gensoSuikoden by Konami


gensoSuikoden is an RPG game developed by Konami, inspired by the original tale of the 108 heroes in the Chinese history. It is a very narrative game, with very deep emphasis on the story development. Gameplay wise, it is considered to be an easy game to complete with average hours between 20-30. What makes this game very interesting is how it has been developed up to 7 series at the moment, with story line that connects to each other. It is also interesting to see different style being adopted by Konami and platform which has improved from Playstation to PS2 to PSP to NDS and now to PS3. This game is all about narrative and development, whether it is in-game or the physical improvement in itself.

One important thing that I find in game-making from this game is narrative. gensoSuikoden may not provide players with the challenge of defeating super-ultra difficult lv.999999 monsters or secret bosses, but it depends on the story line. Adopting one of the most favored plot of war, this game interestingly adapts to the main theme but at the same time, branches out into highlighting social, economical and political issues, which can be reflected today. In terms of narrativity, this game seems to excel.

Another interesting factor is the idea of recruiting 108 characters, which up to 60% are useable in battlefields. It is challenging, at least for me, to gather the characters and to see how each develops as the game progresses. Again, Konami inputs the narrative factor into each characters, as if they are creating a history by itself.

One weakness which players often find in this series is the rather inconsistent difficulties in the game. Up to date, the 4th series of the game has received more thumbs down as it has the shortest gameplay of average 15hours but the richest narrative. In contrast, the 5th installment has the longest gameplay of average 35hours but among the simplest story. I find that when a title has a huge fan base, it is important to maintain the consistency of the gameplay. Unlike any single titled games, a continuous game like this have a bigger responsibility to deal with.

In conclusion, narrative is indeed an important factor a game, esp RPG, since the genre itself says so.

kelvin

Pixel Pop

Website: http://www.nitrome.com/games/pixelpop/
Developer: Nitrome
Genre: Casual, Rhythm game
Platform: PC, Mac

Pixel pop is a point and click, rhythm-based game, illustrated in pixel art. They uses bright colours and retro soundtrack theme which remind me of games in the 80s. There are 4 stages + 1 ( combine of the previous 4 stages) of mini game in each of the 3 levels.

How to play?
The rules are simple, just click and follow the beat, the instruction and the short story is given at the start of the game, which I always fail to reads and prefer to explore the game play myself which is also quite easy. Later in the game, it gets more challenging as you point and click, double click or press and release the mouse while trying to follow the beat.

Gameplay

Like any rhythm-based game, the initial play is always not easy, as you are new to the beat, following the beat is hard. Later when I go more into the game, I realize that without the sound i can still rely on the visual to play, which I felt it failed the purpose as a rhythm game, perhaps the sound track is to accompany the visual to make the game more interesting.

Why am I attracted to it?

Visual
The animation is funny and the use of bright colours make it a good cheerful causal game.

Audio
The sound track used in Pixel Pop started off with an easy and catchy rhythm until the middle part, a change in the beat kinda screw up the rhythmic pattern I had in mind but I guess its this kind of challenge that keeps me playing. And everytimes when you hit the beat, the character give out a funny squeak which I find it abit entertaining.

Overall
This is still a good causal game to play when you are too bored or feeling down haha

Screenshot

Name: Heart of Darkness
Platform: Playstation
Year Released: 1998

Storyline
You control Andy, an average child with a penchant for inventions and who is terrified of the dark. One day Andy, and his beloved dog Whiskey, are in the park when a solar eclipse occurs and Whiskey is taken away by an unseen creature. Andy must now travel to the Darklands, fight various shadows and creatures through many levels and get his dog back.



Gameplay
Heart Of Darkness is a cinematic platformer with a linear storyline. You can make Andy run, jump, or climb objects to progress through each level. He can attack or defend by either using his plasma cannon, or by throwing magic energy, depending on which level you're on. As there is no healthbar, a single mistake would result in his death and you having to start from a previous checkpoint that, fortunately, isn't too far behind. To take some of the pressure off, Andy has an unlimited number of lives, so you don't have to worry about dying repeatedly... which i think is a fantastic feature considering the fact that you die so easily. The levels are varied and flow seamlessly into each other with the aid of cutscenes.



Pros
Very interesting storyline! Seriously, even though it's not exactly new, the way they integrated the gameplay into it makes it still fresh. I like the fact that you're not only supposed to just mindlessly run and bash your way through monsters, but you can swim, scale up walls and other actions so it doesn't become monotonous. The monsters are varied and creative, as are Andy's ways of dying. I found myself occasionally "committing suicide" just to see what it would look like.



Cons
The game is way too short!! And there is no lifebar, so every mistake results in death. While the colours are vivid and nice, the graphics fall below standard, especially considering the fact that this game took 6 years to make. However, all in all, this was a good game and I would totally play it all over again. And below is an example of all the verrrrrry creative ways in which you can die:

Wahhhhhh... Who has been changing the blog template?? So hardworking! Nice nice... :D

It's crunch time now!

Okay anyway! I'm gonna do a review on Solitaire Showdown. What? It's a simple game with simple rules? Yeahhh that's why it's one of the best games ever?! I used to play this back in poly whenever I didn't wanna do work, hurhur. Anyway I'm pretty sure most of you have tried playing it on a pc-based live msn messenger.

As I'm using a mac now, I cannot play this game anymore unfortunately :( So all images in this post are taken online.

So... Solitaire Showdown! What's up with this game?

Wokays... so basically SS (short for Solitaire Showdown) is an online game.

It is played on msn live messenger.

It has to be played with another msn user.

The game is simple - everyone has played Solitaire before right?

This is just an extended version of it.

What do you need to do in this game?

1) While competing with another msn chat user and following the standard Solitaire rules**, a player needs to fight with time also to complete his/her stack of cards.

** Standard rules of Solitaire ** - Firstly, you need to arrange a random stack of cards in a manner that the colours are stacked alternately (black red black red) with addition that the cards are arranged in descending order (King, Queen, Jack, 10s,........ Aces).

Finally, you need to rearrange all these into an ascending order of 4 piles of the same symbols - Spades, Diamonds, Hearts & Clubs. Once you've stacked all the cards into these 4 symbols, you've completed the game.

2) However, in SS, the 4 symbol-piles that you need to arrange them in are shared between you and your competitor.

3) Therefore it is a race against time to see who can fill up the next spot faster, which clears your pile of cards faster as well.

4) Once that spot is filled by a player, the other player will not have the chance to put the same card there. He/she will need to find another slot to place their card.

5) Both players are able to view each others' cards from an overhead point of view.

6) In one corner, there is stack of cards that holds 13 random cards.

7) The objective is to clear that stack of cards.

8) The first to finish their stack of cards wins!

ADDICTION?

HMMMMMM okay personally I think this game is freaking addictive.

Maybe I didn't have any life back then.

But I would kill to get to play Solitaire Showdown on a mac's live messenger, I'M SERIOUS.

In fact, I would pay for them to integrate this!!!!!!!

What factors contribute to this game being addictive?

1) Playability & Interaction - This game invites you to compete with other players and it's not only other people, it's people who you know which are on msn. The interaction in the game is compelling as you and the other player race against time and compete with each others' skills to finish your stack of cards faster.

2) Simple Concept & Familiarity - As Solitaire has been played by mostly everyone, this game introduces only a few new elements and rules which add on to the complexity of the game. Not too much though. Just nice!

3) Competition - As you are competing with a fellow chat mate, topping the charts become quite a priority as the statistics are public and everyone is able to check out who is the king/queen of SS. (ehem ME)

Bad points of SS??

The only bad point I can find is that - THERE'S NO SOLITAIRE SHOWDOWN FOR MAC MESSENGER?! WHY WHY WHY?!?!?!??!

Oh, and that it's highly addictive once you get the hang of the game.

But I'm sure that's a good thing right.

Easy? Medium? Hard?

I'd say it's fairly easy.

Solitaire is a very familiar game to everyone.

Solitaire Showdown has added elements to make the game more interesting.

Elements like:

The time factor that has a new twist: instead of timing how fast you complete your own stack, the clock now is your competitor.

The final piles that are shared between you and your competitor, therefore allowing interaction.

So that's it!

I believe people who have played it before would think that it's a very fun game!

PURE (Sarah Ab Kadir)

STEP ASIDE TRAVIS PASTRANA.
Time for me to bewilder you with my awesome aerial stunts that I can accomplish with my freakking virtual fantasy.

 

So judging from the cover, you get the whole idea already. The only thing fucking up the whole game is seeing the Disney trademark on the bottom right corner of the cover. Or else it would've still been cool. Thing is, you gotta play this game with cool songs in the background like music from Limp Bizkit, Puddle of Mudd, Nirvana, Ramones, Saliva, Korn etc etc etc, you get my drift.

So what is this game about?

So basically, this game is about being extremely cool. Extending my theory, I'd say, Pure is an arcade off-road racing game with an incredible graphics engine that takes ATV races to another level by exaggerating the natural human limits. The lighting effects are top of the line, along with other visual details such as moving grass, smoking exhaust pipes, and deformable track surfaces. Yeah, you heard me, the terrain surface is fully deformable, but only visually. The whole picture suits with Motorstorm graphics, but here the developers emphasized a lot on the detailed aspect of every track. With every graphical option set at its highest scale, you can see clouds of dust behind the opponents, cameras flashes, birds flying, water and mud that splashes. Yes, you can admire the birds flying because most of the time you will perform extremely high jumps that forces you to perform insane tricks. Hehe. Every landing is followed by another extreme jump influenced by your speed and by how much can you flex the suspension in order to take off as high as possible. 

Every completed jump trick will increase the turbo meter which unlocks new series of tricks which increases the turbo meter much more. Each races starts only with level 1 tricks available. Perform enough tricks and you will gain access to level 2 tricks, and then to level 3 tricks. Level 3 tricks are followed by special level tricks which demand higher jumps to be performed. Every trick has four directional axes in which the movement can be performed. By combining the axes you get improved tricks for each level, but they tend to be hard to be performed from the keyboard due to long button sequences that can sum up to 5 pushed buttons in a single trick. The game was definitely not meant for the PC from this point of view, but if you use the basic tricks including the ones from level 3, you will earn enough boost to win the race.

After 20 races you will get sick of the same tracks, although everyone is an eye-candy opera. Following the classical arcade approach, every track features short-cuts and short secondary routes, but no track features an extremely high complexity. A couple of laps are enough to familiarize yourself with every aspect of any of the tracks and to exploit it at the maximum.

 

What makes the game so compelling?

Errr... okay well I guess it's quite compelling/fun cause you get to choose whether you wanna be a male or female competitor. Just to prove that 'X games' like these can be played by females as well so stop being chauvanistic! The character is already preset with a few options, all dressed(all looking cool so dont worry if you think they look ugly or anything). You get to build your ATV's from scratch though. That's pretty cool cause you get to customize your drive and then screenshot it and show it to your cyber girlfriend when she comes online.

Is it hard?

I wouldn't exactly say its hard. Like I said previously, you'll probably get sick of the rounds by the 20th race, because you'll get familiar with the race-tracks and you'd know where to drift, how to jump whether to boost or not at certain levels or anything. Pretty much similar to Burnout.

Try not to fucking scan your eyes to the bottom left hand corner of the cover as well. Totally don't agree with it cause my 3 year old cousins EAT THE CONTROLLER. They don't use it and play the game, they simply attempt to devour the xbox controllers. So yeah, PURE is somewhat similar to Burnout, just that it's a different type of vehicle altogether.

Limitations?

Ok once again, the title of the game does not describe the game at all. And I think that is a very important aspect to a game. You need to know what exactly the game is about just by reading the title of the game. Clearly there is no meaning to it so potential buyers will most likely just breeze through the racks and overlook this game. That is possibly the reason why this game was given as a free game when you purchase an XboxElite console. Other than that, I've only began playing this game so I can't find major setbacks about this game just yet.

In a wrap?

This game comes free by purchasing the XboxElite package. So that's kind of the only reason why I played the game. Other than that, I really don't think I would've given this game a chance considering I already have a game like Burnout(Extreme) to wreck my anger out on. Though the graphics are superb and you will feel really cool, I'd give this game two popcorns.

Developer: Level-5
Platform: NDS
Year: 2009

Summary:
Solve the mystery of the legendary Elysian box which is rumored to have killed its past owners with Professor Layton and his apprentice Luke.
What is it?:
This is the second game from the Professor Layton adventure and puzzle series. Player have to solve various puzzles and explore different areas to aid the professor in his quest to solve the mystery behind the Elysian box. Each puzzle is worth a certain amount of "picarats", the resource of the game. Collecting the picarats helps unlock special features in the game such as character profiles, story art, etc. If the player solve the puzzle wrongly, the value of the picarats earned will drop. Fortunately there're three hints for each puzzle. Unfortunately, you have to spend a hint coin for each hint which is not easy to collect. These hint coins are hidden throughout the game or they can be earned sometimes through certain tasks. Puzzles can be revisited once again even if they are solved successfully accessed from one of the tabs at the game's menu. There are also some mini-games to be played located in the game.

Is it hard?:
The game is actually quite straight forward. You just need to go to one point to get to another. The only problems are the puzzles to solve to get there. I face the biggest challenge (or temptation) of not going online and looking up for the answers to the puzzles. Because of the variation of the puzzles, you really have to use your head to solve the puzzles. There's a total of 138 puzzles to be solved in the gameplay but there are also additional puzzles that can be unlocked. So I have to say that the difficulty varies from person to person. Some of the puzzles are easy but some can be... difficult.

(A simple puzzle could look like this)

(Slightly challenging...)

Artwork:
I actually like the artwork of the game for it's simple and clean graphics. It gives a nice feel to the game especially the cut scenes. It makes the story of the game more interesting.

(Character design)

Audio:
The background music can get actually quite repetitive at times but it's not all bad. Voice dub is decent but it cannot beat the original Japanese voices. I quite actually like the voice of professor Layton though.

Is it fun?:
Only if you like puzzles.

The trailer to the upcoming movie: (with subtitles)

Game: Skywire 2
link: http://www.miniclip.com/games/skywire-2/en/

Objective of the game:
Take control of the cable car and get the passengers to their destination safely (ferry them from 1 point to another point)

What is it?
Player has to ferry the 3 little cute characters(represent 3 lives) safely to the destination point. The journey is full of animated obstacles which the player has to avoid them skillfully by controlling the cable car with ONLY 2 KEYS(UP AND DOWN). If the cable car touches the obstacles, then 1 life will be lost(1 character fell off the cable car). A maximun of 3 lives is given in each level.If the player loses all the 3 lives then it will be game over for the player. In this skywire 2, player can choose to play 1 player option or 2 player option whereby one can pit their fingers skills with their peers.

















Simple controls
UP and Down keys OR W and S keys.















Many many levels to complete.HEHEHEHE. Many obstacles to avoid wor.















Starting point : the 3 cute characters hopping in the cable and you are ready to GO!!!
















Calculation of scores player gain after each level.
















Cute animated animals obstacles READY to bump your characters OFF!!!






















Game over: when player loses all 3lives. Player has to restart the level.




What i like about this game?

Simple
Simple objective of the game makes the game play simple and direct. Just 2 keys is needed to control the cable car (UP and DOWN) -> makes the game easy to play and control.


Illustrations and animated
The illustrations are colorful and imaginative in this game, giving it a fantasy world feel to it.
Cutely animated assets are adding value to this game. The obstacles are animated in such a way that they are alive (they look like objects in a carnival to me)


Levels
Each level getting harder and harder to complete as the game proceeds. Player has to avoid the moving obstacles at the right timing. In this game, player has to practise hand and eye coordination.


Audio
A background music is placed in this game. The music is simple,soothing and cute (which is suitable for this game's look and feel). I like the music a lot personally.

One Button Bob

Website: http://www.ninjadoodle.com/one-button-bob/
Developer: Tom "Ninjadoodle" Vencel
Platform: Flash

As games become more complex in their graphics, controls and gameplay, indie game developers seem to go the other way, making games that are often minimalistic. Like VVVVVV, One Button Bob takes one gameplay mechanic and explores it in many ways. You control Bob through a series of trials with only your left mouse button.

The concept of a single button control is interesting. With the same button, you control how far you leap; you attack enemies with your boomerang; you pause in your tracks to evade falling spikes; you move forward with each click. The button's behavior changes with different types of stages and in learning to identify them, you'll know how to win them. While there are only 7 (I think) kinds of stages, they get progressively more difficult. For example in the early stage, you only have to leap over a narrow chasm. A later stage requires you to time your jumps and control how far you jump, as the platform you're standing on disappears in a few seconds.

The good news is when you die, you simple start over in the same stage. And the bad? It's a little unfair how some stages spring obstacles right in front of you as you're near the end. Despite that, it's a pretty easy game and anyone can finish it in a few minutes. The most challenging part of the game is the final boss stage where you change your direction with a mouse click. The trick is to anticipate the falling bombs and get close to the boss so you could deal some damage. Still, the levels are too short and lack some sort of a challenge to be satisfying and it's a pity because it seems that the single-click gameplay mechanic has not been explored to its full potential.

The pixel artwork is lovely and the gameplay is more innovative than many Flash games on the internet. So never mind its flaws, One Button Bob is still a great way of spending five minutes of your time.


-- Benjamin

Developer: iNiS

Platform: Nintendo DS

Release: 2005

Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan is a rhythm game that is as quirky as its name sounds. The whole game revolves around the idea of playing as a male cheerleading squad and helping out  the troubled citizens all over the world.

The levels in game, presented in the form of scenarios encountered by the squad, mostly consist of very mundane issues that people faced in their everyday lives. What makes them interesting is the twist of plots that were added which transformed them into scenarios that are overly dramatic and out of this world. Each accompanied by a song, the scenarios are shown in the form of animated comics and work pretty much like music videos. Each level is split into 3 segments and depending on how well you scored, you are presented with either a good transition of plot to the next segment or a bad one. The transitions also act as an intermission, allowing the player to get a break from the fast moving pace of the game and enjoy the sequence of moving pictures. 

The objective of the levels is to simply survive through the song. A Genki meter is used to keep track of your performance in the level and will be constantly depleting throughout the song. In order to replenish the meter to keep the game playing, you are required to touch a series of markers in succession to chain up combos. The chain of combos will in turn keep up the momentum of the cheerleading squad. Once a marker is missed, the momentum will halt immediately and the Genki meter will be depleting at a faster rate until you chained up a combo again.

The control is simple. You simply need to touch the markers that appear on screen at the right timing with the stylus. There are 3 different kinds of marker in the game and depending on how precise you are with the timing, they will award you with different amount of points. The most common type of marker are denoted with numbers to cue the order in which they have to be touched and are presented in sets marked by different colours.  Another type of marker requires you to follow and glide your stylus along its path while the last type requires you to move your stylus in a circular motion around the screen rapidly.

The game paces pretty well. The levels are represented by citizens in need scattered throughout the game world map. You start with only one level and as the game progresses, a group of harder levels will be made available to the player. Except for the first and final level, the player gets to choose the order they play out the levels which prevents the game from being totally linear. There are four difficulties in this game. The easier two are made available straight from the box while the next two are only unlocked once you completed the game in the previous difficulty level.

Replayability in this game is very high. This is partly due to the fact that the whole game is made up of a bunch of levels consisting of only songs and scenarios. As every level can be played out very quickly, the chances of them getting replayed are higher. The ranking system in the game also encourages the player to replay the levels to get a better score and rewards them with a new rank. Gamers who want a challenge will also be tempted to unlock the two other difficulties. The multiplayer portion of the game allowing both competitive and cooperative play with a friend also increases the longevity of the game. One other motivation to replay the levels is the good soundtrack. You will be found replaying certain levels more than others simply because you like those particular songs.

The visuals in the game are fantastic. The scenarios in the game are all presented in high quality hand drawn manga style drawings. Figures in the game are also adequately modeled with good details and textures. The personality of each members of the cheerleading squad is brought out really well by the animations. Other visual cues such as the growing flames behind the characters to denote the momentum are crucial and eye catching. The soundtrack of the game is also fantastic although they are slightly low in quality and are undermined by the tiny speakers of the DS. This game is best played with a stereo system or a pair of headphones plugged into the DS.

Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan is a fantastic game that all rhythm game fans must try. It is a very enjoyable experience and is a game that most gamers will most probably go back to once in a while.

Ratings: 9.5/10

Weiwen

Warbears
www.warbears.com

This game is a 2D puzzle game where the player controls a squad of crime-fighting bears, called the Warbears. Each warbear has its own unique ability and in order to win, the player has to use them in the right order.

The story starts off with the scene of the crime. The Warbears have just arrived at a house where hostages are held captive. The Warbears have to find a way into the house without alarming the crooks, kill them, and save the day.

Controls are simple. You control one Warbear at a time. This is strictly a game controlled with just the mouse. By clicking on the Warbear, the current actions pop up and the player has to select one. The Warbear will then perform that action, triggering some other event to happen. Players have 3 Warbears to control at the start of the game, while a fourth one will appear mid-game.

Gameplay is interesting and fun; sometimes, players have to find novel ways to solve the puzzles presented, in others, the solution to the problem is a logical one. For instance, a grenade that is thrown up the roof will get sucked into an air-vent if the fan is still switched on, causing the grenade to fall to the top floor and detonate, killing the hostages and losing the game. The solution? Switch off the fan, and the grenade no longer gets sucked into the air-vent.

Art style is cute and funny, with the Warbears looking fuzzy and all deserving of a hug. The enemies (also bears) look rather dim-witted and are of the same sprite. The Warbears, however, have their own individual sprite, each looking according to his role. For instance, The Warbear which is in charge of the technology (GPS unit, mainframe hacking) has the stereotypical glasses and is quite dorky looking, the one who engages in melee combat looks like a ninja, etc. The art is simple: the sprites are clean and neat-looking, but it works very well in this game. I wouldn't want to see how the entire game would be ruined if he had used some other art style.

What I like about this game is how the game designer incorporates other genres of games into this game. For instance, to hack into the building's computer mainframe, the user has to successfully memorise colour codes played in sequence, very much like that of the colour memory game Mr Simon. Toward the end of the game, when the Warbears have saved the hostages but the crime lord escaping, the Warbears engage in a hilarious race scene. The player has to press the motorcycle throttle and when the Warbears are in position and ready to fire their rifle at the enemy, a target will appear and the player has to shoot the bullseye of the target in order for the Warbear to hit the enemy.





What is frustrating for this game, however, is the lack of a 'back one action' button. When the player has done something wrong, he has to restart the entire level, going through the entire actions again. This is really bad especially when you're almost at the end of the game. It would have been better if the game auto saves after every action and the user has the option to go back one action if he does something wrong. This saves time prevents frustrating resets. The entire game took about 30 minutes to complete, but I probably spent almost an hour on this game considering the resets I have to endure.

However, this game is overall really interesting, I love it. In fact, I went to visit his website for the other warbear series and played it immediately after I finished this one. Gameplay remains the same with the other games, except that the Warbears are in a different situation.



Rating 8/10

Plot

Contra is a 1 or 2 player game that is basically a side scroll game. It revolves around the adventure of 2 military commandos named Bill and Lance , who are sent on a mission to neutralize a terrorist organization called Red Falcon that is secretly planning to take over the Earth. Details of the game's setting varies between supplementary materials: the Japanese versions establishes the game's setting to be a fictional Oceania archipelago of Galuga in the futuristic year of 2633, whereas the manual for the American NES version sets the game during the present in an unnamed South American island. The American storyline also changes the identity of "Red Falcon" from being the name of a terrorist organization to the name of an alien entity.

Gameplay

The main character is equipped with a rifle with an unlimited amount of ammunition. The player can also jump, move and fire in eight directions, as well as move or jump simultaneously while firing. A single hit from any enemy, bullet, or other hazard will instantly kill the player character, and also discard the current weapon from the player's disposal. There are a total of four weapons the player can retrieve from flying weapon capsules or pill-box sensors: a Machine Gun, a Laser Gun, a Fire Gun, and a Spread Gun. There also two additional supplemental power-ups: a Rapid Fire power-up which increases the player's firing speed, as well as a Barrier that will grant the player temporary invincibility for a few seconds. All the power-ups in the arcade version are represented by Eagle-shaped letter icons with the exception of the Machine Gun and Laser.

 

Thoughts

This is the very essence of nostalgia for me next to Mario. It relives those childhood days where I would play it in my cousin's house nearly everyday wanting to beat our best score and proceed to the very next level. It was a very nice experience whereby gaming brought us close together as cousins. 

Graphics

The graphics are very reminiscent of the good old days that makes u in awe of how good it looked back then. Of course incomparable to today's graphic nature, Contra's graphics was enough to make you sit in front of the tv for countless hours. 

Though they looked like crap, they sure did kick some ass! And i ll surely kick yours at this game. Try me.