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.

Pokemon Red and Blue

 The handheld gaming market is great for people that want to game while on the road or not at home.  The Game Boy made the handheld market big with it's ability to play while on the go.  No one cared that the screen wasn't in color, the Game Boy had great games like Tetris and Super Mario Land.  However, the game (or games) that helped the Game Boy in sales is Pokemon Red and Blue.  These two games not only made people buy a Game Boy, but they also made Pokemon one of the most popular games on the market.  They were so popular that they started a craze in the 90's, getting a card game, toys, and even an anime.  Let's dive right into this craze maker that is Pokemon Red and Blue.

The story is pretty simple: You play as a nameable character(his default name is red, but you can name him whatever you want) who is about to get his first pokemon, animal like creatures with special powers, from Professor Oak.  When you go to Oak's lab, you encounter his grandson(his default name is Gary, but you can change it to whatever your messed up mind wants it to be) who takes the pokemon that's stronger in type then yours.  After a brief battle, you get the pokedex, a tool that explains everything about a pokemon, from it's type to where you can find it.  When you have everything you need, you're ready to go on your journey around the Kanto region, defeat all the gym leaders, beat the elite four and the champion, and stop the evil Team Rocket.  Also, you try to catch all 151 pokemon(get ready to lose your social life).

The game play is pretty good for an rpg, it's a turn based battle like most rpg battles, but they add the concept of pokemon types.  Each pokemon has a different type that is stronger than one type but weaker to another type.  For example, fire is stronger than grass type pokemon, but is weaker to water type pokemon.  Also, you can catch pokemon.  When you weaken a wild pokemon, you can throw a pokeball at it to catch it, however the pokemon can break free.  If the pokemon is caught, it's data will be put into the pokedex, and you will then have the option to nickname the pokemon, the pokemon will then join your party or be put into a computer if your party is full.  After each battle, your pokemon will gain XP, if enough XP is gained, your pokemon will level up.  At a certain level, your pokemon will evolve into a stronger form.  This may seem complicated talking about it, but it's really simple game play mechanics.  You will encounter other trainers and fight there pokemon, you can't catch there pokemon or run away from the battle, so you'll have to fight them and see who stands tall.  The game play is simple to understand and is fun and addictive.  You will lose a lot of hours to this game, trying to catch all of the pokemon.  When you hit another town, you there will be gym there, with a gym leader, you will have to fight him to get a gym badge, when you have all the gym badges you will be able to go to the indigo league and fight the elite four and the champion.  There are a lot of aspects to this game to talk about, so you'll have to play the game to find out more about the game.  Basically, what you need to know is that it has easy to understand game play mechanics, with an interesting idea of catching as many pokemon as you can, and trying to be the best pokemon trainer in all of the Kanto region(or losing your life to catching all 151 pokemon).

There's only one negative I can think about.  There's a lot of random battles, which are good if you want to catch pokemon or level up, but if you just want to get to the nearest town, it gets annoying.  This is a staple for most rpgs though so this can be dismissed.

Overall, Pokemon Red and Blue is a very addictive and fun game for the Game Boy.  I recommend the original Game Boy version to anyone that has one, or the remade Fire Red and Leaf Green versions on the game boy advance.  It doesn't matter which version of the game you get, there both the same game, they just have pokemon exclusive to one version and other pokemon exclusive to the other version.  Thanks for reading, and remember to keep ranting n' raving.

R.I.P Robin Williams

I know film isn't really what I do, but a great comedian, Robin Williams, has sadly died recently so I think it's right to give him a special post.

Robin Williams was a funny man, making me laugh in movies like Aladdin and R.V.  He will be missed.  While I have no connection with him, his movies gave me a good feeling inside whenever I watched them.  Pray for his family people.  Thanks for reading.

Lost Planet

 Capcom is one of the best third party game companies out there.  Making popular game series's such as the Mega Man and Resident Evil franchises.  While they aren't as big as they were back then, they still make some good games.  One of there games being the science fiction game Lost Planet.  This is a game that, while isn't as good as past Capcom games, is still fun to play now and again.  So let's dive right into Lost Planet.

Let's look at the story: In the future, Mankind has colonized the planet E.D.N 3, and was successful at first.  However, things turn for the worst when a hostile alien race called the Akrid start attacking the colonies and Man is forced to leave.  Humanity decides to fight the Akrid, and take E.D.N 3 back using giant mech suits call vital suits or VS for short.  While fighting the Akrid, Humanity finds a thermal energy inside the Akrid, that can be used as an energy source.  You play as Wayne, a soldier who lost his memory(but still remembers his name, and his father being killed by an Akrid).  However, Wayne was saved by a group of snow pirates, colonists that were left behind after Humanity left the first colonization of E.D.N 3.  Wayne must help the group of snow pirates destroy Akrid Hives and find the Akrid named green eyes that killed his father.  Along the way you'll fight Akrid, other snow pirates, and a group called NEVEC that want to wipe out the snow pirates.  As Wayne continues on he learns that there's more to what happened to his Father, than what he thinks happened.

Let's look at the positives:  This may sound odd, but I like the lore behind Lost Planet.  I like the idea of Humanity reaching out to the stars and colonizing, I like the VS and the thermal energy, I like the lore overall.  The combat is also great, it's your standard third person shooter, but there's two features that make this cool.  The first feature is the anchor, a special tool that allows you to reach new areas.  This is cool, because you get can hang from certain areas using your anchor and shoot away at enemies below you, making you look like an action hero in the process.  The second feature are the vital suits.  When you see one you can either take off one of the weapons on the VS and just use the weapon, or you can ride the VS and take out anyone that you encounter with ease.  There are different types of vital suits as well, ranging from basic ones, to vital suits that can double jump and and drop smoke screen.  Thermal energy is another aspect of game play that's unique.  Along with the health bar, you have a thermal energy meter that tells you how much thermal energy you have.  You need to keep collecting thermal energy and keep the meter up, because when the thermal energy meter reaches zero, you slowly lose health.  Also, thermal energy can regenerate your health if you have a lot of it.  The game play and combat is fun and entertaining.

There are a good amount of negatives as well:  First off, while I said that I liked the lore, the story, on the other hand, was okay, not really that impressive, just your typical stop evil forces plot.  The characters weren't that interesting, and were kind of generic.  We don't get much development on the characters, and there's no part of the game where you can interact with them, you only watch them in cut scenes.  The voice acting isn't really that good as well.  Maybe if they did one more take it'd work, but it just didn't work for me.  The controls are a bit off as well, they aren't game breaking, but they could fix some things in the controls.  First off, there's no sprint button, which may not seem big, but your character is slow, it'd be great to sprint.  The left and right bumpers are used to turn your character around quickly, which is nice, but you could have made the character turn quicker using the right stick, but he doesn't turns pretty slowly using the right stick.  If they didn't have the quick turn on the bumpers, they could of used on of the buttons for maybe sprinting or something.  The enemies do knock you down, which gets annoying when they spam their attacks.  Objects can be used as weapons, for example gas cans can be shot at to blow them up, which is a cool feature, but sometimes it gets frustrating.  For example, I was trying to use my anchor to reach a platform in one of the levels, but a couple of gas barrels were blocking my way and made me stop using my anchor.  So I had to shoot them, but when one blew up, the other didn't, and they were right next to each other.  They should have added a chain reaction feature in the game that would make one can blow up if in the radius of another can's explosion.  So I had to destroy each individual can.  The flaws are frustrating, but they don't ruin the game for me.

Overall, Lost Planet is a fun game, and while the characters, voice acting, controls, and some frustrating parts are annoying, it didn't ruing the game for me, and I still enjoy the lore, combat, and game play.  I recommend the Xbox 360 version to anyone interested.  Hopefully, Capcom will fix these errors in the sequels to Lost Planet.  Thanks for reading, and remember to keep ranting n' raving.

Batman Forever (snes)

Batman is undeniably one of the greatest super heroes of all time, and it seems right to give him his own games.  His best video games are probably Arkham series.  However, for every good game, there's a bad game, enter Batman Forever for the snes.  Like Dennis the Menace, I liked this game as a kid, but as a I got older, I realized there's a lot of flaws.  So let's dive right into this mess.

The story loosely follows the plot of the movie of the same name.  Batman must stop the Riddler and Two Face, and also Robin joins Batman in his fight against evil.  That's basically the game in a nutshell.

There's only one positive I can think of about this game.  The controls are like Mortal Kombat, in fact it was made by Acclaim, the same people who ported Mortal Kombat to the snes.  So anyone used to fighting games will follow the controls well.

The negatives, on the other hand, are easy to find:  First off, when you start the game, you get to choose what weapons you want to bring with you.  This sounds cool, however you have to do ridiculous button and D-pad combos in order to use any gadget, even a simple batarang requires some dumb combo.  Your grapple is needed for many parts of the game, but you have to do a weird combo to get it to shoot upwards.  Enemies have a lot of health, so you will need to do a lot of punches and kicks, and gadgets, if you've figured out any button combo to use one.  Even going down to another floor requires you to do a button combo.  There's no set button for doing a simple task, you have to all these complicated combos for one easy task.  There's riddles left for you to find, but they aren't that important, all they do is tell you about what's going to happen next.  I can keep going on the negatives, but that would kill time, so I'm going to wrap it up now.

Overall, Batman Forever is a clunky game with complicated button combos needed for simple tasks.  I don't recommend this game to anyone, it's terrible.  At least Dennis the Menace had a catchy soundtrack, and was fun to use as prank to a friend who didn't know about Mr. Wilson.  This game is just bad.  Thanks for reading, and remember to keep ranting n' raving.

Age of Empires 2 HD edition

 I don't do a lot of PC gaming whenever I want to do something fun on my free time.  I usually play snes or some game that I've forgotten about.  However, after having my wallet give money to Steam with their alluring sales, I decided to do some more PC gaming.  The game that I bought was Age of Empires 2, the HD edition, because everything is better in HD as some rich guy would tell you.  So now let's dive right in.

There isn't really one main story in the game.  Instead we get several campaigns with a couple missions for each campaign.  Each campaign involves a famous historical figure from different eras, ranging from William Wallace to Fredrick Barbarossa.  Along with the campaigns from the main game, the HD edition that I got includes the conquers expansion as well, with campaigns focusing on famous conquerors such as El Cid and Montezuma.  You can start with any campaign, but they give you William Wallace's campaign as a training campaign.

Let's look at the positives:  First off, this game is pretty educational and fun at the same time.  You can learn about these civilizations in a history section, and you can play as them and see what there unique skills are.  You start out with villagers and some soldiers, what you have to do there is make a town center, build houses, barracks, etc, and gather materials.  I like seeing progress happen in the game, when you get enough materials to make an army, you feel good inside.  Whenever you get into a battle and try to defeat an opposing civilization, you feel like you're watching a big battle scene from a movie.  Advancing to a new age is great as well, when you have enough materials, you can advance to a new age.  You start in the Dark ages, and then you can go into the feudal age, the castle age, and the imperial age.  What's great about advancing to a new civilization is that you really feel like time has changed.  Also, you can get new buildings, units, and upgrades to units when you advance to a new age.  This game is just fun and exciting.

There are flaws with this game though:  First off, I don't know if it's because I use Ubuntu, but it was hard to get this game on my computer.  I had to get my brother to help me get Play on Linux on my computer and do some special modifications to get the game on.  I hear it was a problem for other computers, but it is frustrating.  Also, when an attack on another civilization doesn't work, you get frustrated and set back.  I know that's how war works, but it's still annoying when an attack goes wrong.

Overall, Age of Empires 2 HD edition is a fun and surprisingly educational game.  I recommend getting this game, along with a new expansion called the Forgotten on steam.  The Forgotten adds new civilizations and campaigns, and it was released in 2013, making it the first expansion in almost a decade since the original game was released.  Thanks for reading, and remember to keep ranting n' raving.

Super Mario World

 Mario is undeniably the biggest character in video games and has helped make Nintendo a household name now.  Nintendo has been milking Mario like Activision has with Call of Duty.  However, unlike Activision, Nintendo has added something new to each Mario game.  It may be a power up, a new character, anything really, but undeniably one of the best things Nintendo has added was Yoshi in Super Mario World, in my opinion the best Mario game made.  Now it's time to look at this masterpiece.

Let's look at the story:  Mario, Luigi, and Peach are on Dinosaur island for...I don't know really, I think it's for a vacation, but what ever I'm getting off track.  There having a fun time, until Bowser arrives and kidnaps Peach...again(you'd think she'd up security after getting kidnapped).  So it's up to Mario and Luigi to save the Princess.  Along the way they encounter Yoshi, a dinosaur that has had his friends imprisoned in eggs by Bowser.  So Mario teams up with Yoshi to save the princess and Yoshi's friends.

Let's look at the positives, and trust me there's a lot:  Like all Mario games, they have great controls and feel.  This was a launch title for the snes, and this game is a great way to show off what the snes can do.  You can hold down the run button and jump at the same time.  The music is awesome, Nintendo has given every Mario game a great soundtrack, and this game is proof of that.  With the Super Nintendo's power, Nintendo gave this game a great soundtrack, from the peppy opening to the chilling castle theme, each area has a great song to it.  Like I said earlier, this was the first game to include Yoshi, and he's a great new feature to the game.  Yoshi can eat enemies and sometimes give you 1 ups by pooping them out(yes I know that sounds gross, but that's basically what he does).  Yoshi can also use koopas as weapons by spitting them out, some even give him a power.  For example, green shells are spit out as shells, red shells are spit out as fire, blue shells make him fly, and yellow shells give him a stomping ability.  The over world is huge in this game, you really do feel like you're in this big world, hence the name Super Mario World.  This game is just perfect.

I can't think of any flaws really, but if I had to nitpick, I'd say the sprite for the princess in the final level look bad.  This is just a nit pick, but they could have updated it.

Overall, Super Mario World is a great game.  This is, in my opinion, the best Mario game ever, I recommend the snes version to anyone that wants to buy it.  While everyone does have their own opinion, I still stick with this as being the best out of them all.  Thanks for reading, and remember to keep ranting n' raving.

Injustice: Gods Among us

 I think it's time to step out of the old and into the new to add some more variety to my reviews.  To start us off is Injustice: Gods Among Us, the hit fighting game last year.  Now it's time to dive right in and see if it's good.

Before I start, let me say there might be spoilers, okay now that that's out of the way lets look at the story:  In an alternate universe, Superman loses Louis Lane, his unborn child, and Metropolis to the Joker and decides that man shouldn't rule any more and starts a one world order with himself on top and those who follow him making up the Regime.  He looses his morals and goes so far as to kill the Joker.  Batman leads and Insurgency to oppose Superman and his Regime, while the Insurgency isn't doing that well, Batman finds hope in another universe where the Joker's plan didn't work.  So he decides to take some of the heroes from that universe into his universe to help him defeat Superman, and restore order and peace.

Let's look at the good aspects:  The combat is, in my opinion, the best combat I've seen in a fighting game.  It mixes the best aspects of great fighting games like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and even Killer Instinct into one game, and even added in their own unique features.  You can use the objects around you as weapons and they do it incredibly well, and some objects react differently to different characters.  For example, if you use a chandelier with Green Arrow, you will use it to get out of a bad situation quickly, while strong characters like Superman will use it as a weapon.  You can knock people out of arenas and into different areas, causing damage and changing the environment and usable objects.  Each character has their own unique move similar to a fatality, except you can do it when a meter on the bottom half of the screen is full.  The combat's great overall.  I've heard people complain that the story should stay in one universe, which I do agree would make interesting scenarios in the game, but I think it's a two sided coin on the story, and I actually like the story.  The heroes from the other universe see their alternate selves and the one world order Superman has made.  Also, it brings up the idea of what if Superman lost it, he has the power to overthrow every government in the world without a lot of problems.

There are some negatives though:  First off, evil Superman has no heart whatsoever.  I know he lost Louis and his unborn son, but I think he would show a bit more emotional distress.  He doesn't even care about his own friends on the Regime, if one of them falls out of line, he'll kill them without remorse.  It doesn't feel like Superman would act like this if he lost everything he cared about.  Also, while I said I do like the story, it would have been cool to see this in one universe.  You could play as characters on both sides of the story and see what each character has to go through.  I still like the story, but it would have been cool to see it all in one universe, not mixing two together.  Finally, there's this one feature in the combat where you can wager parts of the bar on the meter below to either give damage, or gain a bit of health that felt awkward at first, but you get used to it later.  It would have been nice if they either took out the wager system, or made it feel more natural.

Overall, Injustice: Gods among us is a fun game with great combat and an interesting story.  While there are some flaws, like the heartless superman, the game is still enjoyable.  I recommend the console versions, as I can't really see a fighting game on the PC.  I've heard that there might be a sequel to Injustice after Nether Realms is finished with the new Mortal Kombat game, and if so, I hope they fix some of the flaws in the sequel.  Thanks for reading, and remember to keep ranting n' raving.

Dennis the Menace

I've been doing a lot of reviews of good games, I think it's time to do a bad game this time, and to start us off is a game I played when I was a kid and liked but realized there are some flaws when I grew older, Dennis the Menace for the snes.  Let's see if it holds up today.

The story is loosely based on the 90's movie of the same name.  Dennis is a little kid that messes around with Mr. Wilson, a grump that can't stand Dennis.  Things change when a thief comes to town and steals Mr. Wilson's gold, so it's up to Dennis to stop the thief and return the gold, this is a pretty simple plot comparing it to my past reviews.

Let's look at some things I like:  This game does have a good sound.  The music has a catchy beat, the cats make a realistic cat sound, it sounds good overall.  Dennis does control well, and I like how the game has open levels that you can explore, instead of having it all be linear.  That's all of the good I can think of right now for this game.

The negatives are a bit more heavy handed than the positives:  First off, this game is surprisingly creepy.  When you turn on the game you get this eerie song, and then Dennis shouting, "Hey Mr. Wilson," before getting this weird carnival like music.  However, the scariest thing to me as a little kid was on the first level in Mr. Wilson's house.  When you go upstairs, you will see a bunch of beds, after passing the beds a jack in the box is seen, and then all of a sudden Mr. Wilson comes out and grabs you, giving you a game.  I had nightmares of Mr. Wilson going downstairs when I was a little kid.  Also,there are some platforms in this game that look like you can make them, but the game makes the jumps difficult and frustrating.  The goal of the game is to find all of the coins, but it's hard to get them with some difficult jumps, and trying to get past Mr. Wilson.  You have three weapons, a slingshot, a squirt gun, and a pea shooter.  The squirt gun is terrible, it only stuns mice, why would I want a weapon that can only stun mice.  Stick with the slingshot and pea shooter, there better.  You have a lot of time to beat a level.  The timer starts at 999 seconds, which is around 16 minutes or so.  When you lose a life, the clock pauses at where you last were and continues from that point when you start your next life.  It doesn't really matter though, because they give you so much time that you can beat a couple levels in Super Mario Brothers quicker than this  one level, and that's another problem, the levels drag on, it get's boring after a while.  Finally, and this is a nitpick, why does Mr. Wilson have so many beds, cats, and fish?  It doesn't seem right.

Overall, Dennis the Menace was fun when I was little, but now that I'm older I can see that there are a lot of flaws.  However, I do have some fun sometimes with this game, like showing Mr. Wilson to friends who don't realize it.  I recommend the snes version to those who want the game, but it's not worth buying on Amazon people.  Thanks for reading, and remember to keep ranting n' raving.

Mega Man X

Mega Man has been a popular game franchise for a long time, and while you don't see Mega Man as much as you would back then, he's still popular in the gaming community.  The best example of his popularity, Mega Man X.  In many ways, the best Mega Man game, but that's up to opinion.  I'm not the first to praise this game, but who cares it's my blog so let's jump in.

The story is darker than classic Mega Man games.  In the classic series, Mega Man had to stop Dr. Wiley and his robot masters, X changed it up.  In the future, mankind has made reploids, robots that have free will comparable to a human(clearly no one has seen Terminator in the future).   The problem with reploids is that they would rebel against their creators and be labeled mavericks, so the government sends out a group of reploids call Maverick Hunters to stop the mavericks.  However, the leader named Sigma gets infected and gets his lieutenants to join him in his war against mankind.  So it's up to two maverick hunters named X, who's also the last creation of Dr. Light the creator of Mega Man, and Zero to Stop Sigma and his Lieutenants from destroying mankind.

Let's look at the positives:  The game play is similar to the classic Mega Man series, but added some features to make the game more fast paced and thrilling.  First off, X can dash and wall jump, making new scenarios for you to encounter on your journey.  Also, unlike the Classic series where you have to go through one screen and then wait for the screen to catch up, Mega Man X made the game play faster and lets X flow into the next area without waiting for the screen to catch up, they only time you wait for the screen to catch up is when you reach a boss, but it works and it's a nice nod to the Classic series.  The music is awesome, the Mega Man franchise is known for having awesome soundtracks, and this game is a prime example of it.  You will be rocking out to the music while you destroy mavericks and stop Sigma.  The game also has ideas borrowed from the Classic series.  For example, you have a select screen that allows you to choose which boss you want to fight first, and like the Classic series, there's eight bosses and then the final level with Sigma.  Everything in this game is fast paced and thrilling.  You move quicker with the dash mechanic, everything flows naturally, all of it just works in this game.

There's only one minor problem with this game, some bosses are really easy to kill.  When you have the right weapon, it's really easy to defeat a boss, especially Spark Mandrill when you have the right weapon.  This is just a minor problem though, it doesn't kill the game.

Overall, Mega Man X is a prime example of a great Mega Man game; I recommend the snes version for those wanting to buy the game.  While we don't see Mega Man in the spotlight as much as we did back then, he left a trail of great games for us to enjoy.  Thanks for reading, and remember to keep ranting n' raving.

Chrono Trigger

Out of everything Square has made that isn't Final Fantasy related, Chrono Trigger is probably the most popular. This game brought time travel into an awesome new dimension for gamers, and is still considered a masterpiece today.

Here's the story: While at the millennial fair, Chrono, our silent protagonist, runs into Marle, the princess of the land who decides to hang around Chrono for a while where the two eventually go to a teleportation device on display, created by Lucca, Chrono's friend. When Marle enters the machine, an accident occurs that sends her into parts unknown. When Chrono goes through to find her, he finds himself in medieval times. What happens after that is...well a lot of things. Marle impersonates the queen at the time as she's the queen's descendant, but when something happens to the queen something happens to Marle, so Chrono has to get the queen back, then when Chrono returns back to his time, he's arrested for supposedly kidnapping the princess, then Chrono escapes with Marle and Lucca and finds another time gate similar to the one at the teleporter, and goes into the future, where everything has been destroyed by an alien called Lavos. So Chrono, Marle, and Lucca go back into the past and try to prevent this from happening. Along the way they encounter the frog knight named frog(I bet it took them forever to think of that name), the robot named robo,(they must've thought real hard thinking about that name), and the cave-woman named Ayla. Together they try to prevent Lavos from destroying the future.

Here are the positives: The story is great as is most games made by Square(now Square Enix), everything you do has a consequence and can change parts of the story depending on your actions. The characters are great, while Chrono is silent like a lot of protagonists now a days, his friends are loyal, and have great personalities and humor. The music is awesome, especially the main theme; you feel awesome whenever you hear the main theme. Look it up, it won't be hard to find. The game play builds off the active battle system in Final Fantasy 4, but adds some new things. For one thing, you can do combo moves with a buddy and cause even more damage to your opponent. Also, like in Final Fantasy 4, everything happens in real time and some bosses might be more vulnerable at certain times.

There's only one negative I have with this game, but it's more of a warning. Whatever you do, DO NOT GET THIS GAME ON THE PS1. Any other version is fine, not the PS1 version. Why, because it has ridiculously long load times. Here's what I mean: you have a random encounter with an opponent, and then, load screen, and depending on time it will load from around a couple seconds, to 5 minutes. It takes you out of the immersion and kills the game. So don't get the game on PS1, I can't emphasize this enough!

Overall, Chrono Trigger is a great game for fans of RPGs. I recommend any version that isn't the PS1 version. The PS1 version also comes with Final Fantasy 4, so get the Collection just for Final Fantasy 4 not this game. Thanks for reading, and remember to keep ranting n' raving.

Final Fantasy 4

Final Fantasy is what you'd usually think about when you'd think about RPGs. While it has over welcomed it's stay it has made some impressive works. Some of the most notable titles include Final Fantasy 6, 7, and...really only those two. While 6 and 7 are the most popular, the most groundbreaking title that made the series what it is today is Final Fantasy 4. This is a game that no one really talks about a lot, but has made a big impact in the franchise that it deserves to be given more light.

The story goes like this: Cecil Harvey is the leader of the Red Wings, an elite air force for the kingdom of Baron. After raiding an innocent town for their power crystal, Cecil starts doubting his king's actions and wonders if he's doing the right thing. When he's sent on a mission to attack a small village called mist, Cecil decides to rebel against his king and restore peace through the nations. Along the way Cecil encounters many people on his journey, like the summoner Rydia, the dragoon Kain, the white mage Rosa, who's also Cecil's love interest, the great sage Tellah, and many more. During their journey, thing's become more clear about what's happening, it turns out the evil sorcerer Golbez has taken over the red wings and has manipulated the king to do his bidding and get all the crystals in each kingdom. Who will win, who will lose, you'll have to play to find out.


Well let's look at the good parts: First, let's look at our protagonist. Cecil Harvey is, in my opinion, one of the best heroes in any game. He knows that what he did was bad and that it is hard to be forgiven for what he did, but he also knows that he must right his wrongs and stop Golbez. Everyone you meet is very likable and has some nice development, such as Kain who is your childhood friend slash rival and goes through some turmoils on his own in the game as well. Rosa is Cecil's love interest and wants to fight by his side like her mother did with her father. Tellah is a great sage who lost his daughter in one of Golbez's attacks and wants to avenge his daughter. Rydia lost her mother in Cecil's attack on the village of mist so Cecil basically has to take care of Rydia now. I didn't name off everyone you meet as there's a lot of people, but they all have great development as characters, and that's another plus in this game, the character development. RPGs before this did little to no character development, this game made development a standard for characters. The music is beautiful, most notably the theme of love, in fact the theme of love is so good, 6th graders in Japan are taught this on piano. The combat is also great, this is the first game in the series to do the active battle system where everything happens in real time during combat, and it works well in this. This game is beautiful in story and game play.

However, there are some negatives: For one thing, you need to do a lot of XP grinding if you want to face big bosses. I know it's a standard now, but it does get frustrating when you're at a boss and you can't kill him no matter how hard you try. Also, the graphics, while good, aren't that impressive, I don't really care about graphics because game play and story are more important, but some might not like the graphics.

Overall, Final Fantasy 4 is a beautiful game with great game play, story, and music. If you want to purchase this game I recommend getting either the DS or PS1 versions. The PS1 version can be found in the Final Fantasy Chronicles collection. For now, thanks for reading and remember to keep ranting n' raving.