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.