I was hoping for something like God of War or ninja Gaiden when I rented Viking. I was hell-a-off....

Viking: Battle for Asgard
Publisher: SEGA
Developer: Creative Assembly
Players: 1
Genre: Action Adventure

You are Skarin, a Viking warrior mortally wounded in battle. On the edge of death, you are visited by Freya, a Norse goddess, who summons you to become her champion. You must defeat the goddess Hel and her undead army before they take over all of the land. To do this you must recruit an army, and use it to liberate the land.

Viking mythology was never this boring
The game starts off with a cutscene where you jump straight into the plot. Thats basically it. There is no lead up whatsoever to the general plot, making for an extremely annoying beginning of the game. The story at best is rather shallow, as it never really goes beyond anything except for the classic hero vs. villain mentality that pervaded many a 1970's movie. Thats not unnecessarily a bad thing, though, and could easily be overlooked. However, when you own character is the most static in the game, it becomes amazingly irritating to see no emotion or life from your character whatsoever. At the beginning, you learn of your father's death in the battle that almost claimed yours as well. What does your character say or do to express loss for his father? Nothing. Not a single thing except that you have a new mission. Character development in this game is absolutely gone, and the characters are the most static I've seen in a long time. The game is also uber violent, which may be the single redeeming quality here. I've never really cared much for violence, but when there is so little else to hold this games story and atmosphere up, you have to aim low. Blood and guts will follow you everywhere. This goes beyond God of War and Conan, as you do finishers that could only be replicated in games like Ninja Gaiden 2. However, that barely replaces the messy story and the lost everything else about the presentation. Menus tend to be confusing, and even the achievements are weird (wanna know how I got a gamerscore ending in a 2? This game.)

Bloody mediocre
Onto graphics. To its credit, Viking does sport some nice looking character models, and the magic effects look fine and nice. Environments need lots of work though. Enemies look great, especially when your cutting them to shreds. The blood flying every which way and the entrails (starting to get a little queasy here)splat in full texture. Unfortunately, you'll be seeing the same enemies very, very often. Back to environments for a minute anyway. The main lands and grassy plains that you fight on a plain, boring, and uneventful. Castles and forts actually look interesting, though, but thats only from the distance. Up close they get bland and repetitive, showing good artistic direction, but terrible execution. The ocean water looks like waves of white lines, and caverns all look exactly the same. To clean up the point, none of this necessarily looks bad, it just doesn't look good. Mediocrity rules this games graphical direction in almost every which way you can think of.


It doesn't look bad. It just doesn't look good.

Have I gone deaf? No wait, This game is just dead.

Sound. As far as music goes, there is absolutely nothing. There is basically no music whatsoever. The only music there ever is only happens during fights, so your mind basically blocks it out. Even then there is nothing to hear. Sound effects aren't too shabby though. The fierce attacks of enemies and the slashes that your sword makes into their lower sternums are glorious. Unfortunately, these sound effects repeat themselves over and over and over constantly, and once you've heard some of the sound effects, you've hears all of the sound effects. Voice acting is terrible. Mostly the acting consists of fake British and Norse accents (whats a norse accent sound like, anyway?) spewed to a very badly written script. Some of the Viking warriors have some decent lines to say though. Don't must your TV when playing this, but to be honest there isn't much to hear.

Hack-and-slash is fun, but repetitive
For those of you willing to forgo storyline and sound, and deal with mediocre graphics, you've still got some interesting gameplay going for you. You may think differently when you first begin, though, as your best attacks include mashing the A button over and over (even more then dynasty warriors). If your patient you'll get a few more combos, and eventually some pretty sweet magic attacks. Gathering your Viking warriors is pretty fun for a good while. Getting gold and doing quests extend the fun you have a good deal. Did I mention, the Vikings you release join your army? They do. These utterly massive armies lead to some really awesome epic scale battles in the game, as you and 1000 Vikings battle thousands of Undead enemies (Really think of this--the game can take thousands of enemies and allies on screen at once. Thats one da** good engine!) The epic battles get even better when you get the ability to summon dragons, who tear the battlefield into pieces (not literally) and rip apart undead like a lawnmower in Dead Rising. Like always though, Newton's law of physics comes into play here, and for every good gameplay action theres a bad one. This time, Newton's a little off--there are bad parts to the gameplay, but the good outweighs the bad by a margin. While combat and battling is fun, after a few hours it will get extremely repetitive, and the very thin level of stealth featured in the game is just annoying. After killing the same enemy type thousands of times, it starts to decline significantly. Also, later in the game when your outnumbered 5 to 1 and your Viking teamates aren't doing too well, things start to get frustrating. Enemies block and counter all you attacks, and magic gets useless. Still, for the most part Viking has some good hack-and-slash fun to be had, if very shallow fun to be had.


Slash.

Asgard is a one-trip ticket
Once your done, your done for good. You can easily do most every task the first play through, and afterwards there is literally nothing to do. exploring the island doesn't work because everything is the same, fighting doesn't work because you've done it so much, and powering up doesn't work because most extra combos never do anything at all. Except for the main storyline which is a good 12-15 hours long, replay Value isn't there.

Lets get to it then! (Ya got blood onma knife....)

Presentation: 1.5/5
Confusing menus, bad story, and lack of character development whatsoever deserves to go to whatever the Norse inferno is.

Sound: 2/5
While it has decent sound effects, voice acting is horrific and music isn't there.

Graphics: 3/5
They aren't bad, but there aren't good. Despite decent character models, this game screams mediocrity.

Gameplay: 3/5
Fighting is great fun, but for only so long. Soon repetition sets in, and it becomes a chore to finish the game.

Replay Value: 2/5
Beyond one play through, there is no replay value.

Overall: 2.5/5

This game screams mediocrity. While gameplay and combat is interesting, everything else just either falls or isn't interesting in the least. Creative Assembly had an interesting idea, but it just didn't work out quite right.

download the .wav file to hear my audio review.

http://tornadodrive.com/download.php...eview.wav.html







Hello and welcome to my first audio review,i am fg54.

I hope you enjoy.

Published and developed by: Frontier Developments
Genre: Adventure
cost: $10.00
Number of Players: 1 or 2

OVERVIEW:
One of the first things i would like to point out is that this game looks better then most full priced wii games out there thanks to its beautiful enviorment and artistic look, i still haven't goten tired of just looking at the game and shaking things around with wind.
The point of this game is to explore and solve puzzles with the wind as you get new powers.

SOUND:
this game doesn't have alot of sound effects, but what it does have. is a wonderful and relaxing background song that goes seemeengly with the game.

CONTROL:
you control your character with the nunchuck and the wind with the weemote, both are very responsive.

GRAPHICS:
gorgeous waterfalls, mountains, trees and even caves along with an equally impressive art style. make this game fun to look at.

GAMEPLAY:
this is an adventure game with some puzzle solving on the side.
the main puzzle is figuring out what to do next and where to go. due to the games lack of direction, there is no map or arrows telling you where to go, the only arrow i found was one pointing towards a powerup that was right netx to it, as if i needed it to figure out that the big shining rock was special. the game is also very short, about three and a half hours long and not alot of replay value.

REPLAY VALUE:
Unfortunatley, once you beat this game, there is virtually no reason to go back to it other then to play arround with the wind and to obserbe the beautiful enviorments, it is quite a relaxing experience, specially with the soothing music playing on the background.

CONCLUSION:
This is in my opinion the best wiiware launch title out there, so if you want to dip your toe in a gorgeous and interactive experience brough to you by wiiware, take off your socks and take them to your nearest pawn shop, purchase 1000 wii points, and download this sucker.

I give this game: four out of five stars

Because we all know exactly how it is, just to reinforce your state of mind about this game, since it hasn't really been released in Europe...

This is the reason I bought a Wii

Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo in correlation with Game Arts
Players: 1-4
Genre: Fighting
Wifi: Yes

Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the third entry to one of the highest rated and best selling fighting games of all time, finally makes its way to the States, and soon Europe. Featuring a list of over 35 of your favorite Nintendo IPs, Brawl's maniacal furious fighting finally hits home. We all knew it was gonna be good, but just how good is it?

A story without a word
While Brawl never really does have a official(per-say) storyline, Adventure mode is a 8-10 hour journey that, for the most part, is the storyline. The story is such a jumbled mess that you can't help but just think "wow...are you joking? This is awesome!" In this story, you go through all 37 playable characters who are all taken straight from Nintendo's famous-franchise patent corner. They all learn, through one way or another, that they must help each other to fight off the invaders, to save not only themselves but all that they know. Now getting to the header--in this story, the characters never actually speak (with the exception of Sonic) which at first seems annoying, but once yo think about it, would Mario really sound like Mario if he was going over formulated battle plans in a high-pitched Italian accent? No. Yet, many of these characters do have voices, so the argument could be turned either way. In any case, the story really makes no sense, but it has to be that way in order to incorporate 1) People who live in a Mushroom(of all things) Kingdome, 2) People who live in a war of conspiracies and stealth, and 3) to incorporate people at one time lived as an animal in Mobius who live at the speed of sound. Get the picture? (It took me a while too) Oh, and this game has Wiinternet capabilities, meaning you can slash and bash your best friends over the Wiinternet. But be warned-- don't exceed 4 different consoles, or you will get lag like you've never lagged before. However, classic one-on-ones have narry a bit of lag, so should you limit it, you have no problem on the Wiinternet. Just be careful when you choose to play random players--games don't start till theres four, and that means massive lag.


Sonic and Dedede.

The Wii's Finest
With the exception of Super Mario Galaxy, Smash Bros. is the best looking Wii game out there. Character Models are absolutely splendid, and seeing many of your favorite Ninty characters for the first time in full 3D is really something else. These are the characters at the top of their game and style right here. The effects of each characters Ultimate attacks, from Mario's fire to Sonic's insanely fast Super Sonic speed all are done without a hitch, giving this game some of the best visual effects that Ninty has ever done. Animations, while fluid and work fine, could have been a little more...expressive. Explosive? its hard to find the right word, but they just seem too...overdone, seeing as almost all of Mario's (example) repertoire is straight out of the first Smash bros. This really isn't a problem so much as a fan annoyance. So far I've been ranting on about the great foregrounds and amazing effects, but what about the backgrounds? Good. But not great. Now, before you put a bullet into my head (Put the gun down please!) the backgrounds look fantastic. They are varied, and colorful and what not. But after playing each one a few hundred times, they get a little repetitive. And Adventure mode's backgrounds ARE repetitive, I'm not even gonna try to save them. But heres the deal--when your beating the crap out of the other players, who is gonna be looking at the backgrounds anyway? Ah, you see? Not really to big a deal anyway. Now, for the FOREGROUNDS of the BACKGROUNDS. The platforms and such are basically a bunch of textures, usually repeating textures(most things are...) but as far as the arena you fight in, they often change enough to keep the arena appealing to the eye for a good while while. Theres not really too much to say here...

Snap Crackle Pop. This time NOT rice crispies.
Sounds. Sounds in each fight are limited to what the player does, not so much the environments. Meaning, there is no ambiance or atmospheric sounds in Brawl.(honestly, its practically 2D, what do you expect?) In Adventure mode, the sounds are only varied by a margin from single-player, as very few enemies actually make sounds. The only real fighting sounds you hear in this game are those of the fighters themselves, pummeling enemies into the ground. While these are the only sounds, they were recorded and placed great. After a while, they do get a bit repetitive, but this game is an odd one for sure; no matter how many times you hear the same sound, it never gets annoying. I can't tell you why, I just can't think of an instance where I've ever gotten annoyed by Ike's constant screaming. A conundrum...As for music, this title sports some of the best original soundtracks ever to be taken straight out of another game. They take the song, beef it up, and throw it in Brawl. Music really does determine the mood in this game, as the final bosses dirge-style rock makes you wanna blow 'em a new one, while Mario's light-hearted, uh, 'Mario' style music just makes you wanna sit back and enjoy the fight, for recreational purposes. To be fair, this game has one of the most basic sounds and music in the industry, and yet, it all works so well....it sure is an odd one.

The Classic 4-player brawler returns in style!
Gameplay, drives this game. It is the fuel that, if changed in any way, would be the end of the great series. So it is a great thing that while they didn't change it severely, they tweaked a already great formula to make it even better, for the most part anyway. Brawl is like the other Smash bros before it; and adrenaline fueled 4-player beat or be beaten fighter, with a huge range of Nintendo mascots by its side. Its a Ninty fanboys dream. In Brawl, you also get a range of items to help you bring down the competition, from bats to pokeballs. A new idea from ninty made its way to this game in the form of Assist trophies. Que, you ask? Assist trophies are NPCs that, well, assist you during a fight. Each Assist trophy contains a different original Nintendo character that didn't make the cut into the game as a playable character. They all have some form of temporary effects behind them, such as time slowdown, throwing bricks, or even just getting on your nerves. Unlike Melee, items don't really play too much a part in determining a battle this time around. In fact, alot has changed from Melee. I'll start with the bad. The charm is gone. While i can't fully describe this, the charm is what makes people always come back to it, and makes people feel accomplished. Unlocking characters in the variety of often wacky ways was one of Melee's best traits. This has been ripped out of Brawl. You can literally unlock practically EVERY character simply by playing through Adventure mode. You find em, you got em. You don't even have to fight em. Another thing is trophy collecting. Without the minigames that Melee had in Brawl, trophy collecting isn't near as addicting as it once was. Music collecting a great addition, but its not the same. And Target test is the same for every character. I mean the EXACT same. The characters become less personalized by these small changes. Some of the best characters were taken out, though replaced, they really oughta be in there. Besides the extreme lack of old-world charm, Brawl is the greater of the three in terms of shear furious action. Multiplayer action is still great fun, and with a level builder(even if its a pretty bad one, comparatively speaking) local multiplayer is the new black. Classic mode is the same as always, you beat the crap out of a series of people before taking out the master hand. All-Star mode makes a triumphant return as well. Home-run and Infinite mode also return, this time sporting 2 player co-op. Boss mode is great fun after you beat Adventure mode, too. RIP, adventure minigames....


Hiyah

Does it ever end?
Replay value is something every smash bros game had going for it, and this entry is no different. With 37 playable characters across over 20 battle arenas, with friends this game can last forever. Not to mention all the different modes and gameplay varieties. In a classic Brawl alone you can change so many options to keep this game going, its astounding. A huge adventure mode will keep you, maybe not interested, but PLAYING it for a while. I highly doubt you'll go back to Adventure mode when you done, though. And since the charm of unlocking and collecting is taken out of this game, fighting is really the only thing to do after getting stages and characters. Internet multiplayer really extends the fun, but you need to have a few friends who can play you to get the most out of it. Still, the insane levels of customization you can do with this game will keep you for a long, long time. Just don't expect to find as much fun as Melee gave you. But lets face it, Melee spoiled us silly.

Lets get to it then! (Standing around like a bloody idiot)

Story: 3/5
C'mon, its practically not even there. Still, tons of points to Ninty for successfully bringing all its mascots together in a storyline, even if a bit broken.

Graphics: 5/5
The best yet seen on the Wii. Backgrounds could use a little more work, but everything else is so well done it doesn't even matter.

Sound: 4/5
While music is amazing, sound effects are repetitive, but not annoying. No ambiance.

Gameplay: 4.5/5
Its back and better then ever. Brawl's fighting mechanics are the best they've ever been, but it seems they forfeited style for shear greatness.

Replay Value/Multiplayer: 5/5
After the main game, theres so much to do it'll make your head spin. And fighting friends over Wifi is only one part of it.

Overall:

Truly the Wii's finest yet. Its what we've come to expect of Nintendo over the years, not this mini-game crap. This is proof that Nintendo's still got it.

The world ends with who... me... not uh.... Really?


Information about the game: The World Ends With you is a Single player Nintendo DS Role-Playing Game published by Square Enix and Developed by the Kingdom Hearts Team and Square Enix, Jupiter. Single player Game

Plot Synopsis:You take on the role of Neku Sakuraba as he wakes up with little memory, to find he is a part of a mysterious game constructed by a group known as the Reapers.

Overview: In this game, you are basically thrown into a strange world, with nothing left to do except fight. To beat the game, you have to survive all 7 days with your partner, Shiki Misaki, and do whatever it takes to not get"erased" (there form of getting killed). The Combat system in this game is very unique in the fact that you are controlling 2 characters at once (One character for each screen) And may seem to be overwhelming at first, but in time you seem to get used to it. On The top screen, you got a Dance Dance Revolution style game-play to attack, while on the bottom, you get to slash away "noise" (or enemies) with your stylus. Another interesting feature is the pin system. The pin system is where you collect all types of pins that give you diffrent types of attacks, but you can only have a certain amount working at once. I like the idea, and it is fun to collect all the pins. The Game seems to me like a more modern Kingdom Hearts on the edge. In this game it will cuss and the main character seems to be a little dark himself.

Graphics: Graphics in this game are a little So-So. Character design and just the art in the game is really well done, but when you control the character on the streets, it is VERY pixalated. The thing is, while in combat the game looks like a solid DS game. Nevertheless, Do not buy the game if you are looking for Crazy High-Def amazing graphics, cause you are not going to find it here.

Sound: Well, other then the fact that the music is annoying Japanese songs that will play over and over and OVER again, Sound is good. The SFX are pretty superb in battle.

Replay Value: On a bored weekend and I am craving RPG goodness, I will give it another play through. The game itself is addicting.

Overall: The Game is fun, addicting and new, which will give RPG gamers a new look at what they have seen in RPG's so far. The new combat system makes the game unique by itself, if you guys don't count the Edgy-ness of the game unique too. Though Sound and graphics are sub-par, you will come to look over these things for a solid game with a great story and great gameplay. Despite the few problems in the game, I would say go ahead and buy it!

Story 5/5
Sound 3.5/5
Graphics 3/5
Gameplay 5/5

Lets face it. Mario Kart Double Dash sucked. It was
just too slow and two riders was simply retarded. It added nothing of interest but I guess slower
karts.. Thats why when Mario Kart Wii was announced I was met with mixed feelings. If we
got anything like Mario Kart DS all would be well but if they threw another Double Dash at us
then its a whole different story!

As more details began to emerge and my fears of a slow kart went away by the seeing videos I
found myself with brand new fears of a "family friendly" kart game. A soft-core Mario Kart? No
thanks! The DS didnt get that so why the Wii?



Well now that I've spent some personal time with the game I have determined that while the game
is considerably more "family friendly" than the previous versions it is still very enjoyable. The
single player modes are very fast and locked at 60 frames, as I like it, and as much fun as it
should be. However, the multiplayer is, and will always be where its at with Kart and that is no
different here. Local multiplayer is fun and fast-ish.. The thing is it seems to be locked at 30
frames! Ick! Oh well.. Everything else is as it should be.

Here is where Kart shines. Online. Thats right. A Ninty game that is not only good online its
nearly FLAWLESS. There is literally zero lag and everything is amazingly fast. Connecting takes
seconds and its locked once more at 60 frames. Fan-freaking-tastic! My only complaint is that
Battle Mode forces you to be on a team so that no one loses alone.. LAME. Oh and friend codes
still suck. You can at least make rooms for your friends and even see if they're playing online
without even starting the game via the Mario Kart Channel which is pretty sweet.



Ninty once more has shown the world how to do a few major things on Wii with Mario Kart. Online
here is an enormous step forward and devs should take notice. THIS IS HOW ITS DONE. Thats not all
they did very right here though. Oh no, they also have pulled off waggle steering! While the Wii
Wheel is little more than an extension of the "B" trigger the steering is great. I have had no
interest in using any other control method and am even able to be just as competitive online as
anyone using a joystick.

My biggest complaint with this game is a little something called rubber banding. Basically if
you're in first place get ready to be snapped back to dead last. Don't worry though because soon
you'll snap back to first! Yeah its the family friendly crap again. No matter how good you are
you simply wont win every race anymore like in the karts of old. Tragic.

When Mario first jumped into the solo spotlight with his first NES game the gaming world would never again be same. He had a good run and when he hit 3D it looked like it would only get better for him. Sadly however his next game, Super Mario Sunshine, was not up to par with the previous entries and platformers as enormous hits looked like a thing of the past.

Now with the platformer gasping for air we needed something big to save it. Mario Galaxy is just that. This game proves platformers are still alive and with this instance classic we're gonna be seeing a whole lot more.

This game plays, looks and feels just about as good as it gets. Everything is fast, smooth, and most importantly of all FUN. You can almost sense what Miyamoto and Co. were grinning about when everyone called the Wii a gimmick. This game epitomizes Nintendo and the Wii itself.

Nostalgia runs thick in this game with all the foes you've grown to love/hate from the past making their returns along with a few new ones. For any fan on Super Mario 64 this game is as simple as pick it up and start where you left off before on SM 64. Also at times you'll get this fantastic switch to a "2D" mode that couldn't be more like the even more retro SNES Mario games.



Now since we all know how great this game plays (Let me stress this once more. It plays better than ANY Mario game in the past in my opinion.) let me now move on to how it looks. These ARE the best graphics on Wii period. Metroid Prime 3 looked great and all but this game just is gorgeous. The screen shots simply don't do the game justice. To fully appreciate it you need to see it in action. It is gorgeous.



This time around you get several new "suits" for Mario to wear and each one is more awesome then the last. One of my new favorites is the Bee Suite if nothing else because it looks ridiculous. Nothing is funnier than Mario dressed like a bumble bee. Another good one is the Spring Suit. Its pretty much what you think.



Presentation- 4.5
Very high production values, co-op, Wiiconnect24 and its slick to boot.

Graphics- 4.5
Best on Wii period. Everything looks like a dream at a solid 60fps all the time.

Sound- 5
The best music and effects ever on a Mario game. Using a full orchestra for your music is genius.

Gameplay- 5
This is where the game shines. It plays simply perfect. From the controls to just how it feel. Everything is great.

Lasting Appeal- 4.5
More than 40 galaxies each completely different than the last, 120 stars to collect, and Wiiconnect24 support to show off you accomplishments. Can it get much better?

Overall

As close to perfect as you can get..would of given it a 4.9 but there is no star for it. I will never give a game a 5 but man.. this was close..