Review: Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition (PS3/360)

While there are many, many different games in the legendary Street Fighter series, in my humble opinion Street Fighter III was the best of them. If you haven't played SF3, but are a fan of the series, I highly suggest picking up this game. Even if you aren't a fan of Street Fighter, this game is so much fun that you will enjoy it as much as any fan would.

Street Fighter 3 revolutionized the 2D fighting game world when it was originally released. With its insanely awesome game mechanics, namely the parry moves system and the EX moves mechanic, it had a higher level of finesse and polish than all the other fighting games of its time. You were able to parry a move and negate all damage to your character with the right timing, and you could power up your character's moves by sacrificing a portion of your special meter, both things which had never really been seen before.

This version of the game is essentially a remastered and remixed version of the beloved arcade classic. It has everything the arcade version had and more. You have the ability to fight against opponents online by either matching them to your rank in the game, or just by quick join, which matches you based only on the requirement that your opponent is a warm body. Quick join basically puts you up against any opponent regardless of rank, so you may find yourself fighting a clone of Daigo Umehara. You may google him, if you haven't seen him play yet and you need the fear of God put into you. The game is also produced by GGOP, which is a company that is known for its lag-less online play. In addition to lag-less, totally awesome online play, you also have the ability to record your matches and upload them to YouTube, or watch other players' recorded matches, including your PSN or Xbox Live buddies' fights.

For those of you who might be a little too attached to the original version of SF3, fear not; you can change the game's look into the classic arcade style, or you can keep the new, HD, smoother looking graphics, whichever floats your boat. This version is also loaded with trophies/achievements, so you will definitely find yourself playing this game for a long time if you are one of those OCD 'need every trophy ever' people. Even if you aren't, it's still a fair bet that you will sink a lot of time into SF3 Online with the addition of trials and parry training. You have tons of little mini-trials, which by conquering level up your rank in the game, allowing you to unlock pictures, music, and movies from the game's crypt. These are awesome, but perhaps the coolest thing about them is that one of the trials is actually EVO moment #37 (EVO being a huge annual fighting game tournament). Yes.. Good luck trying to get that achievement. Parry training allows you to practice your parries against any character, which is incredibly helpful. You can even record a dummy character's moves and have it attack you, so you know exactly when the hits are coming, in order to really perfect your parry timing. In any case, the trials and parry training will allow you to master the game on an entirely new level, and perhaps you might even get to the level where someday you will go down in EVO history.

Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, in my opinion, has only gotten better with age. It is a game that was considered nearly perfect at the peak of its relevancy and has greatly amazed me even now, 12 years later. If you played this back in the day, or, horrors, you never had the chance to play it, you owe it to yourself to download it from Xbox Live or the PlayStation Network today.


Submitted By: Armando Ibarra (Employee)

Review: Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3 (360/PS3)

Dynasty Warriors is a popular series of games that recreate famous battles from the book "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". It is a hack and slash game with some minor RPG elements, such as leveling up your character's abilities, who you are able to choose based on which of the three different clans you want to play as. Your chosen character then has the honor of leading your soldiers into battle, which are massive 'conquer territories' skirmishes where you fight anywhere from 300 to 1,000 troops per mission. The series has been relatively successful, so Tecmo Koei decided to make it even more so by combining their winning formula with giant robots from a famous anime series, thereby bringing you Dynasty Warriors: Gundam.

Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3 is, obviously, the third installment in the series, so plenty of changes have been made since the original one first came out. The graphics have been improved and the overall game play mechanics have had a bit of an overhaul. The maps are a bit more developed, and I enjoyed the soundtrack much more than the previous two entries. However, the battle system has remained the same throughout all of the Dynasty Warriors games, so don't expect much of a change in Gundam 3.

The Dynasty Warriors: Gundam spin-offs work a bit differently than the normal Dynasty Warriors games. In Dynasty Warriors you normally have one of a variety of objectives, such as kill the leader, or head to this point on the map and secure it, etc. The Gundam versions' mission objective is to take over bases and bring the enemy morale down, which makes the leader show up. You then kill him and end the mission. Basically, every mission is the exact same regardless of what they ask you to do. There are certain bases that you can capture that help raise moral or do other little things to help change the tide of battle a bit, but over-all, you are going to end up playing the missions the same way each time.

The story is pretty bad, in fact I was actually skipping through the storyline during my 30+ hours of game play just to get to the fighting. The story is, in a nutshell, about how all of the famous Gundam characters from all of the different Gundam series follow a strange signal and end up on a planet where things are "distorted". You are never told what's making the world distorted, but all of the characters seem very distraught about it, so it must be bad. The characters break off into three different groups, causing three different storylines (seems like a Dynasty Warriors trademark) that eventually coalesce into two different stories.....apparently one storyline gets lost somewhere along the way. The three storylines are all really bland and all of them talk about the exact same thing. Whittling it down to two stories doesn't help either, as they also seem to be exactly the same. Now, I'll be fair and admit I didn't finish Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3, so the storylines could have magically developed into some sort of masterpiece in the last few hours of the game, but I highly doubt it. At least, they weren't going anywhere when I stopped. 

The best part about this game, like all Dynasty Warriors games, is the insane amount of missions to go on. Even if they do end up playing pretty similarly in this iteration, there are tons of them for you to do. Depending on which missions you choose, you gain new parts to put on your Gundam, or unlock higher-tiered Gundams to use in battle. These missions also unlock new pilots, operators, and various other things as well.

All in all, despite its huge flaws, there was a reason I played this game for 30+ hours. I am a big fan of Dynasty Warriors games simply because I love being an overpowered person that kills hundreds of enemies in a single stroke, and being able to do that while sitting in my favorite giant robots made it a 1,000,000 times better. If you also enjoy the Dynasty Warriors games, and especially if you love Gundams, you should pick it up just for that. You'll just have to skip the story.... but with giant, awesome, robot Gundams, who needs that anyways?

Submitted by: Jason Hald

Review: 3D Dot Game Heroes (PS3)

I've always been a big fan of 'The Legend of Zelda' series and many other old school RPGs, so the appearance and idea of '3D Dot Game Heroes' was very appealing to me. In a nutshell, you're a hero who sets off on a quest to slay an evil bishop who is set on making the world a miserable place. In true old school RPG fashion, that's all there really is to it. In fact, the whole game is basically a homage to the Legend of Zelda. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course!

You progress in the game by exploring dungeons, solving puzzles, killing enemies, and collecting items. When your health bar is full, you gain the ability to increase your sword size to tremendous lengths when swung, much like shooting beams out of your sword in Zelda. Other Zelda-like items can be obtained throughout the game, such as boomerangs, lanterns, bombs and bows. The game also has a bestiary of all the enemies you face, which appear once they are defeated. The game is also loaded with Trophies to obtain, so that'll probably keep you busy for a while.

Throughout the game, a lot of subtle references to NES games are made. In fact, the whole style of this game strongly resembles that of the 8-bit action adventure games of the 80's. I love the nostalgia this game brings, and I think it is sure to bring pleasant memories to the oldest of gamers. Even the loading screens feature re-created box art of classic video games using the game's 3D sprites! Speaking of which, yes you read that right: the graphics are in 3D, but the world and characters are all animated like they are made of retro 2D sprites. It's a really interesting visual style; the graphics are just amazing. It's truly a feast for the eyes.

As far as those 2D character sprites go, you have a choice in the beginning of the game from a healthy selection of pre-made characters, or you can make your own with the sprite editor. You can also trade character models with other PSN users. Having certain save data on your system from other games will also add to the character selection in the beginning of the game. For example, a Little Big Planet save file will allow you to play as a 2D Sackboy in 3D Dot Game Heroes.

The game is also incredibly funny and pokes fun at other Atlus games and nerdiness. Experienced gamers will find themselves laughing throughout a majority of the game with its witty and humorous references to other old-school games as well, not just Atlus titles. The soundtrack goes right along with the retro theme, featuring catchy songs that are reminiscent of Legend of Zelda midi themes.

With how much this game plays homage to/ruthlessly mocks old 8-bit RPGs, it can't really be considered a fully original game. However, despite that, or maybe because of it, it is still an amazing game and incredibly fun. This game doesn't make the mistake of taking itself too seriously, and neither should the player. I felt the game was a celebration to geekiness, which is why I loved it! If you're ever in a nostalgic mood, I recommend busting this out instead of trying to find your old NES system in your attic. It's probably faster, and you'll be just as satisfied.

Submitted by: Armando Ibarra (Employee)

Review: Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (360/PS3)

After a 10 year hiatus, finally, a new Marvel vs. Capcom entry has been made. It brings back a lot of the veteran characters from previous entries in the franchise, from both companies, as well as some interesting new arrivals. The gameplay is also similar, but with enough new additions to make MvC3 familiar to those who love the series, but fresh enough to still surprise them. It's still got the incredibly fast gameplay, your old 3 on 3 battles, assists, hyper-combos, etc, but there's also the new ability to switch characters during aerial combos, switching partners by holding the assist buttons rather than the punch and kick buttons (which is much easier), and so on. Basically, if you loved the other entries in this series, you will love the third one just as much, if not more.

Probably the biggest change, as far as gameplay goes, is the change-up of the button schematic. Instead of your old two punch and two kick buttons you now have a series of light, heavy and special attacks. Veterans will find themselves having to re-learn a lot of attacks and special moves with this new layout. However, the new button schematic seems to require a little more skill and timing than the previous system, which should discourage those pesky button mashers. As someone who really can't stand them, I can't help but think that anything that punishes button mashers is a good thing. You can still change the button layout around, however, which should allow veterans to make a set-up which allows them to feel right at home. In any case, the graphics are so good you might not even notice the gameplay. The 3 dimensional characters and the 2 dimensional backgrounds are highly detailed, flashy, and colorful, with each character having their own unique eye-catching combos and specials. It truly is a feast for the eyes.

Marvel vs Capcom 3, however, is unfortunately not immune to criticism. Some game alterations were genius, while others were, in my opinion, a bit lame. For example, MvC3 now has a roster of only 36 characters, as opposed to its predecessor MvC2's 56. MvC3 decided to leave out a lot of the favorite characters, too. Mega Man is absent but a lame character like MODOK was added, and Ken from Street Fighter was left out as well. A few other veterans were missed, but we did get compensated with the inclusion of some pretty awesome new characters, such as Dante from Devil May Cry. MvC3 is also sadly lacking in the diversity of its game modes. If you're looking for an expansive fighting game experience, that has tons of extras beyond arcade mode, this definitely isn't the title. Overall though, the changes that were made impressed me, and I can't say enough how thrilled I am that a skilled player can finally easily foil a button masher in MvC3. It's just as addicting and fun as its predecessor, and I'm sure it will be embraced by everyone who remembers MvC2 fondly, as well as pick up a new generation of fans in the process.

Submitted: Armando Ibarra (Employee)

Review: Mortal Kombat (PS3/360)

It's been a while since a solid Mortal Kombat game has been released, but with the fighting game revival in recent years it seems they decided to breathe new life into the series. Stepping away from the full 3D stages, NetherRealm studios decided to go with the more popular "2.5D", where the stage and characters are rendered in three dimensions, but the characters move on a 2D plane. This was really the right choice for this game, as it is a nice throwback to the original games; it gives you that old-school feeling without having to put up with Super Nintendo graphics.

To start off with, Mortal Kombat's story mode is, surprisingly, really in-depth and interesting. Considering fighting games aren't exactly known for their story, this is an impressive feat. That alone almost makes the game worth buying, just for that. It picks up right where Armageddon left off, with Shao Khan defeating the last of Earth Realm's heroes. Raiden manages to send a message to his past self, warning of a horrible future and hoping for a chosen one to come forward who can defeat Shao Khan. It then proceeds to re-tell the story of the first three games, combined into one complete narrative. The story is backed up by fantastic voice acting and sound effects, and that, as well as its overall quality, really makes it stand out among the current batch of fighting games.

The gameplay in Mortal Kombat is also fantastic, and delivers in the gore department, as its predecessors did. With built in combos and the addition of Kustom Kombos, the fighting is varied and fun, not to mention very balanced (except for a few bosses, which is to be expected). With over 27 characters, and more to come through DLK, there is enough stuff jam-packed into the game to keep you satisfied for weeks. Of course, characters aren't the only extras to enjoy. There are mini-games such as 'Test Your Might, Sight, and Luck', plus the Challenge Tower, as well as the Krypt with TONS of unlockables, including costumes and new fatalities! No expense was spared on this game, with its fully rendered cutscenes during story mode, full 1080p display, and tons of downloadable kontent. It really is the shining star of the series.

Overall this game is a must have for fans and newcomers alike! It's a nice medium between Street Fighter and Marvel vs Capcom 3, as it's faster and more combo-oriented than Street Fighter, but not as fast and crazy as MvC3. Also, as if the inherent value of the game isn't enough, there is going to be a Mortal Kombat Tournament at Level Up on June 18^th! Pick up your copy today, get some practice in, then come show us what you've got and TEST YOUR MIGHT!

Submitted By: Tom Ferko (Employee)

Import Review: El Shaddai Ascension of the Metatron (PS3/360)

I don't think I have ever been at a loss for words when it comes to a game, but El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron is simply beyond description. It is the latest game to come out of the creative teams that made Devil May Cry & Okami, and boy does its pedigree show.

The game is a 3D/2D hack-n-slash platformer with visuals that make Okami look like a kindergartner finger-painted it. This game's visuals, backgrounds, level design, and art style are the most beautiful I have ever seen. Just a few examples of the overwhelmingly impressive environments available: a stained glass platforming section with depictions of the archangels for the background; a world where the sun and moon are constantly battling for control, which in turn effects the weather, and as a result your platforming ability; an “underworld” level that looks as beautiful as it does strange. The game's main title/opening credit sequence is incredible, and really sets the visual tone for the game early on. This is the most amazing, visually stunning, absolutely mind-blowingingly beautiful game I have EVER seen!

The premise of the game is loosely based on the Book of Enoch (look it up on Wikipedia if you like). In the game, five angels have fallen from grace and have stolen the wisdom of God. They have established their own kingdom on Earth and now humans are worshiping them instead of God, as they are speeding human evolution along thanks to the “technology” of heaven. In addition, the fallen angels are now interbreeding with humans, creating a new race of beings. God is naturally displeased with the whole thing, and decides to send a flood to Earth to destroy all mankind as punishment. The archangel Lucifel (Lucifer, before his fall from grace) is able to convince God to send Enoch, a human scribe that lives in heaven, to try and kill the angels and save mankind from destruction.

To help in this task Enoch is granted access to three heavenly weapons: The Arch is your “sword” style weapon, The Gale is your long range “shooting” weapon, and The Veil is your “gauntlet” style heavy weapon. During the course of combat your heavenly weapons will become tainted by the enemies they have defeated and will need to be purified, or else their combat effectiveness will go down. You can always tell when your weapon is tainted, as it will change from its “pure” blue glow to a “tainted” red glow. Unlike Devil May Cry & Okami, you don't just press a button and change to whatever weapon you want on the fly. In El Shaddai, you actually take the weapons from the enemies you are fighting. Once you have sufficiently pummeled an enemy they will fall to one knee and glow blue for a short while, which is your signal to run up to them and steal their weapon, with much show and panache. Personally, I found the other two weapons fairly useless and always stuck to The Arch, unless prompted by the game to switch to another weapon due to enemy specific weaknesses.

Now that all these completely inadequate words are out of the way, I present to you a video of this amazing game. Stunning doesn't even begin to describe it. When this comes out in the US (look for a release date to be announced at this year's E3) you NEED to buy it.

Submitted By: Aaron McKeever (Employee)

Review: Catherine (PS3/360)

Like Catherine and Katherine, our love for this game can't be restricted to just one person, so we had two reviewers give their takes on this amazing game! The first review was done before the game was released in America, using a Japanese copy, while the second one was reviewed after its US release. That being said, let the review commence!

                                                                                                                                                

Atlus, renowned publisher of edgy, interesting RPGs such as the Persona series, has finally released a new game to their adoring public. Interestingly enough, Catherine, for the PlayStation 3, is not an RPG. While still edgy and interesting, Catherine is an adult, violent, slightly disturbing, completely addicting puzzle game.

Following the story of a young man named Vincent, the game plunges you into his life, quickly setting up the basic information you need to know. Young men across the country have mysteriously been found dead in their beds a few days after telling their friends they've been seeing weird, scary dreams. Now, you, as Vincent, are having them too. Throw into all this that you are being stalked by a sexy blonde girl with the same name as your girlfriend of five years, and Vincent starts really having problems.

The game is half puzzle, half relationship sim, with a little bit of horror and suspense thrown in. The relationship sim part comes from your daily interactions with your friends, Katherine (your girlfriend of 5 years who is pressuring you to get married) and Catherine (the aforementioned sexy blonde girl). How you play the game, and what conversation choices you make, determines whether you end up with one girl or the other, or alone. The puzzle part comes at night, as Vincent goes to bed. Every night, you are thrust into a nightmare where you have to climb a pile of blocks that are constantly falling in order to get to the top and escape as fast as you can.

The gameplay is simple, as all you do is literally pull and push blocks around. As the game progresses, you run into different types of blocks, some which can't be moved, or explode when you stand on them, that increase the difficulty. You also learn different tricks and patterns to pull blocks into in order to climb up the tower faster, but you don't get any new abilities or powers to help you as you progress. Despite this seemingly simple and austere gameplay, it is amazingly addictive, and surprisingly nerve-wracking. Finding yourself frantically pulling blocks, trying to figure out how to climb up higher, while the blocks almost immediately under you just fell into a bottomless pit, is prime sweaty-palm inducing stuff. For added stress, each boss level usually finds you being chased by a monster straight out of your nightmares, literally, as you climb... just in case you weren't stressed out enough whenever you got stumped.

A perfect complement to the frantic gameplay is the story. Starting out almost serene, it slowly builds in pace, tension, and suspense until you get to the end of the game. Eventually, all your answers about the mysterious deaths and where your stalker come from are answered, but how the game ends is up to the choices you make. There's about 8 different endings you can get, some better than others. The story is supported the whole way through by beautiful graphics in-game, and amazing anime cut-scenes for the cinemas, which will make even a casual Persona fan froth at the mouth imagining what Persona 5 will look like on the PS3.

This game was originally not supposed to ever come out in the US, but it has sold so well in Japan that Atlus has decided to release it in the States this July. Hopefully it will stay just the same as the Japanese version, as there is no where to really improve on this amazingly fun and interesting game. Pick it up as soon as you get the chance, and get lost in the world of Catherine.

Submitted By: Sherrie Blackwell (Employee)

                                                                                                                                            

When faced with a game as unique as this one, it's hard to describe its genre to others. When you say the words "it's a dating sim/puzzle game", they give you the weirdest look you will have ever seen, but in the case of Catherine, well...... that's what the game is. Catherine is developed and published by ATLUS, renowned makers of quirky RPGs like the Persona series. In fact, Catherine originally started out as a test for the PS3/360 hardware for Persona 5, but it truly blossomed into its own with its unique visuals and its intense and intriguing story.

As stated earlier, this game was originally conceived as a test for Persona 5, meaning that the same brilliant minds behind the Persona series were working on this game, and all of the stylistic visuals and dark story interactions are up to par with that series. The game puts you in the shoes of Vincent Brooks, a 32 year old man who can't seem to make up his mind about what he wants to do with his life, especially his love life. His girlfriend of 5 years, Katherine, is constantly pressuring him to get married, but he just can't seem to take the plunge. Then late one night he has a fateful meeting with another woman, Catherine, who just so happens to have the same name as his girlfriend, and madness ensues. From there the plot twists and turns more than an M. Knight Shyamalan movie! Along the way, you can make decisions on what to say to other characters that effects a "morality meter" that can determine the overall outcome of the game, as well as which 'Catherine' you end up with. That being said, there are 8 different endings to the game, so your decisions really effect how happy you'll be when the credits screen rolls.

The gameplay is... well, it's a dating sim/puzzle game, so suffice to say it has a very unique play style. Similar to the Persona games, you spend your days interacting with other characters, helping them with their problems and having various discussions with Catherine/Katherine. At night, you have nightmares in which you must climb a tower. However, just climbing a tower would be boring without the threat of death close behind, so you are quickly informed that if you die in the dream, you die in real life! This is bad news for Vincent, so in order to navigate your way up these towers you must move blocks around to create a path to the top, all the while dodging the enemies and obstacles in your way trying to hinder your progress. It is a very challenging process, and on the hardest difficulty there is a huge sense of accomplishment when you've completed a puzzle, because hardest must mean insane difficulty to ATLUS. Finally, once you've beaten the game, you can compete in multiplayer head-to-head matches, as well as a mode called "Babel", which is a challenge mode of sorts with 4 increasingly difficult levels. Just in case the normal game wasn't enough of a challenge for you, that is.

All in all, Catherine is an incredibly interesting and "Qbert-ian" journey that is well worth multiple play-throughs to see what comes of Vincent, or, more accurately, what you choose to have happen to him. If the quality and beauty of Catherine's graphics and storytelling are any indication, then Persona 5 should be a real treat as well.

Submitted by: Tom Ferko (Employee)