PS2 Game Review: Kingdom Hearts II

 Kingdom Hearts II comes off the success of Kingdom Hearts I and the seemingly decent success of Chain of Memories and in the story, comes at the end of the game, 358/2 Days.  It's the best way to describe the story in chronological order.  It released on the PS2, and it came out to much acclaim.  To be fair, it's unfair to compare this game to Chain of Memories, so let's make it more comparable to KH1.  However, it may do another injustice with this as we get the next iteration to the story of Kingdom Hearts.  So what's this game done well? What did not go well? All that and more below!

Positives:

1. Sora's story continues to progress and be terrific.  However, this being intermingled with Roxas makes it better.  You see the greatness in both but also how mystifying it is for Sora, and how infuriating it was for Roxas, to have this happen.  However, in the end, it made it all worth it.

2. The incorporation of most of the Disney worlds here made the game well worth it.  Personally, I found Pride Rock and Land of Dragons being the best with the Coliseum being third.  I think they got the most of the characters, the landscape, and the story overall.  Also, the boss fights in all of these are pretty good overall (and makes for some historically terrific one-liners and advice.)

3. Reaction commands worked for the most part very well.  Yes there are some flub-ups with input, some delay, but I feel if they kept with it to make it less of a delay, you would have seen this perfected going forward.  I felt this was a good start overall though for this feature.

4. Obviously the soundtrack, the graphics are fantastic.  This shouldn't be much more noted than this.

5. The newer, non-Disney, worlds and their stories are fantastically done as well.  The story revolving around those are terrific.  The last world and the back story and continuance of it are splendid and well worth the praise.

6. The fight for Riku is also noted here and I like that they continue making progress to this.  It's a major plus to what goes on with Sora and Roxas.  It's a solid part of the story that continued with the Kingdom Hearts franchise.

Negatives:

1. The fact that they made Namine and Kairi essentially non-existent is just.. rough.  Yes they play roles, but they should play much larger roles in the story.  Unfortunately it's something that they don't do and it's something they should have done.

2. There's just some worlds that don't matter.  Pirates doesn't play a large role, Pride Lands is practically irrelevant, and Atlantica is just something that exists.  It would have been fantastic for every world to play a much larger role than it actually did.

3. Everything just feels slow in the way of combat and the exploitation of the mana system is just too prevalent to not mention.  It is a step up from KH1, but something that still needed to be better overall.

4. Exploration is non-existent but also I feel that it wasn't something that was prioritized given the story and the worlds and depth of the game.  It would have been cool that we had something that led to great treasure, like in KH3, or some side content/story, or a super boss.  However, it wasn't to be and that is fine too.

Rating:

KH2 is worth an 8.5 to a 9.  It's well worth the play through, either OG or Final Mix edition.  It's a great story builder for the game that allows the game to press forward after what happened in Chain of Memories. It's a great game that teeters on being excellent overall

PS2 Game Review: Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories

 Kingdom Hearts is known for a lot of things.  It's known for heroism, togetherness, friendship, bravery and some really weird attack systems.  You have the command deck, the affinity for reaction commands, flowmotion and most important in the set of weird attack system, card sleights.  That is what KH Chain of Memories on the Game Boy Advance and KH Re:Chain of Memories on the PS2 (and future consoles) displayed for an attack system.  For this game, you focus on KH1 hero Sora going into a massive castle that rids his memories.  It also parallels his best friend, Riku, in a twist of wondering how he can use the darkness to his own better future.  On top of that, this is the main introduction to what fans know as Organization XIII.  So what does this game do well? What does it do that isn't good? We'll separate this up by Sora's story and Riku's story.

Sora's Story Positives:

1. The end is really good.  I enjoyed the last couple of worlds you have to venture with Sora in this game.  That's the best way to say it.  The worlds aren't massive in length but are actually fun to go around and see and fight in.

2. The ability to go through and make the sleights are something that is really neat and something that makes you really think of strategy and how to make your deck to make the best combo, healing, making the elixirs and potions work and so much more.  I felt this was a good step forward in making the game good from an attacking/strategy standpoint.

3. Visually, this game is fantastic on either the GBA on the original Chain of Memories or the PS2 version.  It's fantastic in its own right of course, compared to today. But in this time frame, the graphics and honestly the soundtrack were both fantastic overall.  It's a job well done by the folks with Disney and Square for this game.

4. The boss fights, for the most part, are a challenge but they are doable and they are worth the challenge.  The best are against the Organization members and the in-between worlds fights.  So I would definitely have to recommend a lot of those boss fights.

Sora's Story Negatives:

1. There is just so much rehashing and the rehashing of the bosses in the worlds.  That's a major downside to Sora's side of the story and something that really just feels like a letdown.

2. The story just feels so dull even with the last couple worlds.  It's just really, really a downside overall. It's a sobering reminder that not all KH games could be great with story, but coming off the greatness that started with KH1, it's a bit frustrating that they couldn't make it better than this.

Riku's Story Positives:

1. This adds another perspective and it adds Riku's trials and tribulations as he fights the darkness and tries to come out on top of this.  It's a good view into the struggles that he deals with.

2. His story with the worlds is honestly done very well in a straight forward fashion. There is no major pomp and circumstance.  There are just straight forward and you do one thing, get to the end, and finish the world.  This makes it for a solid, quick deal.

Riku's Story Negatives:

1. Oh boy, did I rage at the final boss.  There's a major reason.  There's simply no reason that he can break everything while you can do next to nothing on it.  On top of if you get a great break, his guardian can block something as well.  It's incredibly frustrating and made me just quit the fight, check the ending on Youtube.  To me, it's just a terrible mechanic. Which btw, that's the ending? Kinda just.. weak.

2. His deck is fine.. if you like it being extremely limited and having to do a lot more to be strategic with it than Sora's.  It's just kind of annoying especially later in the game. It's just again, fine to be strategic but to be this limited in what you can do is just not the way to go about it.

Rating:

My best rating I can say for it is 6 out of 10.  It's not a bad game, but certainly not great.  I can't rate this as good either.  Just above average overall. If you want to play it as a first time playthrough, great. If you want to watch the cutscenes though, I don't blame you overall.

SNES Game Review: Pit Fighter

 Pit Fighter is a game that was in arcades and on the Sega Genesis that also made its way to the Super Nintendo.  While not too bad on the arcade version, it was slightly worse on the Genesis, but in conclusion one of the worst games on the SNES.  How bad is this game? Well.. let's review below.

Positives:

1. The Title Screen- And that's it. The title screen is the best thing about this game.

Negatives:

1. The Select Character Screen- It's just so bad to look at, it's bad to select any characters. And the characters themselves just are so awkward.

2. The fighting ring- Just so bad overall, it is awkward to be around the people but have to fight in a ring that looks like a bad version of a warehouse garage.

3. The Winning screen- Really, put on a pallet on a forklift? And the money doesn't do jack for you? Terrible.

4. The controls, and sprites are also beyond awful. They are so awful, you don't do any damage and when you do, it's almost reciprocated anyway.  The sprites move so bad, and the movements are so jerky and bad.

5. The controls are also so bad. You have no real control if you move into someone or if you do any damage overall.  

Rating:

Literally 0 out of 10. One of the worst, if not the worst, games on the SNES. I do not recommend and save the 2 dollars on this for a candy bar.

PS2 Game Review: Kingdom Hearts 1

 Kingdom Hearts is a franchise developed by Square Enix and Disney, started by Squaresoft (Yes it's the same company) and Disney and featured on the PS2 in March of 2002. The Disney side of it is a lot of characters that you would be familiar with over times past like Donald and Daisy Duck, Goofy, Pluto, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Pete, and villains like Maleficent, Ursula, and Captain Hook.  It also features heroes like Ariel, Hercules, Alice, and Peter Pan.  For the Square side, they helped make a lot of this game a reality but they also feature a ton of Final Fantasy characters like Aerith, Yuffie, Cid, Squall (Named Leon, and it's far cooler) and of course Cloud and Sephiroth.  What came from this tag team is a game big in depth but also something that still exists to this day.  I've played this game several times on the PS2 only, not the Final Mix, so sorry if I miss stuff that doesn't exist from that in the Original. Here's what I thought was positive, negative and what I rate KH1 on the PS2.

Positives:

1. Exploration- Probably to this day, KH1 does and gets the most out of the exploration of the games. From the rooms to the treasure you can find, that's a major part of this game.  This is highlighted with the trinity Marks in the game the player can find throughout all of the worlds.  It's at times frustrating to find them but a lot of the final prizes you receive are definitely worth the frustration of the challenge.

2. It has to be said, Sora is a terrific protagonist and hero to the game.  This scrawny, high pitched, energetic kid is the main character of the game, but oh boy does he grow up rapidly and become a legendary hero by games end.  He learns not just to go at it in an all-out style, but also learns to be cerebral and take chances when need be.  He isn't afraid of what can happen, but is ferocious in his tenacity to protect his friends, Kairi especially.  It's what makes a true hero, and Sora in one game proved how great of a hero he can and is.

3. Riku's part in this cannot be understated as well.  He is the perfect anti-hero to Sora's heroism.  He allows himself to become darkness and evil, while never letting it overcome him in the end.  He finds that path, and in all honesty, the later games show how great that path leads.  This was just the beginning for this guy, but it serves a great role in this game.

4. The bosses in this game are a challenge and require you to think and be strategic.. for the most part (more on that in a bit.) In all realness, a majority of these bosses do prove their worth and are a challenge.  I appreciate this. It's good gameplay honestly.

5. The worlds are honestly well done.  I only disliked a couple (for sake of argument, Deep Jungle could have been better and the last world isn't too user friendly) but the majority are very well done.  The folks who developed this should be given credit

6. Obviously the graphics and soundtrack were always going to be positives. Of course Simple and Clean is one of the most recognizable songs in the history of gaming. Looking back though, the soundtrack laps the graphics which brings me to..

Negatives:

1. Thank God this game got remastered because the graphics on the PS2 original version were far too dark for a lot of areas.  From the area around Merlin's house, the Island caves to other parts, you had to jack up the brightness to make it work.  Luckily, they essentially fixed that for later games. 

2. Back to that boss difficulty I mentioned above.  As much as most bosses are a great challenge, some are pushovers.  It isn't a negative per se to have an easy tutorial boss or first boss or so, but it feels like some of the bosses pacing and difficulty were just far too off.

3. Sora has a fantastic attitude about working with Donald and Goofy, Goofy seems to be cool with working with Sora, but Donald's attitude about working with Sora could resemble that coworker who just is there to collect a check, results be damned and co-working with others be damned.  His attitude stinks most of this game and it's a bit of a drag.

4. The rewards for collecting trinities and collecting Dalmations could be less needed, minus some of the major and/or rare trinities.  Yes, collecting the rare trinities is worth it, the end with the Dalmations is worth it.  The road to get them.. arguably not so.  It does tend to get redundant.  I think if they had tailored it at any point forward.. it'd be great.

Rating:

There's no doubt that KH1 is a solid starter to the KH family of games.  It sets up a legendary story well, though it's not without its flaws.  It's a good game overall that at times teeters on greatness.  Overall, they set a stage to allow us to chain together memories.  It gets a 7.5 out of 10 from me

PS2 Game Review: NCAA Football 2004

 NCAA Football 2004 is the third installment of the PS2/next gen consoles version of the NCAA series.  It arguably became the best of the group up to that point.  The games depth, the game being deeper and the fun of the game all come out in this series.  Is there anything that NCAA doesn't do well with 2004? Sure! But it's outweighed by the things it does well.  Let's dive in below!

Positives:

1. Deeper recruiting- Now you can have more say in who you want to recruit, what positions and how to get an athlete more to your favor earlier and by unlocking their major reason for wanting to play there.  You can Also decide to rescind an offer to go for someone else.  You also get a better depth chart for where you can get better overall as a team.

2. Sports Illustrated- This probably was a sign of the times but having SI cover your game was a big deal at the time, and it deserved a lot of credit overall.  I was Glad they got in the game, I am also glad they provided just an extra layer of depth to the dynasty mode of the game.  It was cool to see the All-Americans, conference lookouts and predictions overall.

3. FCS Expansion- This was cool, as they added more teams from several conferences.  It's really neat to see that you can play as many other teams.  This was a good move by EA.

4. Additional Trophies- This was also a good thing that they did.  They expanded the rivalry trophies and added some more bowl trophies, adding to your trophy case over time as well.  Just another neat touch to make a deeper game.

5. Greatest Moments- Another sponsor (Pontiac, o7's for that company) sponsored the Greatest Moments part to this game.  It showcased great moments (Choke at Doak, The Play, UVA ending FSU's conference game win streak, the Miracle in Michigan, etc.) that you can sort of replay and sort of make like the video game counterpart to real life moments.

Negatives:

1. Still feels too Easy- The competition does get harder in a lot of ways, like unless there is a great team or one that is far and away leagues better you will lose, but it still felt easy to win.  We beat Iowa year one with Buffalo, and went 13-1 that year.  We only had 2 losses through three years, and while yes the skill got better for the team, it still felt like it was too easy.

2. Generic FCS Stadiums- This isn't an issue with FBS teams but the FCS teams stadiums were just thrown together with two basic models.  Which I would have loved if it was mostly the same stadium with these teams, but it isn't.  Montana's stadium is different from the model for instance, and it would have been cool not just to see the teams, but their stadiums in the game. 

3. Limited spots for offers- This might have been to rules, but it feels odd that we couldn't get a setting that gives you a lot more room to give players an offer but then rescind it if you are over the scholarship offers and the amount sign with you (AKA: Essentially unlimited abilities to offer and you pick and choose kind of.)

Rating:

Overall, this game deserves probably a 8.5 out of 10.  I think the recruiting while improved still had flaws, the game play was better but also had flaws in ways of difficulty.  The FCS expansion was a positive but still had flaws, but overall everything was a step up from NCAA Football 2003.  Highly recommend for a retro football fan! Worthy of playing on all consoles!

Multi-Platform Game Review: Persona 5 Tactica

 Persona is a long running video game series that develops a lot of twists and turns throughout.  Yours truly, admittedly, had not played a Persona game until Persona 5 Tactica came out.  To say the least, I probably should have started with something else.  I did play this game on Easy Mode because I never played a Persona game before so here's what I thought of the game and why I wouldn't recommend playing this as your first Persona game.

Positives:

1. Battle system- Yes there are positives to this game.  The Battle system is one of them.  I like the layout of the battlefield, I like how the battle system works with finding the attack you want to do or not do.  I like how the game lays it all out for you.  In all, the battle system is done well.

2. Fusing- I like the fusing of Personas into a different one or into a cool weapon.  I thought that was a really neat thing to do throughout the game once you got to that point.

3. Story in the second half- It was honestly really good the second half of the main storyline.  I appreciated how it picked up and got better overall over time.  Something just stuck and it worked in that second half..

Negatives:

1. Story in the first half- Yeah.. that's why I said the second half.  The first half of the story was incredibly boring to me and I found myself skipping through most of the first half of it due to it just not really sticking to me.  I was not in the least bit interested in it. 

2. The Velvet Room- Yes I know this plays a role in other games, but this one just.. fell flat.  There wasn't anything cool to do here besides the fusing. I didn't feel a major thing to it other than doing the fusing of weapons or personas.

3. Sidequests- Thankfully they are sidequests because they were seriously not needed and I barely acknowledged them throughout the game.  It felt like they weren't even propped up to being anything so not sure why they were in the game.

4. The Cafe talks- All the talks in the cafe were something I fast forwarded or skipped because they were not really conducive to me or really productive when the characters talked.  It just felt like chatter you hear everywhere else that doesn't mean much.

Rating:

I wouldn't recommend it to be a first Persona for others to play. I did it and it just fell flat to me overall.  I would give P5 Tactica a 6/10.

Switch Game Review: Super Mario Wonder

 Super Mario Wonder was a game that came out in October of 2023 amidst one of the biggest years of gaming in recent modern history. Coming upon the heels of announcements for Super Mario RPG, The Thousand Year Door, Princess Peach Showtime, and a new Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon remake as well as the popularity of the Super Mario Bros movie, it's easy to see how this game could be overshadowed with everything going on for the plumber with a red shirt and hat and overalls. However, this game snagged the Best Family Game award at the 2023 Game Awards and 4 awards so far in 2024. This game is also wildly popular, selling 12 million copies by the start of 2024.  I got to play this game, and here's my thoughts below!

Positives:

1. Fast paced- I love the fast paced environment of this game.  It's a quick game overall (took me about 9 hours to beat the game) but 100 percenting this game is not gonna make you spend forever on it.  It's a fast paced game, and that's a plus for the Mario franchise.

2. Every type of gamer friendly- First time player? It's a good starter. Haven't played a Mario game in years? A great selection to get back into it. Wanna speedrun? A great speedrun game. Wanna just game for a weekend and get it over with? Perfect game for you. Want to challenge yourself? It's got that too! Mario Wonder has abilities to tailor to every type of gamer out there. 

3. Graphics/Soundtrack- Both are fantastic by Nintendo.  This would likely to have been expected, but it is never a bad thing when the graphics and soundtrack are on point and really, really good.

4. Variable levels- The levels go so many places and it is so cool to see. I love the direction they go with it and overall the levels from water to underground to sand to beach to anything it is absolutely phenomenal overall. I applaud those efforts of Nintendo overall to this.

5. Optional Levels- Note, you can do the bare minimum of levels and be fine.  However a lot of the optional levels are there and they are fun.  I love this part of Nintendo to make the optional/bonus levels as much fun but some challenging as much as possible. 

Negative:

1. End Level- Not to spoil anything but it just felt like for them rating it 5 stars felt not.. challenging at all. I feel like they just said that to say it because it is the final level of the game.  I never really felt the end level to be that challenging. Though it was fun, feels like something was amiss.

Rating:

My overall rating for Mario Wonder is a 9 out of 10.  It's a very solid, great Mario game that deserves the praise it has been given.  It's a great game for all types of gamers, a great family game and a game that you can finish in a weekend's time easily.  It's also going to be a rather affordable game in years time so you will be able to get it for a decently affordable price soon.  So definitely put this game on your bucket list.