Tomb Raider (1996) Review

September 28, 2020September 5, 2020 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

Tomb Raider is a 1996 3D platformer-puzzle game developed by Core Design and published by Eidos Interactive. It was released for the Sega Saturn, Playstation 1 and MS DOS. The game was the first release in the popular video game series that sees Tomb Raider Lara Croft solving dungeons to discover treasures.

Relaxing in a Hotel in India, Lara is approached by a texan man named Larson who shows her a video feed to his boss Jaqueline Natla who offers her a job to travel to various countries to seek out the Scion of Atlantis which had been split into separate parts and hidden in tombs across Peru, Greece and Egypt.

The first Tomb Raider game while not limited in it’s environments definitely is forgettable, nothing about these areas stand out much apart from the enemies that you would fight, for example Peru has wolves and bears, Greece has lions and gorillas, Egypt has panthers and Atlantis has bleeding skin demons.

In the game you will have to solve puzzles and commit to some tricky platforming in order to survive the many tombs in the game, unfortunately you would be best playing the game on an original PS1 controller as more modern controllers make the platforming difficult as the game really was made with the Playstation’s original limited controller in mind.

while general control is rather clunky and a little stiff I found that swimming in the game worked really well and controlled smoothly, I believe this is why I enjoyed the underwater segments the most.

For an early PS1 game the graphics are really good and even hold up better than some games released later on in the systems life time, the game focuses primarily on tombs and is actually quite realistic as Lara will die constantly due to small mistakes and the tombs feel like they could exist in real life due to their simplicity by using mainly levers, switches and difficult platforming sections, there is nothing in the game that feels fantasy minus a few additions such as the Lara Doppelganger in Atlantis which is a puzzle in its self.

The soundtrack is great, it uses simple tunes but mixed in with orchestral music that fits perfectly into the lonely tombs and helps to amp up serious moments in what is a very quiet game. The developers decided to not have music playing constantly in the game but to only have it appear on certain cues such as discovering a secret or triggering a boss fight.

Tomb Raider on PS1 is a very important game as it was the introduction of Lara Croft who would go on to become one of video games most famous female icons. I wish the game controlled a little better or at least would save after every challenge as the controls really did make the gameplay unnecessarily difficult, I also wish that the environments were more memorable as apart from Atlantis and the dinosaur section nothing else really stands out. Overall I dont think is one of the best games I have ever played but its far from the worst and I look forward to checking out Tomb Raider 2 in the future.

5.3/10

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Krusty’s Super Fun House (1993) Review

May 14, 2018 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

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Originally named Krusty World in Japan Krusty’s Super Fun House was a puzzle/platformer developed and produced by Fox Williams and Acclaim Entertainment, the game was released on a whole array of systems including Commodore Amiga, NES, DOS, Master system, Megadrive, Game Boy and SNES.

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Krusty the Clown has had a rat infestation at his playhouse and with the help of various Simpsons characters he has to exterminate them.

In the game you play as Krusty, the game plays as a 2D platformer for the most part but the main aspect of the game is puzzles, during the puzzles Krusty must find and direct rats to their doom using different items such as blocks and buckets, if you place an item down on the ground the rats can climb on top of it to reach higher platforms and you need to keep doing this until they enter a machine which kills them.

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Krusty can obtain various weapons in the game which can destroy walls and enemies, my favourite weapon is the bog standard custard pie as it has a nice range and is fairly easy to hit your target.

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Graphically the game is ok no matter which version you play, the Gameboy version is black and white and the 8 bit versions are slightly less pixelated than the 16 versions of the game, the visuals are quite bland and do get a bit boring later on, the big issue is that a lot of sprite work had been copied and pasted making some of the later levels very difficult to navigate, the game play also varies from each version, they all follow the same formula but some systems ran the game substantially better than others, I played the SNES version of the game which was fine however I have heard that the PC versions such as DOS and Commodore Amiga suffered from a lot of slowdown.

All in all Krustys Fun House is boring, it was a drag having to play through the entire thing and the whole experience was just plain, dull and not very exciting, it has decent controls and ok graphics but its lame game play and looped soundtrack does not help the game shine in the slightest.

3.8/10

Thank you for reading my review of Krusty’s Super Fun House

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Paper Mario Sticker Star Review (3DS)

January 24, 2013February 10, 2013 ragglefragglereviews4 Comments

I love the Paper Mario games with one exception the Wii version (Super Paper Mario) but I will talk about that game some other day. The Paper Mario games are great for many reasons, they are full of hilarious comedy, they have epic story lines and most importantly they are really fun to play. With me being a big fan of the series I couldn’t resist but to buy Sticker Star as soon as I possibly could

Story

The Story of Sticker Star is nothing of an epic tale which is a shame since other games in the series have had some really good story lines. The story line may not be epic but it’s not a terrible story line. The story is that the members of the mushroom kingdom are having their annual sticker festival which they have each year to celebrate to power of the royal stickers (five crown stickers which have the power to grant the wishes of the person who wears them). When presenting the royal stickers Bowser gets his claws on one of them and the rest get blown away to other locations in the game. Bowser’s wish comes true and he becomes a super shiny sticker, he then kidnap’s Princess Peach and Mario has to save her.

Game play

The Paper Mario we all know and love is back, that’s right we have gone back to turn based game play with a little twist. We have gone back to turn based game play which is great but now we fight using stickers instead of using partners who have different abilities and powers and this works really well surprisingly.

It’s not just fighting you need stickers for in some cases in the game you will need to use stickers to communicate with certain objects communicating with these objects will either give you a new item which you can turn into a big sticker or you will need to communicate with certain objects in the game in order to continue.

You do not level up in sticker star which is unusual for a Paper Mario game instead you need to find health upgrades throughout the game to increase your overall health, you can get your health to a Max of 100hp and I recommend that you find all of these health upgrades because when you get to the Final boss you may need that little bit of extra hp.

Finally I want to talk about a certain type of sticker called a blue door sticker. Throughout the game you will find doors on objects but you are not able to access them. You are not able to access these doors because you need to buy some blue door stickers to access them, once you place a blue door sticker over the door you can then open the door and go inside. Inside these doors can be anything from money, sticker/objects or health upgrades. You will need to access certain blue doors in the game in order to continue but you can find them yourself.

Apart from the story line the only other negative aspect to the game I can think of is that there are only 6 worlds and I can’t help but feel that there should be 8 worlds in the game.

Graphics

You’re going to want to crank that 3D right up for this game because the 3D really helps the game look amazing and it’s not the kind of 3D that hurts your eyes or makes you feel sick. The game looks amazing, it’s full of colour, the characters and environments are smooth and at times it really feels like there is a real paper world in your hands, the 3D is perfect it doesn’t make the game look any different and it actually enhances the experience. I won’t say this too often when talking about 3DS games but if you get Sticker Star I recommend playing in 3D throughout the entire game.

Music

My favourite Paper Mario soundtrack used to be from the thousand year door but now my favourite Paper Mario soundtrack is from Sticker Star. The music in this game is absolutely fantastic and so far some of the best I have heard on the 3DS. The music fits the characters and environments so well and just like the 3D it really enhances the experience. My favourite Piece of music is right at the end of the game before you go into Bowser’s Castle it is pretty much a rock and roll remix of the over world theme.

Final Verdict

If you like Paper Mario you will love sticker star and I highly recommend buying it. It looks and sounds amazing and finally turn based game play is back. Paper Mario Sticker Star is a hilarious adventure which can be loved by the whole family. The game may be amazing but there are a few issues I found with the game. The story line is basic and there are only 6 worlds in the game and for those reasons alone I am going to give Paper Mario Sticker Star a 8/10 the game had a few flaws but overall it is a very good 3DS title which is worth picking up.

Saturday Anime Review: Mega Man Starforce

November 17, 2012November 17, 2012 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

Yay Mega Man one of my favourite video game series of all time, it’s made by capcom and like most capcom videogames it kicks ass. We all know about the classic Mega Man series for the nes, The Mega Man X series for the snes, the Mega Legends series and so on but what about the Mega Man starforce video game series for the Nintendo DS did you even know this existed I sure didn’t until I watched the Anime which is based on the games and this a review of that anime and that anime is Mega Man Starforce. I have never played the games this is a review of the Anime in general.

Ok let’s first of all discuss a problem and that of course is the fact that in the UK and USA only season 1 of the show is available as the later seasons were only aired in Japan why you may ask? I have no idea it’s probably because some new stupid show came out and they needed a time space for it to be aired so they just said bye bye to Mega Man Starforce and Hello to Super Kitty Rainbow Fight or something.

With that off my chest let’s talk about the show in general

Meet Geo Stelar He is the main character of the show and he wants to become an astronaut so he can go into space and look for his father who went missing, Everyone thinks that he is dead but Geo is certain that his dad is still out there. Ever since his dad went missing geo hasn’t gone to school and is instead studying at home (Ok let’s skip ahead a few chapters here as I don’t want to ruin much of the story for anyone who wants to check out the show). One night Geo is sat outside using a special pair of glasses his father once wore called the visualizer which allows EM energy to be seen by the naked eye and while Geo uses the visualizer he sees what looks like to lights fighting but one of these lights starts coming towards Geo and Geo gets hit by this light.

Now Meet Omega-Xis

That light which hit Geo happened to be an Alien called Omega-Xis who has the power to channel EM energy. Geo meets Omega-Xis in his room, Omega-Xis explains who he is and his purpose on earth he also explains to Geo that he needs his help to defeat any of the bad aliens which will use the EM energy to merge with people who they can then control to their own advantages. Just like the other aliens Omega-Xis can merge with people using EM energy so Omega-Xis asks for Geo’s permission for them to merge energy cells so they can become one to defend earth (and for other reasons which I won’t say because like I said before I don’t want to ruin too much of the story). Geo agrees to let Omega-Xis merge with him because Omega-Xis knows stuff about Geo’s Father, when geo and Omega-Xis merge as one they become Mega Man and fight for earth’s safety begins.

If you’re a Mega Man fan go and watch this show because even though we can only watch the first season it’s a really awesome show, it has great story line, really shows the capabilities of an Anime based on a video game series and in general like I said before it kicks ass so go buy it you can get on Amazon pretty cheap and I will even leave you link providing you live in the UK as I am British.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mega-Man-Starforce-DVD/dp/B001B182S4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1353192631&sr=8-2

I hope you enjoyed this review Mega Man Starforce the Anime this review is of my own opinion

Thanks for Reading this Raggle Fraggle Review

This review was written by Dan