I’ve been playing Megaman since right before it became cool. In fact I attribute a great deal of its success due to the fact that I gave it the green light— I’m not bragging, it’s just the way it is. I followed the series progression all the way up to Megaman 8. A great game for Playstation, that not only included animated scenes, but also the robot masters were given awesome voices. All the while maintaining the classic Megaman gameplay. This is what I would call, a step in the right direction.

Then Megaman 9 came out… And now Megaman 10…

Yeah!… Finally!… Just what we needed another 8-bit side scroller. Why did I even need to buy a next-gen system? I can have just as much fun playing games that were designed for the NES. A system that came out over twenty years ago. So thanks Capcom for forgetting to add graphics… again— If you couldn’t tell I’m being sarcastic. I mean it’s the year 2010 for Christ sake, give us a gun that makes enemy’s explode into something better than white pixels.

I’m one of the unfortunate robots that accidentally paid for this piece of crap, and I don’t know what I hate the most about it. Was it the stupid robot bosses? Such as Sheep Man, a fluffy ball robot that turns into a storm cloud?

Or maybe what I hated the most was the stupid selection of weapons? For example: Ice Spike. A weapon that ejects a small amount of ooze out of your Megaman arm cannon, and literally drips onto the floor in front of you. The worst part of this stupid weapon is that you can only shoot one at a time, and I estimate it takes 5 seconds to dissolve.

The actual stages leading to the bosses seemed to be put together fine, what was stupid about them was the gimmicks each of them had. For instance, in all the Megaman games they implement platforms with pits in between and if you fall into them, you die. A really basic concept that has worked since Megaman’s inception. But in Megaman 10, (Commando Man’s stage in specific) they felt that wasn’t good enough. They said, let’s add a never ending supply of enemies that jump out of the pits whenever Megaman goes near, but not only that, let’s also add sporadic bursts of a sandstorm that completely block the players field of vision, while moving Megaman willy nilly all over the screen.

At least in Megaman 9 there was some challenge, now in Megaman 10 they added an easy mode for gamers that happen to be pussies. (I only ran through easy mode for review purposes.) And if you don’t believe me about making the game for pussies, in Megaman 10, doctor Wily drives a pirate ship. Literally. Then, rather than having to fight three forms in a row after you beat the first two forms of him, he runs away, you go through a level that doesn’t have enemies, they refill your life, and then you fight the final form that’s weakness is the common Pbuster.

I know I already thanked Capcom, but at this time I feel it would be prudent to thank them again. Thanks Capcom.

Overall Score:

Star Ocean is an action RPG. It plays similarly to the Tales of Destiny games in that the level and battle systems are closely related. What I like about both of these series is that the high-action battles keep you involved in the game the entire time while giving you all the basic RPG elements. Star Ocean: The Last Hope is the fourth game in the series and is announced to also be the last. But don’t let that stop you from picking it up, because this is a prequel to the entire series and the story and world are easy to follow along with.

The other thing I like about this series is the science fiction elements.  You’re basically cruising through the Galaxy looking for new planets to colonize post World War III when the Earth was decimated. This is also where the game gets its title, The Last Hope. The main character ‘Edge’ becomes the captain of a SEED ship, and the rest of your party consists of the crew. You go from planet to planet, recruiting members, and saving the inhabitants of those worlds.

I thought the battle systems were done really well. You get four members at a time, and you choose any one of them to control yourself while the other three are controlled by an A.I. . They use an active battle system, that isn’t turn based at all. (You get to use special ability’s and attacks as often as you like provided you have the MP.) While this sounds really simple, there is still a lot of strategy required. (Especially on boss battles.)

Each of the characters has their own abilities and fights in their own unique way. For example, the main character is really good at close combat, whereas his second in command (A girl named Reimi) is an Archer and is better at fighting at a distance. The variations on how to use your party are virtually endless.

The first thing I noticed about this game is that it is incredibly vast. But with the active battle system, and going from world to world, it hardly ever gets boring, and it’s always a delight to look at. The models are some of the best I’ve seen, for both the characters and the enemies. I’ve mentioned in a review of Avatar recently that video games seem to be much more adept at populating new worlds with interesting creatures and environments. This video game was successful in filling many worlds with life and story, that I consider to be a much greater accomplishment.

The international version offers the ability to play in either Japanese or English, which as a Japanese language student I find to be be a really good feature. Also as a North American it’s refreshing to actually see the release of an International version in general because it is so rarely done. (I’ve been waiting for a FF7 international version since 1997.)

The voice acting was done better than some of the games I’ve played recently, and was completely acceptable. Which is saying a lot, because unfortunately now a days, bad voice acting can kill a game. Although I do have to say some of the characters mannerisms were slightly annoying, I am certainly willing to give it a pass. (Especially because the games sound-track was really good.)

Overall, this is a really good looking game that’s fun to play for many hours with a definitive ending point, and a cool story. I highly recommend it. It makes me want to pick up the other games in the series as well.
You can buy your copy from Amazon through this link!

Score:

• Graphics : 9
• Controls: 8
• Audio : 8
• Replay: 7
• Story: 9
• Overall: 8.2
  

A video about the actual science behind regrowing body parts! It’s actually quite interesting.

Get excited! We’ve got some great comics bending over the examination table this week!

Starting with Kick-Ass #8

Every time I pick up a new issue of Kick-Ass no matter how wrong I’ve been every other time, I say to myself, “This one can’t possibly be as good as the last one.” And I’ve been wrong every single time. This last issue didn’t let me down in any way. I thought I wanted to see the movie before, but I have to say before reading this issue, I never knew what it was really like to want to go see a movie. Kick-Ass is easily on my list of favorite comics, and Mark Millar’s best to date. This issue was so gory, and so hilarious, read it before the movie comes out! It was worth the wait!

If I had to choose between life, and Kick-Ass, I would choose life. But only because then I couldn’t appreciate Kick-Ass! -Slugtron

Overview: I creamed in my pants from a mere glance of this ass-hole, and not just a little bit. It’s like concentrated anti-Medusa.

Prognosis: It’s bloody, hairy, leaky, and spongy, and I love it!

Next on the list, Siege #2

There has been quite a bit of hype going on with Siege, and when I read the first issue I didn’t think it was bad, but I didn’t think it was as good as the raves going on about it. I sensed it would get better and better for every Marvel comic you’ve picked up for the last five years, but I haven’t been reading that many. I was still versed enough to understand what was going on, but save to say, I was asking a lot of questions.

As for the second issue, I thought it was way better than the first, and in fact it was better than most comic books. But at the same time I felt there were a lot of things that didn’t hold as much weight without the back story. I think a dead give away of this fact is the roll-call page they put into this issue. Then there were some things that held just as much weight, (like the sentry ripping Ares in half.) That’s right, spoiler alert sucka’s! And I thought the ending was cool, but I don’t think Bendis brings the majesty to Cap the way Mark Millar does. I’m just sayin’.

Overview: If I had to pay for ass, (which I don’t) I would pay for a slice of this one. (Although you’ve got to hate the 4 dollar price tag on popular comics.)

Prognosis: Safe for banging.

Last up, Ultimate Enemy #1

Another Bendis title, one that proves he’s stretched a little thin. This was essentially an issue of Ultimate Fantastic Four after Ultimatum, with a few other cameo rolls granted. The thing is, Bendis has written UF4 and it was much better than this. I’m not a Bendis fan but I know he can do much better.

It’s issues like this that make me wonder why they even bothered with Ultimatum. I’ll admit I’ve liked all of the Ultimate titles since Ultimatum, but this issue was bad. It was literally flashing around the world to different super heroes, capturing a boring moment of their lives right before a mysterious explosion goes off, five times in a row. Ultimatum was so confusing I don’t know what’s what in the universe anymore, I need some more exposition to be entertained.

Unfortunately just because this issue was bad it doesn’t mean that the next one will be. That means we still have at least four more dollars to gamble on Bendis, if he lets us down again I think we need to start an ass e-mail campaign. (Which is similar to a normal e-mail campaign.)

Five explosions! -Slugtron

Overview: This title worries me about the future of the Ultimates universe, especially with the news that Jeph Loeb is writing New Ultimates.

Prognosis: This ass-hole is as shriveled as an eighty-year old’s and it’s brand new! It’s the Benjamin Button of ass-holes.

Thexder was originally released for PC’s in 1985. You play a robot that shoots a laser, and turns into a fighter jet! This is an enhanced remake put out from Square-Enix for the PSP, and just last week to the PS3.

I was turned on to this title when I watched the trailer, because the graphics were reminiscent of the remake of Gradius. (Which is excellent!) Just like all video games of this era there is absolutely no plot line. Although the transforming ship is one hell of a gimmick.

The PSP version of this game isn’t very big, (the PS3 version is supposedly longer.) But they are only asking for $9.99 to play it, which isn’t a large investment. It does have different difficulty settings, and some online play features. Even still, I can’t see spending more than a few hours of playtime on this title. Although, I would still be interested in trying the PS3 version that was released last week.

The gameplay and strategy system was good. You maneuver through levels that resemble mazes, 10 of them in total, and you fight enemies all along the way. In this game your laser,  shields, and HP are all attached to a single meter, and when that meter gets to zero you die. I liked that your laser drained your HP, but it was a little annoying that your weapon never changed throughout the whole game. Another slightly disappointing aspect was that there was only a single boss battle.

Overall, I think this is good fun for a limited amount of time. I understand that they were remaking a classic game, but when they are enhancing the graphics to the point of looking as cool as these, I wish they took some liberties to upgrade the game as well. And make no mistake, it looked great.

It’s a fun action game for the PSP, but now that the PS3 version has got its release, that’s supposed to have some extra levels, I wouldn’t recommend buying the PSP version. If you want to buy this get it for the PS3!

Batman Confidential #40

Written and illustrated by Sam Keith, (Creator of The Maxx) this is definitely worth getting just to look at. The story doesn’t seem bad, but it doesn’t seem to stand out either. I really like where his art style is going in this book. Most of the panels make me want to frame them, and hang them on my wall. While I don’t think I was completely pulled in by the story yet, I think it has potential, and I’m really interested to see where it goes in the next few issues. The best part about this run is that it is more like a Sam Keith Elseworlds, so you can jump on board whether you are reading any other Batman comic or not. Viva Batman Confidential #40!

Overview: A fine looking ass-hole by anyone’s standards, the only problem is the location. Usually I like to see my ass-holes dead center of the buttock, while this one hangs to the far right. I’m just glad I’m not the one pooping out the side of my ass.

Prognosis: One beautiful ass colon!

Batgirl #1-6

I’ve always been a fan of both Batgirl, and Stephanie Brown (The Spoiler), and so this seemed like an obvious addition to my hold, (Because the Spoiler is currently Batgirl) although I even began with mixed feelings. For starters, who the hell is Bryan Q. Miller?  And why does he think he’s good enough to write such a book. I don’t trust most of DC’s all-star writers to write these characters, let alone this ass-hole. Although I gave him some six issue leeway to see if he could impress me, and at the end of the third issue it took a turn from “Whatever” to “I don’t like you very much,” when he had Oracle give Stephanie Brown a really stupid looking costume.

If ass-holes had brains, this one still wouldn’t have one! -Slugtron

Honestly the comic did get a little better after she switched costumes because she began interacting with Dick, and Damian, but all at the price of seeing her in this new ridiculous costume. Basically I feel like the book is bitter sweet at best, but leaning more towards the sex with an in-law side of bitter sweet. It basically feels like a bad episode of L.A. Law.

Overview: To get to the problem with this ass-hole I had to examine its shit. Now, if you know me, you’d know I don’t like examining shit. I don’t even like saying the word. My business is ass-holes, and I’ve got to tell you brother, business is booming!

Prognosis: I don’t even know if I’m looking at a bonafide ass-hole.

Last up, Fables # 92

This is the first of a two part series called “Out to the Ball Game.” Let me start off by saying, I’m glad they aren’t wasting Mark Buckingham on this run. It’s not horrible, it’s just a clear deviation from what I want to read about. This issue takes place in Flycatchers Kingdom, where Goblins and recently deceased fables live in harmony under his rule. In fact the issue starts with a parody of Casey at the Bat, where Goblins are the opposing baseball team, and Weyland Smith is Casey playing for humanoid fables. The Goblin Pitcher ends up getting drunk and killing a fable in his drunk stupor, and the next issue is going to be his trial. There I said it! I gave everything away! So now there’s no need to read the issue at all. Honestly other than the Great Fables Crossover, this seems to be the lamest deviation to date. I don’t mind these when they’re added into the trades, but I hate to see them monthly.

Overview: This is an old ass-hole that’s been pooping quite some time, and I imagine it’s going to continue to poop for quite a while longer. I would now like to conjecture what this creatures mouth has been eating lately. Card board, very high fiber, hurts coming out, stinks like a prostitute, leaves a handsome rash for a few days.

Prognosis: A strong enduring colon. Recommending a return visit to the ol’ass doctor soon.

Hitler’s Bodyguard is a documentary series released by Acorn Media. It’s a four disk set with over 10 hours of runtime.

As the name implies it’s a documentary series dedicated wholly to Hitler’s Bodyguard and how he survived his rise to power, and the duration of the war. It sounds like a pretty refined scope, but Hitler’s whole life was surrounded by death threats and murder attempts. (Over forty!)

At some points the documentary seemed a little redundant, but every episode had a lot of educational value. Not only just about World War II, but the state of the rest of the world, Hitler’s rise to power, and personal details about Hitler and some other Nazi’s that I found particularly interesting.

For example, I didn’t know that Hitler didn’t drink Alcohol. (There is some other pretty interesting politics about Alcohol with the Nazi party as well.) Hitler’s niece (whom he was in a love affair with.) Was murdered in his apartment with his pistol before he was the fuhrer, and he served very little jail time. Then the last interesting thing I would like to point out is, at the beginning of the Hitler’s rise to power, he seemed to have more liberal views on homosexuality than today’s modern Mormon. (In fact at one point there was an entire platoon of flaming Nazi’s that earned quite a bad reputation.)

It’s amazing how well the in’s and out’s of the Nazi party were documented. Conspiracies, lies, even drama between Nazi officers. What wasn’t so surprising, yet still interesting was the accounts of Hitler’s bodyguards themselves. Sometimes he had over a thousand at a time, and was still at great risk. They talk about the formation’s the bodyguards would keep to make him as secure as possible, and they show tons of wonderful stock footage depicting its unbelievable reality.

I found the most interesting parts of the series were the historical accounts of his murder attempts. They have an entire episode dedicated to the attempt in the wolf’s lair that was just recently made into a movie, Valkyrie staring Tom Cruise. They also go into details about his attempts, (or rather successes) at murder. A full episode was dedicated to “Night of the Long Knifes.” the code name for an operation that allowed Hitler’s rise to power, by murdering practically everyone that could possibly stand in his way, and all in one night.

The information was all really engaging, and the series followed a steady natural progression starting with the foundation, and  ending with Hitler’s suicide in his bunker. I found that episode particularly interesting as I really liked the movie Downfall. (which is even more amazing now that I know more about the actual events.)

The stock footage was wonderful, a lot of it was in color. I found the narrator of the series to be informative, but a little over the top at times. All in all, I think it’s a great series, and it’s worth checking out even if you don’t find yourself terribly interested with World War II. (I know I’m not.)

This series is being released this coming Tuesday, and can be purchased from Amazon through this link!

I’ll admit that I’m a faithfully enamored Nintendo fan, but this only applies to their beyond famous titles. Mario, Zelda, Metroid, there are others, but save to say, I spend a lot of money on Nintendo games, and I’m generally satisfied. In fact you could say I’ve come to trust them. But do I trust them for something that doesn’t have the hallmark characters I’ve become fond of? The answer is a definitive NO.

When I first looked at the pictures for Glory of Heracles I really wasn’t sure what to expect. All I knew was it was an RPG based around Greek mythology. (A cool premise) But Nintendo hasn’t really done that many RPG’s, and when they have, they aren’t traditional in any way. The only thing it really had going for it was the fact that some of the Final Fantasy creators were working on it. Which was just enough to make me want to try it.

Story: The game starts with an amnesiac boy who finds out he’s immortal. Traveling the world he runs into other immortals that have sketchy pasts. As you progress you learn more of each of the characters back stories, until all is finally revealed. The characters pasts were by far the best part of the story, and it certainly made this game stick out. It wasn’t trying to tell an old Greek story, but its own story, filled with enjoyable characters, and story turns that range from touching to comedic. I found myself laughing out loud several times.

Without revealing too much story, one of the best concepts in the game is that there are four Heracles’, and you spend most the game wondering who’s the real one. To add to this, each of the Heracles’ have very different personalities. My favorite of which punches a princess in the face because she won’t shut up.

Overall the story isn’t very strong, but the characters, and the dramatic revelations make it seem great.

8/10

Gameplay: This is definitely the strong suit of this game. It has a fairly traditional battle command system, you can use normal controls, or if you prefer they all work with the stylus. You can also control every other aspect of the game with the stylus, though I opted not to.

The battle commands and battle system are equivalent to any Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, or Breath of Fire, but in a lot of ways Glory of Heracles did it better. Starting with the fact it had a unique front-row/back-row system. Next, It offered a mini-game power-up system for your special moves. So every time you cast a spell it would ask if you wanted to play a short mini-game with the stylus in order to increase the damage of the spell. It sounds as if it might get boring after a while, but you can always skip it, and additionally there’s probably more than twenty different mini-games. Some as easy as tapping the screen repeatedly, and some as complex as a short game of Simon.

Another thing this game got right, was the balance of the game. The way they dished out experience and money seemed perfect. There wasn’t a time when I needed to sit and level, but there wasn’t a time I felt over leveled either. The dungeons were fast paced, and well done, but the game did lack mystery. I wish they threw in a few puzzles throughout the game. It seemed as if in place of puzzles, they made the method of killing dungeon bosses very strategy based. (An acceptable substitute, but they could have done both!)

Another thing I liked was the fact that it is played straight through. You can’t loose your way, if there’s an obscure house you have to go to before moving to the next area, you will know it! I think this style worked great for a portable game. You still have 30 hours+ of game play, but you feel as if you are moving forward with every five minutes you put in.

10/10

Graphics & Appearance: This looked fine for a DS game, it had a nice Breath of Fire 3 quality to it, and the characters were well animated. There wasn’t any spectacular movies or anything, but some animations that did look cool. Although some of the graphics were cheesy at times, my overall feeling is that it looked great.

The one complaint I have, is that there weren’t that many monsters, and they reused the same ones a lot. They looked good for the most part, but I wish there were many more of them. (Not all of them had cool names, but the Hemo-goblin, made me laugh.)

9/10

Overall: This was a solid RPG that is funny, and fun to play through. The story lacks excellence, but the characters back stories make up the difference. The battle system was one of the best I’ve seen. I think everyone should try this purely for the fact that you can’t get lost during the game, and it tells a simple enough story that you can literally play it in your spare time and have a full RPG experience.

OVERALL SCORE: 9/10

You can buy your copy from Amazon here!

Note: this is the fifth game in the series, but the first one that they released in the U.S. (This is completely independent of all the other games in the series.) I hope they release a U.S. sequel. I’m excited to get more details, personally.

Two documentaries are being released from the history channel today, and I was lucky enough to take a look at them.

First up: JFK 3 Shots That Changed America

I’ve been interested in this subject ever since I watched JFK a few years ago. Getting  so passionate about the subject as to get into some arguments about the conspiracy over 40 years after the actual event. It’s incredible that something that happened before I was born can still inspire such strong opinions. But I think that’s why there’s still a market for documentary’s on the subject.

This documentary is almost three hours long, covering just about everything that happened around this event. A minute by minute recount of events,  from John F. Kennedy’s final speech, going long after his death. The thing I liked the best about this documentary was the stock footage they had. Street interviews with Americans right after the shooting, watching them pointing fingers at the right wing, communists, and all the while smoking plenty of cigarettes.

I thought this one was really interesting, but I wish it was a little shorter. It was a little hard to get through in a single viewing, but certainly worth checking out. The interviews and stock footage of America they use in this documentary are great. It felt like I was doing research while sitting on the couch!

You can buy this one on Amazon here!

The next documentary The Kennedy Assassination 24 Hours After

I found this one to be a bit more gripping, although it was a bit more graphic as well. In fact they show the assassination footage multiple times in the first five minutes. It was ruthless, and I was constantly turning away. Even If you find it hard to sit through documentary’s, I still think you would be pleasantly entertained by this one.

As stated, this one is more gripping, although I think it was more gripping in the standard history channel way. Which pretty much means they say boring things in a very exciting manner. Sometimes this is a bad thing, Mysteries of the Freemasons and Universe for example, are fine documentaries, but they dramatize some pretty lame things. This style actually fit into this documentary fine though, I mean the president was assassinated for god sakes.

They have a lot of coverage about what Lyndon Johnson was thinking and doing throughout the assassination that was really interesting. Not only about the assassination, but the politics of the times etc. I was surprised how much I didn’t know that was in these documentaries. Basically it’s amazing how much information was recorded around this event.

You can buy this one on Amazon here!

I would like to recommend these documentaries to everyone, but sadly it isn’t for absolutely everyone. It’s only for people that aren’t idiots! People that want to know something about Americas recent past and have attention spans, I urge you to pick these documentaries up!

Capcom just put the trailer for the Resident Evil 5 expansion.

Based on the trailer I am definitely interested in getting this. It looks like they added a ton of options for co-op play, including making Jill Valentine a playable character. (And let’s face it, no matter how riddled the game is with problems, the co-op is really fun.) The creatures that are introduced in that trailer look cool, and I’m sure there are going to be plenty of additions for the arsenal as well. The only thing that doesn’t interest me is the new costumes, I guess I never really got that. (Except Samus in a bikini. That always made plenty of sense.)

This is unfortunately set to release the same day as Final Fantasy XIII. (March 9th) So suckers like me are going to have to blow an entire paycheck on video games that week. The gold edition is going to be offered by both download and hard copy. If you are anything like me, you’ll want the hard copy, and I would suggest pre-ordering it on Amazon now. You can do that here. I personally prefer the PS3 version, as I find that the controls are awesome.