No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle -- Final Opinion.

Twelve hours and change later and I have completed No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle. How does No More Heroes 2 shape up in the end? Well, it's an all around good game that falls short of expectations. It's hard to explain what's at issue with No More Heroes 2. The original No More Heroes was an inspired vision. A burning fever dream of an experience. No More Heroes 2 feels like a paint-by-numbers knockoff of the original. Still rather impressive, but somehow feeling soulless by comparison. The story is probably the biggest culprit. It's rather focused and straightforward and pretty lackluster. The bosses are a real mixed bag. There are fifteen bosses in the game. The first few are unremarkable. I rather liked the final five or so. I do miss the boss introductions from the first game. I also think the game's bosses rely a little too heavily on one hit kills. Graphically No More Heroes 2 looks on par with the original. Which is to say it technically looks like crap, but looks great aesthetically. The Wii just isn't going to ever win where pushing polygons are concerned. However, No More Heroes' heavily stylized aesthetic goes a long way. The voice acting is great. The music is also great. A good use of J-pop. It fits perfectly. It's probably not J-pop, but it's the closest term available to me. The final bosses help bring out some satisfaction in the gameplay. It probably sounds like I'm hating No More Heroes more than I actually do. I enjoyed the game. It just feels like they were trying too hard, you know? I'm giving No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle a 7.5. I'm still more than willing to return to Santa Destroy for No More Heroes 3.

No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle -- Initial Impression.

Next up for me is No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, developed by Grasshopper Manufacture and published by Ubisoft for the Wii. No More Heroes 2 picks up three years after the end of the first game with Travis Touchdown returning to the United Assassins Association's ranked fights. His best friend is murdered and he's out for revenge. I've messed around with the game for a bit and I can see that there are some significant changes. The overworld has been removed. Travis is no longer free to roam around the streets and back alleys of Santa Destroy. Now he moves around from location to location by menu. The removal of the overworld doesn't seem like bad decision initially. Another change is the odd jobs Travis needs to take to earn a living have been transformed into 8-bit era game concepts. Delivering pizzas has become a game of Hang-On, and fixing some plumbing has become a game of Junction. Initially these are a mixed bag. They're all considerably charming, but then they all retain the problems and annoyances of 8-bit era gaming. Outside of that there doesn't seem to be much difference to the flow of the game in what I've played. It's still a cycle of working odd jobs to pay for new equipment and workouts to be strong enough for the ranked fights. And the ranked fights still seem to be wild and impressive boss battles. The story has made me laugh out loud a couple of times in the little time I've spent with the game so far. I don't know how they can possibly top the outrageousness of the original game as that pushed the boundaries of good taste further than they've ever been in the medium. I do have to say it took me a little while to get back into the swing of the combat, so to speak. The game jumps right in with a boss fight and never looks back. Those new to the series might be a tad overwhelmed initially. It'll be interesting to see how this one turns out. It's looking to be off to a good start.

Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment -- Final Opinion.

Two full playthroughs and the full two-hundred achievement points later I've completed Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment. Hijinx Studios has indeed delivered a real game. I really liked the graphic style. The animated comic style worked very well for a download based strategy RPG. The world is brightly colored and vivid. The battle maps were varied and interesting. The gameplay is simple, straightforward, and fun. There are some options in how you want to go about leveling the six characters of your unit. The difficulty falls closer to the easy side of things. But that might be because I tend to over-level in strategy RPGs by following a pattern I established all the way back with Shining Force. I go through each battle twice before moving on to the next one. The music is sparse but well done. The voices are competent. Not professional actors by any means, but not bad at all. The story is, shall we say, committed. They surprisingly go all the way with it. It's an interesting story for sure, despite how you may not like the outcome. The game is also rather sizeable. Over twenty battles and a couple of endings. As a download title I'm rather impressed with the game. I'm giving Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment a 8.5.

Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment -- Initial Impression.

Next up for me will be the Xbox Live Arcade version of Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment. A download only title developed by Hijinx Studios and published by Konami. Hijinx Studios, formerly Phoenix Soft, has a twelve year history of developing games for mobile phones. They were also responsible for Frogger Returns, also from Konami. Flames of Judgment is the third title in Konami's Vandal Hearts series with the first two titles being PlayStation games. Vandal Hearts games are strategy role-playing games. The original Vandal Hearts was very much inspired by Shining Force and was a rock solid game. The sequel lost fans for having a mechanic of the enemies moving at the same time you moved and proved too complex for most people. Which is a shame as Vandal Hearts 2 offered one of the greatest video game stories ever created. From the time I've spent with Flames of Judgment I can say they've taken the game mechanics back closer to the original Vandal Hearts while adding some new things all their own. You no longer level up in levels. You level up your skills by using them. So the more you attack with your sword, the better you are with it. Same goes for bows or magic or evasion or what have you. This allows for more of a build them your way approach. The art style is interesting. It's very cartoony in nature, but somehow it remains serious. The more I see of it, the more I'm liking it. The graphics and lighting are rather impressive for a little download title. I'm also rather impressed with the sound design thus far. I'm also enjoying the story. While it's all standard SRPG politics, it initially seems well done. My initial impression is that Hijinx Studios have delivered a real game here. But as always let's see how it is when everything is said and done.

The Dynastic Hero -- All In One.

I'm playing the waiting game again. I have more than enough games I could start. I probably have too many. Problem is none of them fit into the timeframe available to me. I have roughly a week before Mass Effect 2 and No More Heroes 2 arrive. It's that idea of wanting to give each game their due. You don't want to rush through a potentially great game. Right now I'm sitting on Assassin's Creed 2, Bayonetta, and a backlog that goes back to numerous PlayStation 2 RPGs, and way too many Xbox Live Arcade and Virtual Console titles for example. While playing Darksiders, on the side Magus and I jumped back into Crackdown and its download content as a means to both sort of kill time and get ready for the sequel. I thought I'd use The Dynastic Hero to kill some more time, but I blew right through it. I played the game too close to Wonder Boy in Monster World. I remembered where everything was. The Dynastic Hero is the TurboGrafx CD version of the Genesis game Wonder Boy in Monster World. It's essentially the same game with some cosmetic changes. The Wonder Boy theme has been replaced with an insect based theme. The hero has been modeled after a beetle. The good guys are various types of bugs. The bosses have been changed to creatures who naturally tend to eat bugs. The names of places and characters have been changed. Since the game was CD based, they added a CD-DA soundtrack along with a FMV intro and ending. They've also made the game considerably easier. Especially the final boss. The gameplay is classic Wonder Boy in Monster World. It's still great fun. I have to say I'm not a fan of the new soundtrack, higher sound quality or not. The composition pales to the original version. I also find the insect theme to just be bizarre. I'm not sure if I'd have felt the same way if I hadn't played the rest of the Wonder Boy series before this game. It loses the continuity of the Wonder Boy games. The new sprites just make the graphics seem a bit off. The new script is far too goofy compared to the original. I'd recommend this version only to fans of the series who are looking for completion and who would otherwise be interested in this anomaly. I'm giving The Dynastic Hero a 7. So now I'm once again tasked with figuring out what to play to kill some more time before next week's must play titles arrive...

Darksiders -- Final Opinion.

Two playthroughs later and I have the platinum trophy for Darksiders. I have to say I'm beyond impressed with the game considering it is the first effort from Vigil Games. There are a few more experienced studios out there who couldn't deliver a game as polished as Darksiders. I really enjoyed pretty much every single aspect of the game. It does need to be said that the only original thing about Darksiders is the premise of War, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, being tricked into starting the Apocalypse early, and his subsequent quest for answers. The story is well done. It's a straightforward revenge story without any need for gimmicks or twists. Initially the design of War and the angels annoyed me, but over the course of the game they grew on me and in the end I actually liked them. It's kind of like how when I first heard about the name of the Dreamcast I thought it was the worst thing ever. But then after getting the system and the great games over the course of its lifetime, how I felt about the name changed to reflect how I felt about the system itself. The designs of the world, and the demons and enemies were great from the start and only got better. The gameplay was fun from start to finish. The battle engine takes from action games like God of War and Devil May Cry with some Zelda lock on added in. The puzzles, and the tools to deal with them, come from games like The Legend of Zelda, Soul Reaver, and Portal. I wasn't too sure about the combat initially but once you've upgraded and learned some moves and you start to incorporate some of the tools acquired in the game the combat became a blast. The battles being exceedingly violent is always a plus. The boss battles were fun and impressive. The dungeons were great. I wasn't expecting them to be so large and I'm glad they're so puzzle focused. Graphically the game looks great. I went with the PlayStation 3 version because of the lack of v-synch tearing found in the Xbox 360 version. The music in the game is appropriately epic given the theme. I enjoyed the voice acting. Entirely professional all the way around. Nobody is going to be able to make a claim that Darksiders is an original game. It unabashedly lifts from a bunch of great games. An argument can be made that it does so rather well. Nothing about the game is half-assed. It's fully fleshed out, and it all works together very well. It can also be argued that we might not be getting another traditional console Zelda title with how Nintendo has been behaving these last few years. Action adventures are still my favorite genre and they don't come along very often. In the case of Darksiders I don't mind that it's entirely unoriginal. It fills a gaming void for me. So I say more power to Vigil games, and anyone else willing to step up and fill that void. I immensely enjoyed Darksiders and I'll be interested in the team's next effort, and I look forward to Darksiders 2. I'm giving Darksiders a 9.5. The flaw in the game that kept it from being perfect, and it's entirely optional, is that for the trophies or achievements there is a bit of grinding that extends the game a bit too much.

Darksiders -- Initial Impression.

Next up for me is the action game Darksiders. I'll be playing the PlayStation 3 version of the game. Darksiders is the first effort from developer Vigil Games and has been published by THQ. I really have to say that Darksiders had been off my radar entirely up until a few weeks ago. Neo had mentioned it a few times but I really didn't pay it any attention. Then Riddel was all excited about it a few weeks ago describing it as heavily inspired by the Zelda series. So I looked into the game a bit and all I kept seeing was dark Zelda this and adult Zelda that. I have to say that intrigued me. The story also seemed rather interesting. You play as War, one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. In the bible, the seals are broken and the each of the horsemen are called. In the game, War hears his call and answers it only to find angels and demons waging war on Earth. Nobody seems to understand what's going on and it seems that there never really was a call. Someone or something has set him up and he's actually jumped the gun and brought the apocalypse early. He's then tasked with finding out the truth. It's a rather interesting concept and premise. From the time I've spent with the game so far I can say the game is really good looking. The enemy designs are great. I don't know how to feel about the main character and the angels yet. They look like World of Warcraft rejects. The voice work initially comes off as great. It's always good to hear Mark Hamill hamming it up. I haven't played enough of the game to see how Zelda like the game is going to turn out to be. The combat initially seems like it falls well within the standard action territory along the lines of God of War. It's too early to tell how this one is going to fall but I have to say I'm rather interested to see either way at this point.

Wonder Boy in Monster World -- All in One.

I had completed The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks and I found myself with a choice. I could either start something from the backlog, or wait four days and pick up either Darksiders or Bayonetta. I decided to wait and not start anything major. To fill those four days I looked to Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, and the Virtual Console for the perfect four day game to fill the gap. I decided on Wonder Boy in Monster Land for the SEGA Genesis via the Virtual Console on the Wii. Wonder Boy in Monster Land was developed by Westone and published by SEGA. In Japan the game is known as Wonder Boy V: Monster Land III and is an extended remake of Wonder Boy in Monster Land. I call it an extended remake as it expands the original game so considerably that it might as well be a new game entirely. Wonder Boy in Monster World is great fun. It's an action RPG with Metrodvania leanings before there even was such a thing as Metroidvania. The game was originally released in 1991. It has the typical large sprites and colorful graphics of that stage in the 16-bit era. The game also features some great music, both new and old. The remixes of Wonder Boy in Monster Land's tracks are wonderful. I originally rented Wonder Boy in Monster World back in 1991 and I always intended to purchase it but never got around to it. It's great that I was able to purchase a download version of it all these years later. I don't think I could have enjoyed replaying Wonder Boy in Monster World any more than I did over the last few days. The game is still as fun and charming as it originally was. And the final boss is still as freaking hard as it ever was. In fact the final boss of Wonder Boy in Monster World might be in the running for the hardest boss of the 16-bit generation. I'm giving Wonder Boy in Monster World a 9. I just love this series. Now if there was just some way to get the final game in the series in English and officially released over here...

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks -- Final Opinion.

I have completed The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks for the Nintendo DS. Right up front I can say that Spirit Tracks is a better game than Phantom Hourglass. But is that really saying a whole lot if you're in the camp that wishes for an overworld to explore on foot and a glitch free control experience that traditional controls would offer? I am in that camp. So the answer is no, no it's not. The mechanics of the train in Spirit Tracks are superior to those of the boat in Phantom Hourglass. The train just feels more fun. But the train is even more limiting as you're tied to the rails. The boat at least offered a little exploration. There is zero exploration in Spirit Tracks. I also found the mechanic of avoiding the enemy trains to be actively annoying. I found the slow pacing of using the train to get from one location to another to be tedious after a while as you can't just set your course and go. You have to stay there to fend off the inevitable attacks along the route with your canon. The controls in Spirit Tracks are improved. You need to double tap near the edge of the screen to have Link roll this time around compared to drawing loops near the edge. You'll still roll off a cliff from time to time in the game. The controls will mess up every so often. They're still merely functional, and nowhere near what I'd prefer. I still want traditional controls. Get rid of the shitty touch controls. The graphics are slightly improved. Again I'd still prefer a stylized 2D approach instead of the overly plain 3D they've gone with. The graphics could be so much more than they are. Musically the game is much better than Phantom Hourglass. There are a lot more original tracks this time around. And the overworld theme (it's almost criminal to call it that) is one of the better Zelda tracks in a long time. The story of Spirit Tracks is also a step up from Phantom Hourglass. Mainly due to Zelda being around for the entirety of the adventure. She's a bit of a feisty Zelda. Having her around provides the game with a bit more heart. Don't get me wrong, the story is sparse and not at all epic, but it works well. The dungeons and puzzles of Spirit Tracks are considerably improved upon from Phantom Hourglass. The central dungeon theme appears again, but unlike the Temple of the Ocean King, the Tower of Spirits isn't a chore at all. In fact, the later half of the tower might be the toughest dungeon the series has ever seen. The puzzles will take some real thought. And that's very welcome over Phantom Hourglass' too easy puzzle set. The bosses of Spirit Tracks are another vastly improved element over Phantom Hourglass. The Spirit Tracks bosses aren't just a puzzle to be solved, more than a few of them will provide some actual challenge in accomplishing said task. The final battle is especially epic. As I said right off, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks is an improvement over Phantom Hourglass. But it retains some of that game's major flaws. If you liked Phantom Hourglass you'll likely love Spirit Tracks. If you wished Phantom Hourglass was something else, then Spirit Tracks isn't going to change anything for you. I'm giving The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks an 8.