PlayStation 2

Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia

March 5, 2007

PlayStation 2 / Reviews / by Jeff Stolarcyk /

Japanese developer Gust is responsible for two of the best and most-underrated role-playing games in the latter half of the PlaySatation 2’s life span – Atelier Iris and its sequel, the aptly named Atelier Iris 2. The Iris games combined strong, likeable characters, a well-told story, sharp humor, and a nostalgic feel to great effect, and it’s no surprise that Gust’s latest title, Ar Tonelico: Melody of Elemia, follows the same basic recipe. Not content to be a clone of Atelier Iris, however, Ar Tonelico starts with Gust’s signature elements and builds a rich, heartfelt experience that more than once veers into the completely bizarre.

Of course, bizarre is to be expected in any game involving a harem of magical dolls with a plethora of costumes who are competing for the main character’s affections, especially when said magical dolls develop their skills by way of an extended sex metaphor winkingly called A

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2

February 22, 2007

PlayStation 2 / Reviews / by Justin Last /

Some games – no, most games – are created with a defined audience in mind. Front Mission 4 is for those that like big stompy mechs and slow, tactics-based game play. [i]Final Fantasy XII[/i] is for gamers with an insane need to beat a boss with 50,000,000,000 hit points, and [i]Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 2[/i] is for fans of the anime that want to recreate their favorite bouts at home.

As licensed fighters go, [i]DBZBT2[/i] does a lot of things right. Character models look good. Characters also have the same move sets in the game as they do in the show, no matter how unbalanced they may be. It’s nice to see that no matter how hard I try, some characters are just plain better than others. With a huge cast of selectable characters, it’s okay to have some that aren’t the world’s strongest man.

[i]DBZBT2[/i], like its predecessor, forgoes some of the conventional fighter axioms. The camera moves with you creating a constant over-the-shoulder third-person perspective. Moves are simple to pull off with both the DualShock2 and the Wii Classic Controller due to the limited number of basic moves available. Using the Wii remote, however, introduces some unnecessary and poorly-implemented motion controls. Instead of pressing down, up, back, B, you’ll swing the remote off the bottom of the screen, off the top of the screen, pull it back, and then press B. The intent is to make the player’s motion mimic the character’s motion, but it just doesn’t work well enough to warrant playing the Wii version with anything other than the Classic Controller. Veterans of more complex fighters, say Marvel vs. Capcom 2, will find the two-button approach maddeningly simple, especially when they find out that one button is for close quarters attacks and the other is for ranged attacks. Light/medium/heavy punch/kick this ain’t.

Graphically, [i]DBZBT2[/i] looks a lot like the anime. Character models are detailed and beautifully cel-shaded, and the environments in which they fight, although a bit sparse, are large and well-crafted. Trees can be knocked down, stone columns can be crumbled, and fighters can be thrown off of floating islands. The entire experience begs the player to explore a bit while fighting, which makes the blue mesh keeping the player in the battle area that much more disappointing.

Due to the over-the-shoulder camera, multiplayer is more than a little lacking; split screen just doesn’t feel right in a fighting game. Ultimately this means that you’ll probably spend most of your time fighting through the story mode where you can have the entire screen to yourself. This would be fine if the enemy AI weren’t so easy to read. The final bouts can be completed with the exact same strategy that worked in the first ones: knock your enemy back, hit him with a ki strike, power up while he’s incapacitated, lather, rinse, and repeat. I would expect this to work for, maybe, the first 10% of the game while one is getting used to the controls, but it always works. Nobody can withstand the combined assault of a slap to the face and a ki strike – except me because I’m not controlled by a brain-dead artificial intelligence.

Fans of the anime will be especially pleased with the game’s story mode as it’s very long and covers just about everything that has happened in [i]Dragon Ball Z[/i] and [i]Dragon Ball GT[/i]. These fans are also the most likely group to forgive the low-quality cutscenes using the game’s own fight animations. The place where the ball is really dropped though is in the storytelling. Key events, events that would be interesting to watch, are summed up in a few lines of text instead of recounted visually. I want to see Goku win the battle, not just hear that he did it and everything went great.

Ultimately [i]Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 2[/i] will only be enjoyed by fans of the series from which it draws its characters and story. The fighting is too shallow for fighting game enthusiasts to get wrapped up in, and the controls are too sloppy for anybody to have a good time with the Wii remote. If you do pick this title up, make sure it’s either the PS2 version or that there’s a Classic Controller available to you on the Wii.

Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA

January 2, 2007

PlayStation 2 / Reviews / by Kat Ingersoll /

[i][b]”If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”[/b][/i]

For the most part, Konami didn’t do much “fixing” for [i]SuperNova[/i]. As with every [i]DDR[/i] installation, Konami continues with its winning formula of simple game mechanics, catchy pop tunes, and bright graphics.

The only thing that really needed fixing was the “mission mode,” which was the primary mode of play in Extreme 2 and continues to be the case in this game. In the previous version, you had a disorganized mess of a map that got more nightmarish and convoluted as you progressed. This time around, you get “Stellar Joints,” each having a nice list of objectives to complete, and you are allowed to choose which songs with which to complete them.

My only gripe with the mission mode has to do with those requiring completion with a certain character. Since the mission mode assigns you a random character with each song, you could play for quite a long time before you are able to complete that particular mission. These missions are supposed to be about skill, not luck.

After completing a number of objectives, you unlock one of three “Stellar Master Modes,” a kind of nonstop stage with a unique set of challenges that build upon and are slightly more difficult than the missions. This, in turn, unlocks songs, characters, and nonstop stages upon completion. You then buy them with your points (accumulated during play) in the shop for free play. I was able to unlock all the songs before things got too difficult for me to continue, but not without a little cheating via use of the regular handheld controller.

I royally hated the mission mode in [i]Extreme 2[/i], but if Konami continues with the set-up they have here, it could be something I will grow to enjoy.

The songs are the usual Konami fare. American pop songs, techno, electronica, trance, and Konami’s usual J-pop contributors (such as Naoki and Be For U) are all present and accounted for. What I found amusing was that a good portion of the American pop songs was from the early A

Shadow of the Colossus

November 30, 2006

PlayStation 2 / Reviews / by Kat Ingersoll /

[i][b]”Some mountains are scaled. Others are slain.”[/b][/i]

And you’ll be slaying quite a few mountains here in 16 boss-style fights. That’s what makes [i]Shadow of the Colossus[/i] so unique.

Canon-wise, [i]SotC[/i] is a prequel to the events of [i]Ico[/i], another interesting platform game released four years prior to the release of [i]SotC[/i]. The nameless hero in the story has stolen a special sword and brought his dead wife/girlfriend/lover/unrequited object of affection (the game isn’t really clear on their relationship) Mono to a forbidden temple in a desperate attempt to revive her. The ancient god of the temple is all too happy to do the task, but the hero must first destroy all 16 idols in the temple to prove his worth.

Well, if it was that easy, we would have a rather short, boring game. The only way to destroy the idols is to kill the colossi that wander the island. When a colossus is dead, its corresponding idol will be destroyed.

So that’s your task for the next 15 hours: The god gives you a hint about your next colossus. You use your sword to catch the sunlight and pinpoint its location. Then you somehow kill the monster.

Visually, the game is as gorgeous as its predecessor. The landscape ranges from deserts to lush forests, and all is beautifully rendered without the designs repeating or becoming boring. The buildings have the same architecture as [i]Ico[/i], albeit brighter and sunnier. And the characters have similar designs to the [i]Ico[/i] characters, all the way down to both heroes having horns on their heads. The colossi that you climb all over are amazing to look at as they rumble over the landscape. (Try not to get killed as you take a moment to gawk at them.)

The movements of the hero and his faithful steed are very fluid and realistic. The hero is not a superman by any means. If he runs too fast you will see him stumble over rocks in his path. He also tumbles and scrambles all over the colossus when it tries to shake you off. The horse also moves like a real life horse and is about as capricious as one.

Whether you are exploring the landscape or climbing on the colossi, the sound is always appropriate. You can hear birds chirp, the horse’s clops on the rocky terrain, and arrows hit things with a resounding thwack. The colossus fights bring in epic-sounding orchestral music that makes you truly feel as if you are attempting the impossible.

No. Really. At some points, you feel like you are attempting the impossible. Life isn’t too much of a concern, since it replenishes itself pretty quickly if you stay still long enough. However, you have to keep your eye on the circular grip strength meter, which slowly depletes over time the longer you cling for dear life on a colossus’s furry skin. As you explore the landscape, the game is kind enough to provide you with white-tailed lizards and fruit that you can shoot down and eat to help you with the later colossi.

While you A

Guitar Hero 2

November 7, 2006

PlayStation 2 / Reviews / by Ed Zitron /

[i]Editor’s Note: I marked this as a rental since it’s obvious this title is not a carte blanche purchase for everyone.[/i]

It’s hard reviewing a highly anticipated game, especially when you yourself anticipated it and ripped the UPS box in half trying to get to it. It’s difficult and important to make sure you don’t get overemotional when a game lives up to or dashes your expectations, and thus I deliberately left this review a week before even starting it. You see, I loved the first [i]Guitar Hero[/i]. It was intuitive, it had the best learning curve ever made, it had a fantastic track list, and you really did feel like the king of the world playing it. It was challenging, but not impossible. It was fun even when you weren’t perfect at a song because the balance was just right that you didn’t quite want to give up. The tracks were varied enough that you were excited for the next batch, not desperately hoping the next batch would be better.

…yes, you can probably guess where I’m going with this one.

[i]Guitar Hero 2[/i] is a painful experience. There. It’s said. I cannot take it back, and I will not take it back. It goes without saying that it is enjoyable, has some amazing moments, and is graphically impressive. With progressive scan mode over a component connection, it really does have a crisp, sharp feel to it that the first game lacked, and the environments and various bells and whistles of the characters and rockin’ arenas really are very pretty. There is a question that begs an answer that will probably never come, most likely drowned out under a torrent of internet hyperbole about how old men have got up and danced in awe at Buckethead’s Jordan, or how Trogdor made a sick child well again;

Who exactly did RedOctane listen to when they put together this game?

Who is the target demographic here? Who does RedOctane want to buy this game, and do not, damn you all, answer me “everyone”?

The track list, and the very feel of the game, scream that RedOctane sat down and read every internet site, every fan forum and internet site dedicated to [i]Guitar Hero[/i], and somehow got it into their heads that the only way to make [i]Guitar Hero[/i] better was to make it harder, more obscure, and seemingly more based in the realm of repetition than in that of actual fun playing guitar.

Don’t mistake this as me saying “I am awful at [i]Guitar Hero 2[/i] and cannot beat every song on easy.” I learned to alt-strum (which was necessary, as far as I’m concerned, to enjoy this game), I used the fantastic practice mode to slow down parts of tracks to work my way through the hard bits. I did everything I possibly could to make each song easier or more do-able than it was when I first tried it. And yet, no matter how good I become at some of these songs, they range from lacking the killer instinct and fun of songs such as No One Knows, Bark At The Moon, or Spanish Castle Magic. They are also far, far, far, far, far, far too fast. I flip a middle finger to anyone who actually thinks that The Living End’s Carry Me Home is fun – it isn’t. It is RedOctane catering, as they have throughout this game, to a niche audience.

I got people ranging from my roommate to my girlfriend’s father into [i]Guitar Hero[/i], because it was accessible, it had a wide range of songs, and it had a nigh-on perfect difficulty curve. It was a game that anyone could pick up, that you didn’t have to practice like real guitar to just pass a song, let alone enjoy it. [i]Guitar Hero 2[/i] lacks this element, and thus manages to set fire to one of the first hopes I have had in years for an accessible addition to the rhythm-action genre beyond Singstar.

This isn’t to say [i]Guitar Hero 2[/i] is awful. It’s actually very good when you have a good song beyond the mishmash of middling jam-band/classic rock songs. Heart-Shaped Box is fantastic, Trippin’ On A Hole In A Paper Heart, Hangar 18, and Freebird are fantastically put together, but there are so many songs in this game that I – and I measure many other people – will never want to play again. Instead of a broad spectrum of genres, it feels like this is a list of bands cobbled together with the hopes that the internet would read a few and ignore the rest.

It’s hard to guess at the direction and the reasoning behind some of the decisions made in this game. On one hand, it’s more of the same, and the enjoyable songs are really well put together – bar Killing In The Name of, which I am actually astounded made it to the real game. The practice mode is fantastically done, and the multiplayer ideas are enjoyable enough – playing bass/rhythm with a friend is great fun when the song isn’t too repetitive, and when you are playing a song that you actually like, this game is fantastic.

However, so many of the songs lack appeal, or are badly realised, or are maddeningly simple or stupidly complex (For example: Play Stop on medium, and then hard. It’s more of a learning line going upwards), or just have no place in the game (Laid To Rest, The Beast and the Harlot, Freya, etc), or are just so awfully repetitive that it isn’t much of a game (Freya, Stop, Carry Me Home), that [i]Guitar Hero 2[/i] feels as if RedOctane lost their way. To this day I have probably played through career mode more than fifteen times in [i]Guitar Hero[/i]. I never, ever, ever want to do so in [i]Guitar Hero 2[/i] again.

For the sake of fairness, I am not saying that you should not go and buy this game. I am saying that you should take a long hard listen to most of the tracks, and that will give you an idea of whether it’s worth your money.

That’s all there is to it. This isn’t a game that anyone can just buy anymore. It’s a niche-fest of classic rock, nerd rock, and one or two stand-out tracks. I cannot recommend it wholeheartedly, as no matter how many times somebody tells me, I am not impressed that they got Primus to give them the master-tapes for John The Fisherman. I like the song, but more time should have been spent actually making a competent, free-flowing game than finding useless accolades to put in press interviews and interface/practice mode tweaks.

I am full of venom and disappointment. For $10 more than the price of [i]Guitar Hero[/i], [i]Guitar Hero 2[/i] takes away a lot of the charm and fun of the original, and replaces it with an endurance test for the ages.

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