Review Okami

Okami

Console: Nintendo Wii/Playstation 2
Genre: Adventure
Multiplayer: 1 Player
Wi-Fi: No

Okami is a Japanese style adventure game that was originally released on the Playstation 2 but was re-released on the Nintendo Wii, which this review is based off. Before I obtained this game I have seen screenshots, I have read reviews about it, Okami looked great, sounded amazing, but I wasn't too sure that it would live up to how amazing Okami truly sounded, so I bought the game, played a little bit and ended up becoming completely hooked. After loading up Okami, watching the intro and playing into the first few battles while taking in the amazing unique graphics, you can already tell this game is a true masterpiece.

Pretty much, the story starts off with a flashback 100 years before the current game time, about a swordsman named Nagi and a White Wolf named Shiranui. These two fought off an eight headed demon named Orachi, which they were unable to defeat but they did manage to seal it away. After that, you return to the current time, which you see Nagi's descendant who goes by the name of Susano, who believes that the legend of Nagi was false and wanted to prove it by going to the altar where Orachi was sealed, which ironically broke the seal. Orachi broke free and began sapping the land of all life force. One tree with a statue of Amaterasu which is the reincarnation of Shiranui and also known as the sun goddess. This area hasn't been effected by Orachi, which Sakuya, a wood spirit, takes advantage of this and revives the sun goddess, asking for her help, which is where the adventure begins.

The controls of the game are a bit awkward to get used to at first but once playing the game for a while, Okami can be quite easy to use to play. The battles are brilliant, you shake the Wii remote in rhythm for your combos. Also as you progress through the game you unlock more skills, such as to add to your celestial brush, which is a magical brush that freezes time, while time is frozen, you can use the brush to sketch a line for a slash, draw a circle with a line in it for a bomb and so on, these skills are brilliant and fun. Sometimes the only way you can damage an enemy is through the celestial brush. You also have a variety of three different weapons types and five different versions of each weapon. These are known as the mirrors, beads and great swords, the mirrors act as a mini sword and if they are secondary equipped, can act as a shield. The beads act as a long range whip and as a secondary weapon, is fired like a projectile. Finally the great sword is what it says and secondary acts as an uppercut.

Also as you progress, the money you earn can also be used to purchase new skills that can help you along the way such as double jump and improved attack power. Within the game there are so many side quests too. There is loads to do, like obtain several demon fangs, kill certain amount of enemies, collect stray beads, earn praise and so on. The more you manage to do means the more you unlock at the end of the game. The graphics are just amazing, the sound is incredible and the gameplay will last you at the least, a good week.

Overall this is a truly amazing game, definitely worth getting if you are into adventure games, or even just want to try something new, I recommend this game being somewhere on your to get list. A truly amazing game.

Overall Score: 94%

Review Pokemon Crystal

Pokemon Crystal

Console: Gameboy Color
Genre: RPG
Multiplayer 1-2
Wi-Fi: No

An old classic back in the Gameboy Color area, Pokemon Crystal is an upgrade of Pokemon Gold and Silver. This is the first Pokemon game where you can choose your own gender. You start off in a little town called Newbark, as you go to see Professor Elm, he asks you to take a little errand but it is dangerous to go without a Pokemon so he end up giving you one of three. This is usually a hard decision, the choices are Cyndaquil (fire), Totodile (water) and Chikorita (grass). Which is the starter triangle, fire beats grass, grass beats water and water beats fire. Whichever you choose, your rival (later on) picks your weakness. After running the errand you get a phone call from Elm, one of his Pokemon has been stolen, which is by your rival, as you rush back, you battle him on the way and he runs off after you defeat him. You get back and report to the police, which you then decide upon his name, then you can finally make your way to catch Pokemon and train to collect gym badges.

As you progress through the game you will find the old evil group known as Team Rocket, they plan world domination, you have to stop them along the way which is no easy task. Also along the way you bump into the star Pokemon Suicune several times, which leads to the final encounter of battling and attempting to capture this legendary Pokemon. Pokemon Crystal has to be one of the biggest Pokemon games created with a huge amount of sixteen badges to collect which consists of two regions, the Kanto region and the Johto region. After you complete the Johto region you can access the Kanto region.

Even playing Crystal again, it is one of those games that really draws you in, you cannot stop playing it and you will love all the old Pokemon style games through playing this again. This is the first game to show animations when you encounter wild Pokemon or trainers. Also you can encounter extreamly rare Pokemon that are an alternate colour, this is known as a shiny Pokemon, the odds of coming across one is 1 in 8192. The only exception is the red Gyarados within Lake of Rage. Coming across a shiny and capturing it is a true accomplishment to any player.

After completing the game you will want to gather up the strongest team you can, then you can play against your friends in a multiplayer match to see who has the better tactics and strengths. You can either play offensive, defencive or a mix on teams. This can be known as competetive play. You also have the feature to trade one for one to your friends to help complete your Pokedex or help complete your team.

Another goal you can have within the game is obtaining all 251 Pokemon. This will be hard but well worth the effort. After collecting eight badges you can challenge the elite four. But if you obtain sixteen bages and beat the elite four, you have access to Silver Cave which has the toughest trainer of them all within the cave, bringing him down will take alot of skill but well worth the fun.

As usual, the classic Pokemon tunes can be found within this game, almost every sound will make any Pokemon fan smile listening to either a legendary battle music or just listening to the bycicle music. The graphics are still good, despite the age of the game, the lifespan you will have on this game will last you for a while, depending on how addicted you get, and ofcourse the gameplay, a classic rpg take in turns battle which is always awesome. There is nothing better than taking down a Snorlax in one hit with a Hyper Beam.

Overall despite this being one of the older Pokemon games, I belive this to be one of the best of the series, generation two will always be brilliant and well remembered for the older Pokemon fans, if you have not played Crystal before then what are you waiting for? Buy it now! A true classic, possibly the best game on any Gameboy console.

Overall Score - 96%

On top

Okay I am going to sort out what I have done and need to do here, so far:
Front cover                         100%
Introduction                         100%
Contents                              100%
News (near the end)             100%
Gamers Base Online             100%
Previews:                             100%
Fire Emblem 3DS                 100%
Luigi's Mansion 2                   100%
Paper Mario                           100%
Reviews:                             100%
Mario Kart 7                        100%
Super Smash Bros Brawl      100%
Skyward Sword                   100%
Metroid Prime                      100%
Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn  100%
Pokemon Crystal                  100%
Okami                                  100%
Minish Cap                           100%
Yoshi's Island                       100%
Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon 100%
Deadly Creatures                 100%
Hints and Tips:                   100%
Freedom Unite                     100%
Legend of Zelda Ocarina       100%
Pokemon Black and White    100%
Art Gallery                            100%
Leader Boards                       100%
Sign Off                                 20%
Back Cover                          100%

Need to do:
100% Sign Off

Done:
Front Cover
Contents
Introduction
News
Gamers Base Online
Previews
Reviews
Hints and tips
Art gallery
leader boards
back cover

Layout plan/ Contents

I am planning to layout the magazine on a similar note to this:
Front Cover -> Introduction -> Contents -> News -> Online Section -> Previews -> Reviews -> Hints and Tips -> Art Gallery -> Leader Boards -> Sign Off -> Back Page.

Contents (rough plan)
News...........................
Gamers Base Online.....
Previews......................
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---
---
Reviews......................
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---
---
Hints and Tips.............
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Art Gallery..................
Leader Boards............
Sign Off......................

Final front cover

After deciding the star game of the magazine is skyward sword, I have made the final front page, here is what I have done.

Gamers base online group

Here we will have all our online sections for our online group. You can submit your details such as name and friend codes, plus what you request along with permission to post your email.

How this will work is I shall publish information such as this:
Name
Game wanting to be played online with the friend code on the end
Email address to contact player

After all this has been published, you can have the chance to write up a report which will get published within the magazine. All contact information will be under gamersbaseonline@hotmail.co.uk

Contact information

I have officially set up my contact information now, anything about the magazine is required to be sent to gamersbase@hotmail.co.uk. If I decide to have competitions then I shall create a separate account for this.

General - gamersbase@hotmail.co.uk
Online - gamersbaseonline@hotmail.co.uk

Rough leader board design

Okay what I am going to do is do a leader board for certain games, like time on beating a boss, highest score, you name it, I will make a leader board, all I require is either a screenshot or a video. Here are the challenges and the scores you need to do. Submit them to gamersbase@hotmail.co.uk

Monster Hunter Tri - Alatreon speed challenge, how quickly can you beat the Alatreon? Screenshot/video your scores and send them in!

1. 09:23 (Adam Everson)
2. -----
3. -----
4. -----
5. -----

Okami - Speed game, how quickly can you complete Okami? Again submit your score via screenshot/video.

1. -----
2. -----
3. -----
4. -----
5. -----

More to come as this is only a planned section

Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn Review

Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn

Console: Nintendo Wii
Genre: Strategy
Multiplayer: 1 Player
Wi-Fi: No

Fire Emblem, one of those games that not many people have heard of, one of the untold greatest series of strategy games ever created. Playing Fire Emblem on the hardest difficulty requires a lot of thinking, a lot of planning, and sometimes you need to throw in risk. The way Fire Emblem is played is by advancing through chapters on different levels, you are playing on a grid on that level, many different terrains effect the players, there are usually two teams, which you strategize by moving your characters into position and either attacking through enemies or defending certain places. If any of your characters run out of health, they are out of the game for good, no way of getting them back unless you restart the whole chapter again or start a new file.

At the beginning of the game, you start off by being pursued by an empire known as the Begnion Empire. You are a Daein group of rebels known as the Dawn brigade. You are on a goal to liberate Begnion out of Daein as they are trying to claim Daein for themselves. This is how the first quarter of the game begins. After about halfway through the game, Ike and the Greil Mercenaries appear as the main group, just trying to stick up for the Laguz.

The Laguz are a race of humans that can transform into certain types of animals, such as cats, tigers, lions, ravens, eagles, wolves and dragons. They do not use weaponry and rely on their physical strength. Other humans (known as Beorc) see the Laguz as unequals, they call them sub humans and refuse to live in the same country, thus they live in separate continents, as generations have passed, and they have grown to hate each other more and more.

The weapons you can acquire within the game range from swords, lances and bows to magic tomes and staves. There are weapon triangles within this game, which work like this, if a sword goes against an axe, the sword has more advantage in the weapon triangle so will deal extra damage and has more accuracy of hitting while the axe has been reduced. The basic triangle works like this, swords -> axe -> lance -> swords. You get the idea. Always take this into consideration as there is nothing better to do than to send in a sword master against a big group of warriors as sword masters have high dodge while warriors have low accuaracy and they wield an axe which makes it even easier to be untouched.

Also within the game, you are able to obtain several different skills and equip them to your characters, keep in mind though there is a limit to how many skills you can hold. Some skills increase the amount of experience you receive, while others can increase the amount of attacks you can get in. There are so many skills so experiment with what you can do. As you use your weapons more, that weapon type can increase so you can use stronger weapons, depending on the type. Finally each weapon has a certain amount of hits they can dish out before the weapon breaks. Although there are some weapons that cannot be broken such as Ike's main sword, Ragnell. Also the Laguz have their own weapons such as the cats have their claws and the dragons have their breathe. These are ofcourse unlimited and as their weapon rank increases, their claws/breathe/other can gain more accuracy and more might.

Depending on the class of your characters, you can move a certain amount of space each turn. Between five and ten spaces, some characters are only limited to attacking only one square away too. Mages can obtain tomes that will either hit one to two squares away while others can hit from three to ten spaces. One thing you need to be aware of is that depending on the terrain you and your opponent are standing on as sometimes your attacks won’t reach, or you will be hitting for less damage or your opponent has increased evasion. Sometimes you can find heal bushes too which if you stand on them, you will recover a slight amount each time a turn passes.

The aim to complete each chapter has several methods of winning, you can win by either beating the boss, clear the stage of enemies, survive a certain amount of turns or capture the end of the map. It is usually advised to wipe out all the enemies if possible. With certain characters, you will see an enemy which may be recruitable depending on certain conditions.

The graphics are brilliant but the cut scenes stand out more, I really do think they are cut scenes that you will want to rewatch again every now and then. The music is brilliant, especially the black knight’s theme. This game could last anyone a long time if you want to complete it on every difficulty, for your first few times around, the game will take at least 24 hours to complete, even if you skip all the dialogue, which is needed to know what is going on. The gameplay really is amazing, it is so addicting once you get into the game.

Overall I do love the Fire Emblem series, if you feel like getting a strategy game then this is definitely what game I would recommend. Truly amazing, addicting, and really gets you thinking. Just try completing it on the hardest difficulty. That could take you a while but will be worth it.

Overall score: 95%

Deadly Creatures Mini Review

Deadly Creatures

Console: Nintendo Wii

Genre: Action

Multiplayer: 1 Player

Wi-Fi: No

I have to admit I was really looking forward to the release of Deadly Creatures, the story behind it is that you are either a scorpion or a tarantula going through the levels, killing other bugs and progressing through the levels. Some of the finishing moves look really awesome too. The graphics of the levels were really good too, but I have to admit, I am very disappointed after completing the game.

First of all the battle system was a bit flawed, the attacks took a while as they weren’t very accurate. The music got boring quite quickly and you only need to play the game around 2-3 hours until the game is completed. For the wait I thought this game was too short. With only about ten chapters and each chapter only takes twenty minutes at the most to complete.

I do like however the battle with the snake though, it is the first proper fight with something big, but then again, the fight didn’t last long or take much to win. Plus the final battle is against a human with a shotgun. Which ends up blowing up a whole petrol station. The ending of the game wasn’t impressive either.

Overall this game was a huge disappointment, I did have high hopes for this, it could have been something a lot better. It is a shame really. The graphics are probably the best part of the game.

Overall score: 52%

Metroid Prime Review

Metroid Prime

Console: Nintendo Gamecube

Genre: Adventure, First Person Shooter

Multiplayer: 1 Player

Wi-Fi: No

I have recently been playing Metroid Prime again and I thought, what would be a good review for the Gamecube? Metroid Prime has always been one of my classics. Playing this game while it was first released, I have to admit were the best graphics on the Gamecube that I have ever played. First steps onto the planet Tallon IV, all you can see when you exit your space ship, a few cliffs covered in green, trees, plants and a nice little waterfall, while it is pouring with rain. You would think the planet is quite peaceful, until you advance a little further through the planet. You will encounter loads of the planets inhabitant creatures, some which will leave you alone but most will attack you on sight. Either way you have to fight for your life as you try to explore the planet.

The reason why you are here? You play the role of the female bounty hunter known as Samus Aran. You have received a distress signal from one of the space pirate’s frigate, which you take advantage to investigate. As you have entered, most of the space pirates are either critically injured or dead, as you explore and scan everything around you, you will discover some of their experimentations which have escaped and begun killing them all, these are parasites. As you go through, you will encounter a few until you reach the center which is where the parasite queen is located, after killing her, the parasite queen will fall into the ships reactor core which will set off the destruction of the ship. As you are fleeing to abandon the ship, you come across the general of the Space Pirates, Ridley, which is a dragon-like extra-terrestrial. You killed Ridley in previous Metroid games but the space pirates have managed to revive him with metal parts which he is known as Meta Ridley. After escaping, you are hit with an electrical surge, losing all your power ups. As you get back to your ship you see Meta Ridley fly to Tallon IV which you give chase.

As you advance through the game, your arsenal of weapons. Your primary weapon is an arm cannon, which you acquire different beams to fire, along with missiles. Your beams are unlimited on ammo but your missiles are not. You can also turn into a morph ball which can help you get through shorter sections, you can plant bombs and boost through ramps, also stick onto spider tracks too. Grappling gun is also another weapon which you can use to swing from one area to another as long as there is somewhere to latch onto. Finally you have different visors which can help you keep track of enemies better, solve puzzles that can only be seen with a certain visor and scan information.

The boss fights in this game are truly amazing, some bosses are huge. While fighting a boss, if you get stuck you can scan it to find its backstory and weaknesses. Some of the bosses can be a real challenge too, which is what is needed within games. The details are brilliant too, I know the graphics aren’t as good as todays graphics, but they are pretty darn close.

There are loads of different styles of locations you can explore, you first start off in a tropical rain forest like area, which you then continue on to explore into the ruins, which you begin to find out more about what has happened to this planet, which you continue on to an underground magma cavern, you navigate your way through to find a frozen land. Each of these are designed beautifully and almost every room is filled with puzzles or enemies.

Speaking of the ruins, when you enter and start scanning different lore, you discover about a race called the Chozo, which were the planets main intelligence and superior race, but they describe themselves as equal to all other life on the planet. You begin to find out about a great poison that has struck the planet and began killing off the planets species, either that or corrupting them into evil creatures that will attack on site. There are no signs of the Chozo race but what has been mentioned in the lore is to be warned of Chozo ghosts that has been corrupted from the great poison.

Playing through Metroid Prime is just amazing, I cannot imagine a better way to improve the series, when I found out that Nintendo were going to make Metroid from 2D to 3D I was a bit unsure of what to make of it, but after playing through Metroid Prime, I do believe that they have definitely improved the series by far. As far as classic 3D first person shooters go, this is the game that will always spring to my mind first, a true classic.

Overall I do believe Metroid Prime to be the best of the series, the best of all shooters, the most creative shooter game of its era. If you are looking for a brilliant cheap game that will last you ages, looks beautiful, plays amazing and extremely fun, this is the game you will want, a true classic.

Overall Score: 96%

Review layout plan

At the beginning of each review I am going to have a standard layout of information which will help readers find small bits of information easy to find and red, here is what I am going to do for each review.

Game Title

Game console
Type of game
Multiplayer
Wi-fi

This is how I will be basing, I am going to go through all my old reviews and adapt them.