Mario Party 8

Genre: Minigame-Collection
Release: 2007
Platform: Wii
Graphics: Typical for the Wii, I say.

Story: Ahahahahah, story? Nope. Oh wait, there is one: a fair is in town, and you go play the minigames.

The minigames themselves are not that bad, the problem is that it takes too long to get to know them. You are playing the board-game-game-mode, roll the dice, your character moves on the next field, a minigame starts, a screen pops up, where there are some vague explanations on what to do now, but nevertheless you and your mates play one practice-round before starting the real thing, because you don't know what to do.

This takes a long time. But there is a plus: all of that is commented by a funny moderator-commentator-guy.

And by funny I mean "annoying as shit".

Also he is speaks slow. Very slow. Too slow. I hate him. I hate the rest of the game. Everything is slow. Even the animations. You roll the dice. For something that feels like 5 seconds or something. And the walking. It's just the same. They are all so slow and annoying and I hate everything.

Awesome Fact: Even if there is nothing awesome to say about this game, there is one fun fact: if you play the game as a drinking game it just gets funnier and funnier. And it works great as a drinking game, you can talk much during the rounds, since everything is so annoyingly slow as fuckfuck. :F

Rating: 4/10

Braid

Genre: Puzzle Jump'n'Run
Release: 2008 / 2009
Platform: Xbox Live Arcade / PC

Graphics: Breathtaking. Not because it is super-hyper-realistic, but because its very own art-style is implemented perfectly. The whole game looks like one big water color painting ("games are art" anyone?). It is just beautiful. It doesn't matter in which stage you are, they are all just that incredible.

Story: Story? In my 2D-Jump'n'Run? It's more likely than you think! Well okay, for real now: at first sight the story sounds bland. Well, there isn't even that much of a story. You are just a guy searching for his princess. Yes, it is exactly the Mario-story. The game features some more references to the Super Brother, quotes like "Your princess is in another castle!" and also little brown dudes which die if you jump on their heads. So one would suggest this is a direct clone. No big surprise: it is not.

If you look just a little bit deeper into the story itself you get to experience one of the most well-thought-out stories you are ever live to see in a game. It has so many layers and hints and indirectnesses in itself, there are so many forum-users out there discussing what it all was about, it isn't even funny anymore.

So for now we covered that the game is not a Luigi's Brothers copy, at least not storywise. Gameplaywise? HELL IT'S NOT!

The gameplay is more like the one from recent Prince of Persia games. The ones where you can turn back time. Difference: You can do it all the time in Braid. For how long you want.

And there, you have it.

Beautiful graphics + deep story + 2D + Jump'n'Run + Time-Puzzles = one of the best games ever made. Something I will make my children play before allowing them to even touch anything else :F

And my grandchildren.

Oh, and their children also.

One of the only downers of this game is the fact that it has not that much replay value. Once you figured all the puzzles out, you are not all like "Oh my god this was so good i gotta play it again". There is a challenge in this game for speedruns, which are not really appealing to everyone, but hey, it's something.

Awesome Fact: Okay, i lied about the replay-value. Here is why: You thought the goal of the game was to collect all jigsaw pieces? You fell for it! There are seven stars hidden somewhere in the game. Wait, you don't believe me? Why? Because you never ever saw something looking even remotely like a star? Guess what: you have to think harder. Most of the later puzzles in the game need all of your brain-activity to be not only solved by chance, but because you knew how to solve them. To find the stars, hell, even just to SEE them, but not yet reach em you have to think so hard out of the box your mind will need a break of working for the next few weeks. I shit you not, the riddles to find these darn 5pointed, glowing little dickheads are so unbelievable hard.

The worst (and by worst, i mean "AWESOMELY BEST") part about it: the puzzles are fair. No illogical bullshit like some Point&Click adventures force you to do, all you need to do is think. And think some more. And then think where you can trick the game and its mechanics. And then again think some more. And then you may get a clue where a star may be hidden. But you don't know. Because you didn't think enough.

Oh and guess what, the ending you saw the first time you played through the game?

Yeah, that was not the real ending.

You get the real ending after you collected all the 7 stars.

But the game won't tell you that.

Man I love this game for the time I spent in it.

And the times it just fucked my brain harder than anything else.

RATING: 10/10

Mirror's Edge

Genre: Platformer
Release: 2008 / 2009
Platform: PS3; Xbox360 / PC
Graphics: Nothing amazing to see here, it wasn't ugly, it was nicely done. It had an interesting style to itself, since the whole game was set in an futuristic-dystopian-ultra-clean city, where nearly everything was glowing with white. Except points of interest, which were very colorful.
Story: You are Faith, a runner. Runners are, to put it simple, couriers. Except they don't use stuff like bikes or something, but rather rooftops and elevator shafts. Also, they are very artistic. And can survive huge leaps. And don't get hurt by splints of glass. Oh, and you can also take a good amount of lead before you die. Whatever. What matters most is the fact, that you are very artistic, since the game is a platformer. Okay, now for the story: I don't recall how the whole thing started, but it had something to do with Faith's sister being in trouble, you go searching and discover some kind of conspiracy to shut this whole "runner"-thing (which is AGAINST THE LAW!) down. And that's pretty much it.
But Mirror's Edge is again one of those games, where the story really doesn't matter. The important thing here is the gameplay, which is just pure awesomeness. At the beginning, when you are not yet firm with the controls the game feels clumsy because Faith just won't do what you tell her to do. But the longer you play, the better it gets, to the point where you replay levels just because you think "aw come on man i can do that faster AND cooler". It's quite addicting, at least it was for me.
Awesome Fact: Not so long after it's release there was a free DLC released, which added some time-trial-levels. Which were quite awesome.
Fun Fact: Although the runners are always described as couriers throughout the game you never ever have to deliver anything.

RATING: 8/10

Quick Question

As you may have noticed, i changed the design of the blog. Problem is: I can't really decide if it was for the better.
I myself have no problem reading stuff, but what do you guys think? Is it still okay to read? Or is the half-transparancy annoying?

Secret of Evermore

Genre: Action RPG
Release: 1995
Platform: SNES
Graphics: Classic 16bit-era style. Nice sprites, good animations, all put kindly together.
Story: You are a boy, who has a dog. Your dog finds an abandoned laboratory, you follow him. You activate some kind of machine by accident, which teleports you into the dimension or into the land of Evermore. From there you begin searching for a way home, the dog always by your side as your trusty and battle tested sidekick. The adventure begins on some kind of futuristic space-platform, but that surrounding only lasts for the first few minutes, afterwards you are dropped down to earth, where you find yourself trying to blaze a trail through some kind of jungle. Seems like you're stuck in some kind of prehistoric era now. Later in the game you travel through different realms, involving an egyptian landscape and some crazy kind of kingdom.
Battles are similar to nearly every "Secret of ..." games, classic realtime. Secret of Evermore also features the well know ring-menu.
Awesome Fact: Depending on which realm you are in at the moment, your dog changes it's appearance. You start with some kind of wild beast during the prehistoric times, and end the game with a floating, laser shooting toaster dog. AWESOME.

RATING: 8/10
 

Chrono Trigger

Genre: RPG
Release: 1995 / 2008
Platform: SNES / NDS
Graphics: Mh, I guess the graphics are okay. I can't put a finger on something outstanding, but i also can't remember thinking anything bad about the lovely sprites. Also, Akira Toriyama.
Story: Now this is were the game gets awesome. You wake up, go to a town, meet a princess, visit the local fair, she gets sucked into some kind of time vortex and suddenly SHIT HITS THE FAN. You are traveling all around time, from prehistoric dinosaur-times to futuristic everything-is-a-big-wasteland-times. Why? To save the princess. But later on you do it to save all mankind, since you get to know that there is a big cosmic energysucker kind of thing living on the earth. It's huge, it's powerful and all it wanna do is collect earth's energy and move on. Fucking parasite. During your timetravels and landtravels you meet new partymembers, you can do some sidequests, find awesome equipment, the usual stuff you would anticipate from a good old 16bit-rpg (glorious days!).
Battle-style is kinda like Final Fantasy. In fact, it is exactly like Final Fantasy 6, if my memory isn't wrong. For those who don't know what I'm talking about: turnbased with a twist.
Awesome Fact: The SNES-Version featured like ... 9 (i don't know exactly, sorry for that :( ) endings, depending on what you did in the game, and how you get to the last boss.
The NDS-Version featured two more. Awesome I say.

RATING: 8/10