Swing Copters

 The mobile game market has skyrocketed in the past couple of years.  There have been many popular games like Angry Birds, Clash of Clans and more.  One of the most popular and infamous is Flappy Bird...which I will not be talking about today.  Instead, I will be talking about another game made by the creators of Flappy Bird, Swing Copters.  Is it as frustrating as it's more popular older brother, or not.  Let's dive right into Swing Copters.

There is no story.  You're just some guy with a propeller hat that flies through girders with random hammers on them.  There's no story until the Youtube channel, Lore gets on it.

There are some positives to the game, like Flappy Bird, Swing Copters is incredibly addictive.  You want to keep playing the game over and over again.  It's an aspect that makes many apps popular today.  Although, I wouldn't get hooked on the game a lot like those crazy people that get into the thousands.  Overall, pretty addictive.

There are negatives as well.  First off, I want to point out that a lot of people bash Flappy Bird for it's difficulty, honestly I think it's a good level of difficulty that is sort of like classic N.E.S. difficulty.  Swing Copters is a bit overboard with it's difficulty.  For starters, it takes a bit of getting used to the controls.  Second, the hammers are bit too much.  It's already hard to use the controls at the start, and now you throw in hammers to torture us.  Also, the hammers will be off screen sometimes and you can't see them, so you'll be doing good and them hidden hammer comes in.  When you get used to the controls it gets easier, but that's due to getting good at the game, at the start, it's annoying with the hammers.

Overall, Swing Copters is a challenging game.  It is entertaining for the challenge and for those people that love games that torture you like Cat Mario for example, but other than that it's a tad bit frustrating.  Thanks for reading, and remember to keep ranting n' raving.

Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy

 Star Wars is one of the biggest science fiction franchises out there along with Star Trek and Doctor Who.  With a franchise this big, it seems right to make video games involving Star Wars.  One of the video games was Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy.  This was one of many games in the Jedi Knight game series.  I can talk about the other games later, but now, let's dive into Jedi Academy.

You play as Jaden Korr, a new student at the Jedi Academy on Yavin 4.  While on your flight to the Academy you meet Rosh Penin, an pain in the butt who becomes your friend.  Suddenly, the ship crashes on Yavin 4, the cause was due to an evil sith cult called the cult of Ragnos.  Their goal is to bring back an ancient sith lord named Marka Ragnos.  So it's up to Jaden to defeat the cult and get stronger as a jedi, and ring peace to the galaxy.

Let's look at the positives:  First off, I like the creativity with customizing your character.  Jaden can be a boy or a girl like most games, but you can also change what species he'll be.  He could be human, or alien.  Not only can you customize Jaden, but you can also customize your light saber.  You get a basic custom light saber at first, but later on you can give yourself two light sabers or a staff light saber like the one Darth Maul had.  You can also learn many force powers, before a mission starts, you can select which force move you'd like to learn.  You have core moves like force push and pull, but you can learn force moves from the light side, like mind tricks, healing, and absorbing force moves used on you, or you can learn moves from the dark side, like lighting, choke, or draining the health of an opponent to restore your health.  You can also select what blasters you'd like to bring.  The combat is nice and as well.  You go into a third person perspective when using a light saber, and then go into a first person perspective when using a blaster.  The game has great customization.

There are negatives however:  First off, there are some glitches that you will notice when playing.  Also, there is one part of the game that decides if you will be a part of the light side or the dark side, this is a good idea, but it would have been more interesting if you can have moments like this throughout the game.  For example, if you kill innocent people it will influence you to the dark side, and the opposite if you do what's right.  Just a nitpick, but it would be cooler if I had more decision.

Overall, Jedi Academy, is a fun game for Star Wars fans, fans of the Jedi Knight series, and gamers alike.  I recommend the PC version of the game.  With talk about episode seven coming out later next year, I hope it will be better than the prequel movies.  Thanks for reading, and remember to keep ranting n' raving.

The Flaws With: Call of Duty franchise

Before people look at the title and start getting mad, let me set things straight.  I do find Call of Duty to be fun and entertaining when playing with friends.  It's a great multiplayer game to play with friends along with other shooters like Halo and GoldenEye.  That doesn't mean I think the game is flawless though.  There are some gripes I have with this franchise, and I'm going to tell them to you.

First off, the biggest problem is the lack of innovation.  I know we need mindless shooters to counter the smart wonders in gaming, but that doesn't excuse a lack of creativity.  You're always some buff meat head who has to stop some form of terrorists ranging from Russians to to anything that isn't from North America or the U.K.  Why can't we change up the formula.  While some complain about Battlefield give Dice credit for experimenting with their games, 2142 had titan mode, 4 had destructible parts of the battlefield, and Hard line will be about cops and robbers.  Call of Duty doesn't change many things.  Why don't they try doing something similar to Far Cry 3, you could be this scrawny weakling, but as the game progresses you become an expert of war.  If you have some good ideas for a good new Call of Duty story, comment below.

Another problem is how very little of your actions affect your character or the story.  I know there are moments where you decide who lives, but that doesn't change a lot of the story.  There should be a moment where one bullet could impact the entire game.  If you shoot a certain person, your character debates on whether or not how their handling the issue is the wrong way.  This is a small idea, but it could leave a big impact to your character.

Finally, this is a bit more personal, but why are we allowing little kids to play these games.  There's a reason we have the ESRB system.  If you want your kid to play games like this, wait till there older, and can understand what's happening.  If you let them play at a young age, it will make kids a bit more violent, and they might gain a bad mouth.  If you want your kid to play games like this, wait till there older.

That's all of my gripes with Call of Duty as a whole.  Again, I do enjoy playing this with friends, but multiplayer can't be the only thing you stand on, you have to have a good single player part as well.  I know we need games like this to counter the smart masterpieces but that doesn't excuse this franchise.  Thanks for reading, and remember to keep ranting n' raving.

Spy Hunter(N.E.S.)

 The N.E.S has had some great games, one great developer the N.E.S had was Sunsoft.  Sunsoft made some entertaining games for the N.E.S, and probably their most popular was Spy Hunter for the N.E.S.  This is actually a port of the popular arcade game of the same name.  So, without further delay, let's look at Spy Hunter.

There really isn't a story for the game, since most arcade games didn't really have a story at the time, along with any ports made.  Instead, I'll tell you what is going on.  You're some spy hunter(hence the title) who drives an epic car called the interceptor.  The player tries to kill any enemy spy cars(the dark blue cars).  You have to avoid killing civilians, and try to not die yourself.  Along the way, semi trucks will come to give you gadgets that you can use.

Let's look at the positives:  First off, this game is hard.  It's so hard, that you have a grace period that allows you to die however many times you want, without losing a life.  I like this though, challenge is a great aspect that makes you more determined to beat your high score, and gets you addicted to the game.  The music is entertaining, it's just an eight bit version of the theme to a show called Peter Gunn, and it's memorable.  You won't get the song out of your head.  You have to go faster to gain points quicker, but the faster you go, the harder it is to see other cars, giving you easier chances to die.  If you kill a civilian, you get penalized and stop gaining points.  The challenge is great as I said before, in most games now a days, there would be difficulty selections, tutorials, and other things, back then, they challenged you and knew players had intelligence.  As you go semi trucks will come that will allow you to get helpful gadgets when you enter the semi's back.  These gadgets include oil slick, smoke screen, and a missile that takes out enemy helicopters.  Each gadget is helpful, and if you don't have gadgets, you can use the main guns on the car.  This game is a fun challenge.

There are negatives though:  First off, the game does have glitches.  The original arcade version was better on glitches I hear, but the N.E.S does have some glitches when it comes to collision detection.  Also, sometimes, the Peter Gunn theme won't play sometimes, just giving you silence, which seems dull sometimes.  Also, while I like the difficulty, others might like things to be easier(I guess they can't handle the heat that is the N.E.S.).

Overall, Spy Hunter is a fun port of a fun arcade game.  If you like the challenge, you'll love this game, if you don't however, then you might not like this game.  We don't see Sunsoft a lot now a days.  It's sad though, because they had games with really awesome soundtracks, and Spy Hunter is a good example of this.  Thanks for reading, and remember to keep ranting n' raving.

The Flaws With: Old N.E.S save abilities

This might sound odd to talk about, as this was a revolutionary feature for games when it came out.  However, this was when it was in it's early stages, there were still flaws with saving at the time.  So I'm here to look at the flaws.

First off, the biggest flaw is that the battery for the save feature could run out.  This might not seem bad, but believe me it's a major flaws.  Here's my story,  I bought the Legend of Zelda for N.E.S. on Amazon and played right away.  I loved the game, it had great music, game play, and was a great adventure(see my review for more details).  One day, I had all of the tri force pieces and was ready to fight Ganon.  So I was at the last boss, and died.  I didn't think this was bad, I just saved and decided to play it later and beat Ganon.  When I turned the game back on, my save file was gone.  I was so mad at this, all of my work, hours spent fighting through dungeons, finally making it to Ganon, and my save file disappears.  It was terrible.  So now I have to go through the entire game all over from square one.

This is the main gripe I have with it.  It was revolutionary though.  You didn't need long passwords anymore to save your progress.  It did have some flaws early on, thankfully they fixed these issues later.  Thanks for reading, and remember to keep ranting n' raving.

The Legend of Zelda

 The N.E.S is undeniably Nintendo's name maker(if you know what I mean).  It ended the game crash of 1983 (with Mario's help) and brought us some of the best games known to man.  These games include Super Mario Brothers, Contra, and, of course, The Legend of Zelda, which I will be talking about today.  This game made the Zelda franchise legendary and widely known.  95 percent of gamers will say that one of there favorite games is one of the Zelda titles.  Anyway, let's look at the game that started it all, the Legend of Zelda for the N.E.S.

The story goes like this:  Princess Zelda splits the tri force of wisdom into eight pieces to prevent the dark prince Ganon from stealing the tri force of wisdom.  Ganon already has the tri force of power, so if he gets the tri force of wisdom, then he'll be an unstoppable force.  When Ganon raids Zelda's castle, it's too late the tri force of wisdom has been broken into eight pieces.  Ganon decides to kidnap Zelda to instead.  It's up to the hero Link, to find all eight pieces of the tri force, defeat Ganon, and rescue Zelda to bring peace to the kingdom of Hyrule.

Let's look at the positives:  First off, the game has a great sense of adventure.  You will travel across the map and fighting evil monsters along the way, giving you a great sense of achievement.  When you find a secret, you feel like an adventurer.  The game has great immersion when you play it.  You feel like you're the hero of the game, every time you defeat a boss or find a new item, you feel rewarded every time.  The music is memorable, there's only around four tracks, but everyone remembers them, especially the main theme.  I would consider the theme for The Legend of Zelda being the anthem for gamers everywhere, you listen to the song and you instantly think of Zelda.  Every item is useful, none feel like a waste, and they're all useful at one point of the game.  This game is just a masterpiece.

These are just some nit picks that I have:  First off, I would've liked to have been given a little more direction to the next dungeon.  I don't mean they tell me where it is directly, I just mean a little hint as to where it is.  This is just a nit pick though, The game is still great.

Overall, The Legend of Zelda is a masterpiece and deserves all of its praises.  With Hyrule Warriors coming soon, and a hint to a new Zelda Title, this shows that The Legend of Zelda is still going strong today, and it all started with this game.  Thanks for reading, and remember to keep ranting n' raving.

The Flaws With: The Xbox One

This is a new segment I'm going to do where I look at the flaws with certain parts of gaming.  I'm going to start this new segment off with the Xbox One.  First off, I'm not saying the Xbox One is a terrible console, I'm just saying they did some things wrong with the console.  Anyway, let's dive write into the Xbox One.

First off, the biggest flaw for me is that they mostly advertised it as a media center than a game console.  This could work...if they didn't already set up the Xbox line as being a console.  This doesn't seem right, the games should be top priority, and the other aspects, like for example Netflix capabilities, should be second to the games.  You can tell me the N.E.S. was advertised as a toy not a console so my argument is invalid.  However, remember that before the N.E.S. came out, the game crash of 1983 occurred.  No one wanted a game console at the time, so Nintendo had to find a way to reach out.  With the Xbox One, however, we have an abundance of consoles now, ranging from the Wii U to the PS4, to last gen consoles to PC gaming, which is getting big now, and we are very pleased with what we got.  Plus, as a minor note, the launch titles weren't really that appealing to me.

Also, I find the whole idea of the Xbox One trying to make TV being hand and hand with my gaming a bit off.  Basically, I can watch TV, while I play games, and I can use the Xbox One as to change the channel.  I don't watch a lot of TV, only when I'm having a meal or something like that, so why is a device that I used to not watch TV, is having TV be one of it's biggest features.  I remember an argument I had with a friend of mine telling me the Xbox one is cool, I told him the concept of making TV be a big part of the console is bad, but he kept telling me a lot of people buy Xbox's for Netflix.  I find this flawed because, I already own a computer, a smartphone, a Wii, a 3DS, and an Xbox 360, and all of these can play Netflix, so why should I buy an Xbox One to watch Netflix, when I have endless ways to watch it that are also cheaper.  Even if you don't own an Xbox 360 you can still watch Netflix on other platforms.  Now first off, I'm not bashing the Xbox 360, I like it, it's a great console, and better the the One in console wise, it's cheaper(price I'll get to later) and I have a big library, also I'm not bashing Netflix, it's awesome.  However, I find it dumb that Microsoft tells me I should buy an Xbox One for Netflix when I already own a 360.

My last point is this, the price is ridiculous.  They want you to pay 500 dollars for an Xbox One.  Really 500 dollars Microsoft, first off I'm pretty sure every kid doesn't have 500 dollars lying in there pockets, and second were you expecting aristocrats to buy the system.  This just seems flawed.  This could seem fare, if they didn't say there was no backwards compatibility.  Why no backwards compatibility, I wouldn't of written this article if there was backwards compatibility.  I hear they fixed this, but I don't know exactly, this is just a big flub for Microsoft.

I'm going to have to end this hear, there's a lot more issues I can name for the Xbox One, but if I did, I'd be here all day.  Overall, if could, I'd say stick with a 360.  It's cheaper, has great games, and you can play your old Xbox games on it.  Thanks for reading, and remember to keep ranting n' raving.