Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin -- Initial Impression.

It's on to the Nintendo DS for the next game with Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin. The latest installment in the long-running Castlevania series is another entry in what's been come to be known as the metroidvania style. It's an action game backed up by action-RPG elements such as leveling up and item collection. From what I've played of Portrait of Ruin so far I can tell there are some changes in store to the fundamental systems for this entry as usual. Mainly in the tagalong NPC gameplay and the puzzle element it represents. I'll get into more details in a future entry of course. The graphics have never looked better. I'm not so sure about the animation level. It might be a bit lesser than this time. The NDS is capable of impressive full motion video segments as witnessed with the opening to Portrait of Ruin. The music level sounds good from the one or two tracks I've heard so far. The story seems to be still on the same level as all other Castlevania titles thus far. You know, cheesy and irrelevant. The general impression though is that I'm in store for another very solid Castlevania experience in an overall if it's not broken don't fix it kind of way.

Capcom Classics Collection 2-8+Final Opinion.

We go back to 1987 for the next game which happens to be Street Fighter. The original game in the series that launched a genre into prominence. The original machine had one punch button and one kick button. The buttons themselves were nematic and could register how hard they were hit to three levels. This allowed for three levels of punches and three levels of kicks. The game allowed you to control Ryu as you worked your way through two challengers at each of the game's five different countries four a total of ten bouts. The game introduced the characters of Ryu, Ken, Birdie, Sagat, Gen, and Adon who would all rise to fame in later installments of the series. To put it bluntly, the original Street Fighter is one of the worst games ever. It has flightly controls and difficult timing. It is interesting to own as a footnote in gaming history. The game was made by Yoshiki Okamoto who happened to make Time Pilot and Gyruss over at Konami before heading over to Capcom where he would start a series that would forever change the arcades and gaming as we know it.

We jump to 1994 and Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo. This game represents the final revision of the overly revised Street Fighter 2 series. This is the ultimate version of the game. This one has the extended roster from Street Fighter 2: The New Challengers as well as having three speeds selectable at the start. The slowest of which is faster than anything seen in the original. This is the one with seventeen hidden characters even though they're mostly old versions of the characters. Akuma is playable. This one also introduces the air combo as well as the super combos which have become staples of the series to this day. For Street Fighter 2 fans this is the Holy Grail.  For me, eh.

Finally we wrap up in 1994 with Eco Fighters. The game is a horizontally scrolling shooter featuring an ecological theme of stopping pollution. You're out to stop an evil mega-corporation from clear-cutting an entire planet. You control your ship with the joystick of course and you have one button to fire and one button to rotate left and another to rotate right. The ship you control has an arm that can rotate around three-hundred and sixty degrees allowing you to fire in any of the eight directions independently ofyour ship's movement. The enemy ships drop crystals for you to collect. There is a counter at the bottom of the screen counting the crystals to twenty. When you reach twenty it triggers a ship that comes out and delivers a power-up. So you always know the when of your impending power-ups. There are four weapon types and they can each be leveled up to level four.  The game has great graphics with a cartoonish art style. The challenge is pretty fair for a shooter.

And now for the final opinion. What do you get for your $20 admission fee? Well, you get twenty Capcom arcade games from the mid 1980s to the mid 1990s. These are fully realized games unlike some titles you might find on collections from the late 1970s and early 1980s. You get very good emulation of all twenty games. You get a history for every title with unlockable art and music for each title. The games themselves are a mixed bag. Your appreciation will heavily depend on how you feel about the abundance of the brawler and shooter and action genres. I also think that your appreciation will depend on your interest in the history of gaming. Capcom Classics Collection 2 is more for those interested in the history of things rather than someone walking in off the street and picking it up. I appreciate the value and the history of it all. I'm giving Capcom Classics Collection Volume 2 a 7.5.

Capcom Classics Collection 2-7.

Knights of the Round hit the arcades in 1992. It's another sidescrolling brawler like Final Fight. This one is centered on the King Arthur legend. It takes place after Arthur has drawn Excalibur and become King. Arthur is sent on a quest for the Holy Grail. The game uses the joystick to control the character with one button to attack and another to jump. Attack and jump together is a special attack that drains your energy. The game has a few combinations based on joystick position and button pressing. The art style is very western in nature. The whole game is actually very straightforward. No dragons or other fictional creatures and the like. Just human enemies throughout. The game employs a level up structure based on your score. The game is quite fun and the pure take on the theme helps the game stand out from the brawling crowd.

The year 1992 also saw the release of Varth: Operation Thunderstorm. Varth is a vertically scrolling shooter set in a futuristic world. It's very much in the tradition of the 194X series. You fly your plane through all the standard shooter conventions. Varth doesn't break any new ground for the genre. It's just a solid example of said genre. The graphics are great. The sound is decent. The challenge is mid level.

Still with 1992, we find the oddity of Quiz and Dragons. The game is trivia based with RPG conventions. You select one of four character types. A ninja, warrior, wizard, or Amazonian. You move across the board by rolling a single die. You move however many spaces you roll and you'll fight an enemy. The enemies are all based on RPG creatures. You'll find all the standards from the slime, to the orc, kolbold, wraith, dragons, golems, and many more. Each of the enemies are rated. That numerical value is how many questions you'll have to get correct in order to defeat the creature and move on. Lowly creatures like slimes will take two correct answers while higher types like hydras might take as many as six or seven. Your character has five hit points. You'll lose one with each wrong answer. The creature will ask a question and you'll be given the choice of four possible answers. The buttons are all assigned to a specific answer. Along the board there are spaces for inns and other things like elves. Answer the innkeeper's question correctly andyou can refill your HP. Answer a question from an elf correctly and you'll be given a reward. Items in the game will have different effects such as the magic scroll allowing you to select your category or the magic sword making one of the incorrect answers vanish from the field. Each of the character types has their own innate ability. The warrior can replenish more health. The ninja can do double damage so one correct answer counts as two. The wizard can select the category. The Amazonian can use magic that can strike one or two incorrect answers from the field. All of their innate abilities are random. They'll just happen from time to time. The trivia in the game is surprisingly diverse and quite challenging. Quiz and Dragons is one of the strangest games I've ever played, but it's also pretty damn cool.

Capcom Classics Collection 2-6

The last game from 1991 on the disc is actually three games in one. The cabinet itself is called Three Wonders. The board contains three full games from three different genres. The first one is called Midnight Wanderers and it's a sidescrolling action game that plays loosely like Ghouls 'n' Ghosts. You run and jump and fire while battling enemies. You can jump up and grab on to ledges above you. You can also jump down below you. The stages have a midboss and the end boss for the stage. The graphics are very good with an exceedingly bright and colorful cartoonish art direction. The story concerns two elves trying to make their way to a tower where they can recover a magical artifact called the Chariot that will help them save the world.

The second game in the board is surprisingly enough called Chariot. It's a horizontal scrolling shooter. It takes place immediately after Midnight Wanderers and stars the same character. You're using the Chariot which turns out to be a pair of wings that enable you to fly. You'll be facing off against a lot of the same enemies from the other game. You'll even fight some of the same bosses over again in new forms. Chariot has the same level of graphics as Midnight Wanderers. The same cartoonish art direction. Chariot comes off as the standard shooter. It's a little more interesting with its Midnight Wanderers connection.

The final game on the board is called Don't Push and it's a puzzle game. Don't Push isn't related to the other two games on the board in any way. Which is a tad disappointing truth be told. The game has you controlling a cute cartoon rabbit around a board littered with blocks. You're able to push these blocks around. The object is to squish the enemies with the blocks. You'll move on to the next stage when all enemies have been eliminated. Each level has a different block pattern and number of enemies. There are fruits to collect that count toward an extra life. The gameplay can get frantic while remaining quite fun.

Capcom Classics Collection 2-5

Into 1991 we go with Block Block. The game is a Breakout clone. You have a paddle controller that moves a platform to the left and right across the bottom of the screen and you need to clear all the blocks off the screen by bouncing a ball into them. They had to add something to Breakout so they weren't sued. They've added hidden items within the blocks that will drop when the respective block is destroyed and the player must catch the items with the platform as they fall off the bottom of the screen. These items do everything from add more points, making your platform longer, making your ball larger, and helping you earn extra lives. Another aspect is the platform itself will start to shrink. There is a counter at the bottom of the screen that lets you know how many more times you can bounce the ball off the platform before it shrinks again making the game harder and harder as you go along. The game also employs all the trick blocks such as blocks that have to be hit multiple times, blocks that have to be hit from a specific side, to blocks that are moving and the like. The game's graphics are great for being Breakout. In the arcade you would have used a paddle controller, a knob in other words to turn left and right to move the platform. At home with the PS3's Sixaxis controller, the control just isn't as precise as it should be.

Also in 1991 we have The King of Dragons. The game is Capcom's take on SEGA's Golden Axe.  It's a sidescrolling action game with a pure D&D fantasy theme. The game allows you to select one of five characters on a quest to slay an evil dragon. You can choose between a cleric, dwarf, elf, fighter, and wizard. Each one playing differently of course. The game features the standard joystick for control over the character with a button to jump and another to attack. Pressing the attack and jump buttons together unleashes a magic attack that cost some of your energy. The difference with The King of Dragons is that the player gains experience from enemies defeated and from items collected. As you level up your become stronger and your range improves as well as your stamina. You can also collect higher level weapons and shields from chests along the way. The graphics and sound are great in The King of Dragons. The gameplay is fun and you'll want to play through the game as each character type.

Still in 1991 with Captain Commando. The game is sort of a bizarro take on Final Fight. It's another sidescrolling brawler just like Final Fight. It even takes place in Metro City, the same city as Final Fight, only a bit in the future. You get a button for attack and one for jump. Combinations of the buttons and the joystick directions will result in different moves. Unlike Final Fight the game allows for four players to play at once. The game features four players to choose from. You have the titular Captain Commando who can shoot lightning along the ground. You have Ginzu the Ninja who can cut enemies in half. You have Mack the Knife who happens to be an alien mummy with a pair of long knives. And finally but not least you have Baby Head, who is a super smart infant who rides around on a humanoid mech. The game has you going through locations like downtown, the ninja house, the circus tent, the secret lab, and eventually into outer space. The whole thing is just intentionally bizarre. It's a fun distraction of a game for those looking for some Final Fight type action.

Capcom Classics Collection 2-4.

We're up to 1990 and another installment of Capcom's 194X series. 1941: Counter Attack is the third entry in the 194X series which at last count has seen five arcade titles with numerous revisions among them. It's another vertically scrolling shooter with a W.W.II design. You're still flying a plane deep into enemy territory shooting down everything in sight while avoiding the plentiful enemy fire coming your way. You're still collecting power-ups from defeated enemies. You still have the looping maneuver to avoid enemy fire. Only this time it also acts as a magic attack. A couple of things have been updated for this version. The graphics look great. Highly detailed and crisp. You have a new ability in the charged shot. Hold down the fire button to charge up a powerful attack that shoots out homing missiles and the like. The longer you charge it the stronger it becomes. You also can take some damage this time around. It's no longer one hit and you're gone. The game has you going up against the Germans this time. You'll see a lot of the legendary secret weaponry the Germans were trying to develop during the war to turn the tide. The game also has a greater focus toward ground based action. The game actually plays like a souped-up version of the classic River Raid in how you must avoid canyon walls and buildings and the like this time around. 1941: Counter Attack is my personal favorite in the series. It's the most balanced of that particular bunch.

Still in 1990, we have Magic Sword. Magic Sword challenges the player to climb the fifty level tower to defeat an evil tyrant. It's a D&D themed affair. The player controls their sword swinging barbarian with the joystick. You get one button to attack and another to jump. Jump plus attack will result in a magic attack. You play through the game hacking and slashing at the hordes of evil minions in your way and you'll find a boss battle every ten levels or so. As you play you collect keys. You need a key to clear each floor and move on to the next one. You'll also be able to unlock prisoners from their cells to have them fight alongside you. You can even level these familiars up. There are tons of items to collect that boost your score and heal you and replace magic and the like. The game is very frenetic at later levels. The enemies come at you at a quick pace. The gameplay is almost shooter like in its speed despite being hack and slash.

The last game from 1990 on the disc is Mega Twins. Otherwise known as Chiki Chiki Boys. The game is a graphically cute action platformer played for laughs. You control one of the twins on his way to reclaim his lost kingdom. You get buttons for jump, attack, and magic. Run through the levels slashing everything to death with your sword while collecting health items and power-ups until you get to one of the cute boss battles. The graphics in the game are great. Very bright and colorful and just shy of an overly cute art design. The game borrows heavily from both Alex Kidd and Wonder Boy in Monster Land. If you've played those games in the arcade then you know just what to expect, only with the challenge dumbed down. It's a fun little game. Capcom actually released a version of the game for the Mega Drive.

Capcom Classics Collection 2-3

Last Duel hit the arcades in 1988. It's a vertical shooter with a twist. I mean, it did have all the vertical shooter standards of waves of enemies to kill and lots of enemy fire to dodge. It had the standard power-ups dropped from defeated enemies. It had boss battles at the end of the stages. It had pretty good graphics and sound that wasn't even too annoying. You know it already without having played. So what was the twist? They alternated the vehicle type between stages. So in the odd stages you'd be driving a car and in the even stages you'd be piloting a plane. With both vehicles the joystick controls movement. For the car one button fires and another jumps the car. For the plane one button fires and another rolls the plane. With the car you'll obviously need to be jumping gaps and enemies and spots of ice and all of that. With the plane the roll feature allows you to dodge enemy fire. You won't die when hit by rolling. You obviously have a meter with a limited amount of the roll ability so you can't just roll your way to victory. The stages are timed which comes into play in the driving stages as you're actually able to stop the scrolling of the screen in said stages. So you'll have to hurry along beyond a more comfortable pacing. The game's gimmick is decent enough fun. I'd just wish someone could explain to me the naked chick reward at the end of the game...

Strider hit the arcades in 1989. Strider is an unrelenting bastard of a game. It's mean and it will laugh at you, literally. But you'll play it because the concept of a futuristic ninja is too cool. And because back in 1989 the game was a sound and graphical powerhouse. The game is an action platform game. You have the joystick for control and one button to jump and another to attack. The standard power-ups are in play of course. Collect bonus points, stronger and longer sword attacks, extra life bar segments, and the like. You can also collect robotic partners. You have walking robots, a robotic falcon, and a robotic panther. They all attack enemies automatically. Strider is also very well known for its boss battles. They're cool and memorable, as well as tough. Strider is also a clear influence on what would become standard gameplay tricks employed by the Sonic the Hedgehog series. Stuff like antigravity gameplay and airship final levels. Strider isa rather short game at just five levels but it's one of the hardest games you'll ever play. It's old school memorization of enemy placement if you ever want to complete the game on one quarter so to speak. It would have cost you a small fortune to do that back in the day and I never saw anyone do it. The art direction of the game is especially cool. Punish yourself with Strider, and enjoy it the whole way.

Capcom Classics Collection 2-2

We're up to 1987 with Avengers. Avengers is a strange one in that it's an overhead brawler. It actually plays a little bit like Gauntlet with the flood of enemies coming at you from all sides as you make your way through Paradise City. The gameplay is about as simple as action gets. You have a joystick to move and one button to punch and another to kick. Pressing punch and kick together gives you a spinning kick. You make your way through wave after wave of enemies until you fight a boss and move on to the next stage. The story of Avengers has you playing to rescue kidnapped girls. You know what's implied there, don't you? Unless you save these girls it's going to be an orgy of rape for them at the hands of their hundreds of captors. The game allows for powering up your attacks and healing items and the like through smashing objects within the stages. The graphics are decent as is the sound. The gameplay is decent fun.

Also from 1987 is Black Tiger. The game is the standard action title of the era that tries to introduce elements of adventure. The joystick controls the character who happens to be a barbarian. You get one button to attack and another for jumping. Your attacks are strangely almost shooter like in that you throw out your main weapon straight out while also shooting out three daggers at different angles all with one push of the button. The gameplay is all run and jump and slash through the hordes until a boss battle. They add in some adventure aspects with villagers to save who will give you money, items, or advice. Money is also collected from defeated enemies and can be used to purchase better weapons and armor and anti-poison potions and the like in shops. Each stage has a hidden bonus dungeon to find and play through. The game has a Dungeons and Dragons approach to the art. The gameplay is tough and some of the boss battles are very difficult. There are some appearances here from other Capcom characters such as Firebrand the Demon.

Tiger Road is another title from 1987. This one has you playing as a monk who must travel to the badguy's fortress and rescue the kidnapped children. It's set in an ancient China filled with sorcery. Again the controls are as simple as it gets. You have the classic joystick for movement with buttons for attack and jump. The standard breaking of items reveals icons that will give you new weapons, fill your life a little and completely, and even take some life away. This is a pure action platform title. There are bosses at the halfway point and the end of the stages. The bonus levels are training levels and they're quite original in that if you successfully complete them you'll permanently earn new attacks or more power or more life. You only get one shot at each bonus stage. The graphics in Tiger Road are great. The game features large sprites in detailed and colorful backgrounds. The music is pretty good.  The game is freaking hard though. In both the platforming action and the boss battles. The final boss of Tiger Road is a guy named Ryuken. He might as well be M. Bison without the hat.  He even has an attack that's a literal dragon punch. There is some definite influence here for later Street Fighter titles.

Capcom Classics Collection 2-1.

Side Arms: Hyper Dyne was released in arcades in 1986. It's a traditional scrolling shooter wherein the player can move in eight directions while firing to the left or right. The gimmick here was that for the first time the player could control which way they fired with independent buttons. The cabinet had the joystick and three buttons. One to fire left, one to fire right, and one to cycle through the weapon types collected. The game featured all the standards. You could power up your assault suit jetpack wearing player character by collecting power up icons dropped from defeated enemies. You'd maneuver through an independently scrolling play field while trying to avoid obstacles and enemy projectiles. You'd clear wave after wave of enemies and they'd culminate in a boss battle. Rinse and repeat until the end. Unfortunately Side Arms represents the absolute worst in the genre. That's not to say the music and graphics weren't good, as they were. The problem lies in the core gameplay and the game's near impossible difficulty. Side Arms is the kind of game where you'd have to power up your weapons to full and then somehow manage to maintain that throughout the entire game on one life. Because if you die, you're screwed for the most part. It is extremely hard to try and rebuild your power once lost. The enemies are just relentless and the base weapon level just can't get the job done. Couple that with no grace period and it's possible to lose five lives in three seconds. Side Arms is just too much. Not even the shooter cult types could justify this one. It's interesting to have, if for only it being apart of Capcom's history and a shining example of what not to do with a shooter.

 

The Speed Rumbler was also released in 1986. The game is also known as Rush & Crash.  If you take one part Spy Hunter and one part Mad Max, you'll end up with something close to The Speed Rumbler. The story is entirely throw away. You're out to save your family who have been kidnapped by terrorists. You only have twenty-four hours to save them. It's an overhead driving game where you control the car with a joystick. You can move in eight directions within the scrolling screen. You get one button to fire, and another to escape from the car. The escape button will cause you to roll when you're on foot. The game has six stages which means you only have four minutes to finish each stage. That's where the rush comes in from the alternate title of the game. You'll need to hurry. It means driving hell-bent for the goal while avoiding all the enemies trying to kill you. There are guys on foot, cars, armored vehicles, and automated defense systems in your way. As you run over people and shoot and destroy enemies you'll come across jails that can be destroyed releasing guys with power ups and the like. You can repair your car a little bit with wrench icon, or heal entirely with the health icon. You can get bonus points and speed up your car or increase your firepower with other icons. The later stages of the game really show off the need to rush as the timer really comes into play. The game is graphically not that impressive. The sound isn't so hot either. But the game is fun for what it is. As a quarter-muncher it would have been a fun distraction. Being able to continue makes it something you'll probably want to finish. A little bit of Capcom trivia with this one, the character of Joe in the game is the same one from Commando and Bionic Commando.

What Comes Next... (Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2)

I'm having a bit of trouble trying to decide what to start next. I'm eternally plugging away at Phantasy Star Universe. So I'm looking for something to play along with PSU. The problem is that I have no focused desire to start any given game right this moment. It's not from a lack of choice. I have more than enough games sitting on the shelf waiting to be played. Let's see, if I were to break it down... I have six Nintendo DS, three Gamecube, nine PS2, two PS3, six PSP, one Wii (and eleven Wii VC), four Xbox, and three X360 titles to start. The dry season has officially begun and I'm futilely hoping to take out as many of those titles as possible before September arrives and with it the busy season. And what a busy season this one is going to be. Of course there will be the standard must play day-one titles here and there over the summer, but these should be few and far between as always. Maybe the task is too daunting and that's why I'm feeling a little less than focused in selecting where to begin. I'm going to start with something lite so to speak. Something that will maybe allow me to get my head together. Maybe some arcade action will do the trick. I'm going to be playing Capcom Classics Collection Volume 2 for the PlayStation 2. The game is another collection of Capcom's arcade games. Twenty titles ranging from the mid 1980s to the early 1990s. My initial impression is the title is seemingly on par with the previous volume. What's that mean? It means you'll get a decent package of well emulated games with title specific histories and bonus content to unlock presented with a quick and easy interface. As it should be, in other words. The twenty titles in this volume include: 1941: Counter Attack, Avengers, Black Tiger, Block Block, Captain Commando, Eco Fighters, Knights of the Round, The King of Dragons, Last Duel, Mega Twins, Magic Sword, Quiz & Dragons, Side Arms, The Speed Rumbler, Street Fighter, Street Fighter II Turbo, Strider, Three Wonders, Tiger Road, and Varth. This collection seems more well-rounded than the first volume. We have a few shooters, a lot of action games, some brawlers, some fighters, and some puzzle games. We'll take them a few at a time...

Super Paper Mario -- Final Opinion.

Twenty-seven hours later and the credits roll on Super Paper Mario. In an earlier entry I said how the controls were good for what they are and that remains true throughout the game. The simple controls won't give you any issues. In said previous entry I mentioned talking about the story, the combat, the puzzles, and the pacing. So here goes. The combat is simplistic. It's half Super Mario Bros. stomping on enemies and platform action and half adventure in the form of being able to pause and bring up a menu for item use. Each of the four main controllable characters control as you'd expect them to. Mario is perfectly balanced and the only character able to go into 3D. Peach has her parasol as a shield and she retains her standard floaty jump. Bowser breathes fire. And Luigi can jump higher. Add to the mix are the use of pixis who each have their own ability accessed by a button press. One of them will allow you to place bombs, another will allow you to strike with a hammer, and another will allow for you to run faster for example. There are twelve pixis in all. You'll need to switch out the characters on the fly as well as the pixis to get through the situations the combat presents. That's how the puzzles work in the game as well. You have the whole flipping between 2D and 3D to give you a different look at the situation which might reveal a hidden chest or path. You have the abilities of the characters as well as those of the pixis coming into play.  It's in switching between them all that the game's puzzles are all based upon. For the most part they're quite simple and intuitive. The game is split into chapters. There are thirty-two chapters in all with a hub world in between them to explore.  The chapters are broken up in the classic Super Mario Bros. format of 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, 1-4, and on to 2-1 all the way through 8-4. The game's story is filled with humor the whole way through. It's the standard Paper Mario treatment. Funny characters and all for laughs for most of the game. It's well written and genuinely funny. The problem comes in the pacing. The story is slow. It's extremely wordy. And it's not helped by the format of completing the chapters of a particular world only to have to then run fetch quests and the like in between each world. You just want to play the main chapters and sort of have to deal with everything in between. The graphics in the game are stylistically great, but they're not pushing the Wii in any way. All of the standard Mario world themes are represented. The music is very well done with numerous new arrangements of various classic Mario series themes. There are some inspired bits of humor and level design. The game has solid, albeit simplified gameplay. If you have the patience for the slow moving story then you should find Super Paper Mario worthwhile. If not, you'll more than likely find it tedious. I'm giving Super Paper Mario a 7.5.

The Generation is Now Complete.

I am now generationally complete. Over the last week I've added the HDTV and Home Theater System as well as the final missing console, the PlayStation 3. The 60GB version, of course. I already have the Wii, X360, PSP, and the NDS. I am entirely wired up. I'm set. Bring on the games. I'm ready for you. I don't have to worry about anything until the Xbox 3 or the Wii Mark II, or the PS4 roughly four to six years from now when it begins anew. Just some quick initial impressions on the PS3. It's big, it's shiny, and it's very quiet. The Sixaxis controller is incredibly lightweight.  It almost feels like a replica and not a real controller. The PS3 uses the PSP's crossbar interface. Which is great for continuity and uniformity in the Sony line. It's not so hot in that the crossbar system is a bit ho-hum for me. The physical connection process is a breeze. The initial setup is a bit convoluted if you just want to plug it in and play. I spent some time ripping music for a future game mix. I introduced my PS3 to the BD Remote and I did the same thing with my PSP. Now my PSP is online enabled, which is cool. I set up virtual memory cards on the HDD for the PlayStation and PlayStation 2. I signed up for the PlayStation Network. So now I can go shopping and play online. I wandered through the PSN Store and found it to be about what I expected. The PSN Store is essentially web pages. It's clunky to navigate with the controller. Xbox Live this isn't. Of course it's brand new and Sony's going to stumble getting it up to speed. We'll have to see how that turns out. I checked out backwards compatibility by popping in Strider 2 for the PSX and Final Fantasy 12 for the PS2. No complaints there. The initial impression is good regarding backwards compatibility.  I spent some time just cruising through the crossbar looking at all the options and just seeing what's what. The machine is complex. It can do a lot of things. The instruction manual is rather lacking. In fact all you'll get is the basics on the physical setup, the synching of the controller to the system, and some basic stuff on getting connected to the network. That's it. Nothing more. Not even a listing of what the system can do, much less the how of it all. There are online instructions however, assuming you can make it on. At $600 a pop it seems Sony is under the impression you can get online and find the help for yourself.  At $600 a pop, I expect a little more quality in the supplemental material.  I picked the system up with Resistance: Fall of Man and Virtua Fighter 5. I haven't tried them yet. I'm hungry. Besides, I have Gyruss to download from Xbox Live Arcade and some more Super Paper Mario to play. The game won't finish itself. I'm in no rush. What with it being hurry up and wait as far as software is concerned for two out of three of the current consoles. For a little while anyway I can be content in getting up to speed and I'll just sit back and wait for the games to roll in. Know what I mean?

Super Paper Mario -- Simple Controls.

The good news with Super Paper Mario using the Wii Remote only is that it works perfectly for what's there. What's there? Not a whole lot, really.  The Wii Remote is held sideways with the D-pad on the left so that it most resembles a standard controller. The D-pad moves Mario or one of the other controllable characters left or right in 2D and in eight directions in 3D. When playing as Mario the A button allows you to enter or exit 3D. The 2 button jumps. The 1 button allows you to use a Pixi. A Pixi being a helper character that tags along after Mario or the other playable characters. Each one has a specific ability such as exploding, or grabbing and throwing, or allowing you to stomp down in mid jump. Pressing the 1 and 2 button together brings up a quick menu that allows you to switch out the character you're playing as or to switch out the Pixi tagging along or to select and use items. There are some Wii functions here and they mostly feel tacked on. You can point the Wii Remote at the screen with the main Pixi who will then give a detailed description on whatever you're pointing at. You get to shake the controller as Mario timing the stomps for extra style points. You get to shake the controller to have Mario wake up from having been put to sleep and the like for various status ailments. There just isn't a lot there. You do get to press the A button an awful lot in advancing the text. It's quite a simple game as far as the controls go. The Wii remote handles them with ease here. No complaints with the control. But what about the story and its large amount of text? What of the pacing? What of the humor? And what of the core gameplay with the action combat and the puzzles? Do they deliver? That'll have to wait until next time...

Super Paper Mario -- Initial Impression.

Next up for me we have another Gamecube title bumped up to the Wii in the form of Super Paper Mario. Unlike The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Super Paper Mario won't be seeing a Gamecube release. The Gamecube version was canceled outright in favor of the Wii version. I have played the game through Chapter 1-4. I've spent a few hours with the title. Initially the controls seem to work fine. They make use of the Wii Remote alone. The graphics are lite and bright and decidedly cute. They weren't pushing the Gamecube, they're sure as hell not pushing the Wii. The music is impressive early on with some remixed Super Mario World music. One thing that is readily apparent is that the game is story intensive and text heavy. The story is going to unfold with its leisurely pace and wordy style. That should be okay as the humor from the other Paper Mario style games is right at the forefront. The games are funny and silly and lighthearted affairs. This one seems to be not straying from the path. It'll be interesting to see how the realtime battles play out compared to the series' more traditional RPG turn-based battles. We'll see how it goes...

God of War 2 -- Final Opinion.

I have completed God of War 2. It's predominantly the same game as before, only ratcheted up more than a few notches. The combat remains the same. You'll level your weapons and magic from the collected red orbs that appear from red chests and enemies. The combat is flawed in the same way it was in the first game. The enemies can start attacking you from within your own combo. Something you're not able to do in the reverse. Even the smallest most insignificant enemy can trip you up. That might not seem like a big deal but when there are three or four major enemies and seven or eight lesser ones all trying to kill you, you'll be finding yourself unfairly bounced around more times than you can count. The art design is gorgeous.  The graphics are impressive. As I said in the initial impression, too much so. They are clearly beyond the capabilities of the PlayStation 2. It results in very frequent and hideously ugly vertical synchronization tearing. As also mentioned in the initial impression, the game is going out of it's way to offer up the most intense gaming experience possible. And again, I feel it's to the point of being too much. It's from one oh my freaking god scenario into another into another into another the whole game through. It actually has an overall numbing effect in my opinion. The original had a couple of great boss battles and it led into what's arguably the most disappointing final boss battle in history.  God of War 2's last boss is much better than that of the original. Although it's still less than compared to most of the bosses before it. I can say however that God of War 2 easily has some of the greatest boss encounters you will ever have. They are immense, impressive multistage affairs. More than a few of them employ the Zelda tactic of being part boss battle and part puzzle. Although here the puzzles are tougher and far more devious. The other true strong point of God of War 2 is the story and its use of Greek mythology. Almost all of the key titans, most of the major gods of Mount Olympus, the Fates, and the more prominent figures all make key and interesting appearances. Most of them you end up fighting. Fans of the movie Clash of the Titans are in for a true treat when it comes to the events that concern Perseus. God of War 2's story is a classic tale from Greek Mythology, albeit a bastardized version. Overall the positives of the Greek mythology and the story and graphics and killer boss battles outweigh the somewhat cheap and frustrating combat and the forced feeling intensity to make God of War 2 a must play title. I'm giving God of War 2 a 9.

God of War 2 -- Initial Impression.

From Oblivion we head into God of War 2 on the PlayStation 2. The game picks up where the original God of War left off with Kratos sitting on his throne as the God of War. Ever ambitious we find Kratos doing what he does best, waging war. He's been so busy waging war that he's begun pissing off all the other Gods of Olympus. So they're going to do something about it. Kratos is essentially returned to being a mortal and quickly disposed of by Zeus. Luckily for Kratos the titan Gaia decides to intervene and enables Kratos to embark on a road of revenge. So that's the how and why. It's actually much more entertaining than I make it sound here. The game still has extremely high production values on par with its predecessor. The story is still narrated as you go with great voice over by Linda Hunt. A couple things jump right out at you initially. First, the graphics are amazing for the PS2. And perhaps too much, as they're beyond its capabilities. You're seeing slowdown here and there. And even worse, you've got a lot of vertical synchronization tearing. You know, where the screen splits along the horizontal axis and one part of it seems to have to catch up with the other half. All of this happening in a split-second. At this point I'm not sure if it wouldn't have been better to tone it down and stabilize things. Another issue is that they've seemingly upped the anti with the quick timer events. There seems to be a hell of a lot more of them this time around. All of it insanely dramatic and attempting to garner reactions on par with holy crap. Almost to the level of trying too hard. Like with the hidden sex minigame early on. It's let's have a threesome right now while a colossus is out the window trying to kill me and he's already smashed twelve buildings to rubble. It just feels cheap and dirty this time around. We'll have to see about the important things of course, like how the game plays and how the bosses are and how they handle the puzzles and the like. Hopefully they'll settle down with the holy crap this is intense speed they've started with. There is only way to find out...