Series Review: Need For Speed (PS2 versions) Part 2

Game: Need For Speed Carbon
Console: Sony PlayStation 2
Developer: EA
Release Date: 31st October 2006

Need for Speed Carbon sees racers taking to the canyon for some of the races in the game, in addition to the usual street racing, and cop chases. The plot of the game follows on from Need For Speed Most Wanted, with the player driving the last prize car out of Rockport (the setting for Most Wanted) and into Palmont (the setting for Carbon), where an incident happened involving the player. More details of this are uncovered throughout the game leading up to the boss race. Although the plot isn't the strongest part of the game its a marked improvement from previous installments.

The majority of gameplay is dedicated to racing inside the city of Palmont, in order to "gain control" of territories, when enough races are won in an area, leading to a challenge from the gang leader who used to control that area. Some of the races and all of the bosses races are conducted on the canyons, which are downhill tracks with lots of handbrake turns and the possibility of falling off the edge at times.

Overall the game is fairly short, compared to other games in the series, I played for a little while before writing the review and had already completed 20% when I quit. There's 4 districts to take over by winning races, each with about 12 races in, which'll need winning before the boss challenges you. Although this makes for a fairly good system of play, its disappointingly easy to gain territory. The races themselves also seem far too easy compared to other installments (although this might just be due to the fact I've played too much Need For Speed recently).

In the races which aren't held on the canyon, there's a new wingman system. Out of the 3 other racers on track, one of them is on your team and able to help you in one of three ways. There's blockers who'll shunt opponents out of the way, drafters who'll allow you to slipstream them and go faster, and finally scouts who find the fastest route around the track. Not only do these seem fairly unnecessary, but the NPC's in the cars will make pointless comments and sometimes even get in your way. A lot of the time when they do help you out, the wingman will end up winning the race, which still counts as a win for you, but feels hollow in the grand scheme of things.

Overall the additions to this game aren't all that enjoyable, the focus having been taken away from police chases (which aren't as fun in game as Most Wanted), and put on Canyon races which could be better. Drift mode has been made a little easier to play, and the entire game difficulty feels too low, especially with teammates in the equation as well. Musically the game is pretty poor, re-using the police chase theme from Most Wanted, and choosing a fairly poor selection of "EA Trax".

Graphically similar to Most Wanted and worse off in gameplay, this is the first game of the second era to have not gone one better than its predecessor. It needn't feel alone however, things are about to get worse...

Rating: 68/100
Grade: C

Game: Need For Speed ProStreet
Console: Sony PlayStation 2
Developer: EA
Release Date: 23rd November 2007

Very different to the previous installments from the outset, Need For Speed Prostreet sees the player whisked off the streets to "race days", held seemingly in the middle of nowhere, around a dirt track with no other traffic or streets to be seen. From somewhere there booms the voice of an announcer who can't stop going on about how well you're doing, and gameplay is based around "Dominating" your rival racers on the track .

The handling is the first thing that's noticeable upon starting the game, completely different from any of its predecessors, it's inbetween arcade and simulation and makes the cars feel horribly heavy and unrealistic. This makes gameplay less enjoyable and rewarding overall as it almost feels as if the player is not in complete control of the car at all. No matter what car is chosen, the handling is basically the same and although there's more choice of cars than in some previous installments it almost doesn't matter.

Swapping the streets for the racetrack was another ill-informed descision. If there's one thing we've come to expect from the Need For Speed series as a whole it's exciting, fast paced night-time street racing. This installment delivers almost none of those, barely even able to be called racing due to the fact that the AI racers are beyond useless. There's a certain degree to which I can tolerate the computer player being bad at racing, but to finish 2 minutes and 10 seconds ahead of another racer, on a short race is not even funny. The whole concept of dominating your opponents seems to have come out of the fact that they can't compete at all.

The races themselves are boring and need more variation, "Grip" racing is just another name for circuit racing, Drag racing features a new tyre warming minigame that not only seems ineffective and pointless but wastes time also, and an abundance of Time Attack races in career mode sucks any fun that might have been lurking out of the game. As if the game wasn't easy enough there's an optional braking meter on the road in case you want to win by even more of a margin.

All cars in the game can be modified and "autosculpted" to the player's wishes, but graphically the game is only really as impressive as Most Wanted or Carbon on PS2, if a little less so due to the fact there's no city to render. The game comes across as a messy, unrewarding bore with terrible handling and no real incentive to complete, its only real value coming from being a sort of Redneck Raceday Simulator, for which I have no need.

Rating: 40/100
Grade: E

Game: Need For Speed Undercover
Console: Sony PlayStation 2
Developer: EA
Release Date: 17th November 2008

Undercover is the last Need For Speed game to appear on the Playstation 2, essentially being developed for Playstation 3 with a stripped down version being released for the older console. The focus shifts back to street racing and police chases, from ProStreet's Race Day setup and the cars handling is much more similar to that of Underground and Most Wanted than that of ProStreet. It seems EA acknowledged the mistake they made with ProStreet and wanted to evoke the success of earlier titles with Undercover.

The gameplay in Undercover certainly feels more like the kind we're used to with a city environment through which the player can roam freely, accepting races and challenges. The plot seems to want to be a bigger feature of this game than past installments however, unskippable live action cutscenes are played after every couple of major race wins. Unfortunately the story is somewhat vague, I spend most of the cutscenes trying to work out whether I'm an undercover cop or not. Personally I'm not too keen on being forced to keep up with the story, or the added "Driving Missions" that come along with it.

The main race types are still in the game, Circuit, Sprint etc. although in the early stages at least they take a back seat to police chase milestone events, somewhat like Most Wanted, except the police work somewhat differently. For example; speeding past a police car at 3 times the posted speed limit in this game will earn you no attention whatsoever, but clipping a police car on the way past, no matter how fast will set more police than you knew existed on your car. This dents the realism somewhat, and with already downgraded graphics, all the police chases really serve to do is make me want to pop in the disc for Most Wanted.

Musically the game has a decent selection of music, covering many genres, my only complaint being instrumental versions of tracks already on the soundtrack having been included also, so you can never quite tell whether its safe to sing along. The selection of in game cars is fairly wide although many have appeared in previous installments, a lot of them muscle cars are very similar types of car to one another, it would have been nice to see more variety there. The aerosculpt feature stays in the game, for car customisation, although it's hidden in submenus at the safehouse instead of being the large part of the game it once was.

Overall, the game seems to want to be more of an action film with gameplay elements than anything else, but its races  are standard Need For Speed races, if a little easy. Its police chases pale in comparison to Most Wanted, and the new parts are either tedious and unskippable, like the cutscenes or unnecessary for the most part, like the huge arrow in the sky which directs the player during missions and other parts of the game. For 2008 the game is hardly impressive graphically or in terms of gameplay. I don't think a lot of effort was put into this version compared to the PS3 version, and it shows.

Rating: 60/100
Grade: D

Series Review: Need For Speed (PS2 versions) Part 1

The Need For Speed racing series focuses predominantly on street racing and car customisation, with different event types and goals throughout the game series. I'm going to be taking a look at the "second era" of these games, with every title released for the Sony Playstation 2, from 2003's Underground to 2008's Undercover.

Game: Need For Speed: Underground
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: EA
Release Date: 17th November 2003

The first game in the "second era" of the Need For Speed series, Underground took to the PS2 with an emphasis on street racing with a selection of import cars which could be tuned up aesthetically and performance-wise. All races take place in a generic city at night, which is not to say that the city is boring, landmark-wise, however its name is never mentioned and the player is not able to explore it outside of the races.

The goal of career mode in the game is to gain the #1 spot in every racing discipline in the city, these include Circuit, Drag, Sprint and Drift racing. To challenge the respective place holders (you start unranked, attempting to move into the #10 spot for each type of racing) the player must impress in a series of seemingly unimportant races, before receiving a message from the racer they wish to challenge. This formula can get a little stale as you progress especially with 10 places to each of the 4 racing types to obtain.

The gameplay is faced paced, with the tracks and city nicely rendered. Although the maximum of 4 cars in a race seems small by today's standards, the races remain close most of the time, although the game can be a little to easy to beat if you're experienced with the series. Drag races are interestingly different from the circuit and sprint events, with manual gears and an automatic lane switch system, leaving you to solely focus on your gearing. Drift mode is also markedly different from the others, requiring the player to master more than just one racing skill.

Musically the game has a tracklist of varied songs which fit the night racing mood decently, but allows you to choose which songs play if there are any which are too far outside your tastes. Car customisation options are unlocked by winning races, and style points, earned by drifting and doing other dangerous maneuvers. Compared to games later in the series there's not a whole lot of choice in terms of bodykits and paint options, but its in line with games of its time.

Overall Need For Speed Underground was an impressive game for it's time and its race experience still compares favourably with later installments. The style point system and customisation options are strong points of the game, although the repetitive nature of the career mode brings the replay value and overall completion incentive down somewhat.

Rating: 75/100
Grade: B

Game: Need For Speed Underground 2
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: EA
Release Date: 15th November 2004

Adding SUV's, refillable nitrous and perhaps most importantly open world exploration between races, Need For Speed Underground 2 is a sequel that surpasses its predecessor in a lot of ways. There's a wider selection of cars, including SUV's for added variety, more customisation options and some new race modes in the form of Street X and the Underground Racing League.

The game begins with some backstory (although as with most plots in NFS games its contrived and can be easily ignored without too much loss), using a comic book style to illustrate the cutscenes. Its nice to actually have some sort of perceived motive for winning street races, but winning races is all you really need to do to complete the game.

With an open world map in the game, choosing your races works the same as in the previous installment, except you have to drive to them to begin competing. You can still choose in which races you want to compete although sponsorship deals are a new feature which will offer perks for winning certain types of races. New race types are Street X which features short tracks with tight corners, leading a lot of jostling between competitors, and Underground Racing League races which feature 6 opponents on track at one time, and no traffic, more like a sports racing game than a street racer. Drift Races also feature all 4 opponents on track at one time, instead of just your own car in the previous installment.

The player can also choose to challenge any other racers they meet around the street, with the simple press of a button. This will initiate a mini challenge for extra money, or "bank" which the game chooses to constantly refer to it as. This, alongside the comic cutscenes seem to be the worst features of this installment. Other than that the music leaves something to be desired, with a forgettable collection of "EA Trax", which are possibly best turned down on the mixer in favour of your own favourite music.

Overall then, Need For Speed 2 delivers an updated racing experience with more cars, an open world map and a plot of some kind. Although the 2 racing modes it added were shortlived (we've not seen Street X since, and URL races only seemed to rear their head again in ProStreet as the main part of gameplay), they don't detract from the experience. The graphics are nice, not massively better than the first game but an improvement, and the changes in weather are a classy touch. Musically and attitude wise the game feels a little off, with the best course of action being to ignore all NPC's and cutscenes, but on the whole its a better game.

Rating: 79/100
Grade: B

Game: Need For Speed Most Wanted
Console: Sony PlayStation 2
Developer: EA
Release Date: 25th November 2005

With two fairly successful 'Underground' titles in preceding years, you'd have forgiven EA for making a third game under that title. Luckily what they did was much, much better; adding action packed police chases, tollbooth time trials and a challenge mode, Need For Speed Most Wanted impresses right off the bat in terms of gameplay and features. For a start there's structured goals; achieve certain feats in police chases, and win these races to challenge the next player on the blacklist, the car selection is bigger and better than ever (with no SUV's), and there's miles of open road to roam around.

Graphically at least, it seems more realistic than the previous installments, perhaps only due to the fact that it isn't constantly night-time, the bright colours of trees and other decorative roadside objects finally visible. There's a good sense of speed, thanks to motion blur and good use of processing power. The cars themselves are nicely rendered with more choice than the last 2 installments and more cars in the high performance category.

The career mode progression is split into 2 parts, completing races (circuit, sprint, drag, lap knockout, tollbooth and speedtrap) and accruing enough police bounty through pursuit milestones, to challenge the next player on the blacklist. The tollbooth time trials and speedtrap races are new additions to the series, the first being a simple single player time trial race, and the second a race where finishing first doesn't guarantee a win, places are decided on who went fastest through set points on the course. Both of these modes have good gameplay and stand out from the other racing modes.

The police pursuits are possibly the best feature of the game, challenging the player to rethink their approach to racing through the streets. Dotted around the map are hiding places and pursuit breakers which can throw off trailing cops, another new feature is the speedbreaker which puts the game into slow motion for a short time, allowing the player to dodge a roadblock or pull off difficult maneuvers which may not otherwise be possible.

Outside of career mode there's also the challenge mode which uses pursuit combos and tollbooth times as trials with which to test the player. This can be helpful to build up skills for career mode, or just as a break from it. Musically the soundtrack has a lot of enjoyable songs, which fit well with the action on screen. Police chases have their own theme to evoke the tension onscreen, and this adds to the overall feel of the game.

This installment of Need For Speed delivers on a lot of levels, the career mode is engaging with plenty of challenge both from races and pursuits, the car customisation options as well as the choice of cars is wide and the map is larger than both of the previous installments. The AI racers can sometimes obviously use "rubberbanding" to give a closer result to races, and police pursuits can be difficult to evade after enough time being chased, but on the whole what could have been another night-time street racing series game became something much more enjoyable with its own character.

Rating: 86/100
Grade: B

Head To Head Review: Hang On vs Outrun (Master System Checkpoint Racers)

Game: Hang On
Console: Sega Master System
Developer: Sega
Release Date: 1985

Hang On is a simple motorbike racing game, first seen in arcades in 1985. The controls for the arcade game were literally a motorcycle which detected the players movement and translated that onscreen accordingly. The home console version has no such luck unfortunately, with just the regular controller serving to replace the innovative arcade controls. The concept of the game is simple, race through checkpoints to get more time, with which to continue through the course, whilst avoiding obstacles at the side of the road and rival racers.

Graphically Hang-On looks good by 1985 standards, its certainly not the worst rendering of a bike I've seen and although the courses are fairly sparsely decorated, the change between night courses and day courses is a nice touch. Musically, only the menu and Game Over screens feature any sort of soundtrack, which is disappointing considering that the arcade version had a nice version of the Hang-On main theme, and all the home version gets is a small portion of that at the start of the game.

In terms of gameplay, the controls are responsive, but there's not a lot to do, short of staying on the course and avoiding rival racers. The gear system gets in the way more than anything, sometimes putting the bike in a lower gear accidentally can cost you time, or forgetting to change up etc. There's not a lot of replay value in the game, and without the arcade motorcycle control system, it feels somewhat empty. Of course this is a very early game in terms of this type of arcade racer, but it hasn't aged well at all.

My frustrations with this game are compounded by the fact that merely touching a rival racer will cause your motorcycle to stop and explode, thus almost certainly stopping you from making any attempt at reaching the next checkpoint. It's a very difficult thing to make no mistakes at all, and I demand a lot from games which ask perfection of my controller input.

Rating: 45/100
Grade: E

Game: Outrun
Console: Sega Master System
Developer: Sega
Year: 1987

Outrun, like Hang-On was developed by Yu Suzuki, it has a similar checkpoint racing concept and plays much like its elder counterpart. The player controls a car, this time and must once again avoid obstacles at the side of the road and rival racers in their way. There's also a slightly simplified 2 gear system, replacing the 3 gear system of Hang-on.

Unlike Hang-On, there's some musical accompaniment to the game with a choice 3 songs which are very catchy and still feature on outrun games in the present day. There's no engine noise, either from the car, but it seems there's a choice of one or the other from the Master System sound chip. The car is also slightly easier to control than the motorbike in Hang-On, going off the track less often and passing rivals with ease. The problem with the vehicle exploding at the slightest touch has also been fixed, with a couple of car crash animations which vary in severity depending on the speed you hit things at.

Another departure from the Hang-On formula includes the use of forks in the road, so that the player can decide which route they want to take. The different stages add replay value, and there's a different ending at each final stage, also. Although it technically features less stages than Hang-On, the game's level of detail is higher and there's more variety between each stage. The time limit is also slightly more lenient on the player, allowing for one or two mistakes along the course of the game.

Overall, Outrun is a far more rewarding experience than Hang-On with more replay value, an actual game soundtrack, better difficulty settings and tracks and more engaging gameplay. It seems that in the two years between these two games, Yu Suzuki took a look at the problems with Hang-On and resolved to fix some on them. Outrun is far from a perfect game, but it plays well and is enjoyable which is slightly more than can be said for Hang-On.

Rating: 62/100
Grade: C

SNES vs Genesis: Street Fighter II Versions

Game: Street Fighter II                                                   Game: Street Fighter II: Champion Edition
Console: Super Nintendo Entertainment System              Console: Sega Mega Drive
Developer: Capcom                                                        Developer: Capcom
Release Date: January 1992                                           Release Date: January 1994

As a disclaimer before I start the review, I won't be taking into account any preference between the Mega Drive and SNES other than anything directly featured in either version of the game. Also as a console comparison, this is somewhat unfair on the SNES since I have the original version of Street Fighter II for it, and a slightly updated version for Mega Drive.

With that out of the way, Street Fighter II's many home versions were derived from their constantly updating arcade counterparts. As new machines came out in the arcades, so too did new home versions. There are 4 versions of the game in this console generation;

Street Fighter II (SNES and Mega Drive) - this is the version I am using on SNES
Street Fighter II Turbo - (SNES)
Street Fighter II: Champion Edition - (Mega Drive) - The version I am using on Mega Drive
Street Fighter II: The New Challengers - (SNES and Mega Drive)

(SNES version pictured)

The overall game in both versions is pretty similar, its a one on one fighting game where you progress through 11 stages (12 for Mega Drive) in single player mode, or battle another player in v.s. mode. There are 12 characters in game, all playable on the Mega Drive version, with only 8 playable on the SNES original version. It's hard to say how many characters is the ideal amount in a fighting game, a balance needs to be struck between learning movesets and having a clear choice of varied characters.

8 characters seems too few, especially considering that Ken and Ryu's movesets are the same; the 12 characters of the Mega Drive version make for a slightly more varied roster, especially considering that the players added are the 4 "masters" of the game. Between characters, there's a good amount of variation in moves and techniques, and special moves are present if a little hard to pull off.

(Mega Drive version pictured)

Graphically both games have inferior visuals to the arcade version as they had to be scaled down. Between the two games, I'd say the Mega Drive version looks slightly sharper with better animation, but the original SNES game looks artistically better. The animated backdrops in both games are a nice touch with spectators rooting on the fight on some levels. Also Ken and Ryu's movements and movesets were tweaked to differentiate for them on the Mega Drive version.

The music differs between the two versions, with the Champion Edition featuring a remixed soundtrack of the original game. The SNES version sounds a little tinny and not as grand as the remixed tracks, but that of the original game was markedly better on SNES. The music itself in both games is energetic and doesn't detract from the overall mood of the game. The Champion version also features an announcer who vocalises various options throughout the game.

(Champion Edition for Mega Drive on top, SFII for SNES on the bottom)

As a fighting game overall, no matter which version you get Street Fighter II plays nicely, with it's own style of doing things, control-wise. When you face the computer, it does fall into strategy loops sometimes and can be predictably frustrating on certain difficulty levels but as it lets you adjust how hard it is, that's not so much of a problem. With 8 or 12 playable characters depending on the version you pick up, it has enough characters to find a favourite but not an overwhelming amount. Its a classic fighter which takes some getting used to if you're used to modern games, but can be quite rewarding.

Version-wise the SNES can suffer from slower processing than the Champion Edition on Mega Drive, especially since the Champion Edition has "Hyper Mode" which features a faster fighting experience and processing (Turbo Mode on the Turbo Edition for SNES was much the same). The music is better on the Mega Drive, and the visuals are a matter of opinion. The real value in the Champion Edition is the addition of the 4 masters are playable characters, as their various movesets and specials improve the game experience.

Street Fighter II for SNES                                    Street Fighter II: Champion Edition for Mega Drive
Rating: 67/100                                                    Rating: 71/100
Grade: C                                                            Grade: C

Game Review: Moto Racer 2

Game: Moto Racer 2
Console: Sony Playstation
Developer: Delphine Software
Release Date: August 1998

Moto Racer 2 is a motorbike racing game, covering 2 different types of motorcycle racing; Motocross and Superbike racing. The game also has two types of handling for the bikes; Arcade or Simulation, which can be used on either of the categories. The racing modes the player is able to select from are Practice, Single Race and Championship.

The overall gameplay varies depending on which options are chosen, so I'll talk a little about each one. The best racing experience in the game is found in the Motocross races, the fast paced and competitive racing experience is shown off well, and although there's not much difference between simulation and arcade handling both play well enough for it not to matter. There's also the option to do stunts in Motocross mode when your bike is in the air, although the player does not control which stunt is done. Overall both control systems feel as if they'd be more at home in an arcade game than a simulation.

There are 5 championships to compete in, one which has purely superbike tracks, one with only motocross tracks, two combination championships and the option to create a custom race series with any tracks the player chooses. This choice of championships seems pretty wide until you consider the other racing mode, concerning the superbikes. Where the Motocross races do well is in their sense of speed and sliding controls around the corners, coupled with the forgiving crash physics when a wall is hit, which 4 times out of 5 will only slow you down rather than knocking you off the bike.

In Superbike races however, as the speed of the bikes is around 80mph greater, most of the time, when the player miscalculates a corner even slightly, they'll end up on the floor. Gone are the sliding corner physics also, and we are left with ineffective brakes and a lot of invisible side walls on the superbike tracks. This creates a problem which makes these races almost unplayable, as coupled with the fairly challenging AI, the player will fall behind in no time. 

Its a shame that there is such a large difference between these modes as it makes 3 of the 5 grand prix race series fairly unenjoyable. Besides playing the Motocross series and creating a custom Grand Prix series with only Motocross tracks, the player will have to endure the speedbike racing which leaves a lot to be desired. Putting this rather major flaw aside for a moment, we can still appreciate the game's fair graphical attempt, the backdrops are interesting and fairly varied, and the bikes themselves are rendered nicely in some views. Close-up the game's graphics seem to warrant more criticism, but at speed on a bike, it's less noticeable.

Sometimes when racing on a long straight, you'll be able to see the draw distance of the game before it loads what's on the horizon fully, but let's not forget the age of this game. The only real gameplay criticism I have of the Motocross races is that when two bikes hit eachother with enough force, a rather unsightly synchronised dismount occurs, disadvantaging both players. Musically the game excels with a rock-based soundtrack which goes well with the fast paced racing, and is one of the best features of the game,

The game has a lot of tracks to choose from (32 in total), which is a good amount of variety, especially for the time the game was released. There's also a choice of bikes which have slightly different specifications, however the difference between them is hardly enough to feel and could have been made more apparent. The track editor mode is fairly easy to use and allows players to edit any track in the game as well as create their own. This is fairly easy to use and although it doesn't allow for massively abstract changes to tracks, its a good feature.

Overall, the game hasn't aged particularly well in 15 years, the strain showing both graphically and in the disparate difference between the two types of racing. Half the game provides a fun, fast paced competitive experience akin to the real sport it's based on. The other half provides a frustrating crash ridden, hard to control mess which is unrewarding. Because of this, the game as a whole suffers and the combined race series are less appealing.

Rating: 55/100
Grade: D

Master System Double Header: Shinobi and The Ninja Review

Game: Shinobi
Console: Sega Master System (also on NES, Atari ST, Commodore 64 etc.)
Developer: Sega
Release Date: 1987

Shinobi is a ninja themed platform game, which appeared on several platforms with almost undoubtedly the best version on the Master System. The player controls Joe Musashi, a ninja on a mission to rescue his kidnapped students from a criminal organisation called "Zeed", by collecting them from around the levels, on his way to the organisation's headquarters. The levels have different tiers, between which the player can jump to rescue all of the students. Standing in their way are many different types of enemy, who can be defeated by shuriken, gun, katana and magic (not all of which are available at the beginning).

Graphically, the game looks somewhat dated, with a lot of pale yellows and other almost offensive colours, however it's debatably the best looking version of the game on any console. Compared to other games of the time, its not horrifyingly bad, but the graphics were improved significantly for the sequel "Revenge of Shinobi" for Mega Drive. The bosses seem to have the most interesting character designs with most of the other enemies being reused around the game.

The gameplay is a distinguishing feature of Shinobi, and what makes it frequently voted as one of the best games for the console. The movement is smooth; ducking and jumping allow you to avoid enemy bullets and projectiles. There's a lot of strategy involved in being able to hit enemies with specific movement patterns, with your shuriken. The level design plays well into this, and an experienced player will know exactly when to jump and fire to speed through the level, yet it isn't difficult for a beginner to take it slow and still progress. 

There are bonus levels between stages (if the player collects enough of the students) which involve throwing  shuriken to hit ninjas who progress towards the player, ending the minigame when they reach the front of the screen. Although these don't need to be cleared to progress they're a good way to break up the platforming gameplay, and provide extra score and powerups for those who are able to beat them. 

Musically, the game has pretty standard 8-bit fare, its a little bit catchy and a little bit repetitive, my only complaint being that the main theme plays on every level (except for bosses) for the entire game. I understand that there may not have been room on the cartridge for a different theme on every level, but if you're going to play for long enough to master the game, it'd be nice to have even just 2 different level themes. Interestingly once the player completes the game, there's no congratulation or story-based ending, only a "Game Over".

Overall this is a fun, if a little dated ninja themed game with excellent gameplay and controls and a variety of weapons and powerups for the player. The bosses are well thought out and different, and there's a good variety of regular enemies too. One of the best games for Master System, its up there with Fantasy Zone and Castle Of Illusion, and definitely worth a play.

Rating: 72/100
Grade: C

Game: The Ninja 

Console: Sega Master System

Developer: Sega
Release Date: 1986

The Ninja (or Sega Ninja as it was originally known) is a top-down ninja action game released by Sega in 1986. The gameplay focuses on collecting scrolls which will detail a secret entrance to the final boss battle whilst making your way through castle grounds defeating enemies. There's a plot to the game involving saving a princess (which was changed from the arcade version in which you were a ninja princess yourself) but the plot itself isn't integral to the game. 

At first you're armed with kunai, an ancient weapon which are fairly underpowered. When the player finds a red scroll they can use shuriken which can kill multiple enemies and are bigger. There are other weapon upgrades but the ranged ones are most useful. Another skill "The Ninja" possesses is the ability to disappear and become invincible for a few seconds. This is often necessary in tight spots, and does make the game more playable despite still being almost too difficult. 

Graphically the game doesn't do much for me, the backdrops are often boring without many distinguishing features and the sprites are lacking in detail and not very well animated. Enemy sprites are often reused and although there's a lot of levels, a lot of them are repetitive design wise. This is a pretty early game in terms of the Master System but at a time when Fantasy Zone and Super Mario Bros were on the market, its not much of an excuse. 

The controls for the game are laid out oddly; Button 1 shoots in the direction you're moving, Button 2 shoots straight forward and holding both allows you to disappear. Although the controls are responsive it would have been a better move to reserve Button 1 for the disappearing ability, since holding both takes slightly longer and in a difficult game such as this it can be the difference between losing and life and not.

As previously touched upon, there's more levels in The Ninja than most games of the time (13 in total), featuring different methods of progressing. Pictured above is a level on water that the player must navigate using the logs provided whilst fighting off enemies, and another level sees the player dodging horses to get to the boss. The problem here is that the game is already difficult, and sometimes these level concepts make it even harder to progress.

Musically, the soundtrack is forgettable and even irritating at times, the song from the title screen is used throughout parts of the game, and begs to be muted after a while. If you can get past the various obstacles in the way of completing this game, you're told that you and the princess you've saved live happily ever after, but just like Shinobi it feels like a bit of a cop out, after all the story at the beginning. 

Rating: 50/100

Grade: D 

Head to Head Review: G-LOC vs Afterburner (Master System Flight Games)

Game: G-LOC
Console: Sega Master System
Developer: Sega
Release Date: 1991

The first thing the player is met with upon starting the game is a choice of normal or inverted controls, which is nice to see in flying games, as everyone has their favourite control type, and playing the reverse of it usually leads to poor performance. Once you've chosen your controls and difficulty setting from 3 grades of difficulty, you're greeted by a notebook, which serves as the menu for the game. Here you can find how many points you need to complete the game (each mission you complete earns you points), how many missiles and how much time you remaining as well as your aircraft's current damage level (this carries over each mission).

Turning the page in the notebook takes you to a choice of missions, with targets such as planes, bases, tanks and warships. There are a few different arenas of combat, sea, desert and plain; each essentially being recoloured versions of each other. There's also no real difference between fighting enemies in the desert and fighting them any where else. On the last set of pages you can buy upgrades; more time, more health and more missiles before beginning your selected mission.

Once the mission begins the player is given a cockpit view, and can begin to shoot down the required number of whichever enemy they have chosen. Graphically the game is quite impressive for the Master System, everything's pretty well defined and movement is smooth. Its easy to see what you have to aim for and the perspective of flying works well. The player is able to move around the screen but there are limits to how far up/left/down/right you can move, so there's no chance of crashing, at least.

Shooting down enemies can be done in one of two ways, there's an aircraft gun in addition to missiles, although the missiles are guided whereas the gun is not, so most of the time it's easier to wait for the target to be auto-locked and fire a missile. This can make the game feel less challenging, after all an integral part of the excitement from flying combat games is lining up an enemy in your sights, but only using the aircraft gun may prove a bit too challenging as it has limited range.

Upon completing the mission you're given some more time and missiles, in addition to the points promised at the beginning of the mission, towards your total. Occasionally on the notebook menu you're given the option of bonus missions and mini boss battles, which make a nice change from the regular missions. The controls are fairly good for the time, and the difficulty curve across the missions escalates nicely. In later missions, you'll get the chance to do some evasive maneuvering away from enemy fire.

The final boss is one fighter jet which you have to keep in your sights to avoid going into the defensive mode, where you'll have to avoid his attacks. Once this boss is defeated the game is complete and you're told to try a harder difficulty mode. Without a whole lot of variety to the gameplay, sometimes the point targets seem a little high, to complete the game, but as a master system game, its really not too bad at all.

Rating: 65/100
Grade: C

Game: After Burner

Console: Sega Master System

Developer: Sega (AM2) 

Release Date: 1988

Afterburner is an arcade style combat flight simulator which is level based as opposed to mission based. The game is in a 3rd person view and relies much more heavily on the aircraft guns for shooting than missiles, although it has both. The targeting system works differently, on the missiles, not automatically locking on but requiring the player to keep an enemy in their sights for a little while. 

The gameplay is ultimately more rewarding than that of G-LOC, targeting an enemy feels more natural and although there's less variety of enemies, there are bigger explosions when you do hit them, and more variance in the scenery behind the levels. I'm not entirely sure what the criteria is to advance from one level to the next, it seems as if its "after a random amount of time", but there is progression at least. 

The music in Afterburner is suited to the combat and arcade style with good sound effects also for the most part. Visually its almost hard to pick a winner between this and G-LOC, but I'd personally go with Afterburner as it was released 3 years before and almost looks better. Without set gameplay goals, this is undoubtedly more of a sky based arcade shoot 'em up. What it lacks in immersion it makes up for in having a more carefree, fun approach to the genre.

The controls feel tight and responsive, the flying is similar to G-LOC in that you can only go so far eitherway on screen, and you'll never crash. Dodging missiles fired by enemy planes is the only defensive element of the game, but it works well with the arcade style in that it doesn't disrupt the game's flow.

There are 18 levels in Afterburner, making it a significantly longer game than G-LOC, however it is also more difficult to get to the later levels, since the player only has 3 lives with which to advance. Even using a code to pick up where I left off after dying, I was only able to make it to level 6, however the levels up to that point had been fairly repetitive with "Shoot everything in the sky" being the main goal.

Overall Afterburner is like a flying version of Space Harrier (unsurprising as both were developed by Yu Suzuki), which plays nicely and has some good concepts. Perhaps a little added kill counter or "x until next level" would be nice on the HUD, but overall this satisfies as a sky-based arcade shoot em up.

Rating 66/100
Grade: C

Between the two games, its a very close call. The strategic, mission based approach of G-LOC, and the fun, tightly controlled arcade action of Afterburner are two decent approaches to the Combat Flight Shoot'em Up genre. Afterburner seems to be slightly more rewarding to play, and to have stood the test of time a little better than G-LOC, but they're both well worth a try. Based on its catchier music and better visuals, as well as tight controls and satisfying arcade gameplay, Afterburner wins this round.

Game Review: True Crime - New York City

Game: True Crime - New York City
Console: Sony Playstation 2 (also featured on Xbox, Gamecube and PC)
Developer: Luxoflux
Release Date: 25th November 2005

True Crime - New York City is a sandbox game where you play as Marcus, a cop in and around New York City, investigating the circumstances of another officer's death, which is dealt with in the majority of the main mission based gameplay. On the whole the plot isn't held together particularly well, and there are far more redeeming features to be found in other parts of gameplay, as with most sandbox games. The main missions in the game involve the player usually shooting their way through some kind of criminal den to find an informant with knowledge linked to the main case. There are some missions that involve driving, or shooting on the road, but there's not a whole lot of variety past this.

There are side missions also, in the game in which Marcus can infiltrate underground street racing, and fighting rings by beating the participants at their own sport. Doing so will allow them to face the boss of the ring and so take it down from the inside. These are a welcome distraction from the tedium of the main missions. Another semi-mission based feature is the option to respond to crime reports from around the city, and apprehend the suspects as the crimes are committed. A marker will flash up on the map and encourage Marcus to get there and neutralize the suspects by either arresting or killing them. Responding to these crimes is optional, however.

Whether you choose to arrest or kill a suspect gives you "good" or "bad" cop points respectively, which only really determine which game ending you will get, unless you accumulate a lot of bad cop points within a short time, in which case you will become a "rogue detective". When this happens the other police officers around the city will hunt you down in an effort to bring you into the station for your crimes. Other ways to get bad cop points include killing pedestrians with weapons or cars, killing police officers, extorting shop staff and planting evidence.

As the player has Marcus apprehend suspects for various crimes, he also ears career points which will advance his rank in the police force, allowing him to gain access to all sorts of new weapons and cars from the police force. Supplementary to these there are weapon shops and car dealerships scattered around the city to widen your arsenal. There's a good selection of melee weapons and guns in the game, some more useful for causing absolute chaos than solving crimes, but you expect that in a sandbox game of this type.

Also scattered about the town are dōjō where Marcus can learn various martial arts, which can be switched between in combat, and music shops to augment the game's soundtrack. An interesting feature of the game's music is that rating it in the menu influences how often a song comes up on the in car radio when it's on shuffle. With a wide variety of in-game music, there's bound to be some things you want to listen to more than others, so this works well. The original soundtrack to the game, which plays when solving crimes outside of vehicles is dramatic and serves to add to the feel of the game overall. 

Driving is an interesting experience in this game, past a certain speed the controls feel as if everything is on ice, and things can be a little buggy; especially the edges of pavements, and the crash mechanics. Although it is tolerable, this is where the game falls down in comparison to GTA: San Andreas and other games of this type. Walking is a fairly slow process, so driving is an integral part of travel in the game. Other ways of getting around the city include a subway system and taxis (which unlike SA, you are actually able to ride in as a passenger). 

The selection of cars in the game is pretty wide, although they don't feel too different from eachother. It's as if there's a couple of general car classes; Banger, Sport, Luxury, 4x4, but apart from this the choice is purely aesthetic. Other than this, the game has a good sense of realism with a lot of nice little touches that other games of the time didn't include. When fighting, if a parking meter is dislodged from its place on the street, it can be used as a weapon (this goes for a lot of other breakable stuff too), and there are a lot of building interiors that you're able to explore.

Graphically the city looks good, with many famous landmarks and areas. Although the buildings have a tendency to look somewhat like cardboard cutouts at times, the weather and day/night cycles bring the scene to life. There's always pedestrians about, and the bright lights of the city set the scene well.

There is an accessible debug mode which can be used unlock all weapons or change specific game features to suit whatever kind of fun you're attempting to have, although it does increase the chance of the game doing odd things or freezing. The sandbox experience in this game is probably its best feature; being able to walk down the street and impale a spear into their back rates highly on my to-do list. There's a lot of freedom and a lot to explore. Even just playing as a cop and responding to alerts around the city has its merits.

True Crime New York City succeeds as a sandbox cop game, with a nicely rendered version of New York City to explore, and although the missions feel like just going through the motions, the side missions and randomly assigned crimes have much more merit to their play. There's a lot of nice features in gameplay and a large choice of cars, weapons and songs to go with them, and in a sandbox game, that's really what it's all about.

Rating: 81/100
Grade: B

Game Review: Nintendoland

Game: Nintendoland
Console: Nintendo WiiU
Publisher: Nintendo
Release Date: 18th November 2012

Nintendoland was launched, alongside the WiiU as a pack-in game with the premium selection. The game exhibits many new features of the WiiU gamepad as well as providing a new take on some famous Nintendo franchises. For the purposes of this review I'll be writing a little about each individual minigame as well as rating them individually, followed by a summary, as really this is little more than a collection of minigames, held together by the central plaza of the "amusement park" which is populated by Miis, and has portals to take the player to each minigame, as well as trophies earned by the player upon redeeming in-game coins.

I'll start with the Competitive minigames as this is what the game does best; the first of these is Mario Chase, which pits the gamepad user (who plays as Mario) against up to four opponents whose goal is to catch Mario within the allotted time (as various colours of Toad). The game dynamic works well with the gamepad user being able to see an overall map of the play area, and so the movements of his opponents also. The chasing players have only their proximity meter to follow in order to catch Mario. This is best played with 5 players, as any less tends to tip thegame into Mario's favour, and playing with 2 players is just downright unfair.

Every now and then an invincibility powerup appears in the centre of play, which can give Mario a burst of speed to help him evade the other players. In the case of a spare player slot, the computer plays as a Yoshi bot, which barks the colour of the sector Mario is currently in, to even the odds (although not completely).

Mario Chase: 7/10 -  Its fun with all 5 players, but there's only 3 different courses and it gets repetitive, even when switching between chasing and being chased.

Luigi's Ghost Mansion is the second competitive game in Nintendoland, where the gamepad player takes the role of a ghost, whose aim is to sneak up behind the other players whilst avoiding their flashlight beams. Three takedowns will guarantee a win for the ghost. Players with Wiimotes play as differently coloured Luigi's and attempt to catch the ghost in their flashlight beams long enough to win the game.

Without 5 human players, the Luigi's are replaced by clones of Monita (the robotic park guide) which are less than helpful in finding the ghost. Like most of the competitive games, the dynamic is good between the gamepad and the tv screen but the difficulty is somewhat off without a full set of human players.

Luigi's Ghost Mansion - 8/10 - There's more to do here than in Mario Chase, and the possibility for both sides to win through offensive action. Also the selection of maps is better even if there's the same number.

Animal Crossing: Sweet Day is the final competitive game on Nintendoland. The object of the game from the players with Wiimotes is to get a certain number of candies into the goal areas without being tackled by the guards who are controlled by the gamepad player. The more candies a player is carrying, the slower they run from the guards. Both guards are controlled independently, one by the right analog stick, and one by the left analog stick, and so it takes a bit of skill on the part of the gamepad operator to be competitive in this minigame.

As with Luigi's Ghost Mansion, the gamepad player can win after 3 tackles on the other players. In contrast to the other games, the targets are set lower for wiimote users without the full set of players, so this probably has the most balanced difficulty of the 3 competitive games.

Animal Crossing: Sweet Day - 8/10  Pretty fun with any amount of players, this is quite possibly the best of the competitive games.

So that's it for the competitive games, they're the most fun with the maximum number of players on the whole, and the computer isn't ever really a good substitute for a human player. With good gameplay concepts featuring the gamepad and wiimotes, this is where Nintendoland succeeds the most in showing off the screen feature of the gamepad, mixing it with franchise favourites.

The Legend Of Zelda: Battle Quest is a team game (although all of the team games can also be played alone, unlike the competitive ones), where the player(s) can choose to use a bow, or a sword to defeat enemies in a sort of on-rails shooter/slasher game, with visuals resembling a sort of felt/plushie world. There are a lot of levels for this minigame and it's one of the more rounded ones in the game, with different types of enemies and some good difficulty progression. Up to 4 players can play at once in team mode, (although if you wish to wield a sword, you'll need a motionplus controller), but even just using single player, there's a degree of depth to this minigame.

Legend Of Zelda: Battle Quest - 8/10

Pikmin Adventure is the next team game I'll be looking at, the objective is much like the original Pikmin series, although somewhat simplified; the player must escape by getting to a rocket, which is a distance away, past various enemies. Players can level up, and use bombs and their leaf attacks to damage enemies in their path. This minigame feels somewhat unrewarding however, the level ups that you get reset from level to level and the difficulty is too easy for it to make a good strategy/fighting minigame, yet there are too many enemies and not enough open space to make it about exploration.

Having another player on your team for this game doesn't make too much difference either, save for the amount of players attacking. You still have pikmin at your disposal, and there's no real double team moves either. Added to this, there's not much use for the gamepad's screen or features in this minigame, so it feels less of a new concept than the other games, and more like a watered down Pikmin.

Pikmin Adventure - 5/10

Metroid Blast is the last of the team games up for review on Nintendoland before we get into the solo minigames. Again requiring the use of a MotionPlus wiimote for multiplayer, I wasn't able to test this out as fully as I would have liked. From what I played of the single player campaign, its a shooter that makes the most of the tilt-view capability of the WiiU gamepad. The fact the it doesn't have to face the television to display any part of the game landscape is indeed rather clever, and aids gameplay somewhat. From what I have seen of the team play, it looks like another game that is better played with company, and there's a lot of levels to get through, so there's depth to it as well.

Metroid Blast - 8/10

The Team games are a strange mix of casual relaxed gaming such as Pikmin, and the more action based shooting/fighting elements of Zelda and Metroid. While the Pikmin game seems to stay closer to its game's roots, Zelda and Metroid seem to have more depth from having chosen a single part of gameplay and expanding on it. Overall, there's some fun to be had with these, especially with friends.

Yoshi's Fruit Cart is the first of the solo games I'm going to review. Another game highlighting the fact that there's two screens that the player can use whilst using the WiiU, the aim is to draw a path for yourself to collect the fruit (only visible on the tv screen), on the WiiU gamepad's screen. Whilst not a terrible idea, its something that gets boring quickly, even with the introduction of holes and traps on the screen. Save for park coins, there's no real reason to play very deeply into this minigame, which only really exists to tell you that there's 2 usable screens.

Yoshi's Fruit Cart - 4/10

Possibly the worst minigame in the game, Octopus Dance doesn't add much to the experience of Nintendoland. It shows off the dual analog sticks, and the fact that the gamepad can be tilted to control the player also, but so does exploring the plaza. I enjoy rhythm games usually but this feels like a poor excuse for one, it's not very difficult, the only real challenge coming from being turned around in game so that left and right are reversed. It's also one of two games to not be based on a fairly successful Nintendo franchise, (it's supposedly based on a Game and Watch) which should have left it more freedom to be a better game.

Octopus Dance - 3/10

Donkey Kong's Crash Course is a minigame using the motion sensing capability of the gamepad to guide the player's cart from one end of an obstacle course to another. Tilting the gamepad left or right increases its momentum and there are various obstacles requiring the press of the L/R buttons or a quick blow into the microphone. It also uses the dual screen element, with the TV providing a map and gamepad showing the player the smaller details of the part of the course they are on. There's quite a few courses for the player to complete and it controls well, mixing the elements of the classic Nintendo game Donkey Kong, with the new concept of the WiiU.

Donkey Kong's Crash Course - 7/10

Takemaru's Ninja Castle is a minigame based on the relatively unknown (at least here in Britain) famicom game "Nazo no Murasame Jo". In this game the player sends throwing stars out into a seemingly origami like scene, using the gamepad to determine the speed of the throw and its angle. Rather more satisfying than aiming a Wiimote, this game demonstrates potential for later games to use this sort of projectile missile system. There's a decent amount of levels in the minigame, and there are rewards for accuracy and defeating every opponent onscreen in a level.

Takemaru's Ninja Castle - 8/10

 Captain Falcon's Twister Race is the penultimate solo game I'll be taking a look at; based on F-Zero, the WiiU gamepad is used in an almost unnecessary way to steer the vehicle. Instead of using the analog sticks as perhaps might suit a racing game, the gamepad is tilted to steer left and right and avoid obstacles, on the whole it feels slow, and as there's no multiplayer, highscore is the only type of competitive racing you are able to do with this minigame.

Captain Falcon's Twister Race - 6/10

Balloon Trip Breeze is the final minigame in the set, on Nintendoland. To control the balloon in flight the player has to slide the stylus across the gamepad screen in order to create wind. There's a nice gentle feel to this minigame, and it seems to control well, the only real problem being the lack of other features. There's a few things to do, but like other minigames, it can quickly lose your attention.

Balloon Trip Breeze - 6/10

So, having talked about all of the minigames, there are a few aspects of the game as a whole that I haven't mentioned. Graphically everything is modeled on a very arty theme, with the Legend Of Zelda game featuring a lot of felt like scenery, and Ninja Castle's Origami theme. While Nintendo could have chosen more "realistic" looking features for the minigames, to show off the new HD capabilities of the WiiU, the theme gives the game an overall feel to it, one of calm and paying homage to the games on which each minigame is based.

Musically as well there's a lot of themes which pay tribute to their original series or game, this is easy to miss in a game with so many things to do. Gameplay-wise also, even the ill-advised games control well, the game as a whole feels like more of a means to show off the WiiU's features than anything else. Perhaps the next closest thing is a nostalgia trip for Nintendo fans. The game's unlockables are also plentiful, a pachinko-esque feature is used to decide how many coins it takes for items to be unlocked.

Difficult as it is, to judge Nintendoland as a videogame whole, rather than the collection of minigames which show off the new features of the WiiU and gamepad, that it is, I think the easiest comparison is to that of Microgame collections such as WarioWare or Rhythm Heaven. Whilst a lot of the minigames here have more depth than anything either of the aforementioned games could claim, the overall quality of each is much more wayward, and although there are some decent experiences, as a whole Nintendoland doesn't feel like it can claim to be much more than a party game, at best.

The multiplayer experiences are better than the single player experiences all round (something perhaps intented by Nintendo with their new focus on community gaming). There are some fun moments to be had, but its more of a taste of what's to come and how other games might use the WiiU gamepad to great effect.

Rating: 73/100
Grade: C