25 Cent Time Machine Reviews: Megaman Battle Network 3

My viewers who are into Capcom games will no doubt have heard that Capcom has decided that they've gone too long without making a PR screwup the size of Jupiter and have therefore picked the cancellation of Megaman Legends 3 as said screwup(Although I honestly had my doubts about the game's quality starting with Inafune leaving Capcom). So while we wait for Capcom to come to their senses and resume the project, we'll look back fondly on the time when Megaman was the thing Capcom was famous for. I speak of Megaman Battle Network 3, the best in the Battle Network series and the very first Megaman game I ever played.

Penchant that I have for starting with sequels, I chose Battle Network 3 to start with because it was the only Battle Network game the Gamestop I was at had in stock. So after paying a whopping 5 dollars for the game, a purchase I still consider to be the best value I ever got for a game, I immediately started playing. From the moment I started, I was hooked.

The game is separated into two types of scenarios. The first is fighting the WWW's(short for World 3) evil Navis. The second, which stops about halfway through the game, is a Netbattle tournament called the N1. The N1 is never concluded because the organizer was found to be a member of WWW. Most of the bosses are based on characters from the classic Megaman games, such as Flashman and Plantman, but some are new to Megaman, such as Beastman and Kingman.

After defeating the bosses(I won't go into detail because there are just too many of them) and defeating Alpha, an enormous virus whose sole purpose is to destroy the Net, we unlock a secret area, which has a few extra bosses and a fellow named Serenade, who is untouchable for most of the battle. we unlock some "Time Trials", which are challenges designed to test your skills against the bosses. I still haven't beaten the time trials, mainly because I couldn't use my stupidly overpowered custom folder on them.

I'll end the review on this note: Megaman Battle Network 3 is definitely worth buying. I'd use Amazon or Ebay to buy it because Gamestop has stopped selling Game Boy Advance games.

Also, a little news flash: Thursday of next week will not have a review, as I will be very busy that day.

25 Cent Time Machine Reviews: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

Now, you may be wondering why I'm reviewing this 21st century game. I'm reviewing this because it's such a good game that it merits a review. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is a Nintendo DS game, but the one I played was the Wiiware version, which was released in three parts(the other two I would've gotten if I hadn't blown all my money on DVDs). This Ace Attorney game has Phoenix Wright as the main character(the Game Boy Advance ones had Edgeworth as the main character). Phoenix Wright is an up-and-coming defense attorney who, when the game starts, is just off the bar.

In the Wiiware version, the controls are based on the Wiimote rather than the DS stylus. It would take too long to go through the controls in detail, but you'll figure it out if you play the game.

Anyway, the first case involves Phoenix Wright's friend Larry Butz(bad puns on Larry's last name abound in this game, so be warned). He is accused of murdering his girlfriend. Your job is to prove that he didn't commit the murder. I'll just say that most of the real decisive action takes place in the courtroom, and the main thing you're doing is trying to find holes in your opponent's testimony. Presenting the right evidence at the right time is crucial. You have 5 "!" symbols. Each mistake you make costs you one of the exclamation points. Lose all 5, and you lose the trial. Capcom probably put that in to discourage guessing.

Since most of the game is dialogue, I can't really go any further in without revealing spoilers. As a reviewer, spoilers are a no-no for me. If you want to get the full experience, go buy the game, either on the DS through your friendly local game retailer or the Internet, or on Wii through the shop channel. It costs 1000 Wii points($10.00 US) and is worth every point.

25 Cent Time Machine Reviews: Kirby Super Star

Sorry, no picture this time.

Kirby Super Star is a SNES game with a somewhat different layout from the other Kirby games. Rather than being one linear plot that you play through once and are then finished with, it has a number of smaller stories.

Before we talk about the modes of play, let us first look a little bit into Kirby's background. The concept was created by HAL Labratories, headed by Masahiro Sakurai, who many know as the creator of the Super Smash Bros. games. Kirby is a spherical hero that looks, to me at least, like a gumball with feet. Kirby is a far more skilled warrior than his appearance would suggest. This comes from his signature skill: his ability to copy the powers of whatever he ingests. Inhale a bird-type enemy and Kirby will gain wings that allow him to greatly enhance his flying abilities(yes, he has flying abilities even without the wing powerup). Inhale the giant Bonkers and you get a hammer you can bash in the skulls of your enemies with. You may wonder why I'm depicting Kirby as violent. That's because, when you think about it, these games actually are quite violent. Picture if you will: to steal a weapon, the main character devours their opponent. That would be like Mega Man stealing the Bubble Lead from Bubbleman by deep frying him and eating him with a side of fries.

Disturbing descriptions aside, let's look at the game itself. The first story, called Spring Breeze, is a story where you're pretty much just learning the ropes. King Dedede has stolen and hoarded all the food in Dream Land, and you must stop him. This story was fairly easy, and I finished it in about two hours. After that, you unlock another couple of games to play. The first one is Gourmet Race, which features you and King Dedede racing their way across Dream Land eating all the food they can find. I don't really care for Gourmet Race myself because I find that King Dedede outdistances me in a fairly short time. After that we move on to Dyna Blade. In Dyna Blade, there's this big bird that has been ravaging Dream Land. After making it through all the stages and battling Dyna Blade, you discover that the bird was just trying to find food for its chicks. Kirby's solution: bring the nest over to Wispy Woods get him to drop apples into the waiting mouths of the chicks. Now for my favorite one: Meta Knight's Revenge. Most of you know Meta Knight from Brawl, but his debut was in Kirby Super Star. In this story, Meta Knight has come to take over Dream Land for reasons unknown to all but him. His ship, the Halberd, must be brought down before it lands and lets out Meta Knight's army. You have a timer, and must stop Meta Knight before it runs out. After doing that, we move on to Milky Way Wishes. In this game, the sun and moon are fighting, and you have to not only settle the quarrel, but also destroy the thing that caused it. In Milky Way Wishes, you don't copy enemies' powers by swallowing them. You find statues and then have the ability to freely switch between powers. After that, we have Mine Cart Offensive, which is a treasure hunt, Samurai Kirby, which is a reflex exercise of sorts, and one other game I can't remember the name of.

Kirby Super Star can be obtained via the Wii Shop Channel for 800 Wii Points ($8.00 US)

Notice

Due to a little amnesia problem, we will be delaying the Kirby Super Star review until Thursday. Hope you understand.

25 Cent Time Machine Reviews: Boktai 2: Solar Boy Django

Boktai 2 was a game I actually heard about from playing Mega Man Battle Network 5, so when I saw it at Gamestop, I decided to buy it. People nowadays are always harping on games for not innovating, but this game really does innovate.

I don't usually do this, but I feel that I need to in order to do a proper review. here's a picture of the cartridge:

Already, you notice that something's different about the game just by looking at the cartridge. For one thing, it's clear. Why do you think that might be? Also, it sticks out a bit more than other Game Boy Advance games. Here's why: the game cartridge has a small solar panel in it. The panel itself is the closest black square to the top of the cartridge. This solar panel affects some things in-game. Depending on how much sunlight the panel is getting, your energy meter will recharge at different rates, and you can also do a "Solar Charge" to recharge your energy faster. Having sunlight hitting the panel also charges up energy at Solar Stations, which can be exchanged at the Solar Bank for money. There are also certain spells that require you to have at least a certain level of sunlight to cast, and there's a thing called Solar Forging that you can only do if you have sunlight.

Anyway, enough about the Solar Sensor, let's actually play the game. You play as a vampire hunter named Django who, having just bested Hel, the queen of shadows, is on his way back to the City of the Sun. Now, already, this sounds like Castlevania (they're even by the same company, Konami, which seems to have an undead fetish) but there are a few interesting twists. For one, Django's weapon isn't a whip or a cross or holy water. It's a gun. A gun that shoots bolts of sunlight. Now, don't think that you get to keep this awesome weapon for very long. At the end of the intro stage, it's stolen from him by a mysterious vampire, and by the time you get it back and get it repaired, it's not nearly as fuel-efficient anymore.

After getting your first new weapon, the Gradius(which, oddly enough, is also the name of another Konami game), a short sword, you're given one of the lenses of the Solar Gun, which allows you to enchant your sword with light magic. This drains your energy every time you swing your sword, regardless of whether you're actually attacking something, so I usually leave it off. Anyway, the first actual stage is learning how to use weapons and other dungeon-traversing skills that you'll direly need later in the game. After fighting the first boss(who looks like a giant moth, complete with light fetish), you lock her in a coffin and take her back to a magic circle called the Piledriver to "Purify" her. You do this by using a magic attack to set up all four of the Piledriver machines, and then get some sunlight, which you'll really need for this fight. The sunlight constantly drains the boss's health, and you're supposed to keep the four machines running. Every so often , a shadowy hand will come out of the coffin and turn off one of the machines. When it does, use a magic attack to reset the machine. This continues throughout the game.

One thing, though, is that about halfway through, Django gets bitten by a vampire, so his counterpart Sabata takes him back to purify him. At this point, Django regains his sanity but is stuck in vampire form. In order to complete the next dungeon, you have to master a whole new set of skills. Vampire Django can turn into a rat, bat, or werewolf(who has an attack that can sap your enemies' health) as well as the ability to sleep in his coffin to recover his energy. Water and sunlight hurt Vampire Django. you can use Sunblock(cheesy, I know) to eliminate the sunlight threat, and you can hid in the coffin to avoid rain. The three forms are highly useful throughout the level.

After regaining human form(and being able to switch between forms) and going through the other dungeons, you come upon the final boss. Rather than spoil that fight for you, I'll go on to the aftergame mission. After returning from the final level, you get news of another vampire. After going to the plaza of the level where you get the Solar Gun back, you come upon... Shademan, the vampire-like Navi from Megaman Battle Network 4 and 5. After killing and Purifying Shademan, you get a new gun called the Megabuster, which does more damage and consumes less energy than the wasteful Solar Gun.

Since Gamestop doesn't buy/sell Game Boy Advance games anymore, your best bet to get Boktai 2 is Amazon.com.

Next time we will go back in time and review Kirby Super Star.

25 Cent Time Machine Reviews: Bomberman Hero

This game is one I remember fondly from my own childhood. Bomberman Hero is a platformer, and that in itself sets it apart from the other Bomberman games. However, unlike other Nintendo 64 platformers like Super Mario 64, the main character has an infinite supply of bombs at his disposal.

The story is set in motion when a UFO crashes on Bomberman's home planet. After completing his training, Bomberman sets out to investigate. Upon his arrival at the crash site, he finds Pibot, a robot who says that Princess Millian of Primus Star has been captured by the forces of Garaden. He then sets out to rescue her.

In addition to the infinite bomb supply, Bomberman also has four types of Power Gear: the Bomber Copter, Slider, Jet, and Marine. The Power Gear stages are different from the stages on foot. The Bomber Copter, which is my personal favorite, allows the greatest mobility of all the Gear, and you attack by dropping bombs ather than throwing them. The Bomber Jet is constantly moving forward, so you have to be constantly moving around the screen and firing to kill enemies before they get to you. The Bomber Marine gives good mobility as well, and shoots homing missiles, which is a big help when trying to get rid of faraway enemies. Last(and least in my opinion) is the Bomber Slider. It's pretty much just a snowboard. Its attack is the hardest to pull off, and getting power ups requires extreme skill.

It would take too long to explain each level, so I'll go over each planet instead. The first planet, Planet Bomber, is Bomberman's home planet. This entire first planet is pretty much just learning the ropes. There are a couple of Bomber Gear stages, but most of it is on foot. This planet is the first appearance of Nitros, a short blue-clad fellow who looks like a midget version of Shiek from Legend of Zelda:Ocarina of Time. Nitros can be a pain to beat because he's so agile that he dodges 90% of the bombs you throw, and you have no way of knowing how close he is to dying. The boss is Endol, who I think looks like a direct ripoff of Volt Catfish from Mega Man X3.

The second planet, Primus, is a fun planet because it features the Bomber Copter in the last area, and it's got all sorts of fun things to do in the levels. Our buddy Nitros appears again here, and, if anything, seems easier to beat the second time.The boss here is Baruda, a bird you fight using the Bomber Copter.

Our next planet is a volcanic world called Kanatia. Kanatia has the longest second area of any in the game, and I don't mind that one bit, because the second area has an Egyptian theme, which is one of my favorite themes to have in a level. Nitros shows up here too. Persistent little bugger, isn't he? Kanatia's boss is Bolban, a sphinx that can only be effectively hit in two places.

The fourth planet is Mazone, an icy planet that provides a sharp contrast to magma-centric Kanatia. In Mazone's first stage, we have Bomberman riding on a green animal of some sort, hopping on what looks like floating mushroom caps, and jumping on enemies to defeat them. Oh, and there are wall kicks, too. Sound familiar? To be fair, Louie actually looks more like a rabbit, but from a distance he resembles Yoshi. Mazone is where you rescue the princess, after a battle with Nitros, but the game doesn't end there. Turns out that Garaden kidnapped Millian because she stole a disk that they need to run some sort of weapon. Mazone's boss fight is probably my least favorite because there are two bosses: a spider-like robot named Kronus, and a whip-wielding furry named Natia. Kronus is hard enough to kill without Natia dive-bombing you on that platform of hers. After destroying Kronus, Natia decides to take matters into her own paws and bring the party to you. Until I figured out how to quickly destroy Kronus, Natia kept killing me because that stupid robot only left me with one or two life bars with which to face Natia.

The fifth planet, Garaden, is where things sart to really pick up. Garaden only has one area, and it is a boss rush, where at some point you knock the memories back into Nitros and learn that he's actually a Bomber Base trainee. The second battles with the bosses are all different than when you faced them the first time. He shares his power with you(which really doesn't seem to do anything) and you proceed to the last battle against Bagular.

Bagular is, dare I say it, actually worse than Natia and Kronus. He has three forms, all of which kicked my ass until I was wearing my buttocks like a hat. The closest I've ever come to beating him was getting his final form down to the giant missile-shooting head,at which point I died a horribly painful death.

If you manage to beat all the stages and get a perfect score on every one, you unlock a sixth planet called Gossick. I'll do a revisit entry where I describe Gossick, but, for now, the review is over.

You can get Bomberman Hero on the Wii Shop Channel for $10.00 U.S.

Stay tuned for next time when we dive into the murky depths of Konami's game library for a look at Boktai 2: Solar Boy Django.

25 Cent Time Machine Review: Mega Man II

Photo taken from ProtoDudesRockmanCorner



Mega Man II, released in 1987, was a great game. It really took the NES to its full potential in terms of graphics and sound, and was loads of fun to play as well. It follows the story of Mega Man, a robot created by Dr. Thomas Light, as he tries to save the planet once again from Doctor Wily. The thing about Doctor Wily is that he's a stubborn villain, simply refusing to learn his lesson after one defeat or even two. I guess he figured more Robot Masters would be the solution this time. Anyone who's played the first Mega Man will know that the first one had six Robot Masters.

I could go on forever about the gameplay, but I feel that people stop reading reviews if they're too long-winded. I'll give a brief synopsis of each level.

The first Master I beat was Wood Man. Wood Man's stage was pretty straightforward, with very few u-turns and no spikes for miles around. Most of the enemies went down in a couple of hits, and there are these roadrunner enemies that jump over you if you stand still. Wood Man himself went down fairly quickly with just the peashooter(I call it that because it's weak and its symbol is the letter P). The weapon I got from him, the Leaf Shield, stagnated in my pause screen until I got up the guts to challenge Air Man.

Next up was Flash Man. I don't really remember much about Flash Man, only that he went down pretty quickly as well. The stage is also fairly simple, even though it looks like a maze at first. The trick is to stick to the upper paths, along which you'll find a fair number of extra lives and an E Tank. E Tanks are useful because they completely fill your life meter when you use them. Flash Man's weapon, the Time Stopper, makes Quick Man's stage a LOT easier to beat, which I translate to "Possible."

After Flash Man I went after Metal Man. Metal Man's stage has a lot of gears in the background and a number of enemies that look like drills. These little buggers have a habit of boxing you in, and they take multiple hits to kill. I ended up resorting to the Time Stopper to get past them. After that, there are lots of conveyor belts and pits. Metal Man himself also went down with the peashooter. His weapon, the Metal Blade, is quite possibly the most useful weapon in the game.

Next we have Air Man. Now, unless I'm mistaken, there's an entire song out there dedicated to how hard Air Man is to kill. Now, for me, it wasn't Air Man himself that made him hard to beat. It was the stage. The entire stage consists of platforms floating above instant death pits(every single one of which I fell into and lost all my E Tanks). And to make matters worse, some of the platforms have horns that hurt you and, more often than not, knock you into the pits. This stage is like Mario meets Castlevania. So after falling more times than a suicidal Humpty Dumpty, I finally made it to Air Man himself, and the Leaf Shield made his fight almost insultingly easy. The one shot of the Leaf Shield I was able to hit Air Man with took out half his health, and I finished him off with the peashooter.

After obtaining the Air Cannon, I moved on to Crash Man's stage, which is actually quite reminiscent of Donkey Kong. Maybe it's all the ladders and barrel shaped enemies. Oh, and there are moving platforms, too, like in 75m of Donkey Kong. Also, the objective is the same: get to the top. Most of Crash Man's stage is platform puzzles. Crash Man himself went down in less than 5 seconds because of the Air Cannon. His weapon, the Crash Bomb, can blow up some types of walls.

Now we get to the stage I hated with a passion, Quick Man's stage. Quick Man is widely acknowledged as the hardest of the 8 Robot Masters to beat. In my case, his stage killed me a lot. Most of the time I spent on his stage was either trying to get past the lasers or grinding for extra lives. I'd heard that the Time Stopper actually kills Quick Man if it's at full energy, but I didn't get to test that because I used it up getting past the lasers. Luckily, the Crash Bomb is another weakness of his.

Onward to Heat Man's stage. By the time I got around to him, I had the Tools No. 2, which meant that I could bypass the hardest part of the level. Most of his stage is reminiscent of Mario because it focuses heavily on platforming and resembles Bowser's castle. The barrel enemies from Crash Man's stage also make an appearance here, and the weapon I relied heavily on there was the Metal Blade, which I also spammed Heat Man to death with.

Now with the Atomic Fire(which sounds nice, but that I haven't really found a use for), I moved on to Bubble Man's stage. Now, this is a nice stage. It's got waterfalls everywhere and most of the stage is actually underwater. Mega Man can jump higher underwater for some reason, but if you don't control your jumps, you'll jump up into spikes. After making it past the water, there's some platforming up until you fight the boss. Bubble Man was weak to the Quick Boomerang, which actually isn't as useful as it sounds.

Wily's fortress consists of four stages and the final boss, who I regrettably couldn't get to before I had to write this. The first four stages are essentially puzzles that make use of the 3 platform tools that you get throughout the game. The first boss of Wily's Fortress is a robotic dragon that can kill you just by touching you. It chases you into a dead end, where there are three tiny platforms that you can stand on. Shoot it in the head repeatedly with the peashooter(nothing else works) to kill it. The second boss is the Gutstank, which I killed with the Quick Boomerang. The third boss is a little room where parts of the walls fly off and try to kill you. The Metal Blade worked best here because you can shoot it directly above you. The fourth boss are the Wall Lasers, which I got stuck on. Its only weakness is the Crash Bomb, but it killed me off before I culd get to all its modules. I'll just have to let the final boss remain a mystery. Sorry.

That wasn't long-winded at all, was it? Anyway, this game was well worth the five dollars I paid for it. It would be worth the fifty dollars Konami is charging for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow.

This game, along with the first game and the next three Mega Man games, is available on the Wii Virtual Console, but I'll probably get the Megaman Anniversary Collection, which has the first eight Mega Man games.

Stay tuned for next time, when we will be visiting 1998 and reviewing Bomberman Hero, a great game from my own childhood.