Luigibarqs

Gangstar 2: Kings of L.A. is a crime game for DSiWare that tries to copy the Gran Theft Auto fomula with a few unique additions. Does it STEAL your attention with its charm or is it a WASTED opportunity? For a game that tries to stand out from Gran Theft Auto, it doesn't do much that is actually unique, pretty much all of the game's ideas have been used in a GTA game at one point or another. Only one that is remotely unique are the camera missions, but they don't really expand on the new idea at all. The music is okay overall, not good but not really bad either, there wasn't any audio tracks that where memorable. The maps are really tiny and sometimes quite cluttered, their designs for the most part seems rather lazy and boring, they aren't really fun to drive, walk or fight in. The driving mechanics and controls in this game are absolutely horrendous, the vehicles are not fun to use at all, I ended up using the "Running Dodge Roll" technique to get around since its movement is as fast as most moving vehicles. Glitches in this game are quite literally everywhere, I find I get locked out my inventory rather frequently, I'm sure that in some missions they do this intentionally but it also occasionally happens outside missions for no apparent reason. I've also had my character lock up all movement which lead me to getting killed by enemies or police quite a few times or forcing me to reset the game. I'm sorry, but I don't find this lack of quality and bug testing acceptable for a game, this is a quick cash-in on the GTA formula and that is about it. There are much better games out there to spend your money on, such as Gran Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars which is far superior to Gangstar 2: Kings of L.A. in pretty much every way.

Etrian Odyssey IV is a classic dungeon crawling RPG for the Nintendo 3DS that bears similarities to Wizardry. Is it a great addition to the RPGs on the 3DS? I would definitely agree that it is. The plot of the game isn't anything of major interest and contains average writing overall, but with games like these, the story isn't the major focus of the game to begin **** music in this game is absolutely beautiful, and fits well with the mood of each area and events in the game. The gameplay resembles Wizardry and other classic dungeon crawling RPGs with you exploring areas by airship and on foot, finding treasures, hunting monsters, doing missions, drawing maps and fighting in strategic turn based RPG battles all while advancing the plot, gaining levels, getting better loot, making money and improving equipment and items. The game has two different difficulties, normal for people who want to play the game in its normal difficult format, and casual for people if they find normal too difficult and unforgiving. The game is packed full of content, plenty of hours worth of play time with the story, side-quest missions, exploring, hunting enemies for supplies and anything else to collect and see everything it has to offer. Once you have completed everything in the game, you can even scan QR codes given out by Altus to get even MORE side-quest missions to play. You can also share guild cards via QR codes with other guilds (and if your level is high enough, you can hire members from other guilds to join yours and help out but they can't gain experience or have their equipment or skills changed). There is even a New Game where you can replay the story again will all of your characters and their equipment remaining in the next playthrough, however, all of the items that aren't equipped to characters (that are in the inventory or storage) are deleted. Although many people find this game to be rather difficult, I tend to disagree, I had my entire party at level 70 by the time I reached the 3rd floor of the 3rd main dungeon when playing on normal difficulty, but I will admit that the bosses in the post-story can be extremely difficult and unforgiving if you aren't properly prepared. The last two secret bosses in particular can even take down a party of level 99s pretty easily if you don't have a good plan or strategy in place. Overall, its a great RPG dungeon crawling game, but it can consist of a lot of grinding, strategic planning and fighting difficult battles to complete fully, if you aren't put off by that, then I suggest that you check it out.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity is a Nintendo 3DS sequel to the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky on the Nintendo DS. Is this game superior to its sequel? Well, Its hard to say. The positive changes that greatly improve this sequel are just as numerous as the negative changes that make the game worse than the prequels prior to this entry in this spin-off series. First off, lets start with the negatives. Pokemon is a series which is based around collecting as much monsters as possible, with there being well over 600 different kinds as of now, it seems like a poor choice to limit the amount of Pokemon in the game to less than 150. I understand however that making 3D models and animations for each model for all the Pokemon that exist as of now and the environments would take quite a bit of time and eat a large amount of space on the game card so I understand why the Pokemon list is as limited as it is, but it leads me to question why they strayed away from sprites which take up far less memory in comparison. Another problem is the story. No, not the writing itself, but the length of it overall. Gates to Infinity is about a quarter of the length of the prequel trio Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky, further proving my point of shortness, the post-story scenario consists of only one dungeon, which is less than 15 floors in length, when compared to the lengthy post-story scenario at the end of Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky it feels extremely disappointing. I'd assume that the 3D models taking up too much space also explains the lack of length in the story and post-story. Something else that is bothersome about this game is how slow it is, for example: this game is text heavy, yet there is no options to speed text up, I assume this is to make people pay more attention to the story, but it gets irritating that the slow moving text can make some cutscenes last up to nearly 20 minutes or longer when it could have been done in 5 minutes with faster text scrolling. Another example of slowness is only being able to do one mission at a time, in prequels you could do multiple missions if they where all in the same dungeon, not in this sequel, this makes progressing in the game slower and more tedious. If you are the person who enjoys challenging games, you will be disappointed to learn that hunger, monster houses and other game mechanics that made the game harder are limited or altered greatly to make this game much easier to appeal to a more younger/casual market. Last but not least in regards to negatives, dungeon rescues are done by Streetpass only, they can no longer be done through passwords or Wifi services, so if you live in low populated areas and/or areas where Pokemon isn't very popular, don't expect to be rescued. With the negatives out of the way, lets take a look at the positive aspects of the game. The story is greatly written (despite being extremely short) and most of the characters you meet over the course of the plot are strongly developed making the story quite engaging, though you could make the argument that the side characters can be overdeveloped and hog the spotlight. The story barely even focuses on you (the main character) at all until near the end of the story which is an odd design choice but not a major issue. The music is beautiful like usual and is a treat to listen to. An interesting new feature is the ability to design a village around your house named "Paradise" where you can visit Pokemon you have recruited that are not in use in a party and build facilities like lottery centers, stores, gardens, dojos and mini-game booths among other things with the ability to upgrade and customize them in different ways. Another feature is that you now have two parties, one which is the "story" party that contains your starter, partner and two others, that have full access to everything but wireless multiplayer. The "Companion" party on the other hand consists of any four Pokemon that you have recruited and can be used in wireless multiplayer missions or single player missions but can't access the Town or any events or locations that effect the story. Most of the game mechanics are modified (for better or worse is for you to decide) that makes the game in certain aspects much more simplistic and easier to understand (but at the cost of much lower difficulty). Some of the game mechanic changes include: Instead of Move-Linking combos, you can now Level Up individual attacks to give higher Power, PP and Accuracy. Instead of character specific IQ Abilities, you now have Team Skills that affect the entire party. Another interesting addition is you even get a Team Attack skill that works similarly to a "Team Blast" from Sonic Heroes or "Final Smash" from Smash Bros. that can be used in a bad situation to save yourself. There is also DLC content. In conclusion, in my opinion its not as good as Explorers of Sky, but that isn't to say its bad game, its an average game overall.

Shadow The Hedgehog is a game that stars the character who's name is in the title. Shadow The Hedgehog (the character, not the game) following Sonic Adventure 2 became a popular character in the Sonic Universe and much like Knuckles The Echidna and his game Knuckles Chaotix on the 32X prior, Sega created a cash-in game based on the most popular character they had at the time. How did the game turn out? Sadly not very good. As with most cash-in games, it was released in an unfinished and poorly tested state. The gameplay consists of Shadow The Hedgehog doing various missions (good, evil and neutral) to determine what different level he advances to and what ending he gets and what ultimately happens to the character with regards to his memory, and what different parties are his friends and enemies and the plot's overall conclusion. Pretty much only the Final Story ending is actually canon, the others are all completely pointless. Shadow The Hedgehog uses mostly firearms, melee weapons, vehicles and his own personal abilities to complete his mission objectives. gameplay with firearms flows somewhat decently but the the overall control feel like you are constantly sliding around on ice and fighting the camera's behavior, al ot of the game mechanics are very sloppily designed and barely even function properly, this is especially noticeable when riding vehicles. The game seems to make out the character Shadow The Hedgehog an emo gun wielding lunatic with amnesia which I personally find not all that **** music is your generic gothic and gritty music and excluding maybe 3 tracks, the sountrack is not all that memorable. The story flow is absolutely horrible, sometimes when you transition from one level to another, the plots don't add up and turn the entire thing into a giant plothole, but as mentioned before, since only the final story is canon, these plothole infested player created stories aren't canon in the slightest. The level designs and missions aren't that well designed and are pretty bland. The level designs themselves are very generic and poorly designed, the level visuals are generic, low quality and ugly to look at. Missions are very uncreative as well with such objectives as: beat the boss, destroy (insert number here) of (insert NPC here), reach the goal or find (insert objects or location here). When playing certain missions in the 1-player mode, characters follow Shadow The Hedgehog around to give him advice and certain ones can actually be controlled by utilizing the Player 2 controller and can help Shadow out. There is also a multiplayer deathmatch battle mode with features so limited features, such badly designed level arenas and so poorly designed mechanics that it isn't even worth looking into. In conclusion, the game is a rushed cash-in on a popular character with poor design, and beta testing that was released to stores for sale in a unfinished condition and barely playable, it does have some decent points to it but I'd recommend you avoid this game.

3D classics: Xevious is a port of the Arcade/Nintendo Entertainment System/Famicom game of the same name. Xevious consists of a spaceship shoot em' up game where you skilfully dodge projectiles, shoot down enemy crafts and bomb grounded enemy vehicles, buildings and turrets. The main purpose of the game is to survive as long as possible and to score as high as possible in the points category. The game is not easy however, one shot to your craft is enough to take it down and lose a life and you are usually bombarded with a large amount of enemy fire. A high score table and control editing is available in the improved menu interface. There is also an interrupt save feature so you can quit in the middle **** and return to it in the exact location you left off. The 3D effect gives the game a sense of depth and makes it far easier to judge differences from threats in the air and on the ground. If you are a fan of classic spaceship shoot em' ups and/or difficult games, take a look.

It is nice to see an old console that people still like to be getting respect and good games from this **** you played a Smackdown VS Raw game before, you know what to expect, only content within the game such as modes, rosters, statistics, titles and other things are updated. For people who don't know what this game is, it is for the lack of a better term a WWE wrestling simulation game with a new version with new and updated content each year. As you can expect, the PS3 and XBox360 get exclusive content and downloadable content that the over versions don't have access too but it doesn't mean that the PS2 and other versions are not good in their own right. On the plus side, the PS3 and XBox360 versions of this game use a new physics system that still seems to be in a glitchy state unlike the PS2, Wii and PSP versions which use a refined version of the older physics system which is more stable and less glitchy so it might be a good idea to sit out with a lesser version of the game until the engine is stable and working correctly possibly next year, then again, its your call.

Sonic Advance is the first game in the Sonic Advance series and, ironically, is for the most part better than the two sequels that followed it. The first Sonic Advance doesn't contain poorly implemented team gimmicks and brokenly convoluted level designs from Sonic Advanced 3, nor does it have the hurling a million miles an hour through bland empty levels filled with cheaply placed bottomless pits and obnoxious enemy placement from Sonic Advance 2. Sonic Advanced instead borrows from the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive Sonic trilogy game roots for inspiration. There is a nice balance between platforming segments and speedy segments in all of the levels, going out of your way to slow down and explore your surroundings is rewarded with new routes, unique springs that lead to Special Stages and various kinds of power-ups. the boss battles are very creative and are a decently difficult without feeling too cheap. There are multiple playable characters each with unique controls and abilities to make the experience playing with each character different. The level design is kind of both good and bad, although it does borrow amazing concepts from the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive Sonic trilogy, it kind of plays too safe for the most part leading to only very few truly new objects or concepts to explore, another problem is that the level design from the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive Sonic trilogy is designed for a larger screen resolution and when converted to the screen resolution of the Gameboy Advance, doesn't work as well as it could have unless you where able to see farther ahead of yourself and therefore more of your surroundings, it would make enemies and traps like spikes much easier to avoid due to more visibility giving the player more reaction time. The music is decent with both classic sonic music from the Genesis/Mega Drive games and music completely original to this game both coexisting, and doing a pretty decent job at it. For those that like other things to do, you have a Mini Chao Garden, Time Trials and a Multiplayer VS mode to mess around with. overall, the game is decent and a nice tribute to the classic games in the series of old from the early 1990s, it has it flaws, sure but it is a fun game that is easily superior to the absolute wrecks that where the two sequels, Sonic Advance 2 and Sonic Advance 3.

Finla Fantasy Tactics Advance is A stragety RPG with similarities to chess for the Nintendo Gameboy Advance portable gaming console. This game's prequel is Final Fantasy Tactics for PS1 and its sequel is Final Fantasy Tactics A2 for Nintendo DS. Due to this game being on a Nintendo console, the storyline isn't as mature as the PS1 game and isn't as unforgivably difficult but good writing still shines through on dramatic and though provoking psychology of a bullied school student hiding in his own fantasy world of his own creation and his friends fighting through it to get him to face his fears in reality. The gameplay consists of a chess board in which you move around units and attack with weapons, abilities, magic and special attacks. You gain exprience to level up and money to buy weapons and items through battles. There are multiple races and classes each with its own strengths, weaknesses, stat growths, abilities, weapons and attacks. Judges are introduced to give rules of the battle, if they are not followed, you lose bonus items at the end of battle, given a warning or even temporarily removed from the party and put in jail. Multiplayer consists of generic optional co-op missionsa re are not important to the game. There is exactly 300 number missions to play through with some being replayable and some are only avaliable after completing the main story and get the ending, random encounters with other armies and monsters, and special unnumbered missions after the main 300 are complete for an alternate ending. Fans of strategy games, RPGs or both should definitely check this game out, as for others, this game may or may not be your forte. Collapse

WWE All-Stars is a Arcade Wrestling game for the Nintendo 3DS. The character roster is a whopping 43 professional wrestlers from the past and present with all Downloadable Content characters from the console version already on the 3DS game card when you buy it. Audio for music and voice work is simply amazing in quality while sound effects are dynamic. Each professional wrestler has a specific class that identifies their strong and weak points. Brawlers are good at striking attacks but weak at grapple moves and submissions, Grapplers are good at grapple moves and submissions but weak at striking, Acrobats are fast and good at aerial attacks but low endurance, Big Men are Strong but lack speed and aerial talent. You can create your own wrestler if you wish but the editing options are rather limited overall. The game consists of five main game modes: Exhibition where you set up a match and its rules and play it (Standard, Tag, Cage, Extreme, Elimination, Score), Path of Champions where there are three short Story mode campaigns for the WWE Title (Randy Orton), World Heavyweight Title (Undertaker) and Tag Team Titles (Triple H and Shawn Micheals: Degeneration X), Fantasy Warfare where you can watch promo video packages and then pick sides and participate in a fantasy past versus present match, Local Play mutiplayer and finally Gauntlet where you run through 42 other superstars using one of your choice. There are some rare glitches such as enemy wrestlers getting stuck on corners, cage walls or a downed opponent until you hit them or the thing blocking their movement moves away in the case of a downed opponent, getting under the ring after falling off a cage or some visual errors in some intro and victory scenes for example. None of these glitches overly break the game in any way even though they usually give you an edge in matches if they occur and they only seem to occur to Artificial Intelligence controlled opponents as these have never happened to me when playing. Overall, if you are a fan of over the top arcade-like wrestling action, pick up this game, if you want something more like a wrestling simulation game with more emphasis on custom content and realistic gameplay, look up the yearly Smackdown Vs Raw Series / WWE Series of games. If wrestling games are not your forte, you should probably avoid this game. Collapse

As a new comer to the Mega Man Zero Subseries (I usually just stick to Classic, X and BN/SF subseries) I decided to pick this game up as it had four games in one and I was a major fan of the brutal difficulty of the Mega Man X subseries and fans where severely hyped for this compilation so I decided to give it a go. The game feels rather similar to the X series due to being a storyline sequel to that subseries but with a larger amount of gimmick weapons and tools, some which mastering is mandatory for being able to progress and the use of certain others are optional. There is a notable lack of english voice acting (japanese with english subtitles in the english version) which can be a plus or minus depending on the type of person you are. Each game has a unique feel and its own unique qualities while still remaining fairly similar in design. The brutal difficulty is back in full force so much so that a "Beginner Mode" was introduced into this compilation just so new comers could even stand a chance completing the games. The music is beautiful and the level design and bosses are rather creative. Story quality varies depending on the game, earlier games being weaker and the later ones begin stronger. The controls feels extremely awkward for me on the DS however and thats a major complaint of mine, especially with difficulty requiring as much precision as possible. Quality of the emulations/ports could be slightly better as well. If you are a major Mega Man/Rockman fan this is the game for you, also try out if you are interested in difficult shooter/platformer hybrids. The difficulty and awkward controls might turn some people off though.

Paper Mario: Sticker Star is the first Paper Mario RPG game to appear on a portable game console. Compared to its prequels "Paper Mario" for the Nintendo 64 and "Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door" on the Nintendo Gamecube, this game is much smaller in scope and highly stripped down. Although the Paper Mario series is notably known for having a big emphasis on its story, in Sticker Star, this is not the case. King Bowser Koopa causes chaos and captures the princess Peach Toadstool, its up to the famous "Jumpman" himself Mario to solve the problems caused by Bowser and save the princess, that pretty much about it, no major plot twists and a lack of character development for most of the characters, friends and enemies alike (Especially Bowser, who although is the main villain, doesn't utter a single line of dialogue in the whole game). The RPG game mechanics are incredibly stripped down from the other RPG enteries in the series, since you can't gain experience or level up through battling at all, the only real point in battling is to get more money, gather unique "enemy attack" stickers if you don't like the more traditional ones available to you and some specific mandatory ones that are required to progress the plot such as cutscene battles, mini-bosses and main bosses. Instead of Badges, Items and Regular Attacks (Hammer & Jump) from the prequels, almost all of your possible actions (attacking, healing, countering, special abilities, ect.) are determined by the stickers you currently have in your inventory, if you don't have a specific kind of sticker, you can't do that action, the only actions that don't require utilizing stickers is attempting to run from battles, attempting a First Strike (hitting an enemy on the overworld before battle begins) and blocking attacks. There are many puzzles and situations throughout the game and although some can be ridiculously easy to figure out, there are a select few in which the solutions are extremely vague. These disrupt the game's flow since your helper Kersti usually doesn't give useful advice thus leading to trial and error to find a solution. The only ways to upgrade your character is to gather Maximum HP upgrades by finding secret rooms, completing levels in a specific way or by doing side-quests. The Music is quite the joy to listen to and the writing in the game, although as rather limited as it is, is still rather humorous and amusing. The game is still fun overall, although it is pretty short and has some questionable design choices, its a pretty good game.

Sonic Rush Adventure is a Nintendo DS game that is a sequel to Sonic Rush. There are two main gameplay styles driving boats around and 2D platforming stages, and two more minor, boss battles and missions. In 2D platforming sections you can choose between either Sonic The Hedgehog or Blaze The Cat, with different abilities each, and run through levels, this is not all that fun though, levels conflict with the game's core gameplay of moving fast. Enemies are always in the the absolute worst locations and bottomless pits are abundant, both of which will cost you many lives if you choose to go fast because you might not have time to correct your errors unless you have the stage layouts completely memorized and know what is coming ahead of you. The other major portion of the game is sailing across the ocean in various kinds of boats. This is a nice diversion from platforming but this sailing gimmick is extremely shallow and not explored to its full potential, it can also start hurting your hand after awhile which made me want to stop playing game and hurt the game's flow and enjoyment for me. Bosses are pretty fun an creative most of the time, and completing missions can be used to unlock more content in-game such as Decorations and Sol Emeralds for example. Because you constantly need to build new things to advance the in-game plot (what little of it there actually is), you are usually forced to replay sailing sessions and 2D platforming stages to gather more rings and resources. This a poor excuse for padding the game to make it seem longer than it actually is by forcing you to replay previously completed levels just to be able to continue through the game. You can also play through 2D platforming levels in Time Trial mode or Multiplayer on Wifi against other people with this game. The music in the game is decent while the writing in the story is pretty bad unfortunately. Overall, if you are willing to overlook its flaws such as being repetitive, below average level design and a story that isn't that great, it can be a decent game that can be enjoyable.

Sonic The Hedgehog (2006) was an ambitious game project for Sonic's 15th Anniversary. Although the game attempted to be the biggest and most diverse Sonic experience to date, the game fell flat on its face and bombed hard from being poorly programmed and being in a state that was not anywhere near completion when it was released for sale. The game's story is a convoluted mess of plot holes and lack of logic, the level design is a death trap of poorly scripted events and bad design choices, the horrible camera system which behaves oddly all the time, the absurdly long loading times which show lack of programming refinement, the multiplayer aspects are completely unbalanced making it broken, the game's controls are destroyed beyond belief, the various kinds of specialized game play styles are incredibly glitchy and even the basic core mechanics of the game don't function correctly. The only factor of this game that is positive is the music which is diverse and is quite a joy to listen to. This game is quite simply almost unplayable as no care at all was put into beta testing to ensure the quality of the product or to ensure everything functioned properly because the company wanted the game on store shelves by a specific date. This game is a slap in the face to all fans of the Sonic The Hedgehog IP as it slowed that the developers where more interested in making money than attempting to release a high quality, properly functioning and enjoyable product. In conclusion, This game is garbage and a waste of money, steer clear of it at all costs. I would give this game a rating of 0 out of 10, but I'll be generous and give it a 1 out of 10 since it had somewhat decent music.

Sonic The Hedgehog (2006) was an ambitious game project for Sonic's 15th Anniversary. Although the game attempted to be the biggest and most diverse Sonic experience to date, the game fell flat on its face and bombed hard from being poorly programmed and being in a state that was not anywhere near completion when it was released for sale. The game's story is a convoluted mess of plot holes and lack of logic, the level design is a death trap of poorly scripted events and bad design choices, the horrible camera system which behaves oddly all the time, the absurdly long loading times which show lack of programming refinement, the multiplayer aspects are completely unbalanced making it broken, the game's controls are destroyed beyond belief, the various kinds of specialized game play styles are incredibly glitchy and even the basic core mechanics of the game don't function correctly. The only factor of this game that is positive is the music which is diverse and is quite a joy to listen to. This game is quite simply almost unplayable as no care at all was put into beta testing to ensure the quality of the product or to ensure everything functioned properly because the company wanted the game on store shelves by a specific date. This game is a slap in the face to all fans of the Sonic The Hedgehog IP as it slowed that the developers where more interested in making money than attempting to release a high quality, properly functioning and enjoyable product. In conclusion, This game is garbage and a waste of money, steer clear of it at all costs. I would give this game a rating of 0 out of 10, but I'll be generous and give it a 1 out of 10 since it had somewhat decent music.

Mystery Dungeon: Shiren The Wanderer is a DS game that is a remake and translation to a japan exclusive Super Famicom version of the game. The game is a retro Roguelike Strategy RPG, and an extremely difficult and unforgiving one at that. Its a genre that is not for everyone. Trust me, you will die FREQUENTLY! The point of the game is to learn from your mistakes, replan accordingly and try again to get a little bit farther the next time, it feels extremely rewarding to finally pass an area you where struggling with earlier. For the people who are into these kind of games will find a fun, difficult and replayable Strategy RPG experience. The music and graphics are absolutely beautiful and fit the atmosphere of the game perfectly. and a large variety of different items and enemies for you to learn about and find a way to get as far as possible with the knowledge you gain. I'm not sure if this is a problem with my specific copy of the game, or all of them, but it appears the online server for doing Wifi rescues seems to no longer exist or function which is somewhat of a disappointment. Overall, its a fun yet difficult experience. If you have ever played a Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game and want to play a much harder variation of the game, try taking a chance with this game. It seems to be fairly cheap as I had bought it in used condition for 5 dollars in Canada.

Draglade is a DS game that happen to be a hybrid of rythem, rpg, platformer and fighting game mechanics. The game features nine playable characters, four of which are default, four are unlock for completing each of the four story modes, and the last one is unlocked for perfect completion of gaining all attack cards and beating every story mode sub-quest with all four story characters. The core of the game is based around music, both its soundtrack and the rythem system used to pull of special maneuvers. The music in the game is hit and miss, some tracks are amazing and memorable while others are bland and forgettable. The battle system resembles Smash Bros. somewhat, you can move and jump around and you use a combination of a direction and a button to do different types of attacks. You do special moves by activating your rythem meter and pressing attack button in a rythem similar to Guitar Hero to attempt to do a special combo which can be modified to your liking. In the story mode, your character can level up and get stronger and you can buy attack cards to use in battle. The difficulty tends to be all over the place in story mode which is kind of off putting to some people. A notable game breaking glitch in the game regarding the computer AI is to stand facing away from the opponent and use attack that strikes both in front and behind you at the same time, due to poor coding of the AI, they will NEVER block any attacks if you don't look directly at them, this works for every normal opponent, with makes the game so ridiculously easy that there is no point. There is a wifi battle mode is decent for some fun. Overall, the game is bland, short, inconsistent in difficulty, pretty boring and glitchy, but the music is pretty decent, and wifi battling can be fun if you are bored. I'd say its average overall.

Pokemon Rumble Blast is a Nintendo 3DS sequel to the game Pokemon Rumble For the Nintendo WiiWare download service. The game is a simple fighting game where you run around on generic maps fighting Pokemon, defeating bosses, getting money and participating in Tournament Battles and Team Battles. Pokemon are assigned a Power Rating sometimes an Ability when befriended and these values never change, the only way to get a Pokemon of the same species with a higher Power Rating or Ability is to get lucky and Befriend one that is superior to the previous one. The game somewhat resembles the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series but without the grid movement system and far more simplified game mechanics. The storyline is rather short, not incredibly deep but it picks up a bit in the last chapter. The music tracks overall can range from forgettable to amazing but none seemed annoying. You can achieve new unlockable Pokemon by utilizing passwords, getting a certain amount of shop visitors from streetpass and/or your own Miis visiting, and completing all of the EX Battles and completing Story Mode. You can also utilize wireless-play multiplayer modes to play with other people with a 3DS and a copy of this game. There is no Wifi modes available in this game unfortunately. In conclusion, the game is decent, its extremely easy for the most part excluding the EX Battle challenges post-story mode, it does have some problems with being a tad generic, bland and tedious though.

Crystal Monters (also known as Monster Chronicle in Japan) is a DSi port of a japanese cellphone RPG game developed by Gameloft for Nintendo's DSiWare service. The game can be generally described as a Monster Raising Pokemon clone and not a particularly good one at that. The main problem and the most obvious one is the horrible controls when moving on the overworld, the d-pad is unresponsive and delayed and holding any button while pressing a direction stops all movement completely. The controls are more responsive when using the touch screen to draw a path the player follows but this gets tedious and uncomfortable rather quickly (in my opinion). Interacting with NPCs and objects like item chests is also a problem, you collide with NPCs to talk to them and you press A in front of a chest to open it and claim the item. Sounds simple right? Not quite. Due to really small collision hitboxes on NPCs and item chest, unless you are perfectly aligned on the horizontal axis or vertical axis they will not respond to you at all. This gets especially annoying with NPCs since some refuse to stand still and if you collide with them on the wrong angle, your character walks around them as if they where a solid wall or solid object blocking their way rather than talk to them and it gets old fast when you fail to talk to an NPC 2-5 times before succeeding just to give information that may or may not be useful anyways. The third problem is the shops, when buying items, you can't see how much of a certain item you are already carrying which usually lead to buying too much or too little of an item type. You can also not sell items in you bag which due to other problems I will mention later is an issue. The Item menu is severely lacking as well, you can only hold 50 items total at a time (excluding key items which don't count) and since you can't sell items you don't need, you need to drop them and unfortunately you can only drop one at a time. Lets say you have 15 medium sized potions you need to dispose of, you need to drop each one, one at a time from your inventory and trust me its gets tedious and wastes a large amount of your time. The RPG battle system itself works decently but not great. Attack moves are split into a few catecories: damage single target (Chain), damage multiple targets, negative status effect single target, stats up single target, stats up multiple targets, stats down single target, stats down multiple targets, heal single target, heal multiple targets. There is also a variety of types with different strengths and weaknesses: Animal, Fire, Water, Plant, Wind, Rock, Light, Dark and Spirit. From what I have seen is that stat altering moves and negative status effects either do not work at all or cause such a minimal difference in gameplay its usually not worth worrying about which means its best to stick with damage and healing attacks mostly. The music and sound effects are indeed good overall but since the same ones are rehashed so frequently they can potentially wear away at your nerves and start becoming really annoying after awhile. The Visuals are surprisingly very nice to look at, especially in battles but the tilesets on the overworld lack variety and looks somewhat bland and generic overall. The story is about a kid that learns he can see monsters and wants to learn how to be the best breeder to discover them all, he is sidetracked when a tournament he enters is attacked by enraged super monsters and sets out on a quest to calm them down, during this process he learns of a criminal organization who plans to take advantage of these super powerful enraged monsters to take over the world. It's a pretty generic and forgettable Pokemon-like story overall. With nothing particularly interesting happening in it. Some of the games good points are side quests and missions you can go on to find rare items, stronger monsters and grind for money and experience and The breeding system where you can combine two monsters of different genders to make a new one, possibly with stats and moves inherited form their parents, the downside is that you lose both parents permanently after the breeding process. Excluding completing the monster encyclopedia and completing all the side quest missions, the game has pretty much little to no replayability at all due to its shortness and lack of multiplayer support. Without completing any side quest missions and not caring about completing the monster encyclopedia, it can probably be beaten in roughly 3 to 5 hours depending how much you grind for money and items and maybe 10 hours at maximum for perfect completion. I can not recommend this game at all, I feel ripped off due to its poor quality and general lack of content in comparison to the asking price for the game. There are far better RPGs and Monster Raising games out there, it would probably be best that avoid this one and not waste you hard earned money. Collapse

Sonic Mega Collection is a compilation of some of Sonic the Hedgehog's greatest games along with a few Sonic spinoffs and two bonus games not related to Sonic at all. The games that come in this compilation consists of Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis US version), Sonic the Hedgehog (Megadrive Japanese version), Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (Genesis US Version), Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Genesis US Version), Sonic and Knuckles (Genesis US Version), Lock-On Sonic 1 & Knuckles: Blue Spheres Minigame (Genesis US Version), Lock-On Sonic 2 & Knuckles: Knuckles in Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (Genesis US Version), Lock-On Sonic 3 and Knuckles: Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Knuckles, Sonic 3D Blast (Genesis US Version), Sonic Spinball (Genesis US Version), Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine (Genesis US Version), Flickey (Genesis US Version) and Ristar (Genesis US Version). The Emulation of the games overall are amazing but not completely perfect. There are very minimal differences with audio and some graphical effects but nothing that really effects the experience much at all. The game includes nice bonuses such as full readable instruction manuals and a full readable comic book, , a collection of Comic Book cover illustrations, cutscenes from Sonic CD, Concept art, advertisements for Sonic Adventure 2 Battle and Sonic Advanced 2 and more. The games retain their two player modes but certain cheat codes are disabled or modified (Knuckles for some reason can no longer access Sonic/Tails exclusive stages through level select in S&K and S3&K and obviously Sonic/Tails can't access Knuckles' version Sky Sanctuary Zone either.) Overall this game is a cheaply priced compilation filled with many quality games and it definitely worth a purchase by Sonic fans or people who love nostalgic platformer games from the 16-bit era of the 1990s.

Photo Dojo for the Nintendo DSiWare service is an extremely basic fighting game and nothing more. The game starts with taking photos of a person, objects or drawing with the Dsi/3DS camera and fitting them into specific frames (trust me, its a lot harder then you would realize) and then recording short audio clips with the DSi/3DS microphone and finish by giving them one of four fighting styles. Once you have completed at least 1 character, you need to create a stage to go with the character. After both of those tasks are complete you have a mere two modes to play, multiplayer versus which consists of a really bad control layout since two people need to use the same system to play and an ability to alter the game speed from normal to fast, in single player you fight random enemies until you lose or defeat 100 of them. Once the novelty of taking photos wares off, it becomes obvious how shallow and limited the game is. No single player versus mode? no difficulty settings? no ability to modify controls? no story mode even if it was as simplistic and generic as a world fighting tournament? With its limited content the game really feels like it should be no more than 50 cents, not a whole 1.99 plus tax. I honestly can't recommend this game there are other 1.99 games on the DSi/3DS shop with far more content and replayability than this.

Pushmo (also known as Pullblox in other regions) is a puzzle game for 3DSWare. Although the game's visuals and audio are nothing special, it shines at it brightest in gameplay. The game in a nutshell is rearranging sets of blocks to get from Point A to Point B, although it starts out fairly simple and easy (and a bit tedious in all honesty) in the beginning, later into the game more features such as ladders and buttons get added to the mix along with bigger structures to make the experience far more difficult and complex. The satisfaction you get from completing the later levels after being stuck for awhile feels truly rewarding and satisfying. The game also comes with a level editor with gains more features and tools the further you make it though the story campaign and custom level sharing is done through scanning QR codes. With well over 200+ story mode puzzles and 100+ save slots for the level editor stages you create yourself or scan from others, you can get a surprising amount of replayability out of the game overall. I would easily recommend this game to anyone who loves puzzle games.

Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland is a Nintendo Gameboy Advanced remake of Kirby's Adventure (which was the second Kirby game ever made and the first one designed specifically for a home console) for the NES/Famicom. Although the game is rather short and somewhat easy, the level design is beautiful, varied and creative. There are multiple memorable music pieces and the graphics are a joy to look at. New to this remake are some minimal new minigames, levels and bosses than the original and an unlockable mode starring Meta-Knight as a playable character. An interesting piece of trivia is that this game is the game in which Kirby's copy ability debuted and Kirby's colour was confirmed Pink, in the game prior to this, Kirby's Dreamland, Kirby's first game ever, Kirby was still classified as white colour and had no copy abilities at all. It is great to see that Nintendo put in such a good effort in modernizing this classic NES masterpiece for a new generation of gamers to enjoy while also making it portable as well. If you are a fan of Kirby and want to see a modernized interpretation Kirby's first non-portable game ever and second game ever overall then take a look.

Kirby and the Amazing Mirror is a Kirby platformer that applies the "Four Swords" formula to its gameplay with four Kirbys in action at once attempting to save the mirror world but you only control the main one. How does this game fare today? Sadly, not very well at all. On the plus side, the game world is a giant labyrinth similar to what you would see in Metroid or Castlevania and quite possibly a direct sequel to "The Great Cave Offensive" that was a part of Kirby Superstar (SNES)/Kirby Superstar Ultra (DS). other good things are minigames, multiplayer support, the great audio and visuals, the abilbity to call the warp star to return you to the lobby or your partners to help out, and finally the large amount of treasures to collect and use. On the negative aspect of things, single player is incredibly bad. A good chunk of areas in the game are tight to navigate and leave you with little to no room for error in avoiding danger and taking damage, You drop your power with only a single hit and with a certain power needed to access certain areas, if you lose it you have to make a tedious trek back to get it again and return to where you needed it without losing it again which gets rather irritating and fast, the respawn rate for enemies in certain areas is kind of absurd and can lead you to getting unfairly sneak attacked or swarmed, the AI partners are completely useless they will either stand by you and do nothing if nothing is on screen, or clumsily chase the nearest enemy in their programmed field of vision taking as much damage from them and terrain hazards as possible in the process, they with rarely ever help you move large boulders by inhaling it with you and they can sometimes push you into traps, terrain hazards, enemies or bottomless holes if you aren't careful or paying enough attention, the large labyrinth-like structure of the levels doesn't lend itself well to a mere six health points per life, even with the large amount of food/lives items and your mostly useless partners you will notice quickly that it does become a noticeable problem especially in more trickier portions of the levels later on. I know I'm probably going to get a lot of hate for this but I honestly don't think this game is that great, there was good intentions and ideas here but some questionable execution of these said ideas lead to just as much benefits as it does problems. There are far better Kirby platforming experiences for portable Nintendo systems out there in my opinion, I'd recommend trying Kirby Superster Ultra and Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland instead of this or try out the brand new Kirby Mass Attack which utilizes the multiple Kirby system in a far more effective and enjoyable manner.

Dr. Mario Express is a DSiware version of the classic Dr. Mario puzzle games. It does exactly what it says in the game's description, nothing more or less. Play the Classic Mode's level based gameplay or challenge a CPU in VS Battle Mode to prove who has the sharper wits and better reflexes. There are help options and basic video tutorials to help you get started if necessary and a high score table to keep track of your best records. This game does not have any multiplayer modes of any kind. Although it is kind of a barebones product, it does exactly what it sets out to do, be Dr. Mario that you can play on the go and if you are interested in that take a look, if not interested then don't bother. If you don't wish to buy it but want it anyways, the game is free on Club Nintendo in exchange for 150 coins until the end of January 2012.

I came into this game as my introduction to the Mystery Dungeon games so I did not know what to expect. The game combines elements of Pokemon into the old school concepts of Mystery dungeon quite well and makes for a truly amazing experience. The amount of freedom you get with tackling missions, especially later in the game is absolutely amazing. The randomly generated missions and dungeons give this game near infinite relay value and difficulty can range from simplicity to near impossible to appeal to all skill levels of players beautifully. Wifi rescue missions, mission passwords and unlockable side-scenarios add even further replayablility to the game. The music and graphics can differ from beautiful to bland in different areas of the game. If you are a fan of Pokemon and/or Mystery Dungeon games or just strategy RPG games in general try it out, if these things don't appeal to you. it might be best to avoid this one.

Sonic Generations is the portable version of Sonic The Hedgehog's 20th Anniversary game for the Nintendo 3DS. There are four main such as Story, Wifi Multiplayer Racing, Time Trial and Missions. The Story mode is underwhelmingly short with a total of 14 stages, 7 special stages, 3 rival races and 4 boss battles, cutscenes you encounter will be added to your Collection. Wifi Multiplayer Racing is simply racing against a random opponent on Wifi in one of the game's stages or special stages. Time Trial consists of racing through stages for the best time and uploading them to the leaderboards. Missions is basically completing a special task for an unlockable reward for your collection and new Missions can be gained through play coins, spotpass download and completing further through the main story. Completing missions unlocks content for your Collection which can include 3D models, music, promotional art. Playing Multiplayer races on Wifi and uploading times to the leaderboards will give you points and unlockable content for your profile card. You can also gain new content through Streetpass and Play Coins can be used to unlock missions and/or their rewards. Classic Sonic stages play slower and promotes exploration and platforming to find interesting goodies while making your way to the exit while Mordern Sonic rushes through stages mowing down obstacles and using shortcuts to reach the exit as soon as possible. Excluding the first three Classic stages which where literally converted from their original versions with no changes, the level design is lazy and and pretty poorly done overall with bottomless pit abuse, boosters even when they aren't necessary and cheap enemy placement. Not the greatest of Sonic games out there but it is a notable improvement from more recently known recent game disasters. If you are a Sonic fan, you will absolutely want this game if you don't have the home console or PC version, and even if you do, this version exclusively has certain levels, bosses and multiplayer that the other versions don't. If you are unsure about Sonic games or they just aren't your forte, you might was to pass this up for something else. If you are new to playing Sonic games or are looking for content for your money, I would suggest Sonic Classic Collection as it is far cheaper than this game and has much more content and is compatible with the 3DS portable gaming console as well.

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary Edition for DSiWare is a remake of The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords for the Gameboy Advanced (The game was packaged with Legend of Zelda: Link To The Past for Gameboy Advanced). This game is the prequel to Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventure for Gamecube and the storyline sequel to Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap for Gameboy Advanced. The game consists of multiple Links working together with different items and utilites to beat enemies, gather a large amount of rupees, complete stages and challenge bosses. The main game is the multiplayer mode where you and 2-4 of your friends use local link feature of the DSi or 3DS (Wifi multiplayer isn't available) to work together to complete levels while also competing for the highest total rupees at the same time. When a Link is KOed, they need to pay a fee to continue playing and the fee will continue to increase to a higher ammount on each death. If the fee can not be payed, it is game over for everyone. New to this version is a Single Player campaign in which one person swaps between two Links. The unactive Link in Single Player is invincible and this tactic can be used to lure enemies or distract them. Some puzzles are modified in Single Player to make them possible to complete and in certain situations where both Links need to be controlled simultaneously, the artificial intelligence will take over the second Link and help you. There are multiple stages and levels with varying themes and difficulties. Abilities, new levels and achievements can can be unlocked by completing certain stages or gaining a high enough rupee total at the end of a set of maps. There is also a tutorial area for newcomers to practice and hone their skills on game mechanics, items and utilities. This game is it definitely high quality for a free release and a great way of celebrating the 25th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda series. Some fans of The Legend of Zelda series might be turned off by the drastically different feel of this game compared to other games in the series but this free multiplayer and single player experience is worth trying out while it is still available, you don't lose anything by trying it out so why not?

In an older and simpler time, First Person Shooters where not very common on consoles back in the time of this game's creation, they where mostly only on PCs. When 007 Goldeneye proved that even on simple cartridge technology that great First Person Shooter single player and multiplayer experiences where possible, the genre exploded at the thought of the possibilities. Perfect Dark is a indirect sequel to 007 Goldeneye in the sense of improved engine, interface and features even though it was not related to James Bond at all. The storyline is beautifully crafted with the ability to play the story mode in single player, co-op, and counter-operative (your friend controls enemy guards). Multiplayerer deathmatch had heavy improvements with the ability to select all weapons to appear on the map, creation of your own character skin and your personal gameplay settings, map selection, save files full of multiplayer statistics and rankings, team settings, AI difficulty and personality settings, multiple game modes, music, specialized deathmatch missions, and the ability to save match settings and load them on a **** conclusion, I'll be perfectly honest here, as a person who absolutely despises the bland, repetitive and uncreative of nature of most games in the First Person Shooter genre (especially in most recent years with games like call of duty), this game feels so fresh, unique, interesting and daring. I had an absolute blast playing this game back in the day when it was new and playing it with my friends recently, we has just as much fun if not more reliving this masterpiece ****.

3D Classics: Excitebike is an improved port of the Nintendo Entertainment System/Famicom game of the same name. The 3D effect modifies the game's camera angle and gives the game a nice field of depth for aiding you in judging jump distance. The game now plays full screen in the 3DS's wide screen resolution without stretching the original game's resolution settings. The 3DS version has improved easy interface that makes checking out best times, scores and customized tracks far easier than the original release. Although it might just be me, but the audio is obnoxiously loud and annoying so I usually end up lowering the volume. The game consists of two modes, racing with opponents or without opponents to meet a specific best time for each stage. The games stages consist of a small number of tracks pre-programmed into the game and slots for you to make your own if you wish. I was one of the lucky ones that got this game free for purchasing my 3DS early and considering you now have to play for it and with the limited amount of content provided, it isn't exactly worth the price tag, its still a decent single player game however with the ability to make your levels.

Pokedex 3D is not so much **** as it is a guide/resource application for the Pokemon Black and White games for the Nintendo DS. You can gather information by daily downloads for by swapping data with others with this software installed on their 3DS and can do some fun and interesting AR and photo related things with the character models as well. Sure it is kinda bland, and its more of a encyclopedia software than a game but considering its completely free and absolutely optional to download, that is perfectly fine. If you are a fan of Pokemon, download it, if you are not a fan of Pokemon, don't download it, you aren't missing much one way or the other, simple as that.

3D Classics: Urban Champion is an upgraded version of a simple Nintendo Entertainment System/Famicom pre-Street Fighter era fighting game made by Nintendo which was improved and rereleased as a downloadable 3DSWare game for Nintendo 3DS. It is worth noting that a lot of modern "hardcore" fighter genre gamers hate on this game for its simplicity and lack of content but, it was actually rather advanced for its time compared to other games in the same genre and it should also be noted that the original release of Urban Champion in 1984 predates the original arcade version of the very first Street Fighter game in 1987 by approximately three years (approximately four years if you count only home console versions and not arcade cabinets.) Urban Champion is one of the very first fighting games with effective and reliable blocking controls, it innovated the genre with the concepts of an evading maneuver (before this, the closest thing to evading was usually simply moving away from your opponent), dizzy/stun states, and ring outs but lacks other features such as dashing, jumping, ducking and special moves. The game consists of brawling with opponents to punch them off screen for a "ring out" victory for two rounds and eventually into an open manhole on the third to win the round and move on to a higher difficulty level opponent. Think of the game as a hybrid of boxing and sumo wrestling with customized rules staring street thugs brawling in a city. Occasionally police will show up and send the competitors to each of their respective corners or arrest a specific player once the timer runs out and angry pedestrians with throw foreign objects into the arena that can stun and damage players they hit. The two modes in the game are a single player player survival gauntlet against artificial intelligence controlled opponents that gets progressively harder after each completed round and a multiplayer match mode where two human controlled players can fight it out to prove who is the best. Multiplayer is done with wireless link services in the 3DSWare version where you can search out local opponents unlike the original Nintendo Entertainment System/Famicom version where your opponent was whoever was utilizing controller two. The Nintendo 3DS version exclusive features consists of unlockable titles for your character, 3D visuals and a new camera system. Your moveset consists of a high light punch, high strong punch, low light punch, low strong punch, high block, low block and evade. This game, similar to Game & Watch minigame titles are not meant for long extended periods of play but rather smaller doses to kill time in an attempt a high score or to battle a friend or rival. This game truly is a classic of the fighting genre that shows how much the genre has evolved since the 1980s and although it is incredibly simplistic and it hasn't aged that greatly over the years, it isn't anywhere near as bad or as poor quality as the "hardcore" fighter gamer crowd or the "haters" make it out to be.

Mario Kart 7 is the third Mario Kart game for portable Nintendo consoles and the seventh Mario Kart game overall (excluding the spinoffs Mario Kart GP 1 & 2 for arcades which featured a crossover between the Super Mario series and the Pac-Man series). The game consists of 13 characters with 5 of which being unlockable. The starting line up of 8 characters you get when you first start the game consists of Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Princess Peach Toadstool, Kinopio Toad, Koopa Troopa, Donkey Kong (previously known as Donkey Kong Jr. in the SNES title, his father being Donkey Kong Sr./Cranky Kong from the Donkey Kong arcade game) and King Bowser Koopa which is the exact same cast as Super Mario Kart for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Famicom. The main gameplay gimmicks consist of performing tricks off of ramps with the R button to gain speed boosts, gathering coins to gain small boosts and slightly increase top speed and acceleration but the benefit maxes out at 10 coins, utilizing a glider and propeller to guild yourself around both in the air and in the water respectively, using drift boosts to speed up, and finally for the first time ever in a Mario Kart game, the ability to switch between First Person and Third Person driving views. For the first time in the Mario Kart Series since Mario Kart 3: Super Circuit for Gameboy Advanced there is two Rainbow Road tracks available for selection. Two mechanics, Drafting which has been significantly empowered and Drift Boost which have been significantly nerfed return however the Snaking concept which was a popular use of the drift boost mechanic in Mario Kart 5: DS for significantly increasing speed seems to be next to impossible to pull off thanks to the new game mechanics. The Single Player offline experience has been significantly minimized since Mario Kart DS mostly due to the Mission Mode and VS Mode being dropped leaving only Gran Prix Mode, Time Trials Mode, Balloon Battle Mode and Coin Runners Mode as the only single player modes. On the other hand, the Multiplayer modes have had a major content upgrade, Wireless play and Download play give you access to all tracks and far more content than in its DS prequel. Wifi modes consists of 2-8 player racing and battling, you can also create personalized community server groups with your own personal rules and game modes that can be accessed by a password code and later saved to a favourites list for later easy access. Once a day get a download of various content to your Mario Kart 7 channel (if connected to Wifi) such as ghost data to race against in single player and various other challenges and activities leaving you with some replay value for offline single player play. In online you now have a Virtual Ranking score (VR) as well as a win and loss list. Your VR increases if you place in the higher ranks, it decreases if you disconnect during a race and it stays the same if you place low. People that you meet in wifi races will be recorded so you can track them if you want a rematch and their information also added to Mii Plaza and games with similar features like Super Mario Land 3D. If you are expecting an in depth multiplayer and online experience, you should probably get this game, if you want an in depth single player or offline experience, you should probably look elsewhere.

PokemonLeaf Green Version and its alternate Pokemon Fire Red Version for Nintendo Gameboy Advanced portable gaming system are remakes of the first two Pokemon games released known as Pokemon Red Version and Pokemon Green Version (never officially english localized by Nintendo) for the Nintendo Gameboy portable gaming system. Pokemon Fire Red Version is created to resemble Pokemon Yellow Version (without anime exclusive events and content) and Pokemon Red Version while Pokemon Leaf Green Version is designed to resemble Pokemon Green Version and Pokemon Blue Version accordingly. Both Pokemon Fire Red Version and Pokemon Leaf Green Version have different Pokemon available and need to traded to get ones exclusive to each version and you can also trade with Pokemon Emerald Version, Pokemon Ruby Version and Pokemon Sapphire Version for even more unique Pokemon. This game is also compatible with linking to Pokemon Coliseum and Pokemon XD: G.O.D for the Nintendo Gamecube Console using a GBA Controller Cable and the Pokemon Diamond Version, Pokemon Pearl Version, Pokemon Platinum Version, Pokemon Heart Gold Version and Pokemon Soul Silver Version using the GBA slot on a Nintendo DS or Nintendo DS Lite portable gaming consoles. This game features the original game using a completely redone "Generation 3" engine which gives it new features such as the inclusion of the Special Defense stat, hold items, Eggs, Breeding, Generation 3 era TM set, berries, and more that where absent in the the original versions as well as a completely rebuilt inventory system with categories and a large capacity instead of the original game where you could carry only 20 types of items at a maximum of 99 in quantity per slot at any given time. The game glitches from the original game are completely fixed and absent from this game, especially the infamous "MissingNo." programming error which could heavily corrupt or destroy save data if handled improperly in the original games. There are new areas completely exclusive to this remake that was absent in the original games that add more play time and exploration to the game. The music in the game is identical to the original (and some of it's sequels for the newer areas) except that they are modernized versions using the GBA's audio system to the best of its ability. The visuals are nothing special but are a notable improvement from the original releases. Multiplayer consists of battling or trading via GBA link cable or the GBA wireless link if you bought the game new as it came inside the box as a free bonus. All in all, the large amount of Pokemon to collect with most exclusive to trading with another person with a different version, fun and addictive multiplayer battle modes, minigames, new areas and compatibility with Gamecube and DS released gives this game a large replay value especially if you enjoy RPGs, are a perfectionist, are a collector, are a competitive multiplayer gamer or a major fan of nostalgic games of the past.

Pokemon Fire Red Version and its alternate Pokemon Leaf Green Version for Nintendo Gameboy Advanced portable gaming system are remakes of the first two Pokemon games released known as Pokemon Red Version and Pokemon Green Version (never officially english localized by Nintendo) for the Nintendo Gameboy portable gaming system. Pokemon Fire Red Version is created to resemble Pokemon Yellow Version (without anime exclusive events and content) and Pokemon Red Version while Pokemon Leaf Green Version is designed to resemble Pokemon Green Version and Pokemon Blue Version accordingly. Both Pokemon Fire Red Version and Pokemon Leaf Green Version have different Pokemon available and need to traded to get ones exclusive to each version and you can also trade with Pokemon Emerald Version, Pokemon Ruby Version and Pokemon Sapphire Version for even more unique Pokemon. This game is also compatible with linking to Pokemon Coliseum and Pokemon XD: G.O.D for the Nintendo Gamecube Console using a GBA Controller Cable and the Pokemon Diamond Version, Pokemon Pearl Version, Pokemon Platinum Version, Pokemon Heart Gold Version and Pokemon Soul Silver Version using the GBA slot on a Nintendo DS or Nintendo DS Lite portable gaming consoles. This game features the original game using a completely redone "Generation 3" engine which gives it new features such as the inclusion of the Special Defense stat, hold items, Eggs, Breeding, Generation 3 era TM set, berries, and more that where absent in the the original versions as well as a completely rebuilt inventory system with categories and a large capacity instead of the original game where you could carry only 20 types of items at a maximum of 99 in quantity per slot at any given time. The game glitches from the original game are completely fixed and absent from this game, especially the infamous "MissingNo." programming error which could heavily corrupt or destroy save data if handled improperly in the original games. There are new areas completely exclusive to this remake that was absent in the original games that add more play time and exploration to the game. The music in the game is identical to the original (and some of it's sequels for the newer areas) except that they are modernized versions using the GBA's audio system to the best of its ability. The visuals are nothing special but are a notable improvement from the original releases. Multiplayer consists of battling or trading via GBA link cable or the GBA wireless link if you bought the game new as it came inside the box as a free bonus. All in all, the large amount of Pokemon to collect with most exclusive to trading with another person with a different version, fun and addictive multiplayer battle modes, minigames, new areas and compatibility with Gamecube and DS released gives this game a large replay value especially if you enjoy RPGs, are a perfectionist, are a collector, are a competitive multiplayer gamer or a major fan of nostalgic games of the past.

Sonic Battle is a Party fighting game for the Nintendo Gameboy Advanced portable gaming console. The audio in my opinion is very hard on the ears and not very enjoyable while the sound effects and voice clips are pretty generic overall. All of the characters have various different moves and abilties which makes every fighter unique. A fighting robot character is also included in which you can customize the movesets, stance, abilities and colour palette to your liking based on what you have unlocked which brings replaybility to get all abilities and to try different combinations of moves. The stages usually consist of a bland flat map with a few cube-like figures to stand on and have music that vary from addictive to forgettable but the annoying instrument choices make it hard on the ears for some. The modes in the game consist of Story mode where you can complete for each individual character, Challenge mode in which you aim for the highest score while completing all the battles successfully under a selected difficulty, minigames which are all multiplayer over a link cable except for one which is a Knuckles themed minesweeper game that can be played in single player, single matches either with AI opponents or with friends over a link cable with one to four fighters and editable settings like lives, teams and stages. The storyline consists of Eggman trying to take over the world with robots that can mimic the abilities of who they watch and one of these robots manages to get into the hands of Sonic, his friends and his rivals. The battles can vary from extremely easy to extremely difficult and almost random intervals which leads to a really strange difficult curve. The battling system consists of simple combos, attacks to launch enemies airborne, air attacks that can harm and/or slam them into the ground with amazing force, running attacks, a healing/charging ability and three special signature moves of the types "Trap" which is a special move which plants a trap in the arena, "Air" which is a special move done in the air and finally "Ground" which is a special move done on the ground. The game will start out extremely difficult unless you grind experience points and abilities for your customizable robot character. You will realize after awhile that the AI opponents are extremely stupid. If you get far enough away from one, they will sit there and charge energy until you come within their range, on a rare occasion, they may come after you after a certain time period expires. They are also easy to lead around the arena and lead face first into your incoming attacks. AI opponents usually refuse to block or get out of the way or block when launched by an upward strike which can lead you to easily juggling them with the same upward strike until they lose their current life and respawn or are eliminated form the match if on their last life. You can also spam your special move that they aren't resistant to for easy KOs. The game overall is decent if playing solo and even better with friends to play with on multiplayer, its limited and flawed in areas while amazing and varied in others.

Sonic is back in action for the second time on the Nintendo Gameboy Advanced Console. The music and sound effects are unique and varied and a joy to listen to. There are four game modes, The main game, Time Trial mode, link cable multiplayer racing and chao garden mode which is an unlockable. Both the multiplayer racing modes and the Chao Garden are limited distractions/minigames which distract from the main experience temporarily but don't add much to the replayability factor of the game as a whole. The sense of speed you get in this game is absolutely amazing but with this in mind it come at a cost. The level design feels empty and bland for the most part and enemies like to be right in your way stopping you speed and momentum or hovering over a pit waiting to knock you into it. The level designers have a guilty pleasure of removing the ground out from under you while you are going at top speed and sending you frequently tumbling into bottomless pits which is not only frustrating, it shows a lack of quality in the level layouts from the stage designers. All Red Rings in a stage need to be collected to play a special stage which is fustrating as your speed and momentum (or sometimes the lack of it) make it difficult (or in Sonic's case) next to impossible to get it if you miss it the first time which forces you to replay the stage yet again. If you thought getting to the Special stage is hard enough, completing it is just as bad if not worse, with needing to approach rings at a specific angle to get the highest amount and avoiding a fast robot with will attack you and make you lose a large amount of the rings you are carrying. There are a large amount of unlockable characters with different abilities and play styles which give uniqueness and replayability to the game. The boss battles feel more like a chore than actual fun (except one unlockable character which can spam projectiles but that makes them far too easy). A Chao Garden mode can be unlocked which is compatible with transferring with your Chao Gardens from your Sonic Gamecube games if you have them and a GBA Controller cable. I tried playing this game on a Nintendo DS Lite console to see how it played and I found the button placement changes made the game next to unplayable, especially in the more complex later portions of the game which require near perfect reflexes down to the seconds to avoid plummeting into bottomless pits. Overall, when it comes to this game, it proves that a great sense of speed isn't everything in a Sonic game, sloppy stage layouts and poor design decisions makes the game much more difficult and lot less enjoyable than it could have been otherwise.

This game has multiple modes such as Story Mode, Wireless Group Multiplayer and Offline Solo Multiplayer along with the ability to trade decorated moogles over Wifi. Story mode is the general main story which is rather well written for a translation and has some decent voice acting as in certain portions of the story. The multiplayer mode (solo and group) consist of doing minigames, missions, challenges and traveling through maps with either a group over wireless or solo offline with no restrictions of story mode. The music is for the most part repetitive and forgettable while sound effects and voice acting is pretty good. The level design is pretty bland and repetitive as they are constantly recycling the same map for most of the missions. The enemy AI traits like to be cheap by disabling you with ice or thunder magics and then surround you and beat you down while you can't react. You have four classes which boil down to a knight, a mage, an archer and an alchemist and can buy equipment and stat upgrades to make your character stronger or make you own equipment with materials you find. Although the game is extremely bland and rather difficult, there is more than enough content in the game to keep you playing for quite awhile if you are willing to go for 100% completion or are willing to play wireless multiplayer with friends.

Mario jumps into 3D for his main 3DS debut game in Super Mario 3D Land. The game itself feels like a hybrid of Super Mario Galaxy (Wii), New Super Mario Bros. (DS) and Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES). There is a total of three save files on the game card with the ability to assign a Mii avatar for each to know which file belongs to a specific person if you are sharing the game with another person. The game music soundtrack is varied with both unique tracks and remakes and remixes of classics tracks that fits well with the mood of each stage. The stages are somewhat short and some come off as looking a tad bit bland while others are absolutely beautiful. You are usually rushed along to the exit being unable to fully enjoy the atmosphere of the stages due to the timer's limit. Stage types can range from multiple Mario staples like grassy fields, canyons, ghost houses, sewers, lakes, Koopa airships, clock towers, Snowy mountains, desserts, caves, castles and many more. Mario is playable along with an additional playable character (its obvious who it is) that needs to be unlocked later in the game. If you lose multiple lives on a single stage, you are given special "beginner" power ups to help aid you through the levels (keep in mind that this does not happen in the Special worlds which will be mentioned later and that using them will permanently lock access to a specific reward later on in the game). The game has a total of 16 Worlds to cover from the basic first eight worlds to the more challenging eight "special" worlds with increased difficulty and/or lower time limits and/or other unique challenges to prove your skills. It should be noted that it can sometimes be hard to judge certain jumps when the 3D feature is disabled but its not in any way impossible to play only in 2D mode. Overall, unlike New Super Mario Bros. for DS, Super Mario 3D Land does not contain minigames nor a wireless/wifi multiplayer mode so once you fully complete the game or get bored of it, there isn't that much to come back to unless you are willing to start the game from square one and relive the adventure all over again but with that in mind it is still a high quality single player 3D Mario platforming adventures with a bit of something for people of all skill levels.

This game that was a legend in the past on the Nintendo 64 returns to the future on the Nintendo 3DS System. The visuals in this version of the game are greatly improved since its debut on the Nintendo 64, these graphical updates include more detailed character models, newer graphical textures and completely refined animations which are further enhanced by the 3D view mode feature of the Nintendo 3DS. The game still utilizes the same sound effects, soundtrack and voice clips from the Nintendo 64 version but have been modified to be cleaner and clearer through the use of modern technology and software, a special bonus orchestral piece also awaits you in the credits. The gameplay is the exact same as it was on the Nintendo 64 version except with tweaks to fix glitches and to update the collision **** new in-game layout is refined to make the top screen Link is traveling on less cluttered while having easy access to all you important information and tools on the bottom screen for easy access and use. New features to this version of the game is the hard mode "Master Quest" difficulty (both normal difficulty and "Master Quest" difficulty have three save file each, which totals to 6 different save files all together) which need to be unlocked by completing the game on the normal difficulty first and was originally introduced in the Gamecube Version of this game which was exclusively a preorder bonus to Legend of Zelda: Windwaker and did not appear in the original Nintendo 64 version, a Boss Rematch mode and a Boss Gauntlet mode for those who want to test their skills against previously defeated bosses or run for setting a new best time, the choice to use or not use gyroscopic controls for specific weapons and items, the choice to use or not use the 3DS's 3D view mode and tutorial videos to aid beginners who may find the game too difficult to solve on their own. The game is overall an amazing package and a fun and challenging adventure game from the past with modernized improvements here and there to make this great game even better, some will love this nostalgic trip down memory lane of one of the greatest early 3D adventure games out there on a Nintendo console while others may not enjoy the aged feeling of the game mechanics, controls and primitive enemy AI.

The Legacy of great 2D Mario platformers of the 80s and 90s lives on through New Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo DS. All of Mario's classic moves and power ups are back as well as more modern moves and unique new power ups to mix things up. The Game consists of a large variety of levels with some that pay tribute to the games of the past as well as others that capitalize on new unique concepts within the game. The music is fun and rather enjoyable to listen to while the sound effects for the most part consist of the same set of pre-recorded stock sound effects used in other Mario releases but fit in perfectly fine. The difficulty curve within the game is balanced so that it can satisfy the needs of both beginners and experts well at the same time. Bonus content within the game consists of an alternate playable character and special game modes can be accessed by inputing a code, in-game wallpapers and infinite-use Toad houses to access power ups that need to be unlocked, A multiplayer Mario vs Luigi mode and a Mini-game mode for both single player and multiplayer through wireless that can be access from the main menu at any time. For fans of the classic Mario 2D platforming games or newcomers curious to see what Mario is all about should consider taking a look at this game if they want a fun portable Mario adventure on the go, it is well worth the price you pay.

Megaman Battle Network 5: Double Team DS is a compilation of the two Gameboy Advanced Megaman Battle Network 5 versions "Team Protoman" and "Team Colonel" with added bonus content and rebuilt game features. The Game for the most part plays the exact same as other Megaman Battle Network releases and near identical to its two Gameboy Advanced versions. Special content can be unlocked by connecting any of the Megaman Battle Network GBA from 1 all the way up to 5 (and 4.5 if you happen to have the Japanese version of Double Team called Twin Leaders) games into the GBA slot of the DS while playing this game (This can include secret shops, a quest that gives you a thank you message and a lot of in-game currency, secret battlechips, importing a battle chip folder from a different game, alternate music for random battles and more). The game plays as an RPG/Card Game hybrid and consists of many action packed battles and problem solving quests on a map that is usually confusing to navigate as well as some bonus missions to do after the main storyline is first completed. This DS version includes a completely remade soundtrack that is higher in quality than the GBA versions, some voice acting, new layouts and menu system, 2 save files (one for each game version on the DS game card), an in-game map on the bottom screen so you don't get lost as often (which was a problem in the GBA versions of the game), wireless multiplayer battle and tournament battle modes, and even a party system where you can bring other Navi characters with you into battle and have them support you while you battle as Megaman or switch out Megaman an play as your other party members in the middle of a battle. A strategy RPG minigame is the main focus of Megaman Battle Network 5 and appears here too just like it did in the GBA versions of this game but now you can swap party members between both of your save files in an attempt to customize your own unique team. This is the only Megaman Battle Network game to be released for the Nintendo DS outside japan considering the only other one to be released was a poorly received port of Megaman Battle Network 1 with "Megaman Starforce" era Megaman as an alternate playable character. If you are a fan of Megaman Battle Network and have a collection of GBA games and a DS or DS Lite or have a DSi or 3DS and can't play your GBA Megaman Battle Network games on it, consider picking up this game, for others however, it will probably be a hit or miss regarding if you like it or not, it is not a game that everyone will enjoy as some may find the gameplay frustrating and/or tedious.

Mario Kart DS, The fifth game in the Mario Kart series and the second game in the Mario kart Series for Nintendo's portable consoles is what would be expected to anyone who has played the previous or future titles in the series, it is a competitive racing game with a large variety of strange and wacky items, power ups and weapons to use with a large cast of Mario series characters which include Mario, Luigi, Wario, Yoshi, Peach, Toad, Donkey Kong and King "Bowser" Koopa along with four unlockable extra characters. The game's main mode Gran Prix consists of eight Cups, four cups with original race tracks and 4 cups with random tracks from older Mario Kart releases. There is a Mission mode for challenges and boss battles, a single player Ballon Battle mode and Shine Runners mode with AI opponents, a Time Trail mode for you to practice for best times and race ghost data. There are also multiple multiplayer modes including a Download Play demo for friends to try out (your friend will play as a Shyguy of a random colour and you will only have access to two of the eight cups), wireless multiplayer which includes "Balloon Battle" "Shine Runners" and "Gran Prix Modes" and Wifi multiplayer modes which consists **** Prix of 4 races on tracks voted by the players against different player types with include "Regional" players from your general area, "Worldwide" players from all over the world, "Rivals" with similar online records to you and "Friends" which you have added to your friends list via registering their friend code. The Wifi multiplayer game gives more than enough replayablility and excitement to encourage players to keep coming back for more and to ensure that buyers get value from their purchase. There are some annoying parts to Wifi multiplayer that needs to be addressed however, some racetrack environmental hazards are disabled to stop players online from desyncing or laging with other opponents, You can't drag items behind your kart to protect yourself from damage for similar lag reasons (this can be somewhat solved by skillfully dropping your item right before a weapon collides with you to block it), there is quite a bit of players online with vulgar usernames or avatars or with hacking tools in use in an attempt to ruin the fun of the game and there are frequent trends of players disconnecting if they feel they are going to lose or it they assume a player is hacking or cheating even if they are not. An amazing game that is well worth the price you pay for it but primitive Wifi multiplayer services (from 2005, one of the first Wifi games for DS) and frustrating behaviours of online players can be a tad bit annoying to get used to.

For the most part, this game is identical to its prequel, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's World Championship 2010: Reverse of Arcadia but with some new cards added into this version and new Wifi features such as the ability to play Turbo Duels and Tag Turbo Duels online, the ability to download player made Duel Puzzles and Wifi Tournaments which where missing in the two prequels. The story mode is shorter than it's prequel but it is notably harder to make up for it. Just like before, newcomers might be scared off by the sharp learning curve and difficulty spike but new to this version are more advanced tutorials, deck building tips and even a Deck Analyzer that will attempt to state the strengths and weaknesses of your deck and will give it an overall **** help aid people who are new to the card game or are older players trying to catch up with new changes to the game. One problem I have with the game that really bugs me is that AI routines for computer opponents usually take forever to make up their minds and make a move due to being programmed to try and consider all options available to them within their current situation and this can make battles with AI opponents far longer than they need to be. The game shines at its best are multiplayer battles over both Wireless and Wifi with new modes and features than the prequel.

A lengthy Mario themed RPG experience, A load of In-game minigames, hilarious,deep and shocking storyline, fun soundtrack, good voice acting, unique battle system, a load of sidequests, a cameo from the most overrated Square Enix owned Mario character Geno (sorry, I couldn't resist. :P), all of this and STILL enough room on the GBA cartridge for the arcade Super Mario Bros. game with multiplayer support (if you don't happen to have it on any of the Super Mario Advance remakes already). Such a great package is far worth its price and I would very much recommend a buy.

A remake **** fighter/RPG hybrid from the NES/Famicom with new moves, attacks and abilities, better graphics and sounds, new features and all around a vast improvement from the NES/Famicom game. This game is quite literally Double Dragon on steroids and is one of if not the most fun fighting/RPG hybrid game on the GBA.

Although the game's battle system, story, music and engine in general is amazing, this game still fails in my opinion to capture the truly epic feel of its prequel Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga for GBA. You can play as Mario and Luigi like the other two Mario & Luigi games in the series and as an added twist, Bowser as well which hasn't been done since Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars back on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. An interesting mechanic is while playing RPG battles as Bowser, you can sometimes use a special skill and then switch to battling the same enemies as the Mario & Luigi which can cause an interesting change in tactics. There are also special Godzilla-like special boss battles as Bowser also which make unique and interesting use of the microphone and touch screen. There are also boss challenges and minigames as well which are pretty fun as well.

Although Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass is great as a whole there are some minor issues that I had with the game that really hurt the experience. I was not pleased with being forced to use the stylus for movement and actions as it makes some situations like boss battles and enemy swarms a real pain to deal with, was it that much of a chore to make an alternate d-Pad and buttons control scheme? Another thing that annoyed me was the abuse of the Hourglass Temple and Sailing gimmicks which take up most of the game. The story, music, and overall game mechanics are great in my opinion but the map design can be kind of awkward in some places. The dungeons are more or less absurdly easy to navigate and bosses are simple to take down usually by a key item you found in the dungeon it was in. There are a bunch of goodies and powers to hunt for and even a Wifi capture the flag minigame that can be played both wirelessly and over Wifi. It is a good game but has flaws in some areas.

The old school masterpiece Final Fantasy III finally gets localized and was it worth the wait? Yes! Modern fans might be put off by its classic mechanics and rough difficulty spike but if things like that don't bother you, what will be found is a deep and rewarding nostalgic RPG with a good challenge. The music and graphics are modernized but still have the intended classic feel which is always nice for a remake. The story although hasn't aged well over the years is still pretty interesting and even if it is rather predictable and the main characters who where not explained all too well in the original are given interesting personalities and are fleshed out in a great manner over the course of the storyline and you get a real sense of what each of them is going through. Any fan of Final Fantasy or fans of old school RPGs from the late 1980s to early 1990s should definitely take a look at this great title.

An excellent upgrade to an already awesome classic Super Nintendo title. This time around, the compilation includes all the games and mini-games from the SNES release along with even more new games (Including one starring Meta Knight) and mini-games than before! The graphics and audio have been updated from the original release and new features have been added, there is also new music tracks, bonus video clips and even more bosses that where not in the original version. You can play this game multiplayer by using two game cards and a download play demo with minigames and Spring Breeze but both players have to share one DS screen. With all the high quality content crammed into one cartridge along with multiplayer support, any fan of Kirby should not pass up this amazing compilation.

Not good, but not bad either, just think of this game as a stripped down and more bland version of Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass with an Avatar theme to it and that pretty much the entire game in a nutshell. Some people may enjoy it, others might not.