Mission: Backlog Hiatus

I'll be going into Army Basic Combat Training tomorrow, and as a result won't be able to play, much less review anything for a bit (Thanksgiving time at the earliest). I'll hopefully be able to get a couple games done over Christmas break though.

M:B #25 Star Fox

Pros: Super FX chip; three completely different paths; the voice acting; great soundtrack
Cons: Super FX chip; hit detection can be spotty; completely worthless teammates

Star Fox has always been a bit of a Moby Dick to me. As a kid, I played the game constantly, memorizing just about every detail of the first two paths that the game offered. I could easily reach Andross and defeat him as long as I chose Levels 1 or 2. However, I could never finish the third path. I'd try, getting to the third level without too much difficulty, but inevitably the boss would kill me and I'd give up, opting for one of the other paths instead so that I could actually finish the game. I vaguely remember beating the third level boss once, but I know for a fact I didn't make it past the fourth level out of seven. When Star Fox 64 came out, I played that game even more, unlocking literally everything by getting gold medals on every level. And yet in the back of my mind, I always knew that I had cheated a little bit by never actually finishing the third path of the original. No matter how satisfying it was to unlock playing multiplayer in tanks, I still couldn't finish a measly five levels in the first game. And so for the 25th Mission: Backlog I went back to a classic for some much needed closure.

As most people know, Star Fox is an on rails shooter in which you fly through each level destroying as many enemies as possible before encountering a boss. What made Star Fox so special at the time was that it was one of the first 3D games on a 16 bit console thanks to the Super FX chip which helped simulate a 3D environment. At the time, the game looked completely unique because of this, but now it just looks like an incredibly early 3D game like the original Descent. It's a bit unfair to knock the game for this now though, considering it used a completely new technology at the time. You're tasked with defeating Andross on the planet Venom, but there are three different paths to get there, each of them completely unique. The Level 1 path is of course the easiest, with the Level 2 path being slightly more difficult, and the Level 3 path being fairly punishing.You'll always start on Corneria, but even this level changes depending on what path you take, so you really haven't completed the game in its entirety until you've cleared all three paths. Granted, all three paths probably won't take you more than three hours to beat, but the variety of levels (19 in all) is definitely welcome.

In each level you'll be accompanied by three co-pilots (Falco, Slippy, and Peppy), but they're completely worthless. You can save them if you want when they're being attacked, but they'll never really take down enemies on their own. In face, I ended up killing them all off when they began to actually hinder my progress on the Level 3 path. In one of the later levels, you'll encounter gates that open a certain way depending on the direction of the blinking arrow on its front. If you shoot this arrow, it'll change directions, and you need to know which way the gate will swing so you can fly the opposite direction. Well, after rescuing Falco, he proceeded to shoot said arrow as I was about to pass the gate, causing it to open in my face and damage my ship. I might have just laughed it off if the level wasn't so damn difficult and the damage hurt me bad when it came to fighting the boss. Needless to say, there were three downed ships within minutes. The one saving grace of your teammates is the "voice acting" which is just gibberish but still incredibly entertaining. In addition to the sound effects being great, the soundtrack is one of the best I can remember on the SNES. I don't know how I didn't appreciate it more as a kid, but just about every level has an incredible theme and the opening as well as closing themes are also both classics.

There are two types of levels in Star Fox, although they're both still shooter levels. All levels that take place on a planet as well as several in space take a third person perspective and tend to be a bit more wide open. There are some levels in space that take a first person perspective, with the camera automatically returning to the center of the screen if you aren't pressing in a direction. Overall, these levels are much more restricted in terms of movement and will require you to shoot down the enemies before they strike as opposed to the third person levels where you can also dodge their shots more easily. One minor complaint is that the hit detection doesn't always seem quite on target, and this is particularly true when the enemies are further away. Granted, in the third person view there is no shooting reticule, but I was still making a lot of shots that I thought should have connected. Once the enemies are close, the detection is fine so it didn't ruin the game for me, but it still could be better. The one exception to all of this is a certain boss on the sixth stage of Level 3. I couldn't ever seem to actually hit his weak point, no matter how close I was, and I honestly ended up winning the fight with a decent amount of luck. You'll use your Arwing's blasters as well as bombs to advance through the levels. The blasters can be upgraded twice by a special powerup that comes up about once every level and, while the upgrades aren't necessary to beat the game, make it a lot more manageable. Bombs are handed out via a powerup a bit more liberally and will clear most of the screen of enemies as well as do decent damage on most bosses.

The original Star Fox isn't quite as good as it's sequel on the Nintendo 64, but it definitely laid a strong foundation for what was to follow. By no means is this a knock against the original, but for those with the option of playing either, Star Fox 64 should win out due to its more varied combat, amazingly cheesy voice acting, and great setpieces. Still, Star Fox is a classic that is worth visiting because much of this can be seen in its infancy in the original and because of the title's place in SNES history as one of the first 3D games.

Overall: 8.4
Recommended Price: $12.99 (or if you're cheap emulate it)

M:B #24 Killzone Liberation

Pros: Good synergy between optional missions and mandatory missions; cover mechanic works surprisingly well for an isometric shooter; decent number of different weapons...
Cons: ...but most are useless; hit detection problems when meleeing

I think that I thought Killzone Liberation was a different game when I first bought it. I had purchased a PSP last year and was pretty enthused to pick up a variety of games for the system, and so I bought this and Every Extend Extra at the same time. Unfortunately, I believe I was thinking of SOCOM when I purchased Killzone Liberation and I was under the bizarre impression Every Extend Extra was as well regarded as Lumines, so the entire trip seemed to be a wash, as I went home and read the reviews for each game and any enthusiasm I had evaporated. As a result, both games were set aside as I focused on Jeanne D'arc and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. I tried to play Killzone Liberation earlier this year but got stuck on the fourth level. Unfortunately, I wasn't willing to show any patience when playing the game, and after playing the same section four times I put it aside, assuming I would never come back. This ended up having the opposite effect, however, as I wanted to beat it more than ever after starting Mission: Backlog because of the difficulty I had had with the game. Killzone Liberation is a better game than I initially gave it credit for and is an all around decent action game, but it doesn't quite do enough to make it a game everyone must play.

Killzone Liberation is about the ongoing war against the Helghast, which is all the information one really needs to know. I've never been much of one for reading screens of text in an action game, and as a result Killzone Liberation's backstory was more or less lost on me. However, even without the overarching story, the missions themselves did a good job of stringing together the narrative of Templar, a soldier pitted against one particular Helghast general. Along the way, he'll be helped by a few teammates, but for the most part it's a solo mission. While the story isn't incredibly compelling, it really doesn't need to be in this type of game. At the same time, I'm not sure if the screens of text that pop up at the end of every set of missions would be more interesting to those that played the original Killzone, but I can't really make that call since I didn't have an interest in the PS2 original.

You fight from a third person isometric view in Killzone Liberation, much like in the early Zelda games or, more accurately, Smash TV. There are 20 levels in all, and the game should take about 5-7 hours to complete total. The levels feature different objectives that keep you from just going from point A to point B, but you'll never really feel lost as the objectives are presented in a logical progression and you have a map that will show you where objectives are located. You start out with a standard three shot burst rifle, but can swap it out for any weapon you find on the battlefield. Additionally, as you collect cash boxes hidden throughout each level, you'll be able to choose new weapons at the beginning of the fight. There are eight weapons in all, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, but you'll probably end up playing most of the game with one of the two assault rifles as every other weapon in the game has a drawback that makes it almost useless in certain types of combat. You can only carry one weapons at a time, so you'll be faced with the decision to pick up a weapon that could make a certain section easy but another near impossible. A little further weapon balancing would have been appreciated, or perhaps the developers could have given the simple option to carry two different weapons, but as the game stands most of the weapons just aren't feasible options for any stretch of time.

You're also given a melee attack that will knock down most enemies, leaving them wide open to massacre, but unfortunately the melee just doesn't always seem to connect when it needs to, leading to some moments of frustration as you swear that you hit someone, only to have them knock you down and kill you. The other combat option you'll have are grenades. These can usually take an enemy out in a hit and are invaluable for taking out entrenched or hard to reach enemies. Oddly, the game gives you the option to swap these out for smoke grenades, but these only seemed to serve to keep you from being able to lock on to enemies and seemed to have no effect on the enemies themselves, making them more detrimental than helpful.

Perhaps the two most invaluable tactics you'll have in Killzone Liberation are the cover mechanic and the lock on mechanic, both of which are handled incredibly well. I very seldomly locked on to the wrong enemy, even when several were standing in the same direction away from Templar. In order to cover behind an object, all you have to do is hold the right trigger and Templar will crouch behind the object. Firing you're weapon will cause him to pop out, but the section you stop firing he'll crouch back down. Coupled with the targeting system (that actually works), combat in Killzone Liberation feels intuitive.

Every five levels, you'll unlock a new set of challenges related to those five levels. These challenges range from target shooting to item collecting to killing off waves of enemies. At first, there doesn't seem to be much call for completing these challenges, but in fact you'll unlock perks that can be used in the single player campaign, giving a nice little incentive to actually play the optional material. I'm really surprised more games haven't done this in order to make optional content seem more worthwhile, but I also have to acknowledge that the challenges really aren't an absolute pain to complete, unlike a lot of bonus material in games. You can take three perks in to any mission, and these can be anything from carrying more grenades to a health boost at the beginning of a level.

Killzone Liberation is a fun action game that more perfects mechanics that most games screw up than it presents anything innovative. While it might not revolutionize the genre, it was surprisingly refreshing to see a game on the PSP that actually does the cover mechanic well, especially after playing so many games on home consoles that can't seem to get it right. Killzone Liberation is one of the better action options that exist on the PSP and should at least be considered by anyone that enjoys a decent arcade style shooter done right.

Overall Score: 8.0
Recommended Price: 6.99

M:B #23 Mister Mosquito

Pros: Unique premise; bizarre plot
Cons: Short; repetitive levels; pathfinding issues; some obnoxious obstacles; no auto-save

I've always had a soft spot for batshit crazy Japanese games. If I have to ask the question, "How was this brought to America?" I'm probably interested in the game. An RPG that features simulated suicide every battle mixed with a high school simulator? Sold. A game where the your father is the king of all cosmos and destroys the entire night sky in a drunken frenzy, leaving you to roll up objects on earth in to balls to become new stars? Sign me up. An action game where you need to store up enough blood to last you through the winter and, in the process, tear a family apart emotionally? I've got to have it. And that's how I ended up with Mister Mosquito, a game whose premise is completely unique but at the same time not really worthy of emulation, at least not without some major changes. I bought the game along with a couple others and as a result, it got shelved, but after reading all the mediocre reviews the excitement for playing the game evaporated. Mister Mosquito is a repetitive and frustrating third person action game that tries to slide purely on its charm but fails.

You play as Mister Mosquito, a creature who must suck blood out of a member of the Yamada family in each level in order to have enough blood to survive the winter. The levels each feature a single member of the Yamada family (with the exception of the last level) and you must suck out a certain amount of blood by flying up to them, landing on predesignated points, and rolling the left joystick. Roll the joystick too fast or too slow and you'll attract the family member's attention, which can lead to an instant death. You must approach the spot quickly or else the family member will spot you, triggering a battle sequence where you must hit certain "relax points" on the body in order to calm them down. With a few exceptions, the levels will bleed together because that's all you do. Approach the member, suck out the blood and the level's over. Sure, there are some hidden objects in each level to find, but the game never requires you to find any of them and doing so doesn't really affect the game (unless you love finding every object in every game). Granted, if you find all of the extra containers and fill them with blood, you unlock "Year Two" where the levels are slightly harder versions of the same thing, but you honestly won't care about playing them by the end of the game. The environments even often repeat themselves, as you'll play in the girl's bedroom 4 times out of twelve levels.

Additionally, there are certain obstacles in later levels that are incredibly frustating because you'll never be sure if you're going to be hit by them. The biggest offender here are the smoke coils, as you don't have a clear idea of how large of an area the smoke is occupying. After playing this, I sincerely believe smoke is the worst possible enemy imaginable in a game. You'll find yourself hitting these over and over accidentally in a certain "Japanese Room" level in addition to being hit into them by Mr. Yamada, leading to several moments where I just about turned the game off.

The controls are functional, which is actually an accomplishment in this case as you really can wander around the entire 3D level relatively intuitively. The only two places where the game could have improved are a better 180 turn mechanic (the one in the game seems sloppily executed) and a better dash system. The dash only works when a certain object of interest is targeted, but the game will lock on when there are objects in the way, leading to you dashing into random objects when you don't mean to. Additionally, the targets sometimes need to be hit from very specific angles without any real warning, leading to you wondering if you're hitting the target from the completely wrong direction or just a few degrees off.

There are cutscenes at the beginning of each level, and as the game progresses, the Yamada family become more and more frustrated with one another because no one can kill you. It's by far the best part of the game, but its cute at best and in no way a reason to play the game. Mister Mosquito's levels only last about 5 minutes each, meaning its possible to beat the entire game in a couple of hours. You won't find much of a reason to come back afterwards unless you really want to play the aforementioned Year Two, so the game's replay is pretty low overall. If Mister Mosquito interests you, you're probably better off playing Katamari Damacy, because even if the premise doesn't involve playing as a mosquito, it's just as batshit crazy and a much better game overall.

Overall Score: 5.5
Recommended Price: $1.99

M:B #22 Gungrave Overdose

Pros: Improved combat; fairly lengthy; challenging; lots of unlockables
Cons: Combat eventually still becomes repetitive; using other characters requires you to restart the game; level design can be a bit bland

The first Gungrave didn't wow me. Even when I first bought it and played through the first couple of levels, I knew it was a mediocre game, which is probably why I didn't finish it until recently. As I stated in the review, the combat was mediocre and uninteresting, which is all that really matters in a third person action game. So I'm not quite sure why I was so quick to pick up Gungrave Overdose. Part of it was undoubtedly the price, as it was released for $15 originally. I picked it up along with Katamari Damacy for about $30 total, but my interest in Katamari far outweighed my excitement to play Overdose. I knew that the sequel had gotten much better reviews than the original, but I still can't say that I was excited to play it. As a result, I bought the game and quickly shelved it, waiting for a rainy day that I would finally get around to playing it. Turns out that day was never going to actually happen until Mission: Backlog, but I didn't care. The game was only $15 bucks, so the amount of buyer's remorse I would have for buying a game and never playing it would be minimal at worst. While I can't say that I was incredibly pleased with Gungrave Overdose, it does fix most of the problems of the original and is a decent action game in its own right.

Gungrave Overdose begins several years after the end of the first game, as Beyond the Grave is revived once more by Miko to do battle against an evil company. This time, it's in the form of an organized crime family that is spreading a drug called Seed that more or less possesses its users. After the first few levels, you meet Rocketbilly Redcadillac and Juji Kabane, two heroes that are also walking dead. You can switch to one of these characters if you want, but doing so requires you to start the game over and repeat the first few levels. It seems a better option would have been the ability to switch characters at the beginning of any level. This would have given the game a bit more variety, but instead you need to finish the game with one character. Beyond the Grave has balanced long and short range attacks, Rocketbilly excels in long range combat, and Juji is the melee expert. The option to play through the game with a completely different approach adds a bit to the replay, but once again the option to change characters mid story would have been welcome.

This time around there are nine stages of varying lengths, and overall Overdose is much longer than the original. The level design still feels a little bland, although there are many more objects to destroy in Overdose. It's also a much more challenging game, requiring you to master certain tactics like the lateral jump shot in order to pass more difficult sections of the game. This works in the game's favor, as even though it can be frustrating to repeatedly die on certain sections, the game offers a couple different tactics that will see you through any battle if you can employ them properly. Certain characters will have an easier time with specific enemies, but every character has the ability to trounce the enemy if used correctly.

The combat itself has been drastically improved as it's been complicated just enough to be interesting but still accessible. Perhaps the most welcome change is the pace that Grave naturally walks at. In the original, you needed to hold down a separate button to have him run a little bit faster, but Grave always runs now and at a quicker clip. The main tactic in combat is to build up your beat meter by continually hitting enemies without being hit yourself. Doing so adds points to your Demolition gauge, and filling this up will give you access to a Demolition Shot. Demolition Shots are specials that will drastically hurt just about every enemy on screen, and you'll gain access to new shots depending on your combat performance. When the level ends, you'll gain skulls depending on certain parameters such as time, health left, and highest beat count, and after you get a certain number of skulls a new Demolition Shot will be unlocked. You also now have a shield meter that needs to be depleted before your health starts to drain. You can regain your shield by waiting while no enemies are around or by using your Demolition Shots. This adds a bit of strategy to fights as you'll try to use Demolition Shots in order to gain back shield as well as damage enemies. Combat can become a little repetitive near the end of the game, as certain tactics seem to work better than others, but overall the combat will keep you interested for the duration of the title. The boss fights are much more interesting than the ones found in the original and will require different tactics than the ones used on normal enemies. Additionally, several of the bosses are dead versions of characters that you killed in the original, so there's a bit of fan service for those who actually played the original.

The game offers a slew of unlockables depending on how well you perform in the game, which will definitely entice some to play again with the different characters. The normal mode was fairly challenging in and of itself, but there are two more difficulty levels above that if players feel so inclined. Overall, it's obvious that a lot more work went into the sequel, as much of it seems like a labor of love.

Gungrave Overdose is a drastic improvement over the original game. It still feels a bit familiar, but the creators clearly recognized that Gungrave was flawed in some key aspects and set about to fix them. The combat in the game can get a little bland by the very end, but overall Gungrave Overdose is a challenging third person shooter that's fun to play, although there are better action games out there.

Overall score: 7.7
Recommended Price: $5.99

M:B #21 Final Fantasy V

Pros: Innovative job system; painless grinding; combat often allows for innovation
Cons: Often requires specific tactics that'll require you to reset the game; forgettable story; frequent load times on the PS1 version

Final Fantasy V should have been one of the games that I was looking forward to playing the most. The job system directly inspired Final Fantasy XI, the first MMORPG I ever really got in to, and I loved the job swapping in Dragon Quest IX (which was fairly similar to what was found in Final Fantasy V). However, for some reason, I had a hard time bringing myself to play it, let alone finish it. I think the conversion itself is partly to blame, as I knew that I was in for a game who's pacing was going to be hurt purely by the load times (I learned the first hand after starting Chrono Trigger on PS1 and then playing it through on the much smoother DS version). But I honestly don't know why I was less excited to start it than Final Fantasy II, a game I knew was partly broken because of it's combat. I have to say that after playing through it, I felt somewhat justified in my reluctance, as I found it often more frustrating than even the eldest Final Fantasy games due to its requiring cheap strategies and, frankly, cheapness.

Final Fantasy V returns to the roots of the series in terms of story, as the main quest features four heroes who must defend four crystals and save the world from danger. The only two Final Fantasies to feature more simplistic stories were I and III, and there is especially whiplash since V followed the game that had had the strongest story of the series to date. As the game goes on, things do get a bit more complicated when the existence of a second world exists, but the game never really strives for anything more than mediocrity in terms of story. In the end, you are predictably tasked with saving the world from a great evil, this time in the form of a sorcerer named X-Death (I've been told by a friend that the character was actually named Exodus in the Japanese original, but the phonetic pronunciation of the name somehow lead the American translators hearing it as X-Death).While I find it understandable for certain games to focus on particular elements to the detriment of others, I really don't find it acceptable to go so lightly on the story when it comes to RPGs, seeing as the story often offers the most incentive to continue playing a 15+ hour game. Humor in the game was also lost on me, as Final Fantasy V offered the most forced humor situations I've ever seen in a Final Fantasy. Perhaps the translation was partly to blame for every joke falling flat, but I doubt it (I kind of chuckled at the pun names in Dragon Quest IX, so I'm not completely adverse to bad humor).

The selling point of the game, and where most of the development clearly went, is the job system. You begin the game with an everyman class, but soon gain access to a handful of jobs that range from White Mage to Knight. By the eighth hour, you'll have found just about every job that the game has to offer (22 in all), but unlike Final Fantasy III, you aren't limited just to the abilities of the class you have equipped. As you level up a class, you earn abilities related to that job that get stored in a sort of ability bank unique to each character. Every character, regardless of job, can equip an additional skill from this bank regardless of their current class, which allows you to mix up the classes a bit. For instance, you could level up a white mage and then switch to a knight but equip the "White Magic" skill in the additional slot to custom make a paladin. The combinations can get pretty interesting, but there are some classes that are clearly inferior and that you aren't likely to touch at all. Overall, there are enough worthwhile classes to still make it interesting and you definitely won't end up keeping your characters in one job the entire game.

The jobs level up separately from your character's main level and you'll find yourself grinding in order to get a new skill for a particular job instead of just grinding to level up. In the last dungeon, I probably ended up unnecessarily grinding for the last battle for about a half an hour because I wanted to master as many classes as I could before facing X-Death. There's also a nice little twist on the system that the game doesn't mention explicitly in that two of the classes gain the best attributes of the classes that you have maxed out, which offers a good incentive to keep leveling up multiple classes. The combat itself is straightforward and more or less identical to the other SNES Final Fantasies, complete with the ATB gauge and frantic menu flipping. You'll find the full array of white and black magic here with the addition of a bunch of skills from different jobs that were not seen again until Final Fantasy XI, so the combat offers a nice variety.

Part of this is due to the fact that Final Fantasy V can be punishingly specific in the tactics it requires you to take, forcing you to change your characters classes in order to win certain boss fights. I'm all for a fight being much more difficult based on the personal choices I've made for my party, but the fights should still be doable. It happens all the time in Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, and I loved it. But Final Fantasy V has a couple of fights that will just be impossible without certain classes which both forced me to restart certain sections and look at an online FAQ frequently to try and avoid further frustration. There are also certain optional boss fights that are near impossible, but you'll run in to if you don't see them coming. There are two in the last level that would require an insane amount of leveling to beat, but players will casually encounter them and inevitably die. I encountered one of these on my way to save my game, resulting in an unnecessary replaying of half of the last dungeon.


The game offers a decent array of optional quests at the end of the game that can lead to the last battle being significantly easier, and just about all can be done painlessly. There are a few optional boss fights like the ones previously mentioned that will test your grinding capabilities, but most bosses at the end of the side quests can be beaten without too much additional effort. While some might view it as fault, after some of the cheap boss battles earlier in the game I was fairly relieved. I was originally not going to get Bahamut, the last summon, because I feared that he would be as cheap as some of the other bosses, but I was actually pleasantly surprised.

Final Fantasy V annoyed me because of how much better it could have easily been. I found the job system innovative and it's more or less what drove me to finish the game, despite a completely lackluster story and frustrating boss fights. With a little more work in terms of story and a bit of tweaking on some of the fights, Final Fantasy V could have been up there as one of the top Final Fantasy games, but instead its faults hold it back and make it an above average RPG.

Overall Score: 7.3
Recommended price: $10, but buy the Game Boy Advance Rerelease

M:B #20 Gungrave

Pros: Interesting style; "beat" system makes combat interesting; nothing is broken
Cons: Too short; combat is monotonous; too easy; story is forgettable/incomprehnsible

 I'll never remember the appeal that the original Gungrave had for me when I bought the game. The game had gotten mediocre reviews, no one I knew owned it, and there was almost no buzz surrounding the game whatsoever. Granted, I'm all for a mediocre action game, but this one was so much so that it fell through just about every crack. After playing through the game, I wished I had a better insight into why I had bought the game in the first place, but to be honest, I'm still pretty clueless. I also don't understand why I didn't finish the game, seeing as it took me just about an hour to complete all of the game's six stages.  Gungrave proved to be a shooter that's art clearly aspired to something greater than what was produced, which is somewhat of a shame.

In Gungrave, you control Grave, a man that has been brought back from the dead to take revenge on the friends and organization that killed him. The story starts from this basic premise but quickly becomes nonsensical as elements such as a floating city named Billion are introduced. Thankfully, the cutscenes are skippable in case you tire of listening to dialogue that doesn't make any sense. There are six stages to the game that get progressively longer, but even the sixth level only lasts around 15 minutes total. In each stage, you'll walk down corridor after corridor at an extremely slow pace while firing two pistols. Occasionally you might want to use the melee attack to clear out an area, but it really doesn't do much to break up the monotony of the action. If you stand in place and fire your weapons quickly, Grave begins to do all sorts of gunslinging, but it doesn't change the fact that you're just tapping a single button to make him shoot forward. In fact, it's arguably more boring because you aren't even using your left hand. Each stage ends with a boss fight, but these are almost all completely forgettable as well. As you hit enemies, your Beat count continues to rise until you don't hit an enemy for about three seconds. Additionally, continually earning beats contributes to a gauge that, once filled, allows for a Demolition Shot, the game's equivalent of a super move. These often clear out the room or at the very least do major damage to the enemies. It can be somewhat fun to try to keep a chain of beats going as long as possible, but there isn't much of a reward for doing so and it doesn't affect the combat itself at all other than causing you to try and hurry.

At the end of each stage, you're ranked in several different paramaters including your max beat count, percentage of enemies killed, and time. Theoretically one could continually try to improve their scores, but honestly there's little incentive to do this outside of personal pride, so it doesn't really add much to the replay value of the game. You do unlock various Demolition Shots for getting decent scores on the levels, but I was able to get them all on the first try, so this alone is hardly a reason anyone will replay a level. Once you've gone through Gungrave once, you're not likely to return to it.

There really isn't much more to say about Gungrave, seeing as the game is over so quickly and doesn't give much reason to replay it. The creators would improve upon the game drastically for the sequel, but the original is so far behind that it feels almost like a tech demo in comparison. Gungrave Overdose came out for $15 and offered a much better experience, rendering the original Gungrave obsolete and not really worth anyone's time. It doesn't offer any new or innovative ideas and really is only going to be of worth to fans of the anime of the same name, seeing how it was based completely on the first game.

Overall Score: 5.0
Recommended price: $.50

M:B #19 Rogue Galaxy

Pros: Interesting combat system; good item creation system; all characters play differently;
Cons: Weak story; bad voice acting; too long cutscenes; level design is bland; factory system is too complicated

The PS2 is hands down the best system for RPGs in my book. I originally bought the system in part to play Final Fantasy X, and since then haven't been disappointed with the overwhelming selection of great RPGs on the system. Part of the reason Mission: Backlog was begun in the first place (besides saving money) was to finally start to tackle a pile of RPGs that I had bought for the PS2 and just never really had time for. Granted, there are a few that I haven't played yet that I know I'm going to be on the fence about (namely .hack//Infection), but for the most part I was wise in the ones that I bought. I ended up owning Rogue Galaxy because it dropped to twenty bucks at Circuit City and had pretty good reviews (an overall metacritic of 83, nothing to snuff at for a game no one's heard of). The problem was that I bought it at the same time as about 7 other RPGs, of which I played two before forgetting about the rest. Rogue Galaxy was fairly low on my priority list of those 7, so it was shelved and more or less forgotten about.

Unlike most other games I shelved, however, this one always bugged me, and I could never figure out why. Maybe it was because I hadn't ever given a Factor 5 RPG a chance, despite their positive reviews. Maybe it was because it was one of the few RPGs that I had that didn't belong to any series, and seemed to promise something unique. After finishing it, I'm still not sure what it was that got to me. But I hope to God it was the first, otherwise I look like an idiot. Rogue Galaxy is a fun and satisfying RPG for the PS2, but it's story is perhaps its weakest point and gives little drive to finish the 35 hour RPG. Instead, you're completion of the game is likely going to be dependent on how interesting you find the combat which, while not entirely unique, was enough to keep my interest throughout the length of the game.

Rogue Galaxy tells the story of Jaster Rogue, an orphan on a desert planet who dreams of exploring space one day. Lucky for him, he's mistaken for a famous bounty hunter and recruited aboard a pirate ship. From here, the story slowly escalates, eventually leading to your mission of discovering a lost planet that is rumored to be filled with treasures. Of course, it turns out that there is a sinister threat at work that threatens the entire galaxy, and you are the only one capable of stopping it. While the story itself doesn't necessarily seem cliched, it's how the game goes about presenting it that will make you roll your eyes more than once. From a secret princess among your crew to a friend betraying you to your own secret heritage, everything in the story feels done before, even when it hasn't been. With a little more effort, the story could have been much more engaging, but as it stands, it just feels lazy most of the time. Add to that voice acting that will constantly make you cringe and cutscenes that go on for way too long and you'll find yourself less than inclined to care about what's happening in the game. I'm all for cutscenes of just dialogue normally, but when its bad actors repeating the same information over and over for five minutes, I can't help but wish for a single text sentence to appear on screen to tell me what I needed to know. The framing of the cutscenes is also suspect, as it never looks anything close to natural, but rather makes it look like a bunch of puppets are being controlled on a barren set. Overall, as you can probably guess, the presentation needs work.

Thankfully, the combat is much more interesting than the presentation of the story. Rogue Galaxy features real-time combat, something common in current RPGs but still fairly unusual for PS2 RPGs (I know that there are others out there, but most of the big name RPGs for that generation were turn-based). Although the level design can be a bit bland, Rogue Galaxy somewhat requires it because the battles are seemlessly integrated. This means that when you encounter a random enemy, you fight them exactly where you are on the game map. Characters have two attacks, one of which can be charged up to break an enemy's shield. These attacks are dependent on what character you are using, as some have a melee and a long ranged attack while others simply have two long ranged attacks. Most enemies are taken down by some combination of the two, although there are some that require special tactics, such as having to jump on them before attacking or requiring a charged up hit to break their shield. It helps break the combat up a bit, although it is oddly restricting sometimes, namely with a certain enemy type that requires you to hit them with a specific blaster before being able to do any damage. This becomes an annoyance because there isn't a quick way to change blasters; instead, you must go through a menu in order to select the correct weapon. It slows the combat down way too much, but thankfully these enemies come up very seldom.

You have the option to switch to any character that's in the battle, which can help bring a bit of variety to the combat. My only complaint with this is that the main character is the most fun to use by far, which inadvertantly limits the amount of creativity that you want to practice. Still, the ability to change it up every once in a while is nice. Additionally, every character has a unique "revelation" (read "flow") chart that they use to gain new abilities. These charts are filled with items found throughout the gameworld and offer an interesting way of customizing your characters, as characters will often require the same items to develop further. This forces you to choose who you want to develop more and in what way. This is all done in tandem with a traditional leveling system that increases your basic stats based on your current level. Characters not being used gain 3/4 of the experience of active members, always making them viable options.

Weapons that you have equipped gain experience every battle, and once an item has been sufficiently used, you have the option of combining it with another weapon of the same type. It sounds simple, but offers a nice incentive to not use the same weapon over and over as well as getting you excited about new equipment more often as you're just as likely to create a great new weapon in the middle of a dungeon as you are to buy one in a shop. The factory system does not work quite as well, however. Part way through the game, you gain access to a factory in which you can create new items using items found around the world, but the process is needlessly overcomplicated to the point where you need to insure every piece of machinery is connected to a power outlet. The system has the potential to be interesting, but the minutia involved diminishes the rewards.

Rogue Galaxy is disappointing more because it had the potential to be a lot better. The presentation is by far the biggest offender, operating under the assumption that the player won't mind lazy cliches. I know that most RPGs are far from unique, but it takes a particularly uninspired one to make me take notice at how unoriginal it is. The combat system, on the other hand, is great, and it seems to be where most of the effort went. While I recognize making every cutscene compelling is tough in a game over 30 hours, I've done just fine with Xenosaga, which featured hours more of cutscenes with better results. If you're looking for a decent action RPG for the PS2, Rogue Galaxy will do fine, but don't expect to be wowed.

Overall: 7.4
Recommended Price: $5.99

M:B #18 Dynasty Warriors 3 Xtreme Legends

Pros: Fighting against hundreds of enemies at a time; battles can involve some strategy
Cons: Repetitive combat; short campaign; slowdown when attacking a large group; can't move camera with the right analog stick

Dynasty Warriors is a series that has become infamous because of its rehashed gameplay across 5 sequels and several other offshoots (Samurai Warriors and Dynasty Warriors Strike Force to name two of them), but things weren't always that bleak for the series. While Dynasty Warriors was simply a fighting game for the PS1, Dynasty Warriors 2 offered something that was exceedingly rare in games: an open battlefield. Too often games were linear in nature and had you fighting enemies in a particular pattern throughout a level. However, with Dynasty Warriors 2, players were able to fight the battles as they saw fit against hundreds, sometimes thousands of disposable enemies. There was something inherently satisfying about killing off hundreds of enemies in every level, even if they were pretty mindless. Dynasty Warriors 3 upped the ante a bit by offering more customization options for the characters and allowing for two player co-op, something that was oddly missing from Dynasty Warriors 2. Dynasty Warriors 3 was actually fairly well received, garnering a metacritic score of 78 at the time. While Koei was developing Dynasty Warriors 4, they decided to offer an add-on pack to get a few more bucks out of gamers called Dynasty Warriors 3: Xtreme Legends, which allowed players to use some of the boss characters from the original Dynasty Warriors 3 in campaign mode and also allowed you to port these characters over to the original Dynasty Warriors 3. Sum total, there were only 7 new generals, which was nothing compared to the original's 42, but the game wasn't meant as a full-fledged sequel and came out for a budget price.

I came to own Dynasty Warriors 3: Xtreme Legends and no other Dynasty Warrior game because, quite simply, I was looking for a co-op game to play with my sister and it was by far the cheapest Dynasty Warriors game that Gamestop had at the time. I only played it with her for a short while because we seemed to keep failing missions, and when I took it to college, a friend of mine and I also seemed unable to push past the third or fourth level in the game. Since we couldn't finish it, the game got shelved and I didn't touch it until a few weeks ago, against the warnings of a friend who said that the game didn't age well. I was prepared for an archaic experience, but honestly found myself pleasantly surprised. Dynasty Warriors 3: Xtreme Legend is obviously meant to be an expansion and not a standalone game, but that doesn't hinder the core combat which is still surprisingly satisfying, if a bit repetitive.

Dynasty Warriors 3: XL continues to tell the story of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. You'll play as historic Chinese generals, fighting for their respective causes throughout a military campaign. Combat in Dynasty Warriors 3: XL consists of mashing on the main attack button while occasionally breaking it up with a "Musou" attack, a move that can only be used when the Musou gauge is filled. You fill this by performing regular attacks, so the combat gets a certain rhythm to it where you attack, attack, do a super, and repeat. Technically, there is also a heavy attack button, but quite honestly I never found a reason to use it. For the most part, the enemies just stand around, waiting to be killed, so its pretty easy to mow through an entire crowd with the above strategy. However, you will also periodically find a general in with the rest of the troops, and they require a little bit of a different approach. They have the ability to block, which means you'll be using single "poking" attacks, waiting for them to drop their guard before you unleash a full combo. The number of hits in a combo is determined by the weapon that you have, and you'll find upgrades as you proceed through the campaign.

The combat may seem a bit repetitive, but what has always made Dynasty Warriors unique is the context you fight in. Every level takes place on a battlefield where you'll be tasked with not just attacking as many enemies as possible, but completing a certain objective. In most levels, this is kill a certain enemy general while protecting a certain allied general, but the game mixes it up every once in a while with a completely different objective like stopping a general from escaping. All told, there are only six levels to a campaign, so it really didn't bother me too much that there was a lack of variety in objectives, but some might find issue with it. While the campaign is short, you can always play through with a different character that will have somewhat different levels. Levels might repeat between characters every once in a while, but you'll probably have to play through at least three different characters before you've seen all the levels the game has to offer.

There is one other odd complaint I had with the gameplay, and it involved the camera. Namely, you can't move it with the right analog stick, which seems second nature to me for third person action games. Instead, you have to tap on L1 to bring the camera back behind the character, which is fairly awkward. I recognize that this innovation just might not have been established in games yet, but it feels off regardless. Also, there is some slowdown when you attack a particularly large group of enemies, although it really doesn't damage gameplay. To an extent, it looked more dramatic to me, but it is clearly due to the game's technical limitations and not an artistic choice.

Dynasty Warriors 3: Xtreme Legends isn't a classic game by any stretch of the imagination. The combat is repetitive, the campaign short, and the graphics fairly bland. However, that doesn't stop the game from being entertaining while it lasts, especially if you play through with a friend. It won't take you more than a couple hours to finish, but considering all of the Dynasty Warriors PS2 games are in the bargain bin now, you can always pick up a couple and still not break the $10 mark. If you have friends that don't play games much, this is a perfect game to waste some time, even if there are better overall games out there.

Overall Score: 7.1
Recommended Price: 2.99

M:B #17 Grand Theft Auto IV

Pros: Large open world to explore; offers many options, from dating to clothing; helpful GPS feature
Cons: Some of the base mechanics (like targeting) feel broken; missions involve luck far too often; missions tend to run together; no checkpoints within missions

Grand Theft Auto 3 was a system seller to me. When it first came out, I was mesmerized by the writeups and screenshots without even playing the game or even seeing it in action. It got to the point where I had my sister and her boyfriend take me to the mall to buy the game, even though I didn't own a PS2. I wanted to play the game so bad that I practically forced myself to buy a PS2 by getting a game for a system I didn't even own. When I finally got to play it, it was hardly the best experience in gaming that I had ever had, but it was still enjoyable enough that I made it through three quarters of it before quitting for Final Fantasy X. Now, I went back and finished the game at a later point, but the fact remained that I found the overall repetitive gameplay a bit off putting, even if it was done in a way that (at that point) really hadn't been done before. I passed when Vice City came out, but San Andreas hooked me with its promise of even more freedom by being able to drive in the country between cities and fly airplanes as well. I played San Andreas start to finish without a problem, as somehow the diversity between areas helped break up the game enough that I didn't notice I was doing the exact same tasks over and over. The game was criticized for offering too much dead space in the form of the country between the cities, but that helped make the game feel special to me. And so when Grand Theft Auto IV came out and offered a new take on the city from Grand Theft Auto 3, I wasn't exactly chomping at the bit to get the game. Sure, it offered a lot of refinements, but it also marked a devolution in the series to me, returning to something safe instead of venturing too far out of the series's comfort zone. And so I waited until I could pick the game up for five bucks before taking to plunge and buying it. It was more or less exactly what I expected, in that Grand Theft Auto IV is a well done open-world third person shooter that offers up some interesting gameplay, but not enough to last its entire span.

Grand Theft Auto IV is the story of Nico Bellic, an Eastern European immigrant who has come to Liberty City to seek the man that betrayed him and in turn killed his entire home village. Nico begins by helping out his cousin, who works at a small taxi company, but he soon climbs the ladder of organized crime until he is doing jobs for the Mafia. GTA IV all takes place in Liberty City, although the city is divided into three islands which the player gradually earns access to. It happens fairly organically, as the player is sent on missions that go further and further out until they are in completely different areas. There doesn't seem to be a set course of mission in order to beat the game, and if there is, Rockstar did a good job of disguising which missions were essential. Getting around the city is easier than ever because of a GPS feature on the radar that tells you the roads to take in order to get to your destination or any waypoint you decide to place on the map. Given that Libtery City's highways would be a nightmare to traverse otherwise, this is an incredibly welcome feature. Driving around the city is well done, with a blur motion effect that makes speeding much more intense than it had been in previous entries. The different car models handle differently enough to make it interesting, although the motorcycles prove to be relatively worthless in the game. Players can also drive boats and helicopters, although the boats seem too slow to be interesting and the helicopter controls too poorly to be a viable option for transportation. The city itself is well made, with a full population that act naturally enough that it doesn't seem like its just a bunch of NPCs filling a void. The traffic might not always act realistically, but some liberties had to be taken (we couldn't have police pulling the player over for going through every red light, after all). The city itself is clearly where most of the effort went, and it shows, both for better and worst.

The missions themselves might have been fun if the combat system didn't seem so antiquated and, quite frankly, broken. Players target enemies by holding the left trigger, and then fire with the right trigger. However, the game often either has a hard time detecting enemies or targets the wrong one without an easy way of changing targets. Additionally, once you're locked on to a target, you can't unlock yourself without releasing the left trigger. I'm used to being able to correct my aim after an autotarget by using the right analog stick, but GTA IV's auto-aim fights you every step of the way and tries to snap back to the target's stomach. This makes throwing grenades near impossible, as you'll aim, get snapped on to a target behind a wall, and be unable to move the target away from the wall in order to throw the grenade effectively.What's perhaps the most sad is that the auto-aim ruined some of the biggest missions in the game. The penulimate mission features an indoor section in a tanker that is nearly unplayable, and basically any extended mission with an indoor section was at least twice as difficult as it should have been because of the targeting. Which brings up another major flaw in the game: a lack of mid-mission checkpoints. Some missions last around 10 minutes, and a random occurence (say a car blocking a path when it normally doesn't) might cause you to fail 8 minutes in. You are forced to start the mission from the beginning, risking another random occurence in those initial 8 minutes. From what I understand, they fixed this in the DLC, but it still should have been released with the original game.

The missions also tend to involve the same objectives but in different orders, leading to a lot of familiar experiences. The game throws a cool variation every once in a while, like a bank robbery or an assassination involving a job interview followed by an escape against the security guards, but too often its a variation of driving somewhere, shooting some place up, and chasing a car down. The more epic missions near the end just tend to string together activities from multiple earlier missions instead of trying to do anything new.

In addition to the main missions, players have the option to do activities with the game's various minor characters in order to build up a good relationship and even go on dates with various women. You can partake in activities such as bowling and darts with your companion, but none of this is required in the game (outside of one bowling excursion). This adds to the overall feeling that you're actually living in a city, but because the events are completely optional, they tend to feel tacked on.

I honestly doubt that Grand Theft Auto IV will be as well regarded in the future as it is today. A broken combat system, repetitive missions, and a lack of modern gameplay innovations like mid-mission checkpoints all hold the game back, despite a surprisingly well done open world that is relatively free of bugs (or at least major game changing ones). While people only interested in driving around the city and wreaking havoc may enjoy themselves for awhile, that in of itself isn't enough to sell GTA IV. Grand Theft Auto 3 may have changed the way we view open-world games, but Grand Theft Auto IV does little to innovate, and it ends up holding the game back.

Overall Score: 7.9
Recommended Price: $5

M:B #16 Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner

Pros: Fast combat that doesn't get stale; levels are just one interesting scenario after another; lots of subweapons to experiment with
Cons: Not all of the subweapons are useful; story is a bit incoherent and hurts the pacing of the game; short; occassionally fickle camera

Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner is perhaps the best example on my list of unbeaten games of a game that I have no excuse for not beating. When I first bought the game about four or five years ago, I played through the entire game and got to the last boss, but then I just put the controller down and never went back. It's not as if I was forcing myself through the game, as I genuinely loved it, both because of a fascination with mechs at the time and because it was an incredibly well done action game. It wasn't because the boss was particularly hard, although I did die when I first faced him. I didn't even have the outside excuse of going on vacation or having something else come up in my life. I literally just stopped playing it and never picked it back up for that last battle. It ended up being a mixed blessing, however, as Mission: Backlog gave me a good reason to replay a game I knew I liked.

Zone of the Enders 2: The Second Runner is a third person mech game that casts you as the pilot of Jehuty, a specialized "Orbital Frame" (this game's name for mechs) that is wanted by two warring factions. Technically the story continues on from the first game, but no real knowledge from the original is needed to get the gist of what is going on. I say "get the gist" because while the general story is easy enough to follow, the specifics are nearly incomprehensible. You find Jehuty while on a mining mission, at which point you are forced to fight in a war where you used to fight in one of the factions until some type of betrayal and the other faction seems to be manipulating you for their own ends. Thrown into the mix is a new energy source called Metatron and a deceased comrade that has been turned into an AI. ZotE2 is a Hideo Kojima game, which should tip off most people that the story will be as convoluted as his Metal Gear Solid games, but I felt like ZotE2 had an especially miasmic quality to its story that didn't really have to exist. The story cutscenes happen often and can last between 3-10 minutes, which also tends to hurt the pace of the game. However, that's also because the action sections are that good.

Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner features just about the best mech combat that I have seen in a video game. Mechs in anime often zip about at incredible speeds, dashing from one enemy to another without missing a beat. Mech games, on the other hand, tend to have the mechs trodding slowly around as the developers try to accentuate the weight and enormity of the machines. ZotE2 successfully recreates anime-style mech battles as the player can take Jehuty from enemy to enemy with little effort, making the machine feel that much more powerful. There is one main attack button that changes the style of attack based on how far one is from the enemy. If the enemy is far away, Jehuty will fire an energy shot. If they're close, he'll use a blade attached to his arm. Jehuty also has access to a variety of subweapons, each with a different function. While they're all fun to experiment with, there are a few that are much more useful than others, meaning that you'll be relying on only one or two and you'll ignore the others. The camera can sometimes obscure the action, particularly when near a wall, but it will by no means ruin the game for anyone.

While the combat itself is pretty satisfying, it's the levels that make Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner so special. Clearly a lot of thought went into the level structures, as almost every level is unique from the last. While you begin simply going through a base, battling enemies, the game doesn't settle into that rut. You'll fight boss battles often, most of which require wildly different tactics than you would use otherwise. Additionally, the game has a couple of "dream scenarios," levels that just about any mech fan would kill to have. The two that stand out in my mind are one in which you must take down a fleet of 5 airships in a single life and one in which you fight an entire battle, complete with thousands of enemies and over 50 allies. The levels force you to approach combat in a slightly different way that is still immensely satisfying and go a long ways towards making the game memorable. As I mentioned before, I'd played most of ZotE2 in the past, and when I was playing through it again, I found myself thinking "I remember this!" just about every level (and not with an "oh fuck" before it). You'll likely be disappointed that the game ends after about five and a half hours or so, although chances are you'll enjoy every minute of the gameplay (outside of one somewhat slow "stealth" section). The story took up a bit too much of this five and a half hours as well, although once again these might seem like moot complaints given that Metal Gear Solid was about six hours long and featured more cutscenes.

Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner is a game that would be perfect for anyone with a passing interest in 3rd person action games. The action is frenetic enough to always feel exciting, and yet structured in a way that you'll almost always know exactly what you're doing. Add to that first class level design and you have a game that probably should have catapulted the series (thank Metal Gear Solid 3-5 for the lack of a sequel) but instead just lead to some of the best gameplay in a game last generation, despite a too short game.

Overall Score: 8.8
Recommended price: $10

Bioshock 2

Pros: Interesting story; strong combat encourages experimentation; excellent setting; new multiplayer options
Cons: Some pacing issues ; lots of powers recycled from first game

Quick preamble: I've purposely left off spoilers from both the first and second games, as Bioshock featured some of the best plot twists of 2007, and knowing those aren't important when explaining Bioshock 2. So the descriptions of the games reflect what you're given at the beginning of the game story wise, not what you know by the end.

 I really don't like period pieces in the least. One of the more painful movie viewing experiences of the year was watching Jim Carrey's The Majestic, although to be fair it was watched after 3 other Jim Carrey movies and I was already exhausted. The setting of Batman: The Animated Series was always a turnoff to me instead of a reason to watch (particularly after the setting created a shitload of continuity errors when they launched Batman Beyond. How can you age 30-40 years and suddenly jump 70 years into the future, Bruce Wayne?). So when I borrowed the original Bioshock from a friend, I did so with a grain of sand, not really looking to love it, but still expecting it to be a good game. It ended up playing alot like Deus Ex or, more accurately, Clive Barker's Undying, and I found myself enjoying the game because of the setting, not in spite of it. For anyone who has ever been to Epcot and gone on the "Future World" ride or simply watched Mad Men, the 1960s were a strange time where idealism seemed to override all else and coat almost every social problem with a glossy finish. This was an absolutely perfect time setting for a game based in a utopian underwater city that seemed lost in time. Bioshock 2 manages build on the setting by offering a unique view on the city that takes place after the first game has concluded.

Bioshock 2 takes a much different path than the first game in that it attempts to tell a much more personal story. Bioshock was great in that the story featured someone that was looking at the underground utopia of Rapture with fresh eyes, and so exploring the city and soaking in the new setting was as exciting as anything else in the game. The sequel faced the challenge of a game with a setting everyone was already familiar with, and hence Bioshock 2 had to do some trailblazing if it was going to be as engaging as the first. It does this with an overall better story that has the player controlling a Big Daddy, one of the lumbering giants from the first game that were effectively minibosses in the first game. Big Daddies are protectors of Little Sisters, the seemingly obligatory creepy children that harvest an energy substance from dead bodies throughout Rapture. In the first game, you were given the option of rescuing them or killing them after defeating a Big Daddy, but in Bioshock 2 defeating a Big Daddy allows you to adopt their Little Sister. You can then go around and have them harvest energy for you before you decide whether you want to rescue them or kill them. The overarching story involves you finding the Little Sister that you were originally created for, and while it may not have the same overall sense of espionage and intrigue that the first game had, it features a mission that is more personal and hence a bit either to sympathize with.

The setting is once again one of the main draws of the game as you go through different sections of Rapture in order to get to your Little Sister. Although some of the sheen from the first game has worn off the second time around, Rapture is still an overall stunning city that contains some great scenery. The game also has several sections where you simply walk underwater outside the city which, while they don't offer any combat whatsoever, are highlights because of the ruins and neon plants that you must push through to get to the next area.

The gameplay is almost identical to that in the first game (a good, if not a bit traditional, first person shooter), with the only differences being a few new weapons and a few new Plasmids, the game's equivalent of special powers. The Plasmids cover all the major elemental bases (fire, lightning, ice) as well as some more unique ways of dealing with enemies (there is a power that allows you to set elemental traps for your enemies to run into as well as one that attacks your enemies with insects). Ideally you'll use Plasmids in combination with the weapons in order to more effectively take down enemies, and the game attempts to reward you for being creative by offering a type of scoring system through a camera that earns you research points on the different enemies. Killing enemies off in different ways nets you more research points, and after accruing a certain number, you can deal more damage to that enemy or even earn new powers. It's a good way to make the combat a bit more interesting given that the game is overall a fairly straightforward first person shooter, especially given that I remember playing through more than half of the first game with just the wrench because it was so overpowered.

One nice touch that might be off putting to some is the way that the difficulty scales in the game. I played the game on Hard mode and ended up having a tough time at the beginning of the game that got progressively easier until I was pretty much walking through the end of the game without much fear of dying. The Big Daddy and Big Sister fights at the beginning of the game seem like Herculean tasks that you may be apprehensive to start, but are easily managed by the game's end. I found it nice that the game actually made you feel like you were getting much more powerful as the game continued, much like X-Men Legends, but those looking for a challenging game throughout may be disappointed.

The one area where Bioshock 2 falls short of its predecessor is pacing. Rescuing Little Sisters is an overall optional process, and because of this you'll spend about as much time fighting Big Daddies and harvesting energy as you will playing through the game since doing so will net you more energy to spend on Plasmids. Spending an hour pushing the story forward and then taking an hour off may sound fine to some, but as someone who played it for 3+ hour stretches, it felt pretty uneven overall to spend so much time doing an optional task that didn't push the story forward at all.

The game's length feels about right given the story in the game, and Bioshock 2 includes a pretty robust multiplayer mode for those interesting in continued play. Additionally, the game features 100 audio diaries to collect that flesh out the story, and chances are that most people won't find all of them on their first playthrough. Bioshock 2 feels unique enough from the original Bioshock that it doesn't feel like an unnecessary sequel, although its newest gameplay mechanic, that of the Little Sisters, is both a blessing and a curse because of what it does to the overall pacing of the game. While it comes up just short of the original Bioshock in terms of single-player experience, its multiplayer suite may make it the better game overall for those interested in competitive play.

Overall Score: 9.2

Recommended Price: $20

M:B #15 Deadly Creatures

Pros: Unique premise; varied combat, surpisingly gritty, terrific level design; shockingly overqualified voice acting
Cons: Poor camera on tarantula levels; web jump mechanic feels incomplete; fairly short with no real replay; no real story to speak of (although not THAT much of a con)

It's rare when a game peaks my interest based purely on premise, particularly when it's a premise I really shouldn't have any interest in in the first place. Normally I'll buy a game because of its general type and good reviews, although I'll also go the shallow route and buy a game because of a unique gameplay mechanic every so often. When I bought Deadly Creatures, all I knew was that it featured a scorpion and a tarantula as its two main protagonists and that it took place wholly in the desert. Part of me probably wanted to play it based solely on a childhood obsession with a scorpion encased in glass that my dad bought for me on one of his business trips out west. The thing was, I was incredibly interested in it as a souvenir, but had no continuing interest in scorpions past that, so it seems at best I was interested in a game because of a cheap tourist trinket from when I was 7. The reviews of the game seemed kind enough, as it generally received scores in the 70s, which I always take to mean a game that is either 1) overall average or 2) has a great idea but flawed execution. As this is my mindset when reading reviews, I was fully prepared for the game to have an interesting concept but ultimately fail, and yet I was pleasantly surprised when I ended up playing the game. Deadly Creatures is a unique third person action game that delivers on its promise of a game that highlights two of the most feared desert insects in a fun but mostly believable way.

The game attempts to maintain a realistic tone overall, and as such its hardly surprising that the story isn't that great. There are two men who are out digging for treasure in the desert, and at random times your insect will cross paths with these two and watch a short interaction. In a weird move, the game hired Dennis Hopper and Billy Bob Thornton to do the voice acting, which is done well but seems to be a bit of overkill given their general role in the game. The story isn't interesting enough to drive you through the game on its own, but it is really there in an attempt to give the game some type of overall structure. Each level features an "Adventure Goal" that you'll accomplish fairly naturally just by moving forward through the levels. By the end of the game, you'll begin to notice that the tarantula and the scorpion really don't have an overarching motivation for moving forward, but then again they're insects. They really don't need one.

The levels alternate between playing as the tarantula and the scorpion, although you'll find yourself repeating certain parts of levels. The key is that you navigate them in completely different ways because of the unique abilities of each insect. The tarantula is much more versatile overall in that it can climb on any wall or ceiling and additionally shoot a web that allows it to jump to certain special surfaces while the scorpion has the ability to cut through thick grass and also dig certain marked patches of ground. This is one of the few times that I have not been disappointed at all by level designers recycling levels, as instead of playing through the same level but clearing a couple obstacles in different ways, the game's level design more resembles a double helix. You'll start at different points and all of the sudden realize you're at a section of the game that you've played before, but this will only last a few moments as you leave that same area in a completely different way. I have to say that after playing a lot of games with poor level design, it was refreshing to finally play one that excelled in that area. There are a few particular sections that stand out, such as having to navigate through the interior of an abandoned truck as the tarantula. Although almost all of the levels take place outside in the desert, the locale never feels stale, in part because its perfectly fitting that these insects wouldn't play a desert level then a snow level and also because there are unique situations within the desert that you play through, such as the aforementioned truck.

The tarantula levels also falls victim to two of the games worst flaws: the web jump and the camera. Every so often a level will require you to scan around for web patches that you can zip to, and yet it's not always clear that the feature is even called for. Add to that the weird decision to only be able to web jump from arbitrary positions and you have a mechanic that still needed some work. In addition to this, you'll find yourself battling with the camera every so often just to see what surface you're trying to walk on to. You'll also find yourself disoriented often and will have to stop and get your bearing just to figure out if you're upside down or not. Since the scorpion's movement is much more restricted, you'll find yourself running into problems with the camera less often. It's a bizzare tradeoff in that the tarantula levels are better designed overall, but I found myself looking forward to the scorpion levels so I didn't have to deal with these problems.

The combat is interesting and never grows tired as the tarantula and the scorpion control completely differently and have varied move sets. The tarantula relies more on jumping around and striking the enemy once or twice before retreating while the scorpion has the ability to block, making combat more of an exercise in parrying then attacking. One of my biggest pet peeves with Wii games is when they require you to waggle the remote, and thankfully Deadly Creatures keeps it to a minimum. After I turned the remote sensitivity to maximum, I stopped really noticing that I was waggling at all, which was a godsend. Defeating enemies and completing adventure goals will give you points that will level your creature up, often giving you access to more powerful techniques. Although not all techniques are required to progress, its fun to have a few options other than the basic combo.

The game also rides a fine line between realism and fantasy that's interesting in and of itself. It's not surprising that the game takes some novelties with the creature's abilities (such as the web jump and scorpions cutting grass), but rather it's shocking how brutal and realistic the game is at times. Each creature moves incredibly realistically, with each leg operating independently. It's odd when I stop actually playing a game just to admire how a character walks, but Deadly Creatures just does it incredibly well. The combat should cause the game to be rated M, but because its insect on insect (or reptile or rodent) action, the game gets by with a T rating. Combat with the scorpion is particularly gruesome, featuring finishing moves where the scorpion either stabs the creature in the back with his stinger or through the creature's head. It's incredibly satisfying and really never gets old since you only play as him half the game and the finishing moves change depending on what enemy you're fighting.

Once you finish Deadly Creatures, there isn't much of a reason to return to the game unless you have an interest in collecting all 425 collectible grubs hidden throughout the game. But the game is fun for the 6-8 hours that it lasts and provides a memorable experience among the drudge of most games released for the Wii.

Overall Score: 7.9

Recommended Price: $12

M:B #13 and #14 Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Chrono Trigger

Elder Scrolls IV
Pros: Open world that doesn't constrict your choice of how to advance through the story, leveling system that allows you to create a custom character; lots of optional sidequests; great setpieces
Cons: Lots of bugs that will cause the game to crash or just keep you from advancing; unbalanced character development options; unimpressive graphics and poor framerate; dungeons all blend together after a while.

Chrono Trigger
Pros: Great story with likable characters; interesting sidequests; New Game+ feature encourages replaying the game multiple times
Cons: Game becomes incredibly difficult at the end, hence encouraging grinding; "optional" sidequests really aren't that optional

I find it fascinating that one genre of games can develop in two almost completely unique ways depending upon the country that they are made in. Granted, games are obviously going to somewhat reflect the culture of the developers, but every once and a while a genre takes on enough of its country's tendencies that they develop into a completely different sub genre. Perhaps the best example in my mind is that of the Japanese RPG, or just JRPG, which has come to represent a game (often turn based and almost always menu driven) featuring a cast of lovable characters who move through a linear story to combat some great evil. Contrast this to American RPGs which have always seemed to value choices and the ability to progress through a game as the player sees fit while still involving statistics and leveling up. In a move that ended up doubling the subjectivity that Chrono Trigger was treated with, I decided to try and play Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Chrono Trigger at the same time in order to contrast a new "American" RPG with a traditional JRPG.

Oblivion is just about everything that I expected from a game very clearly made in America. Although it sounds cliche, American games have come to value freedom in a broad sense. Whether it be the freedom of choosing whether to play the game as a good or evil character or the freedom to tackle the game as the player sees fit, some elements of choice are almost always included in American games nowadays, and Oblivion was perhaps one of the best examples of this I have seen. My previous experience with a Bethesda Studios game was Fallout 3, a game that is a spiritual successor more to the Elder Scrolls games than its namesake. As such, I had an idea of what I would be getting in to in terms of a sandbox environment. That said, for better or worse Oblivion's world is more expansive and offers more choice, both in how to develop your character and what quests you want to tackle. The game features a story about the assassination of the Imperial bloodline in order to open up rifts to a hell dimension, but the main quest is not the real focus of the game. Oblivion offers no less than 4 extra factions that each have a unique quest line that provide about 4-5 hours of gameplay each. These quest lines can be tackled at any point and can also be interrupted, so you can play a few missions for the Thieves' Guild, do a Mage's Guild mission, and then maybe a story mission and not be penalized for it in the least. The game features many memorable setpieces within these quests that, for me, were the highlight of the game. In particular, the Dark Brotherhood missions that involve killing off characters in creative ways were my favorite, including one mission where you were invited to a dinner party and tasked with killing off each guest alone so that no one at the party would suspect you as the killer. There are also quests that can be picked up that have nothing to do with any faction and feature a simple one-off quest. Additionally, the game has many ruins that can be explored that are unconnected to any missions whatsoever, but rather just offer an opportunity for treasure hunting. All said, it took me about 50 hours to finish the main quest, the four faction stories, and the optional Arena, and I still felt like I could have spent more time with the game and unearthed more.

The character development is as open as the game world is, with the ability to specialize in certain areas or spent alot of time with the game and become a jack of all trades. The game allows you to use swords, bows, hammers, staves, and magic spells, although not all of these are good options. I found the bow to be almost completely useless and without much use, while the spells and staves seemed a bit overpowered. There are 5 different magic schools that each offer a different array of spells and level up separately (Illusion, Mysticism, Conjuration, Destruction, and Restoration). Some schools are more useful than others, but its incredibly easy to level up all these schools at the same time, so you aren't really forced to focus on one in particular. The game has you choose seven "major skills" at the beginning of the game, and as you level up these skills, you eventually gain a general level that allows you to add points to your base attributes (such as strength, agility, and endurance). All other skills are considered "minor skills" and although you can level them up without any penalty for not choosing them as a major skill, raising a minor skill's level will not increase your overall level.

Open world games are known for the immense amount of freedom that they give the player, and yet this almost always comes at the price of bugs. It's understandable, since the number of variables that programmers have to take into account simply becomes too much to handle, and yet Oblivion's bugs tend to threaten your enjoyment of the game as a whole. The game will randomly crash, and while the game also autosaves frequently, it still doesn't help the pace of the game to have to turn off your console and reload the game. Additionally, there are bugs that just keep you from progressing in the game. I came across two in particular that almost prevented me from being able to proceed at all. One involved a cutscene that would automatically cause the game to crash and forced me to replay a save that was over a half of an hour old, and another involved a spell that unlocked locked objects being unable to hit a locked gate at all. I was able to circumvent both of these with the help of internet suggestions, but I shouldn't have had to resort to this in the first place. Additionally, the game hasn't aged well graphically, and the frame rate is pretty bad any time that you are on the world map due to the immense amount of foliage. Even though there are an incredible amount of dungeons, caves, and ruins to explore, they're all made of the same 6 rooms or so, just pieced together separately, which you will undoubtedly start to notice by the twentieth hour.

It was towards the end of my time with Oblivion that the bugs started to become overwhelming, and so I was relieved to start playing a game that was so structured as to almost completely eliminate the possibility of bugs. Chrono Trigger is the story of a boy who is originally just tasked with rescuing his friend after she falls into a time rift, but the story eventually grows to involve an enemy that is threatening to destroy the entire world. In order to combat this threat, Crono and his friends must fight throughout different time periods in order to prepare themselves for the final confrontation. The game is mostly linear, but near the end of the game you are given a list of possible sidequests to do in any order you see fit. These side quests are completely optional, but you will find yourself unprepared for the final battle if you ignore them all. To be honest, I was a little frustrated that the game forced you to do optional sidequests instead of just having a longer main story, but these sidequests often filled in the backgrounds of the various characters, so they did have some value for the story. I suppose I was expecting a completely regimented game throughout like Final Fantasy IV but instead found myself playing an RPG closer to Final Fantasy VI. You are given the option to face the end boss about a quarter of the way through the game, although this isn't really an option unless you are playing in New Game+ mode (which I'll touch on later).

The combat in the game is menu based, but once again it plays more like the SNES Final Fantasies since it makes use of an ATB gauge that makes the battles play out in real time (as opposed to turn based). I played the game on the DS, which allowed for the use of the touch screen to input commands and made the actual battle screen much less cluttered. Each character has Techniques that they can use and are, for the most part, unique to the character. Additionally, characters can perform Double Techniques with other characters and eventually Triple Techniques. Since the game only allows for three characters on the screen at a time, battle tactics can drastically change depending on who you take into battle given that there are a total of 7 characters you can recruit into your party. Characters that aren't in your active line up still receive some experience, though it isn't the full amount. From what I could tell, they receive about 3/4 of the experience, which means that they are never completely behind. All of these characters are viable battle options as well, which is surprisingly refreshing. I really can't tell the last time that I could actually take any character I wanted into a battle and have them be equally effective.

After you finish the game, you are able to create a save file for New Game+ mode where all of your experience and equipment carries over into a new game. This makes fighting the last boss before finishing the main quest actually feasible and will change the ending to the game. There are 13 endings in total that a player can get depending on when they face the final boss, so there is definite room for replaying the game.

Chrono Trigger is a well paced game overall, although players should know that a significant amount of grinding is involved at the end of the game. When the main story ends, your characters are no where near the level that they will need to be to finish the final boss. In addition to doing all of the sidequests, I found that I also had to level up in the last dungeon for about 2 hours before I was able to take on the final boss and have a chance at winning. This weird spike of difficulty at the end of the game is only really jarring because it doesn't have a precedence in the rest of the game, but it by no means is insurmountable.

The art should also be addressed, as it makes Chrono Trigger stand out as one of the best looking SNES period RPGs released. Although Akira Toriyama's character designs start to look derivative across his entire body of work, Chrono Trigger as a whole is vibrant and warm and one that you will never get bored looking at.

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is a game that I could recommend to just about anyone, as the freedom afforded in the game has an appeal to it that could draw in people who may be turned off by more traditional RPGs like Chrono Trigger. Think of Oblivion as the RPG that someone who plays Grand Theft Auto could still enjoy. If someone's tastes in RPGs run more traditional, Chrono Trigger is a near perfect example of a classic JRPG that has a cast of likable characters and satisfying storyline. Although the two games are completely different types of RPGs, both can fairly easily be considered classics, as they are two of the finest examples of their respective sub-genres.

Overall Scores
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion : 9.3
Chrono Trigger : 9.4

Recommended Prices
ESIV: Oblivion: 19.99 (but make sure you get Game of the Year Edition)
Chrono Trigger: 19.99 (go for the DS version if you can)