I beat X-Men Legends on the Microsoft Xbox this evening!

During my pre-teen years, I was a rather large X-Men fan. I remember getting up early and watching the cartoon rather religiously. I collected the comics as well for a very short time. I always wanted an X-Men video game to go with the series and though my nostalgia goggles are strong on the Genesis' games, I know they are not the greatest ones in the world. So, when I saw a Gauntlet/Diablo style X-Men game that looked good, I instantly became interested in the game. Since I saw that the Xbox version was rated the best, I was happy to score a sealed copy and relive one of my favorite franchises from when I was younger.

X-Men Legends is a perfect implementation of the Gauntlet/Diablo style gameplay that you expect. You are able to run around as one of the X-Men and destroy many bad guys and fight iconic villains. And everything runs so smoothly and the combat is so satisfying. Obviously, with these styles of game, it gets a little repetitive after a while, but the ability to change characters really mixes up the game play. Also, you can customize and level up your character however you see fit and the ability to destroy almost anything in the game never gets boring. Only after long play sessions did I feel bored as the action never ceases to get old. The story is what you expect from a X-Men game with enough twists and turns to make it at least interesting. The great voice work also helps in the story and adds some realism to the characters.

However, the look of the characters was really unappealing. They all had this blocky appearance with a painted cell-shaded look. And they all got this modern look to them as I sorely missed their appearances from the cartoon. Obviously, some characters are more over powered then others. I used Wolverine throughout the entire game because his healing ability is quite broken. That didn't help against some of the bosses as they ranged from pushovers to utterly frustrating. There is no balance and they mostly come out of nowhere.

Overall, X-Men Legends is an incredibly good Gauntlet/Diablo style game using very popular characters. It's probably the best X-Men game I've ever played and would be very fun to play with multiple people. It makes a good game around the license with some unique features. If you like those overhead hack and slash games and enjoy the X-Men franchise, this is a game not to miss!

I completed Batman: The Video Game for the Nintendo Entertainment System this afternoon!

have you ever seen the prototype?
[Link] a whole lot of things got changed, the cutscenes were all totally different! there's also an establishing shot of batman leaping into action to explain why he just falls into stage 1 for no apparent reason :V

I completed Batman: The Video Game for the Nintendo Entertainment System this afternoon!

As a child, I remember renting Batman several times from the video store. I always enjoyed playing it, but I could never get very far because of the difficulty. A few years ago, I was up at my favorite local video game store trading in some games. While looking around for what to purchase, I spotted Batman sitting there. It had always been cheap and very easy to find, so I was in no rush to pick it up. However, since I had some extra cash, I figured now would be a good time to pick up a great game from my childhood.

The best part about Batman, by far, is the music. It is simply rocking and I was humming along during the entire game. It is one of the best soundtracks on the system and I would put it right underneath some of the systems heavy weights. The cut scenes are also fantastic with the graphics looking exactly like the characters in the movie. It also moves the plot along nicely as well as adding some memorable scenes. The gameplay is very tight with some of the best wall jumping in video games. I wish Batman's punch was a little bit longer, but that is a common complaint I have in all NES games. The levels are varied and unique. They slowly ramp up throughout the game until you get to the final level. That final climb followed by the fight with Joker is one of the hardest levels on the NES. You will spend more time on that one level than the rest of the game combined. It also doesn't help that your invincibility frames are almost non-existent. You will get hit by the same enemy multiple times and it slowly begins to wear on you. The weapons are really good, though I wish you had something that shot up as that would help so much in the tower climb at the end of the game.

Overall, Batman is an incredibly good game that just misses the mark of being perfect. If you were to compare to other movie licensed games, it is in a league of its own. However, compared to other action platformers on the system, it is still in the upper echelon. I wouldn't say it's near the very top, but it is up there. The music adds so much to the game that many of its flaws can be overlooked. If you love NES action games, fantastic music and have a few hours to kill, you cannot go wrong on Batman. It really does dance with the devil in the pale moonlight.

I beat Phantasy Star III on the Sega Genesis this afternoon!

Before my backlogging days, I picked up the entire trilogy of the Phantasy Star games on the Genesis. Recently, I have been playing them along with the Dragon Quest series as I work through my yearly old RPG grindfest fix. Two years, I went through Phantasy Star II. I remember it having fantastic music, but it was ultimately forgettable and incredibly grindy for its own good. Now, it is time for Phantasy Star III as I slowly build to playing through the best game in the series, Phantasy Star IV.

Phantasy Star III is the interesting black sheep of the franchise. It doesn't feel anything like Phantasy Star II as most of the Science Fiction elements are gone for a standard fantasy fair. Also, the fantastic music is gone and replaced with an interesting score. Some of it is not bad while other times it is a prime example of the Genesis horrible sounding qualities. I do have to give it credit where the Overworld theme changes and adds new music each time you get a new party member. For graphics, I really like the character portraits and the enemy design is actually fairly unique. The story does a little to tie in the previous game and it adds some science fiction parts near the end, so it does feel like a Phantasy Star game. The idea of a generational theme with different characters is actually really interesting and I love the small stories compared to one over arching plot.

However, the speed of the game is probably its biggest problem. You walk incredibly slow and you don't get a vehicle until the final generation. However, everything in the game is a dungeon or a maze. Just to talk to somebody, you have to walk through a maze. The entire second generation, you keep going back to the same place several times which is inside of a dungeon filled with monsters. It really bogs the game down and makes everything feel like you are moving rather slow. Add to the fact that you need to grind heavily at the beginning and everything is very expensive, you really begin to feel the grind.

Overall, Phantasy Star III is a rather average game. There is nothing there that is utterly fantastic or anything that is completely terrible. It is a very slow moving game with interesting ideas and unique parts about it. If you are this far into the series, then I wouldn't skip over it just to see the progression. But, I would say it is only for diehard fans of the series.

I beat Burnout on the Sony Playstation 2 this evening!

I remember being introduced to Burnout 3 by my cousin and being absolutely blown away by the game. I have always been a big fan of racing games, but I don't think I have ever played a game that had that much speed and destruction in it. Eventually, I bought my own copy and I played the hell out of it. In fact, my friend and I used to play it many nights together. So much so, that we had to stop early enough because driving home was getting too difficult after playing for so long. As it always does, my curiosity grew in wanting to discover the series so after a long time searching and finding it in the most out of the way store possible, I finally tracked down a copy and was able to play it for the first time.

Burnout is a very original game in that it doesn't feel like any other game out there. It doesn't have the frenetic pace of Burnout III. It doesn't have the actual realism of Gran Turismo nor does it have the arcade feel of OutRun. Burnout seems to tow the line between all of them, almost feeling like a simplified version of the Need for Speed series. The driving feels like it is grounded in reality as you weave out of traffic going 135 MPH. But, you aren't crashing into huge explosions or flying hundreds of feet into the air. You do crash, a ton, but it feels like a realistic crash. The tracks and the cars are very simplified as you only have a small amount of either and the Championship Cups are only a total of 6 to beat the game. So, there is not much to the game, but what is there is still rather fun. It's not the most exciting or unique game in the world, but it is still fun nevertheless.

The only slight negative I would have in the game is that the races are incredibly long. The final race took over 20 minutes with most laps averaging somewhere around 3 or 4 minutes throughout the entire game. You don't repeat courses too much and the AI is incredibly fair as they will crash just as much as you do, but fatigue for the races eventually sets in.

Overall, it was interesting to go back and see the roots of the Burnout series. I can see how they eventually turned the volume up to 11 and just went all out with the craziness. But, from the beginning, the game had some good roots and could be built upon such a good foundation. It's a solid, if a little boring and mediocre, racing game that would appeal to racing game fans.

I beat Pokemon Stadium 2 on the Nintendo 64 this afternoon!

During High School and College, my friend got me really interested into Pokemon. At the time, Pokemon was a huge fad for children, but my friend slowly changed my ways and we got heavy into the games for several years. Eventually, as the games moved to different consoles and my friend moved away, I lost interest. I eventually got rid of all my GameBoy games, but I still kept my N64 Pokemon Stadium games. They have fantastic mini games and can still be fun to play. However, doing regular battles with Rentals was nearly impossible. So, my friend introduced me to a coworker of his who is a giant Pokemon fan and he was kind enough to give me some Pokemon to do battles. With better Pokemon, I went about trying to beat Pokemon Stadium 2.

Much like the original Pokemon Stadium, the main purpose of Pokemon Stadium 2 is to be able to play Pokemon Gold/Silver on your television. And for that, the game is perfect. That is how I used to play Pokemon Silver and I beat that game several times. I don't like playing handheld games or looking at such a small screen, so to be able to play it on my TV without using batteries was perfect. Also, the mini games are so much better than the original. They seem more varied and far along with a different variety in choosing them. To this day, I still love to go back to them every now and then.

Now, the actual battling of the computer trainers is a different story. Much like the first game, it is still interesting to see 3D Pokemon, but the novelty of it was wearing off. But, once you get into the actual battling, you begin to realize how random the game really is. From the strange percentages to if the move hits or not to how effective status ailments are, the game feels like it is trying to screw over the play. In fact, unless you have your own Pokemon, it is nearly impossible to beat the game just with Rentals. So, strategy and control goes out the window as you just hope and pray to the RNG Gods.

Overall, Pokemon Stadium 2 is such an improvement over the first game and once again provides a great opportunity to play Pokemon Gold/Silver on the TV. It's much easier to play and the better mini games makes it a better package. However, I would only buy or play this game if you have the Gameboy games as well because playing without them is an increasingly frustrating experience.

I have never played FFVII before. But I think as soon as I finish BotW, I'm going to pick it up on the Switch. I've heard nothing but good things about it. Plus, I really want to play the remake; but I feel like I should play the original first.