This game is great! Unlike the previous titles before it, this game proves more of a challenge in the HM universe, refreshing for a title that was beginning to grow stale for some players.

This game combines two older titles together. Another Wonderful Life and More Friends of Mineral Town. At the beginning of the game you are to answer a few questions to determine which character you will play as: the pig-tail brunette from Another Wonderful Life or the blonde farmer from More Friends of Mineral Town. The choice of character has no effect on the story of the game.

With 6 bachelors in the Valley and 5 more with a connection to Friends of Mineral Town or More Friends of Mineral Town, there are definitely more options. Marriage in DS Cute is more difficult than in some other titles. Not only do you have to have the correct upgrades, but you must rescue the Harvest Goddess, a surprising easy yet grueling process. Each sprite has its own methods of rescue - creating guesswork and some frustration.

After marriage, many options become available to the player that weren’t previously in the game. It keeps the role of farming -and new mother- fresh and doesn’t dull the game after completing the ultimate quest of marrying your man of choice.

But even with the perks of more bachelors everyday life on the farm becomes more difficult, making the life of a farmer seem more realistic to players. There are even times when you find yourself on the farm more than in town. This is why the aid of harvest sprites are central to this game.

The new style of attaining help from sprites is both useful and bothersome. Unlike other versions help is not free, but they actually give it. In DS Cute, you are required to pay “medals”, a special type of currency that can be bought or won in mini games, for those that don’t have any gold, to obtain the sprite’s service.

In addition to this new system - there are additions from Harvest Moon: DS, such as the ability to change outfits and the addition of having a “Best Friend”.

All of these elements combine to give a game that is both entertaining and gives enough of a challenge that can keep the player in their seat for much longer. Definitely a worthwhile buy for a HM fan and new faces alike.

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Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga was one of the most surprisingly delightful games for the Game Boy Advance. Its unique battle style was superb, it delivered on every standard set by previous Mario RPG titles, and its quirky humor was an entertaining diversion from the standard serious atmosphere of the majority of role-playing games. Just two years later, a sequel was created, with all the quirky bells and whistles of the first, plus more. And somehow, Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time manages to be more bizarre than all of Superstar Saga’s cracked-up plot ideas put together. The DS’s installment manages to retain the wackiness of the original, while sacrificing bits of humor in exchange for some improved gaming mechanics.

Professor E. Gadd has completed developing his time travel device. In an experiment to take it for a test drive, he invites Princess Peach and her servants to take a trip back in time. Predictably, something screwy occurs during their departure, and the time capsule returns without the Princess. As Mario and Luigi travel back in time in some sort of nonsensical paradox, they discover that an alien race known as the Shroobs (purple mutant Toads) have been wreaking havoc on the Mushroom Kingdom’s past. A savage species, the Shroobs tote around a fleet of giant mother ships, oversized death rays, and a lust for conquest headed by their leader, Princess Shroob. As the duo meets up with their former selves in baby form, they create a team of four to recover the pieces of the capsule’s power source – the Cobalt Star.

Peach’s Castle poses as the game’s main hub, and time holes scattered about the castle serve as gateways to the other regions in the adventure. On the overworld, the single pair of Mario and Luigi retains the majority of their abilities from the previous title, namely bouncing off each other’s heads to reach higher ledges and spinning in a totem to cross larger gaps. A few new techniques have also been added to their arsenal, such as the Ball Bros. which turns the duo into one giant sphere which can flatten obstacles and roll at high velocities. Of course, the major addition comes with the assistance of the Baby Mario Bros. While the majority of the time they will appear to pose as dead weight by loafing around on the shoulders of their adult counterparts, certain points will require the babies to split up and enter chambers that would be otherwise inaccessible by the big guys. Mallet-bashing is also now baby-exclusive, often involving pounding each other into the ground, condoning toddler violence without the least of shame.

As before, battles are activated when one of your party members comes in contact with an enemy. They can even get an extra shot in if they time the overworld hit correctly. When one of the Bros. attacks, he will attack simultaneously with his baby counterpart. Precision timing will toss your younger self into the arena for extra damage, with a double jump or a whack with their hammers. However, the major change comes in the form of Bros. Items, which have replaced Bros. Attacks. Carrying these specialized items around with you at all times can help you make quick work of the more pestering enemies. For instance, a Red Shell will target multiple enemies at a time. Each adult plumber will take turns kicking the Shell toward the enemy side, executed by pressing a certain button as the cycle progressively moves faster and faster. Weapons like these are not only useful for targeting multiple foes per turn, but dealing excessively high points of damage. That said, certain rather run-of-the-mill Bros. Items even seem overpowered, such as a Copy Flower which can go on for eternity as long as you consistently time your buttons correctly every nanosecond. More challenged gamers may want to keep these items in reserve and fight through more traditional methods.

Fortunately, these weapons do not completely detract from the game’s challenge. The bosses, for instance, are not necessarily as difficult to defeat as they are to figure out how to defeat. Most area guardians have some twist to their defenses, and are either immune or susceptible to a certain element of attack. Since the game enables you to dodge attacks, pattern memorization becomes key. You will need to pay close attention to which plumber an enemy is going to attack, generally symbolized by color or the direction they move in. Unlike in the previous installment, however, pressing the buttons for both plumbers at the same time to be safe will not work in most cases. Many enemies aim for both Bros. in a single attack, one after another. In addition, quite a few attacks will take advantage of the upper screen, extending both their range and mobility. With an entire skyline to cautiously eye on the battlefield’s upper screen, the fights can gets relatively chaotic. While the game hardly ever uses the second screen for its touch feature, it does a fantastic job of incorporating it into expanding the gameplay.

Unlike the previous titles, the humor in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time is much more visual than written in text. Much of it revolves around Luigi being abused and having the living crap beat out of him needlessly. His cowardice and misfortune is even present in his baby self, who turns out to be an even more obnoxious whiner than Baby Mario. Some of the more subtle humor involves E. Gadd’s talking suitcase which travels along with your party and provides you with often-useless advice. Written humor is not absent, however, as the game features such comedy goldmines as the L33t-speaking Hammer Bros. (who have become an obnoxious online fad) and an enraged Thwomp housewife who goes bonkers on her husband and the Mario Bros. And for all you Superstar Saga fans, you need not worry. HE is back. I will say no more on the issue.

Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time will last the average gamer around 20 hours to complete, give or take a few hours. However, rushing through this adventure is one huge mistake than far too many a gamer have committed. While the lack of random battles means that you can generally pick who to fight and avoid, it is strongly recommended that you raise your experience as often as possible. Lack of experience will cause one to greatly struggle against many of the game’s bosses, particularly the ones toward the end of the game, which are incredibly intense in comparison to the more minor area guardians. The game’s replay value is relatively high, although there isn’t much incentive to go back to areas previously visited on a completed file.

At first glance, Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time looks graphically identical to its predecessor, but if you take a more detailed observation, you’ll find that the sprites and backgrounds are far more saturated, holding about twice as many colors as they did in Superstar Saga. So some people complain that it does not take full advantage of the DS’s graphical capabilities, do they? Face it, folks. Rendered models on the system look ugly. If they can’t make it look crisp, keep it in the 2-D format, I say. The audio is a little less than impressive, however. As always, however, Charles Martinet’s voice samples for the plumbers are delightful.

Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time is a delightful title that will appease fans of the original. Once scarce and far-between, the world of Mario RPG titles is beginning to flourish. It makes excellent use of the system’s second screen, using it to expand its environment rather than shove a gimmick down the consumer’s throat. The cast pretty much consists of your standard Mario array, with a few twists on classic enemies here and there. Although the game was initially lost between the hype of Mario Kart DS and Animal Crossing: Wild World, now is the perfect time to get high on a Super Mushroom and prepare for a wild acid trip through time.

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I recently picked up this game from Gamestop because I was resolved to buy one game that day for whatever reason, I no longer know, but anyways, I found this game sitting on the shelf, and the art style just caught my eye, so I looked at it a bit, found it to be developed by Atlus, which I’ve heard was good for RPGs, so without thinking anymore, I went and bought it. Later, I checked up some ratings from some gaming magazines and my heart dropped rapidly when I saw these ratings come up: mainly 6/10s. The one ray of hope being one editor giving it an 8/10, so I was determined to try it out. Anyways, on with the review:

First, A little bit about the game.
The premises Etrian Odyssey is that there is a deep forest outside of the town of Etria that brings about many new questions and mysteries about the forest itself. Many explorers have entered the forest to find out and, simultaneously, aimed for fame and fortune that the forest might bring. After a large amount of explorers who ventured into the forest never returned, it was later named the “Yggdrasil Labyrinth”. You begin in Etria where you are to build your own guild and recruit explorers to go into the Labyrinth where you also have your own shot of fame and fortune.

You start the game off naming your guild and then recruiting members. Each member has its distinct class that you can choose (reminiscent of Final Fantasy I) which have their own strengths and weaknesses. These classes include Landsnknechts (aka Fighter), Survivalist (aka Archer), Protectors (aka Paladin), Dark Hunters (I’m not sure what this is…), Medics (White Mages), Alchemists (Black Mages), and Troubadours (looks like a Bard/Dancer mix). Later on, you acquire the ability to recruit Ronin (Samurais) and Hexers (looks like a Necromancer). (NOTE: This particular point in the game is VERY important. If you screw up here, it will make your life a LOT harder.) You then choose your party of 5 (or less, but I wouldn’t recommend it) and begin to tackle missions/quests ala Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.

Graphics: 15/20
The graphics, to say the least, are a mixed bag. The art style in this game is stunning and it looks very clean, runs smoothly, and is crisp. I’m a fan of the anime-style art, so I may be biased here, but the character portraits are pretty nice. The backgrounds are pretty detailed, if a bit pixellated. The presentation is quite nice and it serves its purpose. Now, why is it a mixed bag? You might not notice much, but there is not much animation in this game AT ALL. First of all, you don’t ever see any of your characters outside of their portraits. During battle, none of the enemies actually move and when they attack, they just blink a bit. When you get hit, you get a number that pops up on your character status boxes. When you attack, a slash goes down the monster’s static portrait. When they die, they just fade away. There is quite obviously a lack of animation in this game. Whether or not that detracts from the gameplay, I’m quite sure it doesn’t, but just pointing it out.

Sound: 18/20
I should say that I haven’t completed it yet, but I will give credit where it’s due. The music that I’ve heard up to now is quite awesome. It fits the mood perfectly, regardless of your location, whether you’re in town or in the middle of a heated battle, the music fits very well. Sound effects are pretty decent as well. Since I haven’t completed it yet, I can’t say anything about the rest of the game, but if the first half is anything to base a comparison off of, then I should be pleasantly surprised.

Controls: 20/20
Controls are perfect. Drawing the map and making notes are very easy to do and are convenient to do at any time. Moving around doesn’t take much, and selecting your commands in battle is very easy and responsive. Especially for a game that sells itself as an old-school RPG, the ease of making your own map is a must, and in this respect, Etrian Odyssey excels.

Gameplay: 30/40
I personally love the gameplay in this game, but I’ll have to step back and look at it from an objective point of view. The game plays like an old fashioned RPG game, much like Final Fantasy I or Dragon Quest. You take your turn, input all of your commands for all of your characters, and watch your characters and the enemies trade hits. Outside of battle, you walk around in a First-Person view in the Yggdrasil Labyrinth and mark your map with your stylus on the bottom screen. It’s simple and fun. What may not be immediately apparent is the sheer depth that this game allows. It’s a rare blend that a game will offer you so much freedom, yet still keep it challenging. This brings me to the next, possibly only, downside of this game. If you grew up on RPGs such as Final Fantasy VII and later, you will, more than likely, not have the patience to go through with this game. A lot of RPG games nowadays make it REALLY easy for you to level up and kill EVERYTHING in your path by simply mashing the “Fight” button. Take this as a precaution: If you even try to “brute force” your way through this game, this game will chew you up and spit you back out before you can even figure out how to pronounce “Yggdrasil Labyrinth”. (I took this line from somewhere, but I can’t remember where, but nevertheless, it is very true.) What does this mean for you? If you choose to play through with 5x of any single class, all I can say is “good luck”. Outside of that, the only other annoying thing is that it might take a while to save because you can only save inside the town’s inn, which, depending on how far you are into the labyrinth, might take a LONG time to backtrack that far.

Final Score: 30 + 20 + 15 + 18 = 83/100

Final Notes: Atlus has quickly become one of my favorite game developers. This game only further confirms that. ^.^

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When it was originally released, I refused to buy Rocket Slime on principle. Though it looked like a very cute and perhaps fun game, most critics were saying that the multiplayer tank battles were the meat of the game. And the only way to enjoy them is through local wireless; each player has to have their own copy of the game. Either give local wireless play that only requires one card, or put that game online where we will have little trouble finding other players to play with; or do both. Or make the single-player experience enough to go on.

That said, I was still interested in the game because of the mighty fine reviews that it received, pretty much all around. So, I bided my time until it came down in price, which it finally did here recently. I found it online for $20, and shortly after ordering my copy Circuit City put the game on sale for $17. So, I picked up another copy for my wife. Now we can enjoy the game the way it seems to have been meant to be enjoyed.

Story: Welcome to Boingburg (capitol of Slimenia) – that’s right – the peaceful city of Slimes. The character you play as, Rocket, is out one day with his pals, slimin’ around. They’ve gotten their hands – actually, they have no hands – on a little something that they’re really not supposed to be messin’ with: the legendary Warrior’s Flute. As chance would have it, a group of baddies known as the Plob come to Boingburg, on that fateful day, to lay hands upon the great flute. When it turns up missing, the Plob, in their wrath, bomb the city and trap all the inhabitants of Boingburg in blue treasure chests and hide them throughout Slimenia. Rocket, disguised as a baseball bat – after swallowing the Warrior Flute in panic – is overlooked and, therefore, the only one left to save the day…

It’s a silly story, and the dialogue is even sillier. It’s actually some of the funniest and most endearing lines I’ve read in any video game to date. If there’s one thing that should suck you in about this game it’s the characters and the dialogue. The slimes, as well as the “Platiosi,” are adorable and hilarious. Most of the Plob characters speak (using unique word spellings) with a New York Italian accent; your tank mechanic is German; one of your best slime buddies is Scottish; and so on and so forth. There’s never a shortage of comic relief, and it’s all lighthearted and good-natured.

Gameplay: The premise of the game is: Rocket must rescue his fellow slime citizens, combat the Plob and save Slimenia from its scourge. To do that, Rocket must travel to various areas of Slimenia – via a hub of sorts – then seek out his friends, and defeat baddies. Throughout a given area there are platiosi (any of the various creatures who are part of the Plob) that Rocket must combat using his “elastoblast.” The elastoblast is pretty much your only weapon in the field, and to use it you merely hold down the A-button and stretch Rocket with the control pad in whatever direction you want to blast; once you release the A-button, Rocket will go flinging into whatever is in his path. It’s simple enough, works well and is a lot of fun. There are some other clever ways, besides whippin’ baddy butt, that the elastoblast is used. For instance, there is one obstacle made up of bungee cords, located high above the ground, and the only way to travel along the cords is to elastoblast into them and bounce your way across. Though it is Rocket’s mainstay, the elastoblast remains fun and interesting throughout the entire game.

The elastoblast also has one other very important function, and that is in picking things up. Rocket’s a slime and, therefore, has no appendages. So, in order to acquire and carrying items – including friends and foes – Rocket must first blast them up into the air and catch them with his head. There’s not much to it, and he can balance up to three items at a time, which ain’t bad for a little blue-slime dude.

Though Rocket never levels-up or acquires new weapons or attacks (though he does gain the ability to do a more powerful type of elastoblast later on in the game), there is a very cool RPG element in place with the game. Now, you may have already read or heard about the tank battles, and collecting items to use as ammo for your tank is integral to the gameplay. You’ll find all sorts of goodies in the field, and you’ll also acquire many items from slimes that you rescue along the way. Additionally, you’ll gain recipes, which will allow you to combine items to make greater, more powerful ammo, etc. As you can probably imagine, this aspect of the game really creates a ton of replay value.

There are a few actual boss battles in the game, but they don’t offer much difficulty. That’s okay, actually; the boss battles are still fun and a welcome change to the hunting and gathering that makes up most of the rest of the gameplay. However, the tank battles are plentiful, and though they too don’t offer a whole lot of resistance, they are a tremendous amount of fun. There’s no doubt that the tank battles are a huge inspiration to keep wandering around looking for “things” to use in your tank. You can also periodically increase your tank’s HP, and you will need not only gold but also various items in order to do so.

The tank battles are initiated when you encounter a tank platform on the field; if you step on up, a member of the Platioso will challenge you to a battle. If you accept, you’ll toot your flute and be placed in your tank…

Each tank has several rooms: There is the control room, where your cannons are located; a room where lots of ammo is released from chutes; and the engine room, where the tank’s heart is protected (when a tank’s HP drops to zero, all that’s left to do is to attack the heart). Your job is to run around your tank, grab up ammo and fire it – by throwing it into the cannons (of which there are two) – at the enemy tank. However, you always have the option to infiltrate the enemy’s tank, and wreak havoc there.

At the onset of the game, you’ll be alone in your adventure. But early on you’ll be given the option of including a team of three to aid you in tank battles. Let me tell you, they sure come in handy! Not only that, each character or monster has a different strategy to offer your team. Did I say monster? That’s right. If you collect up to 30 (I believe it is) of a particular monster – by sending them back to town, using the TranSlimenian Railroad system (a system of train carts that appears throughout various places on a given field area) – you will then be able to use that monster as part of your team in tank battles. Each character / monster has three different commands that can be set during a battle, so there’s quite a bit of strategy offered every step of the way.

Of course, tank battles against the AI don’t offer all that much of a challenge, and it’s the multiplayer tank battles that will really sustain the life of this game. Players can compete wirelessly if each player has their own copy of the game. Fun? Yes indeedio!

Graphics: Simply put, this is a GBA game. It’s cute, it’s lively and easy on the eyes. But the game in no way pushes the DS to heat up its processors. Could the game have been better otherwise? Meh…who knows? I’m okay with it, though. For the type of game that Rocket Slime is, the 2D graphics work pretty well. There’s absolutely no slowdown and transitions between screens are pretty darn fast. Both DS screens are used and used well.

Sound: Again, there’s a lot of GBA in this game. The sound effects are nothing new, although there are some character sounds that are a nice touch. But there’s nothing that feels sub-par. The music is very nice, and definitely above the GBA standard; there’s not a ton of variety in that department, but it’s all loveable and grows on you quickly.

Presentation: The game box and manual are very colorful…from the outside. The inside of the manual is done in simple black & white, but offers a lot of great info and reference material. The game itself walks you through each step, and both the game and manual work well together to make sure that the player has everything they need to fully enjoy themselves. In-game menus are really first-rate, in that every option you’d hope to be included seems to be there and easily accessible.

My one mammoth gripe: Where is the online play? OMG, this game screams for WiFi play. All the customization that’s made available for your tank, all the effort that you put into hunting for junk to fire from your cannons…I feel like a boxer with no one to fight. Sure, there’s the local multiplayer, and my wife & I should be enjoying that for a long, long time. But at the original price, who in their right mind is going to buy multiple copies for this caliber of multiplayer gameplay? Understand, the tanks battles are a huge amount of fun, but for $35 we should be able to enjoy them practically. And local – multi-card – multiplayer just ain’t practical in my mind.

That said, the game has come down significantly in price; Circuit is – at the time of my writing this review – now selling it for $16.95. At that price it’s not only worth it for the single-player experience, but if you know or live with someone who also has a DS it’s now feasible to pick up two copies. My final verdict, however, is that it’s a great game at that price; at the full price – maybe not so much.

Thanks for reading, and happy gaming!

-GD

The Breakdown

Presentation / 8.5
A very informative manual is included, albeit in black & white; in-game tutorials and hints are very helpful and implemented transparently; menus are easy to navigate, and everything you need is there.

Graphics / 7.5
The visuals are strictly GBA fare, but definitely the finest of what that platform had/has to offer. The environments are very colorful and fun, and everything runs extremely smoothly. For slimes it works well.

Sound / 8
Some sounds aren’t that great, but for the most part the sound effects are cute and bubbly and very likeable. The music is very memorable, and I suppose more so for alumni of the Dragon Quest series.

Gameplay / 9
The adventuring is very fun, and there’s lots of it. The tank battles, of course, are – as many folks before me have already stated – the prime offering of the game. There’s a ton of customization, and the multiplayer is a (elasto) blast!

Replay Value / 6
Though the multiplayer is amazingly fun, that’s only if you can get at it. I’m sure some folks will boast how they have a million friends who have DSes and are willing to each shell out $35 for a copy of the game. But I don’t. Keep in mind, though, that my rating of the replay value is strictly based on the original retail price. If you can find a copy of the game cheaper, and also find someone to play with, that score will jump up substantially. It’s a great game that’s crippled by the fact that Square Enix did not make adequate preparation for users to fully enjoy what’s there.

Overall

At the original retail price / 7.5
At a discount, and only if you can find other folks to play with regularly / 9

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He’s a legend in the making – a courageous warrior destined to conquer many faraway lands plagued by violent, merciless beasts. Dressed in his traditional green garb, he strikes fear into the vile hearts of all scum that dare to hinder his quest for glory. He’s a natural-born hero who has no need for a blessed master sword or an irritable fairy to guide him. Armed with a fine selection of crystal-clear glass bottles, momma’s secret recipes and a couple of balloons strapped to his back, this chubby, spandex-wearing thirty-five year old geezer is a force… to be reckoned w…

NOW JUST HOLD ON ONE SECOND! Spandex?! A chubby, middle-aged man wearing spandex?!

Meet Tingle. He’s a lazy old bum who wakes up one day to find a money-hungry god knocking at his door. “Give me lots of rupees, and you can join me in my paradise among the heavens”, the rupee god says. “o.O!”, exclaims Tingle. Some few minutes of irrelevant small-talk later, Mr Tingle dons some tight-spandex and sets out to make as much money as he possibly can, in ways that would make any real man cringe: by trading recipes with the town folk, by beating the snot out of the local wildlife, and by pillaging graves for any possible loot that he can get his greedy hands on.

As you may have already surmised from the game’s title - Freshly Picked: Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland - this is not your ordinary action-RPG. Tingle was made his debut as a dodgy-looking map merchant in the N64’s Majora’s Mask - a side story within the well-established Legend of Zelda franchise. Now, he’s the star of his own game. Freshly Picked follows the general groundwork laid down by its legendary inspiration: overworld exploration, dungeon puzzle-solving, a myriad of sidequests, and much more. However, as some have put it, this is as far removed from your typical Zelda adventure as possible; Tingle’s RPG is a “bizzaro Zelda”.

You’re not out to save a princess here. Instead, our greedy fat bastard of a protagonist is out to swindle the riches out of everyone and everything that looks like a possible “ching-ching” or a “bling-bling”. Rupees – the currency of this not-so Hyrule-looking land – are life – literally. As you tussle with creatures that would rather sleep than pick a fight, you’ll lose rupees. Get hit on the backside by a fireball or mobbed by a swarm of honeybees and you’ll lose even more. Once you hit bankruptcy, it’s over. Money is everything in this game.

However, a master snitch should have no trouble with staying in high positive integers. Successfully tearing apart innocent bunnies or shifty, hermit crabs will net you some of your lost dough – their carcasses can also be used to cook up some mean stews which you can then sell to a macabre cast of village people at exorbitant prices. Raiding dungeons may only require some simple puzzle solving, akin to the Zelda games, but the payoff once you beat down the creative bosses is absolutely huge. Bring in one of thirty-something bodyguards along with you and you’ll be raking in the millions in no time. Sound easy, doesn’t it? But surprise, surprise – just like in reality, money doesn’t grow on trees.

The problem with Freshly-picked is not the outlandish, homosexual orientation (strangely enough), but the difficulty that arises with bartering. No-one will give a rat’s arse about you unless you give them some dosh. It’s alright when they request a specific amount from you (even if the prices are absolutely ridiculous), but the times when they leave it entirely up to you are the times when you’ll want to pick up and throw something hard at someone. Say you need someone to point out the location of an underground labyrinth to you; they ask for a little something, and so you give them 100 rupees - not enough. 200 rupees? Nope. 1000? So close… but no. Okay, 1500 rupees! BINGO! But, guess what? The non-playable character has just screwed you. Now you know the approximate area where you’ll need to search around, but you’ve just lost a whopping cumulative total of 2800 rupees for the info – and all they really wanted in the first place was a meagre 1001! “!”

For those of you that now laugh at how Zelda games have turned into child’s play since the dawn of its 3D re-invention, I can guarantee that you’re going to be venting some major frustration here. Freshly-picked has no qualms with riling you up for the most mundane tasks. Need a hint? Show them the money. Need a bodyguard? Show them the money. In the unexpected reversal when you’re offered a monetary reward, humbleness will lead to insufficient funds to carry on with your adventure whilst being too greedy will leave you empty-handed. Tingle’s world is cruel. Without using a hand-holding guide or resorting to cheats for infinite rupees (which pretty much defeats the purpose of this game), this is one aggravatingly tough and depressing nut to crack. To open up later parts of the world, you’re going to need the wealth of Bill Gates plus Donald Trump combined. You are going to need to manage how much you spend and risk at a time, resorting to restarting save files as necessary (a bugger seeing as it can only be done in your house, miles away from the chambers of dungeon bosses and such). Not since the days of 8-bits has such a hair-ripping, rage-inducing title been released, and who would’ve guessed that it would be helmed by a funky moustached man dressed in green spandex?

The harsh nature of Freshly-picked’s ‘gimmick’ is its downfall. The garish tone is well expressed through the heavy outlines and dark shades that animate the characters and their settings; the 2D graphics are definitely some of the best the DS has to offer. The dungeons are generally a blast, and while not of the same calibre as the Zelda series from which it draws inspiration, the designs are well mapped and full of oddities that will require your thinking caps to be put on. Brawling is interesting, with a degree of strategy required to manoeuvre the resulting dust clouds into combos with your hired bodyguard, reaping big rewards as a result, and unconventional bosses make for a good show too. Sidequests include: searching out all thirty-plus bodyguards which come in all shapes and sizes, from men in black wielding katanas to skinny clowns that look like they’ve been smoking too much pot; cooking up a selection of recipes to yield potions, bombs or seemingly worthless junk that can be sold for big bucks; and Tingle’s trademark profession, cartography – marking points of interest on a semi-plain canvas to make the best damn map possible. There’s enough to keep you going for hours. But, given the propensity of the game to bring your fortune down to the gutter all throughout, do you think these hours are worth it?

Freshly-picked is an apt title for Tingle’s inaugural offering; this game is truly a breath of fresh air amongst all the generic types we see today. It sets itself apart by blending together a wickedly absurd sense of humour, Zelda-style dungeon crawls, a brawling system that fits the queerness of the hero perfectly (mad dust cloud tapping included), and an interesting money-dependent trade and exchange system. It’s too bad that the game tries to screw you into poverty at nearly every turn: when seeking out where to turn to next, when trying to obtain a response from the various NPCs that is somewhat meaningful, or to just fix a damn bridge up so that you can backtrack an island without having to fly back home every single time. You’ve got a fairly refreshing adventure here, so long as you can push through the incessant depravity. Tingle is one determined and flamboyant, nonchalant fellow - but are you?

VERDICT - 5.5/10

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At first I had thought to post around here the same review that I had made to the GBA version of this game, as they are almost the same. However, I’ve decided against that since the player deserves to know how bad this port of the game actually is.

Across the more than 10 levels of the game you will be able to pick one of the three heroes (obviously Harry, Ron and Hermione), each with their own stats (which strangely don’t change the adventure at all), but there are some in which you will be only able to play as Harry, mainly the Triwizard ones. The levels themselves may be split into 3 different categories:

Triwizard Tournament levels, where the controls will be given before each task and you will be always facing different types of levels.

Mini-games, where you will mainly have to use the lower screen of your console (or other interesting capabilities of it) in order to perform a certain task, which may range from grouping candy up to simply cast spells by miming a pattern shown in the screen.

Basic levels, where you can hang around with the character that you picked and cast spells. While advancing in your adventure you will win new spells automatically, and besides the easy interface of the GBA version in which you had to press A or B to perform spells and strike the enemies that appear, in this version a battle sequence may sometimes randomly appear out of nowhere and without any previous warning, making you think “What? What happened? Did the game glitched or something?”. And yeah, that’s exactly what I thought when first seeing it.

On those battle sequences, you will be able to pick from 3 initial spells and in order for each of them to be successful you will need to perform a specific task using the lower screen and your pen. Seems interesting and in fact it would be nice, except that after the second level your enemies seem to randomly start dodging your attacks more than they should, and when they counter you will suffer some damage even if you defend all their strikes. Nice, hum? It won’t be when you are defeated by a mere random monster, who despite being attacks before the battle will still have its full power when you enter this random battle.

Back to the basic levels, you will sometimes be given lots of small-time tasks (like reaching a certain part of the scenario, among others) which are usually really easy, so each level may even have more than 10.

Added to the DS version of the game were only a few mini-games, some of which are really simple and others which are not even very hard. Got my point?
Well, there’s even a “Care of Magical Creatures” small game, but that one can strangely be completed in a rather boring way.

I would finally have to say that in this type of level you will be controlling one of the characters but the other two will be following you, and by pressing a certain key they will join you to back up your attack, an action that you will have to use quite often during the game.

Exactly as in the GBA version of this product, you will notice the scenario and characters to be quite well drawn, except for the random battles. In those, the character you picked will be seen as an interesting form full of pixels, resembling the old versions of some weaker games. Some of the cut scenes (the ones you get to see before and after each level) aren’t very well drawn, they seem fully 2D and mostly look like a paper-like figure in an amazing scenario, which isn’t very nice, as you may suppose. Also, all the adventure is full of graphical glitches, most of which are easily seen when you’re using any magical power at all, all of which look really bad.

In this version the sound is also generally good, it fits not only the game but also the kind of environment people usually imagine based on the book.

Once more the game is quite easy to finish, but with some more mini-games than the version released before and with the usual shields and cards to collect, you will perhaps spend a lot of time in here.

So, who should get this game? Only hardcore Harry Potter fans, as everyone else will probably enjoy the flawless GBA version a lot more than this one.

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Nintendo finally decided to make a Zelda game for the DS. And so Phantom Hourglass, the best Zelda and DS game on my opinion, was born! I enjoyed Phantom Hourglass a lot when I got it. There are a lot of puzzles in the game just to let you know. Some puzzles are hard and some are, well pretty easy. But nonetheless, all of the puzzles are fun. You may get stuck on a puzzle now and then but you won’t get stuck forever. Well now here are some facts about the game:

Gameplay 10/10: In one word I can explain it as…..AWESOME!!! The story is great and you always get suprised like when you’re at the Ghost Ship dungeon after you beat the boss. Now, the story starts right where WW ended with a short slideshow summarizing up WW. After the slideshow you wake up from the ground of the ship not listening to what Niko, the guy who shows you the slideshow, was telling you. Tetra aka Zelda sees you lieing on the floor and comes up to and tells you to get up. Then out of nowhere an eerie, mysterious fog comes and a big, ragged up ship draws near the pirate ship you are on. Tetra goes to see what happened and gets on the ship which is the Ghost Ship and then she shreiks in terror. Link rushes to her aid but since the Ghost ship was moving he only could hang on the ledge with his arms. Unfortunatly……he falls in to the sea. After that, you wash up on an island. A fairy named Celia wakes you up and you get all suprised and all that. Sooner or later you meet Oshus who is a very mysterious old man that Celia calls grandpa. After some events you meet a person who is called Linebeck in the Temple of the Ocean King. Well that’s just about all the beginning but I might have left some of the beginning for you to find out. Now some comments about the gameplay. The gameplay is really good. It makes you want more and more and more! The gameplay makes you want to make a new file and play the whole game again. Sadly, there is only 2 file slots so you’ll have to new game some. Nonetheless, I will say it again the gameplay is awesome!

Multiplayer/Online 8/10: If you’re thinking its you as Link fighting another Link, you’re wrong. The multiplayer/online is very nice and fun and can get addicting at some point. The multiplayer/online is kind of like…..well capture the flag but not much. Its a taking turns game. One person is a Phantom, well actually 3 Phantoms, and the other person is Link(either red or blue depending if you’re second or first player). The objective for the Phantoms is to get Link and slice him for the round to be over. The objective for Link is to get scattered Triforce Pieces to the Red or Blue safe zone matters if you’re second or first player. There are different sizes of Triforce Pieces. The bigger the more points and smaller the less points. The bigger the more slow you go and the smaller the more faster you go. Also while you are Link you can go into shiny places called safe zones. While in a safe zone you can’t get hit by a Phantom. Pretty handy eh? Also, there is a timer so you can’t be Link forever if a guy can’t get you. Also there are items to help you and the Phantoms so if you’re the Phantom, you can always get help from the items. I preferably like being Link. Once again multiplayer/online is very nice.

Controls 10/10: The controls are PERFECT!!!! The game uses the touch screen for like…EVERYTHING!!! It might sound hard to you here and when you begin the game but sooner or later you get used to them and then you’re like, “Wow! These controls are awesome!” When you obtain the sword to slice you need to use the touch screen. To use a jump strike you tap on a place or an enemy. To do a horozontal slice you need to draw an invisible lin between you and the enemy or whatever. To do a vertical slice you need to draw and invisible line the way you are facing. To do a spin-attack you need to draw an invisible circle around you fast. During the game you unlock something that was from WW, the super spin-attack! Simply you do a spin attack 3 times and the 4th one will be the great, super spin-attack. If you have WW and you’ve unlocked the super spin-attack you know what I mean, but if you don’t here’s what it is. The super spin-attack is Link spinning around super fast for a little while and then you get dizzy but you recover. Now done for sword controls. Also one more thing, you can roll by making tiny circles at the edge of the screen. Now onto item controls! Well the best item that uses the touch screen the most is the boomerang! When you use the boomerang you need to draw a path for it. Just use your stylus and make a path starting from you and ending to you. Then it follows that path. If it bumps into something it will just go back to you. Next, the shovel. Pretty useless but a handy tool for getting rupees. All you need to do is get it out and tap a place and Link will go towards it if he can and then dig in the place where you tapped. Now the bow and arrow. All you need to do is get it out and tap a place where you want to shoot and it will got there. If you tap a place where the arrow can still go past it will. Next is the bombs. All you need to do is get it out and tap the place where you want to throw it or place it. The bomb won’t start to go off in your hand unless you put it down then you pick it up. When you put the bomb on the ground it will start to detonate. Next, hammer. Just to tell you im not going in order because I don’t wanna spoil the order. Now back to the hammer. To bang something with the hammer you need to take it out and tap a place and it will bang it. If you tap a place and hold the stylus there, the hammer will charge up and then turn big and when you let go it will bang where you held the stylus with more power. Now to grappling hook. To use the grappling hook you need to take it out and then tap a place and the grappling hook will stretch out up to the place you tapped. You can use it to drag yourself to a pole. Also you can drag an invisible line from 2 poles and it will make a tightrope which you can walk on but if you use the grappling hook again the tightrope will go away and you’ll have to make it again if you want to use it again. Last but not least item are, bombchus! These are better than regular bombs. When you take it out the map will go down onto your touch screen and time will freeze while you draw a path for your bombchu to follow. You can also move while the bombchu is following its path so you don’t have to stand there like a statue wide open. Bombchus will blow up at the end of their path or when the touch and obstacle but they won’t blow up if they touch a wall. Bombchus can go through little holes in walls for shortcuts. Now the last set of controls: ship controls. Basicly you need to draw a route for your ship on the sea chart when you get it. Once you get on your ship from an island the sea chart goes down and you need to draw a route. When you get the cannon to fire you need to tap a place or an enemy or whatever to shoot. You can also fire at birds which are pretty good target practice if you think like me. Well those are all the controls.

Sound/Music 8.5/10: Sound and Music are good. They are based on a pirate theme and most of the boss fight music are cool. They suit the boss especially the final one. When you fire a cannon it sounds like a real cannon except way softer. Also when you leave an island with your boat the horn that blows when you leave sounds like a real horn on a ship that’s leaving. Well that’s just my opinion. Nonetheless, the sound and music are really good.

Graphics 7/10: All the graphics are the same as WW’s. Their not all that great as Twilight Princess but they’re still pretty good in my opinion. Its clear enough to make out what is what. 7/10 is what I would rate it. Besides, its supposed to have those graphics. Its the sequel of WW so since it continues from what WW left off at, it should have those graphics.

Replay Value 9/10: I rate the replay value 9/10 because the story is so fun, its great to do it 2 or even 3 times again. The boss fights are fun and sometimes you just wanna fight a boss over and over again. Also since this game has wi-fi its a good game do play every now and then. Well once again that’s just my opinion. You might not like it as much as me and only play the game and beat it once and then not play again. Well that’s what I say about the replay value.

Well that’s my review. I hope this convinces you to get the game or if you already have it, you have a better opinion about the game. Thanks for reading!

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Introduction:
By now, I’m sure many of you have already heard of Professor Layton and the Curious Village. A quirky little game that is now one of the most popular titles for the DS, it seemingly came out of nowhere, and is all about puzzles. Well, some of you are probably on the fence about it, like I was and that’s why, for my first game review of 2009, I’ve selected this gem. From developer Level 5, creators of the much loved PSP sleeper hit Jeanne D’Arc, comes this delightful mystery with an engrossing story, innovative game mechanics, and charming graphical style that begs to impress. And impress it does.

Gameplay:
Lurking within it’s point-and-click front hides a puzzle game, but puzzles more along the lines of Brain Age rather than Tetris or Lumines. The main point of the game is to solve brain teasers, trick questions, and riddles (using the touch screen and stylus) posited to you by the townsfolk of the titular village. These puzzles range from block sliding (get the ball from point A to point B in as few moves as possible) to complex math equations (if a train leaves Chicago going 40 m.p.h. heading towards another train leaving New York going 30 m.p.h. etc.).

Now I know you’re all thinking, “Puzzles? How lame is that?” but let me tell you that Professor Layton’s major draw is that little thrill of accomplishment you get when you discover the correct answer to a tricky question. And there are some major stumpers, let me assure you. Each puzzle also has three hints that you can purchase with “hint coins” found scattered in various hiding places in the village. These coins are limited in number, adding to the difficulty of the game.

There are over 130 puzzles to be found in the game, all of varying degrees of difficulty, measured in the number of “picarats” you receive upon solving the puzzle. These picarats are used to unlock bonus materials about the development of the game. You may also receive one of three items (a scrap of a painting that you must assemble, a piece of furniture for Luke or the professor’s room, or a segment of a strange gizmo that once assembled helps locate hint coins) that, upon completion of their respective collection, unlocks more bonus puzzles accessible from the main menu.

Add to these the veneer of a point-and-click adventure that involves exploration of the tiny burg, questioning the locals, and finding clues to solve the mystery. When you mix it all together, you’ve got a solid puzzle game, in bite-sized pieces that will keep you coming back for more.

Some of the puzzles will seem tacked-on and random. Characters will say things like, “I won’t let you pass until you solve my puzzle.” Just remember when this happens that under all the gloss and polish, this is a puzzle game. If they didn’t put puzzles in it, it wouldn’t be much of a puzzle game, would it? Besides, this feeling passes. You’ll grow to anticipate asking everyone in town if they have any new puzzles for you, just so you can get that satisfying puzzle-solved feeling again. It’s worse than crack, I tell you!

Story:
Our story begins with the famous Professor Hershel Layton, and his ward, Luke on their way to the curious village of St. Mystere (never heard of that particular saint) to solve a dispute over the inheritance of the late Lord Augustus Reinhold. Reinhold’s entire estate has been left to whomever can solve his final puzzle, the mystery of the Golden Apple. Along the way, Luke and the professor meet many unusual characters, including Lord Augustus’s widow, Lady Dahlia, his simpering attendant, Matthew, and many others. Mysterious disappearances in some way connected to the tall, sinister tower in the center of town, along with the murder of a puzzle seeker intent on finding the Golden Apple, and the intervention of a suspicious police detective serve to thicken the plot.

All in all, Professor Layton and the Curious Village serves up an engrossing mystery with Agatha Christie-like overtones. For those of you who don’t regularly indulge in mysteries, that’s a good thing. The characters are very original and your interactions with them can be downright hilarious. Unfortunately, the game sort of defeats itself in that, by the time you’ve trained your mind to think in the right direction to solve the puzzles it presents, the big twist at the end of the story is painfully obvious. However the resolution is very satisfying, while at the same time, leaving it way open for the sequels that our Japanese counterparts are already enjoying.

Graphics:
The graphics of Professor Layton are highly nostalgic; they remind me of some of the cartoons I used to watch as a kid. The characters are all drawn very uniquely, and you’ll have no trouble telling them apart. The scenery is colorful and interesting, and very well-detailed. Most of what you will be seeing, though, is the puzzles, and they are well developed. Any time there is a graphical element to the puzzle, the “pieces”, so to speak, are clear and easy to evaluate. If the puzzle is just a verbal riddle, they are usually accompanied by an amusing drawing depicting the situation. Bottom line: the graphics are perfect for the intent of the game.

The game also includes some animated cut scenes featuring voice acting that are very well done. I hear they’re making a Professor Layton movie; I can believe it, after seeing the cut scenes, and I look forward to it.

Sound:
The games music is very interesting, with a French-sounding style featuring an accordion, that I liked very much. It is suitably mysterious and thought provoking, though sometimes distracting, especially the Jeopardy-theme-sounding music featured when trying to solve a puzzle. The main theme of the game is incorporated throughout.

The best sounding parts of the game are the cut scenes, featuring very well-cast voice acting and superb sound effects. The incidental music in the cut scenes is also well-tailored and pleasant. My only major beef with the sound is that whenever you solve a puzzle, either the professor or Luke will exclaim one of a limited number of phrases that basically mean “Good Job!” Normally I wouldn’t mind, but after 130+ puzzles, it gets a little repetitive.

Play Time/Replayability:
I beat this game in about 10 hours. For a portable game, that’s not bad, especially since the story is fun and solving puzzles is so satisfying. As I mentioned before, there are tons of puzzles to unlock, including over a dozen that are downloadable via a wireless access point. That’s a lot of puzzles to solve.

Unfortunately, I’d have to give this a low replayability rating. Sure the story was great, and yeah it was highly satisfying solving puzzles, but once you’ve solved a puzzle, it’s done. You already know the answer, so solving it gives no more satisfaction. Sure some of the block-moving-style puzzles ask you to try to complete it in fewer moves, but I don’t really know anyone that masochistic. Still, it can be fun to foist a tough one off on your friends and watch them sweat over the answer.

Final Recommendation:
In conclusion, Professor Layton and the Curious Village is one the most surprisingly enjoyable game experiences I’ve had in a long while, and I urge you to try it. It may not have Brain Age’s PhD pedigree, but it’s way more fun.

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Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2: Grimoire of the Rift (FFTA2 from here on out) is, in my eyes anyways, the third “tactics” game with the “Final Fantasy” name attached to it. Like most tactical games, it features unique, customized parties and turned based battles, with a slew of RPG elements in it as well. Being a big Final Fantasy fan for many years now, I of course had to try out Square-Enix’s newest title. Since I’ve also played the other two Final Fantasy Tactics games (Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance), I will also occasionally compare them to this game, hopefully to point out true gaming progress (or lack there-of). So, be prepared for a monstrous review!

Story: 5/10

Where do I begin? Hmm, well similar to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, your main character, Luso, starts out in the “real world”. It appears that the pre-teen Luso is a bit of a trouble-maker, so, on the last day of school, instead of going home to summer vacation Luso has to clean the library. This is where he discovers the Grimoire. Upon writing his name in it (I have no idea why…), he falls into the world of Ivalice (from Final Fantasy Tactics/Tactics Advance, and FF XII fame). This is how your adventure begins.

Now, I have a few problems with the story, but to be fair I am a little biased. See, I enjoy an actual plot in my games. Also, I am older than 12, so that may also influence my bias, as FFTA2 is clearly aimed at children, similar to FFTA, except that FFTA’s story was a tad better. Ok, besides being on the childish side, I will say that FFTA2 is a HUGE game. HUNDREDS of missions await you, if you so choose, and almost all of them are connected to other missions, making their own little side stories as you play. But again, these stories are ALSO childish, and at times feel merely like a re-hash of the previous story “mission”. For example, there are at least a half-dozen to a dozen missions where you have to gather ingredients for a chef. WHEE, WHAT FUN! Or you can have fun by trying to find items on the ground for somebody who lost them. Sigh… These missions are mostly just colorful random battles, merely used to gather more ability-experience points (which we will discuss later).

The main characters in the game are pretty bland and uninteresting, and this does include cameo’s by Vaan and Penelo, of FFXII fame. Back-stories are really only fleshed out for one or two characters at most. The story missions in the game were OK, but again I think that the first two tactics games did better. I, for one, long for Final Fantasy Tactic’s deeper plot filled with betrayals, shifting alliances, and skewed morals rather than today’s shallow, offend no-one, pre-teen adventures.

Gameplay: 8/10

The gameplay more or less mimics its predecessor, FFTA, which varied quite a bit from FFT. As I said earlier, the main gist of the game is to build up a party to wage turn-based wars with. The tactics series of Final Fantasy games perfects what Final Fantasy III and Final Fantasy V started: jobs. As you play through the game you will have to recruit clan members of different races. Each race an learn certain jobs and eventually master their abilities. You can also equip a “sub-job”, enabling you to use another job’s abilities at the same time as your current job, making the combinations of possibilities staggering. But, to be fair, only certain jobs really go well together. The number of jobs is pretty impressive, and has certainly grown, although I did miss some key jobs of Final Fantasy’s past, such as the chemist, samurai, and dark knight (to be fair, FFTA2 does have blander replacements for the samurai and dark knight). I did enjoy some of the newer jobs, such as the Chocobo knight and cannoneer. You can also equip reaction abilities and support abilities, allowing for even further character customization. These abilities are learned by equipping your character with armors that feature said ability, and than through battling, your character will eventually master that ability, forcing you to cycle through armors and weapons to master everything. One downside I didn’t care for was the fact that characters not in battle received ability points as well, and you no longer have the ability to rack up ability points by making your characters act over and over in battle, like you could in Final Fantasy Tactics.

The gameplay itself is fairly standard, you will always fight on a square-gridded map with movement fields based on how agile your character is. When your turn comes up, you simply move or stay in place, than either attack or use an ability (or wait, I guess). With hundreds of abilities, spells, and reaction abilities, it definitely doesn’t get boring though. I did like how the maps made you play realistically, for example you can knock characters off cliffs for additional damage. It goes without saying that you must always consider where your character is, the turn order, and most of all what your enemy is capable of. Successfully defeating the enemy will result in experience, ability points, and sometimes items. For everyone who hated the “law” system of FFTA (ME!), unfortunately it is still present here, though much more bearable. In FFTA2, your clan can learn special bonuses and use them AS LONG AS they follow the current law. If they don’t , their bonus is taken away and anyone who dies in the battle cannot be revived. Now, this is a blessing and a curse. The blessing is that it isn’t as stupid as FFTA was, and even if you do break a law, you will probably be able to roll over the enemy anyways. Of course, the blessing pointed out the curse that encompasses the entire game: this game is easy. Early on your characters will become overpowered and unstoppable. All of the missions enemies have set levels, and you will end up being way above them (there are a few missions that were a challenge, but out of the hundreds that weren’t that fact is easy to overlook).

The only other thing worth noting is your clan. Not only can you fight for new clan bonuses, but you can also participate in addicting auctions, where you bid on who controls a particular area. Oh, one other thing worth noting is the presence of Espers, the huge boss monsters from Final Fantasy XII (also found dominantly in Final Fantasy VI). After certain missions you can earn pieces of equipment that will let you use them in battle. It’s not as cool as it sounds, though, as you will never get to fight them, and in order to use them in battle you have to charge a special meter. And, as we just talked about, the enemy will be dead long before you need to use them.

Graphics: 8/10

The graphics in FFTA2 are very similar to FFTA, featuring an innumerable amount of sprites with a vast amount of animations for each one. And all the time, everything looks pretty good, excellent for such small sprites. The story sequences feature the widest variety of animations, but it was surprising to see that Square-Enix didn’t include any of their famous animated cut scenes into the game.

The amount of maps is directly related to how many battlefields there are. As you wander through western Ivalice, each region will have 4-8 different battlefields in it. These battlefields are often themed after different locales: the desert, a mine, greenlands, etc. They all looked pretty good as well, with a fair amount of variety in each one and quite a bit of detail. Overall, with how good everything looks and the sheer amount in the game, I was pretty impressed. One of my favorite aspects in the game, in fact, was the descriptions of all of the weapons and armors in the shop. Ranging from basic descriptions to downright awesome ones, I often found myself sitting in a shop reading each and every item’s description (one example: “Common blades are drawn to begin battles. Ragnarok is drawn to end them.”)

Music/Sound Effects: 8/10

The music is, of course, also similar to FFTA, running the orchestrated, string-heavy gauntlet from catchy town tunes to dramatic scores during battles. These songs are repeated through the duration of the game, so while they may not be as memorable as they could be, you will still have them in your head for quite awhile. Some of the music pieces that they have seem to be inspired from Final Fantasy XII as well. No matter where their inspiration comes from, everything sounds pretty good here.

Sound effects are quite simple in the game, but effective. Battle cries are repeated often, and you will soon get used to hearing your favorite abilities. There’s really not too much to say here, again there are a lot of different sounds in a game this big, and they all sound exactly as they should.

Re-playability: 10/10

While there is only one story path to the game, you can easily sink hundreds of hours into it by playing every single mission, fighting random battles, mastering every job, collecting every piece of equipment, etc. Add to that the seemingly limitless number of ways to fight all of these battles and your re-playability goes through the roof. There is even a New Game + for you once you beat the game, as well as a few “secret” characters (It’s pretty hard to miss out on an optional character in this game).

Overall: 8/10

Overall, an ambitious title that excels in how much content it offers, but lacks in any story-related depth or meaning. Any tactical gamer worth his(or her) salt would want to play through FFTA2, despite the lackluster childish story (Square-Enix must firmly believe that only pre-teens can save the world). If you’re money-conscience, I would recommend picking it up used, since 99.9% of used DS games are in great working order. And congratulations if you actually read this entire review, I hope I covered enough info for you. Have fun and keep playing!

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Pokemon Platinum is the third installment in the new Pokemon series Diamond and Pearl. Currently, only the Japanese version of the game is out. The Pokemon mascot is Giratina in its new form. Giratina’s new form has no legs and looks like a floating centipede.

Gameplay:
The gameplay is very similar to the other Pokemon games. You get three starter Pokemon, Turtwig, the grass turtle, Chimchar, the fire monkey, and last but not least, Piplup, the water penguin. You collect badges, battle the Elite Four, and try to complete your Pokedex by catching and trading Pokemon with different people.

New Features:
There are many new features in Pokemon Platinum compared to Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. One new feature is the Poketch. Before you can only go up. Now, you can move down your apps.
Another feature is that Battle Frontier or something similar to it is back. Also, there is a new look. In battle, Pokemon looks are different and their poses are different. Also some trainers like your rival, do a dance before the battle. The name tags in battle are black instead of white. There are also new towns, new characters, new Pokemon forms, more items, and new places to explore. The title screen is also a different color.

Graphics:
The graphics look much cleaner than Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. Also, the sprites are better done. Don’t forget that the characters have new looks due to climate changes. So, now there is snow around buildings and trees.

Plot:
The plot if much different from Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. In the beginning, you Professor Rowan gives your starter Pokemon instead of you having to use it in battle. After you receive your starter Pokemon, you have to battle your rival, which is your first battle. After your battle you and your rival decide to go to the lake and you meet the leader of Team Galactic there. No one knows what he was doing there. After that moment, your adventure begins.

Controls:
Still kind of… dull. Pokemon Platinum still makes little use of the Nintendo DS’ features. It barely uses the touch screen and microphone.

Sound/Music:
The music is the same as Pokemon Diamond and Pearl.

Overall:
Overall, Pokemon Platinum is a great Pokemon game. It has almost everything a Pokemon game should have. Anyone that is a Pokemon fan should buy this game but, of course, not now. The game is only released in Japanese.

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