Flawless Victory!!

Posted : 1 month, 1 week ago on 17 June 2008 12:53 (A review of Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks)

Nowadays co-op is everywhere in gaming. Kane and Lynch and Army of Two are just two big budget titles that are almost developed from the ground up with co-op in mind. Third person action and FPS games are the main ones that always get the treatment. Just let me know when I can play the co-op version of "BK presents: The Sneak King". Anybody want my GamerTag/Friend Code so that we can make a Whopper together and scare the shit out of people? I personally enjoy this over saturation of Co-op games that make it hard to obtain certain GamerPoints when you have no friends. :(
Maybe some of you may have heard of the little franchise Mortal Kombat. (Google it if you haven't) Well they went ahead and went all BattleToads and Double Dragon on everybody’s ass and made this co-op game based on the MK universe. This game forces you to at least sit to the person who is playing MK: Shaolin Monks with you. Sorry children of the online co-op mode...it doesn't exist. This forces you to somewhat like the person who you play the game with. Maybe? But to answer the burning question...YES! You can speak to them without using a headset. Amazing communication that us human beings can do without the internet! Gamers don't really need online co-op to enjoy co-op gaming, but it would be nice as an option although.
The story as usual (like every fifth comic book movie in any franchise) almost ignores any previous MK games and pulls out another story how earth's warriors (blah!), must unite and stop and evil (Blah!) before all of earth gets taken over (BLAH!!). For once let me play as all the evil assholes that you are forcing me to stop again. Maybe I should call Ed Boon and pitch him something new. Another color swapping ninja... Anyways the combat feels like butter. Multi-Dimensional combat plays so smoothly it might make your cholesterol rise. Basically the control scheme consists of a Weak attack, Strong Attack and a Launch Attack with trademarked MK special moves and Fatalities to boot. This is one of those games where the fighting system is easy to jump into, but you could be really god-like if you put in the work. Hell, I've pulled off a 65 hit combo!
Now onto the eye candy...there is none. This game actually resembles a PSone game in my opinion. But Eye Candy isn't what a real gamer plays games for Right? Especially if almost every other aspect of the game works. Just don't expect to be in awe in terms of the graphics. And lastly there are secerts/unlockables (the ability to play as Sub-Zero and Scorpion, the original MK II, view artwork, etc.) for every room in the game (represented by bite size MK icons). I always loved all the extra goodies that Midway put into all of there games (though not all are praise worthy). Anyways in conclusion pick up this game already. MK: Shaolin Monks is a damn good co-op experience. In case you are wondering there is the standard one-on-one fighting, but that really needs some balancing. Some characters are just way to powerful. Get this game it's probably $.50 at your local Dollar General.
Finally you may ask "Mr. Lays why are you reviewing such an old game?"...because whatever media I am into at the moment is "hot" to me at the moment so it better be "hot" to YOU! That's right YOU! Also I don't have one of the next-gen systems yet. I am pretty limited here at work, but that's another story...


Lata


Mr. Lays Highlights:
1. Baraka plays possum and slams the shit out of Sonya against a wall Jason Voorhees style.
2. Baraka impales a monk with one of his blades, dips him in fire and then throws the poor guy across a pit landing next to Kung Lao who proceeds to ask "Are you OK?" Good Stuff!


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Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks review

Posted : 1 month, 1 week ago on 17 June 2008 12:52 (A review of Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks)

Nowadays co-op is everywhere in gaming. Kane and Lynch and Army of Two are just two big budget titles that are almost developed from the ground up with co-op in mind. Third person action and FPS games are the main ones that always get the treatment. Just let me know when I can play the co-op version of "BK presents: The Sneak King". Anybody want my GamerTag/Friend Code so that we can make a Whopper together and scare the shit out of people? I personally enjoy this over saturation of Co-op games that make it hard to obtain certain GamerPoints when you have no friends. :(
Maybe some of you may have heard of the little franchise Mortal Kombat. (Google it if you haven't) Well they went ahead and went all BattleToads and Double Dragon on everybody’s ass and made this co-op game based on the MK universe. This game forces you to at least sit to the person who is playing MK: Shaolin Monks with you. Sorry children of the online co-op mode...it doesn't exist. This forces you to somewhat like the person who you play the game with. Maybe? But to answer the burning question...YES! You can speak to them without using a headset. Amazing communication that us human beings can do without the internet! Gamers don't really need online co-op to enjoy co-op gaming, but it would be nice as an option although.
The story as usual (like every fifth comic book movie in any franchise) almost ignores any previous MK games and pulls out another story how earth's warriors (blah!), must unite and stop and evil (Blah!) before all of earth gets taken over (BLAH!!). For once let me play as all the evil assholes that you are forcing me to stop again. Maybe I should call Ed Boon and pitch him something new. Another color swapping ninja... Anyways the combat feels like butter. Multi-Dimensional combat plays so smoothly it might make your cholesterol rise. Basically the control scheme consists of a Weak attack, Strong Attack and a Launch Attack with trademarked MK special moves and Fatalities to boot. This is one of those games where the fighting system is easy to jump into, but you could be really god-like if you put in the work. Hell, I've pulled off a 65 hit combo!
Now onto the eye candy...there is none. This game actually resembles a PSone game in my opinion. But Eye Candy isn't what a real gamer plays games for Right? Especially if almost every other aspect of the game works. Just don't expect to be in awe in terms of the graphics. And lastly there are secerts/unlockables (the ability to play as Sub-Zero and Scorpion, the original MK II, view artwork, etc.) for every room in the game (represented by bite size MK icons). I always loved all the extra goodies that Midway put into all of there games (though not all are praise worthy). Anyways in conclusion pick up this game already. MK: Shaolin Monks is a damn good co-op experience. In case you are wondering there is the standard one-on-one fighting, but that really needs some balancing. Some characters are just way to powerful. Get this game it's probably $.50 at your local Dollar General.
Finally you may ask "Mr. Lays why are you reviewing such an old game?"...because whatever media I am into at the moment is "hot" to me at the moment so it better be "hot" to YOU! That's right YOU! Also I don't have one of the next-gen systems yet. I am pretty limited here at work, but that's another story...


Lata


Mr. Lays Highlights:
1. Baraka plays possum and slams the shit out of Sonya against a wall Jason Voorhees style.
2. Baraka impales a monk with one of his blades, dips him in fire and then throws the poor guy across a pit landing next to Kung Lao who proceeds to ask "Are you OK?" Good Stuff!


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Who wants to get shanked Next!!

Posted : 1 month, 1 week ago on 17 June 2008 12:42 (A review of Assassin's Creed)

Hi kids the word of the day is “R-E-P-E-T-I-T-I-O-N!” That’s right repetition limits this game from being great…dare I say almost perfect. “Assassin’s Creed” was one of the most hyped games in existence. Using 32 billion in French currency and the uber sexy Jade Raymond they have captured the attention of girlfriend starved gamers all over the world. The game was almost immortalized and never even made it to retail yet. Hell the antagonist was even hanging at the club taking shots with some of videogaming’s elite like Master Chief (He doesn’t drink. Why? Because little known fact he is a Master Chief is a devout Buddhist. He only uses anger to “Finish the Fight.”), Kratos (this may come as a surprise…he is the angry drunk type) and Mario (the cool fun drunk type. He will even pay for a whole round with golden stars…and yes you know he definitely has the “shrooms”).
How did “Assassin’s Creed” get this much attention? Easy! This is an awesome premise, the setting is rarely used in gaming, the sandbox gaming (if done correctly will seem to never go away), and assassins are always interesting characters. (Bruce Willis’ fans raise your hands!) If you look closely at the back of the box of “Assassin’s Creed” on the back there is a quote taken from IGN.com saying “This is the first true Next-Gen experience.”(I may be slightly misquoting.) Now is that a bold statement or just the truth? Well I’ll let Mr. Lays’ loyal readers are smart enough to decide if they want to play it or not. But you all know what happens when Mr. Bigglesworth gets angry? Personally, this game does up the ante for everything in its genre. It doesn’t necessary revolutionize, but it’s definitely is a must play…in my opinion anyway.
Alright I’m going to break it down like a fraction with the Mr. Lays’ 4G’s (copyrighted 10,000B.C.-10,000A.D. Flugence Enterprises):
1. Game play: The face buttons control right hand, left hand, and basic controls. Pressing the left trigger switches the initial face buttons displaying new options. The sword fights are my favorite. It requires a lot of patience. Parrying is your new god. This is not a fighting style catered to the overly aggressive.
2. Graphics: This is so much Eye Candy that will give your eyes cavities.
3. Gore: There are some really nice spatters of blood across the screen. And the assassinations that you do are nice a quick just like a real 3rd century assassination should be. You should see them in person!
4. God-like Feeling: The ability to take almost any life in a mere 2 seconds then casually walk away has a feeling like no other game. It hinders when some of the mayhem that has been caused by your assassinations can be easily avoided by hiding in a pile of hay. What!? Hay!? Maybe in a PSone game, but come on this is 2007-08 a f**kin’ pile of hay is going to save you from guards. Especially after you have just “brought down the reign of God” on their leader.
The biggest flaw of “Assassin’s Creed” is the repetition. After about the fourth major assassination (total of 9) the game has shown you all it has. It turns out to be pretty much a one trick pony. But I really do like this one trick pony and refuse to put it down. Old Yeller style. The engine that Ubisoft has created for this game is nothing short of amazing. I can only imagine the Next Gen Prince of Persia running off of this thing. *Drools* Sorry fans I may have left out some details, but I am sure that every somewhat up-to-date gamer has read a review about this game. Overall play this almost year old game because Mr. Lays recommends it. Nuff’ said!!




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Love it

Posted : 1 month, 1 week ago on 17 June 2008 12:19 (A review of Classics Princess Royal Horse Show (PC))

I love this game. You pick a Horse to be on the Royal Horse Show. Why I like this game it is fun for girls to enjoy.

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Toki Tori (WiiWare)

Posted : 1 month, 1 week ago on 16 June 2008 12:36 (A review of Toki Tori)

Was the fact that this game was made by a Dutch developer, Two Tribes, the reason I downloaded Toki Tori? Perhaps. But the great impressions by various professionals over the world was a good indication of the quality of this game. I've played through it and wrote a review for the website I work for, but I'll give you my short impressions here as well.

Toki Tori is an awesome puzzle game, plain and simple. It reminds me of those old PC platform games or the countless free Flash games you can play on the web. It's just level upon level of platforms with hard-to-reach eggs you need to collect. You move this chicken by pointing the Wiimote at the screen, which works fine, and the little animal has various moves (although they're limited to a certain amount), like building a bridge or freezing enemies, to make it easier to get to all the eggs. There's no time limit, but it can be hard enough to find a way to reach all the eggs in the later levels.

What's so good about Toki Tori is that it sets out to do something very simple at first glance (entertain the player with a simple concept) but that so many developers seem incapable of doing these days. It's a perfect fit for WiiWare but truth to be hold, these are games I'm likely to buy in the stores as well, in contrast to a lot of ambitious big butget games these days.

There are some flaws, of course. The game would have been so much better with a time trial mode, so players could try to get a best time at the levels, and the game doesn't exactly ooze character. It all looks kinda cheap, or secondhand. It's hard to describe, but there's just something uncharismatic about the main character. Thankfully the world around him is varied and nicely rendered, so I'll stop complaining right now. I had great amounts of fun with this game and if you're still pondering on what game to buy for WiiWare, this and LostWinds are great additions.

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Super Smash Bros. Brawl is a GREAT game!

Posted : 1 month, 1 week ago on 16 June 2008 08:44 (A review of Super Smash Bros. Brawl)

The third installment in the franchise and the best to date, in my opinion, brings back to life the most action packed fighting game of all time. This game comes packed with a variety of characters and stages, not to mention a new game mode called the "Subpace Emissary" which can be played by one or two people. The new characters include Solid Snake (from the Metal Gear Solid series), Sonic, Pokemon Trainer, R.O.B. (NES), and many more! Some of the new stages include an animal crossing stage featuring a K.K. Rider concert at midnight, Delfino Plaza, Castle Siege (Fire Emblem series), Pokemon Stadium 2, and, as usual, many more! There's also the addition of the "Smash Ball" that can grant the player who breaks it open a single-use special ability, called the "Final Smash", that can change the tide of battle. In some cases, depending on the character chosen, the "Final Smash" can be devastatingly awesome while in other instances it's just plain stupid and repetitive (the Star Fox characters). The all new adventure mode called "Subspace Emissary" is an original action adventure mode in the game that manages to seamlessly and efficiently combine all characters with different backgrounds under one roof. The story opens when a group of bad guys called The Subspace Emissary crashes a stadium battle between Mario and Kirby. Peach, Zelda, Mario, and Kirby then team up to take on the new threat. Soon all of the characters of the Nintendo Universe are aware of this new threat and decide to take on the evil forces with courage to spare. The game also comes packed with its infamous trophies and challenges. A new addition to the collecting involved in this title are stickers which, in The Subspace Emissary, serve as power-ups for the characters in this game mode. Other than that, the stickers are just another way of entertaining your ambitious and collective side. Another collective item added to this game are songs, disks that can be collected throughout the entirety of the game which can add a twist to your favorite stages. There is also a mode which allows you to unlock special stickers, trophies, songs, and stages by completing tasks ranging from simple to devilish. The single player mode allows you to make a high score on the sandbag stadium, break targets, fight numerous "Alloys", (aka fighting wireframes in melee), complete challenges, play adventure mode, classic mode, and all star mode. The multiplayer mode lets you and your friends battle it out in teams or, simply, battle royale. Handicaps, items, frequency of items, stage selection, and battle modes can all be set. For a twist to the multiplayer fun, special battles can be fought such as metal firebreathing bunny hood low gravitational fight. Masterpieces (playable classic NES, SNES, and N64 game demos), stage creator (create unique stages then play on them), saved replays (fights, target breaking high scores, and sandbag high scores can all be recorded), saved snapshots (can be taken any time during the game), trophy collector (similar to the "trophy lottery" in melee, used to collect trophies and stickers while playing a fun addicting minigame), and personal records (per character) are all here to entertain you. There is also the addition of Nintendo Wi-Fi connection which allows you to play online with a stranger or friend (provided you have their friend code) in teams or individually! There's so much valuable content in this game which makes it a great game! All in all I give this game a 10 out of 10!

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This game is a one of a Kind!

Posted : 1 month, 1 week ago on 16 June 2008 08:38 (A review of Halo 3)

I would say this game is very good. It has a quick, but fun campaign, a very fun multiplayer and a awesome to use map editor. Although you may hear mixed feelings about this game, I personally think it is great. It offers many in-detail maps, many good times, fun game tipes, interesting ranks to get through, and don't forget the cool armor. What makes Halo3 a one of a kind is its map-editor. Although games like Call of Duty 4 allow a computer based modding program, Halo3 brings the editing to you. It allows you to create your own wonderworld of fun. Also with the new map packs there are more items to chose from including all the vechicles, boxes, bridges, many guns, and you cannot forget the street cones! I also think this game is another must have game for 2008 because there are not too many other games similar to Halo3.

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Stealth Action Redefined.

Posted : 1 month, 1 week ago on 15 June 2008 04:42 (A review of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent)

This is the best stealth video game out there, with the exception of the x-box 360 version. This game is the definition of a great video game. The graphics are superb, even on the original x-box, which is really saying something. There is no game like this game, gameplay wise, and features wise. I consider The Splinter Cell series to be the best series of games ever made.

Brief Overview

Gameplay: 10/10

Graphics: 10/10

Entertainment: 10/10

Difficulty: 10/10

Replay Value: 9.7/10

Overall: 9.95/10

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Noah in Wolfenstein 3D

Posted : 1 month, 1 week ago on 14 June 2008 03:35 (A review of Super Noah's Ark 3D)

This was a bible game released by Wisdom Tree which Nintendo never licensed the game so Wisdom Tree never had any games licensed games by Nintendo at all so they are committing a sin aren't they well I think they are. Now about this game Super Noah's Ark 3D this is just a copy of Wolfenstein 3D instead you play as Noah and animals attack you, what you got to do is knock out the animals with food (yes food can knock out animals now lol) The game is a mess I played it with an emulator and the controls just suck everything about this is bad and the music is awful. I can't explain this anymore I will give this game a 1/10 trust me it is that bad. I only played this just to see what it is like so I don't follow the bible or go to church.

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worst of the series...

Posted : 1 month, 1 week ago on 13 June 2008 03:01 (A review of Tony Hawk's Proving Ground)

..by far. and i've played through all of them. also, in contrast to the many gamers who got bored by the series, i've enjoyed every part a lot - up until this one.

i don't know what the people at neversoft were smoking while they were designing this game. it's like they thought "hey, we'll just throw away all the great basic functionality that made our games great and replace them with crappy stuff that makes for horrible gameplay".

take for example the camera... why don't they just glue it to the ground? the fact that it's not centered behind and - more importantly - above the player any more makes finding e.g. markers on the ground and hitting targets precisely much more difficult than it used to be.

then there's the new balancing scale - what's that all about? that damn thing is all over the screen. i guess the old one was too subtle and easy to handle.

they also figured "ah... who needs a special meter... we had that since... [ can't remember any more - i'm guessing part 2] but who cares about that anyway?" and for taking this one feature out they've thrown in like ten new ones about which i don't really care for.

and just on a side-note - the overall design of the city is incredibly boring.

and on another side-note - keeping all those huge changes in mind, what do you think about the fact that neversoft says that with the tony hawk game they will release this year, they want to do something completely new, in order to keep up with the competition (skate)? what was THPG then? that thing featured more changes than ever before and it turned out to be crap - so what will a game be like when the developers actually set their mind on creating something completely different? but well... back to this games.

what i have to give it credit for is the huge amount of goals and the great-as-always soundtrack. but that's it. if i wouldn't be so addicted to tony hawk games, i probably wouldn't have played it longer than an hour or so.

so if you're a fan of the series like i am, you might still enjoy it, even though you might feel like a masochist at the same time - to other people i'd strongly recommend playing just ANY older part.

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