SEGA Genesis Collection -- The Place to Be for 16-Bit Ninja.

Two of the three 16-Bit Shinobi titles are present on SEGA Genesis Collection. Revenge of Shinobi is missing, but Shadow Dancer and Shinobi III are here. In 1990 SEGA released Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi on the SEGA Genesis. This is the second Shinobi released on the Genesis. Revenge of Shinobi was first in 1989. Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi isn't a sequel to Revenge of Shinobi. Nor is it a direct port of the arcade game Shadow Dancer. The arcade Shadow Dancer is considered a sequel the original arcade Shinobi from 1987 and it features Joe Musashi's son. The Genesis Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi stars the one and only Joe Musashi himself. The arcade Shadow Dancer introduced a new wrinkle to the Shinobi arcade formula by adding a dog character that follows the player along that can be commanded to attack enemies. The dog can be sent out to disable an enemy. The dog will latch on to them and they'll struggle. While they're struggling they can't attack which allows the player to move in for the kill. The Genesis Shadow Dancer brings this aspect home. The dog is added to the mix. The arcade game Shadow Dancer and the Genesis Shadow Dancer are otherwise entirely different games. Shadow Dancer on the Genesis plays very much like the original 1987 arcade game Shinobi.  You have three minutes to make it through each level. Each stage has three levels. Two standard levels and the boss level. Musashi has unlimited shurikens to throw. He has a standard jump. No spinning jump here. You can jump up and down to higher and lower platforms within the levels. You get one use of ninja magic per stage. Musashi has automated defensive attacks. Pressing attack while an enemy is within range and depending on your position will cause various kicks and sword swipes, just as in the original arcade Shinobi. It's all just like Shinobi. Of course the dog makes a major difference in the gameplay. You can charge up the dog's meter by holding down the attack button. You know that you're within range on a potential enemy to lock on to if the dog is barking. Letting the attack button go while the dog is barking will cause him to rush out and latch on to the enemy. You will need to do this often. It adds a bit of strategy to how you'll make it through the levels. There are some situations you won't be able to get through without proper use of the dog. Just like in the original Shinobi arcade game, onehit kills. You have to get it right. Shadow Dancer has a cool twist on the original Shinobi's bonus rounds. You jump off a building and free-fall throwing shurikens before you killing enemy ninja rushing up at you. There are fifty enemies each bonus round. Killing forty-eight will net you a 1-up. Forty-nine earns you a 2-up, and fifty earns you a 3-up. There is another thing that shows up from the original arcade Shinobi, and that's the dreaded colored ninja. They're fast, agile, they can block, and they take more than one hit to kill. They have the same colors as in the original arcade Shinobi and get tougher in the order of blue, red, gold, and black. The game has good music and decent graphics with perfect control. It has fun boss battles. It's a tough game that always presents a fair challenge. It's a throwback and a nod to the original game that every Shinobi fan will appreciate.

The other game in the collection is Shinobi III: The Return of the Ninja Master and it was originally released on the SEGA Genesis in 1993. Shinobi III is the direct sequel to Revenge of Shinobi and returns that style of play. You have the life bar, the same four selectable ninja magic types, the spinning jump and eight shuriken throw. The less rigid stage numbering. All the time in the world as the there is no timer. Everything is as in Revenge of Shinobi. As this is a sequel, they've added a couple of new moves. Musashi now has a running slash. You can run by double tapping the direction. While running hitting the attack button causes Musashi to do a charging slash with his sword. Musashi also has a homing attack. Jump into the air and hold down and press the attack button and Musashi homes in on an enemy in range with a kick attack. He's a lot more agile this time around as well. They've given him the ability to wall jump and hang from the ceiling and move hand over hand style. All of these new moves come into play in how to deal with enemies and especially in navigating the stages. Revenge of Shinobi on the Genesis also continued off the original Shinobi arcade game like the arcade Shadow Dancer does. The Ninja Master was the boss of the Shinobi arcade game and the boss of Revenge of Shinobi. It's easy to see how they're connected to each other. The graphics of Shinobi III are very impressive and rank among the best of the 16-bit era. The music is very high quality and the composition is great, it's just that it has to follow up Yuzo Koshiro's brilliant Revenge of Shinobi score. The game features a wealth of bosses. The game also adds midbosses to the mix, something new to the series. The game is arguably the toughest game in the 2D series of Shinobi games. It doesn't mess around, especially in the end. The last level is one hell of a challenge. One of the toughest stages in the whole era. Shinobi III is a fitting end to the 16-bit era of Shinobi. It's a great game. You can't do better than the three Genesis Shinobi games. Shinobi is the pinnacle of ninja games for me. No other series even comes close. SEGA Genesis Collection is worth the cost for these two titles alone...

Viva Pinata -- Final Opinion.

Viva Pinãta starts off going a mile a minute throwing a whole lot of information at you. It makes you feel a little overwhelmed. But after a few hours the game settles down, and the addiction settles in. Once you get comfortable with how the game works you find a wonderfully executed god sim with swift pacing. It's the pacing that really helps put this game ahead of similar titles like Animal Crossing. The game keeps you constantly busy. And it keeps you busy doing things as you want it. And even though you're comfortable with how the game plays you still never lose that sense of wanting to fiddle around with everything to discover what you can discover. The more you discover, the more open the game becomes. The further you go the deeper it seems to go. Animal Crossing seems to have no consequence. No true objectives or incentive. Viva Pinãta never seems to run out of objectives and you always seem to have incentive to keep going and see what else you can discover. And everything you do in the game has a potential consequence. Animal Crossing has always felt like a non-game to me. It's a distraction at best. Viva Pinãta is a true game, and it's a great one. It's a game filled with great graphics and art design. The game just looks beautiful. The music in the game is all over the place in terms of genre and style. There are some menu themes and a few tracks used for the main game itself but most of the music is for the romance cutscenes. Each pinãta type has its own romance dance with its own music. They range from techno to rock and everything in between from a waltz to a march and even some polka and square-dancing. There are some sixty pinãta types with a romance dance and music track for each of them. The music is good in both composition and sound quality. The voices in the game are all top notch. They're very well done and fit the characters perfectly. As this is a game made by Rare, it's filled with their typical humor. The game is smart and funny. It's their typically British take on everything. You'll find it working for little kids and you'll also find a lot of more subtle humor for the adults playing the game that will just fly right over the heads of the kids. The controls are simple and intuitive. They're all context sensitive and onscreen. The menus are also clean and simple. Viva Pinãta is a game you're just going to want to fiddle with. Fiddle with in the best possible way. It's smart, fun, and addicting. It has great depth. I really liked it. It appeared to have bombed initially. It seems people stayed away from it because of its apparent kiddy nature. Word of mouth on the game has been great. Almost everyone seems to really enjoy it. Sales seem to have picked up. Hopefully they'll keep going as I want a sequel. The game deserves to sell. I'm giving Viva Pinãta a 9.

SEGA Genesis Collection -- Sword of Vermilion.

After RPG fans had the chance to play through Phantasy Star II in the spring of 1990 they left were wanting another RPG title to play. SEGA's answer came in the fall of 1990 in the form of Sword of Vermilion. It's easy to say that Sword of Vermilion is a true oddity. It's a traditional Western fantasy RPG created by the Japanese. It takes place in a pure fantasy world of dragons, kings, magic, treasure chests, and dungeons. That's not so odd you say, every other Japanese RPG has all of those elements. The odd part is that there isn't any interjection of anything Japanese at all. The story, creature design, character design, town and area designs are all decidedly Western. The story is of the era. The evil Tsarkon kills your father, the rightful King of Excalabria, and usurps his throne. Your father had his trusted servant whisk you as an infant away where you were raised unaware. Upon the death of your believed father you're told the truth and thus begin a quest to defeat Tsarkon. The game is further odd in its combination of action RPG and dungeon crawler. In towns you'll have the standard RPG view. When you step out of town into the overworld or a dungeon the screen will be split into five windows. The windows show your hit and magic points, the magic you have equipped, your money and experience, your view, and the area map. Most of those are self explanatory, but your view is a first person view. The map will just show your character and everything else will remain covered until you've found the in-game map for that area. After you've found the map the map screen shows your character's position within the overworld or dungeon. The interface system for the towns is entirely menu driven. You have to select talk to talk to an NPC. There are commands for talk, item, strength, open, magic, look, and take. The battles are entirely action based. From the overworld or dungeon view screen you'll see the creature type materialize and then you're whisked off to the battle screen. The battle screen is made up of the correctly matching background for the location, your character, and a random number of the enemy creature. You can move in eight directions and you have one button to swing your sword, and another to use your currently equipped magic type. You either hack all the creatures to death or they kill you. You can run from the battle by exiting the battle screen from either the left of right side of the screen. You'll always start out placed in the center of the screen and often times you'll be entirely surrounded by creatures. The battles are fast and furious. Sword of Vermilion is big on having you be in an area you're supposed to be in, and punishing you for getting ahead of yourself. It takes the latest weapons and magic as well as armor to be able to stand a chance against the current creatures. The boss battles remain action but switch to a single plain where you can only move left and right against a single large enemy creature. Sword of Vermilion's graphics were good in the day and come off somehow charming in a very antiquated way today. The music was very impressive and will even impress today. The story is admiralty straightforward and traditional. Sword of Vermilion was good fun then and it remains so in my opinion. It still remains an oddity. A Japanese game where they set out to make a Western style RPG and threw in three distinct play styles and somehow made it all work. There will be more SEGA Genesis Collection entries, slowly but surely...

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess -- Final Opinion.

I have completed The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess with a time of roughly sixty-three hours. I managed to collect all twenty hearts and all of the bugs. I only managed fifty-two of sixty Poe souls though. I completed the optional Cave of Ordeals. The art style is slightly more grown up and dark but how is the story? It's the same Zelda story retold. The same one they're always retelling again and again. I'm now convinced we're never going to get anything but this same Zelda story. Of course it's the same story retold with some new players and some new locations and some changes here and there. And to be honest, while I'm not happy that is the same old story, I have to say that it is the best version and the most well told of them all. They went to A Link to the Past for most of the inspiration this time around, and as it's the best Zelda game of them all, they couldn't have made a better choice. All the Zelda standards are here, Zelda in trouble, the three goddesses, the great fairies, light and dark worlds, the chosen hero, the Gorons, Zora, and Gerudo, Epona, and the Triforce. Thrown in to the mix is a new wrinkle in the form of the character of Midna who really helps give the game its charm and heart. It's Link that you follow from a lowly goat-herder who is tasked with delivering a sword to Castle Hyrule only to find himself on a quest to find missing Ordon Village children that eventually leads him to becoming the savior of all Hyrule. And along the way you're introduced to Midna who eventually becomes your partner through the whole tale. It's from her that you get most of the story. Link remains the stoically courageous and willing hero, but Midna is the heart and soul of the story. She has a great character arc to travel. Her character has real growth. It's because of her the story has its real emotional impact at the end. She's one of the rare characters capable of bringing about a bittersweet reaction. She's one of the best characters I've seen in a long time. Twilight Princess has great control and gameplay. The graphics are exceptionally pretty for a Gamecube title and good looking for a Wii first effort. The music is a bit tougher to nail down. It works very well in game, but I don't think it plays all that well outside of it. The classic themes are all here and well represented. There are a couple of standout arrangements. The arrangements of the Lost Woods theme from Ocarina of Time and the Hyrule Castle from A Link to the Past being chief among them. The sound effects are the same classic ones we all know and love. There is an interesting aspect to the Wii Remote having a speaker. Hearing the sword swipes and clangs as well as the item get fanfare and other sounds coming from the Wii Remote working in conjunction with those from the television provide a sense of the tangible. It's a very cool and unexpected aspect of the Wii. This aspect can truly be called revolutionary in my opinion. The quest is sizable and is filled with great puzzles, side-quests, minigames, humor, and fun and epic boss battles. A very impressive start to the Wii. I'm not going to call the game the best launch title ever because I feel it's really the swan song of the Gamecube with Wii aspects tacked on. It's a must play title for all Zelda fans. It's a return to the roots, so to speak. Which leads me back to the only real flaw I have with the game. It's been there done that before, no matter how well it's done. But it's a tiny little flaw in an otherwise perfect game. I'm giving The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess a 9.5.

It Seems Nintendo Almost Reluctantly Creeps Further Online.

Nintendo is actually going online this generation, unlike their Gamecube years. The Wii Shop Channel and the Mii Channel as well as basic email have been live since the launch of the Wii. Nintendo has taken the next couple steps recently. On December 19 they rolled out the Forecast Channel. A service that allows you to check the weather of anywhere in the world. The Forecast Channel required a full system update. When you select the channel for the first time it will ask you for your location so that it can provide your local information. You start with your country and start to narrow it down from there and you hopefully live close to a location they list. Once the channel is set up, you can select it and it'll bring up your local information and provide you with the current data for the last hour, the five day forecast, and the UV index. There is also an option for a globe where you can check the current, five day, and UV index for most locations around the world. It's actually fun to fiddle with. There are some little Nintendo touches like sound effects. You'll hear the wind, rain, or thunder. There is one major flaw with the channel as far as I'm concerned. It involves the channel's need for WiiConnect 24 standby settings to be turned on. I have my WiiConnect 24 settings to on when the console is on, and off when I turn the console off. In other words, it's okay for the system to connect to the Internet when I turn it on, and only when it's on. There isn't any logical need to have the system having to be set so that it can connect to the Internet while off in order for the Forecast Channel to work. What's the big deal about it signing in to get the data when I power the system on? It might not seem such a big deal to some people, but I want control over my network. The WiiConnect 24 service is technically a lie anyway. It's not a persistent connection as sold. It logs in and out constantly. It's not live as, well Xbox Live. I don't need the Wii signing in just to see if someone might have sent me a Mii, or to download some email that Nintendo sent me advertising something while I'm actually playing a real online game over Xbox Live or slowing some download. Today Nintendo rolled out the Internet Channel Trial Version. It's their Opera based web browser. You get the 230 block download from the Wii Shop Channel. They say some of the functionality isn't there in the trial version and that the final version will be available at the end of March 2007. It'll also be free to download until June 2007, after that it's 500 Wii Points to purchase. It's worth the 500 points, I guess. It's functional. It's a browser, for surfing the Net with a television. The control interface is obviously the Wii Remote. Upon loading the channel you get the start page that offers some tips on the control. You can scroll through pages by holding down the B button and moving the remote. The A button selects hyperlinks and the like. The - and + buttons zoom in and out. Button 1 brings up your favorites and button 2 alters how the page is displayed. The bottom of the actual page screen has pointer-friendly large icons for advancing the page back, forward, reloading, and returning to the start page. Surfing the Net in a resolution of 480p is just plain ugly. And having to zoom in and out and scroll around the pages will simply be annoying to anyone who actually uses a computer for surfing. They do try to help things along in a couple ways. Hitting button 2 breaks the page down into a list of the images and hyperlinks making it easier to navigate but it sucks the life out of the presentation to pure function. They also offer a word fill system when having to enter text via the Wii Remote. The favorites list isn't functional in the beta. The browser supports Flash and various movie formats so essentially YouTube will be supported. The browser however does not support Java. Which means you won't be playing any Java based games. They can't have you playing Java based Super Mario Bros. for free when they want you to buy the game in the Wii Shop Channel can they? All in all though, it's a functioning browser for your television. Those who can't afford a computer or can't figure one out will probably be impressed and fully satisfied with the Internet Channel. Everyone else, not so much. There seems to be word out of Japan that the upcoming Pokemon game on the Wii uses game specific friend codes just like all the Nintendo DS games. This is rather disappointing news if true. It means that Nintendo is continuing the decidedly crappy online structure of the NDS with the Wii. Nobody I know likes it. Everyone finds it cumbersome and annoying. I'm wondering just how the actual online gaming is going to pan out for the Wii. The Pokemon game is turn based battling. You could play that over 56k and never notice lag. Is there going to be a first person shooter on the Wii offering deathmatch online or are we going to see a generation of very low end online usage as far as online gaming is concerned? Or maybe I'm just spoiled by Xbox Live? I don't think I am. No, I'm sure I'm not. Come on Nintendo, get it together. Please.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess -- The Art Design of Twilight.

When Nintendo unveiled the Gamecube at Spaceworld in 2000, it teased the world with footage of what was presumed to be the next installment in the long-running Legend of Zelda series. That footage was of a realistic looking approach to the game's art design. Fans of the series the world over were in great anticipation of the title. Cut to a year later at the next Spaceworld when the world got its next look at what now was Wind Waker. As everyone should know by now, Wind Waker used a cel-shaded look that Nintendo called Toon Shading. A bullshit term for cel-shading because Nintendo can't admit to copying anything being the innovators they believe themselves to be. The new graphic style for Wind Waker split the fans squarely into two camps. One group that absolutely loved it, and another group that absolutely despised the look. Apparently because Wind Waker didn't set the world on fire with its sales and the hate it camp was so very vocal about the graphics Nintendo caved in to the pressure and created a somewhat more realistic style with Twilight Princess. I say somewhat more realistic art style because it really just appears so on the surface. Link looks more adult. He's more of a young man instead of a child or teenager. Link may be, but the rest of the world is inhabited with more of the fantastical in both enemies and the non-player characters. They haven't attempted to make the Tektite the most realistic spider they possibly could. They've kept the fantasy. They've mixed in some real world with the straight out of Lord of the Rings aspects. Kakariko Village for example comes off as an old west mining town. One of the dungeons has a strong Egyptian vibe. Overall it results in the most bizarre Hyrule yet. It has a mixed and matched feeling that somehow works. The slightly realistic Link and the bizarre world he finds himself in this time around certainly give the story more weight than that of Wind Waker. But the fantasy and whimsy of other Zelda titles are still present in Twilight Princess. There are other aspects that help make Twilight Princess seem a bit more adult than previous titles. There are some surprisingly vicious actions in the game. Especially as Link in wolf form. Link more than bites the enemy, he latches on and shakes them violently,  ripping into them as a wolf really would. There isn't any blood of course, but the action itself is violent. Link has special finishing moves available to him should he find them. A couple them are also rather violent. There also seems to be touches of sexuality. In the way the barkeeper insinuates certain things and in how Midna is drawn and reacts to her riding of Link in wolf form. Midna has a rather womanly form and she grunts and has some slightly suggestive sounds going on. I know Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask had some sexuality, but it somehow seems more out in front in Twilight Princess. The game definitely manages a more adult feel to it than Wind Waker. It's quite welcome by me. Next time should cover the story of Twilight Princess.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess -- Crawling Around the Dungeons.

The Zelda series has always had great dungeon designs and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is no exception. As of this entry I'm over forty hours into the game and through six of the game's rumored nine proper dungeons. That's enough for me to easily say that Twilight Princess has the best dungeon designs out of any of the 3D Zelda titles. I'm not sure if they're better than the 2D A Link to the Past just yet. A dungeon in Zelda is defined as a location that has three essential elements. Those are its own map, compass, and boss key. Twilight Princess doesn't deviate from that basic formula. There is another key element that is present in the Twilight Princess dungeons, and that is a midboss battle that results in an item that grants you some new ability allowing you to make further progress through said dungeon and the rest of the game. Twilight Princess is like the twelfth title released in the series and as such it's safe to say we've covered most of the possible themes for dungeons already. Twilight Princess doesn't try to reinvent the wheel or anything on that level but instead stays true to what's come before with new takes on the classic themes. We get dungeons based on wind, fire, water, and ice mixed in with some new concepts like grinding and minion control. The dungeons are all large and sprawling in design. The puzzle design ranges from purely intuitive brilliance to head-scratching spatial relationship puzzles. You will be stopped for a while from time to time in Twilight Princess' dungeons but for me they've never approached being frustrating. In fact I would say the puzzles walk the perfect line between intuitive and challenging. I have been impressed with each dungeon in the game and I've thoroughly enjoyed them all thus far. Next time on Zelda should cover art design, or maybe boss battles. With entries on story and the final opinion still to come.

Phantasy Star Universe -- Still Expanding.

The third content update has hit Phantasy Star Universe. It brings with it five new S rank missions. They've added S rank missions for Mad Creatures, Mizuraki Defense, Demons Above, Valley of Carnage, and Mine Defense. The new S ranks are sort of all over the place, both within the world of the game and what they have to offer. Mizuraki Defense and Valley of Carnage are both in areas that are generally harder than the Unsafe Passage and Fight for Food missions. The later two are the first missions of the game, but on S rank are quite difficult due to the enemies use of the Megid technique. Megid, as any Phantasy Star player knows is an attack that has a high chance of instantly killing the target. The creatures themselves aren't physically that tough in comparison to the Mizuraki Defense and Valley of Carnage creatures, so what should be harder actually comes off as easier. The most important aspect to S rank missions are the rewards. Not in the potential weapons and items you might find in the mission, but in the actual set rewards for earning an S rank score on an S rank mission. You're given a relatively large amount of Meseta. And at this point with A rank weapons and armor costing what they do, Meseta is still very sought after. You're also given a relatively large amount of type points to go towards leveling the advanced types. It takes an awful lot of type points to level the advanced types. In fact, none of us have reached level two in our advanced types. You're also rewarded with what's called a Photon Shard. Photon Shards can be used in the game as a means of distracting enemies so you're not attacked for a while. But that's not the real value of the Photon Shard. They can be traded in to purchase the best Photon Arts and Skills and Bullets. It takes large amounts of Photon Shards to purchase one of these advanced arts, skills, or bullets. We're talking between seventy-five and ninety-nine for each one. That's a lot of work. Work we're welcoming at this point. Next week will see an update further adding content. Reportedly a new online mission in the story, and some more S rank missions.

Viva Pinãta -- Sparrowmints Like Whirlms.

Fiddling around with Viva Pinãta is indeed the best way to come to terms with how the game plays. The controls are big on the context sensitive style. You'll have an onscreen representation of the controls in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. You don't have a character onscreen in the game, instead you're just moving a cursor around from sort of a god's eye view of the garden. You're not looking at the garden from above, you're down in the garden looking about. The controls will change when you move the cursor over something within the game. Depending on what you've got the cursor over and what tool you're currently using you'll get a different possible action. The action is always on the A button. The B button is always to cancel out of a menu or to discard something The Y button is always for information on whatever you have the cursor currently covering. The X button allows you to bring up the main menu where you'll access a multitude of items and options. You'll be able to select which tool to equip. You'll be able to access your journal and the encyclopedia. You'll be able to head into the game's village to visit the store, or the doctor, or the builder, or the post office, or to hire helpers. You start the game by getting a garden on Pinãta Island. It's a run down and unkempt space all your own. You're tasked with cleaning it up. You're given your first tool, a shovel. You can use the shovel to smash the junk sitting in your garden so you can remove it. You can also pound the ground to break up the hard soil to turn it into usable fertile soil. In doing those tasks you'll more than likely level up which rewards you with another tool, a never-ending packet of grass seed. In getting enough fertile soil in the garden you'll also attract your first pinãta which will be a Whirlm, an earthworm. The pinãta who are attracted to your garden will be introduced by a cutscene and they'll show up around the edge of your garden. They'll be colored in black and white. Each pinãta type will have four requirement types. They are requirements for appearance, visit, resident, and romance. The Whirlm requirements are set extremely low as to insure that you'll get one without fail. The appearance requirement covers what it takes for the pinãta to make its first appearance on the outside edge of your garden. The visit requirement covers what it takes for the pinãta to enter your garden proper. The resident requirements cover what it will take for the pinãta to decide to take residency in your garden and make it their home. The romance requirement is what it will take for the pinãta to breed and produce more of their kind in your garden. For example, having a Whirlm in your garden will attract a Sparrowmint. If you get two Whirlm in your garden, you'll get the Sparrowmint to visit. If you get the two Whirlm to mate you'll get the Sparrowmint to move in and stay. When a pinãta moves in to your garden and becomes a resident it changes from black and white into full color and you're able to name it. In order to mate the Sparrowmint you will have to build it a Sparrowmint house in your garden and you'll have to feed each one a Whirlm. What you do to your garden will affect which pinãta types are attracted to your garden. Some will be attracted by the types of pinãta already in your garden and others will be attracted by what's in your garden. For example, they'll be attracted to how much water is in your garden, or what types of fruit trees, or what types of flowers, or they'll come because they're interested in your other pinãta as food. Everyone starts out with a Whirlm, but where the game goes from there is entirely up to you. You build your garden how you see fit. You start with a dirt field. You build it from the ground up from scratch. No two gardens will ever be the same. There are numerous items and thousands of possibilities and more than sixty types of pinãta. It's all up to you. Next time should cover more on mating, and more of the possibilities.

Viva Pinãta -- Initial Impression.

It's not like I don't have enough to play but next up for me is Viva Pinãta for the Xbox 360. Viva Pinãta is initially a hard game to wrap your head around. It comes off as part God sim and part puzzle game. You're tasked with managing a garden on an island where pinãtas live. Initially the graphics come off as lush. They're full of vibrant colors and great detail. The voice work comes off as immediately charming. Rare's typical sense of humor is also immediately front and center. The controls seem initially complex as does the initial learning curve. The game throws you right into the mix and starts peppering you with new information. You have a lot to learn in a very short time. It's the kind of game you're just going to have to mess around with. Learn as you go by fiddling with everything. The initial pacing just seems a tad hectic which gives the game a daunting vibe. We'll have to see how it all plays out, as always.

Phantasy Star Universe: The New Content Arrives.

Last night's much awaited update has finally arrived, and boy is it expensive. The update brings with it a wealth of new content. Most importantly are the new advanced types. You can update to one of the new advanced types for a small amount of Meseta. The new types are either combinations of a couple of the core types or a further extension of a single core type. In other words, if you've leveled your Hunter and Force type levels high enough you could qualify for the advanced type of Wartecher which combines the aspects of the two core types. I've leveled my Ranger to type level ten which qualifies me for the advanced type of Fortegunner which furthers the pure gunner path begun with the Ranger. The update brings with it seven new weapon types and grants access to A rank weapons and armor. The new weapon types are grenade launchers, claws, axes, cards, double sabers, laser cannons, and crossbows. The A rank weapons cost about 90,000 Meseta and that's a rather large amount. I'll have to update six or seven types of weapons up to A rank. I'll have the Meseta to be able to update one weapon and that will break the bank for me. Good thing I'll be able to fight my way through two new S rank missions to earn more Meseta for the daunting task before me. I don't even want to think about replacing the armor for well over 100,000 Meseta. I'll also be gaining type levels and rasing my Partner Machinery's combat level. As of this entry Siren's combat level is thirty-four. There is also the first story mission which is broken into two parts. Phantasy Star Universe Episode 2: Chapter 1 - The Mask part 1 & 2 continue the story of the offline game a few months later. You'll definitely want to have completed all of the offline game's story before playing these missions online. The story takes a dramatic and interesting turn right off the bat and it would be a rather large spoiler for the offline game. Christmas has also come to Phantasy Star Universe. There are decorations and new music up around the cities. There is suddenly a lot to do in Phantasy Star Universe again. There will supposedly be weekly new content updates for a while. We'll have to see how the game continues to expand...

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess -- Monkeying Around with the Controls.

While I've only managed to progress through two proper dungeons in Twilight Princess I feel confident in my assessment of the control. Most importantly is that they definitely work. I've had no problems adjusting to the control scheme beyond the initial learning of the button layout of a new controller I've never used before. There haven't been any negative control issues. No glitches. I haven't seen any non-responsiveness. The controls actually become very intuitive rather fast in playing the game. I have no issues controlling Link's movement. No issues in looking around. No issues in combat with the camera that wouldn't be there on the Gamecube controller. Defending myself and attacking are as easy as they've ever been. I've had no issues in aiming the boomerang, arrows, or slingshot. No issues in the combat while riding Epona. Everything works perfectly. Twilight Princess is a complex game and the performance of the controls eases any fears I might of had for real games on the system. Of course it will depend on the genre and the developer's skill, but Twilight Princess at least shows it will not be the Wii's fault for bad controls. Twilight Princess controls pretty much just like all of the 3D Zelda before it. If you've played Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, or Wind Waker then you have the basic idea. The player controls Link with the nunchuck controller's analog stick. Link's sword is controlled by the Wii Remote's motion sensing. You wiggle the Wii Remote to pull out your sword and for each sword motion. It only takes a little wiggle so you're not flailing around like an idiot. The controller isn't tied to Link's sword in a one-to-one ratio. So you don't have any sort of exacting control over the sword. In fact it's just as if it were being controlled by a single button push. One wiggle movement is as one button push. The nunchuck attachment has a Z button and it works just as it did in previous versions. The Z button accesses the Z targeting system which allows you to lock on to specific enemies. Being locked on to a target with sword drawn allows for Link's leaping sword strike when you press the A button on the Wii Remote. The Z targeting system also allows for defensive maneuvers in combat. Just holding Z uses Link's shield. Holding Z and pushing left, right, or back in combination with the A button allows for Link to sidestep to either side or to back flip away from enemies. Link's spin attack has been placed on the nunchuck attachment. While the sword is out you wiggle the Nunchuck attachment to cause Link to perform the spin attack. Link is as capable as he ever was. In fact, everything is pretty much the same. He still auto jumps as he did in previous versions. Just get near an edge and run off and Link jumps for you. To look around the world in Link's perspective you just hit the C button on the nunchuck attachment. You can then use the analog stick to look around or just use the pointer on the Wii Remote. They both are equally functional and easy to use. As always you'll find new items and weapons like a slingshot, bombs, a lantern, potions, a bow and arrows, and more which need to be assigned to buttons for use. Pressing the 1 button brings up the menu that allows you to assign the items to three of the Wii Remote's D-pad directions and the B button. All of these items are used with the Wii Remote's B button. Using the D-pad to switch between items is very easy and responsive. The 2 Button brings up the game's map system. The Wii's controls don't hinder anything about Zelda. The most complex actions like moving Link while aiming the bow independently are simple and intuitive for me. Looking at the trees so to speak, everything is great as far as Nintendo's Wii and current style gaming is concerned. But if you take a step back and take a look at the forest so to speak, did Zelda on the Wii need this? It's Zelda on the Wii. There isn't anything technically new. All that changes is in how you're doing the same things. The basic functionality of the game remains unchanged. It could be debated that there isn't really any change here. Nintendo hasn't reinvented the wheel.  So far they've proven they can do the same thing without any control issues. For some people that's sort of a great thing. But if Nintendo is going to be praised for innovation, shouldn't there sort of be some? As of right now I'm not sure there is any. But also as of right now, I'm just glad Zelda works perfectly, even if it is technically more of the same functionality...

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess -- Initial Impression.

We're on to one of the biggest releases of the season for the next game with The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for the Wii. Nintendo has a lot to prove with the Wii version of Twilight Princess. They're out to legitimize their Wii Remote in the eyes of the core gamer who may be thinking that Nintendo is abandoning them in their pursuit of new and casual gamers who are outside of the core demographic. My initial impression of the game is that it looks really pretty for a Gamecube game. Nothing about my three hours spent messing around with the game makes me feel that this is visually a next generation game. Of course I've been around long enough to know that graphics really mean next to nothing and that gameplay is king. The time I've spent with the game has all really been going through the standard tutorial based gameplay Nintendo employs for most of their larger games. My largest concern with the game is going to be the controls. So far I'm pleasantly surprised. It initially comes off as entirely playable. Things seem to actually work. That's not to say that there haven't been moments of confusion because there has been. But it seems it's more of just learning the controller than the control itself failing. Another aspect I'm going to be concerned about is the story itself and the storytelling. I've pretty much believed that the story has always been the series' weak link. They've just retold the same thing over and over and the story has always been relatively hollow. Hopefully that will change this time. I'm not far enough to get any idea of what they've done with the story. I can tell you that I've seen little bits of that old Nintendo charm. Just a character reaction here and an unexpected thing there but it's a good sign. I can say that I'm truly interested in further playing the game at this point. It's giving me a good vibe. We'll see how it all pans out of course...

SEGA Genesis Collection -- Fantastic Phantasy.

The original Phantasy Star for the SEGA Master System gets my vote as the greatest 8-bit game of all time. I was filled with great anticipation when I finally got my hands on the sequel Phantasy Star II when it was released in the US on the infant SEGA Genesis console. I can still remember how shocked I was at just how heavy the casing was for the game. It came wrapped in cellophane bundling a one-hundred and ten page hintbook because they thought the game too tough for the average player. It was also the first cartridge with 6 megs of memory. The hintbook, instruction manual, world map fold-out poster, the save battery, and the extra memory chip all combine to make the whole package considerably heavier than anything I had ever seen. It added literal weight to the game I was already anticipating beyond anything I had ever played before. Combined with the burgeoning 16-bit era it gave me the sense that I was stepping into a much larger world. A real sense of a true shift in gaming. Phantasy Star II remains the clearest sense of generation shifting that I've ever felt to this day. The game itself did not disappoint. The first thing I did was put the hintbook away in a drawer someplace and forgot about it. The original Phantasy Star was a graphically and aurally impressive blend of science fiction and fantasy. It was a true technical achievement. It was also easily one of the hardest games ever made. It was innovative in its use of a female lead character. It was a seemingly simple tale of revenge that expands out into a sprawling sci-fantasy tale that spans multiple planets in a struggle of light and dark. Phantasy Star II picks up the story a thousand years later with Rolf. An agent in the city of Paseo on the planet Motavia. In the thousand years of peace since the original game the world has become nearly ideal as technology has advanced to the point that the people no longer have any worries. It seems that there was some sort of accident at the Bioplant and Rolf is charged with retrieving the Data Recorder so they can analyze the data and see what's happened. It's with this seemingly simple task that Rolf is thrust into the life and death struggle for the entire Algo Star System. Phantasy Star II removed the first person dungeon view from Phantasy Star for that of the more traditional overhead view. Other than that, it pretty much retains everything from Phantasy Star. It features amazing levels of animation in the combat for the time, in both the player characters and the enemies. Every type of attack has its own animation. Every single creature animates. Every single creature has a couple of types of attacks each with their own animations. The level of detail is amazing. The story plays out wonderfully and it has sort of a detective vibe to it as you unravel the mystery. And the game is decidedly dark in tone. As you follow the trail and begin to put the pieces together you begin to see the darkness beneath the surface of the seemingly ideal world. The further you go the more it connects to the first game and the more it gets darker culminating in what's easily one of the most depressing endings ever seen in gaming. It's also my favorite ending of all time. The game is notoriously considered hard. It's a difficult game. Both in the combat, and in the dungeon design. Phantasy Star II somehow managed to make its dungeons feel harder than the first person view of the original Phantasy Star's dungeons. They are massive multi-floor sprawling nightmares filled with creatures you never seem to get the better of. You never feel secure, the creatures seem to always be capable of taking you out if you're not paying attention. The graphics are amazing for what amounts to a first wave RPG. The sound and music are especially great. Just as in the original Phantasy Star the music isn't traditionally fitting. It's bold and original and it works wonderfully. The story is smart. It's very ahead of its time. Its themes are still being used today. I consider Phantasy Star II to be a perfect game.

Considering how Phantasy Star is my favorite 8-bit game of all time and how Phantasy Star 2 considerably improved upon just about every aspect you could say I was greatly anticipating Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom. I can clearly remember loading the game up for the first time and getting chills from the opening sequence before the title screen. Starting the game you're put into the role of role of Rhys on his wedding day. Rhys is getting married to a woman named Maia who happened to wash up on the shore of the Kingdom of Landen without her memory some months previous. Okay. Strange start. It's seemingly all fantasy. What's this Landen thing? Where am I? I head off to where I'm supposed to be married. The ceremony starts and is soon interrupted by a dragon that swoops in and makes off with Maia. Okay. What? Where's my Phantasy Star 1 and 2? What is this? So begins what is generally considered the black sheep of the Phantasy Star family. As you play the game it begins to reveal its true Phantasy Star self. The further you go the more you reveal that it is indeed a proper Phantasy Star. Not only is it a proper Phantasy Star, it's as great as its brethren. The story leads you up to one of the coolest twists that I've ever seen in video games. It's clearly designed with twist in mind as everything builds to it. And it's in this twist that the game is clearly linked with the others in the series. To help pull this off, they changed the graphic style of the game. They altered the initial setting. They went with new music. Everything is designed to facilitate the big reveal of the twist. They also added a cool gimmick having the story of the game take place over a hundred years or so. You play through three generations of characters. The story leads to four different endings depending on your actions in previous generations. I think people who consider Phantasy Star III to be the black sheep of the series never actually completed the game. The deliberate change to the setting was too much for them to handle. I know it initially threw me for a loop back in 1993. Those who stick with it will find an amazing game and a true Phantasy Star that introduces and plays with themes that would be of great importance in future titles of the series. The story is amazing. The graphics are a mixed bag. The dungeons and overworld graphics are amazing. The dungeon and town graphics leave a little to be desired. The battle graphics added background but sacrificed most of the amazing battle animation. You don't even see your characters at all in battle and the enemies barely animate. The character art is good. The music is dark and even scary and intense. The main theme is easily one of the greatest tracks ever composed in gaming. The story is a great lead up to a great twist. It's cleverly designed so that it packs the biggest punch possible. The challenge of the combat is tougher than most of the games of the era, but is easier than Phantasy Star or Phantasy Star II. The dungeon difficulty was toned down. They're about on par with the rest of the genre at the time, but greatly pale to the dungeon designs and challenge of the previous games. The game has good replay value with the four endings.

SEGA announced that it was ending the Phantasy Star series with Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium. Needless to say I was rather saddened by this news. Again I was filled with amazing levels of anticipation for Phantasy Star IV. I couldn't wait to get my hands on it no matter the cost. The cost turned out to be $99. It's rather famous that the two divisions of SEGA, SEGA of America and SEGA of Japan, were essentially at war with each other by the end of the Genesis era. SEGA of Japan wasn't doing that well against the Super Entertainment System in Japan. They were a distant second. Meanwhile SEGA of America was more than holding its own against Nintendo's system. They were winning. SEGA of Japan couldn't understand what was going on and how their Western division was being so successful. SEGA of America had to essentially beg for Phantasy Star IV to even be released here. Thankfully they got it out. But not without a little bit of sabotage from SEGA of Japan. The hundred dollar price. SEGA of Japan wanted to bury the game. In spite of it all, Phantasy Star IV sold, and it sold well, even at that price. In all truthfulness Phantasy Star IV turned out to be more than worth the $100 price tag. It turned out to be a truly amazing game. Phantasy Star IV picks up the story of Phantasy Star II a thousand years later with Chaz and Alys. Two hunters from the town of Aiedo on Motavia who happen to accept a job from the Hunter's Guild that sends them to the Motavian Academy located in the town of Piata. Upon arriving at the college town they're thrust into a massive story set to end it all. Phantasy Star IV is a truly perfect game. It takes everything great about all the Phantasy Star games before and improves upon every single aspect. The graphics are gorgeous. The music is amazing and it continues with the now fitting Phantasy Star music strategy of using music that wouldn't normally fit. It also wisely incorporates established themes from the previous games. The battle graphics bring great backgrounds of the original game with the amazing character and enemy animation of the second. It's the best of both worlds so to speak. The dungeon design is also essentially the both of best worlds. The dungeons are larger and more complex than those of Phantasy Star III without being exceedingly tough as those of Phantasy Star I and II. Most important is the downright brilliant story and storytelling style. All the questions raisedby the first three games are addressed and soundly answered. Nothing is ignored or forgotten. The best way to describe it is as complete. The story is smart, excitingly fast paced, and filled with actual character. The characters in Phantasy Star IV are infused with actual character. Their character shines through in their conversations with each other and in the game's comic book panel means of telling the story. Instead of just merely talking to each other with just text, panels of art appear on the screen detailing the emotion and events of the story so they're hammered home. Phantasy Star IV's story uses all of the themes of the first three games and it makes numerous connections to the previous games. It goes beyond merely visiting locations from the first two games. More than just fighting creatures from the first two games. Phantasy Star, Phantasy Star II, and Phantasy Star IV tell one long story.  Those players who have played the previous games and are thorough in their searching will find amazing optional scenarios that are there for the fans. It's an amazing level of fan service. The story explains everything. It reveals details that strengthen the previous games. It reveals details you didn't know about at the time of the previous games that are just cool. Phantasy Star is my all-time favorite series, and SEGA couldn't have finished off the Algo saga in a better way. It's truly perfect.  Playing through it again reminds my just how much influence it had in creating games like Phantasy Star Online and Phantasy Star Universe. Concepts and themes from Phantasy Star IV are all through the newer games.

Phantasy Star Universe: Living on the Dole.

Phantasy Star Online was an open game. All you had to do was open the new difficulty levels and you'd see the whole game. The same can't be said for Phantasy Star Universe. The game shipped with over half its content locked away on the disc. SEGA will be unlocking bits here and there as a means of fulfilling the massively multiplayer online role-playing game illusion. The game shipped allowing us to run eight missions over two planets and the Guardians Colony. We were able to use C and B rank weapons and armor. Photon arts cap off at level twenty. Character levels cap off at level fifty. Type levels cap off at level ten. Three weeks into playing the game we received the first content update. The first content update opened up the universe by unlocking the third planet of Moatoob and adding another eight missions. We're still at the same level caps for character levels, photon arts, and types. That's fine by me as my main character still hasn't reached the level cap. He's three levels away. He's long since reached the type level cap however and his primary photon arts have reached twenty. I've been leveling secondary photon arts for his weapons. I've also been leveling my partner machinery and have her combat level up to twenty-four as of this entry. The next update will be a big one. One we've been waiting on. It will unlock the advanced types which bring with them the access to A rank weapons and armor and new weapon types and photon arts. Future updates will be upping the caps for character levels and photon arts. As well as adding in new photon arts, weapons, clothing, items, room decorations, remodeling tickets,  locations, missions, S rank missions, S rank weapons and armor, challenge mode, and story based missions. I personally have no problems with SEGA doling out the content like this but people seem to be throwing a fit over it. The only concern I have is that SEGA keep the content coming frequently. So far, based on the schedule of updates for the Japanese version of the game which is two months ahead of us, there have been numerous and constant updates. So we at least know a lot of content is coming our way. Now it's just a matter of waiting for it. Maybe I'll go see about hitting that character level cap...

Splinter Cell: Double Agent -- Broken Cat and Mouse.

I finally got around to playing some of the multiplayer aspect of Splinter Cell: Double Agent. It's the same old situation for this series. Great potential and promise not met. In theory the multiplayer aspects of Pandora Tomorrow and Chaos Theory were great concepts, yet somehow the finished product didn't work out that well for me. Pandora Tomorrow's multiplayer of Spies Vs. Mercs had too great a learning curve. By the time you were comfortable with the mechanics you were already frustrated with it. So forget about learning the nuances of the game. It didn't help that the level design was too ambitious and detailed or that the controls were spotty at best as far as grabbing a mercenary as a spy was concerned. The Spies Vs. Mercs game was carried over into Chaos Theory and so were all its problems. Chaos Theory did introduce the cooperative game. The co-op mode allowed you to play through four levels just as if they were in the offline game only with another living player. They were absolutely brilliant and the best thing to hit online gaming in ages. They've been left out of the X360 version of Double Agent entirely. And that's a crime in my opinion. What's left is essentially a stripped down version of the Spies Vs. Mercs game that was in the previous titles. They've altered it so that the spies can only take one gadget of a possible four with them at a time. They've removed all of the mercenary devices like the laser trip wires and wall mines which allows the spies to not have to worry about that aspect. It essentially removes most of the concern about stealth. It's more of a run and gun type of game designed to bring in the casual player. The same old concerns are still there. There is spotty detection when trying to grab a mercenary from behind. The maps are still too ambitious and overly confusing and the map system isn't very effective. It just adds to the confusion. They added a new kind of co-op game that just is the Spies Vs. Mercs game with three players as spies versus computer controlled bots as mercenaries. There is even a competitive mode to the co-op game. The biggest problem in the new co-op mode is the AI of the bots. They're way too smart to the point of being psychic. They just seem to instantly know where you are no matter how stealthy you've been. Overall the game is fun but as always there is the feeling that it could have been, and should have been so much more than it is.

A Shopping Wii Will Go.

Today Nintendo updated their pretty pitiful Virtual Console lineup with a title I was interested in purchasing. So I fired up the Wii and headed to the Wii Shop Channel. When you sign in to Xbox Live on the Xbox 360 you're connected to the whole service. You can browse Xbox Live Marketplace instantly. Nintendo's Wii doesn't work that way. When you select the Wii Shop Channel you're prompted with a choice to go to the shop or go back. Going on to the shop initiates the Wii signing in to the shopping server. For me this takes roughly ten to fifteen seconds. Once in the shop proper you can select the Virtual Console or the Wii Ware sections. The Wii Ware is where you'll purchase items like the Opera web browser and downloadable content for games such as extra levels and the like. The Virtual Console section is of course where you'll go to download those NES, SNES, N64, Genesis, and TG-16 titles. I was interested in Bonk's Adventure they added to the TG-16 section. You have a few ways of finding your item. You can browse a master list alphabetically. You can check out games for a specific system. You can check a list of the newest additions. Once you find the game you're looking for you can get some basic information like the original year of release and the Wii Point cost. There is an option for additional information that will give you a basic overview of the title. And of course there is an option to purchase the game. When purchasing the game it will go to a screen showing you how many points you have, how many points it'll cost, and how many points you'll have after the purchase. It does the same thing with the amount of memory you have. It asks for a final confirmation. Upon the final confirmation it will go to the download screen which is fittingly Nintendo charming. It's a screen with three blocks from Super Mario Bros. on the screen with a bunch of coins on the ground. Mario runs from left to right collecting the coins. As the download goes on Mario will jump and hit the block with the appropriate sound effects. He hits the first block at 33%, the second at 66%, and the final one at 100%. The download took me roughly fifteen seconds. Upon finishing the download when you return to the main Wii Menu you'll notice you now have a TG-16 channel. That's where you'll find all your TG-16 games of course. Bonk's Adventure loads almost instantly upon selecting it. I messed around with the game through the first boss. It was enough for me to tell that the emulation level for the TG-16 on the Wii is absolutely amazing. It's dead on. They also do something rather cool. Within the game you can press the Home button on the Wii Remote to bring up a menu that features the control diagrams. Screen shots that label what everything on the game's HUD actually are. You'll get full instructions. You'll get graphics showing what each in-game item does. You get a full-on virtual manual. Not just a scanned version of the original. One written to meet these new standards. I don't really care to have to sign in to the shop each and every time, but that's only a slight annoyance. Shopping from the Wii is easy enough. And it seems the emulation is held to a very high standard. And they've prepared new manuals and instructions for every game. I'm impressed with all of the little extras and the quality displayed so far.

Phantasy Star Universe -- The MAG Evolved.

One of the coolest aspects of Phantasy Star Online was easily the MAG. The MAG is a living machine that would float behind your character. You could feed it items. Roughly three items every six minutes. You could feed the MAGs items like Monomate and Trifluid and pretty much any healing or status restoration items. The MAG would gain levels in four categories. They were power, defense, dexterity, and mind. You could raise the MAG up to level one-hundred.  Based on how the categories were leveled your MAG would evolve to a new form at set level intervals. The MAG also had a direct status bonus of two points per category. In other words, for every level of power, you'd get two points added to your attack power. They also had Photon Blasts based on their forms at certain stages that allowed for a magic attack once you'd built up enough energy. So what did SEGA do to the MAG for Phantasy Star Universe? Well, they've dropped the name MAG in favor of Partner Machinery. They've also given the Partner Machinery a much larger role in the game. The Partner Machinery has sort of become a jack-of-all-trades with its expanded duties. The Partner Machinery acts as your storage system and your bank. You can store everything in your Partner Machinery from Meseta to all weapons, armor, clothes, and items. You actually need to store synthesizing materials in the Partner Machinery so that they can be used. The Partner Machinery now has the ability to create items out of materials found in the game. The Partner Machinery can attempt to create and item once it knows how to create an item and all of the needed materials have been placed inside its storage. How does a Partner Machinery make something? It follows the blueprints. In the game these blueprints are called Boards. The boards can be bought in stores and found out in the wilds from cargo boxes and dropped from the enemies and creatures. I said the Partner Machinery could have the chance to create the item once it had the plans and the items because it's not a certainty that it will be successful. The synthesizing process can fail and if it does you'll lose all the items needed to create the item. Instead of some killer gun or sword, you'll get a lowly Monomate from your rare and expensive materials. Each board will tell you what items are needed and in what quantity. They'll also list how many uses the board has. Once a Board is used up, it is destroyed and you'llhave to find or buy another. When you put in a Board and have all the materials needed in the storage, you can select to synthesize the item. You'll be asked to put in the various ingredients and for some of them you'll be given choices that will effect the element that will be applied to whatever you're attempting to make. At this point you can see what chance you have at successfully synthesizing the item. Obviously you'll have better odds at 85% compared to 40% and it's up to you if you want to risk it or not. The Partner Machinery no longer has a direct statistical affect on you. The categories of power, defense, dexterity, and mind have been replaced with striking, ranged, technic, and armor. As you raise these categories they'll have a twofold effect. First of all they help with synthesizing. Those Partner Machinery that are strong in striking for example will be better able to make swords and other striking based weaponry. Those that are higher in armor will be better able to make better armor. They'll have higher chances for success, and will be able to create a stronger piece of armor. The other aspect is the categories influence how the Partner Machinery will evolve. They reach evolution stages at levels, twenty, fifty, and eighty. At level eighty of a possible one-hundred production levels they'll evolve into their final form. A female Cast, or cyborg. At this stage they'll give you their partner cards which will enable you to invite them into parties and take them out into battle with you. They'll be tag along AI controlled assist based characters. You're able to name your Partner Machinery from production level zero. Mine is named Siren. It's a nice little Phantasy Star 3 reference. She's production level one-hundred. She has ranged to level one-hundred. She's essentially purebred for a Ranger, which is what my character Searren is. Each type of model they can evolve into has their own specialty. Siren is best at producing handguns. Other models would be best at making two-handed swords or shotguns. Once they reach their final forms, you'll have access to their combat level. You raise their combat levels by taking them out into battle with you. The levels are raised from the rank points you get at the end of each mission. As of this entry her combat level is nineteen of a possible one-hundred. As their combat levels raise, so does their intelligence in battle. Their behavior improves. At this point she's both an attribute and a detriment. She's strong in combat. Often able to hit for more damage than I am. But she's not that good at avoiding damage or protecting herself. Partner Machinery can die just like the player characters in battle. And just like the player characters in battle their deaths count against you in the ranking for the missions. There is yet one more aspect to the Partner Machinery. If you buy a remodeling ticket, which alters your personal room, and open a shop the Partner Machinery becomes the shopkeeper. When other players enter your player shop, they deal with the Partner Machinery. You're able to place items on sale and set the prices. Phantasy Star Universe is on when you're not there. So when you sign off, your Partner Machinery is minding the store. Or if you're having them make some sword that takes two hours, they're working while you're offline. So you don't have to spend those two hours on the game. They pass in real time. The MAG has had a drastic overhaul in becoming Phantasy Star Universe's Partner Machinery. I miss the interesting designs of the MAG from Phantasy Star Online. But then again my MAG never spoke in combat to annoy Magus and Riddel. And that's always a plus. But I just think they're jealous. They want one in battle, but theirs are only like production level four...

Nintendo Breezes Into Retail.

Today is the day that Nintendo's Wii goes on sale for the North American market. Nintendo hopes to regain the lion's share of the video game market by changing how we play video games. Nintendo has taken an entirely different approach with the Wii. Nintendo is offering the cheapest console of this current generation. It's only $249 compared to the $300-$400 and $499-$599 offerings of Microsoft and Sony respectively. To do that they've had to offer up the technically weakest system in terms of technical specifications. They've also embraced the all in one box they've until now rallied against. The Wii will surf the net. The Wii will go shopping. The Wii will play online games. It'll actually play games online that weren't made by SEGA and aren't Phantasy Star Online E1&2! The Wii handles digital photos. The Wii will tell you the weather conditions in Egypt. The Wii will also play all Gamecube games off the discs. The Wii will emulate games from the Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo 64, SEGA Genesis, and the Turbo Grafx-16. Oh yeah, and it'll even play Wii games too. But the real aspect to the system is of course its radical departure from the standard controller concepts. The Wii uses Wii Remote that is as it sounds. It's a wireless controller shaped like a television remote that features tilt control. There is an attachment that connects to the Wii Remote that is called the Nunchuck. The Nunchuck provides an analog stick and a couple buttons. The system also is able to register the controller's spatial positioning as well as being able to track movement through said space. So in other words, you'll swing that Wii Remote like a baseball bat when playing baseball. You'll make the sword motions while playing a game with sword fighting. It's a huge gamble at this point. It could go either way. It might be Nintendo's biggest success or it might be their biggest blunder. At 10:30 am this morning I set out to GameStop to pick up my Wii. I got there five minutes before they opened and noticed a couple people waiting outside.  I joined them and instantly recognized the seventy year old woman from the preorder line. She recognized me and we greeted and she proceeded to tell me just how much she's enjoying Final Fantasy 12 and how she's so excited to get her hands on Zelda for the Wii. Out of nowhere there were likethirty people there. The store opened at 11:00 am and we all went in to the manager informing everyone that they only got the exact number of systems they took preorders for. Five minutes later I was out the door with the Wii and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. They didn't get in any of the Classic Controllers I had preordered. This launch was a breeze compared to the nightmare experience of getting an Xbox 360 last year. The system is tiny but is actually heavier than I would have expected. The system is essentially the same size as three DVD cases stacked up. The system also feels extremely solid and dense. The Wii Remote feels solid and sturdy. Especially after you've put in the batteries. It has a nice weight to it. It's still a little smaller than I was hoping for. It fits my hand comfortably though. The Nunchuck on the other hand feels very light by comparison. It feels less solid and sturdy than the Wii Remote. Setting up the Wii is a little more involved than the standard console. You still have the power supply and the composite cables. But this time you also have the sensor bar so the system can read and interact with the Wii Remote. The sensor bar must be placed in front of or on top of the television. You're going to have to deal with positioning everything. I ended up having to move the satellite receiver so I can affix the sensor bar stand to the top of the television. The Wii Remote comes having been calibrated in the factory to work with your specific Wii already. As in the case with consoles these days the Wii needs you to tell it what day it is and what time it is before you can use it. If you enter the Wii Shop channel it will prompt you about connecting to the Internet. I use the Nintendo USB Wi-fi Converter for the Nintendo DS to get online and I'm glad that the Wii easily uses the same device. Getting on was as simple as selecting the test option and then which method you'd like to use. The Nintendo USB Wi-fi Converter was listed. It took all of a half of a second for the Wii to locate the device and a few seconds to confirm my connection. Upon connecting it prompted me for an update that took a minute or so to download. The update unlocked the Wii Connect 24 and Wii Shop channels. A second update followed. There is a lot to do in just messing around with the layout of the Wii interface. You can set all your options like how you want the system to deal with the Wii Connect 24 feature. That'swhere the console is online twenty-four hours a day even when the system is off in what's called the standby mode. I have it so that Wii Connect 24 is on when I'm on, and it's off when I power down the system. You can mess around in the Photo Channel if you have photos already on an SD card.  You can create your Mii in the Mii Channel. The Mii is essentially an avatar that you can incorporate into games that use the feature like Wii Sports. That way you can create something along the lines of Nintendo's version of a Sim and carry it across games. You can send your Mii to friends as well as using them in games. Speaking of friends, the friend code system on the Nintendo DS is clearly a pain in the ass. It makes a return with the Wii, but thankfully it's a single code based on your system. So you only have to enter the codes of your friends a single time instead for each and every game. The Wii system interface is as one would imagine, very pointer friendly for the Wii Remote. It's sparse and all the buttons are comparatively oversized which makes using the pointer aspect of the Wii Remote a breeze. It works wonderfully. Even typing in your address and your credit card number and friend codes and the like are decidedly easy to do. The system is full of sounds that initially I find a little grating. They're new age tones and chimes. The Wii Shop Channel features very cheesy mall Muzak that's appropriately fitting. An inspired choice. I like the look of the system itself and the interface is functional. There are some aspects to the interface that aren't the most streamlined in my opinion. Overall I'm happy with what's there. The news, Internet browsing, and weather service aspects of the channel menu aren't active. There are a handful of Virtual Console games to try. Nothing I'm particularly interested in paying for to see how they actually perform. I'll have to wait for something worthwhile to test that out. I had no problems purchasing Wii Points via my credit card with the system. I entered ZBo's and Pent's friend codes and sent them mine. I also sent them my Mii and I've accepted ZBo's Mii on to my system. I spent a little time messing around with Wii Sports to get a sense of the controller in action. I'll just say the initial impression is mixed and save any real details for another entry. It's a good start for Nintendo. Everything seems to be working as it should and was relatively painless to this point. And as far as I know, nobody has beenshot in attempting to secure a Wii. There do seem to be a lot of people left wanting one though as they've apparrently mostly sold out before stores ever openend. People were aware and they were lining up early. Nintendo reportedly shipped a million units. They reportedly have a million more to ship before the year's end in the US alone with launches in both Japan and Europe this year. People should be able to start getting them from weekly shipments starting with Black Friday. Let's see where it all goes, shall we?

The PlayStation 3 Stumbles Into Retail.

Sony continues to limp forward with the PlayStation 3 as the system officially hits stores today. All the reports and estimates say that Sony has only shipped somewhere around 250,000 PlayStation 3 units to store shelves for the North American region. The system comes in two versions, the $499 model with the 20GB harddrive and the $599 model with the 60GB harddrive. The 60GB model also has built in Wi-fi and a Flash Card slot. The early adapter demand from the Sony fanboys and the profiteers is high enough to essentially cause a feeding frenzy. Sony has had serious problems in finalizing the hardware and in the manufacturing of the components for the system. Sony was supposed to have a worldwide launch. They pushed the European launch date back six months. They were able to launch in Japan on November 10, 2006, with an estimated 80,000 units. The consoles were gone in a flash, but the software sat on store shelves. Most console launches have a game that comes close to a 1:1 attach ratio. Sony didn't even come close. The highest selling title at launch was Ridge Racer 7 which ended up attached to less than 40% of the systems sold that day. We'll have to see how they do with the software attach ratio in America. Microsoft for example managed an overall 2:1 software attach ratio with its own troubled launching of the Xbox 360. It seems that eBay is being flooded with PlayStation 3 systems. It seems that a great many of the people who lined up to secure the system itself or preorders on an earlier date were profiteers who have zero interest in the console beyond the resale profit value. That's not going to help with the software attach ratio. The system seems to be currently selling on eBay for $4,000. Since there are so few systems available for the North American launch and the demand so high, people have been camping out for days in hopes of securing a system. There have been reports of riots resulting in the closing of a Walmart. I actually go to that Walmart from time to time. People have shot BB guns at the people waiting in line. People have been robbed at gunpoint while camping out. The local news has been showing video footage of fist-fighting and sheriff deputies arresting disorderly people in line. There is a report of someone having been shot. A GameStop was robbed of four PS3s at gunpoint. It's essentially madness out there. And all this because Sony is feeling the heat to the point of being scared. They felt they had to launch even though they clearly weren't ready for it.  For me personally, I know I'll have to get a PlayStation 3 eventually. It's not a question of do I want one. I know I'll eventually need one. Sony's system will eventually have enough exclusive titles to justify the system cost. Right now though, there isn't anything on the system I need, or really have any interest in for that matter. Resistance: Fall of Man is the only title that I would be interested in. And that's just a pretty FPS that's not going to do anything new or innovative. I know Virtua Fighter 5 is eventually going to come out for it. Metal Gear Solid 4 will eventually come out for it along with Final Fantasy 13 and Ratchet & Clank. Eventually, but not now. Plus it wouldn't hurt to give Sony six months to get the kinks out. Sony is notorious for shoddy hardware. Everyone I know has replaced a PSX or PS2. And if the demand isn't there because of the high price of the console after the early adapter rush and the system starts to languish on shelves then maybe the price cut will come sooner rather than later. One can only hope...

SEGA Genesis Collection -- Everything Golden.

In 1989 SEGA released a sidescrolling beat'em up into the arcades by the name of Golden Axe.  The arcade game pretty much became an instant classic hit. In the very same year SEGA was introducing its new console system, the Genesis to American homes. The big push for SEGA's Genesis was for the first time ever you could have arcade titles at home. Sure, there were ports of arcade titles going back to the Atari Video Computer System through the Nintendo Entertainment System and SEGA Master System era, but they never did the arcade games they were based on any justice. In less than a year SEGA had Golden Axe on the Genesis. They released it in December of 1989. Golden Axe used a pure fantasy theme straight out of Dungeons & Dragons. You select one of three playable characters in a quest to rescue the king and princess and to ultimately defeat the evil Death Adder.  The three playable characters all feature different moves and elemental magic. The characters are Ax Battler, a barbarian who uses a long sword and has the ground based volcanic magic. The female character is named Tyris Flare who is an Amazonian that uses a standard sword and has the strongest element in the fire magic. The final character is Gilius Thunderhead who is a dwarf that uses a broad ax and has thunder magic. The controls are simple enough with a button for attack, jump, and magic. The player can move freely in eight directions over the scrolling background. You swing your sword or ax into the enemies while trying avoid their attacks. There are moves like double-tapping left or right on the D-pad to run. If you hit the attack button while running you can slam into the enemies knocking them down. You can jump and attack in mid air, timing the attacks so the connect when you come crashing down on the enemies. If you run and then jump you'll get extra air and then you can hold down the attack button for an extra powerful downward attack. Pressing jump and attack at the same time allows for a back attack. All the attacks are animated differently depending on the characters you use. There are some subtleties in the attacks that might not be readily apparent. If you're close enough to an enemy when attacking you can press towards them which will cause your character to throw the enemy if they are small enough to be lifted. You can also time the attacks so that once you've first struck the enemy they will be stunned and unable to attack. As long as you keep the timing correct, you can attack them uninterrupted until they're dead. There are some wrinkles thrown into the mix like beasts that can be mounted and controlled and used to attack. The Chicken Leg enemies from Altered Beast show up for this purpose, as do some red and blue dragons. At the end of each proper stage there is a boss enemy to be slain. Between the level the player character camps for the night. The camp is raided by thieves. It's a chance to restock on magic pots and fill your health back up with food. Attacking the thieves causes them to drop the necessary items. The gameplay is pure hack and slash that controls well. The collision detection works rather good. The graphics are extremely dated now, but greatly impressed in 1989. The music is awesome compositionally. Again it sounds dated now but wowed back in the day. The game is quite short. You could get through it with continues in less than an hour. Getting through the game without using any continues is something else altogether. That took months of practice.

Two years later SEGA released Golden Axe II. The game was released in December of 1991 and was an entirely original entry. It was created for the Genesis without being based on any arcade game. The same style of gameplay is present. It's again pure hack and slash. The same three playable characters return. They're facing off against a new evil in the form of Dark Guld. He's stolen the Golden Axe as part of his revenge at being sealed away. You know the story, he's out, he's pissed and all that. The characters control the exact same way as they did in the original Golden Axe on the Genesis. The game still plays out the same way. You go through the stages with a boss battle at the end killing hordes of enemies along the way. You still have magic at your disposal. This time you're collecting spell books instead of magic pots. The big difference in the magic this time around is that it has been broken down into levels. You hold down the magic button and the meter fills and you release it on the level you want to use. So you don't have to waste your full magic meter to save your life. Or if you see that you're full and there are two books on the ground in the game you can just use the two so you can pick those up and be at full magic. All the characters and enemies have been redrawn and there are somenew enemies thrown in. The game is longer than the original. The graphics are improved, but they're not among the better looking Genesis games by any means. The sound is also improved with some cool arrangements of Golden Axe themes. The game is also tougher than the original. The second game is technically better all around, but it somehow lacks that special something of the original for me. I personally prefer the original even though this entry is widely considered the better title.

SEGA released the third Genesis Golden Axe title in Japan in June of 1992. Golden Axe III was never released outside of Japan in cartridge format. It made an appearance on the SEGA Channel in the US where players could download it to play. A lot has changed from Golden Axe I & II to Golden Axe III. Gilius Thunderhead is in the game but isn't playable any more. Ax Battler and Tyris Flare are still there. They're joined by a man-panther and a hulking barbarian. You can also block for the first time. But so can all of the enemies. Another interesting new concept is earning extra men by freeing the prisoners the enemy have taken. You'll get a marker under your life and magic meters for each prisoner freed. Get five and you'll get an extra life. You actually get all of the old returning moves, and a whole slew of new ones. All the characters have a special attack that's handled in a Street Fighter 2 type motion. For example with Tyris you can hit toward, away, toward and attack + jump for her projectile attack. The tiered magic system from Golden Axe II returns. The big change is in the choosing of your path which greatly increases the replay factor of the game. At certain points in the game you'll be prompted to select a direction to take. You can't see all the possible stages with a single run through the game. The game features some returning enemies from the first games and offers up quite a few new ones. The graphics are slightly improved over Golden Axe II. The sound has some great arrangements of Golden Axe themes and is about on the level of the second game. The challenge is considerable in this one. You'll need to learn how to defeat each enemy type with whatever character you're using. The third Genesis offering is the largest of the three games.

Overall the series is well worth playing through. They're not graphically impressive nor do they offer deep gameplay. I don't think they'll impress many people these days. At the time they were solid fun. Never the cream of the crop so to speak, just simple and fun.

Phantasy Star Universe -- More than a Three-Hit Combo.

The battle system of Phantasy Star Online got the job done with a simple three-hit combo. That was enough in bringing the turn based battles of Phantasy Star 1-4 into an online action networked RPG. It worked across both Hunters and Rangers with normal and hard attacks with any combination of the two in the three-hit combination. Forces had their one-off techniques. In turning Phantasy Star Online into Phantasy Star Universe SEGA has changed things around considerably. First of all they've expanded the hit combination up to a potential six button presses for Hunters. Some weapons like daggers hit twice per button press which makes for a potential twelve-hit combination. This alone adds considerable depth compared to PSO, but they didn't stop there. They've tied Photons to all the weapons and added special moves in the form of Photon Arts. Depending on the weapon, each attack costs a set amount of Photon Points. Weapons like swords and daggers have a free standard attack. Weapons like rifles and mechguns cost Photon Points for each standard shot. All weapons have a set of Photon Arts that you can purchase and apply to said weapon.  For example, a one-handed sword has a Photon Art called Rising Strike. Once applied it adds the special attack on to the Y button while the standard attack is tied to the X button. Rising Strike enables the player to spin around allowing for two hits and then with a finish of a jumping upward strike for a third hit that has the potential to send the enemy flying and crashing down off their feet where they're defenseless until they right themselves. The big two-handed swords have a Photon Art called Tornado Break that has the player spinning around like a whirlwind. Ranger Photon Arts come in the form of bullets that permanently replace the standard attacks. These bullets have the potential to cause status ailments to the creatures such as the damage over time based Burn or Poison. Others like Freeze will incapacitate an enemy within ice where they are entirely defenseless. Forces use Techniques which are photon based and are now applied to the weapons as the Hunter and Ranger Photon Arts are. Wands allow for two Techniques to be applied and rod based weapons allow for four Techniques. One Technique is applied to the X button with another applied to the Y button. With rods you press and hold the Right Bumper to switch to the other two Techniques also applied to the X and Y buttons. You might be thinking only four techniques for a Force, aren't they a little neutered? Phantasy Star Universe allows for players to carry multiple weapons. They've introduced the palette system. Pressing and holding the B button allows for you to access the palette which is a two columns of six spaces. The column on the right is where you'll place your weapons. The column on the left is where you'll place your items like Trimate and Moon Atomizers. So during combat you can just press and hold B and then use the D-pad to move between the weapons and items with ease. With six slots allowed for weapons and items each, players of any type will be walking arsenals. You'll need to carry a wide variety of weaponry because of the strict nature of the Photon Points. With each Photon Art and every standard Ranger and Force attack costing Photon Points you'll soon find yourself with a weapon that no longer has any power left. The Photon Points do recharge over time, but it's very slow and only for the weapon you're currently holding. The others on the palette don't recharge. In the combat missions there are Photon Point recharge stations that will refill your weapon's Photon Points in exchange for some Meseta. There is still another aspect to the new system. The Photon Arts level up. The more you use them the more powerful they'll become. There are type restrictions placed on the Photon Arts. A Ranger can use select C Rank level Hunter weapons but will only be able to level the Photon Arts for the weapon to level ten. Meanwhile the Hunter will be able to level the same Photon Art for the same weapon to twenty and higher. Right now Photon Arts are capped at twenty but will reach thirty and beyond with future content updates. Leveling your Photon Arts are rather important as they're your real strength in battle more so than your actual character level.  The Photon Arts get bonuses at level eleven and twenty-one. The shotgun based Photon Art Shigga Diga for example starts out shooting three projectiles with each blast of the gun. At eleven you'll gain a fourth projectile with each blast, and a fifth at twenty-one. That's a considerable bonus. If you're hitting a creature for 50 damage that would mean 150 damage per shot at a level below eleven. At eleven that's 200, and at twenty-one that's 250. Hunter Photon Arts allow for an extra combination to be added at eleven.  There is considerable depth and a new dynamism added to the combat. With creatures also able to attack with more depth and combinations and players and enemies alike being sent flying all over the place from taking damage it's far more visually stimulating than the already stimulating PSO combat. The combat of Phantasy Star Universe comes off as a great step forward. I really like it. Next time should cover the Partner Machinery...

Phantasy Star Universe -- A Full Offline Phantasy?

So in the last PSU entry I said I'd cover the combat next. Well, I lied it seems. The biggest change in turning Phantasy Star Online into Phantasy Star Universe has to be in offering up a supposedly full-fledged offline game. I have completed the offline portion of the game. It took me roughly twenty-three hours. If you're expecting a Phantasy Star IV experience you're going to be disappointed. The offline game uses the same engine as the online game of course. And although they're trying to give people a full offline game, the engine is clearly designed for the online aspects of the disc. A lot of people would say Phantasy Star Online didn't even have a story. I would say it had a great story. A story you had to pull out of the game. A great story for those willing enough and thorough enough to find one. The story in PSO was entirely found online. In this regard, Phantasy Star Universe is a true improvement. The offline story is simple and easy to follow and is clearly presented. There are some caveats though. It's half told through voiced in-game scenes and FMV, and the text bubbles of Phantasy Star Online. The characters use pantomime and their text is almost of an 8-bit style. This is going to turn off a lot of people. The story is also very Japanese anime. In other words, if this were subtitled in English with spoken Japanese, it would be considered awesome. But since it's dubbed in English it's suddenly crap. The story isn't going to set the world on fire. It is however good. It messes around with Phantasy Star themes in general. The story definitely feels like Phantasy Star. The Gurhal System isn't Algo nor is it Ragol. It's a new universe which allows them to mix things up and reintroduce characters in different form from the original Phantasy Star games. You have characters from the first four Phantasy Star games re-imagined. The standard Phantasy Star themes of nature Vs. science and technology, corruption, religion, racism, and light and dark are all put into play in Phantasy Star Universe. I like how they mixed things up and repositioned the players. Some of the plot twists are straight out of the classic Phantasy Star games. There is one aspect I wish they'd focused more on. The darkness is left pretty much untouched. The story is supposedly only partially told in the offline game. It's supposed to go on in the online portion of the game. I have my theories on the dark aspect of the story, but I'd like to seem them proven true. The story is broken up into chapters, just like an anime television show. It even features the same opening and ending to each episode as if it were the opening and closing of a show. It's a very cool way of telling the story. They also title and preview each episode just like anime shows. You should be able to get a Phantasy Star Online level tale out of it. The re-imagining aspect of it keeps it separated from the others beyond the general way that the darkness spreads throughout existence. Overall I'd say the story is well worth playing through the offline game. The offline story is not an afterthought, but it's not a true stand alone effort either.

SEGA Genesis Collection -- Initial Impression.

SEGA Genesis Collection is just that, a collection of SEGA Genesis games on the PlayStation 2. The disc holds twenty-eight Genesis titles that are open to play from the start. There are five arcade games to unlock. As well as the usual histories, art, tips, and interviews these retro collections tend to have. I won't be playing all of the titles on the disc, as I own and have played most of them to completion numerous times in their original forms. The initial impression seems to be that the interface is clean and simple. The best route to take with these collections. The emulation seems strong. We'll have to go through each of them to see how exacting they actually are. The overly obvious sound issues from previous collected Genesis games don't seem to be here. The twenty-eight games in the collection are as follows: Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle, Altered Beast, Bonanza Bros., Columns, Comix Zone, Decap Attack: Starring Chuck D. Head, Ecco the Dolphin, Ecco II: The Tides of Time,  Ecco, Jr., Kid Chameleon, Flicky, Gain Ground, Golden Axe, Golden Axe II, Golden Axe III, Phantasy Star II, Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom, Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium, Ristar: The Shooting Star, Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi, Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master, Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Super Thunder Blade, Sword of Vermilion, Vectorman, Vectorman 2, and Virtua Fighter 2.

Phantasy Star Universe -- The New Mission Structure.

The semi MMORPG aspect isn't the only restructuring Phantasy Star Online has gone through in becoming Phantasy Star Universe. You had four huge locations on the planet of Ragol to explore. The forest, the caves, the mines, and the ruins. Each area had multiple sections to explore. For example the forest had two sections and a boss location. The caves had three sections and a boss location. The original difficulty structuring was based on levels. Once you cleared the first three sections of the game, activating Dark Falz monoliths along the way, you'd be given access to the final area that is the ruins. There you'd fight the final boss Dark Falz and the credits would roll. You'd then have access to the hard difficulty level and you'd do it all over again to earn the access to the very hard difficulty level. PSO Ver. 2 introduced the ultimate difficulty level. In PSO on normal there weren't very many rare items of note. Things got a little better on hard. But the real rare items didn't show up until very hard. And of course ultimate was just that, the ultimate in rare potential. Phantasy Star Universe changes up a few things. First of all, in PSO you had to run through the full game on each difficulty level before you could access another one. PSU breaks up the world into missions and each mission has a difficulty ranking. They are ranked C (normal), B (hard), A (very hard), and S (ultimate). When you go to a PPT Terminal or a Flyer Base, where missions are selected, you can select missions based on level restrictions. For example, on the Guardian's Colony, you have access to the C rank missions from character level one. You don't have to complete the full game to access the B rank, you just need to reach character level ten. There is another major change to the mission structure and that's in the group reward. In Phantasy Star Online there was a challenge mode that required a team of players to play as a team. You essentially needed to deal with any puzzles and the creatures flawlessly to even complete the missions. You were also strictly timed. So far the missions in PSU don't end if someone makes a mistake, but the bonus the group earns is based on how the entire team performs. It's trying to foster the philosophy that if someone dies it's not their fault, it's the team's for not keeping them alive. When you complete a mission in PSU a result screen will pop up showing you how much Meseta you've earned and how many type points you've earned towards your type level. It's based on how many party members were incapacitated and if you killed all the enemies. There is also an individual record of what they call the play time. It's not really about the time it took, it's about how much of the area you were around for. You're ranked from C to S. You want an S rank as it gives the most Meseta and type points. You'll receive less for an A or B rank, and you'll actually receive nothing for the C rank. I like the change they've made here. It's the middle ground between the no penalties standard play of Phantasy Star Online and its extreme of the challenge mode. It does foster a concern for the team that Phantasy Star Online lacked. It also adds some great tension in not wanting to die and some humor in the situations that result. The size of the missions seems to be a better balance compared to PSO. PSO had some truly massive areas. Getting through all three sections of either the caves or the ruins took a sizable amount of time. PSU offers the areas in mission based chunks that you can mix and match to suit your needs. The overall mission structure in PSU is far more refined than it was in PSO or PSO: Blue Burst. It's an improvement. Next time will actually cover the combat of Phantasy Star Universe... really.