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16/February/2003 !!NEW!!Black & BruisedBlack & Bruised is an over-the-top arcade-style boxing game for the GameCube and PlayStation 2 that features wild characters, decent control, and a surprising story-driven single-player mode. Casual gamers looking for a new Ready 2 Rumble-style boxing game will find Black & Bruised to be a charmingly fun, albeit overly simple game to play. Hard-core boxing aficionados chomping at the bit for a new boxing game should pass on this one, since its gameplay revolves around power-ups that often have more influence on the outcome of a bout than the player's boxing skills do. The game features six different gameplay modes: single-player exhibition, two-player exhibition, survival, tournament, training, and boxer's life. While the first five modes listed here are self-explanatory, the game's main single-player mode, boxer's life, is fairly unique. The boxer's life mode is a career mode of sorts that imparts a good deal of its story through prerendered cinema sequences that play in between the matches. Every fighter has his own story line, and these stories are not only entertaining, but they also tie directly into the gameplay of the bouts. For instance, when you play as Mickey McFist, you'll eventually get into a car accident that leaves your ribs a little sore. This translates into not being able to take too many punches to your body in your next fight, since they'll do an increased amount of damage. The boxer's life mode also features scenarios in which you have to beat an opponent within a certain amount of time or keep your fighter's health above that of your opponent at all times, among other things. While the point of any boxing game is to punch your opponent while trying to minimise the damage your fighter sustains, Black & Bruised also features a power-up gameplay element. At different points during each bout, an icon will appear in between the fighters' health bars that represents one of an assortment of power-ups, such as invincibility or super punch. When this icon appears, you and your opponent will literally fight to win it--if you put together a good combination before your opponent does, you'll get the power-up. Once you have it, you can use it right away or try to build its power by landing more punches. Every punch you land gives you a star that appears above your health meter. Once you've filled the line, the stars will change colour and start building up from left to right again. You can do this three times, since each power-up has three levels of power, much like the supermoves seen in some fighting games. With each level you gain, the power-up you have becomes even more effective. This power-up mechanic is extremely effective, and it is very often the deciding factor in a match. The controls are fairly simple and offer the basic punches you'd expect, such as hooks, uppercuts, and overhand rights. The game does include a number of combinations for each fighter, but the game's default difficulty setting doesn't really require you delve into them very much. On the harder difficulty settings, though, you'd better know your stuff, since the AI doesn't let you get away with just landing one or two punches. In the graphics department, Black & Bruised uses cell shading to create a cartoonlike look. This approach, coupled with the fact that the game's 19 fighters are all extremely unique in their design, definitely makes for a solid presentation. The lack of transitional animations and the blinding speed at which the fighters move from one position to the next do hamper the game's impressive presentation to a certain extent--the animations don't blend well from one to the next, which makes it look a bit like the fighters are just jumping from one punch to the next. When they are just moving around the ring, though, the fighters look great. Both versions of the game are similar in terms of visual quality, though the GameCube version is a bit smoother and more colorful than its PlayStation 2 counterpart. The audio includes quite a bit of voice work, most of which is campy but well executed. The dialogue fits the game's overall over-the-top style and adds a great deal to the characters' personalities. The game's upbeat music and cartoonlike sound effects also help set the game's light-hearted tone. Obviously, any serious boxing fan will want to look elsewhere for sim-styled boxing. But in the end, Black & Bruised is a fun arcade-style boxing game that casual gamers will find entertaining for awhile. From Gamespot
03/February/2003Luigi's MansionThis game sees Luigi in his debut solo game; he’s armed with a vacuum cleaner, and a torch. Let me just give you a brief introduction to the storyline. His mission is to investigate the mysterious disappearance of his brother Mario. Throughout his adventure he has to use his vacuum cleaner to hoover up ghosts. When Luigi arrives at his destination, which is a spooky mansion, he finds a key to a room, which is filled with money but to his horror is guarded by ghosts. At the start of the game he is without any form of defence against attack from ghosts. When he enters the room, he meets a nutty professor who instructs Luigi to flee the mansion for the time being. When Luigi gets to the Professor’s lab he is given a vacuum cleaner and a torch to combat the ghosts. Some of the good points in my opinion of the game are that, Luigi can pinpoint the location of a ghost’s heart with his torch and then he can hoover them up and trap them inside his vacuum cleaner. (Ghostbusters rip .ed). This game shows off the Gamecube’s abilities to generate clear graphics and sound. The shadow and light effects are good and the dust billows are really realistic, this happen whenever Luigi uses his vacuum cleaner on a lampshade or a chest of drawers, or any piece of furniture etc. Another good point of the game is that Luigi encounters some classic foes as well as new ones, this is a blast from the past for all Mario/Luigi followers. Another good point of the game is that Luigi can collect fire, water and ice medals. These allow Luigi to collect fire, water and ice spirits to fill a gage that lets you light candles if you collect fire, put out fires if you collect water and freeze water if you collect ice. Some of the bad points in my opinion are that the combat system gets very repetitive very quickly. This game seemed too easy because you could save too frequently and anywhere. Nintendo should have made this more difficult by adding in save rooms similar to ‘Eternal Darkness’, for Luigi to go to after a boss-fight. Maybe he could have used the save room to regain energy and obviously to save his progress. What would have been good is if Luigi could even have emptied the vacuum cleaner of all the sucked up ghosts. Another bad point was that Luigi found money too easily which actually had no real value in the game other than a high score at the end, and some things were obvious on what to do. The ghosts were too easy to capture and hardly put up a fight, it was like they wanted to be captured and imprisoned inside the Poltergust 3000. Another bad point of LM is that there aren’t that many puzzles to solve and dead ends of the mansion will annoy you at times. The mansion map is unclear at times and can confuse you on where to go next. Another bad point of the game is that Luigi has to backtrack through the mansion to find new rooms that weren’t open when he first was near them. Some of the detailed aspects of the game are that when Luigi is in the dark he whistles nervously but when he’s in a room where the lights are on he whistles confidently as if he’s in a normal mansion. Another detailed aspect of LM is when Luigi shrieks in terror when a ghost shows itself to him. Also the character animation has been paid a great amount of detail to, such as Luigi’s different facial expressions he makes when he’s scared or happy. Although this game has some good points and bad points it has a major flaw, it is extremely short and can be completed in roughly 6-7 hours. This is a good but short game and is a good beginner’s game for getting to grips with the Gamecube’s controls although I wouldn’t recommend it on this fact alone. The most difficult part in the whole entire game is the final boss, but you will have to buy the game to appreciate this. - Reviewer Henry Slade (in-House reviewer)
01/February/2003The Legend of Zelda: Kaze no Takuto (The Wind Waker)It must have been like being at school again. Soon after Nintendo showed off The Legend of Zelda's new art direction and look, it was bullied, harried and taunted mercilessly for straying from the more hardened fantasy visuals that were demonstrated at Spaceworld a couple years back. Suddenly, like a Richie Rich character who lost all his money, Link was now seen as the scabby kid with no future prospects and was about as popular as Skeletor at a fat farm. Poor lil guy. This all changed as knee-jerk reaction subsided, and rational thought took over. It's a Zelda game for crying out loud! Who cares about the visual expectations. Well, as we played the finished game, pad clamped in our sweaty hands, we couldn't help but feel mostly vindicated in siding with pro-stance of the series' new look. Fans, sit down, put your feet up and release that bated breath - Link's latest offering is indeed one of the best games to be created in a while. We wont venture too far into the perilous land of Spoiler-world in describing the main thrust of the story, but if you want to skip past this paragraph and be safe without any really minor story details then we'll see you in a bit. Any of you still here? Goooood. The very short version of the opening tale depicts a fable of legend, how evil threatened the land of Hyrule and a young man dressed in green garb came with a mighty sword to banish the evil and restore peace through the land before disappearing. And so it goes that whenever such malevolence roams the kingdom, a hero shall arise through the generations to fight it. You start off as the newest in a metaphorical bloodline that has had the green uniform of legend passed down to bring down the destruction affecting the fair kingdom. But first there's the little matter about rescuing your sister who has been suddenly abducted by a mysterious giant bird... Guiding young Link around, it's clear that the graphical style of Kaze no Takuto harks back to the colorful cartoonesque look of the Super Nintendo classic: A Link to the Past (which many still consider the best Zelda game) rather than the more hard edged stylism of Ocarina of Time. Despite initial worries and vitriol, Nintendo's art team has pulled this off beautifully. And it also follows the pattern that each next generation of a Zelda game differs artistically from the last, offering a mixture of Don "Dragons Lair" Bluthe's cartoon style shading with a distinct Nintendo sheen that mimics LttP perfectly in gloriously crisp 3D toon-ovision. There's even depth of field to blur objects in the distance, sharply coming into view when you get close. Very impressive. The animation that couples this is superb, completing the illusion that you're controlling a live cartoon at times and making a mockery of previous titles trying to boast such lofty claims. There's plenty of emotion and detail as well that has been limited in past Zelda games. Grass billows in the wind, water ebbs and flows, heat haze gorgeously ripples the screen, weather changes in various degrees, and Link has a wider complement of facial expressions rather than the semi-gormless/angry/happy features he previously sported. It works a treat, projecting a sense of drama which really takes form when the darker, gloomier elements of the story take hold, resembling the sharper cynic-edged tone of Nintendo 64's last Zelda game, Majora's Mask: Gloriously "lifelike", yet at times very sombre. Even better are the numerous remixes of musical themes and flourishes of familiar Zelda tunes that are masterfully created and sound in every part of the series, arguably the best soundtrack yet for the franchise in all its broody and context sensitive glory. Kaze no Takuto's has taken much of the last few iterations of the series and pushed them further along to create a game that feels like a natural evolution. The game engine is similar in the sense of everything being fully 3D and most things Link will come across are interactive in one manner or another, as you explore massive environments, solve puzzles, adventure in dungeons and fight enemies. This last aspect is an excellent leap in the franchise, still boasting Z-targeting (but via the L shoulder button this time) but giving Link a wider range of combos and attacks, including a superb counter attack which flashes on the context sensitive A button, which when pressed at the right moment allows Link to perform an evasive move followed by an devastating sword attack. Another change is the camera, which for the first time can be fully controllable using the C stick. This manual control is often the best way to deal with exploration, as while the default follow setting is fine, the complexity of the environments and the diversity of enemy attacks means that the camera is more susceptible to problems than the near perfect Ocarina of Time. Those expecting the frustration of Mario Sunshine however need not fear. There are very few situations where you'll be cursing in the same way the little Italian plumber had you threatening to ram the joypad in places that would have him screaming "mama mia" in pain. Phew. Sailing also plays a big part, replacing the horse riding/bird flying exploration of the overworld in the previous games. The map is effectively a giant ocean, linking you between the numerous islands, caves and other distractions that you would find typical. This is where day turns to night and vice versa, enemy outposts lie in wait to assault you, ship to ship battles take place and secrets are found only to mystify you until the right object is discovered to solve them. In terms of vastness, the large watery expanse is intimidating at first, but it soon becomes second nature to learn how to get from one place to another using the map and more importantly, the wind, which is controlled via your magic wand - something of a ocarina substitute that allows spells to be cast once songs are learnt. As we confidently asserted before, Kaze no Takuto is indeed one of the best games developed on Gamecube, and in fact consoles on a whole. It works on so many levels, building on the already superlative foundry that was Ocarina of Time, and provides an unforgettable and magical gaming experience. There will be times where you'll be amazed by its ingenuity, the breadth of its imagination and the sheer playability, even with the remapped Z-lock and free camera. While other titles, such as Star Fox Adventures, have tried to emulate the mechanics of what is here, the essence of adventure and fun that encapsulates Zelda is what makes it leaps and bounds ahead of that game and others. They lack the sense of "soul" that those cookie cutters try to Xerox so frequently. Battles for example, have you striking against semi-intelligent enemies who pick up stray weapons when you've stolen theirs, or gang up on you en mass when you're too slow to capitalize on an advantage. Puzzles not only require the likes of lighting torches, creating platforms or pressing panels, but using a leaf to blow your makeshift float in the right direction, or temporarily possessing an item to guide it through to operate a switch. True, it isn't a revolution in gameplay, but having said that, neither was Super Mario World, which is still regarded as one of the best, if not the best 2D platforming game in history. Not to mention Kaze no Takuto refines the fresh territory made by the likes of Mario 64, Ocarina and very few others, and is arguably the clearest and most elegant vision of what 3D Zelda titles have been all about from the beginning. Namely imagination, adventure, a sense of wonder and downright playable fun. That's not to say it doesn't have its faults. Latter parts of the game rehash earlier elements a bit too often, proving a tad weary and frustrating in small chunks, with there being times where you have to do the same fairly uninspiring puzzle over again for a quarter of the dungeon, especially compared to the far more impressive parts of the game. Sailing can also feel a bit forced at times, having you travel for minutes at a time, infrequently without event or having to change your course. One time we managed to let Link and his talking boat sail for a few good minutes just to get to a destination, and not have to touch the pad to do anything other than check we were still going in the right direction. It almost seems like Nintendo didn't have time to implement as much gameplay detail as it would have liked, making some of these sections seem laboured or even -- gasp! -- rushed. And for those of limited patience or wanting to just get to the next location, it's possible frustration could start to set in. But regardless of this, the game is still vastly engaging and huge, offering the same amount of amazingly good gameplay hours as previous titles (that's around 40-50 to you sire) if not more- especially if you're not familiar with the fair Japanese language. Which brings us to the main point for those looking to import. Despite the high score and the sheer excitement of what must now be near bursting point, we implore you to wait for the translated version unless you have at least a good working knowledge of Japanese. Zelda (only) just looses out on a full score because there will be times where language knowledge is essential to progress fully. The game is well designed enough to let you struggle through given time and patience, but in the same way you can understand something like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon without a translation from the strength of the cinematography, you'd be missing out on the whole experience planned by the producers and designers in the first place. While we concede that a ham-fisted translation could end up knocking marks off come its western re-review, it would be criminal to not immerse yourself in the full experience that is Zelda and miss out on the finer points of story and dialogue, not to mention the numerous sub quests that are part of the game. It's more from this, rather than its slightly more tedious sections that Kaze no Takuto misses out a magic five stars. For those who feel comfortable enough with the language, the game gets full marks for style, ingenuity and being essentially as good as Ocarina of Time. And, while not better than the opus that is Link to the Past, it's the closest to capturing the fresh near indescribable essence of that near flawless 16-bit title; that sense of wonder that makes you, appropriately like the this most recent portrayal of Link, a wide-eyed school child again. And we wouldn't have it any other way. Sublime. From Games Domain - Reviewer Corey Brotherson
27/January/2003Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s RequiemThis psychological thriller sees a University student, called Alex Roivas having a nightmare where she was in a room with zombies armed with a shotgun. She then woke up at 3:33 and received a phone call informing her of her uncle’s mysterious death. She went to the Roivas family ancestral home located in Rhode Island. The detective, who had made the call to her, asked her if she could identify the body, but warned her that the body had been severely mutilated by an unknown attacker. After the conversation with the detective, she vowed to find out whom, or what had killed her uncle, the story begins. The basis of this game is that Alex is walking around the mansion, discovering rooms with chapter pages inside them, which go inside the tomb of darkness. This is a book she finds in the first room after she does a couple of tasks, remember the time she saw when she woke up from her nightmare, it’s important. The main character of the game, Alex Roivas finds chapter pages throughout her exploration of the mansion, which were torn out of the Tomb of Darkness. These chapter pages act as the levels, which the different characters over different time lines explore to the end until they’re killed. This allows Alex to obtain different spells which past characters found. She can then use these spells to her advantage of finding the next chapter page. In my opinion, some of the good points of the game are the gameplay in a sense that the targeting system works quite well. For example, you can target specific parts of an enemy. Dismantling their head makes them easy to get past without having to completely get rid of them; they’ll just keep walking around blindly looking for their head (This only works on zombies...)(...and is extremely funny .ed). Another good point of Eternal Darkness is the introduction of magical spells into the gameplay. The end of the second level determines the type of enemy you fight because there are three artifacts at the end of the second level where you control Pious Augustus. This also effects the casting of spells. In my opinion the best level was the third one, you control a character called Anthony. You get a torch half way through the level where you can set alight many of the apparitions of evil, so you regain much need scraps of 'sanity'. In my opinion, some of the bad points in the game are that the combat system is repetitive and you face the same boss twice with different characters in different time lines. Another bad point of E.D is that some of the A.I of the enemies, are very poor at times and attack in the same way all the time, if you work this pattern out you can get past that type of enemy with ease every time. Another bad point is when the camera angle goes weird in places, like when you walk towards a wall the camera looks as if it’s on the wall looking at the character. Another bad point of E.D is the solving of puzzles get frustrating at times, because you have to them done a certain way or you can’t progress through the game, for example in some places you have to use a certain spell aligned to a certain colour to find a secret door hidden on a wall. There are clues of the colour alignment but this is easily forgotten, and you can’t cast spells and know what their effects are without a codex and three runes, which are obtained from wandering characters. Some of the scary aspects of the game are when you finish a chapter and regain control of Alex; you suddenly hear a loud thump from behind a wall. An annoying aspect of E.D is when you come face to face with a 'trapper', this little SOB teleports your current character into a recuperation room where you can regain health sanity and 'magick' depending what colour ring you step on. This is only necessary if you are low on either of the three; otherwise this is annoying, as on your second journey to a trapper room, there are zombies there to obstruct you from the exit. All in all though, I think this game could have been better by seeing Alex fight more than she did. Rather than have her be reading the Tomb of Darkness, after finding each chapter page and reading them, seeing the past through each character’s eyes and recovering the spells used by each different character in the previous levels. - Reviewer Henry Slade (in-House reviewer) |
New Screenshots
3 February 2003
!New! Sim City 4 screenshots added to PC screenshots. __________
!New! ToeJam & Earl screenshots added to Xbox screenshots. __________
!New! Pro Evolution Soccer 2 screenshots added to PS2 screenshots. __________
!New! Die Hard screenshots added to Gamecube screenshots. __________ |
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