Bayonetta 2 (2014) Review

February 23, 2018March 5, 2018 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

The Witch is back !!!

After the success of the first game a sequel to Bayonetta was inevitable but unfortunately it never happened and Sega soon lost focus on the franchise that is until Nintendo of all companies bought the rights and made the series their own and released a trailer for a new game exclusive to their systems, of course this upset a lot of people who don’t play Nintendo but from the companies point of view this was a brilliant marketing stunt forcing people who desperately wanted to play the new Bayonetta game to buy their systems and it worked so good for them Bayonetta 2 was released on the Wii U in 2014 along side the original game before it was re-released in a similar package this year for the Switch.

Thankfully the plot this time around is fairly straight foward, Bayonetta and Jeanne are out doing some Christmas shopping with the pathetic Enzo carrying all of their new stuff, Angels attack an aeroplane stunt show so Bayonetta and Jeanne suit up to take them out and with a new set of guns from the merchant Rodin this should be easy but unfortunately during the fight one of Bayonettas monsters escapes from its master and knocks Jeannes soul from her body which then gets dragged into Inferno, Bayonetta kills the monster but now has to get to the Gates of Hell to rescue Jeanne before her soul is completely consumed.

The game play is essentially the same as the original with a few changes, for those who don’t know Bayonetta is a hack and slash game series inspired by the Devil May Cry games, the first game follows the adventure of an Umbra Witch who kills Angels by shooting them with guns she holds in her hands and the heels of her shoes, she can use multiple weapons and items to help her survive and upgrades can be bought from Rodin through out the games, some supple changes in this game compared to the original is Bayonettas slightly different fashion choice in both Witch and Panther form, local multiplayer and a much easier gameplay experience which is still challenging and fun.

There is only one thing I hate about this game and that’s the character Loki, he has an extremely important role in the game but he is just so annoying, he wines a lot, he has an annoying voice and some of his dialogue is straight up cringe worthy

The soundtrack is just as great as the first game, it has a lot of orchestral and vocal tracks which are all a lot of fun to listen too, use the link above to check it out

Bayonetta 2 is an epic game, it controls perfectly, it has a great sound track, beautiful graphics and plenty of extra content to keep you busy many would agree that it’s better the original and even though I hate Loki I have too agree, Bayonetta 2 is an excellent sequel and hopefully it’s influence will effect future games in the series 9.7/10

I hope you enjoyed my review of Bayonetta 2 for the Wii U and Nintendo Switch

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

Bayonetta (2009) Review

February 18, 2018 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

Bayonetta

The original Bayonetta was released in 2009 as a spiritual successor to the Devil May Cry series, it was very well recieved back when it first came out and Bayonetta has since become one of the greatest original characters of all time.

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The plot of Bayonetta is insane and honestly it was a little hard for me to follow, however with some internet research after finishing the game I did get a better understanding.

Most of this coming from the Bayonetta wikia and I’m not ashamed to be reading it to help me try to explain the plot as it really is quite complicated.

so first off all let me quickly explain the two eyes, you have the left eye which watches over the moon, the darkness and the inferno and you have the right eye which watches over the sun, the light and the paradiso

In Europe around 500 years ago there was two clans one was the Umbra Witches and the other was the Lumen Sages, both clans didnt like eachother but they stayed out of each others way out of respect of each clans laws, one day an Umbra Witch called Rosa had intercourse with a Lumen Sage named Balder and they conceived a child due to this Balder was forced to leave his clan and Rosa was imprisoned while the baby was raised by the remaining Umbra Witches, the child now known as Cereza has grown up and has made friends with another Umbra Witch called Jeanne , Jeanne wants to be the Umbran Heiress but in order to prove herself she must defeat another Umbra Witch in combat, Jeanne chooses Cereza but is told no as she is of non pure blood but without much convincing she is allowed to fight her anyway, Cereza wins the fight and scares the other Umbra Witches that she is going to awaken the left eye so Jeanne is forced to put Cereza into an eternal sleep by stabbing her in the heart and burying her alive in a coffin at the bottom of a lake, once all of this was done peace remained amongst the clans until one day Balder manipulates the Lumen Sages to trust him and kill all of the Umbra Witches, Balder succeeds but both Jeanne and Cereza survive, 500 years later we are introduced to Cereza again although now she has been resurrected with no memories of her past and is going by the name Bayonetta.

I think I have covered all of the important bits without spoiling all of the things revealed throughout the game but if you want a better understanding this is the link I used.

http://bayonetta.wikia.com/wiki/The_Story_of_Bayonetta

The game play is hack and slash but don’t think this means you can just run into the game button mashing your way to victory because bayonetta is very difficult, even on Normal it kicked my ass, bayonetta has a lot of moves available for players to use as well as a massive arsenal of weapons to back her up, what makes Bayonetta stand out compared to most other video game characters is her guns which she can fire from both her hands and feet and with plenty of opportunities to try different weapons it makes the game play very satisfying, Bayonetta also has some great finishing moves including some torture attacks which deal massive amounts of damage to enemies in many grizzly and creative ways also creating monsters with her hair to devour enemies is awesome too, some stand out moments of game play for me are when Bayonetta uses magic to run on water and the Witch time ability which slows down time temporarily which helps to kill tricky foes.

The graphics on Bayonetta are fantastic although they differ from system to system, on PC they are at there best due to the ability to enhance them on higher end computers but on systems they are just as good, I played the new Wii U port that has been brought to the Switch and some of the textures were a little bit blurry but not so much that it’s a huge problem but if graphics are a massive deal to you maybe pass on the Nintendo versions.

https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4974828533C1619B

The music is just orgasmic the developers used a mix of vocal and ochestaral tracks which is a great mix when fighting the angels it really suits the atmosphere and the anime style pop songs are a nice addition which suits the non serious nature of the game it’s honestly brilliant

Bayonetta is a difficult yet satisfying action packed adventure which has plenty of gore, comedy and sillynees to fit anyone’s gaming needs, it’s a bit short and even though there is a lot of replay value I wanted more but it’s still a great game which is well worth your time 8.6/10

Thank you for reading this review of Bayonetta

Feel free to leave your views or feedback in the comments

My version came with Bayonetta 2 so after one more game review we will tackle her next adventure

Sonic Colours (2010) (Wii) Review

April 23, 2016April 23, 2016 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

A modern Sonic game that isn’t bad?

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Dr Robotnik has created an intergalactic amusement park and states that he is doing it to make up for his evil past and to start fresh, this quickly makes both Sonic and Tails very suspicious and so they decide to take a trip to the park themselves.

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While at the park Sonic and Tails meet Yacker a local wisp (Alien Species) who they are able to communicate with using a special translator, Yacker explains to Sonic that Dr Robotnik is kidnapping Wisps and using their energy to power the amusement park, after hearing this Sonic realizes that he has not only the world to save but an entire Alien race and so he runs off in search of Robotnik and all of his robots.

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The General game play is just basic Sonic platforming where the goal is too get to the end of each stage trying to not take any damage from enemy robots and obstacles, the main focus of Sonic Colours is the new wisp power-ups that Sonic can use to help him get through each stage of the game.

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There are a lot of these wisp power ups in the game especially if you include the ones that are only available in the 2p player mode

My top three favorite wisp power-ups are as follows

Orange Rocket – This power-up literally turns Sonic into a rocket ship which shoots to the top of the screen, Sonic will then sky dive back to the ground collecting loads of rings along the way.

Purple Frenzy – This power-up is pictured in the image above, Sonic will turn into dark creature with a large mouth similar to a crocodile, Sonic can now eat his way through all enemies and obstacles in his way.

Yellow Drill – This is my personal favorite power-up in the game, Sonic turns into a drill and can fly across the screen as well as drilling his way underground allowing him to find secret passages and hidden treasures.

sonic simulator

When you are not playing through the main campaign, you can enjoy some difficult bonus levels in the Sonic Simulator, these stages are exceptionally challenging and are the only way to collect the Chaos Emeralds, this is also where you can play the game with your friends.

The Chaos Emeralds are not needed to complete the game this time around and thank god for that because after the hell I had of completing Sonic Heroes earlier this year I was very happy when I realized that this would be a much more pleasant and less stressful experience.

The Chaos Emeralds are not needed to beat the game all though they do unlock the ability to play as Super Sonic, a feature I personally did not care about nor did I bother too unlock.

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The voice acting and in this game is almost perfect and I have never been able to say that about any of the modern Sonic games before, for once Tails is not annoying at all and he doesn’t have a stupidly high pitched voice, Dr Robotnik as always sounds awesome and menacing which doesn’t surprise me because I have never had problem with Robotnik’s character in any entry of the series, most of the minor characters are not too interesting but they are not annoying so I cant really complain, the only character I really have an issue with in this game is Sonic himself, he comes off as a complete douche a lot of the time and he keeps throwing horrible one liners and jokes at Robotnik and I cant tell if they are meant to be cringe worthy or if its just the game developers trying to be cool and funny but either way Sonic just kinda sucks.

The music really isn’t anything special, none of the songs really stuck with me when I was playing the game, but the games main theme Reach for the Stars is pretty good but its still not one of my favorite Sonic songs.

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Can we just take some time to talk about how amazing the graphics are in this game, they are outstanding for a Wii game, not only is the game full of fantastic graphical details such as grass textures and glistening stars in the sky, but there are just so many things on the screen at once that it honestly makes this world seem more realistic, this is helped by the games use of vibrant colours and many special effects.

Sonic Colours is a great game, it looks amazing for a Wii title, it has perfect controls and for most part even though it adds a lot of cool new Power-ups and unique game play aspects it stills feels like the classic Sonic games we grew up playing, but its not a perfect game as it does have its flaws, first of all the game only took me 5 hours to complete which is way to short for any game today and keep in mind that it originally came out with a price tag of £40, the music wasn’t very memorable, the completion bonus for beating the game 100 percent sucks and Sonic surprisingly isn’t very likable but that last one is more of a personal opinion.

Its not the best Sonic game ever made but it is one of the best Sonic games to be released in a long time, perhaps one day I will get around to reviewing the DS version.

7.5/10

I hope you enjoyed this review of Sonic Colours for the Nintendo Wii

If you respect my opinion, I will respect yours

you can contact me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

Land of Illusion (1992) (Master System/Game Gear) Review

February 9, 2015 ragglefragglereviews1 Comment

Released in 1992 for the Sega Master System and 1993 for the Sega Game Gear Land of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse is the second game in the Mickey Mouse Illusion series.

One stormy night Mickey Mouse is reading book the worlds greatest fairy tales, Mickey starts feeling very drowsy and eventually falls asleep, when Mickey wakes up he is in a fairy tale land, a girl who appears to be Daisy Duck tells Mickey about an evil phantom who stole the magic crystal from her village and because of this the land which was once filled with happiness and laugher has been replaced with sadness, after hearing such a sad tale Mickey decides that he will defeat the phantom and will return the magic crystal to the village.

Land of Illusion is a platform game, the player takes control of Mickey Mouse and its their job to make sure that Mickey survives each of the 14 in game levels.

There are many enemies that Mickey must either avoid or defeat, in order to attack enemies Mickey must either pick up an item such as a block or a nut which he must then throw at the attacking enemy or Mickey can defeat enemies by jumping in the air and hitting the enemies with a ground pound.

Through out the game Mickey will need to defeat multiple bosses in order to rescue the other villagers who are fairytale versions of Mickeys friends such as Donald, Minnie and Goofy, after saving these characters they will often tell Mickey where he can find new items in the game which he will need in order to progress further.

All of these items have different uses

The Flute gives Mickey the ability to exit a level at any time while also keeping any treasures or items he picked up.

The Magic Potion gives Mickey the ability to shrink to a very small size which will allow him to enter small doors and narrow passages.

The Rope gives Mickey the ability to climb walls which makes it easier to reach high areas.

The Shoes are very light in weight and they allow Mickey to walk on top of clouds

And the Magic Beans will grow a beanstalk that Mickey can climb to get to the Phantoms Castle way up in the sky.

The controls are almost perfect and to be honest there is not much I can complain about, the controls are tight and very responsive to the player, using different items is really easy and only requires very simple button combinations and controlling Mickey is genuinely a pleasant experience.

I do have one issue with the controls for some reason every time Mickey comes to a stop he slides in the direction he is facing, this is very slight but it does cause issues in certain parts of the game, I would understand if this happened if you were moving fast but this happens every time you move and because of this its a small issue that can cause big problems.

The game looks fantastic considering that it can only run in 8 bit, the colours burst off of the screen and everything is animated extremely well and everything in the game moves very smoothly.

I do wish that the backgrounds of some stages were not as empty as they are, this in no way effects the game play but the levels do genuinely look quite bare and I do believe that adding more things to the backgrounds would make the game more pleasant to look at but this is an issue that only applies to some of the stages.

Every level has many secrets and short cuts to find, Mickey will also need to solve many different puzzles, avoid many dangerous obstacles and defeat many bosses during his adventure.

The music is nice but that’s about it not one track in this game was memorable to me, a lot of the time the music sounds like a fun little tune on a constantly repeating loop, but even though the music is nothing amazing it is fun to listen too and its not in any way annoying.

Land of Illusion is a charming little game about everyone’s favourite mouse, I cant say that this game is a masterpiece but its a fun little side scroller with mostly great controls, fantastic graphics and animation, a fun and happy soundtrack and an innocent and easy to understand story line that anyone can enjoy.

Not an amazing game but its still loads of fun and is overall a great time 7.8/10

Thank you for reading my review of Land of Illusion for Sega Master System/ Sega Game Gear

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

Ecco the Dolphin (Megadrive) Review

October 6, 2014February 24, 2015 ragglefragglereviews4 Comments

Halloween 2014 is really close now and since it is already October its time for the traditional Raggle fraggle Halloween blogs.

This years theme is games and movies that you would not expect to be scary but in reality they are.

Lets begin with the first game of the season with the adorable Ecco the Dolphin for the Sega Mega Drive

Released in 1993 Ecco the Dolphin is in my opinion Sega’s response to Nintendo’s popular game series Metroid

The plot of Ecco the Dolphin is that your family mysteriously disappears in a storm and Ecco travels through the many dangers of the ocean to reunite with his family, while on on his travels Ecco is told to travel to the Artic to speak to a blue whale called Big Blue. Big Blue explains that these storms appear every 500 years and Ecco is directed to the oldest creature on earth the Asterite.

The Asterite agrees to help Ecco as long as he travels back in time to an ancient atlantian city so he can retrieve one of the Asterite’s globes that is missing (Globes are those multicoloured circles that the Asterite is made of) After receiving the globe Ecco is told that the storm was a harvest of Earths waters and this is a tradition committed every 500 years by an alien species called the Vortex. After learning this, Ecco travels 55 thousands years into the past and finds the Asterite and is forced to battle, after defeating the Asterite, Ecco is granted a power which turns his Sonar into a deadly weapon which he can use against the Vortex, Ecco is then sent foward in time to the hour of the harvest and this time he also gets sucked into the storm and ends up in the Alien space ship, Ecco then fights his way to the queen to save his family.

Thats right Ecco is a time travelling Dolphin who fights Aliens, That is freaking awesome

Ecco the Dolphin has really awesome game play, The game is level based, each level gives the player a new objective to complete but unlike traditional level based games Ecco the Dolphin feels a lot like Metroid, the player is going to get lost at certain points of the game. This is due to all of the different paths you can take to help you find your your objective and sometimes you need to solve puzzles in order to move forward for example you may need to push a rock to block of a strong water current in order to take a new path or you may need to use clever strategy to sneak past an angry octopus.

Ecco the Dolphin is surprisingly a really difficult game, this is due to the fact that just like a real dolphin Ecco can’t fully breath underwater and while playing through the game the player will need to find air holes in order to keep Ecco alive, Personally this was the most difficult aspect of the game for me, because finding air is not easy and Ecco runs out of breath really fast.

Also Ecco can easily take damage from enemies as well as taking damage from bumping in cave walls, luckily eating fish replenishes your health so this aspect of gamplay is not something that people will have too much trouble with.

What is an issue is the games controls, due to Ecco being able to move in a 360 degrees pattern the D-PAD on the Mega Drive controller became a big issue as I found controlling Ecco to be very clunky and awkward. I believe the game could really benefit from the use of an analog controller.

Ecco the Dolphin has a really awesome soundtrack, the music really makes the player feel like they are in ocean and the music changes depending on the scenario of the stage, at first the music feels really relaxing but as the games plot unfolds the soundtrack evolves into something more hardcore and dark. I love this soundtrack, it really helps the player feel the atmosphere of the game.

it is one of my favourite game soundtracks on the Mega Drive and I love every minute of it.

Here is a link to a playlist of every track in the game

Ecco the Dolphin is a really awesome game, apart from the not so great controls it is definitely a game I reccomend to retro gamers but I do feel that it would not be popular with the modern gamers of today.

I also feel that the game would be a turn off to male demographic simply because you play as a dolphin which is most likely why the game did not do as well as the developers hoped it would back when it released.

I may not have enjoyed Ecco the Dolphin as much as I have enjoyed a lot of other Mega Drive titles but I do feel that is an underrated gem on the system and I recommend it to all retro gamers .

A cute little game which is surprisingly a little bit terrifying 7/10.

I hope you enjoyed this review of Ecco the Dolphin

if you respect my opinion I will respect yours

By Padawan

Shadow the Hedgehog (PS2,GC,XBOX) Review

September 21, 2014January 9, 2016 ragglefragglereviews4 Comments

Shadow the Hedgehog is one of the most hated games in the entire Sonic franchise, almost everyone I spoke to told me to avoid it like the plague, but very few people said that the game was a fun experience and that they think the game is underrated, so I had no idea what to expect when playing this game, a Sonic game with guns? This is either going to be awesome or its going to be extremely stupid. Now that I have played through the entire game I am ready to share my opinion with all of you in the style of a review. Could it really be that bad?

There are 22 levels in Shadow the Hedgehog Unlike traditional 3D Sonic games which have individual character stories, Shadow the Hedgehog uses a path system allowing the player to create their own story. Depending on what path you take you will either end up being a Hero or a villain at end of the game.

Almost every stage in the game will give the players three objectives one dark objective, one neutral objective and one hero objective depending on which objective the player finishes will determine which stage they will get to next. If the player finishes a dark mission they will move up on the path system, if they finish a neutral mission they will move forward on path system and if they finish a hero mission they will move down on the path system.

During one play through of the story mode, the player will play six stages depending on whether they do the dark or hero mission on stage six they will have to fight one of two final boss fights for the path they are on, earning the player one of ten endings.

The path system could have worked out really well if Sega didn’t mess it up, the problem with the path system and my biggest issue with game is that in order to unlock the final story you need to get each ending, which means playing through the majority of stages a number of times and yes you need to beat the game TEN TIMES!!!!. I didn’t mind the first few runs of the game but after a while I got sick of seeing the same stages over and over again especially Westopolis because with it being stage one I had to play this stage during every single play through of the game.

On a lighter note the game controls were perfect I didn’t have a problem with game once even when Shadow was moving really fast I was still able to have really smooth control over him, this is something that I don’t often find in 3D sonic games so it was nice to play a game that when I died it was my fault and not game glitches or bad controls.

Let’s talk about guns

For some reason Sega thought that giving Shadow the ability to use guns to kill his enemies would help the game appeal to the older demographic, but it just looks really silly and ridiculous, seriously no one wants to run around shooting aliens with an AK-47 in a Sonic the Hedgehog game. As silly as the guns are, they are not my issue with this gameplay style, the problem is that the game auto aims once Shadow gets close enough to an enemy which is great but it becomes an issue when you get surronded by enemies and you cant shoot them all usually resulting in your death. If Sega gave the player the ability to aim they could take out enemies using clever strategy and skill and in my opinion the use of guns would have been a lot more constructive and would work a lot better to the players advantage.

Shadow the hedgehog does have a pretty good sound track, it does lack in vocal tracks but some of the level themes are really catchy, my personal favourite level theme is Circus Park.

Circus Park theme

All of the vocal tracks in the game are really good, I love All of me by Crush 40 (intro music), credits music for beating an ingame path is ok at best, but Never turn back by Crush 40 (the credits music for the final story) is by far the best track in the game and is one of my personal favourite vocal tracks in any game ever.

All of me by Crush 40

Never turn back by Crush 40

So we have determined that the game has good controls, an ok path system that gets repetative and boring after the first few play throughs,terrible gun mechanics and for the most part a pretty kickass sound track but how does it look?

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Wow this game is ugly, from looking at the pictures you wouldnt think that Shadow the Hedgehog was a PS2, Gamecube and Xbox game, The graphics are flat and blocky, the colours are ugly and bland, when characters talk the lips dont sync to what they are saying, the voice acting is cringeworthy, the enemy and level designs are very basic and not very interesting to look at and I am not kidding but I have played Dreamcast and ps1 games that look better.

Jet Set Radio (Dreamcast)

Croc Legend of the Gobo’s (PS1)

Final Verdict

Shadow the Hedgehog was an ok game, it had really good controls for a 3D Sonic game and a really enjoyable Soundtrack but it fell short due to its bad game design, ugly graphics, and a lame path system which makes you beat the game ten times just to unlock the Final Story. The Final Story has Shadow saving the world in the end of the game and this essentially means that creating your own path was a waste of time making the entire game completely pointless. Shadow the Hedgehog had things going for it, but it wasnt enough to make it a good game

3.8/10 This game sucks.

I hope you enjoyed this review

If you repect my opinion I will respect yours

By Padawan

Sonic the Hedgehog (1991) (Genesis/Megadrive) review

July 29, 2014January 21, 2015 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

Sonic the Hedgehog was the first video game I ever played, those of you who know me personally will know that I was first introduced to video games when my Uncle handed me down his old Sega Mega Drive when I was about six years old. When I received the Mega Drive it came with a fuck load of games some of titles I remember were Mortal Kombat 3, Street Fighter 2, Alien 3 and both Sonic 1 and Sonic 2.

I don’t know why I chose Sonic as the first game I was going to play but if I was to take a guess I would say that it was most likely the box art which caught my eye

The cover art looks great Sonic is adorable but he also has a cocky attitude to him and this really helped Sega reach a wider audience.

Putting the box art aside, does the original Sonic the Hedgehog hold up 23 years later

HELL YEAH IT DOES !!!!!

First of all lets talk about the visuals, this game is beautiful and everything is pretty well animated, every enemy is unique in the way they attack and move, sometimes even the background objects will move but the best example of this is in Green hill zone as sometimes the grass and plants move about in the wind. The game has seven zones and each zone has three acts, at the end of act three is always a fight with the games antagonist Doctor Robotnik (Egg man)

Each zone is a new area of South Island (Where Sonic lives during the first few Games) The Zones are

Green Hill Zone- Forest Area, lots of plant life and bug like enemies

Marble Zone- An underground lava themed stage, lots of cool secrets and an awesome part where Sonic needs to run away from flowing Lava.

Spring Yard Zone- This Zone kinda Sucks, nothing really unique apart from there is a lot of springs and also these extremely annoying blue robots which are almost impossible to avoid.

Labyrinth Zone- By far the most challenging part of the entire game, Labyrinth Zone is an under water themed zone,this makes sonic extremely slow, making it hard to avoid enemies and too reach checkpoints and also he can drown which means annoying your going to die music. Have Fun

Star Light Zone- My favourite Zone in the game, it has cool music, its based in space and in my opinion the level design is very well done as sonic can take multiple paths to help him beat the zone in different ways, also star light zone has one of my favourite audio tracks from any sonic game ever.

Scrap Brain Zone- What I truly consider the Final Zone, Scrap brain is very challenging in its platforming and enemy placement, Sonic is now in Doctor Robotniks lab and everything is out to kill you even the background objects. Also Scrap Brain Zone 3 is labyrinth zone with poisonous water which means half the amount of time to find air bubbles.

Final Zone- This zone is just the Final boss, a lot of people struggle with this boss but for some reason I have always found him to be pretty easy. just stand in a safe spot, avoid the electric balls and hope that he appears close enough for you to hit him, eight hits and he’s dead but don’t forget to hit him while he flies away otherwise it counts as a death.

While you are playing the game, getting 50 rings in either act 1 or act 2 of a zone will allow you to play secret stage so that you can try to collect a chaos emerald, these stages are really annoying and kind of pointless unless you just want to collect enough rings in the secret stage to get a continue. The idea is that if you get all 6 chaos emeralds you will unlock the best ending when you beat the game, This is great but the only problem is that the best ending is the same as the normal ending apart from their are happy dancing flowers, no im not making this up.

The Original Sonic the Hedgehog is a great game, Sega did a fantastic job, it has great visuals, an awesome soundtrack, unique level, enemy and boss designs and overall its just an awesome piece of nostalgic gold. My only real complaint is that the getting the chaos emeralds is pretty much pointless and that’s not good considering that the idea is to get the chaos emeralds. Overall Sonic is great it is one of my favourite games of all time and it
still holds up pretty well today 9/10

I hope you enjoyed this review
If your respect my opinion I will respect yours
By Padawan

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Tag: sega

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