Godhand: Be the Fist of the North Star! Jesus Christ!

If you remember, beat ‘em ups back in the day were awesome: Streets of Rage, Ninja Turtles, even the Avengers in arcades all over. However, since we’ve entered the 3D age of gaming, beat ‘em ups have always seemed subpar in comparison to other game types, with complaints like repetitiveness and the game being too easy. However, Clover Studios, creators of Viewtiful Joe and Okami, decided to bring the fun back to the genre with Godhand back in 2006. What made it so great?

Final Fantasy 12: Log 2

Okay, so it’s been a while since my initial report on Final Fantasy 12 and since then, I’ve received several comments, some of which note I spoke nothing about the plot of the game, well, lets fix that now, shall we?

Final Fantasy 13: Initial Thoughts

So I have my friend Kiyo to thank for letting me borrow Final Fantasy 13 after she beat it, roughly a week ago. Since then, besides studying and working on my Honors thesis and playing another game that I’ll be talking about shortly, I’ve been playing Final Fantasy 13. I’ve been playing it for at least 25 hours, so I’ve more or less reached the end of the ‘tutorial’ phase of the game that holds your hand for the longest time. After posting my Final Fantasy 12 log, I’ve received a few comments saying ‘You’re going to play final fantasy 13, right?’ ‘I want to hear your thoughts about final fantasy 13’. Well, I figure I might as well give my initial thoughts.

Contra 4: AKA Ballbuster 4

Reviewer's Note: This Review was originally written in the fall of 2008

Who remembers Contra? Back in the days of the NES, this game was fun for its extreme difficulty, yet accomplishable levels. Not to mention the music was pretty kick ass. Even going back today, one can pick and play Contra and enjoy it despite its brutal difficulty. Now we have Contra 4, which may have it’s number count wrong, considering there was Contra: Shattered Soldier, Super Contra, and so on and so forth, but I’ve seen worse mess ups in terms of chronology. Does this DS title fit the bill?

Xenosaga 3: Also Sprach Zarathustra (AKA Game the Movie 3!)

Reviewer's Note: This Review was originally written in Spring of 2007

It’s been a long and rough road, but at long last, the supposed finale of the Xenosaga um… saga has come to its ending game. Sure, the first game had overly long cut scenes, but to a portion of good fans, they were still very interesting, and the game play managed to entertain those fans long enough to the end of the game.

Xenosaga 2 on the other hand not only made quite some boring and unexciting (not to mention even LONGER) cut scenes, but the battle system was so FRUSTRATING that most fans simply stopped playing. Has Xenosaga 3 followed the path of Xenosaga 2 and make it even more unplayable?

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

~*Goodbye Mr. Despair*~

~Intro~
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is probably SHAFT's (those who brought you Pani Poni Dash, Maria+Holic, and Bakemonogatari among others) crowning achievement.
As it stands, there are three seasons (1) Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, (2) Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, and (3) Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. Along with OVA's of Goku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, and Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei Bangaichi.
So, as you can see, it has quite a little empire unto itself, and it's still not through.

Punch Out!!!

Reviewer's note: This review was originally written in the Fall of 2009

Remember the good old days? The days where owning a video game console was considered nerdy and gamers were social outcasts? Remember Punch-Out? You might know better as that old Mike Tyson game. Well, it was more than that. Punch-Out put you in the shoes of Little Mac, a hopeful rising boxer to become the world champion. It was a fun game with a catchy battle theme and tricky, intense fights that relied on reflexes and recognition. It was very fun.

There was an arcade version with unique characters and a sequel for the Super Nintendo that was just as fun. For the longest time, we heard nothing until the Game Developers conference of 2008 came around and hardcore Wii owners were delighted to find a game trailer meant for them, Punch-Out was coming for the Wii. However, does it have that knock-out punch or should it retire?