It's Moving Day!

Well, that day has finally come.....it's moving day! Starting today we will be hosting all of our great news, previews, reviews, and gaming culture articles at our BRAND NEW blog, www.levelupvideogames.net! There you will find all the same great people, writing the same great articles, but with a new and even better look. Oh, and did we mention that www.levelupvideogames.com is now an online store, for all your gaming needs? So what are you waiting for!? Go to www.levelupvideogames.net or www.levelupvideogames.com today! Right now. Stop reading this and GO. NOW!

Review: Tekken Tag Tournament 2 (Arcade)

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 was just released in arcades over here in Japan on September 14^th, and we got a chance to play it first-hand! Anyone who has played the original Tekken Tag will instantly feel at home, since the core gameplay remains the same, but there's a few tweaks here and there to build on the experience of the original and keep things exciting!

Tekken Tag 2 expands on the tag mechanics found in the original game by allowing for extended tag combos and other combined moves using both your fighters. Tag-combos can now be done simultaneously with both characters participating in the combo at the same time, not one after the other. Trust me when I say these moves aren't only devastating to your life bar but your moral, too! Tag-throws, combined throws using specific character combinations, have also returned, but in Tekken Tag 2 if you can get the timing right you can actually counter the tag-throws. Not only that, you can also instantly roll your tag-throw counter into a tag-combo, which hurts...a lot. However, the coolest new tag feature added has got to be the stage-tag. If you are playing on a stage in which you can knock your opponent off one level and they fall to the next one, you can tag-out out to your other character and pummel your opponent as they are landing on the next stage, for maximum damage!

While Tekken Tag 2 is based off of a modified version of Tekken 6, in my opinion it feels much faster, and the characters feel lighter, than in that game. However, it does retain Tekken 6's "Bound" hits system, in which you can hit an airborne opponent to the ground and then stun them, so you can extend your combos.

Tekken Tag 2 also has an extensive character customization system. It lets you outfit your fighters in pretty much anything you can imagine, including items that are normally meant for different fighters. Your customized character is then saved to your BaNa Pass card (BaNa is short for Bandai Namco, the game's developers and publishers), and the next time you play, just swipe your card and presto-chango, your customized fighters are ready to go! You can also download a digital version of the BaNa Pass to your cell phone (at least here in Japan, where cellphones do EVERYTHING), and by just magically waving your phone in front of the arcade you get the same effect as if you had swiped the physical card. The BaNa Pass system is also used to track your total number of matches played, and your win/loss ratio as well.

Tekken Tag 2 also uses an always-on online system, so that no matter what arcade machine you are playing on, you are always connected to the Tekken Tag 2 servers. The reason for this is that the servers magically capture “ghost” and win/loss data from any player using the BaNa Pass system; then, taking that information, the servers create a Top-20 list of fighters that the game will randomly throw at you as you play. What's really cool is that because of the always-on online system, these “ghost” fighters respond just like the real thing. The servers record every single little thing these fighters do, even how they would react in certain situations and to certain attacks/patterns. It's kinda creepy, but it's also pretty cool.

All in all, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is a great fighting game, and as a fan of the original I am glad to see it return. Look for a demo of the game to be packaged with the November release of Tekken Hybrid, exclusively for the PS3. The full console port of the arcade version of Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is supposed to come out sometime next year.

Submitted By: Aaron McKeever (Employee)

Import Review: ICO/Shadow of the Colossus Limited Box (PS3)

A special collection of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus is going to be released in the States on September 27^th, but it already came out here in Japan on the 22^nd. As such, we've already had a full day to enjoy the awesomeness of this collection. As if that wasn't enough, Japan gets an exclusive special edition collector's box, which we, of course, also managed to get our hands on. Since the box set is rather expensive to import, we would like to share some pictures and impressions of both the games and the packaging with you. Hopefully the vicarious experience will satisfy your curiosity about the collector's edition, and motivate you more to pick up these amazing, artistic games when they come out in your area.

 First, let's talk about the collector's edition packaging, shall we? It comes in a nice, hard box cover, as the games are on separate discs, unlike the US version which has both on one blu-ray. The box also holds a special book, filled with interviews, design sketches, and artwork from both Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. (Quick side note: Shadow of the Colossus is actually called Wander and the Colossus in Japan, a play on Wanderer.) The box itself is covered in various pieces of artwork, with the names of both games on top in an almost see-through laminate that catches the light in appealing ways.

The best thing about the games being on separate discs is that they have separate instruction manuals. This might sound crazy, but they are the most beautiful manuals we have ever seen. The Ico one is filled with sketches, and is laid out like a story book. The play instructions are also given in a storybook fashion, with directions on which button to press at what time actually being woven into the narrative structure. 

The Shadow of the Colossus manual is even more impressive, as it has fold-out pages. As you flip through it, you see a beautiful piece of art, then you fold out a piece of paper, look at the instructions on how to play the game, then re-fold it and turn the page, and the artwork has changed. It's hard to really explain in just words, so hopefully the pictures will help you understand it a bit more. The fact that this manual is like nothing else we've ever seen, however, should be understandable without pictures. 

Moving on to the included book, it's chock full of information. It starts with pages and pages of Fumita Ueda's original sketches for the colossi and other design elements, storyboards for Ico and Shadow, and other character drawings and tests. At the end of those, as a special treat, a lithograph of two original art pieces Ueda did for Shadow of the Colossus and Ico are included, which you can see below. The paper the lithos are on, and the art in person, is so beautiful, it's indescribable. 

Next is a multiple page, in-depth interview with Fumita Ueda, the creator, himself. He discusses what path brought him to this point in his life, where he intends to go from here, and other various things about his life and his art. They then include pictures of his bookshelf, and he discusses his various influences. If you wanted to, you, too, could live life exactly as this incredible creator! They even include a timeline of what movies/books/pieces of art were most influencing him at which point of time during the production of Ico and Shadow. 

After the interview, there are pages and pages about how Ueda and his team work, including a time-flowchart of what a normal work-day (12p to 9p, lucky ducks) looks like for them. They show what tools and technology they use to make the games, and provide a timeline of what the development schedule for both Ico and Shadow looked like. There are also interviews with some of the main staff on Ueda's team, but they are shorter than the interview with the man himself. The last thing in the artbook is a few pages of screenshots from Fumita Ueda's upcoming game, The Last Guardian.

As far as the games themselves go, well, they're gorgeous. Don't get us wrong, they aren't as pretty as The Last Guardian, nor any other game actually developed for current-gen systems. However, considering that Ico was originally supposed to be a PSOne title which got re-tooled at the last minute to be a PS2 title, and that Shadow of the Colossus is also up there in age, they are impressive. They didn't re-do the game from the ground up, but they made the existing graphics look as beautiful as they possibly could, and they did an amazing job. Besides enjoying an HD bump and the inclusion of optional 3D graphics (which we unfortunately couldn't test, not having a 3D capable TV), the ICO Team went back and bumped up the textures and polygon count in the games. The difference is immediately noticeable; the graphics look crisp and clear, the colors pop, and the characters have visible, recognizable emotions flit across their face as they experience the events in the story. Perhaps more impressive than the graphics, however, is the inclusion of an HD 7.1 audio sound track. If you thought Ico's world was immersive before, imagine it in surround sound. Certain scenes, usually ones with large stone mechanisms moving, were so intense my speakers almost rumbled themselves off my bookcases. The colossi moving is also incredibly impressive; it almost seemed like one of them was about to materialize into reality and step on my house.

Shadow of the Colossus is much the same as you remember it, as far as gameplay goes. However, Ico is noticeably different. For the collection, they used the European/Japanese version of Ico. Why, you ask? The American version was actually released 9 months earlier than EU/JPN versions, and as such those versions had better textures, more polish, and extra features. Those extra features are carried on into the PS3 release. For example, when you beat the game, all of Yorda's and the Queen's strange language is translated, so you can understand what they are saying on subsequent play-throughs. More exciting, however, is the inclusion of the 2-player mode; upon completing the game for the first time, you can choose to re-play the game with a friend taking on the role of Yorda.

As far as the games themselves go, we don't feel the need to really review them. They are classics, and the best argument there has ever been for the 'games as art' debate. If you played them before, when they were originally released on the PS2, then you already know this. Be assured that seeing Ico and Shadow in glorious HD graphics will warm your heart, and re-affirm the love you had for these games when you first played them. If you did not play them when they first released, or if you only managed to play Shadow (Ico was ridiculously hard to find on the PS2), then you need to buy these. Even if atmospheric action-adventure puzzle games aren't what you usually play, play these. They are the best examples of what video games are capable of achieving as an art medium, and you will be better for having played them. We personally hope that all of you will support these games by buying them on September 27^th, and at $40 for the two of them, you can hardly find a better deal for your time. You won't regret it. We know we don't. We sincerely hope you enjoyed this look at the Japan-exclusive collector's edition box of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus.

Submitted by: Sherrie Blackwell and Aaron McKeever

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

Import Review: The Last Story (Wii)

'The Last Story' is the latest RPG from MistWalker Studios, which also brought us 'Lost Odyssey' for the 360. Its founder is the 'father of Final Fantasy', Hironobu Sakaguchi, so it's hardly lacking in pedigree. It's exclusively for the Wii console, and as of writing this, exclusive to Japan. Operation Rainfall, a massive online campaign to bring 'The Last Story', 'Pandora's Tower' and 'Xenoblade' to the States, is trying to change that, but whether or not they will have any success remains to be seen.

The game immediately throws you into the thick of things, starting you off with a stage that serves as both the basic introduction of the story and a tutorial. You play as Elza, a young man who is part of a mercenary squad, battling through an island infested with lizard-men and re-animated skeletons in hopes of finding artifacts and riches in the crypts there. During the course of this tutorial level, you and your group fall into a skeleton ambush attack. Your female companion is killed in the battle that follows, and in his rage and grief, with images of his brutally slaughtered mother filling his head, Elza raises his head and screams. What he didn't count on, however, was an answer. A presence, a spirit of some kind, residing in the crystal walls of the cave they find themselves trapped in, tells Elza that she's been waiting for a heart like his, filled with loneliness and grief, and that she will give him the power to protect what's important to him. Elza then receives that power, represented by some sort of glowing arm tattoo, and immediately uses it to resurrect his friend and kill the remaining skeletons single-handedly. Thus ends your tutorial, and your adventure begins.

The world is interesting, as mercenaries are looked down upon as some sort of second-class citizens, which provides an interesting dynamic. Random villagers you meet later on will openly heckle you, or recoil in disgust, when they find out what you are. As the world seems to be prejudiced against you, that makes the relationship between Elza and the other members in your mercenary group that much more important. When you are at inns or other bases, you can have various conversations with the other mercenaries, with even the occasional opportunity to choose between two different answers, which effect how they respond to you later on. Not that deeply, however, as the conversations are still rather linear and straight-forward, and are no where near the level of 'Dragon Age: Origins' or even the 'Mass Effect' conversation wheel in terms of depth and consequences.

The character design is quite nice, but it is a little typical Japanese RPG looking, and definitely shows the 'Final Fantasy' influence from Sakaguchi being at the helm. What's neat about the characters, though, is that you can change the colors of each individual piece of clothing on whoever is currently in your party, making it that much more personal to your individual tastes. The monster design is good as well, but the bosses are what really stand out.  There wasn't a single boss that didn't make me say 'whoa....that's pretty cool....' as soon as it revealed itself.

The most interesting aspect of this game to me, though, is the combat system. It's not your traditional RPG turn-based combat battle game at all. You only control Elza, while the other three members of your party are computer controlled, at least during the single-player campaign. Their AI is surprisingly well-behaved, and actually (gasp!) helpful at times, which is a nice change from what one usually sees. It's especially impressive since 'The Last Story' is not a turn-based RPG, but an action one. You, as Elza, and the rest of your party are free to roam around the area, attacking swarms of enemies that are also quite active in their movements. Slabs of rock laying around the map can be jumped over, and even used as cover from enemy attacks. Little arrows of light (think Final Fantasy XII's combat system for the closest example) point out from your party members to show which enemy they are currently focused on, and vice versa; the arrows also show which enemies are focused on attacking your characters, especially useful when they decide to all gang up on your mage. The arrows are very helpful in the chaos that can sometimes ensue during battle, but they somehow manage to remain unobtrusive, so don't concern yourself about that.

You control Elza's movement with the Nunchuck's control stick, and his basic sword attacks are carried out automatically when you are close enough to an enemy. Special and ranged attacks are not automatic, but have to be brought up by pressing their corresponding buttons, with ranged being controllable either with the Wiimote's motion control, or with the Nunchuck's control stick. You can also choose to play the game with a classic controller, if the Wiimote isn't your thing. Special attacks and movements are unlocked as you level up, such as the slash ability, where you can crouch behind a fallen slab of rock or other cover, and run out and slash your sword across the mid-section of any unfortunate enemy that happens to wander by.

You also have the ability to occasionally order your other party members to perform special actions to help you out during combat. My personal favorite was when I ordered the mage in my party to blow up a near-by stone bridge covered with archers, after which I laid down suppressing arrow fire to keep him protected while he charged up his spell. The bridge blew up quite well, and showered the enemies I was fighting with broken rock, killing them too. Elza also has his weird little magic tattoo ability, which when activated makes him do more attack damage, and allows him to revive dead players, like some sort of walking Phoenix Down. Sound cool? You have no idea. The game is incredibly fun, and what's even better is that it can be played co-op over the internet (it can not be played co-op offline on a single console, which is a shame). Even though the AI is wonderful, from how the characters interact and work together in battle, I imagine playing online with friends would be even better.

It will be a downright shame if this game doesn't make its way to the States at some point. While I admit I initially picked the game up just to try it out and write about it, I found myself continuing to play it, even with my busy schedule, just because I enjoyed it so much.The story, while perhaps a little cookie-cutter Japanese RPG, is interesting, the characters are funny and engaging, and the combat is unique and just plain fun. There is a shortage of good third party games on the Wii as it is, and an even larger shortage of good RPGs on the system. As the Wii U is also supposed to support original Wii games, Nintendo still has time to make a lot of fans happy with this amazing game. Just last week, it was announced that 'The Last Story' will be released in Europe sometime in 2012, but there is still no word on any love for North America. I wish Operation Rainfall every success with their efforts, and hope that they are eventually rewarded with an English version of 'The Last Story' that everyone in the US can enjoy.

Submitted by: Sherrie Blackwell

Retro Review: Mischief Makers (N64)

Way back before Enix and Square merged, they were individual companies that produced much more than just RPGs. In 1997, Enix created a game for the Nintendo 64 called Mischief Makers, a quirky little platformer that can easily contend with the likes of Mario and Donkey Kong in terms of fun and playability.

It's a fun little story that tells of the adventures of a robotic maid named Marina, and her quest to save her creator Professor Theo from the evil clutches of his twin brother. She travels to the planet Clancer to rescue him, and on her way battles and hijinks ensue. The story itself is a little cliche by today's standards, since it's just a basic save the damsel in distress game (except in this case it's a man, so that's new!). However, the story isnt why people play these types of games; it's all about the gameplay, and that's where Mischief Makers really shines.

The game mostly plays like a standard platformer, with a few key differences. First, you have a boost that you can use to propel yourself over large gaps, or to just simply move faster (there is even a race you can compete in!). Secondly, you have no offensive abilities: the only thing you can do is grab and throw. This plays a key role in what makes this game great. Using your grab and throw techniques is the only way to beat bosses and solve puzzles. It's very similar to the way that Super Mario 2 worked, where you can throw enemies into each other. It's not just little enemies you can grab though, you can grab the local people, energy blasts coming at you, and even larger enemies' fists and throw them back in their face! The way this mechanic is implemented is fun and intuitive, and very unique in its design. It's not all just fighting though; in between all the action are puzzles. The levels aren't just a direct path from point A to point B, you have to figure out how to get there through the platforming. It's an absolute blast.

This game is very unique and fun to play, as well as challenging. In order to get 100% completion you must find a gold crystal in every level; if you do so you are treated to a special ending that shows what Marina would look like if she were human, and the style varies depending on what age you put in at the beginning of the game. It's a nice little treat for the completionists out there. So what are you waiting for?! If you aren't one of the lucky few who have already discovered Mischief Makers, then hurry up and get back to the roots of gaming with this hidden gem!!

Submitted by: Tom Ferko (Employee)