Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening (PS2) - Review

Introduction

Devil May Cry is an action-adventure-horror game franchise (just a little of horror^^) that focus on Dante, the main character, kicking the asses of demons and monsters, from beginning to the end. After the disappointing Devil May Cry 2, Capcom releases DMC3: Dante’s Awakening to do justice to the series, bringing back Dante’s personality (that was reduced almost to nothing on DMC2) and the bizarre environments, also the action and boss fights  are better than ever!

 Story & Characters

DMC3 is a prequel , is the first on the DMC timeline. It begins with Vergil, Dante’s twin brother, sending an “invitation” to Dante come to the evil tower, that he has just revived, with the help of his advisor Arkham, so he can get their mother amulet back, to  open the gates to the Demon World. On the way to face Vergil, Dante will encounter a mysterious girl, that he calls Lady, and an annoying creature called Jester. All this characters has a very important role on the story and they get very interesting while the game goes on. The story and the characters are good reasons to make me go until the end of the game, it really caught my attention.

Gameplay

The game is hard as hell! The boss of the mission 3 probably’ll give you some trouble for a while, but after replaying the firsts stages you’ll be able to buy itens to recover health and get use to the gameplay. Dante can use 4 different styles (in total are 6, you unlock 2 on the lately stages), that you select before starting a mission, each one focus on something: swords, guns, agility and guard. Also Dante gets a good variety of weapons on his way, while fighting a lot of demons. This is a type of game that you have to evade the attacks of the enemies, so you can survive, because every attack you take’ll drop precious health, specially on harder dificulty. After the first fight against Vergil, Dante can use the Devil Trigger, that recovers health and increases Dante’s attacks for a short period (you can increasse the period buying items). The combat is very good, you can combine different attacks to make a cool combo to increasse your style.

Visuals

The environments looks awesome, and some are very bizarre , and the characters looks great. The cut scenes are very well-made and fun to watch, having some really cool effects and motion capture.

Sound

The musics on the game gives it a nice feeling of a horror environment and Dante’s personality. When you are exploring you just hear some bizarre low noises, but when the action begins comes a heavy metal music, what is very cool. The voice acting are amazing, a really good work of the actors, specially the actor who plays Dante.

Replay

The challenge of the game can be a little frustrating, but after some hours you get used to it. The boss fights are also pretty cool and challenging  There are  a lot of different levels of difficulty, but believe me, the easy mode is not easy at all. But the challenge mixed with a adctive gamelay and a nice story is enough to keep me coming back for this game.

Good & Bad

The Good: Adictive gameplay, cool story and cut scenes, challenging game, Dante is cool and funny and the boss fights are memorable.

The Bad: it is too hard from the beginning and you can’t fight Jester in his normal form.

Conclusion

IF you like a good story, a cool and fun main character, a deep gameplay, amazing boss fights and a big challenge, them Devil May Cry 3 definitely is a game worth of you take a look, specially if you like a challenge. A really great game on the PS2.

Price of Games in Brazil

Sometimes I see people on the internet , that lives in the US or Europe that complains about the price of U$:60.00 for new game releases, very well, but what these people think about the price of U$:120.00 (R$180.00) of new game releases here in Brazil? That’s because of the high rates of importation, estabilished by the brazilian government.

 For this reason, in Brazil most gamers buy “pirate games” (games copied without permission) or download them via internet to make their own copy. These “pirate games” coasts something like U$:5.00 or U$:6.00, a more fair price by the way, compared with the original ones here. But they weren’t able  to hack the PS3 system to make these pirate games on the PS3, because it uses Blu-Ray disc (at least not yet), as they did with every other console, them the gamers that were used to buy games by low prices, now faces high prices on the PS3. And since they were able to hack the Xbox360, many brazilian gamers turned to the Microssoft’s console.

But what is really crazy are the pirate patchs they made from games like GTA, there’s: GTA Batman, GTA Sonic, GTA Dragon Ball and GTA Spiderman, these are very bad made patchs  for the GTA San Andreas, where you play with the appearance of the characters of those franchises, but the game itself is the same.

 I buy PS3 games, but lately, I wait sometime before buying, so the price drops, because if I don’t wait and buy every new release that I want, soon I wom’t have money to buy food(^^). So gamers on the US and Europe be happy to pay U$:60.00 on a new game, while we Brazilians struggle with our prices.

Sonic The Hedgehog (Genesis) - Review

Introduction

Two years after the Sega Genesis’s release, Sega releases: Sonic The Hedgehog, and at that time, little do they know that Sonic would become one of the most famous characters in the world of games. And finally Nintendo’s Mario got a real “rival”.

Story & Characters

As most platform games, at that time, the story is very simple and acceptable for this type of game. The evil D.r Robotnyk is capturing animals and transforming them into robots, and that’s when the blue hedgehog, Sonic, comes to the rescue. The game could has more characters, because the only ones are Sonic and Dr. Robotnyk  (Now called Eggman), besides the robot enemies.

Gameplay

Sonic The Hedgehog had one major difference between other platform games: Speed! Sonic runs really fast, do some looping, and that was really “hardcore” for the time, although you have to break down the speed to evade obstacles and enemies. To defeat his enemies Sonic can do a “spin jump” and can roll, after a run. On the stages you can find some items like the rings, that prevents Sonic from dying as long you have at least 1 ring, a protective bubble and the “shining stars” that makes you invincible for a little period of time. The controls are very responsive and intuitive, and the “bosses” are challeging but they have a pattern that is easy to memorize.

Visuals

The graphics are well done and very colorful, but what really impress me is how well Sonic runs through the stages, without the screen slow down.. The animations for Sonic and his enemies are also good.

Sound

Some of the music are very fun to listen while playing, the Green Zone theme is just epic! The sound effects is what you expect for this type of game, with those “happy” sounds.

Replay

The game is very addictive, the stages are fun to go through, also some stages have different routes, you can try to get all Chaos Emeralds, on the bonus stages. The stages themes are interesting, but the firsts ones are a lot more fun.

Good & Bad

The Good: Sonic is fast, addictive gameplay, different routes, colorful visuals and fun musics.

The Bad: Getting the Emeralds can be a little annoying and all bosses are Robotnyk.

Conclusion

Sega made a really good work on this game, because it isn’t just another platfoming game, it add a new element, the speed, that was never seen before like this on any Video Game. After this big hit, Snoic became the Sega’s mascot and will became one great game franchise.

Gran Turismo 5 (PS3) - Review

Introduction

Gran Turismo is a Sony’s exclusive  simulation racing games, focusing on realistic driving aspects and always having a really good career mode. After some delays on the release, Gran Turismo 5 finally comes out to the PS3 with online mode, internal view from the cars, some cool special events and driving looks better than ever.

Story & Characters

The game has more than 1,000 (one thousand) cars, but they are separated into 2 types: Premium cars and Standard cars. The Premium cars are incredibly detailed, you can see the driver perfectly inside the car and the car’s inside are also very well-done. The Standard cars are not so detailed but still good looking. Compared to other GT games, GT5 has less events, but they are fun to play, specially the Special Events, that includes: Rally, Kart, Nascar’s driving leassons and Gran Tour. All these events take place in some of the 60 courses, some real ones and the classics GT courses.

Gameplay

The gameplay is amazing! Each car feels unique and when you make some modifications, the car’ll feel different from before. In this aspect GT5 is perfect: Driving. Driving in the game is very realistic. In the other hand however, the damage system is weak and takes a long time to unlock it, they should give an option to play with damage right in the beginning of the game. Also the fact that only Premium cars has internal view annoys me, cause’ you get use to this camera, but when you´ll drive a Standard car you don’t have this option of camera, for the Standard cars they could have done like in GT for the PSP, where all cars has the same generic inside view, to resolve this little problem.

Visuals

The intro is very beatifull and cool. But the game itself is a little unstable when comes to visuals, some tracks looks better than others, you’ll be racing in courses with amazing textures, other tracks are not so detailed. The cars are divided in two types: Premium and Standard, but those differences are not that big, they’re  tolerable. The menus are simple, but easy to navigate. Overall it’s a very good looking game, specially with Premium cars or in the Photo mode.

Sound

The menu’s musics are very nice and relaxing, the racing musics are okay, but other GT games has better racing musics. The sounds of the cars are awesome, they feel very real and each one sounds unique.

Replay

GT5 is a really long game if you want to try out all of what the game has to offer. You can just pick a car and race, do Time Trial and play Split-screen with your friends, in the Arcade mode. The “GT Mode” is the main mode of the game, is the career mode, where you buy cars and participates in various events, the events usually has some requirements like: Only 80’s cars, only japaneses or only lower than 250HP, also you can take care of the career of other racers, in the B-Spec mode, giving orders to the pilot like: Speed up or maintain the speed. The online mode is solid and fun to play, is good to test your skills against real people, but it could have more options like tournament. You can also take pictures of your cars in cool locations to show to your friends.

Good & Bad

The Good: More than 1,000 cars, a lot of tracks, Special Events, Premium cars looks just great, Online is fun and driving is fantastic!

The Bad: Cars are divided in two types, unstable visuals and Online could have more options.

Conclusion

I waited a long time for this game, and the wait was worth. A deep gameplay, good visuals and sound, a lot of cars and tracks to try out  This game has enough to keep you busy for a long time. A game made for people who love cars, since the game is a really Driving Simulation.

TMNT: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled (PS3) - Guide of Trophies

This guide will show the easier way to get all trophies on the game.

The Inflatable Reptilian Hero (Bronze)

In the first stage, just let that big ball fall on you.

Seen My Bones? (Bronze)

In the first stage, just let that big guy hit you with his laser.

Invincible (Bronze)

Beat any stage, without getting any pizza or pizza-power. The first stage is easy for doing this.

Turtle Tantrum! (Bronze)

You have to hit more than 5 enemies using a single destructable object. Notice that in the more hard difficulty levels, appears more enemies, making this trophy easier on hardcore level. Also if you play with friends online or offline, also increasse the number of enemies, and if a friend do hit more than 5 enemies with an destructable object, you get the trophy too.

Slow as a Turtle (Bronze)

Beat any stage in less than 3 minutes. If you try on easy difficulty, it will be Piece of Cake.

Lean, Green and Mean (Bronze)

Achieve 8000 points. On the normal difficulty is easy to make more than 8000 points, if you beat the Story mode without using any continues.

Toe Be or Not Toe Be? (Silver)

Beat Stage 3, without being hit by any trap, this is terribly hard but not impossible. To avoid those red traps go to the down-left part of the screen and jump when you see the trap on your way. Pratice a lot in QuickPlay mode and be patient.

Ice, Ice, Turtle (Silver)

Pass the ice-traps in Stage8 without being frozen. Raph is the fastest one, it may be the best choice for this trophy.

Staying Alive (Bronze)

Beat the final boss without dying. Only get the pizzas when you really need. Hit the boss a few times, and them, run away and evade his attacks, them hit him more them, run, repeat  it until you beat him.

Turtle Power (Silver)

Just beat the game on the Normal difficulty.

I Will Survive (Sikver)

Beat the Survival Mode, on Normal difficulty. This one is hard, you’ll have to pratice a lot. And since with more players, the hard it gets, and has to share the Pizzas, better do it in 1 Player mode.

Heroes in a Half Shell (Gold)

Beat the game with all 4 turtles. You can do it alone, just beat the game 4 times with each turtle.

Mortal Kombat 4 (PS1) - Review

Introduction

In the end of  the 90’s a lot of well-know game tittles made their transition from 2D to 3D, and Mortal Kombat, the popular and violent fighting game, was no different. After the success in the arcades and on consoles of the 3 previous games, Midway comes with Mortal Kombat 4, for the Acade, PS1 and N64, with some new gameplay aspects, but still having the MK style. And boy, at the time, everybody was excited abou this game coming.

Story & Characters

As most fighting games the story is simple, after Shao Kanh’s defeat an evil Elder God called Shinnock is back to Earth to cause chaos. Now the Earth’s protectors have to stop him to bring peace to the world. Not counting the secret ones, the game has 15 characters, some are good new ones, others are the classic ones, like Liu Kang, Sub-Zero, Raiden, etc, that everybody knows. I only miss Kung Lao in the game, but overall is a good cast of characters.

Gameplay

The graphics are 3D, but the fighting style is basically  2D, you can do a little side step to dodge, but it doesn’t interfere too much with the game’s 2D fighting style. The cool thing about the fight is it’s a fast-pacing fight, is faster than any previous MK. But as any MK game every character feels very similar, except for his special moves and fatalities.

Visuals

The graphics were very good for the time, and being one of the firsts 3D games I played, I must say it really impressed me. The backgrounds are cool, but it’s easy to see some defects like the floor disappearing , but it has a great and dark environment for Mortal Kombat. The fatalitites looks just awesome. The CG’s were superb for the time, and even today is enjoyable to watch these endings.

Sound

The musics fits very well the MK environments. And to be honest this MK has the best soundtrack in the whole serie, not because this one is that great, but because in the other MK games the music isn’t the strong point of the game at all, compare Street Fighter for example, always has great soundtrack. But like I said it always fits the MK environment. The voice acting is very funny, you’ll listen to the characters screaming like crazy, and that was so cool. The sound effects are very good.

Replay

The game has a good variety of modes: Arcade, that you can play 1 on 1 or 2 on 2, Team, Endurance ( is like survival), Tournament and Pratice (finally!). All this modes’ll keep you  a little busy, especially if you have friends to play with, as in any fighting games multiplayer is the high point. The Team and Tournament modes were very fun to play with other people, and when you discover how to do the fatalities the game becomes even more rewarding.

Good & Bad

-The Good: Fast-pacing fights, cool fatalities, funny voice acting during the game, the endings are very enjoyable

-The Bad: characters feels very similar, too easy final boss

Conclusion

MK4 is a very enjoyable game, it has all the violence and it maintains the good and the bad aspects of the gameplay from the previous ones and brings some new good modes, making the replay value increase. If you have friends that enjoys fighting games, you’ll be playing untold hours with this game. My cousins and I keep playing, back on the day,  for hours and it doesn’t get boring thanks to it’s fast pacing fights.

Megaman X (SNES) - Review

Introduction

In the 8-bit era, Megaman was an sucessfull serie of games on the NES. In the 16-bit era, Capcom decides to bring a new Megaman series for the Super Nintendo, Megaman X (Fortunally it’s not called Super Megaman, as a lot of SNES games), that features a new Megaman, called X, new gameplay elements, different enemies, a different time period and a more deep and complex story. 

Story & Characters

Megaman X is the last creation of Dr. Light and is the first of a new generation of robots, that can think and act at his own will. In 21XX, the ex-Maverick Hunter Sigma declared war against the human race, and is up to X and his partner Zero to stop Sigma and his Mavericks. This time period, 21XX, is very apocalyptic and also the characters are more serious, what is pretty cool. The 8 boss cast is the best from Megaman series.

Gameplay

X has some of the same abilities from the classic Megaman, as charge shots  and can use the weapons of defeated bosses, but also has new abilities as dash and wall-jumps. As the game progress you will be able find different power-ups like hearts, to increase the maximum health, Armor parts, that gives X new abilities, and the sub-tanks. All these together with great level designs make this game really fun to play, because X really fells powerfull. Each stage has unique challenges and a boss, the boss battles are also very good.

Visuals

The graphics are very good for it’s time, the game counts with well-made sprites, with good animations. The backgrounds are pretty and each one is very unique.

Sound

The musics are superb! Most stages has very memorable music. The sound effects are simple, but effective for the game.

Replay

Trying to get all power-ups will make the players replay the stages, since the level designs are very good, replaying the stages doen’s get old at all, even after beat the game is really a fun game to replay. 

Good & Bad

-The Good:Awesome gameplay and power-ups, very good level designs, superb musics and a good cast of characters (including the bosses).

-The Bad: Zero is not playable.

Conclusion

I never get bored of playing this game. If you wasn’t able to plat back on the day, you can find this game in the Megaman X Collectio, avaliable for the PS2 and GameCube.. Also there’s a remake for the PSP called Megaman Maverick Hunter X. An epic game of the 16-bit era with great gameplay and memorable soundtrack.