Strategy Guide Reviews

A Strategy Guide for your Strategy Guides

LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins Mini-Review

By 30 Comments

LEGO City Undercover: The Chase BeginsWhen I bought the Wii U, I bought LEGO City Undercover for my young son since he loves all things LEGO and loves playing my LEGO video games. I had little to no expectations for the game, and I was more than pleasantly surprised; I was floored by both how great the game is and how hilarious it is. After seeing that the 3DS had a prequel for the game, I was instantly intrigued. While Chase McCain’s backstory is certainly interesting and the game is fun, it’s not half as great as the first game. Yes, it suffers from prequelitis.

The Chase Begins‘ biggest flaw is how it copies the gameplay from the first game. As Chase goes through the first game, he has to learn several jobs to stay undercover, such as becoming a firefighter, an astronaut, and a construction worker. Chase learns the exact same occupations in The Chase Begins. If he already knew these jobs as the prequel suggests, why would he have to learn them all over again? I was hoping Chase would learn different jobs, or maybe it would introduce a completely different style of gameplay. Since it’s a prequel, why wouldn’t it?

As it’s a 3DS game, the dialogue is minimal at best. The best parts of LEGO City Undercover were the dialogue, so most of the humor is completely absent. When there is talking, it still has that zing, but there’s not enough to really label the game as funny as the first.

That said, none of this stopped me from completing the story and running around all of LEGO City to complete every single ridiculous mini-game and collectible. Some of that is from my sickness when it comes to completing LEGO games, and some of that is the fact I did have a bit of fun. However, I doubt I would have had fun with the game if I didn’t have LEGO City Undercover as a backdrop in my own database. Those who haven’t played the first game should overlook this one entirely.

A Link Between Worlds Mini-Review

By 5 Comments

zelda_link_between_world_linkI love The Legend of Zelda games at their core, yet I admit it’s a little sad that I haven’t finished very many. Thanks to either getting bored or rage quitting, finishing A Link Between Worlds brings my grand total to two. Since I’ve been told repeatedly that finishing Phantom Hourlgass doesn’t count, as that’s not a real Zelda game, does this one count? I want it to count, and not because I finished it; I want it to count because it’s the most fun Legend of Zelda game I’ve ever played.

A Link Between Worlds implemented two new ideas very well that eliminated most of the tedium I’ve found with past games. First, the ability to rent most of the items was one of the best ideas the creative team has ever had. One reason why I get so bored in Zelda games is the repetitive nature of the game. Go to a dungeon, find a weapon, use that weapon to get through the rest of the dungeon, use that weapon to defeat the dungeon boss, and go back all over the world to find uses for that weapon to obtain more collectibles. Rinse and repeat. Since you can rent almost all of the items from the beginning, the world of Hyrule is instantly open to hours of exploration. If you have enough rupees, only two abilities are barred from you after Ravio’s shop opens: 1) finding items buried in sand and 2) lifting very large boulders. It was so nice to not have to comb every acre of Hyrule and Lorule numerous times in the name of completion.

The second great new idea was Link’s ability to merge into walls as a living painting. Every Zelda game has its own gimmick, and this one was the most enjoyable one. It forced new ways of thinking for solving puzzles, being stealthy, fighting bosses, finding collectibles, and traversing through Hyrule and Lorule.

In an attempt to try to not spoil anything, the fact that the ending is not entirely about Ganon being the bad guy was a welcome surprise. Many probably thought it was predictable, but I never saw the ending the coming. It made me love the game even more.

When I finished Phantom Hourglass, all I felt was relief that I was done. With A Link Between Worlds, I was instantly sad it was over. No, I’m not sad enough to play it again on Hero mode, but I definitely could have played it for several more hours. Now I’m eager to give A Link to the Past another try.

Dragon’s Crown Mini-Review

By Leave a Comment

Dragon's CrownWhen I first bought Dragon’s Crown, I could not put the game down. I was on the path to beat it within a couple of weeks (which is amazing for me these days), but then I got to a troublesome boss fight. So what did I do? Naturally I pouted and put it down for a few months. After finishing Ys: Memories of Celceta, I forced myself to pick the damn thing back up and get through it. After maxing out my character and yelling my AI comrades for being so stupid, I finished the game (the main story, anyway) and felt extremely pleased that I put it in my top ten games of 2013.

The game is a simple, side-scrolling dungeon crawler that offers various methods of play depending on which character you choose. To no one’s surprise, I chose the Amazon so I could hack and bash my way through enemies. Hanging back with magic and hoping no one gets close enough to hit me is not my style, and the game even suggest only “expert” gamers attempt to crawl through with the magic users. Even the nimble elf requires strategy and precision as she will run out of ammo. A massive character with a massive axe is just what I needed.

If the game only offered the main story, I admit it would be incredibly boring and the level-grinding would be a far more tedious affair than usual. While you will crawl through the same dungeons repeatedly, the side quests at the guild add a refreshing layer to break up the repetitiveness. For example, one of the early side quests requires you to rob some orcs while they sleep. You won’t find this bunk on the main path, forcing you to try to unlock any doors that you most likely overlooked while tromping through the corridors. Another requires you to use a large shield to reflect back the dark magicians’ magic to open a sealed door.

My biggest complaint about the game is the horrifically dumb AI partners. They’re basically damage sponges, and you can’t count on them to stay out of harm’s way, even when the Narrator warns everyone to take cover. The developer most likely wanted everyone to play online together instead of relying on them, but I never could get an online game lined up with my few friends that had it. This is exactly why it took me so long to defeat that particular boss (and then I beat the final boss on the first try…go figure). I’m sure if I had brought my friends in, and they were leveled up enough, they would understand what taking cover means. Idiots.

Oh and I wish it was cross-buy. I loved playing it on my Vita, but I think it would be so pretty on my big TV too.

Ys: Memories of Celceta Mini-Review

By Leave a Comment

Ys: Memories of Celceta Skill Finish

I finished Ys: Memories of Celceta this week, and I was sad about finishing it for two reasons: 1) I didn’t want it to end and 2) I have to find something else to play when I’m feeding the baby.

My first foray into the Ys universe was when I was given Ys Seven to review for Kombo. The game was a bit repetitive, but I loved its combat and skill system and really had a blast, even though I had to traverse through the same dungeon a few times (not as bad as Phantom Hourglass, but still, it was annoying). I missed hearing about Ys: Memories of Celceta until the day it released, and then I bought the Collector’s Edition, as you may recall. This has been by far the best Ys game I have played, and it hit my top 5 games of last year.

It’s an action RPG, but its skill system makes it more than a simple hack-and-slash. It also introduced a really fun crafting system for upgrading weapons and building accessories. It’s not as humorous as Ys Seven, but the overall freedom in gameplay makes up for the lack in dialogue.

In fact, this is the big reason why I loved it so much. Unlike so many JRPGs, this one gave you no direct purpose in the beginning. It starts with Adol losing his memory, so his friend Duren talks him into agreeing to map out the forest where he lost his memories and hope something jars them back in place. In other words, you’re told to do nothing but explore. It’s not until you explore that a story starts to unfold and you learn what Adol must do to save the world (because that’s always the end goal of JRPGs, right?).

I honestly can’t say enough good things about this game, and if you have a Vita and like action RPGs, check this one out. If you really need to hear more of my thoughts on this game, as I feel like I’ve talked about it a lot as of late, you can hear it on the EvilCast GOTY episode and the SpawnCast GOTY episode.

Gone Home Mini-Review

By Leave a Comment

Gone HomeGone Home has gotten so much praise since it released, I knew I would eventually check it out. I was cautioned to wait until the game went down in price, as my friend said $20 was a lot to pay for how short the game is. I waited until it went half off and dove on in. I couldn’t wait to play a game based on exploration only. No fighting. No horror. Just roaming around and finding clues to tell you the story, like what made the first half of BioShock Infinite so great. I’ve played a few games like this on iOS, and I’ve loved them all. So excited a game with this type of gameplay was hitting “mainstream” gaming, so to speak.

For the most part, I loved the game and its story, but when it was over and the BIG REVEAL unfolded, I literally said out loud, “That’s it?”

And here come the spoilers. I’m sorry, I can’t accurately explain my disappointment without spoilers.

You play as Kaitlin (Katie) when she returns home after traveling around Europe for a year. No one is home to greet her other than a note on the door from her younger sister, Sam, that tells her to not tell anyone what happened, and oh btw, don’t snoop through my stuff. Oh, okay then.

So the player’s task as Katie is to find out where in the world her family is. They moved to this house while she was away, so she knows nothing about it and is completely unfamiliar with it, just like the player.

Since no one is home, of course you’re going to snoop through everyone’s things, and wow, you find out just how messed up your family is. Mom is having problems. Dad is having problems. Sam is a typical teenager screaming that she’s all alone and no one understands her. Naturally, she plays video games and listens to metal, so it makes sense that half the gaming world  identifies with Sam. Honestly, if you were ever a teenager, you will identify with Sam. I listened to metal and played video games as a teen, my parents definitely didn’t understand me, and I had hard time making friends. In other words, I was normal. Let’s move on.

Now there’s another element to Sam’s drama, and that’s her first love, her best friend, Lonnie. Yes, Lonnie is a girl, and yes, how the ended up getting together was pretty gosh darn cute and sweet. And no, her parents and classmates most definitely did not understand this relationship, because this game was set in the late 1990s. Homosexuality wasn’t half as accepted as it is now, so there were no shockers there. (And for the record, before you slam me with hate mail, my issue with the game was not the homosexuality.)

All right, Sam has real emo problems. I get it. But uh, that’s why she left and robbed her parents while they were out on a marriage retreat to fix their problems? Yeah, I have zero sympathy for you now.

I suppose it’s because I’m a mom now, but I really identified more with the parents’ issues than Sam’s emo teenager phase. No, I’m not saying that I’ve gone through a horrific past like their father did. I’m saying I understand where the parents were in their careers, in their relationship with each other, and I understand how they handled their kids. Not saying they were perfect or they made the best choices, but I understand it better.

I honestly hope more exploration games release, but can they please be a little more interesting than an emo teenager running away from home?

Top Posts & Pages