Retrogamer: Luigi's mansion

 

Today we talk about one of my favourite games in the world  Luigi's mansion. But before that happy Halloween everyone. This game was actually quite a risk for Nintendo as it starred Luigi who is Mario's brother and not exactly as popular as his brother.

Luigi's mansion is about Luigi getting a mansion, haunted by ghosts! Well the game starts with Luigi getting a note saying "you've won a free mansion" because that isn't suspicious at all. He enters the creepiest mansion in the history of the world. He walks into a room until you are attacked by some evil ghosts. Then he saved by a mysterious old man with glasses and hoover on his back. The old man is named professor E.Gad and he has been dealing with the ghosts, sort of! He says he saw Mario enter and that the ghosts were all trapped in paintings. So he asks you to help as he is well old and rather useless so you enter the mansion.
Now you go through the area you start off in is just a few dark rooms where you must clear out all the ghosts. Then you fight a few boss ghosts a Mom and a Dad but then you meet the darling little satanic demon possessed child who sends you in to another dimension and tries to kill you. Upon doing this you receive a key for the next area. Now most of the game is just this rinse and repeat formula for a while but manages to keep it interesting by showing that Mario has been imprisoned in a painting by King Boo who Luigi in all his stupidity has just released.
As you go through the game you have to capture all the Boos which is pretty damn hard as they have hundreds of hit points and keep running back in to the same damn room over and over! So you slowly learn more and more about what happened to Mario and get elemental medals that give you the powers of fire, water and ice to defeat ghosts. Now the final boss is Bowser as in a Bowser created by King Boo which shoots fire and bombs at you. Once you've defeated the boss you get a score based on the amount of money you've obtained and get a corresponding mansion. But the game is not over then you get the "Hidden Mansion" which is a harder and inverses the game. It is brutal there are only small amounts of hearts and harder bosses.
This game is amazing no matter how many times I play this game it never gets boring it has an interesting and unique look. You would think that the constant ghost fighting would get boring but each boss has unique look and an interesting fight as there are specific ways of taking each boss down. One the great things in the game is the gameboy horror which allows you to examine the ghosts and find weaknesses and the fact that Luigi can call out for Mario when pressing the A button which shows the fear in his voice. The game does gave really annoying problem, the boos! They don't co-operate as they constantly leave a room and go back repeatedly and it slowly drives you to pure insanity. 
Now this game is one the best things Nintendo has produced in my opinion in spite of a few minor flaws it gets a solid 10/10 I would recommend getting this game as it both fun and creepy.
  

 

digital d23 plays..........Dishonored

Hello and welcome to digital d23 plays and in this series we look at games I have been playing recently and see how good they are. These games will not just be recent but anything I have playing.
Anyway onto Dishonored I promise no spoilers except for the premise. The game is centred around Corvo the bodyguard of Emily the Empresses daughter after the Empress is assassinated by the lord regent Emily is kidnapped then Corvo is framed and sent to jail where he makes an escape with the help of some loyalists. When you meet the loyalists you receive both the famed mask above and the power of magic and with these tools you must rescue Emily and overthrow the lord Regent.
 The game mechanics in this are great as they give you the choice of sneaking around and not getting into fights or leave a trail of blood as you walk. The stealth mechanics in this game are some of my favourite as they are simple to learn but hard to master really it is all about timing and learning the guards patterns and striking now the game gives you two options when silently taking down guards non-lethal chokes and fatal stabs. The main problem with going around leaving a trail of blood is the chaos ranking the lower the chaos the better the outcome of the game while the higher the darker the ending. One of the mechanics in the game is magic such as blink, x-ray vision and swarm of rats. The only problem with this is that well it takes away from the stealth system.
One of the game's major strengths is the amount of lore and backstory put into the game such as letters, what characters say, books and of course audio clips. The game is great because of the little bits they've added in as well as the variety of ways to complete a mission. But the game does have some issues such as length if you were to skip everything and just rush through the game you could easily complete it in less than a day.
I would highly recommend getting this game to anyone who like any of the deus ex games or those who love stealth games.

I'm so very sorry please forgive me

 

I will keep this review brief as if I don't I will end up yelling profanities non-stop forever. The cover is just awful the art is just terrible, I mean look at martian manhunter's chest he has muscles on his muscles. The colours are all dark and bland. The cover tells us nothing and the flash and random bra woman 

don't help as it is just a mish mash of boring colours and bad art.

We open with Martian Manhunter having a stroke as one side of his face is swollen and dropping to one side. He is breaking into a Ware house through a window on the roof with guards outside. We see that the crates are filled with guns and teddy bears (that is a bad way to ship illegal firearms as they would probably check the teddies for drugs and find the guns.). In the warehouse the guards attack him (which begs the question of why he didn't disguise himself as one of them and sneak in.) and the warehouse has enough space for an all-terrain vehicle to fit in and not be noticed and has a magically appearing window that couldn't possibly have been there before where a man is holding a woman hostage. So we the martian manhunter again and the interior of the warehouse is now outside and no he did not move I checked this! So he flies up and finds the people held hostage but the kidnapper forces them to act like nothing has happened.

When he leaves we see fists emerge from the wall making me think robocop will appear which would give this 10/5 score but alas it is just the martian manhunter who I will now refer to as "John Stallone"   he explains in his most brooding face he was using x-ray vision to see him. Next we see a man demonstrating to a war lord a weapon by vaporising a large chunk of farmland (which would damage the country's economy as well as their food supply, genius) the dictator(stand in for Castro).

Now we're the pentagon with somebody who works for the government (that is all we're told) being ask to run a task force based on jutice league members and if he doesn't run this secret club it will go on his record and make him look bad in front of the president.

 There are three things wrong with this 1. If he is a congress member then who cares he is elected by the people not the president if he's not he can't be fired for declining an offer 2. He has no military training why in god's name would not give it to a general or someone who has experience with spec-ops 3. What if he threatens to tell the world about this considering you threatened him then your plan is doomed as people will look into this. Anyway he accepts and looks for  John Stallone who just flies into his apartment without even trying to conceal his identity no wonder they know who he is and he is recruited.

We cut JLE successfully defeating a villain and then Flash and Aquaman are recruited the end.

This is terrible the art is loathsome the plot is beyond stupid and the characters are whiny petulant children especially Stallone I decided not to go into that as I don't know twenty different ways to say "crap" this gets -5/5 from me which I can give because I'm me but if you want to see it for yourself go onto comixology.com because it is free! Too much if you ask me.

Fun 2 play

Recently with the growth of the free to play market I thought I might take a look at some of the games out there and try to give feedback that may help when making a decision on which games to get. So this series will focus on Free to play games.  

Left for dead the sacrifice

Unfortunately for you I lied, today will not be left 4 dead sacrifice because I'm saving it for Halloween along with a few other suprises. So instead you get Green lantern no 13!



So the cover is ok. There are a few good things about it such as the looming figures in the background of the guardians as well as the approach of the albino beings. But one of the main problems I have with this is the design of the costume it likes some weird S&M night costume compared to the domino masks they usually wear this a problem I had with issue number ten's cover as well it looks like some weird S&M party at the green lantern corp got out of hand.

We open with president Obama talking to Amanda Waller about Simon Baz the new Green Lantern and suspected terrorist( Simon Baz is the first Lebanese American in DC comics so they made a big deal out of it). They discuss the disappearance of Hal Jordan a prominent JLA member and how Baz is related to it. Next we cut to Baz walking on the Miami beach shoreline with the ring on his finger. As he wakes up he is given a message by both Hal Jordan and Sinestro at the same time! It is of course incomprehensible. We immediately cut to Baz's sister Sira going to her job, we see her persecuted for being the sister of a suspected terrorist and is sent home while crying in the car she is contacted by Baz.

He explains that he is sorry for all the trouble he has caused (such as stealing a car with bomb inside it and hospitalising his friend, yeah he's a great role model) and claims that maybe the ring can help them maybe there is a reason for it all. Baz tells his sister to meet him in there secret place I really don't want to know what they did there. So we cut to a truck driver with his going along the country road when they're attacked by the albinos from the cover (called the third army) and are immediately transformed into one of them in other words "assimilated".

So we meet Baz wearing his mask as he spots a camera but I think the green lantern costume he has been wearing for most of the issue is fairly recognisable. He looks around for Sira but he finds several members of the justice league such as Superman, Batman and Wonder woman telling him he has JLA problems.

So this issue was ok nothing reall that bad beside the awful costume design which I have already talked about and the fact that Baz is awful role model why couldn't they have a prefectly normal and law-abiding Lebanese-American it gives me the impression that writers can only make Muslims thives, murderers or terrorists. Anyway the emotial scenes in this are great and thanks to penciling by Doug Mahnke this issue's was amazing I give it 3/5.  Next week I decide to torture myself with JLA taskforce.    

Due to my inability to complete games in a week Retrogamer will be a once a month series. But I have something special planned for Halloween.

Note: Before I start I would like to apologise for being overly angry in my last review it's just I have a real problem with this portrayal of women in comics so the revised score is 1.5/5 for venom. But I stand by the comments I made in the last review. 

Incredible Hulk No 13

The cover for this is actually pretty good compared to some of the covers I have seen, it has some fairly good element s such as the looming Bruce Banner on the screen and the Hulk fearing for his life which if you the Hulk is quite worrying. Although I do notice no background and it is completely blank, fantastic.

Now we open with a recap of the plotline "Stay Angry" in which Bruce Banner went insane after he was re-united with the Hulk and scoured the Earth to find a cure for the Hulk so to stop him the Hulk must stay angry. Banner eventually succeeds resulting in the Hulk being trapped in a room with a needle about to "cure" him with a message.

So we open on that then the bald Banner tells him not to struggle or else! But then Banner apologises. We suddenly flashback to Banner being destroyed by the gamma bomb that re-united him with the Hulk. We get a look into what it's like for Banner in the Hulk's mind as he floats in a black void. Naked! Now you get image what I had to see, your welcome. Now we see that he is no longer insane, so gamma bombs cure insanity. Anyway he gets his body back and goes into a casino with only the iconic purple trousers on and uses a few cent to win a large sum of money. The casino worker asks how he got in and merely responds I know the bouncer. Which is a nice callback to when he was Mr Fixit.

So he amasses a fortune and uses it to finance his plans. Next we see Banner being rescued in the Antarctic by a blind doctor whom he talks to about how he seeks forgiveness and revenge! Now we're Latveria where Banner is blowing up Doom bots galore, then he asks a Doom why he separated him and the Hulk to which he responds" because I could". Banner promptly shoots him revealing another Doom bot. Banner is approached by a large group of Doom bots who cackle maniacally in unison. I was hoping they'd break into song. We're back in the lab of horrors where Banner explains he's sorry about every thing he has put the Hulk through and asks him to help get revenge who has been causing all their problems Doctor Doom. Banner claims that Hulk can destroy the "cure" and if he does there likely be impossible to make more. So Hulk decides to suit up and fight Doom right as some mercenaries enter the room. The end

Lets start with the good things first the art in this was just terrific and in a bi-weekly comic such as this it's impressive to see little or no problems with the art. The writing in this was superb in gives you a good insight in to Banner as it makes him somewhat redeemable for all the pain he's caused the Hulk. It gives you a look into a mind of a man who seeks forgiveness and revenge which is really interesting but there was missed opportunity with the Doom bots they could have done "Doom the musical". Anyway onto the bad the main problem with this book is all the jumping around from place to place and the whole gamma bomb cures insanity which is just ridiculous. So final score for Incredible Hulk no 13 4/5 the writing is superb as is the art so go out and get it now!

For those of you comic fans out there who like cons please support kickstarter Mighty Con. They just want make a comic con give them just a few Euro to help.

Starwing for the SNES

 

Starwing for the snes came out in 1993 and was the first of the starfox games series and was the first 3D game for snes.

The plot is fairly straight forward: Andross the mad scientist has fled to venom after banishment for Corneria and has declared war on said planet with his massive army. General Pepper decides to launch the "airwing"  so he summons you the elite mercenary team which you are a part of. You are the leader Fox Mc Cloud.

The plot of the game is fairly thin and not the most important thing. The most important thing in this game is the gameplay mechanics. Nintendo did an amazing job with the 3D mechanics as when you first start the game you can choose between four different types of controls the main differences being if the up and down controls are inversed. Personally I'm not a fan of the inversion but the fact that you have more than two control options in a early snes game is just fantastic.Now of course this game is where you get the infamous do a barrel roll. When you begin the game you can choose between several different routes. The first level takes place on Corneria and the boss is fairly easy. The second level no matter what takes place in first person mode which made me love the game even more but the problem with this is that it's really hard to manoeuvre around and dodge objects (such as rotating blocks, IN SPACE!!) because you have very little spatial awareness. The boss for this level is quite hard to beat due to the inability to dodge anything. Now on to level 3 which is the same as level two except now you have spatial awareness. The final level is planet Venom where you fight the boss a giant demonic face that vomits square blocks at you.

The graphics for this thing are fairly good for an old 3D game and is of course blocky.The game is great and starts of one the most famous series for Nintendo and it's not to see why, though the plot is as thin paper really it's all about the gameplay. The gameplay in this game is amazing for its time as the 3D mechanics paved the way for many Nintendo games to come. But one of the major problems is the first person perspective is just awful and just doesn't work. The bosses each look unique and that makes them enjoyable and fun but the fights with  the bosses can be fairly repetitive except for the last one. Now for all its faults I will give this game an 8/10 as it is a great introduction into this legendary series.        

Retrogamer will not be out until monday. But it will be every Sunday if possible.

Venom monsters of evil parts 1-3

The cover for venom number 23 is ok its got some good features like the looming face in the back ground and the pentagram with the cloaked figures. This image of venom implies that he is arming himself for some kind of fight. Now there are some problems with this cover such as the over-use of red and black as there aren't really any other colours used.

Now the artist for this is Thony Silas who likes to play a game called how many times can emphasise a woman's breasts which is just frustrating and sexist (something I will cover in another post) and frankly I'm sick of seeing this crap in comics. Now onto the story the first page starts with a blurb explaining venom's back story and how he was Flash Thompson a character from spiderman and how after he lost his legs in combat he got a chance to become an agent as the government had obtained the venom symbiote and wanted a government controlled spiderman. The comic starts with Venom re-iterating all this to us again but in a wasteful two page spread which just infuriates me because for those two pages we could have actual character development.

 Then we meet emphasised breasts attached some female reporter (I going to keep count of how many times he does this to female characters: one) who tells him about the department of occult affairs(2) a group obsessed with obtain mystical artifacts to conquer the world and so forth. She tells him where to find them. He goes in there gun crazy starting a long fight scene while monologuing about how he feels powerless without the suit and regrets all his bad choices in life, this scene is actually pretty good and is  good character development. We then see a room filled with pods and goo as venom pulls someone they turn out to be possessed by a demon and attacks him.But stops and apologises as he didn't recognise him and venom commands him to leave that body.

When suddenly Hellstrom appears (looking like Namor) to fight venom. He taunts him about how without the suit he is a "legless travesty" as he cuts off venom's legs, venom responds with "You talk too much!". Now again this is a good scene as it shows Flash's depression about losing his legs. Venom manages to get the upper hand on Hellstrom and tries to interrogate him while Hellstrom just taunts him. Then suddenly he branded by Hellstrom and possessed, end of issue. This comic sucked the art is sexist and can only draw two types of faces but did have some good scenes so it gets a 1/5 only for those scenes .

Now onto issue 24 no cover analysis as they are basically the same except with green instead of red which shows how lazy these people are. We open with possessed venom about to eat some people but is stopped by the will of Flash! Then he makes his escape into the woods where his hair turns bloody ginger! So then he goes to female reporters flat and no we are never told how he knows where she lives. So we see her on her mac with the squarest shoulders I have ever seen(3) as she hears him she grabs a gun(4) and goes down the hallway where he asks for help and we get to see her cleavage again!(5)He claims he needs an exorcist so she takes him a spiritual shop run by a priest and she constantly crosses her arms to of course push out her chest three times in one page(8).

The priest tries to communicate with the demon(9) and he responds to the father(10). The demon tells the priest he was promised endless slaughter and power(11) so the priest asks him why he doesn't leave(12). The demon responds fairly evilly "I try to break free" and "Help me". After this venom is back and decides to track down Hellstrom(13) but the reporter refuses to allow him to do it alone(14). So he goes alone and  tries to take down Hellstrom but before he does Hellstrom summons some demons end of comic. I hate this comic not just for the art but there really isn't any substance and for gods sake the emphasis is just sexist this gets 0/5 from me.

This is issue 25 and will it improve?! Hell no! We open with the same cover compositionally except with different colours. We open where we left off with demons attacking him while Hellstrom taunts him for several pages. Really it's just a long fight scene. Until we get a monologue from venom realising he might be able to control these demons as he did before use the analogy of his father putting his head under the water so he can learn to swim and manages to control the demons and has them beat up Hellstrom until he is a bloody pulp. This was a good scene as it gives us a look into Flash's mind, establishes some backstory as well as character development.
We then cut to prison where Hellstrom is being held, he explains to venom that venom might become the devil as several of the devil lords are about to enter the descent where one will become the true devil. So venom leaves to see more emphasised breasts (15). She asks if he still has the demon(16) inside him(17) which he does but is suppressing it through his shear force of will(18)! A little later we see Flash on the phone calling Betty(a previous girlfriend) to see if she is safe as she was previously targeted by villains. Now I hate these comics they're awful, the art is terrible and sexist emphasising her breasts every chance he gets and I will never pick up anything with Thony Silas' name on it. The story is very bland and has few good scenes but nothing really intriguing or clever and the dialogue is just terrible this comic number 25 gets 1/5 but only because the female reporter was barely in it.
But the 3-part story gets 0/5 it is terrible and frankly the sexism is just ridiculous and sickening, approximately 18 times the artist emphasised her breasts. Avoid at all costs.