The Simpsons Arcade Game (1991) Review

February 9, 2019 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

Created and released by Konami in 1991 the Simpsons Arcade Machine was extremely popular when it was sent to arcades. Not long after hitting arcades the game was ported to MS DOS and Commodore 64, these versions were poor in comparison to the original game and we wouldn’t see a very good port of the game until 2012 when it was released on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network.

The Simpson family are walking down the street when they bump into Waylon Smithers who has just robbed a jewelry store, the diamond that Smithers had stolen falls into Maggies mouth, Smithers steals Maggie and runs away leaving the Simpson family to fight off Mr Burns Goons throughout various areas from the show on their way to The Nuclear Power Plant to take out Mr Burns and Smithers.

In the game you can play with up to four players and each player can be one of four characters Homer, Marge, Bart or Lisa Simpson.

The game is a 2D Beat em up which has the Simpsons traversing through various areas and defeating variants of enemies until the screen has cleared and the player can move onto the next screen. Each character has one attack move and each fight in different ways Homer fights with his fists, Marge uses a vacuum cleaner, Bart rides his skateboard and uses it to attack enemies and Lisa uses a skipping rope to defeat her foes.

In multiplayer two characters can merge together to perform a super attack, these attacks change depending on which characters are being played.

Players can also pick up objects in the various environments to either throw at enemies or to use them as a weapon, the sling shot is the most useful in my opinion.

At the end of each of the 8 stages you will need to fight a boss battle, each boss is quite difficult and unique to the plot.

Konami has always been really good with their video game soundtracks and this game is no exception, the music is super fun and fast paced and still has that Simpsons feel to it. Its by far one of best soundtracks in a Simpsons game, click the video above to check it out.

The Simpsons Arcade game is a fantastic Arcade game and should be played if you ever get the chance, it is quite tough which is to be expected from games in the Arcade as they are made to make money, it took me 30 credits to finish the Simpsons arcade. If you want a decent version of the game to play at home you can purchase it on Xbox Live and PSN, the Xbox Live and PSN versions of the game even come with some additional modes. If there was anything I would say to improve the game it would be to add an additional attack button as just having one main attack gets a little boring after a while, but all in all the Simpsons arcade game is great 9.6/10.

I hope you enjoyed this review of The Simpsons Arcade Game

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Rayman Origins (2011) (PS3,360,Wii,Vita,3DS,PC) Review

November 27, 2016November 27, 2016 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

2530004-the_wacky_world_of_rayman_origins_by_cuddlesnowy-d4oli36 It had been 11 years since a proper Rayman game had been released and for the longest time fans of the series accepted that Rayman was essentially dead and we just had to accept that those bloody Rabbids had taken over, but in November of 2011 we were all surprised and shocked when a new Rayman title hit retail store shelves.

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Rayman and his friends are chilling out and having a nap at the Snoring Tree, however they are snoring so loudly that they disturb the living corpse of an old woman in the Underworld which in this game is called the Land of the Livid Dead, in retaliation the old woman sends an army of nasty creatures to Raymans world, these creatures capture all of the Electoons and trap Betilla the Nymph (Not a fairy yet) and her sisters, of course Rayman manages to escape and its up to him to rescue all of the Nymphs and the Electoons so he can get back to his nap.

6936403695_fbcac3330f_b I was very pleased when I found out that Rayman was going back to being a 2D platformer because we haven’t one of those on a home console since the original and that came out in 1995, however the gameplay does differ from the original game and in Rayman Origins case that is a good thing, first of all you do not need to collect all of the Electoons in the game to face the final boss however there is another collectible in the game called Ruby Teeth and if you manage to find all 10 you will gain access to the Land of the Livid Dead which contains a bunch of secret levels and a secret boss, the game has 10 main worlds and each contain a bunch of levels and half of the worlds contain a boss fight, the majority of the levels consist of fast paced platforming where your goal is get from point A to point B as fast as you can while hunting for Electoons along the way.

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Some stages bring back our Mosquito friend from previous installments and he helps carry Rayman through side-scrolling, shooting segments, there are a lot more of these here than there were in the original game but they are a little bit easier which I think was a nice touch because lets be honest in the original Rayman they were much too difficult.

672667-rayman-origins-windows-screenshot-chasing-the-treasure-chest In order to collect those Ruby Teeth I mentioned earlier you will need to complete a treasure chase stage and I hope your good at platformers because these are really tough to beat, you will need to sprint,jump and swim your way through all of these levels, they are side-scrollers that scroll really fast and you will need really quick reactions in order to survive each one, they last around 2-3 minutes long and if you die you go back to the start of the level every time.

You can play the game as multiple characters but honestly I didn’t find that any of them appealed more to myself than Rayman and a lot of the unlockable characters are just re- skins, these characters are not just for one person though as the game can be played with up to four players which is really cool and is a first for a Rayman Campaign.

This game without a doubt has the best soundtrack to any Rayman game I have yet to play, the music is upbeat and fun so it always keeps you wanting to carry on playing, every track has its own personality and the composers have used different instruments in every track to help shape its uniqueness and general quality, I have linked the entire soundtrack above so please feel free to check it out and I promise you wont regret it.

ubisoft_rayman_origins_09 Rayman has had a re-design and I know a lot of people really like it but personally I do prefer how he looked in the first game however the world around him I really enjoyed looking at, the artistic detail is outstanding and the team behind the visuals need a reward for how fantastic this game looks, it honestly feels like you playing though a cartoon and with the games sense of humor and smooth gameplay it only goes to show how great a proper Rayman animated series could be, and yes I am aware that there was one in the past but like many people I don’t like to talk about it but maybe I will write a review of it at some point to show you just how insulting it actually was.

Rayman Origins is a great game which is to be expected with all of the praise it received upon its release, I had a blast playing through this game and I think anyone else would as well even if this is your introduction to the series, its not quite as difficult as the first Rayman game but it is still very challenging and is a promising renewal of the Rayman series, the only thing stopping this getting full marks is that the unlockable characters were not very special considering that they are your reward for beating all of the challenges including time trials and collecting all of the Golden Toons.

9.7/10

and yes a Rayman 3 review will be coming at some point

I hope you enjoyed this review of Rayman Origins

If you respect my opinion, I will respect yours

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Assassins Creed (2007) PS3/360/PC Review

June 28, 2016 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

The Assassins Creed games have come along way since its debut in 2007, over the past eight years several games have been released which have mostly had a very good reception minus one or two entries but its the original game that doesn’t get quite as much love and today we are going to talk about why that is.

The plot is that a bartender called Desmond Miles has been made a prisoner to a top secret industry called Abstergo, he is being monitored by two scientists who force him to lie down inside of a machine called the Animus, the Animus allows Desmond to relive the memories of his ancestors each game follows the adventures of a different Assassin from Desmond’s past and in this games case that Assassin is Altair.

Altair’s time takes place in the year 1191 during the third crusade, Altair is a member of a group of assassins called the creed, the creed assassinates dictators, templar’s, murders, rapists and genuinely bad people in order to try and keep peace and safety within the land, during a mission to find the apple of Eden Altair breaks the creeds code by killing an innocent person and trying to assassinate a target with brutality over stealth, Altair’s mistakes causes the death of one the other assassins and it appears that they lose the apple of Eden as well, his master is told of the creeds failure and he punishes Altair by stripping him of his rank and by confiscating all of his weapons, he tells Altair that if he wants to restore his status within the creed he will have to assassinate nine templar’s who are notorious for their evil deeds, Altair leaves to find information on all of his targets preparing for their assassinations.

Through out the game you will be swapping between playing as Altair and Desmond Miles, when playing as Desmond you will walk around the Abstergo building in which he is being kept prisoner and here you will slowly learn more about the Animus and why Desmond is so important to the company, playing as Altair is where it’s at though as this is where you get the best game play experience, as Altair it’s your job to take out nine assassination targets, you will need to travel between three major cities Acre, Damascus and Jerusalem, in these cities you will get a chance to experience a lot of the free running aspects of the game, the assassins have been trained to run really fast and are able to climb almost anything, they are essentially like monkeys.

Climbing buildings is not only really cool but its also extremely useful, you may often find your self having to climb buildings if you are being chased by a lot of guards or if you are in need of unlocking a view point, a view point will help you find secret missions that you can complete while you are hunting for your main assassination targets, these missions can be anything from eves dropping, pick pocketing, assassinating archers or templar’s, beating up a prophet to gain information etc.

Even though the object of the game is to be sneaky and to get on with your business without drawing attention to yourself their is bound to be time when you make a small mistake that could cost you your life and in these situations you may decide that instead of running from the guards to hide in a bale of hay or on a rooftop you will instead fight your honor and like any professional Altair is prepared for this situation, through out the game you will be awarded an arsenal of weapons appropriate to the time period, Altair can fight his enemies in a traditional sword fighting style which he can use to successfully kill the guards with sword attacks and combo moves, he can use throwing knives to take out enemies from a distance, he can forget using weapons completely in the case that he’s the mood for a fist fight but by far the best weapon in the entire game is the hidden blade, the hidden blade is a small knife that is hidden underneath Altair sleeve and as he bends his wrist back the blade will erect from its hiding place, this is the best weapon for assassinations and my personal opinion is that you should only ever use it when the guards are not aware of your presence.

The visuals of Assassins Creed are absolutely outstanding for a game that came out in 2007, the amount of detail that the game designers put into the game with effects such as shadows, light and clothes blowing in the wind, all of these things were mind blowing at the time and they really help give the game a more realistic feel, even the smaller details are quite impressive, a lot of people praise the game for its use of background characters, when you are walking around the cities the people around you are very intelligent, they will have have conversations together, they will shop at stalls and they will even notice you and may comment on your actions for example if you are running through the street with no reason the peasants will talk to each other about that and will try to figure out why you acting so strangely, another great detail is the use of beggars, drunks and crazy people, you will often find beggars getting up in your face asking you for money and far too often will you get punched by the local drunks and village idiots, these are a great edition to the game although I feel that they could have been implemented better and maybe not of been used as much as they were, I found them to be an issue during a lot of my stealth missions, I would often be following someone and then a drunk would punch me causing me bump into my target making them realize who I am and causing me to fail, also when I was trying to assassinate templar’s and guards sometimes beggars would get in the way of hidden blade causing me to kill them and the problem with this is that not only does it make a wanted murderer but I also lose health because I killed an innocent.

There really isn’t a lot of music in this game or at least there isn’t that many tracks that I thoroughly enjoyed or even remember, I don’t find this to be an issue because I don’t believe that music is even needed in a game like this, it was still fun and the lack of constant musical tracks only helped make the game feel more real and that’s something that I really love about Assassins Creed.

The game controls fairly well, the button combinations are easy to learn although if you play on a PC like I did you may want to change some of the controls to fit your playing style, the only time ever had a problem with the controls was when I was running from guards and trying to climb ladders, I cant tell you the amount of times I told Altair to climb a ladder and he instead ran into a wall causing me to get caught and a lot of the time killed but apart from this small issue the game controls almost perfectly.

The original Assassins Creed was a revolutionary game that would pave the way not only for more games in the series but it went to inspire other game series as well such as the new tomb raider remakes which are fantastic games, although it is revolutionary I don’t think many people would disagree when I say that it has aged a bit and compared to what the series is now its not quite as good as some of it’s sequels but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t a good game because it is, it’s just not as interesting as some of the other Assassins Creed games but its still legendary and it will always be one of the most revolutionary games in history. 6.9/10

I hope you enjoyed this review of Assassins Creed 2007

Most of these images I got from a you-tuber called Game Arrow please check him out

https://www.youtube.com/user/GameArrow

If you respect my opinion, I will respect yours

you can contact me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

Rayman (1995) (Atari Jaguar, Sega Saturn, PS1, GBA, PC) Review

January 17, 2016January 18, 2016 ragglefragglereviews1 Comment

The recent Rayman games Origins and Legends have gotten a lot of praise since they have been released and they are very popular among both old and new fans of the series, I recently ordered a copy of Rayman 2 and I’m still waiting on that to arrive and while I am waiting I figured it would be a good idea to revisit the original game and too see if it still holds up today.

Rayman has a fairly simple plot, Mr Dark steals a ball of energy called the Great Protoon, due to the Great Protoon being taken away smaller balls of energy called the Electoons are scattered across the land and are stuffed into cages by Mr Dark’s minions, a local magician calls upon Rayman to find and rescue all of the Electoons and to defeat Mr Dark returning the Great Protoon back to its resting place.

Rayman is an action/adventure platformer with a twist, your job is not too simply get to the end of each stage but too also find and rescue six Electoons in every level.

This may seem like a farily easy task but I guarantee that this will be one of the most difficult games you have ever played, Rayman has no mercy not only are the majority of the cages hidden in ridiculous locations but most of them require you to find small sparks in order to make the cages appear and these sparks are very easy to miss due to their small size, for example one stage requires the player to jump off a cliff to a cloud below, they then need to crawl under a small spike covered roof and then fight a rock troll only to be brought to a dead end, the player will need to walk to the left wall and look up they will then see the spark which they must jump up to grab, they now need to back track to the top of the cliff where the cage will be waiting.

Not only is getting the cages difficult but the general game play will also provide quite a challenge, the world that surrounds Rayman may seem innocent but almost everything is out to kill you, Mr Dark’s Minions are not too dangerous as most of the time they can be taken out with a couple of punches, the biggest threat is the environment I tended to be killed the most by pitfalls and spikes as this is a very difficult platformer which requires precise jumps and good reflexes in order for you too survive.

But fear not as a fairy called Betilla will help Rayman through out his quest by occasionally giving him new powers.

Telescopic fist: This ability allows Rayman to attack his enemies by literally throwing his fist.
Hanging: This ability allows Rayman to hang off of ledges, this is very useful for helping rayman reach far platforms as well as avoiding enemy attacks
Grappling Fist: This ability allows Rayman to swing from these floating pink and red rings, some sections of the game require this ability to complete
Helicopter: This ability allows Rayman to hover temporarily
Running: This ability allows Rayman to sprint

Rayman does have its fair share of Boss fights, all of these battles are very creative and each is unique in how it attacks and how it can be defeated, my favorite battle is against the Mosquito in world 1.

With a game as difficult as this tight and responsive controls are extremely important, luckily Rayman’s controls are perfect, the game runs smoothly with responsive controls so if you die it will always be your fault no matter how difficult the game gets.

Graphically the game looks outstanding, the game goes for a cartoon style look and it really pays off, it suits the silly atmosphere of the game perfectly some of the finer details really help the game feel more realistic than it needs too which is a nice touch, while playing you will notice plants blowing in the wind and when Rayman steps on a light platform you can see the effect that his weight has on those platforms, these days such small details may not seem too special but for a game that came out over 20 years ago this is very impressive.

Even more impressive is the games soundtrack, this is in my opinion the best part of the game and its definitely what I look forward too the most when I play, you can sense the amount of love that went into every track in the game, almost every world uses a different music style to help fit the atmosphere from the charming and happy music of the first world all the way to the rock and roll soundtrack that accompanies the final boss all of it is amazing.

Listen to its glory right here

The original Rayman is one of the greatest games ever made, sure its hard and it can be a real pain in the butt especially when it comes to collecting all of the cages, but with all that aside you still have a fantastic platformer and if collecting the cages is putting you off playing the game then I recommend you use the cheat to unlock em all because honestly that’s what I usually do as I hate collecting the cages and some of them are just too hard to find which is the games only real flaw.

Different Versions of the game obviously do have some big differences due to console restrictions but if you want to play the game in all its glory I recommend either you pick it up on PS1, PSN or PC, some of the handheld versions of the game are very restrictive but the best version in opinion is the GBA port (Rayman Advance), its lacking in the awesome soundtrack, and a few levels are completely missing but apart from that everything is essentially the same and I recommend picking it up as its quite cheap.

Rayman still holds up today and is still mostly a fantastic game the only problem is how cryptic getting some of the cages can be, other than that this is a game I highly recommend

8.6/10

I hope you enjoyed this review of Rayman

If you respect my opinion, I will respect yours

you can contact me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

Marble Madness (1989) (NES) Review

January 27, 2015 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

A NES game about marbles?

Marble Madness may be one of the most bizarre video games that I own, you play as a marble and the objective of the game is to roll the marble through six different obstacle courses.

You may think that this seems really easy, but believe me it’s not because the controls are very sensitive, one tap on the d-pad can get your marble rolling and then its up to you to carefully traverse past any obstacles,it genuinely feels like you are controlling a marble and because of that reason the game is immensely difficult, anything can happen you can fall into a dip in the course and then you will need to roll around to build up momentum and speed in order to push yourself back to the flat area, you can roll into acid and melt, you can be eaten by a snake, you can be blown off of the course by powerful gusts of air and you can even spin out of control and smash, and while all of this madness is happening you have a time limit!!

depending on how quickly you finish a course will determine how much time you will be given for the next course and once you hit zero seconds its game over and back to course 1.

You have six courses to get through and each course has its own specific design and theme.

Course 1 Practise

This is literally the practise stage, no obstacles just a good way to get used to the controls by rolling to the goal while trying to avoid falling off of the course.

Course 2 Beginner

Things start to get a little more challenging here, you will now need to travel through a bigger course than before while avoiding those green snakes who will eat you and also staying clear of the mean black marble that will try to knock you off of the edge.

Course 3 Intermediate

This course isn’t too difficult but it does introduce a new hazard, puddles of acid are now in the game and if your marble touches any of these puddles it will immediately melt, also introduced is a really tough section of the course that requires you to avoid a green wave that will push you off of the edge of the map.

This course also brings back those annoying green snakes and the course in general has many high slopes for you to climb in order for you to reach the goal.

Course 4 Aerial

This is where the game gets really tough, in the aerial course you will need to use fast speeds and patience in order to survive, while trying to build up speed to jump large gaps you will be greeted by many air blowers, the air blowers will blast heavy gusts of air at the marble attempting to knock it off course, also some areas of this course will have floors that will raise very quickly often throwing your marble into the depths below

Course 5 Silly

When you first start the silly course you are made to traverse up some rather steep hills, this is not too difficult to do but it can cause you to lose quite a lot of seconds if your not quick, you are again having to deal with the green snakes and the black marbles but now they are tiny and because of this they are much less dangerous and you shouldn’t have any trouble avoiding them, a new enemy introduced here is the purple birds, these birds are a pain they show up in a flock right at the end of the course and it is your job to try to avoid them while quickly making your way to the goal, it took me lots of practise before I could finish this level.

Course 6 Ultimate

This is the final level of the game and so as you may expect it is really hard, you need to patience, good timing, fast reflexes and constant movement in order to make it to the goal. You will need to get past puddles of acid, the black marble, and an extremely annoying final section that requires you to carefully travel across many disappearing and reappearing sections of a dangerous path and if you fall your marble will smash.

Marble Madness does in fact have a multiplayer mode, if 2 player mode is selected on the main menu, you will need to go through the same six courses from the single player mode, the only difference is that now there are two marbles on the screen instead of just one, Player one (Blue Marble) will need to race Player two (Pink Marble) to the goal, both players will be given the usual time bonus upon starting each course but whoever wins the race will be given extra time on top of the usual starting bonus.

The overall winner is whoever makes the most points at the end of the game

Once you select either singleplayer or multiplayer you will be given a choice of either playing the game in 90 degrees mode or 45 degrees mode.

In 90 degrees mode you hold the NES game pad vertically and you control the marble with all four of the D-PAD buttons

In 45 degrees mode you use all four of the D-PAD buttons but in this mode you need to rotate the NES controller so that the D-PAD looks like an X, some players find this mode easier because while playing the game you will be moving diagonally more often than you will be moving horizontally or vertically.

When I played through the game I realised just how brilliant the soundtrack is not only because the music if super fun to listen too but because of how it evolves throughout each course. In the early stages of the game the music is really fun and happy but when you go to the later stages the music starts to get more intense and crazy as if its warning you of the dangers lurking in the later sections of the game.

Final Verdict

Due to the sensitive controls this game can prove to be very difficult, I see this as positive thing because in reality marbles are round which means that they are very difficult to have control over once they start rolling and also due to their round shape the slightest touch can get marbles moving quite a distance before they come to stop, Marble Madness follows these rules and so it may surprise you that this game is actually quite realistic, its not just the physics based game play that’s impressive its also the way that the music changes with the atmosphere it really helps you feel immersed in the experience and it only goes to show just how special this little game about marbles really is.

Marble Madness is literally Madness, its a fantastic little game which uses realistic physics, has a surprisingly immerserive soundtrack, the game is challenging but still really fun to play I only wish there was a few more levels and maybe some more options such as changing the colour of your marble and being able to play with more than 2 players on multiplayer mode.

Marbles have never been so much fun 8.9/10

Thank you for reading my review of Marble Madness for the NES

By Padawan

Want me to review a specific game/movie/product or do you have a general question you would like me to answer? if so please email me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

You can find me on Miiverse by searching for draskafer

Wave Race (Game Boy) Review

January 9, 2015August 24, 2020 ragglefragglereviews2 Comments

Big thanks to Michael Elvidge for sending in Wave Race

Wave Race on the Nintendo Game Boy is one of the very few Game Boy games that I owned when I was a child, I remember that I would always bring this game to the playground and me and my friends would often challenge each other to see who was the fastest racer.

Back then I thought that Wave Race was a fantastic game, but how does it hold up today?If you haven’t figured it out yet,Wave Race is a Jet Ski racing game, you and three other players which can either be CPU’s or your friends who you have the ability to race against by connecting via the Game Boy Link Cables.

If you decide to play alone you will be have the ability to select one of three options

Practice- Selecting this option allows the player to select any course they desire, they can then race through the selected course alone with no other players or CPU’s, this option can be extremely useful as some of the tracks later on in the game have been built for more advanced players as they contain more obstacles such as whirl pools and strong currents of water which slow down the racers, also these later courses have a more complicated and challenging layout compared to the earlier courses.

All Courses for Circuit mode

All Courses for Slalom

Record- This mode shows the player their best times for every track in circuit mode and it also shows them the total amount of time they have spent on each track, this is a really useful feature that any competitive players will enjoy using for bragging rights it is also really cool to see this kind of feature on such an old game.

and finally 1P aka the single player mode, as soon as you select this option you will be greeted to another screen which will give the option of playing Circuit Mode or Slalom.

Circuit Mode is essentially just a Grand Prix of the four available courses, the player will have to race three CPU’s through out each course while trying to avoid being bashed by the other racers while also steering away from any obstacles in their path to victory, depending on what place you finish at the end of each course you will be given a set amount of points and once the Grand Prix is over all of the points will be added up and the player with the most points will be crowned the winner.

Slalom is similar to Circuit mode as you are still racing three CPU’s in all four of the Slalom Courses, the big difference is that now instead of racing to a finish line the main objective is to race through marked flags in a set order, again depending on how long this takes you will determine what place you will finish, once all of the courses are complete every players points will be added up and the one with the most points will become the winner.

The overall look and sound of the game is mediocre to say the least, even though we are given two different game modes I wish that a larger selection of courses were available because 8 courses isn’t enough to keep bringing people back.

I also cant say much for the music as again there really isn’t a lot of it, during the different selection screens and menu’s we are presented with some catchy little tunes, but during the racing segments there is no music at all and the only sound you can hear is the penetrating sound of the jet ski’s motor and this gets very annoying. very quickly.

Overall Wave Race is nothing special but that in no way makes it a bad game,it has tight and simple controls and even though we are not given much variety in course selection or music the game it self is still fun to play especially with friends, I don’t recommend this game if you plan to play it alone though as I can see most people getting bored with it rather quickly, but if you plan to buy the game I suggest either playing it in short bursts or competitively with friends, as long play sessions did tend to give me a headache due to the annoying buzzing you hear during races.

Wave Race for the Nintendo Game Boy is an ok game but sadly that’s about it 5.4/10

I hope you enjoyed this review of Wave Race

If you respect my opinion, I will respect yours

By Padawan

Want me to review a specific game/movie/product or do you have a general question you would like me to answer? if so please email me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

You can find me on Miiverse by searching for draskafer

Tomb Raider 2013 (PC, 360,PS3) Review

July 7, 2014April 27, 2015 ragglefragglereviews2 Comments

I have wanted a really dark, action filled and serious Tomb Raider game for quite some time now, little did I know that in the year of 2013 my dream Tomb Raider game would become a reality.

A lot of people were sceptical when this game got announced and I am not going to lie I was as well, but can you blame us for being sceptical over a Tomb Raider game with an age rating of 18. The idea of a Tomb Raider game having such a high age recommendation is un-heard of, so how was this new Tomb Raider? lets take a look

You play as Treasure Hunter Lara Croft

Lara and her crew are on a Research Vessel called the Endurance, Lara and the crew are looking for the Lost Fleet of Kublai Khan. When Lara notices an island in the distance she tells her crew that she wants a closer look, upon approaching the Island the Research Vessel is split in half separating Lara from the rest of the crew. Lara goes searching for the rest of her crew and she eventually finds her friend Sam who is sharing the heat of a fire with a man called Mathias.

Lara falls asleep and awakens to find both Sam and Mathias missing. Later on Lara discovers that Mathias and a bunch of other men have Sam captive and plan to use her as a sacrifice to Himiko the sun queen. Himiko’s soul is transferred to different females generation to generation, when one Himiko gets old or dies her soul is then transferred to the last chosen Himiko, Sam is the female chosen to be part of the soul transfer ceremony.

Also some mysterious force is preventing Lara or anyone else from leaving the island. Lara’s new mission is to find the rest of her crew, rescue Sam and to discover the curse preventing them from leaving the Island.

Tomb raider has such awesome game play, Lara will find multiple tools and weapons through out her adventure such as pickaxe which will allow her climb mountains, rope which she can shoot from her bow to bring down doors and to help her get to hard to reach areas.

As well as useful tools Lara is also carries a pretty kickass arsenal of weapons this includes a Bow and Arrow, Hand Gun, Shotgun, Assault Rifle and a Grenade Launcher. Each weapon has its own uses the shot gun can be used to destroy wooden barriers that may be blocking your path, the grenade launcher can be used to blow up metal doors and the bow and arrow has multiple uses such as setting fire to wood and explosives and it also helps Lara to use the rope to more of an advantage.

By far the most useful weapon is the bow and arrow not just because it has multiple uses but it can also be used to take out enemies quietly, if there is a group of enemies Lara can shoot an arrow at a near by wall, this will cause some of the enemies to search away from that area leaving just one poor guy to be killed without anyone else noticing.

When your not sneaking around and killing bad guys, Lara will stumble across some unfortunate environmental hazards these can include Lara falling into a fast flowing river and having to avoid any obstacles in order to survive, or she may be running across a bridge which is quickly falling to pieces beneath her feet. One of my favourite parts of the game is about half way through Lara is using a parachute and has too avoid trees so that she doesn’t get injured.

So what happens if you aren’t able to avoid these obstacles? oh dear

As well as this the game controls perfectly, I played on keyboard and mouse and found no difficulty getting use to the controls what so ever, I even played a bit using an Xbox 360 controller and again the game controlled perfectly so no complaints for that. I do however have one complaint about the game play, There are way too many quick time events in this game, I don’t mind a couple but at least 50 percent of the game play requires them and it really gets annoying after having to use the same quick time events for the same things over and over again through out the game.

Now as it is a Tomb Raider game you will be pleased to know that there are loads of hidden tombs that Lara can raid, when in these tombs you will usually be faced with a puzzle or two before you are able to reach any treasure that hidden within the tomb.

As well some awesome game play, tomb raider also has a really awesome soundtrack, the music is all orchestrated and it sounds beautiful a lot of the time the music made me wonder if it was composed by John Williams because the music really sounds like something out of an Indiana Jones film, as you can tell this suited the game quite nicely.

Tomb Raider a Survivor is Born

A beautiful soundtrack needs some beautiful visuals to go with it and let me just say you wont be let down with the way the game looks. Everything in the game looks amazing and you can tell that the developers really went a long way to make this game as breathtaking to look at as it is to play.

First of all Lara’s new character model is so freaking cool, she has this really awesome roughened up look to her that just says “stand in my way, I dare you” but she also doesn’t look like a complete killing machine which allows the player to sympathise with her character.

Here are a few pictures of the Island

Seriously the graphics and visuals in Tomb Raider are amazing, the game would often play a cut scene and when it returned to game play I wouldn’t move for a minute because I thought the cut scene was still playing, yeah the visuals are that good.

Tomb Raider was an incredible game, this is by far my favourite Tomb Raider game ever and it’s also the only Tomb Raider game I have enjoyed enough to actually finish, It has flawless controls, really awesome game play, breathtaking visuals and a beautiful soundtrack, the only problem is the constant quick time events and I really hope they work on those for the sequel.

Tomb Raider was one awesome adventure 9/10

I hope you enjoyed this review of Tomb Raider
If you respect my opinion I will respect yours
By Padawan

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