GameCube

Skies of Arcadia Legends

March 10, 2003

GameCube / Reviews / by Anuj Agrawal Make a comment! / Tweet it!

[floatleft]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/soal/cover.jpg[/floatleft][heading]Introduction[/heading]
Well, I will begin with a brief history of the game. The game was originally released for the Sega Dreamcast in November of 2000. The game was hailed by many to be one of the best games for the system, not to mention one of the greatest RPG adventures on console to date. It was released for the GameCube on January 29, 2003. With its release comes the release of the GCs first really epic RPG experience. With that I will get to the review!

[heading]Graphics – 8.0[/heading]
The graphics of the game are some of the most amazing RPG graphical elements seen in any RPG, unfortunately with RPGs that can get to a visual achievement of games such as Morrowind or Dark Cloud 2, this game seems a bit out of date. If you are very big into getting eye candy, this game still has its moments, but in today’s day, they are few and far between. Everything runs in real time, and as such there are no rendered FMVs or anything, but with the quality it has, there is no need for having pre-rendered animations. Fortunately the game still looks great in comparison to some of the A

Animal Crossing

January 7, 2003

GameCube / Reviews / by Mike Carabajal Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Innovation in video games is rare. Actually let me rephrase that; innovation in video games, and actually being successful, is rare. All games nowadays try to bring something new to the table. Whether it be a new and improved way to utilize lighting or a higher polygon count, games will try to bring “that something else” to the table. Animal Crossing is no different in this regard; however it succeeds where others have failed. It made me say, “Oh my god, I can’t believe they pulled this off.” Allow me to explain.

This game is odd. It is odd in the sense that a video game can be so complex and simple at the same time. I have to believe that the developers of Animal Crossing planned for a very long time how to engross the gamer and make him come back for more. What they did was implement a real-time world. Real time as in 5:00 pm here is 5:00 pm in your town. When you eat lunch, the good folk that live around will be eating lunch as well. The game plays even when you are not there. Most everything you do will have an affect on the people and town you live in. Don’t talk to your neighbors; well they will begin to not like you. Don’t take care of your yard; then good luck pulling up weeds. The game has a way of keeping you playing for a very long time.

The objective of this game is to…well…you know? I don’t know if there is a real objective, but what you do is move into a randomly generated little town. The town is filled with townsfolk (all animals) and things to do. From the beginning you can pick a house which is yours to decorate as you see fit. Then of course you have to pay off your little place and then you can renovate it and make it bigger. For those of you who are thinking it sounds like a Sims type of concept you could not be further from the truth. The point here is to be occupied and happy. You make money by running errands for the townsfolk, and in turn they will give you bells (money) or something interesting (a new shirt, wallpaper, or furniture). If you, like me, are not the working type you can spend all day digging up treasure or shaking trees and selling junk for cash. Of course there is so much to buy, as you will be no doubt decorating your all the time, or buying new gear to wear.

The graphics are intentionally bad. At first you will think they completely suck as the Gamecube is able to handle much more than what Animal Crossing brings. The characters are very pixilated as is pretty much everything. I’m sure the developers could have just as easily created real time lighting effects with bad ass texture mapping, but the graphics bring Animal Crossing to a playing field all its own. It’s a bit weird at first as by now you are used to some pretty stunning looking visuals, but it will grow on you and you will appreciate the game more. Trust me.

The sound in the game is fantastic. The music never gets old as you can always go into your house and jam on some tunes in your HiFi Stereo. The midis are very catchy and to be honest with you, you will not ever find yourself annoyed with it at all. You will hear your shoes mush in the snow, as well as trample on leaves. If you go into the museum in town, everything gets real quite and hollow sounding, a very nice touch. Hell you can even edit your own jingles that will play when you speak to the people, I’m pretty sure you can even get the tunes for old NES games down if you played around with it long enough.

The games controls are a breeze. You can navigate to you inventory screen easily with the X button and Y button brings up your map. The A button of course is the predominant button as you will use it to talk and activate your new toys. The inventory screen is easy enough to use, you have a hand (a very Mario like glove) to grab items from their slots and either equip them or drop them. Special items like the butterfly net and Shovel can be dragged and dropped onto your character as easy as cake. The game is very responsive as you run from place to place you will not encounter many difficulties.

The fun factor for Animal Crossing is where this bad boy shines. You are really in charge of your time spent there. You have to raise enough money once you start the initial job, but after that your schedule is open to do what you see fit. The great thing is that you will not be able to just go out and start digging treasure. You will either have to wait for someone to give you a shovel as a present or the shop to have one in stock. While that may sound lame it makes that item come off as special. For instance the shovel is used to dig up buried items and even moneybags. Soda had already bought the shovel earlier that day. I run to the store with that shimmer in my eyes as today will be the day I can dig crap up! Alas when I get there my dreams are shattered as a big SOLD OUT sign lays where my shovel once rested. I then beg and plead with Soda to let me borrow it, and he did. But in other situations I could have traded items with him or sent him nice letters asking if I could borrow the shovel so I can dig a bear trap for him or something. You really do interact with the environment around you. While you can play this game by yourself it is much better played with some friends by your side. The game plays alternatively so after I save, someone else can go. This causes a lot of conflict with me as Soda always yanks the good stuff from the dump or the lost and found. Up to four of your friends can live in the town including the countless citizens that are already there, who happen to move in and out of town.

Better yet with the use you your handy dandy memory card you can visit other people’s towns. For instance Snowcone on a GameCube has his own thing going I can take my memory card over and stop by his place and say hi. There will be items that are only available in his town that I can loot and take back to my place to sell for a premium! Technically you can start your own apple tree plantation if you live in a city that only has pears…MUHAHAHA! Also I have come up with the great idea of being the only place in town to have pears. I will chop down every other pear tree in town, all the while I sport a big lush pear tree in my own back yard and become the Pear King of Snackbar Town!

Whoa…excuse me I went off on a tangent…

This game is a definite buy as I have yet to get bored with any activities that happen in Animal Crossing. You will find yourself playing for hours, trying to get that fishing pole or raise enough money to buy that something you really want. Animal Crossing is a gamer’s game. I was a bit standoffish about it, but now I am glad I was able to play such a fantastic game. In my opinion it is the best GameCube game out right now. Sorry Metroid but you got a swift kick in the butt by Animal Crossing. Do yourself a favor, round up some cash and head on off to purchase this bad boy.

Now if you will excuse me I must go back to my nefarious Pear King plan.

Metroid Prime

December 20, 2002

GameCube / Reviews / by Mike Carabajal Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Cube owners, your wait is over. Finally you can laugh back at the Xbox cronies or the PS2 junkies. Because the good people at Nintendo (its for breakfast now) have given us Metroid Prime. First let me say this; Nintendo seemed to freak everyone out when they released the first information of the game. I don’t think anyone expected the next gen Metroid to be a first person shooter. The gaming community is already flooded with games in the FPS genre, so no one was expecting anything revolutionary.

I bought the game with some hesitation. Although my thin Gamecube library was the main reason for me to trade crap in and reserve a copy of Metroid, I had no idea that the game would be bringing me back to Metroid the way it was meant to be played. Upon placing the game into the console, the first thing I wanted to see is if it played like Halo. I find Halo to be the standard of any FPS, with the way it handles movement and combat. Metroid’s controls unfortunately had nothing in common with Halo at all. The movement is done totally with one stick. No movement and aim stick, just one for both. Although is sounds odd, the movement is very smooth, as a matter of fact the whole game is best described as smooth. To add to that, this game ends up bringing a bit more zest to the FPS genre. This game, strange as it may seem, is a platform! That’s right I know exactly what you are thinking. The good people at Retro developed this game for the purposes of exploring. You will use your visor a lot for this reason. Samus’s visor comes equipped with a scanner that will give you tips to the games many puzzles, and hints to the vulnerabilities of the game’s enemies.

In Prime you will not find yourself with hordes of enemies swarming you from every angle. Instead you will find yourself trying to jump gap after gap, all the while fending off exploding enemies. The crazy thing is, that in a regular platform game, you can see your jumps, ala Mario Sunshine, the challenge with a FPS and jumping is that you cannot see them. Although Retro does make this task seem natural, you will no doubt find yourself at the bottom of an acid pit due to a mistimed jump, only to have to try to make that jump again.

Everything is back, from the Morph Ball, to the upgradeable weapons. The game stays true to Metroid fashion. You will have to use your morph ball to get into tight places, and at the end of the level you are sure to encounter a huge boss. Thanks to the new technologies in the Cube, there are so many little things that will have Metroid fans marking out from time to time. For example the game is seen though the visor of Samus, and depending on your environment you can see condensation on the visor, or water dripping on it, as well as the reflection of her face when you are near a light. Retro made sure to show as much of Samus as possible. You will ,surprisingly enough, see Samus in full so many times throughout the game. These small details add to the personal experience a FPS brings to the table.

Metroid will cater to the tastes of so many gamers. Obviously the FPS freaks will feel right at home, and I believe the platform junkies will love this challenge. For those of you that appreciate a game for visuals…this game will not let you down either. Metroid is easily the best looking game for the Gamecube. The environments are exactly how you would have imagined they should be, if you are a fan of the series. To be able to bring it to life as Retro did, is quite an accomplishment. In my opinion this game is a buy. Go out trade some games in and own the first real good Gamecube game. Hopefully this is the beginning of more quality games to come.

Zelda anyone?

Harry Potter: The Chamber of Secrets

December 3, 2002

GameCube / Reviews / by Mike Carabajal Make a comment! / Tweet it!

In case you have been living under a rock for the past couple of years you know who Harry Potter is. Yes that crazy little “limey” is at it again. While I will admit that I never saw myself becoming a fan, I was immediately drawn into the craze after watching the first movie. While I knew it might be entertaining I had no idea that it would be a great movie through and through. Anyways, this isn’t a movie review today; it’s about the game Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets for the Cube.

If you have seen the movie you will notice similarities right off the bat. I will however warn you right away don’t go into the game expecting an exact translation from the movie. The game obviously has to add a bit more things to do, so you could…I don’t know actually play it. The overall story line is in tact but you will be stuck doing things not shown in the movie, so chill.

Gameplay is great, although like all 3d games the “camera demon” shows up and sometimes screws you over when something is attacking you. Also you must have patience, and patience like a mad man. Like most games of this genre you will have to run…everywhere! I guess British folk are fit ’cause this kid sprints like Michael Johnson. Now if they would only brush their teeth…blimey! While at Hogwart’s you will be asked to find the necessary tools or items for some cool new spells, so be prepared to die a lot; ’cause Hogwarts is like a friggin death trap, I mean is this a school or what? Some of the stuff you will run into is just ridiculous so don’t wander off where you are not supposed to because that’s how kids die…trust me.

Presentation of the game is where it’s at. The characters are all voiced, so if you’re like Soda and can’t read, you’re still game. The graphics are sweet too; there are lighting effects all over the place. So if you are into this kind of technical stuff, you will get your jollies off.

This game is fresh as it stands even without the Potter license; you should have a great time playing it. Again, only the adventure “Zelda” type gamers will enjoy the game. So don’t waste your time if you have no patience or don’t like Harry Potter, or British accents. I recommend picking this bad boy up. I’d say it’s a buy, but if you’re into rentals then check it before trading shit in.

Holler back tell me what you think. Lord of the Rings comes out in two weeks!

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