PROS:

As stated earlier, this is Platforming at its finest. The Super Mario Galaxy series’ use of gravity creates ways to Platform never before seen.  It’s crazy some of the things this game makes you do.

There’s a lot to do. With more than 120 stars to get (I won’t tell you exactly how much; that’s a surprise), there’s enough experiences in this title to last well over 20 hours.

As with most Mario games, there are more power ups and more suits to wear. The Rock Mushroom and Cloud Flower are welcome additions to the reused Bee, Boo, and Spring Mushrooms.  There are also a few interesting powerups for Yoshi, which keeps multiple uses of him fresh.  There are even more powerups than these.

The music is excellent. Nintendo always has a penchant for having great soundtracks for their games, and this is no exception.  You’ll hear new songs, as well as songs from the first Galaxy iteration, Super Mario 64, Super Mario World, and more.

The second half of the game is a treat. ***SPOILERS*** After getting all 120 stars the game doesn’t make you do the entire game a second time, a la Super Mario Galaxy.  That was mildly annoying, anyway.  Instead, 120 Green Stars appear.  Some galaxies will have 3, some 2.  These stars challenge the player’s Platforming prowess by putting the stars in sometimes ridiculously crafty places.  ***MAJOR SPOILERS*** After getting these 120 stars, the final galaxy appears, which tests all of your abilities in one level.  ***END OF ALL SPOILERS HERE***

CONS:

It’s the same old story. Bowser kidnaps the Princess.  Woohoo.  I know Shigeru Miyamoto said that he never wanted Mario to have any story, but it isn’t difficult to change it in some way.  They could like have it be Bowser Jr. instead and then put Bowser in a bathtub full of hot water.  Oh wait.

Some powerups aren’t used enough, or are otherwise temporary.  The Boo and Spring Mushrooms are only used in one level each.  The Fire Flower wears off after a certain amount of time.  Why couldn’t it be infinite?  I mean, there are plenty of enemies to hit or water to step into, so it would be difficult anyway to keep the power forever.

Beating ghosts don’t unlock anything. If you beat a level using Luigi, the ghost of a developer playing is unlocked for that level.  Nothing happens if you then beat that ghost, or all ghosts, so who cares?  That would’ve been a pretty neat thing to incorporate into the game.

It needs more rolling ball levels. The ones where Mario balances on top of a ball, and you hold the Wiimote vertical.  You tilt it to make him move.  I love those.

The second half does get tedious, however.  ***SPOILERS AGAIN*** Every time you get a Green star, the camera spins around while Mario does a pose, the screen zooms out, fades; Mario lands on the spaceship, gets a star count increase, star bit increase, and coin increase; it saves the game and tells you about how it just did so; you run to the wheel, the galaxy map comes up, you click on the galaxy again, you click to fly there, Mario zooms down toward the galaxy sprite, the star list (now with 4 stars or more) comes up, the Prankster Comet Approaching screen appears, then you select the Green star, then it shows an unskippable cutscene of a galaxy, then Mario flying through.  Now you can go find the star.  Oh, that’s the second Green star, so now go through that all again to the next one in the same galaxy.  It would’ve been so much easier to make it where every time you acquired a Green star a menu popped up asking if you want to leave the galaxy or continue to get the rest.  It’s not like it’s just the Green star that you clicked that’s available to get.  Sometimes all three are visible at the same time.  It gets tedious about 20-30 Green stars in.

Once again, Nintendo has crafted a wonderful platformer.  You will do some things you never thought you would.  If you love your Wii, like Mario games, or like platformers, get this game.  If none of those things are true, then instead get one of the other 5 excellent games that just came out.

PROS:

First, under the “PROS” section, there are PRO modes. See what I did there?  There are lots of new additions to the plastic instruments that we have grown to love.  It’s like the new season of a TV show, where you get some new characters and more character development for previous ones.

First, there’s an all-new guitar.  Well, two new guitars actually.  These Pro guitars both have to be string-plucked.  The Mad Catz Rock Band 3 Fender Mustang PRO-Guitar Controller (whew, what a mouthful) has a string box with 5 strings at the bottom.  Above that are the 102 fret buttons (!!) that you use to play.  It also can be used as a MIDI guitar controller while not playing the game.  This one will set you back $150 and isn’t available until November 16^th.  The Rock Band 3 Fender Squier Stratocaster has 6 strings (along the entire neck) and 22 frets.  There’s a sensor all along the neck that senses where you’re pressing down the strings.  Also, it can be plugged into an amp.  Harmonix has shown a screenshot of this one, but no one knows when it’s coming or how much it will be. These guitars can also be used in the PRO BASS mode.

Next is the keyboard, a dream of many Rock Band fans for a long time.  It’s wireless, spans two octaves, and even has a touch sensor for some WAH-WAHing sustained notes.  It feels like a well made MIDI keyboard, and can be used as such.  The modes for it are KEYS and PRO KEYS, with the normal one using only 5 keys while PRO uses the whole thing.  The regular KEYS mode can get very tiring on Expert on the hardest songs, so take some painkillers.  Also, you can play the guitar or bass track on the keyboard if you so choose.  The keyboard by itself is $76.99 and the bundle with the game is around $120 (this is the bundle I got).

There are also extensions for the drums in the form of the Pro-cymbals kit.  I don’t know too much about drums, but they are apparently the Crash, Ride, and Hi-Hat cymbals.  What’s great is that every song that has been created so far can be done in the PRO DRUMS mode, even songs that were made before the extensions were made.  They cost $39.99 by themselves or $129.99 for the Rock Band 3 drums and extensions.

Also, Vocal Harmonies are finally added. A feature first introduced in The Beatles:  Rock Band, Vocal Harmonies allow up to three vocalists to sing up to three-part harmony.  So, it’s kind of like a PRO VOX (vocals) mode.  Since Bohemian Rhapsody is included in this game, this is definitely a winner.

The “Overshell” is amazing. As you play the game, there is always an “Overshell” menu above the gameplay and other menus.  This allows people to actively drop in and out, breakneck speed can be turned on and off, and calibration can be instantly done.  Now you don’t have to completely back up to the main menu to do these things anymore.

In Quickplay, everything is tracked. All score information, star-tracking (something sorely missed in Rock Band 2), leaderboards, and more is available within Quickplay.  You can complete Challenges, save setlists, and even challenge other players within the mode.  You can now use your personal character in Quickplay, unlike in Rock Band 2, and you also gain fans for your band, even though you’re not in the “Road Challenges” (Career) mode.  Also, a complex search engine has been added that lets you tailor your available songs to exactly what you’re looking for.  It’s really awesome.

The setlist is great as well. Pretty much all of the songs are interesting to play on at least something.  With ten different instrument modes to try the songs out on (not including Band, which can have 5 players in all sorts of combinations), these songs, plus all of your DLC and Exported songs, will last an awfully long time.

CONS:

With the PRO Guitar modes, you think they would have their new guitar(s) out on release day.  I feel like I’m missing a vast amount of the game.  I guess we’ll all wait until November 16^th, then.

The Road Challenges mode (the new World Tour mode) seems shorter. Within 3 days of not playing it that much I had it beat.  You can make your own playlists on pretty much everything, though, so I guess it feels more like you’re managing your own band’s tour.  I guess they wanted to make the vast majority of the game in Quickplay, which is better in the long run.  It means that you’re working to further your career no matter what you do.

About 20 or so of the new Rock Band 3 songs don’t support keyboard. So, in addition to there being no Pro guitar yet, I feel a little lacking in the Keys department as well.  Add to this the fact that a lot of the least difficult songs have you barely play any keyboard at all.

Score Duel is gone. I love battling other players, but I can tell that these changes are Rock Band’s way of trying to stay as far away from Guitar Hero’s problems as they can.

With all of these add-ons and new controllers, it’s a lot to invest in. If new experiences are what you’re after, you’re going to be forking over quite a bit of money for it.  Make sure you’re willing to go all of the way before making any big purchases.  Find out if any of your friends have the new keyboard or drum extensions and ask to try them before you buy.

If you only buy the game, you’re basically getting just another Rock Band.  If you don’t have any DLC, your experience won’t be as diverse.  If you don’t plop down the money for the new stuff, you’re really missing out on a whole lot of fun.  As stated earlier, how good this game is depends on how devoted you are to it.

Goblin here, and I played alongside Vegieza when I could find the time. It was a lot of fun, and the character creation is something he didn’t touch on. It’s WAY more vast this time without feeling cumbersome, and the shopping basically takes care of itself. Instead of just stockpiling ridiculous amounts of cash, you complete challenges and bam: new clothes.

I will say, when some songs’ vocals merge too well and you can’t tell whose voice is whose, it’s a bit rough trying to sing along. Best try to find some solo tracks and listen well, or just trial and error if you can’t read pitch, my friends. Also, Vocals with Keyboard will equal win. Goblin out.

PROS:

It’s pretty difficult. This is a great thing, especially on the back of Lego Rock Band’s easy setlist.  Most of the tracks are what guitar-based music game players refer to as a “chord fest”.  This term means that you’ll be doing a lot of chords a lot of the time.

But it’s not boring because of this. Usually, so many chords constitute a setting in of boredom after a while.  This is not so in this game, because it’s mostly REALLY FAST MUSIC.  That’s the main reason as to why it’s difficult.  You’re playing this chord fest at a really fast pace.

All the band members and venues look and feel like they should. If you like Green Day, then you’ll feel right at home.

There are lots of extras, like pictures and videos of live concerts.  These are unlocked not only by playing the main career but also by completing challenges like playing all of American Idiot at once.

Finally, American Idiot. I’ve been waiting to play this album on Rock Band forever.  This is one of my favorite albums of all time, and it was a delight to finally play it in all of its glory.

CONS:

Once again, if you hate or slightly dislike Green Day, then buy something else. It was pretty much only made for Green Day fans.  However, the only exception to this might be if you are a Rock Band guitarist looking for a way to practice chords (I know some people are bad at them).  This would instead be a great way to practice.

Chord fests hurt. The problem with playing this many chords at this speed is that your hand will start to hurt really quickly.  Their first albums are the worst at doing this.  As their sound progresses, they use the extreme speed/chord fest combination less and less.  So, as you go through the career it hurts less and less.

Even further than this, if you CAN play chords but don’t like to, then as stated earlier about halfway through the career there aren’t many more songs like that.

Some achievements are only solo.  It doesn’t tell you this, though.  Sometimes you have to be playing in your own career, and sometimes you can be playing in a friend’s and still receive them.  If you are unsure, you should probably look them up.

These games are starting to tire even me. After having played an upwards of 14 band-based music games through in their entirety, it’s starting to get a little repetitive.  Hopefully, Rock Band 3 will fix all of this with the Pro modes and Keyboard instrument.

Anyways, the verdict remains that it’s a pretty good buy if you like Green Day, and it isn’t if you don’t.

PROS:

It’s black, gray, and amazing. This game has like every shade of gray known to man.  Even without colors, it’s amazing to look at.  They kept it simple.

There’s no soundtrack, and it’s amazing. Just the ambience of the forest and the occasional dull tone make this game deceptively creepy.  Once again:  simple.

The puzzles are pretty great. While not as difficult as Braid’s puzzles, you’ll still have to think.  Upon watching multiple people play the game, some players get stuck where others get it right off the bat.  As I observed the Goblin himself, he instantly solved things that took me a while and vice-versa.

It’s one of those interpretive stories. You know, the ones where the developers don’t actually have to create a story, just throw in some mysterious imagery and what-not.  They then sit back and watch the forums buzz with endless theories of what actually happens.  I like that occasionally.

The achievements are easy in addition to other things. After beating the game, chapter select opens.  You can then jump to whatever achievements you missed.  Besides this, there’s also a leaderboard.  It tracks what percentage you’ve beaten the game, which can go up to 111%. Past the 100% mark is even more super secret things to find, as well as beating the game in one sitting without dying once.

CONS:

It can be divided into sections pretty easily. It would’ve been nice to see a mix up of the puzzles, instead of all of the same type in one area.

The second two-thirds of the game feels less personal. Things are aggressively attacking you toward the beginning, but after a certain point that all stops.  The rest is just puzzles and dying is something you bring upon yourself from then on.

The above thing gets rid of the creepiness, too. You’re on edge a lot at the beginning, but then it slowly dies down as you realize that you aren’t in as much immediate danger anymore.  With your nerves no longer being frazzled, puzzles become frustrating as arguing with inanimate objects becomes anger at yourself.

It’s pretty short. It’s about 4 hours long, but that’s if you don’t get stuck too often.  You might wanna play it again, so that’ll extend it some.

That story thing again. Some people actually hate when things don’t explain themselves outright and are up to interpretation.  If one of these people is you, then it’ll detract some from how much you like it.

Limbo is worth $15 because it’s an experience.  If all of this sounds good, but you don’t have $15, then get Braid.  It might be discounted by now.  I don’t know.  Come back to this in a couple of months and it might be less then.

Now, upon scouring the internet I have found that some games I chose to skip over are now $20 or under (like Spirit Tracks *gasp*). Therefore, I got Lego Rock Band.

PROS:

There are the occasional songs that should’ve been done before now. Songs like We Will Rock You, We Are the Champions, Ghostbusters, Two Princes, Final Countdown, and even Kung Fu Fighting are featured here and are the only place to find them on Rock Band.

There’s a ton of unlockable things. Since it’s a Lego game, there are many unlockable pieces for your character and even pieces of furniture you can buy for your Rock Den.

The gems look like Legos! The colorful gems falling down the highway that cross the strike line (music game terms meaning the notes that come down) are now shaped like legos. Kinda like how in The Beatles: Rock Band the gems are saturated colors.

There are bosses to fight, kinda. They’ll just tell you something like, “The harder you rock the more you blow up this building” and that’s what you do. It shows the building blowing up in the background while you play.

Rock Band DLC that the game finds “family-friendly” enough is playable automatically. I have mostly metal and stuff (so those songs weren’t in there), but some of my dlc and some of the Rock Band 1 songs were there to break up the monotony of some of the setlists.

CONS:

The overall song list isn’t that great. Some of these songs you’ll get tired of really fast, sometimes to the point of frustration.

It gets repetitive in the worst places. You’ll see a new song in the new venue you’ve unlocked and will say, “Cool!” Then the next gig will be a one song setlist with a “random” song. Guess what? It’ll probably be the song you JUST PLAYED.

With the characters being made of Legos, it kinda gets rid of the “I’m a cool rockstar” feel. It feels unrealistic… mainly because it is.

A lot of the different options and modes aren’t explained very well. At one point I was unable to progress any further in the “story” until I did… something. I just played every gig that had been unlocked that I hadn’t played yet for about 2 or 3 more hours until finally I could progress.

There’s no Endless Setlist. One of my favorite things about Rock Band 1 and 2 is the gig that makes you play every song in the game in a row. For the first game that particular gig was over 4 hours long, and for the second game it was over 8. This “Endless Setlist” is just 30 random songs, including your DLC, not in order of increasing difficulty. Argh.

This game is worth $20 but just barely. I’m glad I didn’t buy it last year.

As with all Team Ninja games, the DOA series is known for its heightened difficulty. I believe the game mechanics of the Dead or Alive Xtreme series to be one of the most complex of all time, almost as complicated as real-live-action-life women themselves. A game about playing volleyball and giving women swimsuits being complicated is a crazy idea, and I love Team Ninja (well, Tomonobu Itagaki) for creating it. Itagaki, the creator of the Dead or Alive series and every game related to it has since left the company, so let’s see how things have changed.

PROS:

Finally, a new DOAX series game has arrived. I need more of this series in my life. Maybe the next iteration will be in 3-D or have motion control. >:D

It’s portable! Finally one can take the experience anywhere. I plan to play it on board a cruise ship. It’s theme appropriate, after all.

There’s a 10th girl! Rio, some reference to some other game, is now playable once you unlock her.

Virtual Pictorial is way easier to unlock. In fact, it seems like most of the game is based around this feature. It doesn’t take 30+ hours to unlock this time around and finally keeps track of which gravure videos you’ve watched and which you haven’t.

No Hilary Duff! Unlike the soundtracks on the first two games, this one is mostly filled with actual Japanese music. The others were terrible pop and reggae-style beach-themed tracks (Reel Big Fish was nice, though). You can still provide your own music by putting mp3s on yourmemory stick.

CONS:

There’s less of everything. You know when you get the ‘Lite’ version of something, there’s less of something and it usually isn’t as good. That’s this game. It’s DOAX Lite, and the only thing added is the aforementioned extra character.

The difficulty has been removed. I guess Itagaki was the only person making the games difficult, because now it isn’t difficult at all. So far no suit has been rejected. Before this game I would’ve said that this would be a good thing, but now I’m not so sure.

The environment textures are terrible. I know I’ve been playing a lot of ridiculously good looking games lately, but this is like Pre-PS2 stuff. The models’ textures are as good as Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball (the first game), but the rest of the environment is not.

There’s less control while playing volleyball. Your partner is controlled completely by the right thumbstick on the console versions. The PSP has no right thumbstick, so therefore you can’t control your partner.

There’s less clothing… I know that usually this is a good thing, but in this I mean that there are fewer varieties to choose from. From a female clothing fanatic’s point of view, this is not a good thing. Now you know that about me.

Well, wasn’t that fun? Next week I’ll have a review for you about a little known game called Super Mario Galaxy 2… or something like that.