Ný here. I just wanted to take a short break from my Turkey Day kitchening to review a game that is very dear to my heart. A game that I feel captures perfectly the spirit of Thanksgiving.

I have fond memories of playing Custer’s Revenge as a little girl. As a historically accurate portrayal of the Battle of Little Bighorn, Custer’s Revenge is not only a fun game for children, it is also very educational.

Custer’s Revenge is also a great source of moral and social lessons, though it was not without controversy. Released by Mystique for the Atari 2600 in 1982, in a time when interracial relationships were still seen as taboo, Custer’s Revenge broke through these social barriers. It is unfortunate that the world was not yet ready for such progressive thinking in a video game. Because it featured a romance between a white man and a Native American woman, Custer’s Revenge was the subject of much criticism in the gaming industry and it was eventually pulled from the market.

At it’s heart, Custer’s Revenge is an amazing story of love and loss. Even though their people tried keep them apart, General Custer was willing to brave arrow-fire to be with Revenge, the Native American woman for whom his heart so longed. If you are able to help General Custer survive the long trek to the other side of the screen, the star-crossed lovers can finally be together. Custer’s Revenge is truly a romance for the ages.

In Custer’s Revenge, General Custer is able to put racial and cultural differences aside and freely give of himself to his Native American lover, just as the white men freely shared their bounty and blankets with their Native American brethren at the very first Thanksgiving. It almost brings a tear to your eye!

The gameplay itself is very engaging. You can easily spend hours dodging those arrows in order to help General Custer to the other side of the screen so he can be with his love, Revenge, at long last. Though the controls are somewhat complex, they aren’t difficult to learn.

The graphics are also very well done. The character sprites are very detailed and life-like. The animation is smooth and the sprites’ movements feel very natural. Mystique really made the characters come to life! The textures used in the backgrounds are also very realistic and make you feel like you are actually there, in the wild west!

The soundtrack for Custer’s Revenge is very catchy. The music featured in the game does a great job of capturing the emotions of the characters.

Custer’s Revenge is a great game for all ages. It is sure to remain a classic for years to come.

Gameplay: 8.5
Soundtrack: 9
Graphics: 8.5
Replay Value: 10
Overall: A-

Story

The story behind Street Fighter IV is a little confusing to follow, even for Street Fighter fans.  It involves yet another tournament, this time the main theme centers around a scientific experiment from BLECE with engineered super warriors.  The boss in this one is one of these, though he claims independence and originality from the others and calls himself Seth.  Each character has their own anime opening and ending cinema that while featuring sub par artwork, is still a surprising and interesting effort, nonetheless.  If you are really playing Street Fighter, though, what you are really into is the gameplay.

Gameplay

This is where Street Fighter shines.  The game may look 3D, but it plays just like the its predecessors.  You still have the 6 button system of 3 punches and 3 kicks, and moves are still performed with circular and charge motions.  Supers make their return but have been turned into one per character, much like Super Street Fighter II Turbo, and Street Fighter III: Third Strike.  EX moves make their return from part 3 as well, allowing players to do powered up versions of special moves at the cost of a part of your super meter.  New to the series are the focus attack and ultra combos.  Focus attacks add quite a bit of new strategy to the mix.  Players can use this as a counter attack, as it will go through one attack and has the potential to break through blocks.  They can also be used as move cancels at the cost of a portion of your super meter.  This opens the path to some nasty combos.  Ultras are a brutal form of supers that are performed after a revenge meter is built up from getting hit.  Each one is deadly, and quite a spectacle to see when they are pulled off.

All eight original world warriors are here including Ryu, Ken, Blanka, Chun Li, Zangeif, Guile, etc.  The 4 original bosses also make their triumphant return so you can be sure to face many psycho crushers online.  Making a return for the console only are fan favorites from the Alpha series and Super versions of Street Fighter 2, Cammy, Fei Long, Sakura, Gen, Rose, Akuma and my personal favorite, Dan.  The real special treat comes in the form of Gouken (a.k.a. Shen Long).  For the first time in Street Fighter, players can now play as Ryu and Ken’s former master, thought to be dead.  The other new comers are worthy additions with their own unique moves.  El Fuerte takes on opponents with his speed, Abel uses grappling and rolls to his advantage, and so on.  This rounds off to a roster of 25 characters in total.  The game feels very well balanced over all although when facing computer controlled opponents Zangeif and Abel feel particularly nasty to face.

The game is pretty straight forward when it comes to modes.  There is the standard arcade mode, online play, training, and challenge mode.  The challenge mode actually has 3 modes within it: a time attack, survival mode, and trials.  The trials are a good place to show players unique combos to perform with characters, although a proper beginners tutorial would have been much more helpful and relevant to encourage new comers to play.  Sadly, that feels like a missed opportunity.  That said, Street Fighter IV is still fun for people of all skill levels to dive in.  It will just take beginners a while to get used to its gameplay.

Online, the game works great.  Lag issues are very minimal, if any at all.  They provide incentive to play more by offering titles and icons as rewards for playing and winning matches.  Given the games popularity, there is also no problem finding matches online.  My only gripe is the occasional  boot I get when trying to connect to some ranked matches, but that is minimal.

Graphics

The new 3D art is very stylish, colorful, and impressive.  Capcom has done a wonderful job working with animation as each fighter makes great facial expressions in response to moves.  For example, every time you start an ultra combo the opponent gets bug eyed, and mouth gapes open in face of impending doom.  This game is definitely full of great eye candy that works very well.

Sound

Aside from the strange opening theme, the music in Street Fighter IV is catchy, and works well.  You will even here remixed versions of classic songs during some matches.  Unfortunately, you cannot choose to use just these classic remixes during matches, but they are great when they come on.  Capcom also thankfully provided the option to choose between English and Japanese voices, and even edit individual fighers languages.  The English voice acting can be a bit cheesy at times, so it is nice to have the option to change it.

The Verdict

The Street Fighter series has a special place in many gamers memories, so it was a very delicate task to make a new game to satisfy both new and old gamers.  Street Fighter IV delivered beautifully on all fronts.  It is accessible to new comers, has excellent online play, and has the great gameplay we all come to expect from a Street Fighter game.  If you enjoy fighting games, you owe it to yourself to check out Street Fighter IV.  It is definitely a must buy for fighting fans and gamers.

Final Score:

9.5/10

I also should probably mention that this is also one of the greatest games ever made according to most gaming websites and RPG fans. So the DS remake has alot of people excited. So, without further ado: here is my review

Graphics: Well, the graphics for CT DS are literally about the same as the SNES version and PS version (i forgot to mention there was a PS version that had cutscenes as well) So, this game is basically the PS version on the DS, so dont expect something like FFIV DS. The game is still enjoyable to look at though. Rich environments, varying enemies, cool looking bosses, detailed sprites, this game pushed graphics for its time and pushes DS graphics as well.

Sound: This is arguably the game’s biggst asset. The soundtrack has so many great songs that set the mood for the game, and for a 16 bit game that is very impressive. The sound effects are very nostalgic and harken back the to 16 bit era. Its still awesome to play this game on the go and here some of your favorite songs in this game.

Gameplay: This game goes against some of the conventions of Square RPGs at the time. For one, it does not contain random battles. Personally, I find random battles to be annoying at times, especially when your on-screen character takes 5 steps, fights monsters, takes 6 steps, fights monsters, wash, rinse, repeat. This game has the enemies already on screen which can be actually seen before a battle.

CT doesnt have the special abilities like in FF6 or FF4 when entering a battle (blitz, cover, jump). You have something called techs. Techs are special attacks or magics that can be used during battle. Techs can also be shared between certain characters called dual techs or the rarer triple techs, A dual tech would be something like Flame whirl, which is a fire attack that uses lucca and chrono’s fire and chrono’s cyclone. Aside from this, there are the regular attack command and flee.

CT also has an in depth story. Your characters must stop the end of the world at the hands of lavos, an evil, alien, giant porcupine. I dont want to spoil the story, but it is very good with plenty of twists in turns in the plot.

Tilt: Yes, this is a remake with little new content, but it is still a great game that should be played by those who never bought this game before or those enjoyed the game previously. It is a great game on the go and you will have fun with it.

Graphics: The graphics are ok, but im not too particularly fond of them. They look like average PS1 graphics, and I know that this system is capable of making better quality. The game also has beatifully rendered cutscenes, but those are few and far between. Many of the actually cutscenes are with the blah in-game graphics. To me, they could have done better.

<

C

Sound: Beautiful soundtrack that does justice to the 16 bit era. Many different orchestral themes and sound effects round this title out. Also, there is voice acting in this game, which is a nice step up from reading text. however, there isnt alot of talking and its kinda dissapointing, because there is alot of text. Imagine Metal Gear Solid with no voice acting in cutscenes, its boring as hell.

B+

Story: Very intriguing story line. You play as a dark knight Cecil, who is the adopted son of the king of Baron and Captain of the Red Wings (no not the hockey team) . He is kicked out of the Red Wings when he questions his kings’ orders to retrieve a crystal. Im not going to spoil anything but trust me you will like it.  All in all, an engaging plot with cool characters and we have a story worthy of Final Fantasy.

A

Gameplay: Well, its an early FF game so that mean turn based combat. But dont worry, its not bad. Your characters have a diverse set of comands and actions in battle that gives the game more strategy than just selecting “Attack” over and over again. the game is hard, which is good because grinding is very hard early on. The difficulty is what makes this game good. So many FFs i have played where i died maybe 2 or 3 times in a playthrough and when into boss battles instantly killing them with little challenge. Here, bosses (and even random encounters if you are careless) will gring you into dust and make you there bitch if you dont strategize well.

A

Replay Value: This game is epic with its story and gameplay, but the graphics and the need for more voice overs bog it a little bit. Mixed Bag

B

Overall B.

Final Comments: Buy it if you can, you will enjoy it for your DS, however there are flaws and it isnt perfect. one of the most recent must haves on the DS

      The game is based off the Hollywood blockbuster, the Mummy Returns, which stars Brendan Frasier, Rachel Weisz, and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. The plot of the movie is that the mummy Imhotep which Rick (Frasier) is back and is trying to gain control of the army of the Scorpion king, which is so powerful he can rule the world. The game follows the same storyline as the movie (which is lame, by the way.)

You can either control the Encino Man an Airheads superstar Brendan Frasier or Arnold Vosloo’s mummy. (By the way, Vosloo recently starred in Agent Cody Banks and the Darkman sequels.) Thats right, there are two playable characters. There are also five levels. The game is supposed to branch between two different stories, however you play the same levels with each character. Did I mention there were only FIVE levels. Well, I guess they like to keep it short and sweet.

 The graphics, for a 2001 PS2 game, look like ass. It looks like a last gen N64 game. The character models are poorly designed and they move around poorly. Also, the voice acting is laughable. The characters soubd disinterested and the overall dialogue sound doesnt mesh with the ambience it is trying to create.

The gameplay itself seems broken. The fighting system is rather dull and the enemy AI is suspect. There is only one cool thing about this game, and that is when Imhotep sucks the brainforce out of people. Speaking of him, he does a hand slap instead of a punch, making him slap people around sumo style. just watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcYuXUYe3os&feature=related

Rick contols alot like Imhotep, except he can use guns instead of brainsucking. His guns are rather weak because he has to fire 6 or 7 bullets to kill a single enemy. He also relies on swords. All of this doesnt matter because all you are doing is killing enemies, doing retrieving in order to open the next door, or solving stupid ass puzzles that only a four year old wouldnt be able to figure out. This game is basically a lame tomb raider ripoff

All in all the game reassures the poor quality of movie based games.

Using the Wiimote as Harry’s wand feels great, for the most part. In fact, there’s really no reason to play the other versions of this particular title because this is one instance where Wii controls really do embellish the experience. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that the graphics look, well, fantastic… if you can believe that. They’re not PS3 fantastic, but definitely better than standard Wii fare. Sound effects and music are also spot on. Most importantly, the gameplay is usually pretty fun. Players get to roam free in a virtual re-creation of Hogwart’s… Not quite Grand Theft Potter, but you get the idea.

Where the game falters, like so many other 3rd person adventure games, is in camera control. Fifty percent of the time, you can press the “C” button to center the camera behind Harry and get a better look at the terrain. The other half of the time you can’t really do much of anything at all, the camera reverting to a semi-fixed perspective. This, of course, leads to some awkward moments where you’ll have a difficult time simply getting around. Anyone who has played a 3-D adventure game in the past 10 years knows how frustrating that can be.

The other major gripe I have with the boy wizard’s latest videogame is his inability to lock on to things with his wand. I believe this was a well-intentioned stylistic choice on the part of the developers, but in practice the mechanic just doesn’t work as well as it needs to. See, what I think the devs were going for was a more seamless environment where one simply needs to stand facing an object – say, a chair, for example – wave the Wiimote and cast the desired enchantment. No locking on required. This all sounds well and good, but when the environments are as littered with objects as they sometimes are in Hogwarts, it’s virtually impossible to know what you’re interacting with until after you’ve cast your enchantment. Add in the cumbersome camera control and it’s easy to see how controlling Harry could go from fun to annoying in seconds flat. And it often does.

When the game works the way it’s supposed to, it’s a pretty solid experience… fun even. When camera and targeting issues crop up, however, the game becomes a big chore. In other words, there’s a real love/hate dichotomy happening here for me. Ardent followers of J.K. Rowling’s sect will, most likely, be able to look past the shortcomings. Muggles like myself, however, probably not so much.

The palaces in the game are very difficult and tricky to figure out at times, but obviously very rewarding. There are so many side quests in the game, and just when you thought that you had scoured an area for every item possible, well now you get to try it from the Wolf’s perspective, or now you get to bomb those rocks and see what new path it leads to. Hell, how about fishing, collecting souls, collecting golden bugs for a creepy girl, herding goats, or grabbing a chicken and floating with it? My personal favorite is stiffing this bird named Trill, who sells potion and lantern oil. He asks you to drop the rupees in a bucket, but I only give him 2 or 3. He gripes at me all the time calling me cheap. I sometimes drink the potion on full health just to fill up and stiff him again.

At any rate, this should probably be the first game that you buy for the wii in my opinion. I love the fact that I can pick it up and play an hour here or there, and sometimes it captivates me enough to play it for 4 or more hours at a time. So far I’ve got nothing negative to say about the Wii in the past 2 months. It’s been my system of choice lately, and I don’t see that changing until Halo 3 (if it’s as good as the first 2). Next up, Resident Evil 4: wii edition.

According to user reviews, it’s actually not horrible. There’s just no plug-in support what so ever. Music? no. Video? no. PDFs? no. What it does offer, however, is functional but fairly slow browsing capabilities. For $30, it might be worth a look. Check out user reviews here.

Oh, and did I mention there were two versions of the browser? Yup, one for DS Lite and one for the old school DS. Read up about the differences here. Thanks to Wikipedia for the pics.

I’m sure that the graphics aren’t as good as some other gaming systems, but the interactive gaming is much more fun that paying attention to graphics. I’ll buy the component cable when I can find a game that is really nice looking and will fully take advantage of it. Anyhow, I have on a few occasions come home from the store or work to find the woman playing bowling or tennis and yelling at the TV. Nintendo truly has done a good job of attracting a new audience. Every time somebody comes over to our house, we end up playing the wii and everyone gets to interact. Gone are the days of turning off the video games because guests are over. I just need to invest in the rechargable battery packs now.

As far as games go, The Wii Sports game is great for variety and a common fun game for people. Not much skill required. It’s also great after a night of drinking. Downright funny if you ask me. As for serious gaming though, I purchased Zelda: Twilight Princess. I’ve sunk 3 1/2 hours into it so far and if you scour every crack and crevice like I do, this one will probably engulf hundreds of hours. I know that I’m nowhere close to being far in the game. Hell, I just got the wooden sword, then gave it to a kid, then turned into a wolf. It’s a very revolutionary game like Ocarina was in the fact that the Console adds new lifeblood to the game. My hand movement dictates the sword movement, catching fish, and shooting a slingshot, and probably more actions as I progress in the game. The game is solid, and has even more puzzles and role playing that we love with Zelda. Jist of the posting is that Nintendo reinvented the wheel again, and it would not suprise me in the least that future consoles will incorporate some sort of movement into their game. Hell, sometimes it’s nice to stand up and move around than sit on my duff while gaming. If you don’t have one, get a Wii. I’m certain that next time Hans is at a store where they have 3 Wii’s sitting out, he won’t hesitate to snag one up.