Taz Mania (Genesis/Mega Drive) (1992) Review

March 14, 2015 ragglefragglereviews1 Comment

Cool a game based on Taz Mania, this is gonna be great………right?

Taz Mania was a popular cartoon series based on the Tazmanian Devil from the Looney Tunes shorts, the show was about Taz and his family and the crazy antics they would get up too, I watched this show as a kid but I wasn’t a huge fan of it and unlike some other shows such as Ducktales and Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers I dont have many fond memories of watching Taz Mania.

Taz Mania was fairly popular and just like many other cartoons of its era, video game developers started to create Taz Mania video games to make a quick buck but unlike Ducktales and Rescue Rangers whose games stayed on one system Taz Mania had a video game on a whole bunch of different systems including the Sega Genesis, Sega Master System, Sega Game Gear, Super Nintendo and the Nintendo Game Boy, unfortunately I haven’t yet gotten around to playing most of these but as a kid I used to play the Genesis version a lot and I remember really enjoying it, but was it good as I remember?

The games plot is simple and straight to the point, Taz and his siblings are told a story about giant sea birds that used to rule over Taz Mania, the birds were so big that if someone was to steal one of their eggs it would feed that thief and his entire family for one whole year, talk of these giant eggs make Taz hungry and he soon leaves on an adventure across Taz Mania to find one, like I said the plot is very simple and straight to the point I don’t mind this because firstly I was not expecting some epic storyline for a video game based on the Tazmanian Devil and secondly this honestly seems like something that Taz would do because at the end of the day he’s a wild animal who loves to eat so the thought of a giant egg is immediately going to get his attention.

The game looks pretty good for a licensed Sega Genesis game, the graphics are not very realistic looking which isn’t a problem because they actually look a bit like the cartoon which is a nice touch from the game developers, it shows that they did research of the original cartoon and as a result both the genesis game and the show have a similar art style which is an aspect that many fans of the show will appreciate.

Graphically the game is very impressive but the level design is awful, the biggest problem is the plat-forming because a lot of the platforms you need to jump to are off screen meaning that you need to takes risky jumps and leaps of faith hoping that you don’t fall to your death, another problem is that sometimes its very difficult to figure out what objects you are able to jump on, this gets very confusing because sometimes you are able to jump on platforms that are either in the background or the foreground while at other times you cant so its not easy to identify what is an actual platform and what is just there for scenery, speaking of scenery there really isn’t a lot of it and because of this all of the levels are very bare with just a few things pasted into the backgrounds, its really not that interesting to look at and its a shame considering all of the effort that went into the games art style.

The game has very tight controls which are easy to remember, you control Taz with the D-Pad while the three other buttons are used to perform the games actions, such as Jumping, Spinning and breathing fire when its available.

The most important ability in the game is spinning, Taz can spin really fast allowing him to knock enemies off of the screen but you must be careful because you are also able to get rid of special items such as lives and health if you accidentally spin into them.

Taz will eat everything in his path and this can be very useful as he can eat enemies, lives and food but you must not eat any of the bombs, if Taz eats a bomb it will explode inside of him causing a considerable amount of damage, these bombs can be very annoying especially when they have been placed unfairly, for example a lot of the time the bombs are placed at the bottom of small ledges and you cant see them until you jump off the ledge and sometimes the bombs are placed behind foreground objects so they are impossible to see which makes it very unfair on the player.

This entire game relies on the player memorising which platforms are safe and where the bombs are located, if the game had unlimited continues this wouldn’t be as big of an issue but unfortunately the game does have very few continues (not including the ones you can find) making the entire experience of playing the game very stressful and annoying.

The levels are very difficult due to bad game design but ironically the boss fights are really easy, this is because when Taz is spinning any enemy that hits him is immediately damaged and this is the same for the boss fights, if you keep spinning into the bosses you are going to defeat them very quickly and very easily, there is one boss fight near the end of the game that is so easy too beat that you can defeat him while taking no damage by just spinning in one spot until he dies.

The music is not memorable at all most of the songs are just loops of very short tunes and the biggest problem is that you can hardly hear the music over the games terrible sound effects, the sound effects literally sound like they came from a cheap collection of Royalty Free sounds and nothing about them or the music is very creative at all, the most unusual sound choice the developers made was that every time Taz takes a step a music note plays as if the entire game is a piano, this sound choice makes very little sense and it gets annoying very fast.

Taz Mania was a very disappointing game, I used to love this game as a child and I remember having a great time playing it, the game has tight controls and sticks to its source material with its very simple plot and and its art style which represents the original show quite nicely but unfortunately bad game design, terrible sound and music choices and for the most part awful game play makes Taz Mania for Sega Genesis a very bad experience and honestly I am relieved that I never have to play it again.

3.4/10

Thank you for reading my review of Taz Mania for the Sega Genesis/ Mega Drive

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

Versatile Blogger Award: Seven Facts About Padawan

March 3, 2015 ragglefragglereviews1 Comment

Big thanks to Tea Tomorrow for nominating me for the Versatile Blogger Award

Check out Tea Tomorrow here http://teatomorrow.com/

THIS IS AWESOME!!!

Those who read my Blog know that I am a reviewer of media and other random things, by doing this I am able to give my opinion on these products as well as occasionally giving you random facts and trivia about those products, but I bet no one has ever wondered about the person sat behind the keyboard and until now I haven’t had a reason to share some personal facts about myself as well as some facts about myself that are a little bit crazy.

Just like most other challenges the Versaltile Blogger Award does have rules that need to be followed

1) Thank the person who gave you this award, and leave a link to their blog

2) Tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself

3) Select some Blogs/Bloggers that you’ve recently discovered or follow regularly

4) Nominate those Bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award

with rules now out of the way lets begin

Fact number 1 – The review which took me the longest to write was Metal Gear Solid for the PS1 which took me a total of 8 days to finish

Fact Number 2 – I often suffer from writers block which is why some of my reviews take a long time for me too finish

Fact number 3 – I am very clumsy and through out my life I have broken almost every bone in my body

Fact number 4 – One of my talents is singing

Fact number 5 – I studied ICT while I was at College

Fact number 6 – I enjoy listening to audio books, my favourite book is Peter Pan and Wendy by J.M Barrie

Fact number 7 – I commit to a lot of charity work and I love to help others.

Thats seven random facts about me, I nominate

Milk Bubble Tea http://milkbubbletea.blogspot.co.uk/

Loony Literate http://www.loonyliterate.com/

Happy Indulgence http://www.happyindulgencebooks.com/

Thanks for reading this article, I hope you enjoyed reading some random facts about myself and Blogging

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

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites Review

February 14, 2015 ragglefragglereviews2 Comments

When I first saw these I was amazed at how cheap they were the person I bought these from asked for only 3 dollars which is the equivalent of about 2 pounds.

I am a big fan of Cookie Dough so I could not resist picking some of these up.

Nutrition Facts

One box of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites contains 2 servings of candy.

Each serving contains

200 Calories

10g of Fat

7g of Saturated Fat

0g of Trans Fat

5mg of Cholesterol

65mg of Sodium

27g of Carbohydrates

0g of Dietary Fibre

20g of Sugar

and 1g of Protein

It does not matter how much you love cookie dough, I’m sure everyone will agree that it is not most nutritional thing you can eat so eating these in small doses is highly recommended.

The company that makes Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites has pasted that the product does not contain egg all over the box, I guess this just to show that this particular candy is safe for vegans too eat as in the list of ingredients they do say that they use milk powder instead of milk from an animal.

The product its self is an assortment of cookie dough balls covered in milk chocolate they come on various sizes and shapes which is an aspect that I like because it does give me a bit more faith in the product because it makes it seem that it was not just simply made by machines in a factory.

The milk chocolate is quite flavourless, it does have a very slight chocolate taste to it but in general it honestly just tastes like plastic.

The cookie dough tastes pretty good but again it does not have much flavour too it, although I will admit that the flavour is much stronger and of better quality compared to the chocolate. The cookie dough has a mixture of salty and sweet flavours and the texture of the cookie dough is quite dry.

My biggest issue with the product is that it’s called Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites and as much as there was cookie dough in bite size pieces I failed to find any chocolate chips, I suppose you could argue that the chocolate covering the cookie dough is the chocolate chip but if that is the case surely the product should be named Milk Chocolate Covered Cookie Dough Bites.

This product was really disappointing it lacked in both chocolate chips and flavour and even though they are quite cheap to purchase I recommend staying away from these. 3/10

Thank you for reading my review of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites

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

White Reese’s Review

February 2, 2015 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

I am a big fan of the original Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, I buy them a lot and they are one of my top five favourite chocolate bars of all time. I was recently ordering some candy and beverages from the US and I noticed the White Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups were being sold and I knew I had to order some.

This product used to be called Reese’s White Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups but these days they are just called White Reese’s because THEY NO LONGER USE REAL WHITE CHOCOLATE!!!

This really annoys me because Reese’s is a really popular and wealthy chocolate company and the fact that they don’t use real white chocolate is not just lazy its a bit of a slap to the face of their fans.

On the bright side they use real cocoa butter which gives it a buttery and creamy texture.

The white chocolate part of the candy is surprisingly really nice, I was surprised by this considering that they only used white chocolate flavouring, it has a very rich taste that is smooth to the mouth, its really good and if they didn’t clearly state that it isn’t real white chocolate I probably would not have noticed.

As soon as I opened the packet the scent of the peanut butter filled the room, the scent is very strong but it smells really good, the taste of the peanut butter is just as strong it has a good combination of salty and sweet flavours which just melt in your mouth and the peanut butter is very smooth, the biggest problem I have with this candy is that the taste of the peanut butter is so strong that it over powers the taste of the white chocolate and when you eat it you can hardly taste the white chocolate at all.

White Reese’s is not one of the best chocolate bars I have ever eaten, but it was not terrible it just had a few issues especially the over powering flavour of the peanut butter, if your a big fan of the taste of white chocolate then give these a shot otherwise I suggest just sticking to the Original Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups 6/10

Thank you for reading my review of White Reese’s

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

The Care Bears Movie (1985) Review

January 31, 2015February 21, 2016 ragglefragglereviews6 Comments

First appearing on television screens in 1981 the Care Bears are a group of colourful bears that live in the clouds, each bear is named after a trait and each bear has a symbol on their belly representing this trait.

The Care Bears originally started their debut through TV specials airing between 1983 till 1985. In 1985 the Care Bears were given their own television series which was very popular amongst young children but before the television series was released we were given a movie based completely on the Care Bears toy line.

The movie starts in an orphanage where one of the staff voiced by Mickey Rooney is reading the story of the Care Bears to the children.

The Care Bears live in a land of clouds called Carealot, The Care Bears have the ability to travel to earth to help those who don’t care any more, the reason they do this is because the stability of Carealot depends on people on earth caring about each other, while visiting Earth the Care Bears try to befriend two young siblings called Kim and Jason.

Kim and Jason have given up about caring for people because both of their Parents left them at an orphanage at a young age, the Care bears want to befriend Kim and Jason to show them that they will not always be alone and to hopefully get them to care again.

Not much later and we are introduced to some new characters a magician and his apprentice Nicholas.

Nicholas is a young boy who has never had a friend in his entire life, this has made him very depressed and angry at the world, an evil spirit trapped inside a book encourages Nicholas to set it free and in exchange it will teach Nicholas how to be more recognised.

A desperate Nicholas agrees to the deal and he uses a key to unlock the book releasing the spirit inside.

The evil spirit starts teaching Nicholas dark magic which Nicholas uses to turn people against each other and eventually taking all of the care out of the world.

Of course this has massive effects on the stability and the well being of Carealot so the Care Bears quickly investigate and learn about Nicholas and the reasons he is angry at everyone, after quickly realising that all three of these children need people to care about they all decide to head to earth to find Nicholas, but just as they start to transport the transporter is destroyed sending the children and the two Care Bears to a land between worlds.

The remaining Care Bears decide to get aboard a boat and travel down a river in the clouds in the hopes that they will find the children and the missing Care Bears, they eventually find the children and the other two Care Bears in a new land called the Forest of Feelings, here they meet some new animal friends including Brave Heart Lion, Swift Heart Rabbit, Playful Heart Monkey and Lotsa Heart Elephant.

The animals join the children and the Care Bears in their quest and they all head out together on a big adventure to save Nicholas from the evil spirit.

The animation is basic to say the least, it looks more like a direct to VHS release than it does a movie that got released into theatres, it’s not terrible though the animation plays very smoothly and the movies use of shadows and shading is very impressive, the only real problem I had with the animation is that most of the time the characters lips don’t sync with what they are saying and this can be very distracting.

The songs in this movie are just awful, they are all very forgetful and genuinely annoying with lyrics that make very little sense, every song in the movie honestly feels like it’s just there for filler and I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the case.

The Care Bears Movie is not one of the best children’s movies I have ever had to sit through, the plot is not very interesting, the animation is fairly basic with the exception of the films use of shadows and shading, the songs are not fun to listen too in the slightest and apart from a pretty cool villain the movie is really bad.

I suggest skipping this one unless you have very young children who you want to keep quiet for an hour.

I hope you enjoyed this review of The Care Bears Movie

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

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992) (Genesis/Megadrive) Review

January 24, 2015January 24, 2015 ragglefragglereviews2 Comments

The blue blur is back and this time he’s brought a friend

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is very similar to the first game and there is a high possibility that it’s a direct sequel.

Doctor Robotnik (Egg man) has again turned the wildlife inhabitants of South Island into to robot’s and it’s up to Sonic and his friend Miles (Tails) Prowler to adventure across some new areas of South Island in order to find and Defeat Dr Robotnik and to save the Island from his Evil Antics.

the only really big change in game play is the introduction of Tails, a two tailed fox who has the ability to fly which makes up for his lack in speed.

Tails is a very useful mechanic in the game not only because he can fly but also because he can defeat enemies, collect rings and he can even help by dealing damage during boss fights.

Tails biggest downfall is his lack in speed, the problem is that because Sonic is so fast Tails will often get left behind leaving Sonic to get through the the majority of the stages alone, this isn’t as much of an issue during single player because as much as Tails can help with rings and boss fights it is possible to beat the game without him, but on the other hand if you want to play the single player with a friend, Player 2 (Tails) wont be able to keep up with Player 1 (Sonic), this makes playing the single player with a friend pointless which is a shame because they could have fixed this by making single player split screen when a second player joins.

On the bright side Sonic 2 does have another Multiplayer mode, if you select 2 players from the main menu, you will be able to select specific levels from the game which Player 1 (sonic) and Player 2 (Tails) will be able to race each other to the goal and the best part is that this mode does use split screen which makes the game fair for both players to have a good time.

The games visuals are stunning, again everything is animated amazingly well the environments and backgrounds scroll with the player and some background objects such as clouds, lava and water move by themselves. The only complaint I have regarding the level design is that sometimes its really difficult to tell what is in the background and what will hurt you.

For example it may seem that the flames here can hurt you but they are actually harmless.

Every zone in the game has its own unique theme, level design and enemies for Sonic and Tails to defeat.

Sonic 2 has 11 zones and provides a total of 22 levels

Emerald Hill Zone

Very similar to Green Hill Zone, Emerald Hill Zone has a tropical theme and provides plenty of loops, slopes and multiple pathways for Sonic and Tails to run through. This zone is super fun and super easy so you shouldn’t have much trouble with it.

Chemical Plant Zone

Going straight from a nice tropical vacation spot to the dangers of a factory filled with lots of enemies and toxic water which can kill you very quickly, this zone has multiple pathways and high speed game play which makes it very challenging and it shows that Sonic Team isn’t messing around.

Aquatic Ruins Zone

A fun little zone based around some ancient ruins surrounded by a lake, this zone is one of my favorites because you are able to change how to traverse through the zone every time you play it, for example if you stay near the top of the level you will have to adventure across the top of the ruins to reach the goal, but if you head downwards you will have to adventure across the bottom of the ruins and through the lake in order to reach the goal.

Casino Night Zone

A definite upgrade to Spring Yard Zone from the first game, Casino Night is awesome Sonic and Tails will need to run, fling themselves, shoot themselves and gamble in order to survive this crazy stage, Casino Nights is loads of fun.

Hill Top Zone

Sonic and Tails will be running above the clouds in this zone, Hill top zone requires you to take your time as you will have hills to climb, lava to avoid and lots of caves to explore, this zone is definitely for the explorative types.

Mystic Cave Zone

Sonic and Tails will need to explore some dark caves filled with old abandoned mine cart tracks, but don’t relax just yet because it is also filled with lots of traps, spikes and switches, this zone will definitely keep you on your toes.

Oil Ocean Zone

Literally an Ocean of Oil, this zone is very difficult as it has a lot of environmental hazards and obstacles, players will need to try to avoid falling off of oily slides and will need to use Green furnace flames to help propel themselves onto small platforms in order for them to traverse further through the zone.

Metropolis Zone

In my opinion the most difficult zone in the game, this Giant factory is filled to the brim with enemies, environmental hazards, large pits of boiling chemicals and the worst part is that the entire zone is like one big maze, this is one maze that I never want to get lost in again

Sky Chase Zone

During a short plane ride Sonic and Tails need to chase down Dr Robotnik while he retreats to his air ship, during this stage players will need to avoid robotic flying turtles and collect rings, at the end of the stage Sonic needs to jump out of the plane to take on the air ship solo.

Wing Fortress Zone

Based in Dr Robotnik’s air ship there are plenty of opportunities for you to fall to your doom due to the many platforms and thin ledges. While avoiding Dr Robotnik’s most dangerous robots yet players will need lots of patience and good timing in order to survive.

Death Egg Zone

Again similar to Sonic 1 this is just the final boss and get ready for one tough final boss battle because unlike the first game now you have to face two bosses in a row. You will need to defeat Metal Sonic and once you beat him you then need to beat Dr Robotnik in his giant space armour, but if you die you will need to take on Metal Sonic again and you will need to keep repeating this pattern until you can defeat both bosses in a row without dying.

Players have the ability to choose to play the single player mode as Sonic with Tails, Sonic alone or Tails Alone.

Beating the game with different characters does very slightly change the ending of the game but it so slight that it does not really count as an alternative ending as the final outcome is the same.

Bonus Stages are back but with a big difference, this time Sonic and Tails will need to collect 50 rings and once they reach a checkpoint they need to jump into the sparkly portal that appears above.

Once they enter the Bonus Stage the player will see Sonic and Tails looking slightly 3D, they will be running through a tunnel filled with rings that they need to collect, if they collect enough rings they will be rewarded with a Chaos Emerald. This may sound easy but it can be very difficult because this time Sonic and Tails are running forward with the camera following behind, also there are many obstacles such as bombs and spikes that if Sonic or Tails hit they will lose some rings.

Warning: If you enter a Bonus stage when you leave your ring count will be Zero.

Getting all 7 Chaos Emeralds will allow Sonic to transform into Super Sonic once he collects 50 rings in a stage you transform by jumping , Super Sonic is invincible, the only downfall is that you lose a ring for every second super sonic is on screen and once you run out of rings you will lose the super sonic ability until you collect some more.

Sonic 2 is an amazing game, it has some really creative levels, the bonus stages are more fun and rewarding, the soundtrack is so good that every time I listen to it I want to dance, the visuals and general game design is beautiful and apart from the pretty bad multiplayer and the fact that sometimes background objects seem dangerous, the game is near perfect.

One of the best games that Sonic Team has ever made 9.3/10

Thank you for reading my review of Sonic the Hedgehog 2

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

My thoughts on Gender Roles in Society

January 21, 2015June 18, 2015 ragglefragglereviews57 Comments

How often have you heard the phrase “Bacon is a mans meat” or “only boys can play with Transformers”

This is a form of forced gender roles and I am sure that everyone has heard a phrase or a saying similar to these at some point during their lifetime.

In this blog I am going to try and analyse why we have gender roles and my thoughts on the subject

The most common form of forced gender roles is found in toy stores, when you go into a toy store the two most common colours you will see are Pink and Blue.

The reason for this is because Pink is often considered to be a girls colour while Blue is often considered to be a boys colour, the Pink section of a toys store will be filled with Barbies, My little Pony and Disney Princess while the blue section will be filled with G.I. Joe’s, Transformers and Hot wheels.

This would be a flawless idea if all girls liked girls things and all boys liked boys things, but what happens when a girl wants a Teenage mutant ninja turtle action figure or when a boy wants a My little pony doll?

You may think whats the big deal they can buy whatever they want, but how can they when society has told them that those toys are only for the other gender to play with.

This wasn’t as much of an issue until bronies hit the scene, bronies (A combination of bro and pony) are male fan’s of the show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic a show targeted at girls but surprisingly has a large male audience.

So what happens in this situation because My little pony is Pink but the majority of its audience are males, which is something that I don’t think anyone saw coming.

you will often see bronies in the Pink section looking for my little pony stuff and people who see them will often look disgusted and pull their children closer to them, or if its a child who’s a brony then its usually the parents that will receive this treatment.

Toy stores are not the only thing that are very heavily genderized, the same can be said for TV shows, Movies, Music,magazines, shampoos, and pretty much everything.

A prime example would Pop Princesses, a CD series that is heavily advertised that it is for a female audience

Another example would be any gaming magazine which are genuinely targeted towards a male audience with very few exceptions such as Girl Gamer (a gaming magazine for girls).

something that makes me really happy is when I see a female who’s a plumber, builder or a mechanic all jobs which are often associated with men, the same goes when I see male receptionist, nurse, hairdresser and stay at home dad.

Bringing gender roles into food and beverage is just stupid, anyone should be able to eat or drink what they want and I honestly don’t understand why people try to genderize food in the first place.

Women can eat Steak and men can drink wine, we should not be told what we should eat and drink just because we are a certain gender.

Some people may look at gender roles as a good thing and I understand why some people believe that each gender should do as society says, personally I think that having gender roles is genuinely a bad idea not only because it limits the consumer to what they should buy depending on their gender, but I also feel that it affects the companies that produce the goods because limiting their products to specific genders does in some way limit the amount of money those companies can gain from sales.

Gender roles are something that we will always have, I don’t personally see it as good thing but I understand that it helps companies identify what gender they are targeting their products at and in that sense it does help benefit the companies in some way or form.

I think we need to draw the line when having gender roles becomes a brick wall built by society trying to prevent someone from taking on certain careers or purchasing gender specific products without them looking weird or strange in the eyes of the general public.

Whats your opinion on Gender Roles?

Do you agree with my opinions on the subject?

Thank you for reading this blog

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

Lets take a look at Pokemon 3D

January 18, 2015 ragglefragglereviews72 Comments

I think every Pokemon fan has wondered what the Pokemon games would look like if you played them with a first person perspective, instead of playing them with the common birds eye view that is presented in the majority of the games.

If you happen to be one of these fans, then you will be pleased to know that a 3D Pokemon game now exists and it is simply titled Pokemon 3D.

Pokemon 3D is a recreation of Pokemon Gold and Pokemon Silver which were released on the Gameboy Colour in 1999.

But even though Pokemon 3D has been created around these games, it is a very different experience as it has new characters, mostly different dialogue and it even has its own twists and changes to the original games plot, not to mention that the entire game has had a massive graphical upgrade compared to the original game that could only run in 8 bits.

Pokemon Gold/Silver Original

Pokemon 3D

This is a Pokemon game and so the objective is very similar to original series, you are a Pokemon trainer and it is your mission to catch and train as many Pokemon as you can, you will then need to retrieve the 8 gym badges before making your way to the Pokemon championships to take on the elite 4 and too finally defeat the Pokemon Champion of the world.

The game play is also very similar to an actual Pokemon game and the only major difference this time around is that you are using a keyboard and mouse. I found the controls to be a little awkward but I think that’s just because I am so use to playing Pokemon on an actual game boy, so it was little difficult for my mind to adjust to these new controls.

Personally I was getting quite a bit of lag when I was walking from place to place, the reason for this is because the game requires a lot of power from your CPU, I have a fairly powerful PC and I can run my fair share of games that require high performance so I believe that this issue is just a problem with the game currently and its an aspect that I hope the developers fix.

The battle system is really cool, it reminds me of the new latest Pokemon battle systems from X/Y and Alpha/Omega. The Pokemon themselves are in 3D and you get to see them fight. At the moment you are not able to see the Pokemon perform the attacks but I am sure that this feature will appear in a later update.

You will also be pleased to know that all of the original music and audio from Pokemon Gold and Silver is in the game, the audio is loud, crisp and full of nostalgia and having the original audio is a really nice feature especially for people who grew up playing these games.

You can even have a Pokemon adventure online with other players, but I really struggled to connect to the server but after a while I managed to connect and it was pretty sweet, I cant wait to play this game online with my friends so we can go on Pokemon adventures together.

Pros

Fantastic Graphics and Imagery
Music and Audio from the Original Game
Plays and feels like a real Pokemon Game

Cons

The controls are a little complicated
Experienced quite a bit of Lag
You will need a powerful CPU
Sometimes you may struggle to connect to the online server

Pokemon 3D is still in development and the developers are working on improving the game every single day, If your a Pokemon fan I highly recommend that you check this game out.

You can download Pokemon 3D here

http://gamejolt.com/games/adventure/pok-mon3d/10545/

I hope you enjoyed my look at Pokemon 3D

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

The girl who leapt through time (2006) Review

January 14, 2015January 14, 2015 ragglefragglereviews3 Comments

Makoto Konno is an ordinary teenager, she goes to high school, hates her little sister, her emotions are all over the place and she loves hanging out with her two best friends Chiaki and Kosuke

Apart from the fact that Makoto is extremely clumsy and a bit of goof ball her life is fairly normal for a girl of her age, but that all changes when she is asked to return some books too one of classrooms in her school, when she arrives the class room appears to be completely empty, she discovers a message on the blackboard which reads “Time waits for no one”

She thinks nothing of this and she returns the books to their proper place but being the klutz she is, she falls on a walnut and crushes it. On her way home she is racing down a steep hill on her bike, she hears a railroad crossing ahead as it is bleeping warning pedestrians of an incoming train, Makoto tries to use the brakes but they wont work, she hits the rail and flies off her bike straight into the oncoming train and presumably dies.

A few Seconds later she is back on top of the hill and is in pain after falling off her bike and she hears the rail road crossing warn passers by of the same train that hit her previously.

Obviously she gets very confused by this and she goes to visit her Auntie Witch

She Explains to Makoto that she had peformed a time leap which means that she leapt through time and time traveled. We also learn that time leaps can be peformed by a lot of teenagers her age, but not many know that they have this ability.

As you may expect like any person who discovers that they can time travel Makoso starts time leaping whenever she can, she starts time leaping to get what she wants, to change how she deals with situations because if she does screw up anything she can reverse time and start again, she even time leaps so she can keep redoing her maths test until she has a perfect grade.

Makoso starts to get very selfish knowing that she can now have multiple chances at any thing that life throws at her and that nothing in her life will ever go wrong again.

At least that’s what she thought because later on in the movie Makoso notices a Tattoo of the number 9 on her arm, at first she thinks nothing of it and she carry’s on time leaping only to realise that the 9 is now a 6, this number represents the amount of time leaps Makoso has left,.

Makoso starts to feel foolish that she wasted almost of all of her time leaps and with only one left she decides that would be a great idea to time leap back to the begging of the movie so that she can get her friend Kosuke in a relationship with a girl who has a crush on him, but by doing this she ends up managing to sprain the girls ankle, since Makoso just walked away not realising what had happened Kosuke borrows Makoso’s bike and starts rushing to his house to get the girls ankle fixed but little does he know that he is heading towards the same train from the beginning of the movie.

Makoso Realises this and with no time leaps left she runs to try and stop her friend before it is too late.

The films plot is very impressive considering that a lot of anime’s are full of action, have an antagonist of some sort and are genuinely un-realistic, but with this anime its not the case at all because these teenagers act like normal teenagers, the high school looks and feels like a normal high school and even when Makoso starts time leaping she uses her new ability for non important things such as redoing karaoke over and over again, going back in time so she can eat her meals for a second time and to just genuinely avoid awkward situations, the reason I bring this up is because when I was a teenager if I this ability I would be using it in a similar manner.

The icing on the cake is the animation, this movie is beautiful every scene is hand drawn and its amazing. What may surprise a lot of people is that the animation and designs of the characters are quite simple but the backgrounds have had so much effort and time put into them that they really stand out, I don’t see this as a bad thing because its actually quite a nice change of pace considering that with most animated films and animes its the characters them selves which stand out the most compared the the rest of the imagery the film has offer, this film is a complete reversal of the usual formula and it works really well because it allows the viewer to really soak in the animation and ultimately 9 times out of ten they will appreciate the animation a lot more as well as the time and effort that went into making the film.

The girl who leapt through time is an amazing film it has top notch animation, a wonderful cast of characters, a brilliant plot and writing and it some heart warming and heart breaking moments which are bound to bring out some emotions in any who watches it.

If you haven’t yet seen this movie, I highly recommend giving it a watch

I hope you enjoyed this review

If you repect 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

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

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