Donkey Kong 64

Genre: Platformer
Developer: Rare Ltd., Nintendo
Platform: Nintendo 64
Release: 1999
Rating: E

- Graphics -

Like Majora's Mask (reviewed earlier this month), the N64's expansion pak really got a chance to shine here. The character models were smooth and wonderfully animated in a comical way. My only complaint was the general lack of texture in many places, or textures without much contrast.

Graphics: 9/10


- Story -

Oh god... K. Rool wants to blow up Donkey's island, but his ship crashes. Donkey & co. must collect golden bananas before he repairs the ship. Why do bananas help him? I forget. All I know is the story was extremely ridiculous and made absolutely no sense. It's never even explained WHY K. Rool wants to blow up the island, from what I remember! Perhaps it was played in an earlier DKC game? Not a good idea to skip important things like that, even so.

Story: 2/10


- Gameplay -

While the gameplay was well-varied and challenging in a good way, there was just so MUCH to collect that it made the game nearly impossible to finish within decent amount of time. 5 characters, each with separate items in eight or nine different stages, made the backtracking involved tedious and confusing many times, especially in the more confusing levels such as Frantic Factory. For the record: there are a total of 3,821 items recorded on the various menu screens.

Gameplay: 5/10


- Music -

I do enjoy the way the same themes were played in different ways in various parts of each stage. For the most part, the tunes were catchy and enjoyable, though not something I'd listen to outside of the game.

Music: 7/10

Total Score: 6/10

Not available for other systems.

Super Smash Bros. Melee

Genre: Fighting
Developer: HAL Laboratories, Nintendo
Platform: Gamecube
Release: 2001
Rating: T

- Graphics -

It's games like this that are able to show off the power of a system; The opening theme is about at the Pixar-level in terms of smoothness, and the in-game graphics are only slightly less detailed.

Graphics: 10/10


- Story -

N/A

Story: --/10


- Gameplay -

Building on the engine of the previous game, the addition of new button combinations and several new moves greatly enhanced competitive gameplay. The game was simple enough to be able to play without pure button mashing for beginners, but had enough extra moves such as WaveDashing to make competitive play more than what was obvious to the average player.

Gameplay: 10/10


- Music -

Although the variety of music is good, I found that many of the tracks got old fairly quickly and didn't vary much from their original source.

Music: 6/10

Total Score: 8.5/10

Not available for other systems.

Kye

Genre: Puzzle
Developer: Apriopri Software
Platform: PC
Release: 1993
Rating: Not Rated

- Graphics -

The graphics were in no way recognizable objects; instead, a myriad of various blocks arranged the mazes while the player controlled a green circle in order to manipulate the blocks in various ways. While many may not consider them "good" graphics, they created a very abstract and imagination-driven feel to the game that created a much stronger atmosphere for the particular game than a more realistic approach might have.

Graphics: 7/10


- Story -

N/A

Story: --/10


- Gameplay -

Kye is a fun little puzzle game, though difficult to find nowadays (I finally managed to find a version, and managed to install it after guessing my way through the French installer window! My original game was lost in a computer crash long ago.) The player manipulates blocks that behave in different ways to collect all of the diamonds in a level. Square blocks were normal blocks, while circular blocks would allow some bumpers and moving blocks to more easily slip around them. If certain parts of levels weren't done quickly enough or in the wrong way, it was easy to become trapped and be forced to restart the level (a feature that was wisely included in the menu). "Magnets" and monsters also roamed the maze, and your only means of defense was, in fact, to trap them with other blocks. Unfortunately the main game only included 10 levels, but the game includes a level editor for players to create their own.

Gameplay: 9/10


- Music -

N/A

Music: --/10

Total Score: 8/10

Not available for other systems

Pokemon Gold/Silver

Genre: RPG
Developer: Gamefreak, Nintendo
Platform: Gameboy Color
Release: 2000
Rating: E

- Graphics -

Wow, HUGE improvement over Red and Blue! Look! There are more than two colors! The Pokemon/Trainer sprites looked much more believable and more accurate to the official artwork, and the scenery is some of the best I've seen in a Gameboy game. My only problem is that due to palette limitations the battle sprites of each pokemon consisted of four colors: black, white, and two other colors. Due to this, they were often not quite accurate, but even with that they were still really good. (and limited palettes are often more difficult to work with for the artists!)

Graphics: 10/10


- Story -

Not much of a Story in Pokemon games (I've heard 5th gen changed that, but I haven't played them). The only real plot progression is with Team Rocket, and that ends by the time you get to the League.

Story: 3/10


- Gameplay -

The inclusion of both Kanto and Johto makes this one of the largest 2D worlds ever seen in gaming, and new features such as Pokemon gender and two new elements make the game a lot more intensive than Red and Blue.

Gameplay: 10/10


- Music -

Not really sure how to describe how nostalgic and awesome the music is, so I'm just going to plop down a nice 8 xD

Music: 8/10

Total Score: 8/10

Also available for Nintendo DS in HeartGold/SoulSilver

Mario Kart 64

Genre: Racing
Developer: Nintendo
Platform: Nintendo 64
Release: 1997
Rating: E

- Graphics -

With the Japanese version coming shortly after (or on, I forget) the N64's launch, and the American release coming only 2 months later, we don't have too much to compare with. However, 2D sprites in a 3D world? Seems to me the game hasn't advanced much beyond the SNES capabilities. Items, characters, and even many course obstacles were all 2D. The main courses and item blocks were about the only major 3D objects that come to mind.

Graphics: 3/10


- Story -

N/A

Story: --/10


- Gameplay -

Some of the item features were great, and many of the best ones were missing from the Gamecube release (such as the spinning shells and ghost item). The courses were also extremely fun and memorable.

Gameplay: 9/10


- Music -

I miss the N64 days of Mario music. Something about the obvious synthesizing just feels so -perfect- for a Mario Kart game, and although many games even on the Wii are synthed, the "instrumentation" has taken a turn I really don't care for.

Music: 10/10

Total Score: 7.5/10

Also available for Virtual Console

Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

Genre: Adventure
Developer: Nintendo
Platform: Nintendo 64
Release: 2000
Rating: E

- Graphics -

Wow~ Everything about the graphics here is amazing! I don't even know where to begin describing what makes it so awesome: liquid physics, detailed textures, smooth animation, realistic lighting... Everything the N64 was known to be terrible for, this game showed off what was possible. Granted, the Expansion pak probably helped that along a bit, but it's still the same system!

Graphics: 10/10


- Story -

Wow. Isn't it great when a series goes so far away from the norm that it becomes a gem over all the others in plot? Ganon and Zelda weren't even in the game! The plot was so dark, eerie, and surreal that it gave the game a haunted atmosphere even in bright, sunny places! The main plot itself wasn't directly connected to the main series, but I'd be interested to see if Majora's Mask itself was somehow connected to other areas of the series.

Story: 10/10


- Gameplay -

Oh. my. God. This deserves like, 100/10! The transformation masks were so easy to change between, and granted such unique skills; so balanced as well! And then the time feature! How long were they working on this, I wonder, to get the mechanics right? Must've started right after OoT's launch!

Gameplay: 10/10


- Music -

Wow. Some of these tracks are just so amazing; Some of them sound better on the game itself than on the OST, even (such as Deku Palace).

Music: 10/10

Total Score: 10/10

Also available for Virtual Console

Okami

Genre: Adventure
Developer: Capcom, Clover Studio, ReadyAtDawn
Platform: Wii
Release: 2008
Rating: T

Note: Yes, I am aware this was originally a PS2 game. However, as the controls are vastly different, and I have only played the Wii game, that's the version I will review.

- Graphics -

Wow, finally! Something really unique in this area! Beautifully done! If I could rate it higher than 10, I would xD

Graphics: 10/10


- Story -

I love many of the little plot twists and story elements, however I thought the pacing was a bit odd. They give you the goal of "Kill Orochi" right from the start, and then after killing him, you fight several completely new enemies, returning to the Orochi battle two more times? Moreover, after the Wawku Shrine, you're placed directly in front of the final area, which you cannot return from. However, there are still things you were not able to access before then? Seems a bit odd to me... Although the pacing was a little odd, it wasn't too bad, so I guess I'll give it a 9...

Story: 9/10


- Gameplay -

The biggest difference between the Wii and PS2 versions is here, in the controls. I'm not really sure why they decided motion controls were necessary in the first place; they're not used except for dashing and for the Celestial Brush (Amaterasu's signature skill). I'm not complaining, as I wouldn't have gotten to play this great game otherwise, but I do think it was a little unneeded. Other than that, I felt the game was well balanced in gameplay. I also am glad that the player was given the option of what types of weapons to use (I personally prefer the long range of the rosaries, myself)

Gameplay: 9/10


- Music -

Greatly enhances the Japanese feel to the game, and also adds to the feel of the huge vastness of the world.

Music: 10/10

Total Score: 9.5/10

Also available for Playstation 2

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

Genre: FPS, Platformer
Developer: Retro Studios, Nintendo
Platform: Wii
Release: 2007
Rating: T

- Graphics -

You know the Wii's not as powerful as its predecessor when the third game in a trilogy actually has graphics that aren't as good as the first's. They weren't bad, by any means, and were easily some of the best we've seen on the system to date.

Graphics: 9/10


- Story -

Omg! Metroid is force-feeding me plot? What is this?! I actually felt that the storyline of Corruption was pretty good, considering this was only the second time I think we've even encountered friendly beings before? The first being U-MOS in Echoes... But back on track, while the story's overall plot was a bit cliche, it was pulled off very well.

Story: 8/10


- Gameplay -

I LOVE the way the aiming and shooting was incorporated via motion control, however some of the other motion control features (such as levers) felt clunky and unresponsive a lot of the time. The Trilogy disc may have been a good idea to incorporate the aiming into the older games, although as I already had all three games individually, I didn't bother spending another $50. I also loved the inclusion of Hyper Mode and the ships cannons as WMDs.

However, I felt like some aspects of the gameplay were an attempt to "Halo-ize" the series, which I felt was detrimental in some ways. This wasn't enough to ruin the game by any means, however.

Gameplay: 9/10


- Music -

Honestly, I thought the music in Corruption was a big step down from both Prime and Echoes (although Echoes still paled in comparison to Prime). There are a few exceptions, most notably the theme on Elysia, but all in all I felt that the music was somewhat lacking of the surreal feel that the previous games gave.

Music: 7/10

Total Score: 8/10

Not available for other systems.

Commander Keen: Marooned on Mars

Genre: Platformer
Developer: ID Software, Apogee
Platform: DOS
Release: 1990
Rating: Not Rated

- Graphics -

Pretty good for PC gaming at the time, I must say. Monsters and Keen himself had entirely recognizable forms, although the background scenery and obstacles appeared to be the most random pile of gibberish imaginable. Perhaps that was intended to inspire creativity and imagination among the players?

Graphics: 8/10


- Story -

8-year old Billy Blaze decides to go on an adventure when his baby sitter falls asleep, and heads to Mars on his "Bean-With-Bacon Megarocket"

^Just from that, you can tell this was written in the 80's. The story played only a minor role in the game's enjoyment, however, only providing the player with a rough idea of what to look for: the four stolen parts to his ship so he can return home before his parents get back.

Story: 6/10


- Gameplay -

This game sets the stage for many of the mechanics used later on in the series: The pogo stick, the OHKO and no restarting points, the limited ammo in Keen's only weapon. If you read that last sentence and thought "that sounds hard", just wait. The first game in the series only had one difficulty level, which is actually fairly easy! Now try playing the later games. On Hard mode.

Although the extremely restrictive and difficult gameplay mechanics can be a pain at times, this also adds to the satisfaction when you finish the game.

Gameplay: 8/10


- Music -

N/A

Music: --/10

Total Score: 7.5/10

Also available in various PC remakes