Will J be able to overcome Tyranus and finally put a stop to this madness?
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Battlefield 4 Review
Will the latest entry in the Battlefield series be the best, or has it finally shriveled in quality?
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds Review
At one time, you couldn’t get a better handheld series port
than Zelda. Link’s Awakening, the Oracle games, and Minish Cap were masterpieces in their own right, distinctly
different from their console brethren, but equally as challenging and
entertaining.
Then the DS came along and screwed it all up for everyone.
Phantom Hourglass
is the second worst handheld Zelda ever created. Though it had the visual charm
of Wind Waker, it captured none of
the exploration and adventure, instead replacing a vast world with a central
dungeon which needed to be beaten nigh-endlessly to get to its ending. This
frustrating repetition on top of a less than stellar game made for an
experience I care to not repeat. The only game worse than this was its
successor Spirit Tracks, which
decided if it made us go on set paths to get to areas to explore, it would
somehow be better than a free roaming boat. Though the central dungeon idea was
improved by removing its time limit and allowing you to skip previously played
parts, the developers stuck to their guns of extending gameplay time at the
expense of monotony. Bleh. The age of
handheld Zelda darkness was upon us.
But hark, like the sun peering through a dark cloud break, a
new game was announced. One that featured top-down adventuring ala the previous
handhelds and was a sequel to one of my personal favorites, A Link To The Past. A Link Between Worlds promised to take us back to a familiar Hyrule
and bring the series back to its roots. As wary as I was, I bought it on the
hopes that just maybe the developers realized that exploration is a crucial
part of gameplay and it’s a bad idea to have half your game consist of playing
the same level ad nauseam. I popped it in the 3DS and braced myself for disappointment.
I’ve never been so happy to have my fears unfounded.
Okay maybe I have, but you get the picture.
Link to the Past Nostalgia, But Better

Another feature that struck me almost immediately was the smoothness of gameplay. Not only do you have full range of motion instead of just 8, you can break pots with your sword, and the complete pause of gameplay when going upstairs has been removed. The sword swings also seem to be faster and produce such a crisp sound and fast effect, it feels noticeably quicker and more satisfying to cut down a bush. I know that sounds stupid, but when you try it you’ll know and be like “Man, AristoGamer, you were right.” And I’ll pull down my aviators while I power up my helicopter to fly over the ocean and say “I know, kid.”
The story is also quite interesting. An evil entity named
Yuga is turning sages into paintings and it’s up to Link, who suddenly gets the
power to merge into walls, to foil his plot and save Hyrule and another place
whose name is too hilarious to spoil. The second half of the game (there’s
always a second half to a Zelda game) features a compelling plotline and one of
the best endings to a handheld Zelda game in some time.
Breaking New Ground By Reexamining Old Ground
For the first time in franchise history, you can complete
the dungeons in any order you want! When I first heard that, my mind was blown.
“A non-linear Zelda should not be possible”, my psyche screamed. It was quickly
silenced by the logical addition of Ravio, an item salesman who runs a store
out of your house to rent you weapons. That’s right, from the beginning of the
game you can rent every single quest-critical item for a price. The only catch
is when you die, the items get returned and you must pay for them again. You
also don’t need to worry about ammo or magic for specific items, as their use
takes away from one unified bar that refills. Though it doesn’t make much sense
for arrows to use the same system as the fire rod, it’s much simpler and more
streamlined. I definitely don’t miss running out of ammo halfway through a
dungeon and having to scrounge for more. This novel system singlehandedly
loosened up a series which didn’t need loosening, but benefited from it
greatly. The resulting game is radically fun, figuring out what items you need
and want for each place and placing emphasis on gaining rupees.
That’s another cool thing, not only do start with a rupee
limit of 9999, but because they’re so important, you find yourself caring about
getting them far more. Gone was the exasperating feeling of needing to purchase
something—anything—to lighten your coin purse. With this system, I don’t think
I ever had over 4000 rupees. It seems so simple to place more importance on
something so ubiquitous between games, but it’s a smart choice that made even
cutting down bushes more rewarding.
In fact, the only negative thing I have to say about this game is I don’t really like the way Link looks from the top down view. Look at his front coif and tell me they couldn’t scale that back just a smidge so we could better see his face. Just compare Link to the Past and Link Between Worlds and tell me one doesn’t look more limiting.
Also, the art style reminds me of what they did with the new Donkey Kong, Kirby, and Mario Brothers games—they all look kind of similar and shiny. Though it’s not as pronounced a problem in this title and it harkens back to Link to the Past, it still has that same plasticky feel that the New Super Mario Brothers has where I feel like Nintendo got a bit lazy on the art. But again, it’s not nearly as noticeable in Link Between Worlds as it is in the aforementioned series.
Verdict:
Even if you’re not a Zelda fan or just haven’t played Link to the Past, A Link Between Worlds is an excellent game that has one of the smoothest engines, best soundtracks, and most creative dungeons of the series. The nonlinearity of the game allows the player more freedom while smart design choices remove the small annoyances and increase fun just running around. If you have a 3DS and like Zelda games or adventure titles, this should absolutely be the next game you buy.
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Ace Attorney 5: Dual Destinies Review

Until he did.
Afterward, a new game following the first game’s lead
Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth called Ace Attorney Investigations was released.
Following the same “collect evidence, try to prove they’re guilty, repeat until
they admit it” formula, but in a sort of sidescroller mode without the familiar
court setting. The response of these two games was lukewarm stateside, leading
to the second Ace Attorney Investigations game to never be released in NA. Fans
were distraught, doing everything from internet petitions to objection videos,
but to no avail. Wind of a Layton x Wright crossover game came, bringing with
it hope, but also the depressing defeat of a non-international release. Fans’
spirits were at an all-time low.
Then news of a new game hit. One that returned to the
basics. To court. To Phoenix. Ace Attorney 5 would put our favorite blue-suited
spiked-mane smug-mugged lawyer back in the driver’s seat. Fans clamored for a
stateside release with such fervor, Capcom must have been able to justify a
release. The game just barely got a digital-only release (one employee informed
me that it was going to have a limited edition boxed release, but this was
cancelled a few months before the game’s release). But finally, it was time. No
more angsting, no more pirating subtitled movies, no more reading walkthroughs,
just playing through the series the fans have come to love.
Prepare yourselves. This is Ace Attorney 5.
Story
Following Phoenix’s disbarment, it seems he’s back behind the bench. Joined by Apollo and a new lawyer named Athena Cykes, they’re battling for their clients’ lives at every turn. Using every trick they know and a few they don’t, they relentlessly pursue the truth against Simon Blackquill, a convicted murderer prosecutor who has a thing for the old samurai ways.
So yes, a formerly
disbarred lawyer and killer are now practicing law. Awesome.
The cases in this game are wildly reminiscent of previous
ones. The high tension, red herrings, massive twists, and freak outs are all
still here. Getting back behind the bench feels as exciting as you’d imagine it
would. The overarching story deals with a serious subject rarely breached by
the previous games –winning cases by any means necessary, from phony
convictions to falsified evidence. Each of the cases ties into this theme
somehow, forming a more cohesive narrative than I’ve seen in any previous Ace
Attorney game.
Gameplay
And what would Ace Attorney be without some strange new gimmick
to get at the truth? For Phoenix it was Maya’s magatama which showed the locks
on peoples’ hearts formed by their lies. Apollo had a bracelet that let him
know when someone was lying, allowing him to perceive their tells. Now Athena
has a computer system named Widget which can analyze audio patterns in a person’s
voice for their emotions. When you see a strange reaction to a particular
statement, you press on it and eventually clear up their testimony by reducing
the discord in their heart. I like the system more than Apollo’s if only
because it has more of a pseudoscience explanation behind it. It was kind of
hard to swallow a magic bracelet that tightened when people lied. The magatama
isn’t much more plausible, but at least it was given to Phoenix by a spirit
medium; the bracelet is from Apollo’s mom who’s a decidedly non-magical <SPOILER>.
Other additions to the gameplay include being able to
examine a room in 3 dimensions by examining each of the 4 walls that make up a
space. That in and of itself may make your heart sink if you’ve played previous
games, since you know how frustrating investigation can be. Constantly clicking
squares and examine for half an hour tends to do that. But Ace Attorney 5 has
solved that too with a nifty feature that puts a little check mark on your
indicator if you’ve already investigated something, and a pulsating circle if
you can investigate something, but haven’t yet. Absolutely genius (i.e. should have
been added a long time ago).
The only complaint I have about the gameplay is that it almost seems too easy. At first, I thought it was because I was a truth-seeking, justicephile who has been in the courtroom one too many times to be bamboozled by Capcom, but upon talking to other fans, I’m finding the same thing. They all agree that it’s not as difficult. I suspect it may be due to things being easier, but it’s more than likely mostly caused by the reduction in frustration. Streamlining investigation alone makes cases take far less time and have much fewer headaches. Also, though the game features cameos from some rather large characters, there aren’t enough to meet the usually high Ace Attorney quota. Though those calmed down in later games, I still miss catching random glimpses of old suspects once in a while. On the upside, it means less lore to look up for newcomers.
Aesthetics

Verdict
I love Ace Attorney, maybe even more than Kingdom Hearts. It’s one of the few series I support in every form I can. From figures to shirts to imported movies to the musicals and beyond, I’m a fan to my core. Though that usually bodes well for a series, this case is a hard one. After being scorned for so long from Capcom, this game had to not only meet the standard, but exceed it just to get a passing mark. Luckily, they did just that with wonderfully updated graphics, a quirky new investigation system, overhauling the frustrating parts, and bringing back characters we love without destroying the wacky continuity we’ve also grown fond of. If you’re new to the series, you may want to go back and play the first few games before getting started on this one (or at least Ace Attorney 4), but if you’re a fan of the series wondering if it’s worth the hype – it is. It so is. Trust me, once you nail your first ne’er-do-well in a lie and this song comes on, you’ll agree.
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs Review
J delves into the highly anticipated Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs. Will it live in the shadow of its predecessor or send J wee wee weeing all the way home?
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