lelbro

Proof that Gaming is Art An abstract about the human condition after loss. Great interpretive story, appropriate puzzles, and beautiful illustrations and usage of color. The game is a bit too slow and simplistic at times, but that enables this game to be accessible to everyone. The achievements/trophies have a simple description, but have specific requirements, so they are a bit misleading, but at least it helps to understand the story. Overall, a solid experience that is to the point. I would recommend playing this if you have an evening free, and especially if you can get it on sale.

I see ultimate ninja heroes 2 as dlc to ultimate ninja heroes 1. Once again, the visuals still look clean. The Third Hokage and **** were added as playable characters which is great. Adding **** specifically is awesome because she never fights in the show (we get to see what it might look like here), and she is not playable in most naruto games. They added more stages based on the story, which is again very nice, but I still wish we could have gotten the final valley. They added story mode in the form of "the mugenjo" which is essentially a filler arc. I like this mode a lot, as it gives the player an interesting, albeit forgettable, storyline. The few cutscenes in this mode are however stylish and polished. The gameplay here is a mix of around 6 different types of minigames, one of those just being ordinary battles. This allows for a consistent variety of gameplay that is strengthened by some of the characters' abilities to shuffle/swap/duplicate certain minigames to hopefully receive more desirable ones that are closer to the player's liking. But even with all these options and variety, the story mode is relatively long, and I wish there were closer to something like 12 minigames to choose from, as the included ones eventually became very stale. This is exacerbated by the other mode regarding the mugenjo's basement that is unlocked after the main story. The gameplay is basically the same as the main's in this mode, but there are even less minigames. This is more manageable though because it is more than three times shorter than the main story. After beating both stories, you will most likely have unlocked most of the ninja road which gives you collectables. This makes the collectables super simple to unlock, which is fine, but I wish we got a balance between the system in the first game and the last game. In this game, just playing it will give you the collectables, but in the last game you would have to go through a whole heroes mode run through at the higher difficulties. I wish we got something like a challenge mode instead where the game would give us certain tasks to do to unlock the collectables. An unlocking system that is not as difficult as the first game, but more difficult than this one. Heroes mode returns again, and it is essentially the same as last time. It's fun, and I like how it does not serve as the main mode here like in the first game. What I really dislike about this game is the exclusion of the promotion test mode. This was the closest thing we had to a challenge or mission mode and I was sad to see that it wasn't here. Although I didn't care much about the exclusion of parameter powerup, I can see why people would say the loss was a downgrade. Overall, you get a lot more content in this game with the story, but you lose out on the promotion test and parameter powerup modes. Though this is an improvement over the first game in my mind, combining and expanding upon the elements of both of these games would make for an unquestionably better experience that would provide the most value to anyone looking to upgrade from the first game. As it stands, buying this sequel is not as necessary as it should be for a fan of the first game and/or the series.

This game is unlike any other game I have ever played. It is constantly changing its gameplay mechanics forcing the player to consistently think outside of the box. The atmosphere of this game made me feel like someone was watching me the whole time. It's unnerving and uncomfortable, but in a way that feels appropriate and unique. The levels and story are somewhat vague making most of the game ambiguous. This blends together nicely with the atmosphere and the ending. It almost feels like this game was made for me. I don't know many other games that do such a great job capturing the oddcore aesthetic quite like this one with its liminal spaces and whatnot. I could go on and on about this game, but the less you know before playing the better. Never have I ever played a game that blew my mind quite like this one.

This game knows exactly what it wants to be and it does it perfectly. The story and atmosphere are simultaneously whimsical and haunting. This is where the main entertainment of this game stems from, and it can somewhat easily be converted into a movie, but the interactivity that gaming allows for makes the story-telling especially unique. The story-telling is amplified even more by the variety of gameplay styles, the motion and appearance of the text, and the variety of story-telling techniques. At the same time, I understand why people would not like this game. It's very short, only around three hours, and the gameplay is not the focus. If you go in expecting some kind of in-depth, complex gameplay, you're in the wrong place. However, if you go in lacking any expectations or looking for a solid story, this is an experience unlike any other. I have a lot more to say about this game, but it's much better if you experience it for yourself.

This game is solid. The fighting mechanics aren't complex, but they also aren't too basic. The roster is great since pretty much all the characters you would want to play as are here. Those characters and their jutsus are pretty true to the show. The way that neji's ultimate jutsu depletes chakra, and the fact that one of naruto's jutsus is him farting is evident of this. The heroes mode is fun, and legitimately challenging to play through at the higher difficulties. It's enjoyable to discover and use different teams in this mode, as well as to see what abilities are available with each of these teams. Parameter Powerup is a cool concept, and it makes playing through the "vs" and "promotion test" modes more exciting. My main gripe is just the lack of any other content. I wish we could have gotten a story mode like in the second game and/or a challenge mode akin to the one in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Maybe the only other things would be to add The Final Valley as a stage and add Asuma and Kurenai as playable, but those are just nitpicks really. I just feel like I played through this game lightning fast, and I would love to spend more time with it, but I have nothing else to do.

I really wanted to like this game, but I just can't bring myself to do it. I love the anime, but this game is just really boring. The story (scenario) mode is mostly just a retelling of the first arc of shippuden, which is fine and was fun to play through in storm 2, but the gameplay in this game makes it not worth it. You have a very basic combo system and then a few jutsus and kunai that typically don't link together/flow very well. Fighting is the crux of the gameplay, so for the fighting to be lacking any satisfaction or stimulation is a huge blow. Then, there's the rpg system/elements. Each character has individual stats that can be increased by leveling up (i.e. through defeating enemies) or by using items. While this system sounds fun and interesting on paper, like I said, the combat is very boring which disincentivizes the player to level up. Instead, I always just found myself running and dodging to get to the boss since fighting the enemies is not required. In addition, as you play through the story, you unlock new characters that are at higher levels by default. Therefore, all the time I would have spent leveling up the last character would have been in vain since my newly unlocked character would still usually be better. This also creates a conflict of interest. I would like to strongly level up a certain character, but I also want to use the new character that I just unlocked, who will likely be much better than the one I am leveling up because it takes so long and is so monotonous to level them up. So, I believe the final character that you unlock in the story is rock lee who is at level 30. But you unlock Neji at level 25 and he has a ninjutsu that is extremely strong if you hit it (8 trigrams 64 palms). So basically, all I did was play as neji for pretty much the rest of the game. I believe by the time I stopped playing he was around level 50. I would select neji, then I would add supports like naruto, kakashi, or sai. This would give my ninjutsu and chakra buffs, categories in which neji already specializes. I would run past all of the enemies to the objective in every level to finally get to the boss. Once there, I would just spam 8 trigrams 64 palms until they were defeated. Like I said, since I was running past enemies, I was always under leveled for the boss, but that never really mattered. I would stock up on medicinal pills (which revive you) and duplex pills (which regenerate your chakra and health), and any time I would become low, I would just use the pills or I would die and neji would automatically use the medicinal pills. This is pretty much how you can boil down every mode in this game. Just spam an overpowered jutsu on the main enemy until you win and heal when necessary. I did the exact same thing with neji in mission mode which is just a collection of filler missions. This was my least favorite mode because 80% of this mode is just running to the objective or trying to figure out where to go and what to do. Multiple times, after the mission, you would just have to return to where you started which is just meaningless padding that wastes more time, especially when other missions don't do this. The only mode that I found kind of interesting was the akatsuki filler arc. Just the concept of me playing as deidara and blowing up all of the leaf ninja was really funny to me. However, after the first few missions, you realize your efforts are meaningless and the akatsuki never gets anywhere in the story and the characters are never actually affected by what the akatsuki does. For example, you fight naruto like 3 times. I blew him up with detonating clay every time, but he just keeps coming back seemingly unaffected. There just seems to be this disconnect between the gameplay and the akatsuki story which results in a net zero. Keep in mind, it is still just the same concept of "find an op jutsu and spam it and heal and regen if necessary". In my case, I just used clay birds and spiders from afar to blow up every enemy in this mode. The same also goes for the survival mode. All you really do is fight bosses or hordes of enemies. Here, I just spammed sasuke's chidori which is more efficient for multiple enemies instead of neji's 8 trigrams 64 palms (more useful against singular bosses). The battle mode is boring as well, because it's the same gameplay. Also, why are there only 18 characters? Jiraiya and Tsunade appear multiple times throughout mission mode, so why can't I play as them in battle mode? Where is Kurenai's squad and the rest of Asuma's squad? Again, I know that they weren't part of the arc, but neither were sai and sasuke and you can unlock them after the story. If anything, you should make them playable instead of the akatsuki and sasuke because then you would be able to use them in mission mode. The only positives I can say about this game is that it doesn't look bad for the psp, it's cool that they got the original voice actors, and it is fun to break.

Fantastic Retelling. I haven't played this game in a while, but I remember loving everything about it. Knowing the story of Alice in Wonderland reminds me of how brilliant this dark retelling is. The story is not hard to follow, but the way and speed at which it is delivered keeps it intriguing the whole way through. The gameplay consists of platforming, combat, and puzzles that all mesh together perfectly. The design in this game follows the trend of being perfect, along with gritty. Every world is so unique when compared to other platformers. There is also this nice touch where Alice is befitted with a dress that matches the environment for each world. The character designs, especially for characters like Alice and the Cheshire Cat, are sublime. The enemies are both original and interesting. The tools you are given for combat gives you many options. The game length is neither too long nor too short. This game is not ground-breaking in terms of gameplay, but it is masterful in most of the genres it undertakes.

Great fighting game for the franchise. The fighting mechanics are in-depth but not too complicated. Most characters feel somewhat different and unique to use. The entire original naruto story is available to play through with side mini games and boss battles to break up the repetitiveness of regular battles. There is definitely love, passion, and detail put into this game, like guy's ultimate jutsu, and how neji's ultimate jutsu depletes the opponent's chakra. The cell-shaded graphics are beautiful and perfect for naruto's art style. With all that being said, the game could get boring at times. Constantly running around the village to collect things eventually becomes tiresome, especially during the end game. Some characters are clearly better than others, so do not expect a balanced roster. Lastly, the combos themselves are very easy to execute, which may be a turn off for competitive fighting game players. Ultimately, as a fan of the anime and fighting games in general, I would recommend this game. I come back to it often. (played on xbox one)

A lot of bang for your buck. I got the collection on sale, and it was definitely worth it. Every game has something different to offer. The entire collection goes through all of the most significant battles from the show in great cinematic fashion. Also, it's really nice that this comes with most of the storm 4 dlc. The only other thing you could really ask for is that last otsutsuki dlc.

As the third game in the franchise, NSUNS 3 does not disappoint. The gameplay feels as smooth and as fluent as it has ever been. One important addition is the substitution bar. A player is limited to 4 subs until their bar regenerates. In contrast to the first two games, this change results in a greater level of thinking regarding the usage of these integral subs. The roster is immense, but somehow every character remains unique, many having multiple costumes and/or versions. Some of the stages include a new ring out mechanic that, if used, will cause an automatic win for the player that knocked the other out. This can be cheap at times, but it presents a fresh win condition. There are the most modes there has ever been as well. The most prevalent being the story mode. The fantastically animated cutscenes with glorious QTE's remain. There are more path options and a new battle style. My main gripe is that the overworld is not engaging enough to work towards completion. It's exausting.

NSUNS2 feels like a natural progression of both gameplay and story when compared to the first storm game. Every character is a bit more individualized, especially the ranged ones, like temari and tenten. The support characters are now divided into different classes(attack, guard, and balanced) which adds more depth to team strategy. They only have one jutsu now, but it's worth the sacrifice. Team ultimate jutsus were added as well, which combines the team's strength into one chain attack ending with the main fighter's UJ. Overall, the gameplay is now more fluid, balanced, and less stiff. As for the story mode, one cannot only explore the hidden leaf, but nearly all of the iconic places from the beginning of the anime all the way to the end of the pain arc. Although this sounds great, the overworld is often pretty barren with nothing to really do and the travel time between locations is way too long. The real stars of the story mode that make it so great are the boss battle sequences, with their change in gameplay and great QTE cinematics. My main gripe with the overall gameplay is the fact that the attacks and UJs lack impact. When you compare the ultimate jutsus and combos from storm 1 to storm 2, it's rather obvious, at least in the gameplay, how much less powerful your strikes feel with each character.

NSUNS 4 is the peak of the storm series. The gameplay retains its fluidity from 3 and its identity as a storm game, however, it is still able to become the most in-depth it has ever been. The inclusion of switching to supports, specific support abilities, counters, and more provide for new options and approaches to battling that haven't been possible before. The story is greatly improved by removing the overworld and zoning in on the cinematic cutscenes and QTEs. The war arc is told very well in this format, especially the final fight. Only compliant is that the lip sync is off at times. Adventure mode is essentially the overworld with a main section and side missions. It is also improved because it cuts out the monotonous travel time between locations. The rest of the game is filled with more quality content like collection, challenge league, survival, etc. The online mode is awfully laggy in every match, unless I play with one of my frriends. Worst part of an otherwise fantastic game.

I finally played this game after seeing it so many times back in the wii u era. I always thought the game looked terrible, and I was right. This game is, honestly, simple enough to be a mobile game, but that would be an insult to other marvel mobile games, which aren't that bad for being free. The only things this game has going for it are the characters, the opening cinematic, and the graphics. But, none of these things matter since the gameplay is so basic. The gameplay of the story, and pretty much the entire game, is all just two-v.-two battles with the challenge mode just barely changing the gameplay by changing the objective to something other than just plain winning. There are only 5 attacks (plus an ultimate and "combo" breaker) with only 3 of them being fundamentally different from each other, so it almost comes down to a game of "rock, paper, scissors" in terms of strategy (i.e. there isn't much). Literally every character plays the same with those same attacks, so all the characters may as well just be skins of one character. The story is pretty much nonexistent except for the ending cutscene which basically says "yay the heroes won". The graphics don't matter if the gameplay is monotonous and repetitive. The opening cinematic is the greatest prank, as it makes the game look action-packed, but once the game starts, it becomes a snooze fest. This game should have just been a normal fighting or adventure game, but since it was originally a kinect game, the ubisoft developers must have been very limited. My recommendation is to just watch the opening cinematic and continue on with your day. If you still want to play a marvel game, play ultimate alliance, or a mobile one, or marvel vs. capcom.

Although this game may have been an ambitious classic when it released, playing this game now is just unfun and frustrating. Though you would expect a gta game to deliver in areas like driving and shooting, they are both incredibly horrible. Every car drives as though it is on a frozen lake. This makes driving dreadful and that is what you do for the majority of the game. This is exacerbated by the fact that cars are extremely weak when it comes to their durability and when they are flipped over, they explode after just a few seconds. I've had to redo many missions because of this. Shooting is not much better. You need to be very close to enemies to even target them. This results in you having to take damage in nearly every altercation. There is the sniper rifle, which is nice because you don't need to be close to enemies, but controlling that is not the most comfortable because it only goes in four directions. Additionally, after every mission you get money, but unless a mission prompts you to buy ammo and guns at a weapon shop, I have no idea where to go to spend the money. I don't want to look it up because I should not have to. I should have an icon on my map indicating where to spend my money. Because there is no indication, this makes the reward I get from missions (money) almost meaningless. I got through only about 30 missions before I decided that enough was enough, and I would no longer waste my time playing the game because I was not having fun. I will say that it does lay a great framework for the future 3D gta games, but there is no reason to go back to this one when the others improve upon it in every way possible.

I imagine that when this game was released back in 2006, it was an amazing sight to witness. An fps of console caliber simplified for the psp to take on the go must have been incredible. However, in 2020, playing this game is clunky and awkward. Using the face buttons instead of sticks to control where the character looks feels wrong and makes reaction time longer than it should be for an fps game. I understand that this is a limitation due to the hardware and that the game autolocks on enemies to help alleviate this, but it is still a very annoying and large problem nonetheless. In general, the gunplay, sound design, models, and hit detection were all pretty great all things considered. The campaign is extremely short being only around 2 hours long. Honestly, I was expecting the game to be around this length, and I was looking for a short experience, so I got what I wanted, but I do not think it would have been worth the money just for the campaign when it was released. Getting gold medals in campaign is a rather arduous task, as you are forced to be very accurate and kill many enemies. By simply having an apathetic attitude towards this system, not caring about which medal one receives, I found myself having more fun. Fortunately, there is also skirmish mode which pits the player against a chosen number of ai bots under a certain time limit. I think this mode is interesting, but there isn't really any motivation to complete it besides earning gold medals for each map. There would have been a greater incentive to play this mode if it gave the player some kind of a reward like new guns or outfits. The multiplayer is essentially the same as the skirmish mode, but instead of bots, there are other human players. I can't accurately give my thoughts on this mode as the servers were shutdown long ago, but based on the YouTube comments I read on videos about the game, it was a blast. In general though, I just don't feel like fps games were meant to be played without twin sticks or a mouse and keyboard. Playing fps games using those control schemes feels natural, like I'm controlling a mobile person, but when I play this, it feels like I'm controlling an oblivious slow-moving vehicle. The game is not bad by any means, but it's just not that great either. I think my level of fun peaked at about the third mission. The psp just has a lot better titles to offer, and unless someone really wants to play a tank-like handheld-fps, I would not consider this one.

Compared to its predecessor, Naruto: Rise of a Ninja, this game feels like more of a Naruto game than Naruto's game. Broken Bond is more immersive, allowing the player to control other characters besides Naruto. The story has a decent length, taking me about 9-11 hours, providing an abridged version of Naruto's second half with some filler added to introduce the other characters. Some of the cutscenes and facial expressions here are kind of wonky, but it does a solid job. I really enjoy how the player must use each of the character's abilities in tandem to progress in this mode. The variety in characters also provides a great variety to the combat. Each character plays very differently with their own dedicated combos and jutsu. Part of me enjoys this, as all the characters feel special and unique, but part of me wishes it was more like the storm series with everyone's combos being the same inputs, as I was constantly pausing the game to check each character's combos. The combat is the main part of the game, and I find it the most enjoyable as well, but it does have it's problems. Substitution jutsu is very precise and is hard to use. Whenever an opponent uses it against you, it is difficult to turn around making you extremely vulnerable. Throwing the kunai and using it as a melee weapon are both mapped to the same button, so it is difficult to know what you will do. Lastly, some of the characters just aren't very representative of themselves. Temari barely opens her fan to fight, when in the anime she mainly just used ranged wind attacks. The same is sort of true with Itachi. He never clearly uses his signature Tsukuyomi and his only jutsu are those that Sasuke already has. Despite many of these gripes, I still find the combat very engaging. Back to the overworld, one touch I find very clever is how chakra control has been seamlessly integrated. In the first game, this technique required the usage of hand signs, but now the player just needs to press x on a flat wall or start walking on water to trigger it. This integration not only improves the fluidity of the gameplay but also signifies the growth of Naruto and the rest of the characters. The side content is a mixed bag. The Tanzaku minigames, ninja cards, and most wanted lists are pretty fun, but the races, the deliveries, the choji missions, and the hide and seek are all pretty lackluster. The tree running sequences are fun at first. The first person perspective and high sense of speed is a nice change of pace, but after a while, they get boring, and I end up wishing there was a fast travel option. Being forced to complete the tree run sequence every time feels like a chore, much like the lackluster side content I mentioned. Although I haven't played every Naruto game, this may be the best open-world one. The Hidden Leaf looks great under the many lighting conditions and is truly complete, having all the locations one would come to expect after watching the show. The outside of the village has also been expanded immensely when compared to the first game. Overall, Broken Bond mainly improves and adds upon what the first game developed with the extremely important addition of other playable characters in the story mode while still possessing its own host of old and new problems.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]