Ryan's Video Game blog

This year's pick for Halloweenish themed games: the Castlevania Series

2011-10-30T00:16:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again, Halloween (2011). Are you looking for some good halloweenish titles to play on your favorite game system (or emulator)? Here is a short list of halloweenish games you will probably love. Some are completely halloweenish, while some others are not really halloweenish (though they do have some noteworthy halloweenish themes to them)

image caption: picture of Count Dracula in the game, Castlevania Symphony of the Night (you can find the original screen shot at Moby games at http://www.mobygames.com/game/xbox360/castlevania-symphony-of-the-night/screenshots/gameShotId,430217/). Count Dracula is the main antagonist of the famous Castlevania series and is a classic if you are looking for halloweenish titles.

Ah, it's been a while since I have posted last. Been a bit busy, plus this blog is not the only blog I have, as I also have several other blogs, including a blog about demos at http://rjstoredemos.blogspot.com (talks about demos I do, has a section on special promotions online from select retailers, as well as several other features). I also have 2 relatively new blogs, including one about siberian huskies and alaskan malamutes at http://instantblogsubscribers.com/?w=huskies (yes, I am trying out a new blog host for that blog and it is pretty similar to blogspot, with some differences, such as cleaner layouts for blogs, less restrictions on what you can post about, as well as more ways you can monetize your blogs, such as adding clickbank affiliate links, referral links for your Sokule downline, as well as built in referral links to IBS) and a general animal videos blog at http://rjanimalvideos.blogspot.com. Feel free to check them out and subscribe to them too as I try to add new posts to them often too. Anyways, on to this post. As you probably know, it is halloween season and you might be wondering if there are some good halloweenish games to play, and one game series that you are bound to love is the Castlevania Series (it is definately a classic and a very halloweenish game)

The first game series that SHOULD be on your list is probably the Castlevania series. This game certainly does bring back memories, especially back in the days of the classic NES when Castlevania 2, Simon's quest came out, when you played as Simon Belmont in his mission to lift a hiddeous curse that turns people into monsters as well as to defeat the evil Count Dracula. Of course, that is just one of many games in the Castlevania series. In case if you are not familiar with the Castlevania series, it is a lengthy series of games created by Komnai (the same people who made the Contra series) about heroes such as Simon Belmont (as well as his predecessors and successors) in their struggle against the evil forces of demons lead by the evil Count Dracula, who is the "dark lord" (Satan-like) and the main antagonist of the series (though some of the newer games do have a new villian, such as Satan himself at the end of the Lords of Shadows game, besides the 2 expansion packs). Many of the games come in different forms and have evolved quite a bit since the NES games with plenty of hit titles, including "Symphony of the Night", Circle of the Moon, Lamment of Innocents, Lords of Shadow, and many other titles.

Typical themes in the Castlevania Series:
- you fight through hordes of ghosts, goblins, monsters, demons, and other foul creatures of the night that you would find in a halloween themed game, movie or show.
- Plenty of hideous bosses to fight. In most if not all Castlevania games, you are bound to fight some huge and monsterous minions of the evil Count Dracula (which varies by games), with some noteworthy boss fights including: Frankenstein in Super Castlevania 4, Death (the grim reaper, who is pretty much 2nd in command of Dracula's forces), the "Forgotten One" (a very goulish optional boss you can fight in Lamment of Innocents), Legion (a huge ball of dead bodies that appears in some of hte games), Dullahan (the headless horseman look alike), as well as many others.
- The final boss in most (though not all Castlevania games) is usually Count Dracula (who usually teleports around a room and hurling fireballs and other projectiles at you), though he usually comes in 2 forms (a human form, followed by a huge demonic/dragon form).
- Levels do come with good Castlevania style music, especially in the earlier games in the series, such as the "vampire killer", "beginning", and "bloody tears" themes (though many of the newer games have different sound tracks).

Noteworthy titles in the Castlevania Series:

1) Lamment of Innocence -

this is the official prequel of the Castlevania series and is almost like a movie in a way (given the 3D nature of the game as well as the voice acting of the characters and all) and features Leon Belmont, who is a distant grandfather of Simon Belmont, who is on a quest to stop an evil vampire named Walter (who happens to be one of the predecessors of Dracula) and save his wife who was kidnaped by Walter (in an attempt to lure Leon into a cat and mouse game at his castle). While the game may seem a little short, the levels in the game are pretty lenghty and you will fight hordes of skeletons, flying eyeballs (peeping toms), ghosts, zombies, and other creatures of the night, along with some huge bosses like Medusa, a succubus creature, an undead parasite worm, as well as several others. Even in the main castle, the music is creepy, and yes, there is a hideous monster (known as the "Forgotten One") lurking at the bottom of the main castle that you can fight towards the end of the game when you have gotten a certain item to open the door leading to him and you can hear him moving around as you get closer to him.

2) Castlevania 64 -

This is definitely another classic. If you have a Nintendo 64, you would probably like Castlevania 64 (though the camera graphics can be a little choppy). You play as either a girl named Carrie or a decendent of Simon Belmont, named Reinhardt Schneider in their latest quests to Dracula's Castle in their mission to stop his evil plans. By the way, the storylines are slightly different depending on who you play as (for example, if you are Carrie, part of your quest will involve hunting down an evil witch named, Actriz, who is bent on kidnapping and sacrificing young children all in the name of preserving her "youth") and as Belmont, the main mission is to hunt down Dracula (who unbeknownst to him happens to be a mysterious child named Malus though that fact does not get revealed until the end of the game). Plenty of memorable features in this game:

- The eerie feel when playing (especially on the first few levels where you are in the woods and heading into the castle). Also, I do like the boss music as well (the shutter theme) on the early bosses.
- On the 3rd level, you will be going through an eerie maze chasing after Malus (a mysterious kid, who is really Dracula unbeknownst to Reinhardt/Carrie), while watching your back as you have 2 gargoyle dogs and literrally a crazed Frankenstein monster armed with a chain saw (just two hits from that baby can prove fatal for Reinhardt/Carrie) chasing after you for the entire maze portion level (btw, there is a major boss fight at the end of that level). It is bound to get your adrenaline going, as one false move and it is game over there. Even the castle you enter before the maze is eerie as it is full of ghosts, vampires (some of them serve as mini bosses too), a "friendly" ghost named Rosa (who becomes a boss character later on in the game), as well as some other eerie features.
- You do collect gold in the game that you can use to buy items and power ups. Be warned though: the salesman is really a demon in disguise as a salesman and if you buy too often, you will have to fight him as a boss character in the last level of the game (before you fight Dracula).
- You do fight vampires on various occasions, and they can turn you into a vampire if they "bite" you (which comes with negative effects too).
- Epic boss battles too, including a massive battle against Death (has the boss theme from Castlevania Dracula X when you face him), Renon (the "businessman" if you buy from him too often), Actriz (the evil witch in the game), as well as a 3 fold battle against Dracula (including the imposter version of Dracula that you fight at the top of the "Clock Tower" level), as well as an epic two part final battle with the real Dracula.
- Plenty of clip scenes too (plays like a "silent film" though).

As you can see, Castlevania 64 is a one of a kind game for the 64 and is definately a title you don't want to miss. A few downsides though: 1) deaths do come cheap on some levels (by the way, it is possible to fall to your doom in this game), 2) the camera angles can be tricky sometimes, and 3) no voice acting in most of the clipscenes (the dialogues play out a bit like that of a silent film where the game shows subtitles when the characters "talk" in the clipscenes).

Tips with Castlevania 64:
- It is recommended that you play on Medium or Hard since you won't get to the end on "easy mode" (the game ends on level 5 if you play on easy mode, which is not really the final level of the game as much as it might seem like the final level at first).
- You do have to try to get through the levels as quickly as possible since you are kind of in a race against another vampire hunter named, Vincent (who is a reckless vampire hunter who wants to reach Dracula before your character does). If you take too long or you use the sun/moon cards too often, you will have to face Vincent as a boss character, and that makes it so you get the bad ending (though the imposter version of Dracula will seem like the final boss on the surface, especially given the "dance of illusions" theme when you fight him).
- Be careful not to buy from Renon too often, as you will have to fight him as a boss at the end of the game if you do.

3) Castlevania Dracula X (and it's alternate version: Dracula X Chronicles) -

this game is probably one of my favorites in the series. You play as Richter Bemont (one of the many successors of Simon Belmont). Count Dracula had been resurrected by a corrupt priest named, Shaft and Dracula proceeds to kidapping Richter's sister, Maria, as well as his girlfriend (Annette?) and it is up to Richter to "pay a visit" to Dracula's castle, rescue Maria and Annette, and defeat Dracula once again against all odds. The game spans about 8 levels or and has an arcade style feel. Some of the levels also have some of the classic Castlevania music tracks, such as the "Bloody Tears" theme on level 3. At the end of the game is an epic battle against Dracula. Note: while I have played the SNES version of Dracula X, I haven't played the Dracula X Chronicles verion yet. I used to have a PSP, but it broke, but I am planning to get a new one some time, and then I can get the game then. However, I have seen videos of the game on Youtube and definitely seems to be alot different from the SNES version (besides some similarities). By the way, personally I liked Castlevania Dracula X more than Super Castlevania 4 in many ways (probably given the newer feel to the game).

4) Symphony of the Night -

This is the official sequel to Castlevania Dracula X Chronicles (it appears this game takes place after the events of Castlevania Dracula X Chronicles, not the original Dracula X game). Set around the time of the end of Dracula X Chronicles (aka Rondo of Blood), Richter Belmont thought that he had defeated Shaft and Dracula and ended his evil plans, but the not yet over, not by a long shot. Soon, the evil priest named Shaft comes back into the picture, "kidnaps" Richter and causes him to turn evil by making him into "lord" of Dracula's castle, and soon plans the resurrection of the evil Count Dracula (which seems to be inevitable with Richter out of the picture at the time). However, Dracula's "son", Alucard (who seems to be sympathetic towards the human race) intervenes (thus betraying Dracula's cause) and sets on a quest to rescue Richter from Shaft and Dracula's clutches, defeat Shaft once and for all, and stop Dracula's resurrection before all is lost. This game is definately a classic and seems to be the inspiraton for many of the current generation 2D Castlevania games, including Circle of the Moon, Harmony of Dissonance, Portrait of Ruin, and others. You go through not 1, but 2 huge castles (the other one is really a clone of the first one, but everything is upside down there) facing countless foes, hiddeous boss characters (including the infamous Legion/Granlafoon boss, Death, Cerebus, and many others), and make your way to rescue Richter (who is under Shaft's influence) and save the day. The game also uses a level up system, plenty of weapons, shields and other items you can use to help boost your stats and to help progress through the castles, making your character stronger and more powerful as you progress). It also comes with a satisfying ending too. It is probably my favorite Castlevania game. I used to have the game on the Playstation, but decided to sell it along with the original playstation I had around the time I got the PS 2 (sold it to a guy on Ebay). Though, I wouldn't mind getting the Xbox Live version some day.

Well, there are many other noteworthy games in the Castlevania series (this list would be too long if I posted them all) and is worth mentioning.

By the way, what do you think of the Castlevania series? Do you have any favorites? The latest one I've played is the Lords of Shadow version, which is the latest 3D Castlevania game, where you play as Gabriel Belmont in his quest to avenge the death of his wife and rescue her spirit (which is in limbo after her death). The only downside to the Lords of Shadow version is that it is definitely much darker than many of the previous Castlevania games I've played (even on the boss battles, your character now has gruesom fatality moves that you can use to completely destroy bosses when you beat them) and plus part of the game takes your character to Hell (literally), with the end boss being Satan himself (I guess they decided to make Satan the angagonist for LOS), which may be offensive to some, especially mothers.

Looking for a information about particular Castlevania game? Take advantage of this search widget below from Amazon:

Amazon.com Widgets

Found out that one of my videos on youtube was rejected for "inappropriate content"

2011-09-06T20:47:00.000-07:00

You know, I wasn't expecting this today. I was checking my videos on youtube today, and noticed that my video, "Sims 2 PSP 1: Misadventures of my sim 1" was rejected for "inappropriate content". The odd thing was is that I don't remember doing anything wrong with the video. In the video, I was playing Sims 2 for the PSP, and decided to be funny with my character, such as having him get scared by the 2 ghosts roaming the house he is in, as well as having him become a ghost as well (in the PSP version, when your sim dies, he/she automatically becomes a ghost and you can control him), and apparently someone did not like that and my video was removed. I tell you, some people can be very up tight about things on sites like Youtube. By the way, has something like this happened to you before? I still have several other videos from my games on youtube, including one where my sims get abducted by aliens at

Other comments:
You know the game play video I posted from Sims 2 for PSP is pretty mild content wise (no blood, gore, etc), and if they are going to remove that video, I wonder if they are going to go after other types of game play videos too, such as deathmatches on Call of Duty Black ops, going on rampages in games like Grand Theft Auto 4, and other games where characters "die"? I tell you, some times social media sites can be very rigid about what you can post, especially whenever you get some wiered policies as well as the troll types lurking around (you know, the people that like to write inflamatory comments about what you post, do "false flagging", etc).

GTA San Andreas BEST DEATH MOMENTS

2011-07-29T22:33:00.000-07:00

Here is a funny video that you all might like that I found on youtube.

Top 10 Game Villians part 1

2011-07-15T13:57:00.000-07:00

In my history of playing video games, I have stumbled across several game villians you might like. Note: this post is too long to do in one entry, so I will break it up into 2 posts.

1. Bowser Koopa-

Bowser is definately the first of his kind, and is the main antagonist of the Super Mario Bros series. Time and time again, Bower kidaps Princess Peach and try to conquer the mushroom Kingdom. Of course Mario and Luigi remain thorns in his side and constantly thwart his plans.

2. Dr Robotnik

Dr Robotnik (aka Dr Eggman) is the evil mad scientist from the Sonic the Hegehog series and is always on a quest to defeat Sonic and his pals, conquer the world and turn everyone into robots. Of course, Dr Robotnik is not smart enough to defeat Sonic and his sidekicks (Tails, Knuckles, etc), who remain foils to his evil plans. In some of the newer games, Dr Robotnik has even found himself to being a pawn in a much larger scheme of things (like in Sonic the Hedgehog 2006, where the real bad guy is actually Mephiles, who is an evil clone of Shadow the Hedgehog that wants to revive Solaris and destroy time itself).

3. General Morden from the Metal Slug Series

If you have played any of the Metal Slug games (with the exception of Metal Slug 5), you are probably familiar with this Saddam Hussein look-alike. Morden is the main antagonist in the Metal Slug series and is always forming coup de' tiats in hopes of forming a global dictatorship and even commands his own armies as well as noteworthy cronies (like Allen, who reminds me of an evil version of Mr T that you encounter in some of thegames). Of course, Marco and his allies are always ready to take on Morden and his men, even if it means going through multiple lives to stop him (the games play like the contra series and one hit kills your characters, so unless if you are very good at these games, you will probably die alot playing through the missions, especially the latter missions in the games as they get progressively harder as you play through them, especially the final missions in the games). By the way, Morden is not always the brightest figure in the video game universe as he tends to form unholy alliances with space aliense (and other entities) who end up abducting him and even abusing him in the end (as is the case on Metal Slug 3), thus making Morden more as a pawn in many of the games (even in Metal Slug 4, you fight a whole new villianous business man as a final boss, with Morden only being a regular boss in level 3) and forcing Morden and his men to form alliances with the heroes (which usually dissolves by the time the sequel comes). By the way, of all of the battles I've played against Morden, my favorite is probably in Metal Slug XX, in that game, Morden is officially the main villian again and the final boss fights against him in that game are very epic (which is pretty much an 8 part battle, including the fight in the "portal room", as well as the multi-tiered final battle at the end) where you fight him in this huge tentacled space ship machine (not sure what it is called).

4. Count Dracula from the Castlevania Series

Count Dracula is the evil dark lord that serves as the evil genious for the Castlevania series (though some of the newer Castlevania games have a new villian, as was the case in Castlevania Lords of Shadow, where you will actually fight Satan himself as the final boss in the game). Dracula is the bloodthirsty vampire that plots to bring about an everlasting dark kingdom upon the world (presumably under the guise of Satan himself) and has the ability to come back to life every 100 years (sometimes even in a shorter period of time if somone decides to resurrect him, such as Shaft in Symphonhy of the Night). Of course, Dracula's nemesis is the whole Belmont clan (starting with Leon Belmont, and later Trevor, Richter, Simon, and other Belmonts, spanning many generations) and Dracula and his minions are no match for the Belmonts' vampire whip and holy powers, usually dooming Dracula back to the underworld each time (only for him to come back to life once again sometime later). By the way, which Dracula battle is your favorite? I think mine is the one from Castlevania Curse of Darkness.

5. Dr Wily from the Mega Man series

Dr Wily is Mega Man's nemisis in the original Mega Man series. Dr Wily is an evil scientist that wants to take over the world and creates hordes of robots and robot masters aimed at defeating Mega Man (who remains a foil to his schemes throughout the series) as well as do his bidding. In some games, Wily has even tried to frame others to cover up his schemes (like Dr Light in Mega Man 9, Protoman in Mega Man 5, as well as Cossack in Mega Man 4), though his true colors are always revealed near the end of the games (before the Dr Wily levels). Also, while Dr Wily does not seem to exist in the Mega Man X series, he does have a successor, namely Sigma (who is just as evil as Dr Wily was in the original series). Plus he was the one who created Zero (Mega Man's side kick throughout the Mega Man series) with the idea that he wold become Wily's successor and to defeat Mega Man X, though after a fateful battle with Sigma in a scene from Mega Man X4 (before Sigma became evil), Zero became a hero and later an ally of Mega Man X, and has yet to turn maverick once again, even despite attempts from Dr Wily to goad Zero to kill Mega man in is dreams in Mega Man X4 (if you play as Zero in Mega Man X4, and watch the opening clip scene, you will see a video of what looks like Dr Wily appearing to Zero in a dream, ordering him to kill X), as well as attempts by Sigma to corrupt Zero (especially in Mega Man X5). By the way, like the original series, the Mega Man X series has yet to reach a conclusion, so it is not clear how the story will unfold. Does Zero betray Mega Man? Does Dr Wily make an official apperarence in the X series (either as a person or a ghost)? Who becomes Sigma's successor (he seems to have been permanently defeated in X8 from what I have seen)? We probably won't know until a future sequel (and no I don't work for Capcom and so I wouldn't know, though how the story plays out is open to speculation at this time of course).

Stay tuned for part 2. By the way feel free to share this post with others.

Metal Slug 3 - Final Mission - Seccion 1

2011-07-13T09:43:00.000-07:00

Playing through Metal Slug Anthology

2011-07-13T09:38:00.000-07:00

Now that I have beaten Scott Pilgrim vs the World for the second time (this time playing as "Kim"), I started playing through Metal Slug Anthology. That game is pretty fun too. It is a shoot em' up game that is alot like contra with obvious differences and features a villian named, Morden, who is pretty much a Saddam Hussein look-alike.

Here is a trailer I found on youtube that shows off the game:

Information:
I have already beaten the Metal Slugs 1-3 since I started playing the game and will play through Metal Slug 4 when I get the time to do so. Personally, I find the Metal Slug series to be pretty fun with all of the shoot em up action, comedic themes, boss fights and other stuff. By the way, I decided to play through the game with unlimited continues on since I am not ready to do the game under the other mode yet. So far, my favorite game in the series is probably Metal Slug 3. That one is epic. I got the game for the playstation 2 by the way.

Tips and tricks in the metal slug series:
- consider doing the game 2 player. The games get progressively harder as you play through them (especially on the final mission) and playing the game on "2 player mode" can make things a little easier for you.
- If it is your first time through or you are a casual gamer, you might want to consider leaving "unlimited continues" on. A nice thing about Metal Slug Anthology is that not only can you adjust the difficulty level, you can also decide whether you want unlimited continues or limited continues. Obviously, if you find the game to be too easy, you can always turn off unlimited contines (it is on by default by the way) for a little challenge. Otherwise, if you find yourself dying alot (especially in the later missions), unlimited continues can be good to have, especially if you are the type that is likely to break your favorite controller when you get game over.
- Be sure to use your grenades and bombs when you are in hairy situations as well as when going up against tough enemies (like boss fights, aliens, tanks, etc).
- be sure to take advantage of the vehicles you can use in the games as they not only give you more fire power, but you can avoid dying as long as you have them.
- When using the vehicles in the game, if you encounter situations where you are likely to lose them, you can always get out of the vehicle and fight the enemies that way.

Want metal slug anthology? Be sure to take advantage of these links from Amazon.com below. Commissions will be used to cover the costs of running this site (having a website is not free you know).

Random post

2011-07-12T22:22:00.001-07:00

an acorn is a chav

Is it a good idea to microwave a nintendo wii? (video and commentary)

2011-06-28T20:56:00.001-07:00

I was watching some of the "Is it a good idea to microwve this?" videos on youtube (posted by JPizzle1122), which is kind of like mythbusters, where these dudes conduct experiments by putting random stuff in microwaves and seeing if it is a good idea to microwave various stuff (besides food of course), like batteries, remote controls, cds, etc (usually with bizarre results), and later give a verdict. Anyways, in this video, the guys decide to microwave a Nintendo Wii. I found this video to be pretty funny, as the wii soon catches fire and the metal was even starting to melt as well. Disclaimer: while the duo claim that microwaving a wii is a "holy idea", personally I don't recommend getting ideas from this, unless if you don't care for your game system of course. By the way, JPizzle1122 has posted similar videos about the Xbox 360, Play Station 3, and other game systems as well (like the Gameboy).

So, what do you think of these videos?

Metal Slug XX - PSP - Mission #01

2011-06-26T09:34:00.000-07:00

This is the next game I want to get someday on Xbox Live, when I get the extra money for one. I've played Metal Slugs 1-6 (got the Anthology Version for the Play Station 2), but I haven't played through Metal Slug XX or Metal Slug 7 yet.

Scott Pilgrim : Boss Rush Run [Supreme Master Difficulty]

2011-06-24T14:17:00.000-07:00

Here is a video showing off all of the boss fights on Scott Pilgrim vs the World.

Scott Pilgrim vs the World review

2011-06-24T14:08:00.000-07:00

If you liked Castle Crashers, you will probably love Scott Pilgrim vs the World.

Here is a random screen shot of the game I found on Flickr. Scott Pilgrim vs the World is a side scoller arcade style beat'em up game

In a previous post I made, I started playing through Scott Pilgrim vs the World, and already beat the game at least once (with my first character of choice being Scott, after all he is the main protaganist), and would be happy to share with you what I know about the game.

Story:

The game is based on the movie/book where Scott develops a crush on a girl he meets named, Ramona, and he decides to start dating her (ending a former relationship he had with Knives). However, Ramona's 7 evil ex boyfriends don't like the relationship between her and Scott, and it is up to Scott, along with his sidekicks, Kim Pine, Stephen Stills, Knives Chau, and even Ramona her self to battle through 7 unique levels and defeat all 7 of Ramona's evil ex boyfriends (which make up the official boss fights for this game, with Gideon being the final boss of the game) along with the hordes of interesting cronies they send after the protaganists. There are plenty of pixelated clipscenes too, usually with Scott making love with Ramona between levels, as well as other events that take place. Note: I haven't seen the movie nor read the book yet, so I wouldn't know much about the movie version of this game, so I wouldn't be able to make any comparisons between the game and the movie version.

Things I liked about Scott Pilgrim vs the World:

I liked the arcade style game play (similar to games like X-men, Castle Crashers, Ninja Turtles, etc)
Lots of special moves you can acquire
The leveling up system is great. Allows your character to get stronger and stronger, which is pretty useful to have as you play through the game as the levels do get progressively harder as you play through the game.
Lots of colorful levels. The first level has you playing in suburban landscape of Toronto, Ontario (I've never been to Toronto myself, so I wouldn't know how accurate the picture is from the game). I've doing a replay through the game, this time playing through the game as Kim (yes, I am playing through the game in order, starting with Scott, and ending with Ramona, and Kim is the second player I decided to play as).
High replay value, especially if you want to play the game as the other characters as well, though the story doesn't seem to change too much on the other characters.
Epic boss battles. Yes you will face a good number of boss fights through the game, mostly in the form of the 7 ex boyfriends that Scott and his comrades are up against, each with their own unique characters, strenghs and weakenesses. By the way, the bosses don't have health bars as you would find in Castle Crashers, the bosses do start flashing (similar to the ones in X-men and Ninja Turtles) when their health meter runs low. By the way, the higher your level is, the easier it will be to take them out.
Like Castle Crashers, you can either go solo or play with up to 4 of your buddies. I've been going solo myself, but it seems to be fun on 4 player too. By the way, if you think the game is too easy, you can always crank up the difficulty level to the game more challenging.

Things I didn't like about Scott Pilgrim vs the World:

The game is a bit short. The game is only 8 levels long, and you could proably beat the game within a few sittings (you probably won't be able to beat the whole game in one shot since the levels are usually long, but you could probably beat the game within a few days). On the positive note, you will probably want to play through the game several times as the other characters as well.
Some of the moves can be tricky to master. For example, when you use the "counter" move that you can acquire as you level up, the timing can be pretty tricky. It is a powerful move of course as you can easily devastate enemies and bosses that way when performed correctly, but you are bound to miss a bunch of times and take a good beating when you do miss.
Some of the enemies do get repetitive as you will find yourself facing hordes of look alike enemies in the levels.
Some of the special attacks could be more useful. For example, if you play as Kim, her special "attack" is to summon some girl (probably Knives), kiss her and gain 15 health points (similar to the King's heal move in Castle Crashers). In Scott's mode, sometimes you can get more powerful special attacks, but they happen at random. The best special attack I found is the one when you press the RB button and your guy does a radial attack (such as Kim's spin kick attack).

Anyways, despide the short comings, Scott Pilgrim vs the world is a pretty fun arcade style game, and this game is bound to be popular among people who liked Castle Crashers as it does have a similar feel to it.

Fun things you can do in Scott Pilgrim:
- Some levels have special stages you can visit and earn easy coins and power ups. Sometimes they allow you to skip difficult parts of a level (for example, in level 1, you will be able to bypass the "snowball" fight section if you take the first special stage that you can enter through a hidden doorway).
- Playing the game "Battletoads Style". One thing you can do on multiplayer mode is to turn on the "friendly fire mode" and if you get tired of fighting bad guys and want to mess around, you can always turn on each other and beat up your buddies. By the way, if you play as a high level character and your buddy plays as a low level character (for example, I play as Scott at level 16, and you play as Stephen at level 1), your high level character will have an unfair advantage over the other and can easily take out the lower level players. Did that once myself, playing as Scott (level 16) and having another player play as Kim (level 1) and even one hit on her is brutal on her health. Even a counter attack proved to be instant death for her too as I found out. Anyways, it does make the game funner. Note: if you are trying to beat the game, I recommend you leave "friendly fire" mode off, otherwises if your buddy gets in your way as you beat up bad guys, he or she may take the brunt of the attack as well.
- Revisiting previous levels. In Scott Pilgrim vs the World, if you want, you can always revisit levels you were at previously and not only level up more, but do things you couldn't do the first time. I find playing through level one more than once pretty fun to do. By the way, as your character makes more money, he/she can buy more expensive items, such as paying "Scott's Late fees" and unlocking some hidden powerups (such as extra lives) that you can buy later. Also, early level bosses get progressively easier to take out on replays too, usually taking less hits to defeat than they did when you faced them the first time.

Tips and tricks for playing Scott Pilgrim:
- be sure to save up money your character earns as he/she can use it to buy food (replinishes your health, gut points, etc), powerups (such as items that raise your defenses, level, etc), as well as other useful items.
- Be sure to take advantage of moves you unlock as you level up, as the make fighting foes much easier.
- Try to master the art of "countering", especially when facing tough enemies. If you get their pattern down, you can block their attacks more easily and unleash devestating attacks on them.
- It is helpful to have lots of lives on hand when facing tough boss fights and long levels (especially when you face Gideon, which comes in the form of 3 different boss fights as well as areas that seprate the 3 boss fights).
- If it is your first time playing through the game, or find the game to be too difficult, I recommend you play the game on the "Average Joe mode" (the easiest mode in the game). Playing on the harder modes is recommended for more experienced players unless if you want an extra challenge when playing the game.
- Take advantage of items you can use as weapons, such as brooms, swords, etc as they are pretty useful when it comes to tougher enemies, as well when faced with hordes.
- Don't be afraid to use the special attacks when needed, such as the radial attack move your guy has when surrounded by enemies.
- Some levels are much easier played on 2+ player mode (such as the Bus/Japanese garden level).
- Be sure to buy items like CD's, books, wristbands, etc if you can afford them as they help your character's stats greatly, and can also help you to level up more.
- Most bosses have patterns to them, and can be easy to master (similar to boss fights in most Mega Man games).

Thinking about getting Scott Pilgrim vs the World? You can buy and download it on Xbox Live. If you don't have Xbox Live Points, you can always either buy them on Xbox live or get the game cards you can find either online or in stores.

By the way, need Xbox live points, here is a 4000 point card I found at Amazon you might like:

New Super Mario Bros Wii Death Montage - World 1

2011-06-24T00:28:00.000-07:00

You know, I recently bought New Super Mario Bros Wii for the Nintendo Wii and learned that there are lots of ways Mario, Luigi and Toad can die in this game. In this video, I shared above, it showcases some hillarious ways Mario and his buddies can lose. By the way, I found that the game is much easier on one or 2 player mode over 4 player mode, though 4 player mode can be much more humorous. By the way, you know what is interesting about this video is that all of the deaths seem to take place in World 1, and the game does get progressively tougher as you advance each world, with worlds 7 and 8 being the toughest. It will be interesting to see if the players in this video make it all the way to the end (btw, I beat the final boss myself).

Top ten funny things you can do on Red Dead Redemption

2011-06-23T23:55:00.000-07:00

In case if you don't know, I've been doing a replay through Red Dead Redemption, this time as an outlaw (the first time through John Marston was more of a good guy), and I have found some pretty funny stuff you can do. By the way, I shared some youtube videos about people doing these funny stuff. I hope you like the twisted humor in this blog post.

1. Robbing random people. If you want extra money in the game and want to cause some trouble, you can always use your weapons (like your pistol) to try and extort money from unsuspecting citizens. Of course, some citizens will try to resist and may even report you to law officrs.

2. Bribing people - sometimes when John Marston commits crimes, not only can he bribe witnesses, but he can also bribe the police officers, which can allow John to get away with a good multitude of crimes. Of course, it does take a good toll on his honor ratings.

3) Fighting hordes of cougars - If you have been playing in the multiplayer mode, I found a glitch in Tall Trees where if you go near a cabin, your guy will be attacked by packs of hungry cougers, and one hit can prove to be fatal for John Marston. Also, whenever you set up bait to try and catch random animals, sometimes cougars will come out and attack you. Pretty funny.

4) Going on an arson spree. While John is on the Mexico missions, he acquires motogav cocktails that he can through and cause fires. Nothing is funnier than going through towns in the game, throwing the motogov cocktails at random places and having the villiagers going screaming. It is also funny when that move backfires too as you hear John screaming whenever he gets hit by the fires he starts.

5) Playing with dynamite. You can also get dynamite on the Mexico missions as well, and it is all to tempting to throw them at random people or even cook the dynamites (where they explode in John Martson's hand) if you are trigger happy.

6) Kidnapping people and running around with them. When John Marston acquires the lasso, he can hogtie random people and do as he pleases. Of course, if you do that move in towns, cops are bound to come after John. By the way, you can always execute your victims too (by the way, if they get hit by trains, you get the "dastardly" achievement).

7) Jumping off cliffs. Nothing is funnier than having John Marston jump off a huge cliff out in the middle of the desert. By the way, John can't swim, so if he goes in the water, he is toast.

8) Suicide by wolves. Perhaps the most annoying animal enemies in the game are wolves. They like to chase after you in packs and bark. Of course, they can easily be killed by a shooting them with bullets. Of course, if you want to be funny, you can let John Marston become a martyr.

9) Trying to cheat at poker. Yes, if you have the "elegant suit" you can try to cheat at poker. Of course, more often than not, your fellow poker players will catch you cheating and challenge you to a duell. Win the duell, you cna loot him/her and lose some honor points. Of course, if you lose, it's game over.

10) Going on rampages. Want to make things interesting? You can always pull out your trusty gun and start shooting at random people, animals, etc. Of course, your wanted meter is bound to go up, leading you into countless battles with cops, marshalls, etc and they do get tougher as your bounty goes up. By the way, you can always surrender and watch John spend a few nights in jail (pretty funny).
Have you had any funny moments in Red Dead Redemption?

Fan made : Gta IV : Grand Theft Auto 4 the Movie

2011-06-12T20:35:00.000-07:00

Started a game on Scott Pilgrim vs the world

2011-06-08T14:11:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, I thought that I would share with you all that I have downloaded my copy of Scott Pilgrim vs The world via Xbox live yesterday and started playing through the game (in fact, I have already beaten the first 3 levels in the game). Here is a gameplay video I found on youtube that shows off the first level in the game.

Scott Pilgrim vs the world is pretty similar to Castle Crashers (assuming you are familiar with that game), where it is an arcade style beat em' up (similar to X-men, Simpsons, Ninja Turtles, etc) game where you play as either Scott Pilgrim, Ramona Flowers, Stephen Shields, or Kim Pines in their quest to defeat Ramona's 7 evil boyfriends in hopes of Scott winning Ramona's heart. In the game, you will go through at least 7 colorful levels that you get to via the map and go through endless waves of thugs, monsters, and even many epic boss battles along the way, and like Castle Crashers, your characters level up and you get more moves, health and powers along the way (in Scott Pilgrim, the game assigns the new abilities and powers for you, saving you from having to decide where to allocate your level up points). Personally, I decided to play through the game in order, starting with Scott, and then playing as the other characters as I go along.

Foods for thought:

1) I have never seen the movie, nor red the books, so I don't have a clue on the storyline of the game. Perhaps once I have beaten the game, I will go to Blockbuster or rent the movie on comcast on demand.

2) Can't you imagine the insanity of Scott's mission? He meets a girl he likes (Ramona) and when he tries to make a move on her, she asks him to beat up all 7 of her ex boyfriends as a condition of them going out. Reminds me a bit in games like Grand Theft Auto 4, Bully Scholarship Edition, and Red Dead Redemption, where the game's protaganist pretty much becomes an errands boy for others, doing their dirty work (in Scott's case, he pretty much has to go out and beat up all of Ramona's former boyfriends). Imagine you were in Scott's situation (from a guy's perspective of course), and you start crushing some lady you meet at your school, and when you do get the guts to make your moves on her (if you know what I mean), she asks you to go around and beat up her exes before she can go out with you, would you do it? Personally, I am not sure if I would or not as I doubt I would be able to take on all of them. What would you do if you were in that situation?

That is all for now. I will post a review about this game after I have beaten it as all 4 characters.

Red Dead Redemption - Top 8 Ways to Kill Yourself

2011-06-01T23:31:00.000-07:00

Here is a video I stumbled across on Youtube about John Martson killing himself on Red Dead Redemption. Pretty funny video if you ask me.

Are there some funny deaths you have seen in the game?

Information about Mega Man 9 Part 1

2011-04-15T23:38:00.000-07:00

Watch a short gameplay video about the game:

Do you remember the good ol days back in the 80's (long before the Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, and the PS3 came to the scene), when the classic NES system was a major hit and you got all of those classic old school games, such as Mario Bros, Mario 3, Mega Man 2, the classic Contra game, and so fourth? Mega Man 9 (and later Mega Man 10) bascially brings back the 1980's style look to the Mega Man series (despite the 3 game gap where the games had the next gen graphic, such as Mega Man 7, Mega Man & Bass, as well as Mega Man 8) and has a Mega Man 2 feel to it.
Storyline:

The game takes place sometime after events of Mega Man 8, and this time, evil robots are appearing all over the world with the goal of global domination, and this time, Dr Light is implicated in the plot (yes, this is another one of the games wher Dr Wily uses someone else as a cover in his evil schemes), while Dr Wily acts like he is innocent. It is up to Mega Man to stop Dr Wily's schemes and save the day once again as well as clear Dr Light's name. In the Xbox 360 verison, you play as Mega Man by default, though it appears that there are expansion packs you can download that lets you play as Protoman (which becomes mainstream in Mega Man 10).

Characters:

Mega Man - this is the series' protaganist. He was created by Dr Light and is out to stop Dr Wily's latest schemes and save the day once again. In Mega Man 9, suspects Dr Light's innocence when his robot masters go corrupt and aims to get to the bottom of the mystery. Of course, we all know that Dr Wily is behind the latest events as always (a bit deja vuish of Mega Mans 4-6, where Wily uses someone else as his cover).

Dr Light - he is Mega Man's creator, along with Roll, Protoman, Rush, etc. In Mega Man 9, he is being framed for creating robots that try to take over the world

Dr Wily - Wily is the series' antagonist and aims to take over the world, and comes up with more and more devious plans as the series progresses, only to be stopped by Mega Man once again. It's even gotten to the point where Mega Man has even threatened Dr Wily for his continuous attempts at world domination, though understandably, Mega Man has yet to follow through on his threats to kill Dr Wily (the death of Dr Wily would probably spell the end of the classic Mega Man series). Countless times, Dr Wily has created one schem after another, only to have it fail miserably. He has even created a high level cronie named Bass (and later on, Zero who ironically becomes X's closest ally in the Mega Man X series) to try and kill Mega Man as well, but even Bass has yet to defeat Mega Man as well. In Mega Man 9, Dr Wily initially stands in the sidelines as Dr Light is implicated in the latest batch of robot masters that aim at world domination, though in reality Dr Wily is behind the latest scheme (he pretty much bribed the robot masters to joining his side).

Protoman - he is basically Mega Man's brother and one of his closest allies. At one time, Protoman was more of a neutral character (and prior to Mega Man 4, he seemed to have some ties to Dr Wily, though those ties were severed in Mega Man 5 when Wily tries to frame Protoman).

Rush, Roll and the Mechanic Robot (not sure what his name is) - these are the support characters in the game. Roll is basically Mega Man's sister, though she seems to have a crush on Mega Man. Rush is Mega Man's dog and aids him in his missions. The Mechanic Robot sells Mega Man the supplies and parts he needs (such as upgrades, powerups, extra lives, e tanks, etc).

This article is too long to do in one post, so be sure to stay tuned for part 2, where I give the full review of hte game.

Wii 2 Details & Gears of War 3 Live Stream! - IGN Daily Fix, 4.14.11

2011-04-14T22:59:00.000-07:00

Metroid Prime 2 - Emperor Ing boss fight video

2011-04-01T23:49:00.000-07:00

As you know, I recently beat Metroid Prime 2 and I thought I would share a video about Emperor Ing, the 2nd to last boss in the game (the final one is Dark Samus 3 and 4). What do you think of this battle. By the way, I actually beat the game on the Wii version, though most of the videos come from the Gamecube version.

Mega Man 9 and 10...just like old times.

2011-04-01T23:42:00.000-07:00

Mega Man 9 and 10...just like old times

Here are 2 more games I have recently beaten recently - Mega Mans 9 and 10. I downloaded both of them via Xbox live (first Mega Man 9 and later Mega Man 10).

Mega Mans 9 and 10 definitely reminded me of the classic NES days back when games were only 8 bit and all, and it was definitely a big change for me considering that the last Mega Man game I played was Mega Man X8, which is all in 128 bit with alot more graphics, voice acting, and all, along with the fact that X is not the only character you can play as since you can also use Zero and Axl as well. Mega Man 9 takes place sometime after the events of Mega Man 8 and this time around, Dr Wily decides to frame Dr Light and it is up to Mega Man to clear Dr Light's name and to defeat Wily. In Mega Man 10, a new virus known as robonenza breaks out and causes other robots to go maverick and try to take over the world (a foreshadowing of the X series?) . A fun thing with Mega Man 10 is that you can also play as Proto Man.

I will post more details about the two games later.

By the way, I've heard rumors about Mega Man X9 and there is talk that it will likely be a 16 bit game, though personally, I think they should keep the next gen feel with the X series. X8 was awesome and they should keep that template.

Metroid Prime Corruption Trailer and Commentary

2011-04-01T23:11:00.000-07:00

Metroid Prime Corruption Trailer and Commentary

Hey everybody, just fyi, I got the Wii back a few months ago and finished playing through Metroid Prime 2 (beat the final bosses on Monday) and started a game on Metroid Corruption. Here is a short trailer of the game I found on youtube you might like.

Information about the game

I started playing through Metroid Prime Corruption on Tuesday and find it pretty interesting. The game takes place sometime after the events of Metroid Prime 2 and Samus joins forces with the Federation to take on the latest threats posed by the space pirates and other hostiles (don't know the full synopsis yet, but will share more info as I play through the game). The game is definitely a bit different from the first two Metroid Prime games since 1) you now play on multiple worlds as opposed to 1 world as is the case in the first 2 games, 2) there are more cut scence and there is voice acting, 3) there are more things you can do with your ship (in the first two games, you won't really need the ship until the end of the game, but in Metroid Prime 3, you will be doing more traveling with it, and plus you do get to see the cockpit of the ship), as well as plenty of other stuff. You also get to encounter some old foes as well, such as Meta Ridley as well as Dark Samus again. I will plan on sharing more about this game as I get further into the game.

Started playing through Mega Man 9

2011-02-09T20:55:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody I thought that I would let you know that I decided to buy Mega Man 9 via Xbox live and have started playing through the game. The game seems to remind me a bit of Mega Man 2 with some obvious differences. Considering that the last Mega Man game I played through (besides the Aniversary collection) was Mega Man X8 (a 128 bit title), going back to the 8 bit graphics is definitely taking some getting used to for me, though the the 8 bit games seem to be a new trend for the classic Mega Man series. By the way, I've seen rumors around the net that the next Mega Man X game will be 16 bit format (I can't confirm it one way or another since I don't work for Capcome obviously), though personally I think that they should retain at least the 32 bit look of the next Mega Man X game since I thought that they were much funner that way (playing as Zero is pretty fun too.

Deja Vu Moments Part 2 - Mega Man series

2010-11-04T00:01:00.000-07:00

For the next set of deja vu moments, I think it would be appropriate to talk about the Mega Man and Mega Man X series. Both series are loaded with deja vu moments and in this blog post, I will talk about some of them.

Image description: robot masters from Mega Man 2. In most (if not all) mega man games, you can expect to fight 8 different robot masters before going to Dr Wily's castle (Sigma levels in the Mega Man X series).

Overview
Do you ever get a sense of deja vu in the video games? Two game series I find with lots of moments of familarity are the Mega Man and Mega Man X series. They are both loaded with several deja vu moments, and in this blog, I will talk about them. Note: this blog post is only based on both the classic mega man series and the Mega Man X series. I haven't played through Mega Man Zero, Mega Man Legends or Mega Man ZX yet or the gameboy verions of the Mega Man series, so I wouldn't know of they have the same formate as the original 2 series. Of course, if you have played the later series, you are welcome to fill me in on them.

Deja vu moment #1 - Facing 8 Robot masters

video description: watch a video where Akutare defeats all 8 robot masters from Mega Man 3 (does not include the ones from Mega Man 2, which you face after defeating the first 8 robot masters in the game)

For the first moment, you will know that you have been playing many mega man games when you see the classic stage select screen where you have to fight at least 8 robot masters (the only exception to this that I am aware of is in Mega Man 1 where you only have to fight 6 robot masters before going to Dr Wily's Castle). In just about every Mega Man and Mega Man X game, you can expect to go through 8 of Dr Wily's or Sigma's (if you are playing the Mega Man X series) minions before going to either Dr Wily's castle or the Sigma Missions. Of course, in the old school games, if you were lazy, you could always look up passwords to warp directly to Dr Wily's castle or the Sigma levels. Of course, since Mega man 8, most of the games have done away with the password system and replaced them with the a save feature, making it so you have to play through all 8 robot master stages before moving on. Mega Man 3 actually takes the robot master fights to the extreme as not only do you fight the ones from Mega Man 3, but later you will also fight clones of all 8 robot masters from Mega Man 2 (with 2 boss fights occuring in each of the 4 levels you face the clones), though Mega Man 3 is the only game in both series that I am aware of where you fight all 8 robot masters from a previous mega man game in addition to the initial 8 (Mega Man 7 only has you doing a rematch against Guts Man).

Deja Vu Moment 2 - Teleportation rooms

Video description: watch Cetega23 take on all 8 of the Maverik robots from Mega Man X4 as Zero. I decided to use a Mega Man X game to illustrate this deja vu moment. You will be doing similar levels in just about any other Mega Man game shortely before you take on the final boss(es). In Mega Mans X4-X8 you can actually play as Zero by the way (advanced players will like playing as him of course with his close range and lightsaber abilities).

Ah, you know that you have played too many Mega Man and/or Mega Man X games when you encounter the all too familiar "teleporter" room during the final stages of the game (usually twoards the end of the Dr Wily/Sigma stages and shortly before the final bosses). Yep, that is right, you fought all 8 of the evil robot masters/mavericks (depending on the series), and now you will be going up against the same 8 foes once again (by the way, the only three Mega Man and Mega Man X games I am aware of where there is no teleportation room are Mega Mans 1, X1 and "Megaman and Bass" , though in those games, they spread out the boss rematches across the final stages). On the positive note, all of the bosses are weak to certain weapons you get from another boss (for example, in Mega Man 4, Bright Man is weak against Toad Man's rain bombs, and Toad Man is weak against Drill Man's Drill Missiles), so it helps to know each robot master's weakness during the rematches (of course, you can always just use the good ol' mega buster, but the matches will be much more challenging that way). By the way, in the classic series, you usually fight Dr Wily for the first time after the initial boss fights (such as the case for Mega Mans 2, 4, 5, 7, and 8), and some times the final boss occurs in those stages as well (as is the case for Mega Mans 7, 8, and 9).

Tips for teleportation rooms if you are not familiar:
- make sure that you know each bosses's weakness. The boss rematches will be alot easier this way.
- It helps to try and conserve your energy tanks since sometimes the final boss lurks in those stages (especially in Mega Man X4 as Sigma is a very tough enemy in the game, especially in his 3rd form, and you will be hurting without those precious energy tanks).
- You might consider getting the hard robot masters out of the way first, and then moving to the easier ones later.
- In Mega Man X4-X8, you can play as Zero, but many of the bosses will be more challenging (especially in X4 as some of the Mavericks do not seem to have any weaknesses against Zero's weapons, such as Magma Dragoon).

Top 5 Favorite Teleportation rooms of mine:
- The one in Mega Man X8 - this one is probably my favorite as you are on the moon and the teleporters come in a tower format.
- Mega Man X5
- Mega Man 7
- Mega Man 3
- Mega Man 4

Deja Vu Moment 3 - Dr Wily's Castle

You know when you have played too many classic Mega Man games when you encounter Dr Wily's Castle(s). Yes, in just about every classic Mega Man game (except for Mega Man 1), after you beat all of the robot masters , you will be treated to a scene with Dr Wily in his typical flying saucer as he flies to his castle, and then as you go through each of the stages, the game shows your progress through the castle. Of course, at the end of the castle are the final bosses. BTW, the Mega Man X series have final stages too, but Sigma does not have a castle like Dr Wily does. Also, in Mega Mans 4 through 6, you will actually be going through 2 castles (the first one being an imposter villian, such as Dr Cossack in Mega Man 4, and then the real villian, Dr Wily).

Tips for the castle stages:
- practice makes perfect, as some levels will probably take several tries (the hardest castle in my opinion is probably the one in Mega Man 2 as some of the levels did take several tries, such as the 3rd to last level where encounter the infamous turret room boss).
- Weapon energy tanks are your friend as most of your sub weapons are limited and some are bound to be used more than others. Some levels will require you to make use of your rush units (such as Rush Jet, balloon lifts, etc).
- Most if not all of the bosses in these stages have weaknesses to certain weapons (for example, in Mega Man 4, the first Dr Cossack level boss is weak against Ring Man's weapon).
- Some castles have short cuts in them that have extra power ups and are usually easier to get through.

My top 5 castles:

The one from Mega Man 3 (the only downside to this one is that I thought that the bosses were too easy, especially once you get their weaknesses down)
Dr Cossack's castle (I remember when the first time I played through Mega Man 4, I was made to think that Dr Cossack was the new villian in the series).
The one in Mega Man 7 (I liked the fights against Bass)
Mega Man 2 - this one was a classic for me
The one in Mega Man 8.

By the way, I haven't played through Mega Mans 9 and 10 yet, so I don't have an opinion about those ones at this time.

Deja vu moment 5 - Dr Wily's Final Form

*Sigh* if you have played through any of the post Mega Man 3 games, you should probably know about this typical encounter with Dr Wily himself. Usually Capcom gets creative with the first half of the battles against Dr Wily (which varies in each game). However, eventually you get to his final form, where you are usually in a dark room and Dr Wily plays "hide and seek", where he teleports around the room and you usually have to hit him with his weak weapon as he appears and prepares to attack before he teleports again. This may sound confusing, but if you have played through Mega Mans 4 through 8 (and probably 9 and 10 too), you probably know what I mean). Of course, Dr Wily's final form is always the very final boss in the game and you get the ending after you beat Dr Wily. On the positive note, they do seem to change things a bit in each game as in some games he is more challenging than he is in others and his weakness usually changes as well.

My favorites are: the one in Mega Man 4 (the first of its' kind), the one in Mega Man 6 (this is a 3 part boss battle by the way) and the one in Mega Man 8. By the way, I shared a video above showing the 2 part final boss in Mega Man 7 (by the way, this one was the hardest in my opinion, as his weapons are very strong and nearly impossible to avoid and you are doomed in the fight if you don't have all of your energy tanks in store, unless if you are an expert or are cheating of course). The easiest version was the one in Mega Man 5 as you can simply use Beat against him and Beat simply attacks Dr Wily each time he appears and all you have to do is to try and avoid Dr Wily's attacks, thus making quick work out of him. By the way, it has not always been this way as Capcom was much more creative with the Dr Wily boss fights in Mega Mans 1 through 3 (such as the Dr Wily "Alien" in Mega Man 2, as well as the Gamma Dr Wily in Mega Man 3).

Deja vu Moment 6- Vile and Dynamo

It is no secret. In the Mega Man X series, you can expect to fight one of 2 of Sigma's notorious vile henchman: Vile in Mega Manx X, X3 and X8 and Dyamo in Mega Mans X5 and X6 (he is actually an optional boss in Mega Man X6 that you will encounter if you visit the hidden areas during the Maverick levels that you can enter via special portals and after you have beaten Nightmare Zero and High Max). Vile is basically the Boba Fett look-alike that usually comes in a ride armor (though not always as is the case in most of Mega Man X8 prior ot the final level of the game). You first fight Vile in Mega Man X1 and initially, a weak X is nearly defeated by Vile (only to be saved by Zero), but later on in the game, X becomes strong enough to beat Vile with Zero's help. Of course, Vile does get resurrected in X3 and X8 and goes up against X and Zero again, only to be defeated once again. Of course, by Mega Man X3, X has become much more powerful (to the same calibur as Zero) and can easily take out Vile without Zero's help, and by the time X8 rolls around, Zero is now a playable character (yes, starting with X4, Zero becomes a playable character throughout the games) and you can defeat Vile either as X, Zero or Axle. In addition to Vile, in Mega Man X5 and X6, Dynamo takes the place of Vile and his mission is mainly to annoy X and Zero (though in X6, he is an optional boss, though you would have to fight him if you are trying to max out your nightmare gems).

Well, there you have it, just about all of the major deja vu moments I can think of. By the way, there are bound to be more in the Mega Man and Mega Man X series, but this list would be too long if I tried to list them all. By the way, this list is mainly based on the Mega Man and Mega Man X series. I have yet to play through some of the other series, such as Mega Man Legends, Mega Man Zero and Mega Man ZX (though you are welcome to fill me in on those).

So what do you think of all of these deja vu moments?

Just started playing through Sonic 4

2010-11-03T22:59:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody, just fyi, I recently bought Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 and will review the game within the next few weeks. The game takes on an "old school" feel and will play a bit like the classic sonic the hedgehog games (prior to Sonic Adventure), with a new look of course.

Started a new video game videos blog

2010-10-25T23:46:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, just fyi, I decided to start a new Video Game Videos blog. It will be a part of my website at http://www.xboxfreak.ws/ and has a growing collection of game play videos, trailers, and othe videos relating to video games. You can see my new blog at http://www.xboxfreak.ws/gamevideosblog. I will still post to this blog, of course, but for now on video game videos will usually go in that blog. Of course if you have videos you like to share, I'd be happy to post them.

Mega Man 9 Speed Run [0:26:30]

2010-10-22T21:54:00.000-07:00

I was watching youtube videos and decided to watch a speed run on Mega Man 9. I was playing the Mega Man Anniversary collection earlier today (did Mega Man 3) and thinking about getting Mega Mans 9 and 10 at some point.

Every Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe Fatality

2010-10-13T12:29:00.000-07:00

X-Men Arcade Preview

2010-10-10T18:44:00.000-07:00

Here is an interesting video game preview I stumbled across on on youtube, posted by IGNentertainment about the upcoming X-men arcade game

Commentary about this video:

If you have been to various arcade establishments, I am sure you have come across the X-men arcade game. Now, it appears that Konami is planning to do a whole remake of the game for consoles (possibly Xbox live, Nintendo Wii Ware, etc). This game is sure to rival the hit, Castle Crashers.

GoldenEye: 007 - Weapons, Choices, Villains

2010-10-06T14:50:00.000-07:00

Watch a commentary about the New Golden Eye 007 game, posted by IGN.

Commentary:

It appears this game will be the official remake for the popular Golden Eye game from the Nintendo 64 with some completely new elements, such as the current Bond (Daniel Craig). This game could become a potiential rival to games like Modern Warfare 2, Halo Reach, etc.

Just added a new Xbox 360 game reviews blog on my website

2010-10-06T14:43:00.000-07:00

picture of my blog

Just fyi, for now on whenever I post game reviews about Xbox 360 and Xbox games, they will go on my new game reviews blog. It used to be that I would post game reviews either on this blog, hub pages, or squidoo, but now that I have an official reviews blog, they will be posted on my game reviews blog. For the first game review, I posted a review about the game, Call of Juarez.

You can check out my new blog at:
http://www.xboxfreak.ws/gamereviewsblog?post=Call_of_Juarez:_Bound_in_Blood

Is It A Good Idea To Microwave A Nintendo Wii?

2010-08-31T22:29:00.000-07:00

Just thinking about video games, here is a funny video I saw on youtube.

Thinking about creating an evil character in Mass Effect

2010-08-31T22:28:00.000-07:00

As you may know by now, I have just hit a snag on my progress in Mass Effect 2 since my brother loaned it to a friend (just finished disk one around the time that happened) and so it might be a while before i can finish that game (though if I get the extra money, I might get a new one). Anyways, I am thinking about playing through the games a second time through and this time make a 100% renegade (or evil character). On the first time through, I ended up creating a Han Solo type (someone that is in between paragon and renegade), but now I am thinking about making a renegade character.

What do you all think of that?

IGN Daily Fix, 8-23: Plants vs. Zombies & Our DLC Roundup

2010-08-24T01:14:00.000-07:00

Star Wars The Force Unleashed II - Gamescom Yoda Trailer

2010-08-14T13:24:00.000-07:00

Watching a Wii Bowling tournament

2010-08-14T02:13:00.000-07:00

Playing through Mass Effect

2010-06-17T23:38:00.000-07:00

Now that I have beaten Sonic the Hedgehog for the Xbox 360, I decided to resume my focus on Mass Effect (will also do Mass Effect 2 after beating ME1). Just did the Virmire planet and will soon do the final missions. My guy is half paragon and half renegade. BTW, want to see a youtube video about Mass Effect, check it out here:

Just beat Sonic the Hedgehog 2006

2010-06-15T23:29:00.000-07:00

I've been playing through Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 (the next generation version featuring Sonic, Silver and Shadow) and just finished the game yesterday. In this blog post, I will share with you my thoughts about the game.

Story
The game takes place sometime after the events of Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog. Set in a town named Soliana (which seems to based on a town in Italy, probably Venice), villiagers lead by Princess Elise take part in a festival honoring the Eternal Flames when she gets a grim vision of a dark entity called Iblis razing the city (which seems to forshadow events later in the game). Soon afterwards, Dr Eggman (also known as Robotnik) decides to invade Soleanna and kidnap the Princess. It turns out that Dr Robotnik is at it again and wants to revive an entity called Solaris, which is Soleanna's pagan Sun god, an entity that has the ability to manipulate time itself, changing the past, present and future. Eggman wants to revive Solaris and use it in his plans for world domination and Sonic and his gang is back and plans to foil Eggman's plans. Despite Eggman's ambitions, after a mishap about 10 years prior to the story, two demonic entities appear on the scene, namely Mephiles (an evil figure that takes on the form as an evil clone of Shadow the Hedgehog) and Ibis (a firey monster that is known to raze towns and cities it visits as you will see in the Crisis City level). Mephiles and Iblis are two entities that can form the infamous Solaris when fused together with the power of chaos emerads and have no intention of cooperating with Dr Eggman. Mephiles actually becomes the main villian in the game and wants to not only bring about Armageddon to Soleanna (and the rest of Sonic's universe), but he also wants to become Solaris and destroy time itself (it is hard to really explain, but you would have to play through the game to learn the full plot).   Meanwhile, Shadow the Hedgehog becomes an ally of Sonic and a new hedgehog is introduced, namely Silver, who is from the future and is made to believe Sonic is the enemy (remindes me of Knuckles a bit in Sonic 3, where Eggman tricks him into thinking that Sonic is the enemy). It is up to Sonic, Shadow, and Silver to 1) foil Eggman's plans, 2) defeat Mephiles and Iblis, and 3) to ultimately stop the resurrection of Solaris before he can destroy Sonic's universe.

Characters of interest

Heroes, NPCs and Support Characters
Sonic -

Sonic is back and is the series hero. He has been around since the beginning of the series and has been in most if not all sonic and related games (the only Sonic game I am aware of that he is not in was Knuckles Chaotix). Sonic has the ability to move at lightning speeds, jump, morph into Super Sonic (a much more powerful version of Sonic), bash enemies in his saw mode, etc. He also has 2 side kicks, namely Tails (a flying fox that has been around since Sonic 2) and Knuckles (an Edincha that has been around since Sonic 3).

Shadow the Hedgehog -
Shadow is back and is aligned with Sonic this time around and is joined by Rouge the bat and a robot named, Omega 123. Back in Sonic Adventure 2, Shadow was a villian and was in leage with Eggman. However, since then his relationship with Eggman has deteriorated significantly and has repented of his villianous ways. In Sonic 2006, he and Rouge had stolen a special wand called, the Scepter of Darkness (a mysterious object that has sealed away Mephiles after the Soleanna Disaster that took place 10 years prior to when the game begins) and was being pursued by Dr Eggman's robots. After a mishap that takes place when Robotnik tries to take the Scepter of Darkness from Rogue, the Scepter of Darkeness breaks and inadvertantly releases Mephiles, an evil entity that clones himself in the image of Shadow and wants to not only destroy the world, but also wants to destroy time itself. Mephiles soon becomes Shadow's nemesis and it is up to Shadow to stop Mephiles in his ambition to destroy the world as Shadow knows it. In addition, Shadow is a part of a government organization called, GUN and some of the levels in the game will be GUN themed (such as the first level in the game, where he has to infiltrate Robotnik's artic base). Shadow's abilities are similar to that of Sonic, but also includes: the ability to do combos when he initiates homing attacks, the ability to drive buggies, motorcycles and other vehicles in the game, shooting energy spears at enemies (which stuns them), as well as a chaos mode ability, where Shadow's attacks gets stronger as well as the availability of extra moves (such as an explosion attack, where Shadow sends out a shockwave that kills or damages enemies within a short radius around Shadow).

Silver the Hedgehog -
Ah, don't you remember the good ol' days in the Sonic the Hedgehog series when Sonic and Amy were the only hedgehogs known? Then came Sonic Adventure 2 and Shadow was introduced. Now, in Sonic 2006, a new hedgehog is introduced, named Silver and now there are now 4 hedgehogs known in the series (namely Sonic, Amy, Shadow, and Silver). It appears that Silver is from the future in the game (approximately 200 years or so into the future), in a post Apocalyptic Soleanna, which was destroyed by Iblis, a fiery monster that can destroy entrie cities by starting infernos and was presumably brought about by Dr Robotnik after he kidnaps Princess Elise and sends Sonic and gang into the future via a time rift portal. You would have to play through the game to the the full details about Iblis's story, but anyways, Silver is out to avenge the destroyed world and wants to destroy Iblis and find out who caused Iblis to form (known as the "Iblis Trigger"). After being tricked by Mephiles into thinking that Sonic is the Iblis Trigger, he sets out to kill Sonic at the advice of Mephiles (probably in an attempt to cover up his true colors) and is joined by a cat named Blaze as well as Amy Rose (though naturally, she does betray Silver when she learns that he wants to kill Sonic). His main mission is to stop the Iblis Trigger (is it really Sonic? I won't spoil the true identity of the "Iblis Trigger") and to defeat and seal Iblis. Silver's moves are alot different from Sonic and Shadow (he can't do homing attacks on enemies for example) and has the power to levitate and throw objects and some enemies through a move called telekines, glide (though he can't glide as long as Knuckles can), stun and throw some enemies, as well as hover.

Support Chracters and NPC

Tails -

Tails is a young two tailed fox that has been Sonic's #1 side kick since Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (after being rescued from Eggman in the Game Gear version of Sonic 2). Tails probably Sonic's closest companion and has the ability to fly for limited periods of time (allowing him to get to places out of reach for Sonic). Tails is younger than Sonic and even envy's Sonic's abilties at times (he wishes he can move as fast as Sonic can), though his ability to fly makes up for his slower speed. Tails is a mechanical genius and can easily pilot planes, mechs and other vehicles throughout the series. Unlike the previous installments of the 3D Sonic games, Tails does have a lesser role (he functions more as a NPC most of the time) though you will play as him on certain levels occasionally in Sonic's mode (such as in the Wave Ocean level, where Tails has to stop an orca whale from eating Sonic by hitting a special switch to open a gate that lets Sonic to break free of the orca). Unlike previous Sonic games, it appears that Tails no longer has the ability to morph into a sawlike ball as he does in previous games nor the ability to wack enemies with his tails.  Instead, he will throw ring bombs at enemies (though he can divebomb enemies with ring bombs).

Knuckles-
Knuckles is back and is another support character in Sonic's story.  At one time, Sonic and Knuckles were enemies (play Sonic the Hedgehog 3 as well as Sonic and Knuckles to see Knuckles' back story), but since Sonic Adventure 1, he became another sidekick of Sonic (though it appears that he can still be tricked by Eggman as was the case in Sonic Adventure 1, where Eggman tricked Knuckles into thinking that Sonic was after the Master Emerald). Anyways, like Tails, Knuckles does play a lesser role in the game (though there are some levels where you will play as him, such as in Dr Robotnik's Aquatic base level, which is the last level in Sonic's portion of the game). Knuckles can punch enemies, climb walls, do homing attacks on enemies, as well as glide. BTW, unlike Sonic Adventures 1 and 2, he does not have the missions where he has to collect Chaos Emerald fragments.

(this post will be added to over time)

Amy dies in quicksand, Funny Stuff!

2010-06-08T12:51:00.000-07:00

Posted a new video about Amy falling in quicksand in the Dusty Desert level. enjoy

castle crashers review

2010-03-24T21:06:00.000-07:00

Check out the latest article I wrote at hub pages: castle crashers review (note: I will post game reviews via hub pages and squidoo).

Fresh new website online: Ryan's Xbox 360 fan site :: HeraldNet Classifieds

2010-03-17T21:51:00.001-07:00

Fresh new website online: Ryan's Xbox 360 fan site :: HeraldNet Classifieds

Posted using ShareThis

Total n00b playing Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare

2010-03-12T21:34:00.001-08:00

Here is a video a friend of mine took of me playing Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare on Xbox live. As you can see, I am a total n00b at this game and die alot. Pretty hilarious if you ask me

Snowboarding Mt Baker local Pros W.R.D.

2010-03-10T11:55:00.001-08:00

Here is a cool snowboarding video I saw on youtube

Unlimited +25 Paragon/Renegade Boosts on Mass Effect

2010-03-02T23:49:00.001-08:00

Speaking of going renegade, here is an interesting glitch video I found at youtube

Making a renegade character on Mass Effect

2010-03-02T23:48:00.000-08:00

I actually recently bought Mass Effect 2 for my brother for his birthday. However, I have not beaten Mass Effect 1 yet, but I have decided to make my guy go renegade. As a nickname, I named him "OJ Simpson Shepard" as a cool villian name for him. However, he will not be entirely evil and will have some good in him.
Will post updates on the game over time. Currently, I just beat the Matriarch boss and getting ready to go to Feros (though I might do some side missions as well)

Check out the final boss in the Ghost Busters game

2010-03-02T23:38:00.000-08:00

I recently beat the Ghost Busters game today on the Xbox 360 and thought that I would show off the final boss fight to you all:

Redoing the affiliate directory page at my site

2010-01-24T23:05:00.000-08:00

Just fyi, if you are planning to visit my site at http://www.xboxfreak.ws/, you will find that the related affiliates link has been deleted. I am planning to revise the affiliate directory and give it a new name, called "sponsored links". It should be up and running later this week.

Ghost Busters Game review

2010-01-23T01:08:00.000-08:00

Check out the Ghost Busters Game review I wrote at hub pages.

Twisted, but fuan and sometimes popular games and series worth mentioning part 1

2010-01-21T09:42:00.001-08:00

Image caption: here is a typical "finish him" message in Mortal Kombat that appears when you have knocked out your opponent's health bar 2 rounds in a row. Note that Liu Kang has the option to perform a brutal fatality on Kano if the person playing him chooses to do so. The Mortal Kombat series is one of many twisted games out there.

In my years growing up and seeing the evoloution of gaming, I have noticed a very interesting trend these days: there have been many different twisted games out there and some of them are surprisingly popular. In this blog I will talk about a few of these games. I have at least 7 games in mind, though this post will be too long if I talked about them all on one post, and so I will break up this article into several posts. The first two games I will talk about are the Mortal Kombat Series as well as Grand Theft Auto.

Disclaimers: 1)given the mature nature of these games I am about to talk about, this post may be offensive to some (though the idea with this post is to give a commentary about these titles), and 2) never try anything you see in these featured games (especially) at home. Ever! No fights to the death, jacking cars or anything like that (unless if you are trying to go to jail as doing stuff you see in these featured game in real life will certainly land you in hot water for sure).

Game #1- Fight to the death (literally) in The Mortal Kombat Series

Fighting games have been around for quite a while, with early titles including Mike Tyson's Punch Out, Double Dragon, Battletoads, as well as the classic Street Fighter series (especially Street Fighter 2), with modern hits beign titles like Street Fighter 4, Wii Sports Boxing, and Soul Calibur. In most fighting games, the aim is to knock out the opponent and win. Usually the fight goes the best of 3 rounds and you win either when you wipe out your opponent's health bar 2 rounds in a row or when time runs out. Of course, there is also the Mortal Kombat series, which puts fighting games into a whole new ball game. On the surface, the Mortal Kombat series will appear to be much like any other typical fighting games out there. The fights lasts 2 to 3 rounds and the objective is to wipe out your opponent's health bar. However, one huge thing that sets Mortal Kombat appart is that upon defeating your opponent in the final round (unless if time runs out first), the game's narrator (Shao Khan?) will say "FINISH HIM!" and when that happens, you basically have the option to literally kill your opponent (if you know the right button combination as well as the distance of course). Every character have their own unique personalities, moves as well as fatalities (the classic fatality for Scorpion, for example, is to take off his mask, revealing his skeleton self and fry his opponents). Some characters have relatively quick and painless finisher moves (such as decapitations), while others may have more brutal moves (such as Nightwolf in his Animality finisher where he transforms into a wolf and mauls his opponent to death). Of course, if you prefer not to kill your opponent, you can always just knock out your opponent with an uppercut or in some games, perform a friendship move, where your character becomes "friends" with his/her opponent and lets the defeated foe lives.

video caption: here is a fatality demonstration from Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 that Igi40 posted on youtube. Warning: this video may be offensive to some (though it does go to show the twisted nature of the Mortal Kombat series)

So, there you have it with the Mortal Kombat Series. Despite the brutal nature of the game, it hs been surprisingly popular since it's debut back in the 1990's and has produced many sequels (with the latest ones being MK Deception, Armageddon and Shaolin Monks), 2 movies, as well as a short lived cartoon series that was on USA Network back when cartoons were being showed on it (networks like TNT and USA network used to have lots of cartoons on them before Cartoon Network came into being). Perhaps my favorite in the series was probably Mortal Kombat Trillogy (which is a spin off from the Ulitmate Mortal Kombat 3 game). By the way, does this game remind anyone of how it was at the time of the Roman Gladiators? Because, fights to the death were a real sport back in ancient rome, where Gladiators (usually slaves and other outcasts of the roman empire) would fight either other Gladiators or beasts (like lions) in fearsome death matches. Sometimes public executions were also performed in the colliseum as well. Thought that I would ask.

Similar titles and games:

- Celebrity Death Match from MTV (this was the hit series on MTV where celebrities fight each other to the death)

- Killer Instinct (no mercies replace fatalities here)

Game 2 - Become a common criminal in Grand Theft Auto 4 (and other GTA games for that matter)

video caption: here is a short video I made a few months ago via a flip camera showing my guy going on a short and cheesy rampage in GTA 4 (I got wasted both times of course) just for fun. This video shows one of the many things you can do in GTA 4, as well as the twisted nature of this game.

Ever wondered what it might be like living the life of crime? I've only been to the Los Angeles area twice since moving to the Seattle area and though I did grow up in Chicago, I lived in the suburbs near the Wisconson border, and so I am not familiar with living in rough neighborhoods. Even medium cities like Seattle do have gangs and rough neighborhoods (such as Rainer, Capitol Hill and White Center). Anyways, if you are looking for a good game where you get to be a common criminal without becoming a real life criminal, you do not have to look much further than the Grand Theft Auto series, with the latest one being GTA 4. The grand theft auto series has evolved alot since its inception back in the '90s and has a huge storyline to follow and has gotten lots of good reviews in gaming magazines. Of course, there are lots of common themes throughout the series:

- you control a thug (such as Niko in GTA 4) who does jobs for various criminal masterminds (ranging from petty thefts to assasinating deliquent business contacts that the your boss has developed a grudge against).

- there is an open ended universe out there. Even if you don't want to play the storyline missions, you can always go on a rampage in the game, hang out with girlfriends (in GTA San Andreas, for example, CJ can have up to 6 girlfriends provided he has met special requirements), explore the huge map that the games cover (especially GTA San Andreas where you have 3 cities to operate in instead of one, with a huge country side seperating each city).

- The primary mode of transportation (besides walking) is to steal cars from unsuspecting people (usually by car jacking) and driving off with them. Even if you wreck one car, you can always steal another one.

- There are no rules on the road. You can drive like a maniac and nobody will care. Police officers will only go after you if you either hit them, hit another car in their presence, if you already have a wanted level, or if you are driving drunk (in GTA 4).

- You can go around killing people and commit other crimes (such as committing arson with Motogiv Cocktails in GTA San Andreas). Of course, as you commit crimes, your wanted level will rise represented by wanted stars and police officers will try to bust you or kill you. The more wanted stars you have (usually up to 6), the more officers will come after you and try to either kill or bust you (3 stars, for example will cause a swat police helicopter to spawn and hunt you down). Of course, if you get busted, cops will simply arrest you, strip you of your weapons, take some money from you as a bribe and release you at the nearest police station, after which you can go around committing more crimes, and then when you get busted, the same routine happens: basically catch and release (even if you commit the most henious crimes in the game). Unrealistic isn't it? Try crimes like the ones you see in GTA in RL and you are probably going to be looking at lenghty jail sentences or worse in real life. Also, if your guy gets killed, he will simply respawn at the nearest hospital.

- If you do storyline missions, you will get involved with organized crime, whether it is working for the mob (as is the case with GTA 4), join in a gang war system (such as the Grove Street gang in San Andreas), work for corrupt police officers (such as Frank Tenpenny in GTA San Andreas, as well as other criminal masterminds doing various quests.

- In later games like GTA 4 and San Andreas, you can also get multiple girlfriends (and other girls will usually not care if you date more than one in the GTA universe). This is unrealistic too, since if you try to take on more than one girlfriend in real life, they are bound to get jealous and break up with you (sometimes even the slightest act of disloyalty such as cheating can produce disasterous results in your relationship).

Well, this list goes on, but you get the picture, and the m rated nature of these game have spawned lots of criticisms and controversies from parents, law makers, as well as other opponents of these games. Interestingly the Simpsons Game (which was released for the Xbox 360, PS 3 and Nintendo Wii not long after the Simpsons movie) has a huge parody of the GTA series, with Bart wanting to get Grand Theft Scratchy and Marge, being a typical mother (no offense intended, though I know my mom does not like the series for example), wants to have the game banned (there is even a level where Marge and Lisa will find themselves in the Grand Theft Scratchy universe and try to make Grand Theft Scratchy world "G" rated instead of "M" rated by cleaning up the 'hood to say the least). By the way, never try anything you see in the GTA universe (i.e., stealing cars, joining your local gang, going on rampages, etc) as that will certainly land you in hot water (to say the least) if you do.

Similar works:

- other titles in the GTA series

- Scar Face (GTA Vice City seems to have gotten its inspiration from Scar Face)

- Saints Row

- Simpsons Game (has a few parodies of the GTA universe)

I will talk about more of these games on a later post.

Have a twisted game you want to share? Feel to post it in my comments thread.

The Ghost Busters game brings back my childhood memories

2010-01-12T00:27:00.000-08:00

Besides the Nintendo Wii, I did get two new Xbox 360 games: Batman Arkane Asylum and the Ghost Busters game. When I was a kid, I used to watch the Ghost Busters cartoon series all the time and even watched the two movies that were made featuring the crew from Ghost Busters. I tried the NES version back during the NES days, but did not like it. However, the new one for the Xbox 360 is quite cool. In the game, you play as the new recruit who joins the ghost buster crew (which features voice actors directly from the movies: Dan Akroyd, Bill Murray and the rest of the ghost busters crew) and you go to many different locations in search of ghosts, equipped with ghost hunting equimpent as well as the signature ghostbuster equipment and traps going after evil entities bent on taking over New York City. And there are plenty of memorable missions and moments. In the first mission, you explore this haunted hotel (which may remind you of a real life haunted hotel, such as the Stanley Hotel at Estes Park, Colorado) in search of the paranormal and fight this ghost pirate at the end of the mission, along with a mission where you fight the notorious Stay Puft creature from the first Ghost Busters Movie (who ends up being the first major boss in the game). In the third mission, you tour a haunted library in search of the infamous Grey Lady (I acutally live close to the former location of the Snohomish Library btw). This game in my opinion rocks. Reminds me a bit of Ghost Hunters on Syfy, except you actually fight the ghosts at paranormal hot spots. (more will be added to this post over time)

Got a Nintendo Wii for Christmas

2009-12-28T14:03:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody, just fyi I just got a Nintendo Wii for Christmas, just a few days ago. I actually wasn't expecting this gift since i didn't aks for it (after all I do have an Xbox 360), but now I have both a Wii and and Xbox 360 and have 2 games for the Wii: Metroid Prime Trillogy as well as Wii Sports. I have been making an Xbox 360 fan site at http://www.xboxfreak.ws/, but now that I also have a Wii, I will probably talk about that system too, make honest comparisons between the two systems (before I got a Wii, I've only played it on display at game stores as well as friends' houses, usually Wii sports, but now it will be easier for me to review that system as well). The games have been fun so far, though you do have to stand when playing, which can take some getting used to as I am used to sitting down while playing on the Xbox and other systems. Stay tuned for my opinions about the wii in upcoming posts.

watch a gameplay video of the New Mario Bros game for the Wii

Currently, I am playing through the Metroid Prime trillogy, and will plan on posting a review of it once I have beaten the game, though I also got some new Xbox 360 games as well, namely Ghost Busters and Batman Arkam Asylum (so I will be switching off between the three games).

Top 5 best Halloween themed games I have played (under construction)

2009-10-21T12:55:00.000-07:00

Image caption: Castlevainia Lamment of Innocents is one of the many chapters in the Castlevania Series, and in the castlevania series, you can expect to fight through hordes of ghosts, monsters, demons, goulish bosses (such as The Forgotten one in Castlevania LOI), and other nightmarish enemies throughout the series.

Ah, another Halloween is fast approaching (this year seems to be going by fast at least in my book), and with it comes all of the classic scares and thrills (i.e., pumkin patches, haunted houses, tricker treat for the kids, etc). In the video game realm, there are plenty of games out there that have some halloween themes. Of course in this blog post, I will post some games I think have some awesome halloween themes (based on the games I've played). Of course, you are free to agree or disagree with me .

Game #1 - Castlevania: Curse of Darkness and the Castlevania Series in General
(the current game I am playing through is Castlevania Lamment of Innocence by the way, which is a prequel to the mainline series)

If you are looking for a Halloween themed game, they do not get any more Halloweenish than the Castlevania series do. The castlevania series started back in the 1980s by Komnai, which is also the creator of the Contra Series, and in the castlevania universe, you usually play as one of the Belmonts (such as Simon Belmont in the original series, with the exception of CV 3, where you play as Trevor Belmont) and venture into Count Dracula's castle at Transylvania usually on a quest to defeat Dracula and his minions as well as saving loved ones from certain death (such as Richter Belmont saving Maria in Castlevania Dracula X). There are plenty of common themes in the castlevania series including: fighting through hoards of vampires, ghosts, demons, zombies, monsters, skeletons and other strange creatures throughout the levels in the series. in addition, there are plenty of equally terrifying boss fights. Some classic boss fights includes: A headless ghost you fight in Castlevania Dracula X, Legion in Curse of Darkness and similar variations in Harmony of Dissonence and Symphony of the night (Legion is that abomonible creature that you fight in some of the CV games that is made literrally by dead bodies and a hideous creature called Nucleous in the middle), a grim reaper called Death, ghosts, as well as sexy demon called Succubus in some games (you will get into an epic battle with her in both Symphony of the Night and Lamment of Innocence) to name a few. Another common theme is that the main villian is none other than Count Dracula (though not always as is the case as is the case in some of the newer titles like Lamment of Innocence and Arial of Sorrow, though Dracula's subtitute in those two games have similarities to Dracula, such as the ability to teleport), who usually shows up in 2 forms: 1) the human form and 2) the demonic/dragon form (the best fight in my book against Dracula is in Curse of Darkness where he has some personality in the first fight and does more than the usual teleportining as well as the second battle where you fight an oversized version of him in a demonic/gargoyle form).

Of course, there are plenty of other timeless classics in the CV series, such as the scene in Castlevania 64 in Level 3 where you go through this maze chasing after Malus (who is really Dracula in child form, though that does not get revealed till the end of the game provided that you don't fight Vincent just before you fight the imposter version of Dracula) and you have a Frankenstein Monster with a Chainsaw in his hand and 2 hellhound dogs chasing after you as you try to reach the exit in the maze (and their attacks are quite brutal to your guy's health). In the Xbox and PS2 versions, the game plays a bit like a movie too, complete with clipscenes, voice acting and all (such as the rivalry between Hector and Issac throughout the game, which ends in a fight to the death between the two towards the end of the game shortly before you fight Death and Count Dracula). One other timeless moment in the game I am aware of is the final showdown between Reinhardt Schneider and the real Count Dracula (aka Malus). First, Malus transforms into Dracula and after the usual first battle with hime (teleportation and all), you will fight a huge dragon version of him in a baron desert, and he does have quite an attude, launching nuclear bombs, fire and other deadly arsenal against Reinhardt throughout the battle. At the end of the battle, Dracula gets dragged into the underworld alive (creepy indeed). If you are looking for a pure halloween themed game, then the Castlevania Series is for you.

Game #2- Halloween town in Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2

Now, while the Kingdom Hearts series is not really a halloween classic (besides the fact that you fight through hordes of nightmarish creatures called the Heartless and Nobodies in KH2 as well as the huge boss fight between Sora and Malificent in KH1 where you fight her in the huge dragon form from Sleeping Beauty), Halloween town is perhaps the classic. Now, this is not to be confused with the halloween town from the Halloween Town series that usually show in October (this is Jack Skellington's Halloween town from the nightmare before christmas). You will play through this level at least once in Kingdom Hearts 1 and twice in KH 2. In both versions, you play through a huge halloween themed world where you fight through hordes of goulish heartless, play through an eerie world and go up against the evil Oogie Boogie (in KH 2, you will also fight The Experiment who gets corrupted perhaps by Organization 13 in the second trip to Halloween town). More will be added later

New Xbox 360 Fan Site In the Works

2009-09-13T22:04:00.000-07:00

Here is for those of you who love the Xbox 360: I have decided to create a new Microsoft Xbox 360 fan site. When complete, the site will contain these features:

- exclusive news and articles relating to Xbox 360

- learn about exclusive deals and special offers from related companies

- Get exclusive game reviews from games I've played

- get the scoop and commentaries on upcoming games

- and more

I hope to complete this site before the holiday season this year. You can check out my new site at http://www.xboxfreak.ws/. By the way, once the site is complete, this blog will be my official blog for the Xbox 360 fan site, considering that this blog is already about video games in general.

2 New Youtube videos

2009-06-25T23:40:00.000-07:00

Here are 2 new youtube videos I posted on gaming:

Justin (my brother) Playing Call of Duty 4

Me playing GTA 4 (will post a bigger video in the future)

Top 10 Game Villians That Just Never give up

2009-04-06T13:48:00.000-07:00

Image caption: Bowser just before Mario destroys the bridge Bowser is on sending him straight into the lava pit below for the nth time (which happens over 8 times in SMB 1, assuming you play through the entire game).

(spoiler alert: this blog post assumes that you have played through the games mentioned below and so if you haven't played through any of these games and want to be surprised, then don't read below, though most of these game series have been around for quite a while, and so I am assuming that most of you are familiar with these game series)

Ah, sometimes it can be said that one never knows when he/she has been beaten, and when it comes to many platform games, this can certainly be true. Over the years, in many different game series, all too familiar villians have appeared, including Bowser in the Mario Bros series, Dr. Eggman in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, and the like. Of course, in many of these games assuming you play through them properly, the bad guy loses in the end, only to return in the sequel (up to his/her evil deeds once again). I guess the rationale for this pattern is that if the bad guy were to ever fully be defeated or go good, then the series would be over. Of course, that has happened before. In the Austin Powers Saga, for example, in the Gold Member, Dr Evil turns away from his wicked ways and turns to good, and obviously, we haven't seen any new Austin Powers Movies since, and same goes for the Star Wars Movies. In Return of the Jedi, Emperor Palpatine gets defeated, Darth Vader returns to the light side of the force (just before he dies unfortunately), and the empire gets dealt a huge blow by the rebel allience, and so far we haven't seen any new star wars movies that take place after Return of the Jedi (though the saga does not end with Return of the Jedi if you read the books or play the Star Wars themed games, since the bigger story is in the expanded universe (i.e., books, games, and comics). Anyways, here some noteworthy villians (note this post will be expanded over time):

1. Bowser in the Super Mario Bros series -

here is an epic battle between Mario and Bowser in SMW (super mario world). This is one of the many boss fights that Mario and Luigi will face throughout the Mario Bros. series (youtube video posted by NintendoCult)

if you have seen video games since the days of the original NES, I am sure that most of us have played through the Original Super Mario bros series at one time or another, and what more classic of a villian is there than the evil Bowser. Bowser is that evil dragon that is Mario's nemesis throughout most of the Super Mario series (though in the later games, there is also Wario along with Luigi's evil twin), and often plots to kidnap Mario's girlfriend, Princess Peach and take over the world. Unfortunately to Bower's dismay, Mario is pretty good when it comes to ruinning Bowser's evil schemes, and Bowser definately is a glutton for punishment at the hands of Mario. In the first game, Bowser falls into a lava pit that he probably inteded for Mario over 8 times, in SMB 3, he crashes do though the floor of the balcony of his castle trying to stomp Mario, loses his flying machine in SMW, gets egged to death by Yoshi in SMB World 2: Yoshi's Iland, and even gets hurled at bombs in SMB 64, and yet he always comes back in the sequel even more determined to defeat Mario and succeed in his evil plot only to get defeated once again.

2. Dr Robotnik (aka Eggman) in the Sonic the Hedgehog series

watch an epic battle between Sonic and Eggman in his Egg Viper (submitted by roylink on Youtube). The is one of the many battles that Sonic and Eggman will engage in throughout the series (and perhaps one of my favorites)

Famous quote from the Sonic the Hegehog comic series and some of the cartoon series - "I HATE THAT HEDGHOG!!!" (Dr. Robotnik)

Yes in just about all of the Sonic the Hedghog games, Sonic can almost always expect to fight his arch nemesis, Dr. Robotnik on various occasions in most if not all Sonic games as well as his diabolical creations as well (i.e., Chaos, Mecha Sonic, etc). Like many game series, there is usually an evil genius lurking around looking to cause trouble that only the hero(s) can beat, and what is a Sonic the Hedgehog game without a mad scientist, named Doctor Robotnik (also known as Eggman). Eggman has been in the series pretty much from the beginning and has a goal of taking over the world and turning everybody into mindless robots. Of course, there is one person that can stand in his way: Sonic the Hedgehog (along with his side kicks, Tails, Knuckles, Amy Rose, Cream, Big, as well as the rest of the Sonic gang of course). Doctor Robotnik comes up with a diabolital scheme in each game (my favorite is probably Sonic 3 and Knuckles) where he builds hs infamous Death Egg (similar to the Death Star) and you have to blow up the Death Egg before Eggman can use it against Earth dwellers. Of course, if you play the games right, in the end Sonic and his pals manage to foil Eggman's schemes, sending Eggman back to the drawing board where he crafts a new and better plan, only to be defeated by Sonic once more.

Interestingly, in many of the newer games (starting with Sonic Adventure), his plan(s) ends up backfiring (as was the case in the Chaos Monster, who turns into Perfect Chaos at the end of Sonic Adventure, which leads to Sonic morphing into super sonic in order to defeat Perfect Chaos) and must turn to Sonic for help to undo the damage that his schemes have done. Even then, Eggman returns to his evil ways once again in the sequel.

3. Count Dracula in most Castlevania games -

watch an epic battle between Hector and Count Dracula from Castlevania Curse of Darkness. This was one of my favorite battles against Dracula and is one of the many times you will have to face him throughout the series.

If the phrase from South Park, "OMG, they killed Kenny", were to have meaning to any villian in the gaming industry, it would probably be Count Dracula from the Castlevania series. In fact, Count Dracula literaly even goes to h*** and back before facing the Belmont clan (though sometimes other people too, like Hector in Curse of Darkness as well as even his own son, Allucard in Symphony of the Night). Count Dracula is quite a character and is based on a real person from history (Vlad Thepes Dracula from Romania) and has inspired many stories and films in the horror story industry (even his RL castle at Transylvania is rumored to be haunted for real and has been investigated by various paranormal investigators, including the crew from the reality TV series, Most Haunted and you can watch the live episode where they investigated the castle at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTROwmxpj3o). Anyways, the Count Dracula legend has also inspired various games (such as Van Helsing, which was the movie and movie-game that came out several years ago) as well as the hit Castlevania Series, where Count Dracula is the main villian throughout the series (though he does not appear in every game as was the case for games like Lamment of Innocence and Arial of Sorrow). At first, Dracula was known as Matthias (as implied in Lamment of Innocence), and was one of Leon Belmont's closest friends (Leon the ancestor of Trevor Belmont and later Simon Belmont).

At the time, another evil vampire named, Walter was the evil genius who plotted to obtain the Crimson stone (a stone that gives Dracula his power and allows him to be resurrected after being defeated, you can learn more about the crimson stone at http://www.wikipedia.org/, search Castlevania Lamment of Innocence), turn Leon's wife, Sarah into a vampire and become the Dark Lord. Unfortunately for Leon, little did the hero know was that Matthias was secretly planning to become the dark lord as well and was using Leon, Walter, Sarah, and Zaccarias as a part of his plan. By the time Leon was able to defeat Walter, Sarah had been bitten by Walter (forcing Leon to kill her and use her soul to create the legendary vampire killer whip), Matthias had obtained the Crimson stone, and Death had been summoned to the scene where he finishes off Walter and obtains his soul to give to Matthias. Apparently, Matthias developed a hatred towards God (why someone would hate God is beyond me, after all, from a Christian standpoint, he is the Lord of this world and is the creator of all things) and vowed his revenge by becoming the dark lord (later known as Dracula), and tries to get Leon to join in his rebellion, but Leon refuses and Matthias sics Death on him before disappearing into the night (he even turns into a bat to imply that he is now Dracula). Leon manages to defeat Death, and thus the feud between the Belmont Clan and Dracula is born. Since then, Dracula had becomed the main villian in the series with the first big battle posibly being the one in Castlevania 3 with Trevor Belmont (I will need to verify that theory of course).

Of course, like just like Bowser and Robotnik, while Dracula is the evil genius in the Castlevania series, with is goal being to establish his dark lordship over the earth (just like the antichrist will attempt to do during the end times, only to be foiled by God himself) and launches countless of wicked plans to achieve his goal of world domination. Of course, the Belmonts (along with allies like Alucard) will constantly be a thorn in Dracula's side and they manage to foil Dracula's evil schemes and send him to the underworld, where Dracula plots his next evil scheme, be resurrected about 100 years later (sometimes sooner), only to be defeated once again. Dracula also comes with his usual henchmen including the grim reaper, named Death as well as hordes of ghostly, monsterous, and demonic foes that he uses to help carry out his dirty work and defeat the Belmonts (an allies) before they can defeat Dracula once again.

5. Doctor Wily in the Mega Man series

(info will be posted on him at a later date)

6. Sigma in the Mega Man X series

7. The heartless in the Kingdom hearts series

8. the Disney villians from the Kingdom hearts series

9. Vile from the Mega Man X series

10. (TBA)

Top 20 Best Boss Fights of all time

2009-03-30T12:58:00.000-07:00

Image caption: In the Sonic the Hegehog series, you will fight the evil Dr. Robotnik (aka Eggman) on many different occassions and locations. In this picture, Sonic fights Eggman in a big battlemech in a final showdown in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Of course, depite Eggman's defeat, he returns many times and continues his pathetic attemps to take over the world.

I have played video games since the days when the regular Nintendo came out, and there are plenty of boss fights that I have been through. In this list, I will show off the biggest, baddest, and boss fights that I have done. Warning: this post contains spoilers, since this commentary assumes that you have played through the games I mention and have seen it. If you haven't played these games and want to be surprised, then don't read this post. Note: this blog is based on my own opinion, and so you are free to agree or disagree with me, and feel free to add your own experiences here in your comments. Also, this post will be added to over time.

1. Dr. Robotnik and Mecha Sonic in Sonic the Hedghog 2 -

at the end of Sonic 2 for the Sega Genisis, Sonic boards the Death Egg and first fights Metal Sonic (which is an epic battle), and later Dr. Robotnik in his big Mecha suit. The only downside to this final showdown is that unless if you were cheating, you will not have any rings in this level, and so one hit and you are dead (that can be somewhat frustrating if you had played through all 10 previous zones and are on your last continue and you die at Death Egg). When you fight Eggman, his only weakpoint is on the machines's body and you have to avoid the spikes or jet pack to hit him without getting killed. Eggman's most deadly attacks in this fight are the ones where he flies up, crashes down and tries to shoot you with his spiky arms (or bombs if you wind up behind him).

2. Ganondorf and Gannon in Zelda 64: Ocarina of Time

I recently beat the game, Zelda 64: Ocarina of time (I don't have a Game Cube, though I do have a N64, along with an Xbox/Xbox 360 and a PS2), and thought that the battle with Ganon and Ganondorf was pretty cool. First, Ganondorf has his own castle, and you have to fight your way through is castle to get through to him, and as you get closer to the boss door, you will hear Ganondorf playing his theme music (seems to be his signature theme). The battle is a 3 fold one. First, you fight him as Ganondor, and you are on top of the castle and so it can be easy to fall down, but to beat him, he will try to hit you with his energy spark shots, and you have to try to deflect them back at Ganondorf. Then he gets stunned, and you have a short window to hit him with a light arrow and beat the crap out of him. Eventually he goes down and taunts your guy before dying. After he dies, he tries to collapse the castle on you and you have to follow Zelda out of the castle under a 3 minute time limit. Once you leave the castle and after the castle collapses, you face Ganondorf again, and he turns into the evil Gannon, which is a cross between a demonic dragon and a pig, and he is pretty big. Although the battle is not too difficult, it is a pretty epic struggle, as you have to try to hit him on his tail, and he tries to whack you with his 2 big swords. Interstingly whenever Ganon hits you, Zelda screams, and eventually, when you have hit him enough, you get to finish him off by delivering a head blow with the Master Sword (you fight him with the biggorn sword at first), and when you beat him, he gets sent to the abyss and cures you, Zelda, and the Sages and vows his revenge before he disappears. Afterwards, Zelda sends Link back to his childhood time and the people around the world that Link met on his journey have a huge celebration in response to Link's victory.

3. Dracula - Castlevania Curse of Darkness

In most (if not all Castlevanie games), Dracula is the main villian that you fight at the end of most Castlevania (though in some of the newer ones, you will fight a different bad guy, such as Walter and Death in LOI, Graham in Ariel of Sorrow, etc), and of all Dracula fights, the one that I liked the most waas the one against Dracula in Curse of Darkness. Unlike other ones, Komnai gets a little creative on the fight with some interesting changes, such as the first form doing more than just telportin around the room and shooting fireballs, the battle is fully 3d with good graphics, and there are nifty cut scenes both before and after the fight. When you play the game as Hector, upon entering the Dracula's boss door at Dracula's castle, Hector tries to get on Dracula's good side, but Dracula simply accuses him as a traitor for aligning himself with the humans, and tries to kill Hector, and hence the battle begins. After the first form is defeated, Dracula morphs into this huge gargoyle like demon and you wind up on a plat form and Dracula charges at Hector, tries to splat him with his hands, shoots huge lasers at Hector, and even taunts Hector. Eventually, Dracula goes down and Hector saves the day.

4. Ursula in Kingdom Hearts (particularly her 2nd form) -

In the Kingdom of Hearts series, you play as a boy named Sora who gets swept into the Disney universe after the heartless strike his home world at Destiny Islands and getting separated separated from both Rikku and Kairi, and later pairs up with both Goofy and Donald not long after arriving in Tranvers city. While the Heartless and Ansem (also known as Xenhort, if have played Kingdom Hearts II) are the real villians in Kingdom Hearts I, classic Disney Villians (including Oogie Boogie, Captin Hook, Malificent, Usela, etc) lead by Malificent are the chief cronies of Ansem and as you play through the game, you will confront each of those Disney villians in quests at other worlds. When you visit Alantica, you enter the world of Ariel, the Little Mermaid, and the main villian you fight there is Ursela. The first part of the battle is not real spetacular, but the second part was awsome, since Ursela turns into a huge giantess and it almost feels as if she is one of the final bosses in the game. Of course, the second part is much more challenging than her first form as she has much more attacks, taunts you more and takes more hits to beat. Her only weak spot is her face, and you have to get close enough to hit her with your keyblade. Of course, she has quite a bit of attacks at her disposal, including energy
beams she shoots at you, trying to bite your head off, and plenty of other attacks.

5. Dr. Robotnik in Sonic and Knuckles (in the Death Egg / Doomsday Zone)

Of all of the Dr Robotnik fights in Sonic 3/Sonic and Knuckles, I though that the final confrontation with Dr Robotnik at the end of the Death Egg Zone wa the best. It was a pretty epic battle with multiple phases:

1) Dr Robotnik first uses this orb like badnik to try and kill you and to defeat the robot, you have to hit him with debris around the room that you can launch at it by using the gravity chambers.

2) The second phase is the real fight. After you beat Eggman's orb robot, he runs and gets in this huge battle mech (much bigger than the one in Sonic 2) and a huge battle occurs. First, Eggman tries to squash Sonic like a bug, and you have to defeat his fingers (that try to crush you) and Eggman in his battle suit is quite huge and stares at the player during this phase. After destroying Eggman's battle mech fingers, Eggman tries to chase sonic in his machine and to beat him, you have to hit Eggman's mech in the nose once and then hit the huge Emerald in Eggman's machine before shooting off a big laser, and after that phase, the mech gets destroyed and Eggman tries to flee in his Eggmobile, but the tables have turned and you simply chase eggman and whack him to death.

3) (this assumes that you have gotten all 7 chaos emeralds) After you have beaten Eggman's mech and all, you will go to the "Dooms Day Zone", where Eggman builds another Battlemech and tries to fly off with the master emerald, and Sonic morphs into Super Sonic (or hyper sonic if you got all of the chaos emerads in both Sonic 3 and the Sonic and Knuckles stages) and you get to destroy Eggman's ship and then chase after and defeat Eggman's reconstructed mech and bea the game.

(more details will be added to these following ones over time)
4. Xemnas in KOH 2
5. Sigma in Mega Man X4
6. Sigma in Mega Man X7
7. Vile in Mega Man X8
8. Super Shredder in TMNT 4
9. Darth Malak in Starwars Knights of the Old Republic
10. Bastilla in Star Wars KOTR
11. Malificent in KOH
12. Pete in KOH 2
13. Ansem in KOH
14. Sephiroth
15. Walter and Death in Castlevania Lamment of Innocence
16. Shack and Dracula in Castlevania Symphony of Darkness
17. Jack of Blades in Fable: The Lost Chapters
18. Red Falcon in Contra III
19. Perfect Chaos in Sonic Adventure
20. Seven Force in Gun Star Heroes

Review of Bully for the Xbox 360

2009-02-05T16:06:00.000-08:00

Ryan's Official Review of Bully, Scholarship Edition for the Xbox 360

Overview: Bully is a one of the kind game made by Rockstar and is quite similar to the Grand Theft Auto series. However, unlike GTA, in Bully, the game takes place at the Bullworth Academy, where you control this student called Johnny. Like GTA, you can do almost anything you want that you can't normally get away with in real life school, whether it is pulling the fire alarm, trying to skip classes, getting in fights on your first day of school, taking on multiple girl friends, etc. Of course, like the GTA universe, the prefects, cops, teachers, and staff members will try to bust you when you do stuff you should not do (such as skipping class, violating curfew, fighting, etc), and if you get caught, sometimes Johnny will be sent to the principal's office who gives Johnny detention by having him mow lawns or shoveling snow. Classes that Johnny takes are actually more like mini games. In band class, it is much like guitar hero, where you have to push the right buttons at the right time, in gym your guy usually has to either do wrestling or dodgeball, and in biology Johnny gets to dissect something (such as rats, toads, pigs, etc).

Besides classes, you will find that the game operates on a timer system, where hours will go buy in Johnny's world, and what goes on in Johnny's life depends on the time of day. From 9am to 4 pm, Johnny is expected to attend classes at school until he has completed all of the levels for them (you can try to skip classes, but watch out for prefects and other authority figures who will try to bust you when skipping). After 5 pm, Johnny can't be in the school building without the risk of getting busted for trespassing. Curfew begins at 11 pm, which means that prefects will try to bust Johnny for curfew violations if he is outside of the men's dorms any time after 11 (though it is not hard to hide from them or stay out of sight). And if Johnny is up past 2 am, he will pass out (if you are out in the open when that happens, he can get "robbed" in his sleep and lose stuff, such as money). Of course, besides the usual routine, you will progress through the game by completing all of the levels of the classes you attend (5 levels each), doing the story line missions, finding hidden objects, interacting with other students, and opening up new areas by progressing in the game.

Pros about the game:
- fun to play
- the GTA style of game play does mean that there is some twisted humor in the game (such as getting into mischief and trying to elude authority figures or trying to break the world record of detentions you can get).
- the content is not as offensive as the GTA series are (when you get in fights, the people you fight only get knocked out but do not die, for example)
- can be a good way to relive your high school career if you miss those days
- fun to play (and can get addicting after a while, like most GTA style games, as you can play it for hours on end and lose track of time while playing)
- get away doing that you can't normally get away with in school (i.e., pranks, truancy, getting in fights, hazing, etc), though you can get busted doin
g those things. For example, whenever you pull the fire alarm, the lady on the intercom will taunt Johnny

Negative aspects in the game:
- Like most GTA style games, Bully does have content that may be offensive to some (there were some controversies when the game was first released, for example)
- the game background music is pretty much the same most of the time in the game and can get annoying after a while. I know when I play this game, my brothers have gotten annoyed by the repetitive music. Of course, you can turn down the music volume if you want (which is what I did later in the game).
- the time system can be a nuisance at times, especially when you try doing missions. For example, if you do a story line mission either during class time or after curfew, you will have added an extra difficulty for yourself as you will have to complete the mission while watching out for authority figures at the same time who will try to bust you. Perhaps the easiest way to free up extra time for missions would be to try and beat all of the classes early in the game before attempting to do misssions, because then when you have completed all of the classes for that quater, you will not have to attend those classes any more, giving you plenty of extra time doing other stuff, including errands, story line missions, as well as side missions.
- the daily routine system can get boring to some (doing the same stuff each game day)
- some classes will be easier to pass than others, naturally.
- Like many GTA games, you will find that Jimmy is a too much of an errands boy, meaning that as you progress through the game, Jimmy will have many different bosses from cliches of people (i.e., nerds, preppies, jocks, etc) to look up to, and some of Jimmy's employers will have him do some really outrageous tasks. In one of the later missions, for example, you will have this manager by the name of Earnest (who is the leader of the nerds), and he will have you sabatoge a football game that the jocks are playing (which will result in the jocks hating on your guy as well as a boss fight against the leader of the jocks).

Tips and strategies when playing this game:

1. sometimes Jimmy will find himself in trouble with the authorities (i.e., prefects, cops, etc) and you will know when Jimmy is in trouble when Jimmy does something wrong and his trouble meter goes up, and typically the more trouble Jimmy causes, the higher it goes and the more the authority figures will pay attention to Jimmy. Also, for serious offenses (such as picking fights with kids, girls, and adults), your trouble meter will fill to the max and the prefects, officers or other authority figures will come upon you right away and bust you if they can. By the way, sometimes if you get busted often (by prefects or teachers, excludes cops), Jimmy can be sent to Dr Crabblesnich's (the school principal) office, and get detention (not before Dr Crabblesnitch chews Jimmy out about his deviant behaviors). There are 3 ways you can take on authority figures when they try to bust you: 1) run a way and hide (especially if you have a high wanted rating), 2) attack them head on (not recommended because then they can simply grab Jimmy, and when they do, Jimmy will be busted on the spot), or 3) if you must fight them, go to a high area where they can't grab you and knock them out with your slingshot or a similar weapon.

2. Even if you decide to make Jimmy into a nice guy, fights are inevitable. This is especially true as you progress through the game and do missions for one clique that pisses off another clique. The clique system is quite similar to the gang system in various GTA games (such as San Andreas), and you can see their respect meter under the stats page, and whenever a clique has a respect rating of 50% or less, they will try to attack Jimmy on sight. When fights do happen, watch out for prefects and other authority figures, because they will try to bust Jimmy if they see him fighting, and so there are 3 ways you can go about fighting: 1) running away, 2) take them head on (can be easier if you lure your would be attacker to a location where there are no authority figures close by and take them out that way), or 3) take them out quickly with a weapon (such as a slingshot, spud cannon, etc).

3. Consider completing the classes earlier in the game for 2 reasons: 1) many of them give you bonuses (such as extra fighting moves in PE classes, more health when you kiss girls, etc), and 2) they can be a nuisance when it comes to main story line missions (even easy missions can be harder than normal if it is during class time since authority figures will try to bust Jimmy for truancy, thus causing him to fail in the mission).

Characters of note in Bully:

1. Jimmy Hopkins - this is the game protaganost and will be the character you control throughout the game. Apparently prior to this game, Jimmy had been expelled at several other schools prior to Bullworth, and his parents are off on a cruise somewhere while Jimmy is at Bullworth (they are probably glad to get Jimmy out of their hair).

2. Gary Smith - Gary is actually the main villian in this game. At first, he is one of Jimmy's friends and Jimmy does do missions for him, but as you will see, eventually, Gary will show his true covers and become Jimmy's enemy. One thing worth noting is that after you complete chapter 1, Gary disappears from the game and does not resurface until chapter 5, with a diabolical scheme to get Jimmy expelled and take over the school (you will learn more about it while you play through the game).

3. Dr Crabblesnitch- Dr Crabblesnitch is the school principal at Bullworth and is one of the first people Jimmy encounters upon arriving at the school Afterwards, you will not see much of him until the last chapter in the game, unless you get Jimmy busted often on campus. Usually for every 3rd time Jimmy gets busted (provided that it is not class time or after dark), Jimmy will see Dr Crabblesnitch (who gives Jimmy detention for his deviant behavior).

4. Pete - He is one of Jimmy's side kicks in the game and does not belong to a particular clique.

Cliques in Bully

- Nerds: initially, these are Jimmy's allys and are the nerdy types of people you see on campus and are lead by a man name Earnest. They often hang out in the dorms, library, and in the academy.

- Bullys: these are the guys and gals that like to go around and pick on others on campus. Initially, they will go after Jimmy on occasion, but after you beat chapter 1 they will like you and you will not have to worry about them. They often hang around school and in the parking lot.

- Jocks - these are the sports players that hang out on the football fields and near gyms. Until chapter 4, they will be hostile towards Jimmy and attack him on site. One little secret, once you get towards the end of chapter 4 one of the cheerleaders will become Jimmy's unofficial girlfriend.,

- Preppies: these are the rich kids you will encounter near the Harrington house and in town. They will be hostile towards Jimmy until towards the end of chapter 2. They like to box, and so they can be tough fighters to beat up. The preppies are lead by Derby. One thing of note: Jimmy has a thing against rich kids in the game, hwich makes things a bit interesting.

- greasers: these are the grungie looking students that hang out near the parking lot and are lead by Johnny Vincent.

- prefects: these are the burly security guards you see around school and are there to enforce school rules. Piss one of them off, and they will try to bust you in a heart beat. Depending on the time of day, if you get busted by the prefects, they will either send you to class if you are caught truant, send you back to your dorm (if it is after hours), or either bust you and let you go or send you to the principal (who gives Jimmy detention). The only rule they don't really seem to enforce is the dress code. You can dress up as a total clown, for example, and while they do taunt Jimmy for not wearing his school uniform, they wil not try to bust him on that.

- school staff- these are some npcs you see on campus, including teachers, the lunch room lady, the resident dean in the girls dorm (they don't take kindly to male visitors in the girl's dorm), a school nurse (usually hangs out in the girl's dorm), as well as Dr. Crabblesnitch's secretary. They all pretty much act like prefects, and will make sure that Jimmy stays in line while at bullworth. If Jimmy gets in trouble with them, they will act like prefects and try to bust Jimmy, with the same results if he gets busted by the prefects.

- teachers- you will not see them outside of class time, but some of them have unique plots outside of class time (such as the English's teacher's drunkeness and crush on the art teacher, the band teacher needing Jimmy to perform at a Christmas Concert), as well as the math teacher's grudge against the english teacher.

- police: outside Bullworth, the police are the authority figures that aim to maintain law and order around town. Unlike authority figures on campus, they will not send you to the principal's office when busted but will either catch and release you at the police station, or send you back to bullworth if you are caught truant or violating curfew.

- kids, girls and adults - there are plenty of girls and kids around campus, and don't have much of a plot in the story. Unlike girls in real life, just about all of the girls have a crush (which is completely unreal in real life high school) on Jimmy and will kiss him if they can (especailly after you complete all of the art classes). One warning though: the saying "you are not supposed to hit a girl" certainly applies to Jimmy's life. If Jimmy decides to be mean to the girls or hit any of them, you can be assured that authority figures will come on you right away (instant max wanted rating) and bust you if they catch you instantly.

For more about the game, you can either try out the game yourself (I posted a referral link to the game via amazon towards the beginning of this blog entry), or learn more about it at http://www.gamefaqs.com/.

Overall stuff:

Game score card from 1 to 5 with 1 being the worst game ever and 5 being the best one ever:

Game play: 4
Fun factor: 3 (can get boring to some after a while)
Difficulty: 4
Controls: 2.5 (in band class, the poor controller sensitivity can make it difficult to pass that class, especially in the later stages when you have to press both triggers at the same time
Graphics: 5 (the game environment will certainly have you feel like you are actually in Johnny's world, with full interactions, being able to explore the world that Johnny is in and all).
Replay factor: 3 (because of the big plot in the game as well as lots of extra stuff, one probably will want to play through the game a second time to see if they missed something the first time, do things differnetly, etc. Bully does have some movie-like characteristics as well, loaded with clip scenes, interactivity between Johnny and other characters at Bullworth Academy, and all).
Sounds: 3 (the main game music is repetitive and can get old after a while).
Buy or rent: you should definitely buy the game, since like just about all modern day role playing games, it will definitely take a while to get through the entire game (I am a little more than 1/2 way through the game myself to strech a point).
Overall score: 4 out of 5

Want Bully? You can get it at http://astore.amazon.com/rjvideogamer-20/detail/B000WPXQSQ. You can also get a deluxe version of the game for PS2 at http://astore.amazon.com/rjvideogamer-20/detail/B000K2DE06, and/or the Nintendo Wii version of Bully at http://astore.amazon.com/rjvideogamer-20/detail/B000WQ1UME.

Related ads:
- Content from Amazon.com:

- Get an Xbox 360 Pro System at Microsoft Store (yes, Microsoft does have an affiliate progrm if you do not know):

- Play online games for cash prizes at Game Duell:

- Rent Bully or a similar game via Gamefly (includes a FREE trial upon sign up):

Advantages of Game fly over other rental stores:
- online based
- can be handy if you don't live near a video store
- Purchase World of war craft
- keep the game as long as you wish (for a monthly fee), saves you from having to return the game before conquering it
- can also be handy when it comes to rare and often rented/sold out games

Welcome to my Video Game Blog

2009-02-03T18:05:00.000-08:00

In this blogger series, I will post reviews of games, links to hot games, faqs, etc. I hope that you enjoy it. Someday, I plan to add some web pages on gaming, but, that will come some other time. I have an Xbox 360, Playstation 2, Xbox, N64, Genesis and regular nintendo.