Super Mario RPG: Legend of the seven stars

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the seven stars is not a very well known game, why is this? because it was released in the year 1996 at the very end of the SNES life cycle. So many people were grabbing Nintendo 64's and this amazing game was completely overlooked. However I found this game about 8 years late for $30 at gamestop and I was happy to spend every penny of it.

Graphics - At the time of it's release, the SNES had just about enough and it was Nintendo 64's job to take over. Although the 64 was revolutionary, Mario RPG had one of the best looking games for the SNES. The very well done 3D and art style blended together so well. The graphics were topnotch at the time and I still think they did an amazing job with it. In my opinion, this was the best looking game for the SNES, with sharp textures and awsome modeling, this game has no problem fitting in with the games of the present.

Gameplay - SMRPG is a turn base role playing game like older final fantasy games. You will feel a lot of similarity comparing this to FF series.
Your buttons on the SNES controller serve as the attack menu interface. "A" = attack, "Y" = magic, "B" = defend/run away, "X" = items. It is a very simple combat system that you'll grab the hang of it from the start. Not to mention that Toad gives a little help on controls if needed. They also have a "time attack" for basic attacks. What I mean is you select your attack (A button) and press "A" right as your hitting the enemy for a continued combo/Extra damage.
Out of combat, the game has some fun platform elements to it, including Mario elements as in secret boxes and jumping for coins. There are a bunch of mini-games along the way including puzzles here and there. So not only is the combat excellent but out of combat is amazing to add. There are plenty of hidden goodies to find along the way including final weapons for everyone.

Music -  The music was done by Yoko Shimomura a female music composer for video games who has quite the amazing history of video games soundtracks including, Street Fighter 2, Kingdom Hearts, Legend of Mana and more.
The work she did for SMRPG was outstanding, I still have the Geno Woods song stuck in my head. Each melody was perfectly maastered, and each piece of music was so well done, you will humming these tunes for a long time. The music fits very well into the story line, it really pulls you into the game. I am very amazed with the music from this game.


Story - A easy way of summing this game including story mode up easily is, it's a final fantasy world and Mario came over to visit. Everything will remind you of FF games right down to the story line.
What happens is these group of enemies called "The Smithy Gang" destroyed a place called "Star Road" where everyones wishing go to become true, but now that it is destroyed, no ones wishes will ever come true again, all hope is lost for Mushroom Kingdom. Until Mario meets a kid named "Mallow" a small puffy cloud who thinks he is a tadpole, who lives with his grandfather (who really is a tadpole). Mallow shortly finds out by his grandfather that he is not his grandfather and that he is not a tadpole!. Mallow who is very shocked about the news, joins mario in search for his real parents. Later they meet a star spirit who took over a body of a doll named "Geno". Geno went to Mario for help, in order to repair Star Road and make everyones wishes come true again. So he joins Mario's Party (no pun intended) to take back the missing stars from other smithy gang members. On top of that Peach has been taken by a mad man named "Booster" who kinda reminds me of wario. Him and his snifits (look like shy guys) are taking the princess to marrymore so he can marry his bride to be (Peach). Not if Mario has anything to say about it!. Mario and his gang have many hurdles along the way but will they repair Star Road? I highly recommend this game to all RPG fans out there. It is on the Wii for purchase and this is most worth it.

Final Rundown -Overall this game was perfect at the time, it was also nice to see a story based mario game. I highly recommend this game for those of you that own a Wii, you can buy this game now on the Wii shop channel.

+Pro's:
-Amazing set of characters.
-Great Gameplay.
-Super Mario with a well written story was a awesome change of pace.
-Many extra hidden goodies.


Review Score - 10

Enslaved: Odyssey to the west

Enslaved is an Post Apocalyptic Action/Adventure title for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.
Keep in mind that I have not played the 360 this is a Playstation 3 version review.
Enslaved is Andy Serkis' second game he has done with Ninja Theory, the other came being "Heavenly Sword", which was another story driven game.

Story : The story starts off aboard a ship that is transporting slaves to some place called The Pyramid. "Monkey" (Main Character) ends up breaking out of his cell and need to reach the escape pods before the ship crashes.
You later wake in New York city, where, what they call a Slave Headband, is placed onto Monkeys head, by a girl named Trip, and this is where the Journey begins. Trip put the headband on you to control you, if Monkey does not do everything Trip asks of him, she can kill him. Also if Trip dies, Monkey dies, so he has no choice but to lead her to her hometown where her father is.
The story unfolds very nicely, the characters are very likable, and you can really see how well the emotional connection between the characters plays out. You really get to know these characters very well.
The story will keep you guessing from the start to finish, i don't want to give too much away but there are a few scenes you see through out the game that will keep you wondering and only wanting to find out more. It completely pulled me in. If you enjoy a good and epic storyline like myself then you will, without a doubt, want to buy this game as soon as you can.

Graphics: First off, this is a very different looking post apocalyptic game. Most like Fallout for example are destroyed by a nuke, and the world is dark and grim.
Enslaved took a different approach and instead of a nuke, the "Mechs" have destroyed most of humanity and their world.
The now destroyed world is bright, green and colorful...but mostly green. It was very interesting for me to see a green and bright post apocalyptic world, I never seen anything like it, and I was pretty impressed to say the least. It is a very cool looking world, I thought it was a very awsome idea to go with that type of look for a post apocalyptic world.
Although the world may look nice, there were some technical issues, such as lip syncing was off sometimes, and also quite a bit of screen tearing here and there. I also had some times where during a cut scene the camera was pointing away from the action, for example: one time it was showing me where to go, but a rock was in the way.
With a few technical issues this game is still pretty to look at. The facial animations were some of the best I ever seen, I was highly impressed with them, and when the sound actually kept up with the video, it was some very well done lip syncing, very smooth and accurate.

Gameplay: Gameplay honestly reminds me of Beyond Good and Evil. You are equipped with a staff, that not only is used for close combat, but also is able to shoot out plasmids. Most of the combat will have you smashing buttons with very few combos involved. Every time you finish off a group of enemies the camera will zoom in to capture Monkey's rage, which was a pretty neat feature in my opinion, but some might find it gets annoying, especially if there is more mech's around.
Though the combat you'll find is very easy, I really did not struggle at all during any of the fights I encountered, but I must say it does get addicting. Down side is like I said it can be way too easy at points, you really don't need to worry about dying too much at all. It's impossible to jump off a cliff, but you can get hit by obstacles such as fire along your climbing path.
As for as the platforming goes, you will not die, you can only jump to where the game wants you to go, and that's another thing, the places you can grab glow up so you can never get lost. Depending on what you like, you may get annoyed by the easy set up they have for platforming. I didn't mind it too much, yes it was easy and no way of dying, it was still pretty smooth, but it could have used a little bit more work I think.
Overall the combat, yet easy, is still very enjoyable, and the different change of pace is nice too, such as combat, puzzles and surfing on your "Cloud" which is Monkey's way of getting to certain places where he is unable to reach by foot. You can pretty much go anywhere in the water with this thing, which gives you a huge vertical leap on top of it, just don't get too carried away cause Trip will kill you if you travel too far...yea it's like that. Nevertheless it was one of the most addicting things about the game, I had a lot of fun with it.
The combat lacks a large combo system, although I must say their are some pretty cool upgrades but there isn't much too choose from combat wise. Most are health/shield upgrades, and a few combat moves such as counter attack. Also plenty to upgrade your plasmids, which comes in handy. To upgrade you need to collect red & orange orbs. Some are floating around and you need to do your best to find them, and the others are given to you when you defeat a enemy. This for some reason was very addictive for me, I would always go out of my way to collect them orbs. Gameplay is fun but it lacks difficulty.

Sound: The voice acting for this game was really great, Monkey played by Andy Serkis, and Trip played by Lindsey Shaw, which I was impressed with both voice actors. The voice acting was far from corny, and was very well put together, it all went well and there were some serious talent out into these characters. Andy Serkis did a freaking amazing job, I loved every moment of every cut scene, they were a lot of fun to watch and were so well done.
Music is another high point in this game, the soundtrack was great, every piece of music went perfectly for the moment it was used for, I especially like the ending theme, I can't wait to purchase the soundtrack. You will not be disappointing with the music in this game.

Final Rundown: This game almost was a 9 for me but the few camera issues, some screen tearing here and there and button mashing, just was hard to look past, but I encourage anyone with a PS3 to buy this game or at least rent it, it's only 10 hours long. I had a buttload of fun with this title, and I really hope to see more from Andy Serkis.

+Pros:

• Great facial animations,
• Awesome soundtrack.
• Flawless Voice acting.
• Epic Story.
• Characters you love.
• Great and Original Ending.

-Cons:

• Technical difficulties.
• Camera issues.
• Combat was too easy.
• Poor combo system.

Review Score: 8.5