Knight, Dedede, or about a half a dozen cast members to keep your time occupied like the original, you’re going to end up disappointed. Not helping the situation is out of the game’s eight bosses, the second set of three are just reskins of the first three. At least the same-ness of the bosses and protagonist are shared qualities. Equality is big in Dreamland!

Without trying too hard, my first playthough ended with me having about half of the stages completed at the highest rank, (based on how many stars you can collect,) most of the hidden treasure chests unlocked, (which contain some really cool clay modeled statues,) and the majority of the end of stage diary pages collected. Clocking in at a brief six hours with 90% completion, seeing everything the game has to offer shouldn’t take more than a day or two, even if every minute is full of excellent level design and game play concepts. However, most of the issues with length and repetitiveness disappear if you’re big on the co-op mode, or the unlockable challenge stages. These maintain the format of the bonus stages from the main game where you have to uncover a treasure chest within 15 seconds in groups of four, rather than the standard single challenge in the main game. Add to the fact that Rainbow Curse is budget priced, and it’s suddenly not hard to see this truly innovative title as worthy of the purchase price.

It's almost as addicting as collecting Amiibo! — It’s almost as addicting as collecting Amiibo!

When it’s all said and done, does Kirby and the Rainbow Curse have its share of issues? Definitely. Is it overshadowed by its much bigger, much more balanced and more varied predecessor? Without a doubt. But that doesn’t mean that this Wii U rebirth isn’t every bit as worthy of your time as the original. Despite its issues with a lack of variety in primary combat abilities, unbalanced difficulty scale and a stripped down amount of content, what we’re left with is a special kind of platformer that throws typical conventions out the window. With an enjoyable story mode, a co-op mode that completely changes the dynamic of how stages are approached, and a series of challenges that will keep even veteran Canvas Curse players on their toes, Rainbow Curse ends up as another solid game in the Wii U’s growing library of excellence.

tl;dr

+ Some of the best level design you’ll find in modern platformers.

+ Vehicle levels and added obstacles keep the main game from feeling too monotonous.

+ The challenging story mode is complimented by unlockable bonus stages in the challenge mode.

+ Co-Op adds a layer to the dynamic of how the game is approached.

+ Its beautiful clay inspired graphics.

– Kriby as the only playable character without his copy ability makes the main stages eventually feel repetitive, which is further emphasized by repeated bosses.

– Unbalanced difficulty.

– Short playthrough for a one and done game if you’re not interested in challenge modes or co-op.

– Story mode challenge stages set you up for failure.

Final Score: 3.5/5

Saint Mort Nostalgia Nightmare: New Year’s Evil Blu-Ray Review

by SaintmortFebruary 24, 2015

This week for Saint Mort’s Nostalgia Nightmare we’re going to be discussing New Year’s Evil which is now available on Blu-Ray from our friends at Scream Factory. Let’s see if this one drops the ball or not (ZING!)

I love Slasher films. LOVE them. Scream was my first major introduction to horror movies and turned me into someone who NEEDED to feed on horror movie content. I’ve made it a goal to see as many slasher films as possible and even own an unreasonably large amount of documentaries and text books on the subject.

New Year’s Evil managed to avoid my sights for years. I didn’t even know it existed until it was briefly mentioned in Going To Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film (a must have for any serious horror fan). It wasn’t until last year I finally got to see it when it was briefly on Netflix Instant watch. I really wasn’t blown away by it, but at the time I watched it I was also in the middle of moving into my house so I had it on but I didn’t have my full attention on it.

This time I did all the chores I needed to have done, turned off the phone and really focused on the film. It is still one of the lesser 80’s slasher films, but it is however not a terrible movie.

The plot centers around Diane (aka Blaze), a TV personality hosting a televised New Years Eve Punk Rawk party. While taking callers on the air she begins talking to a man going by the name Evil. Evil threatens to kill a “Naughty Girl” she loves every time it strikes midnight in a different time zone. The cops are reluctant to take the threats seriously, assuming it’s a dark prank from the creepy crowd her shows tend to draw in. After each murder he calls back in and plays the recording of the murder over the air.

The film is unique as we know what Evil looks like within roughly 20 minutes of the movie. It’s not so much a mysterious whodunnit as much as it’s a WhoIsItAndWhy? The movie does contain some clever editing, some enjoyably cheesy music (specifically it’s theme song and the song Dumb Blondes), a cool mask for the killer to wear and a fairly unique premise. Even by 1980 the slasher film had already established itself as the “unknown, masked killer stalking high school girls from the trees”. This took a slightly more suspenseful twist which is interesting at least.

The biggest problem with the movie is how overwhelmingly mediocre it is. It’ll never be a movie good enough to recommend to a friend, or bad enough to watch with a group of friends. Dread Central’s Matt Serafini’s review reference to it as an ideal “late night horror fix” and I think that’s exactly the way to watch it. This would be a fun movie to have randomly discovered on USA in the 90’s.

Now as you’ve probably figured out I’m a Scream Factory fanboy. Even if I wasn’t being asked to review movies for them I’d still be a fanboy. I don’t think anyone at Scream Factory thinks that this is a masterpiece of slasher cinema but they still celebrate it as if it were by throwing in a new commentary track and a new collection of interviews with some of creators and stars behind the film.

http://youtu.be/euuX0aGvZ2o

While I’m not the biggest fan of New Year’s Evil, it’s still an interesting definitely worth watching if you’re a horror fan. Scream Factory has really put out a handful of other good (but painfully underrated slashers) like Terror Train, The Town That Dreaded Sundown, The Burning and Sleepaway Camp.

Matt Kelly is the host of the Saint Mort Show Podcast and co-host of the Reddit Horror Club. He also runs the Every Damn DVD blog. Since Philadelphia just got slammed with a little bit of snow he’s going to probably spend the next weekend inside staying warm watching TV and dreaming of summer. Get him something off his Amazon Wishlist to watch.

Geekscape Reviews: ‘My Little Pony: Adventures Of The Cutie Mark Crusaders’ DVD

by Shane O'HareFebruary 20, 2015

We’re back with another incredible My Little Pony collection from Shout! Factory Kids. This time around we’ve got five episodes all about those fancy tattoos called cutie marks!

I love these DVDs from Shout! Factory Kids because they are the perfect package FOR a younger fan of the show. These series of DVDs all have their own cohesive theme that I believe are great for a kid to enjoy in nice long binge sesh. Like Netflix for kids but without the bandwidth overages from Comcast!

Adventures of The Cutie Mark Crusaders centers around, well the Cutie Mark Crusaders (and the amazing Cheese Sandwich episode)! You get on disc:

The Cutie Mark Chronicles

The Cutie Pox

Flight To The Finish

Pinkie Pride

Twilight Time

Now I don’t want to get into reviewing each of these episodes. Frankly we don’t have enough time in the WEEK for me to coherently deconstruct each episode. I just want to give you an opinion on the entire package.

The episode selection is top notch with this release. I feel they curated a great series of episodes from all four seasons that all center around, what appears to be, the never ending journey of the CMC getting their cutie marks.

Bonuses include one of the genuinely fun Sing Alongs (hey, I’m a sucker for ridiculously sweet things OKAY!), a collection of surprisingly well done wallpapers and a printable coloring sheet.

Final Thoughts

All and all Adventures of The Cutie Mark Crusaders collection is a great product, just like all of these collections from Shout! Factory.

I give it a definite buy for a younger fan. As an older fan of the show, I don’t think it would appeal to the Brony/hardcore collector.

You can get your hands on Adventures of The Cutie Mark Crusaders February 24th!

Score: 3.5/5

MLP_FIM_AOTCMC_3D Box Art — Keep and eye out for THIS DVD case!

Saint Mort’s Nostalgia Nightmare – Vampire’s Kiss/High Spirits Blu-Ray Review

by SaintmortFebruary 10, 2015

Welcome Back to Saint Mort’s Nostalgia Nightmare. Glad to see you enjoyed it enough last week to revisit. Continuing in my Scream Factory Blu-Ray reviews I’ve got another double feature. Today you can own their double feature release of Vampire’s Kiss and High Spirits. Let’s dive in!

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Not only have I never seen either of these films prior to this Blu-Ray appearing on my doorstep, I’ve never even heard of one of them. I wasn’t sure what to expect going into it. Over the course of 5 hours I watched Vampire’s Kiss twice (once normally and once with commentary) and High Spirits.

Let’s start with Vampire’s Kiss. I’d heard many things about this movie, specifically that it’s one of the most Cage-iest of Nicholas Cage movies. I was not lied to in the least. The movie is bizarre, confusing, unintentionally funny at parts and a chore to watch at others.

The movie tells the story of Peter Loew, a womanizing literary agent who spends all day in the office and all night at the clubs and having one night stands. One night he takes home a vampire named Rachel who begins feeding on him nightly. Or does he?

Vampire’s Kiss is all about questioning what is reality while following an unhinged businessman that’s wrapped up in all the sleeze, culture and status of the 80s. Basically it’s American Psycho if Nicholas Cage played Patrick Bateman.

It’s got some fantastic moments in it and has notoriety for a infamous still which has become a meme (Scream Factory was smart to include that still on the back of the Blu-Ray). The commentary track between director Robert Bierman and Nicholas Cage is interesting to say the least. The two think highly of the movie and Bierman makes a few references to stylistic choices but then saying things like “I think I did that consciously”.

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If you can get past Cage’s awkward accent choice (he sounds like he’s doing a bad Keanu Reeves impression) and the dark comedic cruelness it’s not a bad film to watch… once. You’ll most likely never watch it again (unless you listen to the commentary track)… the same can’t be said for High Spirits.

I had a lot of fun experiencing High Spirits for the first time. I’m willing to believe that if I saw this movie when I was a child I’d hold it with the same level of nostalgic praise that I hold movies like Monster Squad and The Goonies.

Looking at this cast it’s amazing that I’ve never heard of this film. It’s a fantastic ensemble featuring such infamous actors as Peter O’Toole, Daryl Hannah, Liam Neeson, Jennifer Tilly, Steve Guttenberg and Beverly D’Angelo.

The movie follows Peter Plunkett who’s about to have his castle repossessed. In order to keep his property he tries to claim it’s haunted to scare the Americans that are visting the castle (including the daughter of the man repossessed the castle). When their fake ghost stories are discovered, real ghosts begin haunting the castle including Mary and Martin.

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Many centuries ago when Mary and Martin were married, Martin murdered Mary for infidelity. Every night the two are forced to re-enact that night. That is until one of the Americans Jack (Guttenberg) stops Martin, putting an end to cycle and causing Mary to fall in love with him.

I hope this film finds a decent resurgence from this Blu-Ray, as it’s a fantastic Halloween movie with ghosts, romance, comedy and a handful of good jump scares.

The most baffling thing about this film is that it’s written and directed by Neil Jordan, a man known for films of more adult nature like The Company of Wolves, The Crying Game and Interview with the Vampire.

Doing research to do these reviews/writeups I can’t understand how Vampire’s Kiss was more critically well received. It’s an interesting film but for very unintentional reasons. High Spirits is a much more enjoyable film overall.

Pick up a copy of the Vampire’s Kiss/High Spirits Blu-ray Today!

Matt Kelly hosts The Saint Mort Show and the Reddit Horror Club as well as writes for Geekscape and his blog Every Damn DVD. He’s also going to spend Valentine’s Day night in the basement watching horror movies while his roommate has sex. He’d love it if you bought him something on his Amazon Wishlist to convince him to take that shotgun barrel out of his mouth.

Saint Mort’s Nostalgia Nightmare: Love at First Bite/Once Bitten Blu-Ray Review

by SaintmortFebruary 6, 2015

Welcome to Saint Mort’s Nostalgia Nightmare. Every week, Matthew “Saint Mort” Kelly will either review an upcoming release that he’s been sent or ramble about some of his horror favorites that you should revisit. This week, Matt reviews the upcoming Scream Factory release of the Love At First Bite/Once Bitten double feature Blu-Ray. Let’s begin!

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The first thing that I noticed about this particular Blu-Ray release is its lack of special features. Essentially, there aren’t any (aside from some vintage movie trailers or radio spots). It’s understandable given that it’s two movies on one disc and space is limited, but it didn’t stop me from feeling a little let down given how incredible Scream Factory’s special features usually are.

Prior to this release I’d never even heard of Love at First Bite so of course I started with that. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but based on its title and its placement beside Once Bitten I assumed it was another teenage vampire movie. I was wrong.

The story follow Count Dracula (George Hamilton) after he has his castle repossessed and is forced to move to New York. He falls in love with famous model Cindy Sondheim (Susan Saint James) and begins to date her despite her crazy ex Dr. Jeffery Rosenberg (grandson of Van Helsing). The movie’s humor is just as wacky and irreverent as that description seems.

It’s a pretty unique twist on the Dracula mythology by flipping roles. The count is now our hopeless romantic hero and Van Helsing is the villain that we want to see fail. While I love that twist the film is still far perfect. That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have some great comedic moments; I particularly enjoyed a reoccurring joke involving Rosenberg’s (Richard Benjamin) clueless attempts to expose Dracula which include (but are not limited to) shooting him with silver bullets and holding a Star of David to the vampire’s face.

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I’d also be doing a disservice to the movie to not praise the fantastic performance from Arte Johnson as Reinfeld. Moments like him cackling with glee while watching a movie about rats attacking a women or crying while watching a commercial for Raid are just the right level of absurdist comedy to make this an enjoyable experience.

I don’t know how frequently I’ll rewatch Love at First Bite, but I’m certainly glad Scream Factory gave me the ability to experience this movie for the first time. However I think the main reason many people will be getting this Blu-Ray is for the second feature the 80’s vampire/teen flick classic Once Bitten.

I remember hearing about Once Bitten back in 1993 just as Ace Ventura was making Jim Carrey a household name to kids my age who couldn’t watch In Living Color. It became a fairly regular feature film on Comedy Central. I’d always seen the film in its TV-edited version. Maybe it’s because of this that I don’t remember how much homophobic humor is in the movie.

I think there will be a ton of critics who point to these moments (specifically the ‘Fags in the Shower’ sequence) as a reason to dislike or avoid revisiting it. I’m not one of those critics. I was raised on movies like Porky’s, Revenge of the Nerds and Hollywood Knights. We as a society have come and a long way and that’s great… but I still find something super charming about the close minded 80’s teen humor and like it or not homophobia is a big part of that.

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Most people only really think about Once Bitten because it’s a pre-famous Jim Carrey vehicle, but there’s more to the movie than that. It’s basically American Pie with Vampires. In order to maintain her eternal beauty and vampire countess must drink the blood of a virgin. Cut to Mark Kendall (Jim Carrey) and his group of friends trying to get laid. Mark believes he’s struck a sexual goldmine with the seductive Countess but he begins having weird cravings, an inability to sleep and weird dreams. It’s up to his on and off girlfriend Robin Pierce to take his virginity before the Countess drains him of all is blood.

This movie is way funnier than I remembered it. I still am a firm believer that in general My Best Friend is a Vampire (released two years after Once Bitten) is the superior Vampire Teenage film, but it’s undeniable that Once Bitten is a classic for a reason.

After watching this double feature I immediately felt like there should be another double feature from Scream Factory of Rockula and My Best Friend is a Vampire. So if anyone from Scream Factory is reading you should get on that for Saint Mort. Thanks in advance!

Get your own copy of Love at First Bite/Once Bitten from Scream Factory. It’ll be released February 10th, but you can pre-order right now! Also released the same day is the double feature of Vampire’s Kiss/High Spirits (look out for more about this next release next week).

Matt Kelly is the host of The Saint Mort Show, the co-host of the Reddit Horror Club and the blogger behind Every Damn DVD. He has an unhealthy love for horror movies, wrestling and punk music and wants you to buy him something nice off his Amazon Wishlist because free stuff is always nice. We at Geekscape can not support giving Matt free stuff but you can do what you want with your money. But that money would be better spent buying stuff from Scream Factory for yourself.

Geekscape Games Reviews ‘Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 2: Sisters Generation’

by Josh JacksonJanuary 23, 2015

Gamindustri is on the brink of collapse. The four goddesses that serve as this land’s protectors have been defeated by the ASIC, an evil organization that has grown in power by securing their shares using pirated gaming software. The last CPU standing to face this threat is powerless to stop them, forcing her to flee as her sister and friends remain captured for the next three years. Pretty dark, huh? It’s probably the last thing you would expect from the sequel to one of the surprise highlights of 2014, primarily because of its cheery, often silly take on the video game industry. Yet, in many ways, Hyperdimension Neptunia: Re;Birth 2 creates a completely different tone, sacrificing some of this over the top humor for a more serious take on these characters that took me by surprise last year. With so much of the original’s charm relying on its unique premise and script though, can the world of Neptunia thrive without it?

IF and Nepgear going nowhere.

Re;Birth 2 places gamers in the very capable knee socks of Nepgear, the little sister of the original’s hyperactive protagonist. In comparison, Ge-Ge is much more mature, (despite being the “little” sister,) taking her duties as a CPU Candidate, (or the next Goddess in line to rule her home of Planeptune,) very seriously. Even still, her insecurities shine through most of the story, often worrying about escaping her sister’s shadow, while regaining the confidence it will take to save the goddesses that were so soundly defeated. With familiar faces such as IF and Compa from the original lending a hand, a huge cast of party members both new and old, and the addition of the other three CPU Candidates in the form of Lastation’s Uni and Lowee’s Rom and Ram fighting to save their siblings however, and the fight for Gamindustri’s future seems a lot less hopeless.

Rom takes the spotlight in her HDD Form.

Or at least, that’s until you start playing, because the opening hours of Re;Birth 2 can be absolutely brutal. Making a complete 180 compared to its predecessor, which eased us into its fights before spiking about half way through, the sequel doesn’t play around. I came this close to losing the first tutorial boss fight, having to actually use strategy, items and stat boosts to eek out a win. Who would have thought!? Oddly enough, experience points start rising through the roof while fights get easier as the game progresses, making the experience more of a breeze as you push through the hazing of the early moments. You have to prove you really want it!

Either way, it becomes less of an issue when battles are not only a blast to play, but when the game can be customized to fit your play style! In our review of the original, we went into detail about the real time battle system and the Remake System, which allowed players to customize their game play experience if they had the items needed to unlock them, (give it a read, here!) In short, each character, weapon and attack has a certain attack range and a radius in which they can be moved. Every enemy that falls into that range can be hit with one of four types of attacks, which include special attacks, power attacks, break attacks, (that lower enemy shields,) and rush attacks, (multi hit attacks that build up the EX Meter, which adds bonus and signature abilities.)What makes battle even more fun this time around, (aside from the increase from three party members on the field to four,) is that more of the team wields a wider variety of attack types, namely Uni, Rom and Ram being able to attack at long range. To top it off, when late game abilities become available, these jaw dropping sequences range from badass action sequences, to some exciting attacks that reference some of our favorite niche games. It’s just too bad that the game can’t often keep up with this much awesome, causing the framerate to drop to a crawl when things get especially hectic.

Cave’s EX Attack drops jaws as fast as the framerate.

If using these abilities makes the game too easy, or if that newest boss is just too hard to beat. Remaking the game can adjust the difficulty, unlock new items, dungeons and weapons, or even change mechanics like reducing the amount of time it takes to build up the EX Meter. As a far cry from the PS3 version that this title is based on, both mechanics are what holds the core of the game together, helping game stay addicting throughout its 25 hour plus story on a first run.

Still, even though all of these features are great, they’re way too familiar. Oddly enough, it seems like Nepgear’s primary flaw is trying to be too much like her sister! Re;Birth 2‘s biggest sin is the absurdly large amount of reused content it took from the first game. Enemies, some music, whole environments and many of the voice clips are completely ripped from the first title, (with some dungeons even being duplicates from THIS game,) oftentimes making the latest in the series feel more like an expansion than a sequel. The point and click map is mostly unchanged, complete with NPCs who you choose to talk to on a menu. While often serving as humorous takes on popular game characters, (Snake Hayter, Maryo and Monobear come to mind,) talking to them on a map screen isn’t the same as meeting them in a full fledged environment. While I appreciated the streamlined nature of these interactions originally, I’ve fallen in love with Gamindustri so much, that I wish I could delve into it outside of the various dungeons.

Guess what game this girl is based on? (Hint: pick your eyes up.)

In the end though, what I thought would be this game’s biggest weakness became my absolute favorite part of it. Yes, Neptune is a fantastic protagonist, so much so that I named her the number 2 waifu of 2014 thanks to her off the wall, self aware, airhead personality. When I saw Nepgear as such a serious straight shooter, I expected the game to be less enjoyable because of it. As the game went on however, I became really attached to the little sisters, making their journey from scared, lonely sidekicks, to powerful, confident and heroic goddesses. Be warned, the slapstick and fan service is kept to a bare minimum, (the latter of which was more overbearing and unnecessary than anything else if you ask me,) but what what we got in its place was an exhilarating story to experience, introducing a level of character development that was nearly non-existent when Neptune took the lead. Now, I have trouble imagining another game without Nepgear in the lead. Sadly, I’m fully aware that this will likely be the case going forward. Still, for every serious moment, you have characters like Broccoli healing her team by vomiting a smiling pile from her eyes, so there’s that.

Stay out of the splash zone.

I can talk all day about everything that I love about Hyperdimension Neptunia: Re;Birth 2, but we only have so much bandwidth. What I will say, is that this sequel expands on the hilarious, yet mostly shallow narrative of the first game, creating a much deeper story that tackles themes such as coming of age, finding one’s own identity, and even video game piracy in a fun, lighthearted way. Features like the Stella Dungeon, where you send the titular character out to explore areas in real time in order to uncover special items, over a half a dozen endings, a new game plus feature and a variety of secret characters put the title over the top, and by all accounts, is a superior game to the original. Sadly, the technical issues and the overabundance of recycled content hurt the final impression, but not enough to keep Re;Birth 2 from being the best game of 2015 so far. Sure, it’s the first game I’ve played in 2015, but forget semantics, because Nepgear and the girls are starting the year off strong.

tl;dr

+ The CPU Candidates take center stage in a bigger way, with more party members, teammates on the field, and a huge amount of post game content.

+ Combat is as addicting as ever, with jaw dropping abilities that will keep you coming back.

+ A game that can be catered to your needs, thanks to the flexible Remake System.

+ A much more in depth story that sacrifices some humor for character development while still staying lighthearted, most of which is voiced in dual audio.

– Way too much of the content is ripped straight from its prequel, some of which is repeated multiple times within THIS game.

– Technical issues range in severity, from lips not moving during dialogue sections to massive slowdown during huge sequences.

– While more streamlined, it’s about time we replace the point and click map with a fully explorable Gamindustri.

Final Score: 4.25/5

The Zombie Combat Field Guide – Not Your Usual Coloring Book

by Dennis FinocchiaroJanuary 9, 2015

Roger Ma’s The Zombie Combat Field Guide, a Coloring and Activity Book for Fighting the Living Dead, came out this week and it’s a blast. Is it for adults? Is it for kids? This is tough to say, but anyone interesting in surviving the zombie apocalypse should check it out.

Just like similar coloring and activity books, except maybe a bit more adult themed, this one has all kinds of fun pages.

For example…a zombie is attacking you and your first thought is to pull on hair to keep their mouth from chewing on your face. Good idea? Bad? Check it out:

Not only do you have fun coloring, you can also learn! Did you know the decomposed scalp would rip away so easily? Neither did I!

The book also assists in the zombie apocalypse decision making process with fun pages such as this one:

It’s never an easy decision…right? These are just some of the really fun pages to check out.

The illustrations by Y.N. Heller are also awesome. It’s so cool seeing such graphic imagery in the format of a coloring book.

The book includes sections on physique, how the zombies attack, and some interesting tips and tricks. Plus, you get to color while you learn. Who doesn’t love coloring?

For ordering information, check out this link. The book is available now!

Geekscape author Dennis Finocchiaro covers everything from Legos to movies, and even writes his own stuff. Check out his collection of flash fiction that take place during the zombie apocalypse here.

Geekscape Games Reviews ‘Pokemon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire’

by Josh JacksonDecember 2, 2014

Ask any Pokemon fans about their memories of the Hoenn region, and in between all the trumpets and surfing jokes, you’ll likely find fond flashbacks to a time where most of the game’s core mechanics that we take for granted today were introduced, people in the Pokemon World finally realized they could run, the first huge graphics overhaul came through in the transition between the Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance, and when we witnessed the debut of some of the most iconic monsters in franchise history. Is it any surprise that the Internet exploded with excitement when the long joked about, (but essentially inevitable,) Ruby and Sapphire remakes? With Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, it wasn’t enough just to develop a faithful remake, because the longtime Pokemon Masters at Game Freak went above and beyond, improving nearly everything we loved about the originals while advancing the series as a whole in ways that were hard to anticipate. It’s just too bad that these improvements are hampered by a series of head scratching decisions to remove popular aspects from X and Y while doing little to avoid the annoyances that have held the series back for far too long.

Stop me if this sounds familiar. OR/AS stars you as a child, who has recently moved to the quiet town of Littleroot, which is conveniently surrounded by low level monsters. The kid stumbles upon their first Pokemon after rescuing your new hometown’s bumbling Professor from a vicious Poochyena, kicking off an adventure that has you following in your finally present father’s footsteps in becoming a great trainer, while filling the Pokedex as much as you can by catching each new creature you come across.

If you’re expecting the formula to have changed much in the latest Pokemon remake, then you’re looking at the wrong game, (and why would you?) In typical fashion, you’ll spend most of the time traveling from town to town building a team, battling trainers along the way, and getting stronger against the wild Pokemon of each town and route. In terms of similarities to Ruby and Sapphire specifically, you’ll instantly recognize the berry plots scattered throughout the world, Contest Halls, which offer a different form of battling that focuses more on points and exclusive move types as opposed to beating your opponents into submission, the return of secret bases, and stopping a plot that involves the evil Team Magma or Team Aqua destroying the world with the power of an ancient Pokemon. But identifying these aspects on the surface are all they have in common with their original games, because Omega and Alpha improve on each of these aspects in nearly every way.

First, the touch screen is finally put to good use, thanks to the Pokenav Plus. Using different apps, trainers can switch between a more detailed map, (that can show where you’re missing Pokemon, where Secret Bases or planted berries are located, etc.,) the online, Super Training, and Pokemon-Amie features from X and Y, a PokeBuzz TV station that gives tips, expanded story info, and data from players you’ve met through Streetpass, and the Pokedex app, which might be the show stealer of the whole game.

Almost mimicking the anime, this app introduces a whole new way to encounter Pokemon, both in and out of battle. Rather than every battle being a random encounter, most battles are purposefully initiated by making contact with silhouettes that appear in the grass, water, or even the dreaded cave. A new sneak mechanic lets players approach them slowly by slightly tilting the circle pad, revealing more information about the Pokemon as you get closer to it. Is it a new Pokemon? How many times have you seen it? What’s its first move? What’s its level? All of this and more is revealed before the battle even starts, allowing the player to decide whether or not it’s even worth it to battle before it starts. Yet, battling constantly has its own reward, since encountering the same Pokemon multiple times increases the chances of you finding one with either hidden moves that can only be typically learned through extensive breeding, versions with higher stats, (or IVs for the hardcore Pokefan,) or hidden abilities that are nearly impossible to find otherwise.

It eventually led to the point where I wondered why random battles were included at all, still making caves that you’re at an equal level with insanely tedious when you’re getting into fights every five steps. Even worse? When you’re sneaking up on a Pokemon, only for a random battle to ruin your approach. To add to the annoyance, the routes between towns are littered with trainers, constantly stopping your progress to the point where I needed to avoid them for my own sanity. There’s no reason battles should feel like such a chore, which could be fixed with better pacing.

Random battles have always been an annoyance in not only the Pokemon franchise, but in turn based RPGs as a whole. But we tolerated them because it’s hard to imagine a game of this kind without them. Well, guess what? We now have a mechanic that makes battling a choice that players can make beforehand, with added incentive for continuing to fight! Can sneaking just be the standard going forward? Please, Game Freak?

Speaking of long running annoyances with the series, HMs and moves that are needed outside of battle are back with a vengeance. Every Pokemon game has had them, but in more recent iterations, the reliance on them has been scaled back, usually being able to squeeze all the moves you need onto one or two monsters that you only need in short bursts. Well, in a misguided attempt at being too faithful to the games they were remaking, Omega and Alpha has more moves than I’d ever care to use. From the usual offenders like Strength, Fly, Surf and Cut, to the return of Dive and Waterfall, and even demoted HMs like Rock Smash becoming HMs once again, these moves are especially annoying since they can’t be deleted without talking to a special character. And is that character easy to get to? Of course not. He doesn’t show up until one of the last towns in the game, so you’ll be stuck with mostly weak moves that you would never use otherwise for most of the story. And this isn’t even including TMs that have uses in the overworld, like Flash or Secret Power. That many moves requires you to clog your party with at least three members with these attacks, or constant trips back and forth to pull that Poke with as many of the moves that it can fit.

Making this glaring, longtime flaw even more frustrating is the new ability to soar. Late in the story, an item allows trainers to manually fly over a fully 3D Hoenn, creating a new type of terrain to explore and allowing access to hidden areas, all while offering a new method of travel. It’s a breathtaking experience to say the least. But what makes it frustrating is that this is triggered by an item. Yes, an item. You don’t need the Pokemon in your party who flies you around, you don’t need to waste a move slot, and you can use it as much as you want. Why can’t all HMs be relegated to Key Items. If the next game doesn’t allow me to use a surfboard or a saw to surf and cut, then something is seriously wrong. We’ve hated HMs for years. Fix them!

But with the major complaints out of the way, that clears the way to talk about all the things Omega and Alpha get right. Aside from the already stellar Pokenav features and Soaring sections that we couldn’t get enough of, nearly every individual aspect of what made generation three so special has been refined to perfection this time around, especially the contests. Essentially Pokemon’s version of a pageant, Contests feel more important than they did before, featuring their own side quest that gives you incentive to conquer every class rather than a distraction from the main game. With moves also divided in various categories for these sections, such as “Beauty,” “Tough,” “Smart,” and “Cool” attacks, each one awards points while creating different outcomes for the show, like rearranging the turn order or reducing the points of an opponent. It’s like bringing the dickishness from a game of Mario Party into the Pokemon universe! Performing multiple moves that correlate with the type of show you’re in rewards aspiring coordinators with a huge bonus too, which is now accompanied by an awesome cutscene that puts your Poke’s skill on display.

What made Contests special in the past was their ability to make you rethink move sets for more than just battling. This mentality is fully intact in the remakes, while streamlining the process when raising their special stats. In previous versions, snacks called “Pokeblock” or “Poffins” could be fed to your team by mixing certain berries. What made it more stressful than anything else however, was that each teammate could only consume 10, and if you mixed the wrong berries or did poorly on the mixing mini game, the benefit would become greatly reduced. So what we often ended up with, were droves of half developed participants who topped out on their Pokeblock before their maximum was reached, while STILL needing one for each category. While I’m sad to see mini games go in OR and AS, what we gain in their place is a much more forgiving system that lets you feed an unlimited amount of mixtures to each Pokemon, making it possible to have an all purpose Contest participant with maxed out stats. Gone is the stress that came with creating that perfect stat balance, which leaves contests as a whole better off. This, in addition to the added story content and a special “Cosplay Pikachu” that changes appearance and moves depending on what contests it focuses on, do you really need any other reason to sink another five hours or so into conquering these circuits?

Speaking of story, here’s where the remakes also took this veteran trainer by surprise. If you’re expecting to blow through the shallow story of the evil team trying to awaken the ancient Pokemon to reshape the world in the image they see fit, well… That’s still here, but with much more detail, development, and plenty of new twists that weren’t in the original. With retcons abound, the ancient lore set up by X and Y plays a big role in how and why this remade version of Hoenn has become what it is, adding plenty of interesting facets to a world that many of us have been engrossed in for years. I won’t spoil anything here, but it definitely sets up some huge possibilities assuming the developers ever decide to take them anywhere. While it’s still a step below Black and White’s story, (which still holds the title for best story in the series from where I sit,) there will still be plenty of moments that will surprise even the most seasoned of trainers, (assuming the numerous official trailers didn’t ruin most of it for you already.)

And of course, we can’t talk about Pokemon Gen III without touching on Secret Bases, the mechanic where players can make their own home on the map, allowing customizable rooms that other players could visit. Most importantly, whatever party you had when you designed it could be battled by others, thanks to a CPU version of yourself, which was great for level grinding. Now tied to the 3DS Streetpass feature, bases can either be picked up by passing by a friend, or scanning a QR code that can be shared and scanned. New to the remakes is the ability to recruit other base leaders to become your grunts when people challenge your base, allowing you to turn it into your own mini Pokemon gym! The only limitation is that bases are capped at level 40, so considering how easy it is to level up with the return of X an Y‘s EXP Share, (which distributes EXP to your entire party regardless of if they fought,) these bases will hardly be a challenge. Thankfully, a post game item lets you remove the level cap, so you’ll be free to fight maxed out ‘Mons to your heart’s content.

Speaking of features taken from X and Y, these remakes seemed to have taken nearly everything that we enjoyed from the latest generation and removed them. So no trainer customization, no roller skates, and no berry farm, where you can keep all your berries in one place. Instead, what we did keep was the massive framerate issues the game encountered in 3D mode, and even at certain points in 2D. The fact that there’s zero improvement is a big disappointment, especially with how bad the previous games got universally panned for it. The series has this weird habit of removing features that we love, only to fix them years down the line. It looks like OR/AS are no exception.

Yet, that’s not to say there aren’t any improvements. If X and Y was lacking in anything, it was a true post game. While the Friend Safari, Battle Maison, and bonus Looker mission kept the game going, it held little for those who wanted to explore hidden areas, or find secrets buried in the game like in previous entries. OR/AS make up for this in spades, with post game content that begins appearing BEFORE the game is over. By the time you’re left to your own devices after you beat the Elite Four and complete the epilogue, or Delta Episode, (which adds some amazing story content that’s muddled with way too much fetching and back tracking,) you’ll have new areas to explore, hidden attacks to learn, hundreds of Pokemon to rediscover on the map, and former opponents who are itching for a rematch at much higher levels. In addition to all of this, the Battle Maison returns in nearly identical fashion, which is a bit disappointing when the game flat out teases the popular Battle Frontier from Emerald. Maybe in another remake?

It’s true that nostalgia can only carry a game so far, which is why OR/AS strive to be so much more. While a simple remake would have surely sold millions, these titles go on to improve on a number of core mechanics such as battling in the wild and Contests, while providing new, exciting features and a much improved story, all while rebuilding the whole thing in 3D! With these games doing so much right, it makes it so frustrating that many longtime issues like HMs, a bombardment of random battles in certain areas, a slow, plodding pace thanks to the overabundance of trainer battles, and the return of X and Y‘s signature slowdown hold the games back from being the very best. Still, the new ideas introduced have the potential to make us rethink what a Pokemon game can be, leading OR/AS to feeling more ambitious than anyone would expect from a remake. For RPG gamers, collectors, and of course, Pokefans, this return trip to Hoenn is one that shouldn’t be missed, as long as you’re okay with a few bumps in the road.

tl;dr

+ New sneaking mechanics revitalize the art of finding, catching, and improving Pokemon!

+ Soaring introduces a fun, new way to travel, making us wonder why we need HMs in the first place!

+ Contests and Secret Bases return with improved features and less tedium.

+ The story is much improved, pointing at some exciting potential directions.

+ Hours of post game content will have you competing, catching and uncovering hidden areas for hours on end.

+ The return of Pokemon-Amie, Super Training, Horde Battles and the PSS, sans the awful Sky Battles.

– The large amount of trainer battles and caves slow down the pace of the game far too often, leading to too much tedium.

– HMs and some TMs restrict your progress, forcing you to sacrifice moves or Pokemon to advance.

– The puzzling removal of some of X/Y‘s best features, such as trainer customization and roller blades.

– The return of X/Y‘s biggest flaw; its massive slowdown, especially when the 3D is on.

– Not enough land.

Final Score: 4/5

Geekscape Games Reviews ‘Hatsune Miku: Project Diva f 2nd’

by Josh JacksonNovember 18, 2014

I’ll be honest, I never really understood the hype surrounding Hatsune Miku and the Vocaloid craze. For the uninitiated, Miku and her friends are virtual pop stars who literally go on tours, perform live concerts and release albums with their singing voice completely made through computerized sounds after taking audio samples from a real person. Basically, they’re made completely out of autotune combined with Coachella Tupac.

But while I never found myself getting into the fandom as a whole, I would never let that get in the way of a great rhythm game, which the Miku series of games tends to bring. The latest entry, Hatsune Miku: Project Diva f 2nd, looks to continue that trend, with more songs, more unlockables and more Miku that ever before. Sadly, with the large range of content comes many of the issues that held down its predecessor, delivering a fun title that never strays from its expected path, for better and for worse.

Each song comes with an often overdramatic video when not filled with bad dancing. J-Pop is serious business.

In Project Diva f 2nd, players are thrown onto center stage as either Miku herself, or nearly half a dozen other character modules, including Kagamine Rin, her brother, Len, and Megurine Luka, each with their own songs and voices across the 40 in game tracks. Featuring a mix of both new songs and returning favorites with reworked button charts, there will be plenty of high energy toe tappers and even a few slow jams to build up your score with. Unfortunately, if you’re eager to dive into what Project Diva has to offer, the game forces you to be patient, only starting you with about five songs, with each new one unlocking as you complete what’s available. Even then, I found the soundtrack overall to be less impressive than the first game, finding myself rarely humming the tracks after the game was off, (except for the tutorial song, damn it! That thing had to have been made by the devil).

Throughout each song, prompts will have would be pop stars pressing one of the four face buttons or swiping the touch screen in time with the music. Patterns become more complex as the songs increase in difficulty, but again, Hard and Extreme are locked, forcing a false sense of replayability, especially for series veterans who will blow through the default settings. Starting with Normal only uses two buttons and the touch pad for example, while increasing the mode of play brings in the whole controller. Mix that in with double swipes and taps, (where a direction and button or a two finger swipe is needed to score), and you end up with a straightforward, yet fairly complex and highly rewarding play style.

Adding a little depth to the regular going ons of each song are two Technical Zones and one Chance Time section, each of which will help you boost your rank. Technical challenges you to hit a certain amount of notes in particular sections without missing, while chance builds up a meter that offers huge bonuses for those who can fill it, while hitting the final note in the sequence. Whether trying for the highest ranks, or inching to survive a tough song, (since you can still fail a song even if you make it to the end if your score is too low), these sections can both help or hinder you. Trust me, there are few things more annoying than almost getting a perfect run, only to miss the highest rank because the handful of notes that you missed were in the technical section, especially on Hard and Extreme.

That’s not to say that higher modes of play aren’t fun. In fact, they’re the highlight of the game! But as the fun increases on higher settings, so does the frustration. My biggest complaint with the first game in the series was its interface, placing the button prompts all over the screen while icons fly all across the screen. As the amount of inputs increase, so does the confusion, cluttering up the screen with images that are nearly impossible to follow along with unless you already know the song by heart ahead of time. Even then, when the game tries to get cute and make patterns with the icons, multiple inputs in the same prompt, or alternating buttons, it makes the rhythm sections both frustrating and hard to follow. There’s nothing worse than losing a perfect combo because you can’t make sense of all the triangles and circles flying at you. Worse of all, is that taking your fingers off the buttons to swipe the screen is counter-intuitive, often leading me to many a miss. Thankfully, the options allow Vita players to switch to the PS3 play style and handle those beats with the analog stick instead.

What does Miku-Mikuing someone even mean!?

If the confusing note charts are particularly jarring, take the game to Edit Mode and see if you can do any better! With the ability to create custom button arrangements, these creations can be made, shared and downloaded online, potentially creating an endless stream of remixes from the community. As if the insane amount of in game achievements and items weren’t enough, editing and downloading can keep you playing long after the main game has worn thin.

(NOTE: Edit Mode was unavailable at the time of review, but is essentially the same as the first game. This review will be amended if we find any major changes.)

When you need a break from the onslaught of the Rhythm Game, players can explore Miku’s Room. Here, you can watch her read, eat, sleep, and go about her daily life in its voyeuristic glory. When you want to go a little more hands on with her day to day, you can pet her and give her food and water. Sadly, there’s no option to walk her or play frisbee, but you CAN use your hard earned Diva Points to buy new outfits, accessories, gadgets and furniture for her, or any of the other Modules, all of which have their own rooms and petting needs. A little creepy? Sure! But this is firmly a Japanese title, so would you expect anything less?

Speaking of the Japanese, f 2nd has a pretty awesome feature for the hardcore fans who imported the title, allowing them to do a one time save transfer. I personally can’t think of a game that has allowed that before,showing that Sega really knows that their hardcore Miku fanbase wouldn’t wait for the localized one. It’s great knowing that they have them in mind while localizing a game that many would consider to be a hard sell anyway.

Harder difficulties can get way too confusing.

So despite its issues going largely unchanged, Hatsune Miku: Project Diva f 2nd still manages to be an addicting, rewarding and content filled package that will keep fans playing for a long time. With so many items to buy and unlock, harder difficulties that will push you to get better, and a mostly solid soundtrack, it’s hard to ask for more from a rhythm game on the go. Sure, the interface could use a much needed overhaul, more of the game should be available from the start, and Divas Room can be made far less creepy, but in the end, Project Diva f 2nd is a solid buy for the Vocaloid and the rhythm lovers alike.

Final Score: 3.5/5

Geekscape Games Reviews ‘Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair’

by Josh JacksonSeptember 1, 2014

Back in February, a somewhat obscure text adventure game about a group of high school students who were forced to kill each other in exchange for their freedom ended up becoming one of the biggest surprises of the year so far. So much so in fact, that we raved about it in our review, to the point where I’d still call it one of the year’s best games even months later. One of the biggest strengths of the original Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, was its creative take on the visual novel, implementing elements of action games, rail shooters, and dating simulations to become one of the finest titles in its genre.

With that said, the obvious follow up question is; “What’s next?” How can a sequel to a text adventure, by which is fairly limited in what how much it can innovate, manage to feel like an improvement only seven months later? And yet, Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair does just that, finding a way to succeed in nearly every area while finding multiple ways to stay fresh. And in case you were wondering, this version is every bit as dark and twisted as you would expect from the series.

Monokuma is back, and is as big of a troll as you’d expect.

This time around, players find themselves in the unfortunate position of controlling Hajime Hinata, one of a group of 16 students from the prestigious Hope’s Peak Academy. Despite not being able to remember his talent, Hajime and his classmates are each considered “Ultimate” students, who are at the top of their respective fields. Whether it’s the “Ultimate Cook”, the “Ultimate Princess”, or the “Ultimate Yakuza”, each student serves as a beacon of hope for the future of the world. Only, things aren’t as they seem. After being seemingly abducted and held on Jabberwock Island in the guise of a school trip by their teacher, a talking stuffed rabbit who goes by Usami, it isn’t long before the trip gets out of hand. While the goal of the vacation is to build up their friendships and spread hope, it isn’t long before Monokuma, the antagonist of the original, commandeers the island and changes the rules to his liking. Now, there’s only one way off the island; kill one of your classmates, and get away with it.

In its opening moments, Jabberwock Island feels instantly familiar to anyone who explored Hope’s Peak Academy in the original. The majority of the game play is split up into two sections, which are Daily Life and Deadly Life. In Daily Life, Hajime traverses the islands in both the first person perspective of the first game in more enclosed spaces, or a new 2D side scrolling perspective when moving between the larger areas. These sections mostly consist of interacting with the characters to move the story forward, or participating in Free Time events, which allow Hajime to get to know his classmates better in exchange for Hope Fragments. With a little talking and a lot of bribery, fully exploring each character uncovers special abilities, while granting the means to buy extra ones by purchasing them with the fragments.

Solving crimes is rewarding as always.

But the island can’t stay tranquil forever, which is where the Deadly Life sections take center stage. When a murder is committed, the cast goes into full investigation mode, using the on screen cursor to uncover evidence, (called Truth Bullets), to figure out what went down and who committed the crime. Once everything possible is uncovered, a Class Trial is initiated, where the surviving students participate in a Nonstop Debate. Like in the original, the characters discuss the case while the player has a small selection of evidence to choose from. Various key phrases are highlighted, which may contradict a piece of evidence you hold. After sifting through the distractions caused by White Noise that look to block your shot, Hajime must take aim and shoot through these contradictions using the right line of logic. Solving the mysteries end up feeling far more rewarding this time around, since they come off as more complex with less hand holding. With this sometimes backfires since the linear nature of the game can make it hard to guess which piece of evidence to use and when, even if you have the right idea, especially when the answers can be really farfetched at times.

In between the debates, new mechanics have been added while old ones have been changed, but not all of them for the better. For example, the standard debate leaves room to agree with blue statements, (which was only featured in the post game in the first title), showing that you don’t always have to be argumentative to be successful. Another original mechanic that changed in the sequel is the Bullet Time Battle, which has been replaced with Panic Talk Action. The rhythm themed button tap mini game now asks us to hold and release the X button to the beat of the music, with the length of time the button is held deciding how many statements are shot down, or how many bullets are reloaded. While an interesting change, it feels like one that wasn’t necessary, filing itself in the category of innovating for the sake of it. Still, these sections are still fun to play, which is the end goal regardless.

Yet, we can’t talk about needlessly changed mechanics without discussing the new take on Hangman’s Gambit. The first game had us selecting letters off of the screen to spell out words that would reveal the next clue. Now, we have combine at least two of the same letter before we can add them to our board in order, which admittedly has a fun, fast paced shooter game feel to it. While the concept sounds harmless at first, there are times where the right set of letters takes forever to crop up, or in later stages, where so many letters spawn at once that you take unfair amounts of damage. I’m sure some of you might be ready to fire off about how I shouldn’t fault the game for sucking at it, but it’s definitely not my fault when opposite letters spawn on top of each other, resulting in instant damage before they’re fully on screen. If the third game can bring back the old way of doing things, that would be great.

Hangman after those funny cigarettes.

Even if Hangman’s Gambit is worse for wear this time around, I’ll gladly take the trade off when you consider how much Closing Arguments have been improved. My biggest complaint about the game play in the first game was how these comic book panels that piece together the crime were far too vague, forcing you to guess on the sequence of events based on small pictures with very little context. Now, not only does highlighting the blank spaces and the options at your disposal provide text clues saying what they mean, but each option is provided in increments instead of being distributed all at once. This results in losing the overwhelming feeling of having too many options while giving players a more balanced shot at choosing the right options.

Closing Arguments went from the biggest flaw of the original to the most improved feature in the 2nd.

No longer acting as passive observers to your crazy arguments, classmates can now refute your statements as well, triggering a Rebuttal Showdown. When someone dares question your sound logic, things quickly turn from a shootout to a sword fight, allowing players to slice through their words using the touch screen or control pad in order to stay in favor. Once the key word comes up, cutting through it with the right Truth Bullet will put them in their place.

Fighting for supremacy in a clash of words.

In one of the stranger additions to trials, the Logic Drive starts a snowboarding mini game that gives Hajime the means to connect logic strings together by sliding down the right paths. Yep, I just said there’s a snowboarding mini game in a text adventure. Surprisingly, the controls, physics and challenge is fairly strong, making them enjoyable to play. I’m sure I’m not the only one opposed to seeing this idea fleshed out more fully, because I would actively look forward to playing these sections as they came.

Logic snowboarding is the next big sport!

The best part, is on top of all these changes and improvements, the biggest draw of the game has stayed the same, which is its brutal cutscenes, dark sense of humor, and undeniable charm, all wrapped up in a somewhat innocent presentation. Both the old and new songs bring the emotions the game is trying to draw out of us to life, while the 2D cardboard cutouts and pink blood amplify the ironic cuteness of a death game arranged by a sadistic teddy bear. Movies have a change in animation, providing some moments that are made of pure nightmare fuel, although these scenes are overall weaker than the first game.

This is furthered by the feeling that the new characters just aren’t as good as the ones in the first game. While the innocent charm of Sonia Nevermind, the strong impression Nagito Komaeda leaves, or Teruteru, a special kind of pervert character who’s nose will bleed for literally anyone, will stick with you, other characters like Nekomaru Nidai, Gundham Tanaka, Mikan Tsumiki and Kazuichi Soda range from annoying, to grating, often coming off as caricatures rather than people you’re supposed to get attached to. Not that the game doesn’t have a knack for tugging on the heart strings, making my jaw drop many times over, but while the cast of the first game was definitely eccentric, they all had a level of humanity that this cast mostly lacks. Not to mention that the game expects us to suspend our disbelief to absurd levels at some points, but these moments are eventually explained in a satisfying way, saving the story from a bit of ridicule.

Characters like Mikan bog down the narrative, making it hard to care about them.

After about 30 hours or so passes and the main game is completed, Danganronpa 2 still has so much to offer. Like the first game and its School Mode, Island Mode lets Hajime focus on building friendships, both by using the 100+ presents that can be purchased with unlockable Monocoins to round up any remaining Hope Fragments, or using Trip Tickets to go on dates with them for expanded endings. In between all the lovey dovey stuff, a mining mini game asks the team to build certain items in exchange for more Trip Tickets, all while managing each person’s HP, the island’s cleanliness, and the amount of each item needed for a successful build.

In addition, the game does a complete 180, unlocking Usami’s very own mini game which pits her against the evil beasts that inhabit the island. Playing somewhat like an action platformer, Usami can jump on enemies, circle around them to create magical attacks, or unlock stronger equipment which allows her to progress through six short, yet entertaining stages, which include multiple difficulty levels to keep things interesting.

The crazy part? Between hundreds of unlockable gallery items, hidden Monokuma plush dolls scattered throughout the island, (which replace the magical coins that pop out of the environment), a virtual pet simulator that houses over half a dozen pets based on how many steps Hajime takes and a freaking in game novel, and Danganronpa 2 comes close to almost having too much content. This isn’t even all of the new content and improvements the game provides, but for the sake of not wanting to make this a novel of my own, we’ll spare the details on everything included, and leave some surprises for the game. Can we have too much of a good thing? Apparently not!

So after thinking that it would be near impossible to further the visual novel genre more than the first Danganronpa did, Goodbye Despair does so, and then some. While it doesn’t surpass its prequel in every aspect, it knocks most of what it tries to do out of the park. With a wide variety of game play mechanics, constant experimentation, (with mixed results), tons of distractions to give your sleuthing brain a break, and more unlockables than you’ll ever need, and you end up with a game that is a near perfect representation of what thinking outside the box can result in. What we’re left with is a sequel that takes risks instead of resting on the laurels of its successful predecessor, and is better off for it, making Danganronpa 2 one of the best games in its genre… And by extension, a strong candidate for one of the year’s best games. What’s more hopeful than that?

tl;dr

+ A return to form for the Hope’s Peak student body, providing deeper mysteries and more of a focus on exploration with its sick sense of innocent, self aware humor intact.

+ Features like in game digital pets, full fledged side games and new core mechanics, (like snowboarding logic), are bold inclusions that pay off in big ways.

+ Storytelling and cutscenes that will stick with you long after you’ve put the game down.

+ An insane amount of unlockables that will keep completionists playing for hours.

– Deeper mysteries result in moments where illustrating your point is hard to do, resulting in having to guess which similar piece of evidence is the right one.

– Certain story moments are too far fetched, which is made worse by a third of the cast ranging from annoying to insufferable.

– Not all changes were for the better, with a frustrating new take on Hangman’s Gambit.

Final Score: 4.5/5

Geekscape Games Reviews: ‘Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1’

by Josh JacksonAugust 25, 2014

Platform: Playstation Vita

Release Date: August 26th, 2014

Genre: Japanese Role Playing

Developer: Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Felistella

Thinking back to the days when I first heard whispers of a new Playstation 3 RPG that would tackle the console wars with the magical girl genre, it would have been hard to imagine how far the concept would go. Yet, years after the debut of the original Hyperdimension Neptunia, the series has spawned sequels, its own anime and a very bad spinoff, to continuously feed its respectable following, making it a legitimate success. With each sequel improving on the last, the developers at Idea Factory decided to take the lessons they’ve learned to the Playstation Vita, creating a full remake of the original with Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1. By taking the best ideas from the second and third games and inserting them into Neptune’s first adventure, it’s safe to say that this release is on track to be the definitive version of the game that started it all. But are these enhancements enough of a reason to take a trip back to Gamindustri?

Purple Heart soars into battle!

ReBirth puts players in the over-sized hoodie of Neptune, the goddess, (or CPU), of Planeptune. After being locked in an everlasting conflict known as the Console Wars, Neptune’s true form as Purple Heart is defeated, thanks to the combined efforts of Black Heart of Laststation, (or Playstation), Green Heart of Leanbox, (or Xbox), and White Heart of Lowee, (take a guess). After crash landing in the middle of her city with no memory of her true identity, she’s discovered by Compa, a ditzy nurse who somehow comes off as the more responsible of the two compared to Nep’s aloofness. In pursuit of her past, Neptune and her friends get wrapped up in a quest to save Gamindustri from a mysterious threat; one that puts all four realms at risk. But can the warring CPUs put aside their differences for the sake of saving the world?

The majority of the play time is spent in one of the game’s numerous dungeons, all of which are brimming with monsters and treasure, which is all presented in a bright, colorful world. Avoiding the tedium of random battles, all fights are triggered by making contact with enemies on the field, with the ability to strike enemies before battle to start with the upper hand. As expected, the enemies can do the same, so careless attacks can be punished in a big way.

Gaining an early advantage and utilizing your attacks is the key to victory.

But first thing’s first. What kind of savior can protect people without fighting? If you typically associate JRPGs with slow, tedious battles, then ReBirth could be the game that changes your mind. Once these fights trigger, the turn based system is the only aspect you would be able to associate with the typical role playing game of old. When each party member’s turn comes up, they’ll have full range of motion within a certain radius, allowing players to position them in a spot that’s both offensively and defensively advantageous.

Fewer foes are more menacing than the Super Otaku!

After a battle commences, each party member has three standard attack types, called Rush, Power and Break attacks, all of which have various advantages in a fight. Rush uses multi hit attacks that deal more damage than Break moves, and are primarily used to build up the EXE meter, (a bar that allows strong special attacks once filled). Power on the other hand, are typically single hit moves that deal more damage than the other two attack types. Yet, the most important function is easily the Break attack, which focuses on draining the opponent’s guard meter, triggering a huge damage boost once the enemy is weakened. As the party gets stronger, new special abilities become available, making it even more important to properly manage these three basic functions to deal maximum damage. And trust me, you’ll need to when going toe to toe with the game’s tough bosses.

Making this aspect even more important is its effect on your (and the enemy’s), ability to deal damage. The party’s attack range is illustrated by an icon that’s either in front or around them, with its reach depending on the character, ability and weapon they’re using. Mastering this feature is crucial to success when it comes to standard battles, since the right position can allow one attack to hit multiple opponents, especially when attempting to Guard Break huge groups at once. On the flip side, enemies have the same attack system, so keeping your party right next to each other is a one way ticket to an embarrassing Game Over. But when certain beneficial abilities work best when the team is within the vicinity of each other, sometimes, taking the risk can be beneficial. It’s moments like these where strategy adds a decent amount of depth to a relatively simple battle system, that adds layer upon layer as it progresses.

Outside of battles, Neptune and company can explore the terrain of each dungeon, seeking out valuable treasure with her radar, (used to uncover one hidden item per area), or through, plain, old fashion map scouring. While some can be used right out of the box, most treasures contain materials to synthesize other items. If this sounds familiar, that’s where the cliche ends, thanks to the game’s Remake System.

Treasure hunting has never been so adorable.

In addition to creating items, the Remake System allows materials to be used to alter the game itself, allowing players to create an environment that suits their needs. Is that latest boss too tough for you to take down? Go ahead and remake the difficulty. Have you seen everything there is in a dungeon and want to explore it again? Then why not add harder enemies and new treasure? Or how about a new dungeon altogether? Yep, you can even add bonus dungeons to explore once the standard ones get dull.

Options like these really make ReBirth stand out, so even when the standard difficulty tends to be erratic, players can choose to change the game rather than put up with hours of level grinding. Although, if you’re too proud to take the helping hand, then those spikes may be more of an issue, especially when the game likes to put you up against multiple dungeons, enemies and bosses without save points or chances to heal. Do you like having to play chunks of a game over and over again? I don’t.

But there’s more to the world of Hyperdimension Neptunia then just the dungeons. Exploring Gamindustri is handled through a large overworld map, allowing players to select different areas to examine. Planeptune and its neighboring lands each have a Basilicom, or hub area. Here, the party can purchase items, weapons and gear, accept quests, (which range from boss fights, to hunting or gathering missions), seek information from each town’s strange inhabitants, and burn discs, which are customizable gear that can hold almost any stat boost or resistance you can think of, assuming you own the right items to do so. All of this mind you, is presented with a script that is laugh out loud funny on so many occasions, feeling like a true love letter to gamers who catch the many references to the medium. Even Neptune herself, gives us hope that all lazy, unreliable gamers out there can one day rise up and save the world. But not until filling up on junk food and finishing that one last stage, of course.

You would think the physical manifestation of a game console would know the drill by now.

But with such an endearing cast and interesting world the characters inhabit, it’s too bad that this doesn’t translate into the actual exploration of Gamindustri. With dungeons being the only areas to actually move around in, selecting icons and watching the story play out with text adventure style word bubbles set to backdrops, I felt eager to actually be able to walk around and communicate with these crazy characters, especially with the superb voice acting in both English and Japanese. It doesn’t help that the dungeons themselves come off as looking relatively bland, especially compared to the bright characters and monsters that often ooze personality without ever having to say a word. And at points, no words might have been the better option, since certain scenes featuring gratuitous fan service might make you feel embarrassed to read through those sections.

Sadly, this is the extent of which we get to explore Gamindustri.

Still, these complaints are a drop in the bucket compared to the ridiculous amount of fun I had playing through ReBirth. The fast paced game play combined with the endearing characters, hilarious writing, colorful presentation and the insane amount of customization makes this remake stand out as not only an improvement on the original, but one of the best Japanese RPGs I’ve played in years. Lack of true exploration aside, anyone with a passing interest in role playing games, anime, or nerdy video game references absolutely should pick up Hyper Dimension Neptunia Re;Birth1, serving as a true bright spot in the Vita’s bleak 2014.

tl;dr

+ A simple, fast paced battle system that adds layers over time.

+ The ability to customize everything from enemy layout to difficulty.

+ Multiple items to find, tough enemies to defeat, dozens of dungeons to explore and hundreds of quests give the game a ton of mileage.

+ A quirky cast of characters who inhabit a story that never takes itself seriously, brought to life by excellent voice actors.

– The lack of true exploration leaves us wondering what a fully realized Gamindustri could have been, with bland environments compared to the party and enemies.

– While optional difficulty adjustments alleviate the problem, sudden difficulty spikes and marathon dungeons can hinder progress.

-Occasional “fan service” moments may turn off some.

– While more of a minor thing, can party members who leave the team give my equipment back? Thieves…

Final Score: 4.5/5