A Personal Video Game Retrospective (1986-2015) 2005

2005

We’ve finally made it to the digital age of video games. Which normally wouldn’t be a issue but Playstation plus has bolstered my digital collection of games. So I’m still planning on checking out every physical game I still own but I’m going to pick out which digital games will be worth mentioning. Covering everything would be great but even I have my limits. Even with my extensive look through every year this hasn’t even come close to covering every notable game that comes out each year. As for what was going on in video games in 2005. Well it was the launch of 2 different devices that had completely opposite reactions. The PS2 and GCN started to seem somewhat dated especially compared to the 360. Heralding the end of the Gamecube at least from my perspective. Yet the PS2 will just keep going and it's pretty nuts that I’ll still need to keep bringing it up till 2010.

Playstation Portable

The PSP was a very successful device but not in the way Sony wanted it to be. Because it quickly became the easiest hacked video game device of all time. Even I have custom firmware still installed on my PSP currently. Yet in general you would think the PSP would have been the primary gaming device to own. It had more power to emulate early PS2 games on the go. But the market said they were not interested in console games on a portable device. That mindset continues to this day. At least for me I thought certain types of games worked better on a portable device. JRPG’s tend to keep my interest better on a handheld. Seems like that type of game would be anti portable thanks to the limited amount of battery life. Maybe it just rounds out the long nature of these games with the ability to play them in bite sized chunks. Generally the PSP was a good device and I got quite a bit of enjoyment out of it.

Xbox 360

So the only reason I can mention the 360 is that I have a few XBLA games that were backwards compatible on the Xbox One. The high rate of failure of the 360 lead me to sell my third 360. Although Microsoft’s focus on trying to get the Japanese market to care about the Xbox did give me a reason to own it. Tales of Vesperia and Lost Odyssey were part of why I dealt with the red ring of death for so long. The other half were odd games like Earth Defence Force 2017 and serious looking games like Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas. Plus it showed me how important the digital age of video games would be with a few good years of the Summer Of Arcade promo. It didn’t hurt that a lot of the digital games around this time were 10$ or less ensuring that I would at least pick up some of them. It also got the gaming populace hooked on achievements. No matter how pointless they are getting rewarded by playing a game can be quite satisfying. In the end the criteria of me being able to still being able to play these game currently is going to make me miss out on talking about a few important 360 games. Not the biggest lost in the grand scheme of things but still unfortunate.

Advance Wars was made for a touch screen. Moving units works so much better using a touch screen instead of a dpad. I may say that but this was my least played AW. Nothing wrong with it at all. I must have gotten my fill of turn based war games by this point. I’m sure they added more units later on but I didn’t notice anything new other than the controls in the first few missions. Looks like the dual strike namesake isn’t just a play on words since it is now possible to use two CO’s in one battle. Thus allowing the player to cover the weakness of one CO with another one. Oh by the way a new continent is in danger. Omega land is under threat from the black hole army. This time everyone is working together in form of the allied nations and together they will stop the black hole army one more time.

My first introduction to the Altier series didn’t do much to keep my interest. It just seemed like a generic JRPG that had a bunch of stuff to craft. It is a good thing this series is mostly standalone since this is the sixth game and the first one released in the US. Using elements to craft items and magical spells is the main unique thing about the gameplay. Going by what I saw that mostly means Klein needs to run around areas extracting gems that give him new things to craft. With the main gameplay being about running around collecting stuff I can see why this didn’t seem that great at the time. I’m sure this is a well made game but it just wasn’t for me.

Animal Crossing Wild World is more of what made the first game so great. Now it is on the go and it has touch controls. On that second point those controls really aren’t that good compared to the normal control scheme. Yet having a life simulator on the go was awesome. Fishing to pay off my ever increasing debt to Tom Nook is oh so much more fun than playing real life bills. Most of what is new here is just more stuff to collect and put into your virtual home. Everything is set up just like the previous game where you go around talking to your neighbors who happen to be a bunch of animals and solve their issues sometimes. I never managed to compete it but the museum was where I put most of my time into trying to compete each exhibit. Coming back to my town 11 years later it is quite a wasteland full of cockroaches and weeds. Surprisingly none of my neighbors left the entire time I was gone. They must have grown used to their terrible surroundings.

This is the closest Konami ever got to transferring the 2D nature of Castlevania into 3D. Honestly a direct translation of the 2D gameplay to 3D wouldn’t look that great. As noted by the super long hallways and mostly linear pathways in Curse Of Darkness. To make up for that they included a leveling system and innocent devils. You can summon them and they can do things like opening chests and cast heal on Hector if he is wounded. Battles are highlighted by basic abilities like a 3 hit combo or the ability to dodge roll out of the way of incoming damage. Really this is about as complex as the metroidvania’s everyone loves. Yet it doesn’t work as well for some reason. By the way the story is about a devil summoner named Hector who turned his back on Dracula in the past. His wife was killed by a fellow summoner named Isaac and he is seeking revenge on him. I’m sure things get more complex later on but that is how the game starts.

Once again a cult is trying to raise Dracula from the dead. With Soma still being Dracula’s reborn soul they once again force him to deal with them to finally obtain peace. Another castle along with the surrounding area must be explored to finally stop their evil plan. Exploring the area while mashing through all the monsters along the way is still the goal. Having the map/menu on the top screen is great but having to draw a symbol to finish off a boss is just a pointless addition that just makes me mad whenever I mess it up. One of the better extra classic Castlevania modes is in this game. Julius makes his way through the castle with all the usual Belmont weapons but the addition of two other playable characters is what makes this mode memorable. It’s like I’m playing Castlevania 3 again.

I missed out on the Darkstalkers games when they first came out so I’m glad I kinda got all 3 in one package. The way it’s presented in game is odd. Instead of switching from one game to the next one I just had to play through Darkstalkers 3 in Darkstalkers 1 mode. Which just means that the power meters were different. I thought it was odd that a generic ending plays at the end instead of the character's ending. Afterwards it makes me go to the chronicle menu to see the ending I should have seen after beating the game with Felica. Even with the odd choices they made for the story the gameplay is still spot on. Fighting the cast of monsters in 1v1 battles is fun. Going by the title the Dark Tower was added to this release which makes the player choose 3 fighters and then make them fight their way up the tower. Each room has a new challenge for the player to compete like finish the fight with a EX move. The higher you get the more concept art is unlocked. Overall this isn’t the best way to package all 3 games but they are all still represented.

I’m all into DDR at this point. I ended up buying more just to have more access to more types of songs to dance along to. By some miracle my regular old DDR mat didn’t end up breaking at any point. I should note this is the first DDR game to have online. Other than that this has Dance Master mode which sets up a bunch of challenges for the player to overcome. Like get an A rank on this song and other similar challenges.This does give the player a reason to keep getting better unlike free play mode.

Devil May Cry 3 was when I finally decided to check it out. Maybe not the best time with this being a prequel to the previous game but the story is only secondary to fast paced combat. Cutting up demons is what Dante does best after all and it looks like his brother Vergil has it out for him by sending a gang of demons to kill him in the opening mission. At the start he has his default sword rebellion and his favorite pistols ebony/ivory. They allow him to chain a few attacks together to keep his style rating up. The more style he has the more souls he will obtain after every mission that can then be used to unlock health upgrades and new special moves. I remember this game being hailed as one of the hardest games of all time when it was first released. It certainly is tough early on but as Dante gets upgrades it becomes much more manageable. This was a fun game in it’s day and the combat is still enjoyable now.

Dragonball Z Supersonic Warriors 2 is not a very complex fighting game. A light/heavy attack along with a guard make up most of the tools at your disposal. A volley of 3 different special attacks per character is the main other offensive skill. Depending on the character it could be a kamehameha or a destructo disk. Fighting may be simple but it is fun. The biggest draw for me was the robust story mode. Fifteen different characters all with alternate storylines that fill out the Dragon Ball Z timeline. Seeing Goku beat down Frieza again is fine but the what if scenario where Frieza ends up the victor is much more interesting to me. Each storyline has at least one extra path for the player to see something new.

Even I’m not sure what Koei added for this release. If I just went by the back of the box they don’t make it very clear that they added some additional characters for this one. They do mention that they’ve added unique storylines per character. Unique battles for each character is obviously not possible though so you’ll be seeing the same maps over and over again. That is the Dynasty Warriors way and it works. This form of the three kingdoms period has been integrated into me over time. I’m just willing to continue to see what versions Koei will think of next no matter how similar the gameplay continues to be.

I really thought this game began with the Elric brothers fighting a bunch of thieves on a train. Turns out I was thinking of the first game while this one is about a religious cult lead by a madman who claims he has the power of the sun god. That is a false claim and it is up to Eric and Alphonse to stop his evil plans from coming to fruition. In gameplay terms that juts means you’ll be beating up a bunch of cultists while watching a sizeable amount of cutscenes. Really most of what I saw during the first 40 minutes was a bunch of talking and a small amount of punching. Makes me wonder if this follows in the footsteps of Metal Gear Solid and is mostly cutscenes.

The idea of being a ghost that can possess objects and humans is a great idea for a game. To bad Geist barely uses the idea for much of anything other than giving the player a way to shoot things. I do like the puzzle nature of figuring out what needs to be done to scare a nearby enemy to gain access to new areas. After the tutorial stage where Raimi gets turns into a ghost I somehow got confused about what I needed to do. FIgures I would overlook the object I needed to possess to continue. I kinda liked the mini puzzles like having to use a dropped grenade to beat the 2nd boss. From what I remember it never gets more complicated than that. If only they did a bit more with their premise and put a bit more time into puzzles this could have been a great game.

The perfect pack in game. Simple yet very complex if you take the time to get good at creating star pieces. But that is never been my style in most match 3 games. I leave everything up to luck as I roll the dice on whether I get big points by matching random stuff together. Works okay for me but it isn’t going to let me make it into the number one spot on the leaderboards. Although I expect that is an impossible task at this point.

I wanted more songs so why not try one of DDR’s competitors In The Groove? A bad decision on my part since I didn’t really enjoy most of the songs in this set list. Red Octane didn’t have quite as much budget leading to almost zero recognizable songs on this list. I only really know one band because of pax and that would be Mc Frontalot. Really weird to see that in this game now. Gameplay wise this feels exactly the same as DDR although I’m sure it has small variations to some of the mechanics. To bad I didn’t enjoy the songs since it would have been good to have another great setlist to dance along to at the time.

Quantic Dream’s special blend of mixing a video game and movie reaches a new height they weren’t at previously. Most noteable by the title screen which lets you know this is the start of a movie and not a game. I think this was the point where everyone either knew they were into this brand of adventure game or they thought it was just to crazy to be fun. I lean toward enjoying David Cage’s brand of lunacy but it is easy to see why it is so divisive. The fact it goes straight to the occult from the very few moments is only the beginning of a wild ride. Although a game can never deviate from the main narrative this was the first that implied some choice. Overall a strange game that at least left me interested enough to keep up with their next product.

This is the first import game I ever decided to buy. Anime smash bros sounded pretty appealing enough to import it. The combat and the deck building were simple enough that I could figure out what I needed to do without help. Although being able to read all the menus would be insanely useful. Other than a translations guide the only way I can figure out what all my comic panels do is to use them. The top screen of this game is where all the fighting happens. It is set up like smash bros where either you knock an opponent off the page or decrease their life bar. Special attacks are set up in a similar way as well with each character having a up/down/right/left special move. Meanwhile the bottom panel is where a bunch of support characters hang out and to use them the player needs to touch the comic panel. That will then activate them if you have enough special bars saved up to use them. For someone who took the time to import this I apparently never finished the main story mode. Which is just a bunch of fights with small variations on what I have to do to win. I guess it didn’t live up to my expectations.

Switching things up a bit with the addition of Karaoke to my gaming repertoire. Singing along with a song is really enjoyable. Trying to match the pitch isn’t always easy. Plus I didn’t actually know most of the lyrics to these songs before I played this for the first time. Not much to say here it is a well made karaoke game with a few DDR aspects to one of the extra modes.

The three levels of Suda are all in effect here. First the use of the hard blacks in cel shading makes this a very unique looking game. Second the plot is bonkers and is about crazy demons that like to make every explode by jumping on them. While our protagonist is a bunch of multiple personalities that all have different physical bodies. The third is the unusual control scheme that makes this game into a FPS/adventure game thing. With each area just being one linear path that must be followed. Along the way you’ll meet a bunch of weird characters as you seek to destroy the heaven smile terrorist organization. Overall a strange game that is memorable by the fact it is so unusual.

Kingdom Of Paradise is a action RPG that follows Shinbu as he tries to reform the Seiryu clan. The story begins with him learning that their clan was all destroyed other than Sui Lin who he has decided will be the next clan master with his help. Along the way they learn something has gone wrong in the world with warriors turning into mud after they beat them. Things just ramp up from here but the gameplay seems rather simple. Overtime it seems like Shinbu will learn new styles of fighting which would then let him do extra damage to other clans that have the opposite element. Fire beats metal etc. Yet it looks like he only has 1 attack although depending on the style the 3 hit combo will change visually. Looking up a bit of info about the game it looks like a chi attack is added a bit later. I remember this game being pretty good. Not very complex but I don’t remember disliking it when I first played it.

Kirby reign of unique playing games continues with Canvas Curse. Especially after the recent sequel I’ve come to appreciate how much they’ve managed to retain Kirby’s copy ability in this release. Letting the player be apart of the narrative was a great idea since you are the one helping Kirby to save the day this time. This fact lets you tap enemies to stun them which is quite vital to keeping things balanced. Sure Kirby can do a dash roll most of the time but he can be unreliable. He also retains his copy ability like being able to use beam to attack every enemy in a radius. I do like how Nintendo built in the fact you do have powers into the challenge in each level. At one point I could have kept using my beatm attack but if I did Kirby would fall into a hole. Even with those nice touches I don’t quite like how they decided to have only have 3 (not counting the final boss) bosses that you have to fight twice. Kirby’s collectathon nature continues with this release as well with so much stuff to unlock. In the end this is another well done game that makes great use of the touch screen.

This is the most generic JRPG that you could get on the PSP early on. I’m not saying that in a bad way. Everything just points to this being that kind of game. The classic style of combat is in full effect with every battle using a turn based battle system. On the other side the story has Avin get separated from his sister Eimelle early on in the prologue. Thus giving him a reason to go on a adventure with his close friend Mile. Even the graphical treatment makes it look like I’m playing a new SNES RPG. For what it is among to do this is a okay game.

The third variation on the Disgaea formula has appeared. This time a overpowered overlord named Zetta loses his netherworld and ends up being binded to a book. To reclaim what he has lost he needs the help of the oracle Pram. Laying waste to a bunch of netherworlds to power up a new army that will free Zetta from his prison is the goal. In gameplay terms this is even more of a mix of strategy RPGs than normal. It has a little Phantom Brave in the way characters can move around in a circle while having Disgaea character summoning system. I didn’t get to see any but the additions of vehicles seems to be the main new thing they added to this game. Hm I wonder if they didn’t work that well since I don’t think NIS ever used that concept again.

The Mario bros are back for another Alpha Dream adventure and this time aliens have decided to invade the mushroom kingdom. Yet only in the past back when Mario and Luigi were still babies. Leading thenew meeting the old and they team up to take back the future than was taken from them. This mainly means that the player will have 4 characters to control instead of 2 at a time. With the babies being on X/Y buttons for all their attacks. This adds a bit of extra strategy to battles. At least I think they eventually all work together in a battle. Didn’t get to see that in game but I’m assuming it happens later on. Without that it would just be another in a line of action RPG’s in this series. Still a well made but I really don’t remember much about the story other than the final boss being really tough.

I don’t want to blow your mind. Yet this is what it claims to be. It does have some features that made it a step above what came before. The most notable being that it was possible to play online. It also has a mission mode which sets up different challenges for the player to complete. Like collect so many coins or hit so many rival racers with a green shell etc. Everything else is exactly the same as most other Mario Karts with the grand prix mode being the main focus. MK8 has kinda spoiled me since I’m so used to its driving style. MK DS is the closest to it’s style of drifting although I do have to rapidly hit left and right on the dpad to charge up the boost. I much prefer not doing that but it works. In the end if I had to play a old MK this isn’t the one I would go back to.

Not very many games begin with a mini challenge room to test your skills to judge which difficulty you might be able to handle. This fact also let me see the main gameplay elements without having to go through the stealth section that this game has at the start. If you know about the Matrix then you know that this is mainly a beat em up with some gunplay. Shiny has improved the gunplay a bit by adding a lock on mechanic. Making dive rolling in slow motion look cool and actually let you hit the target you're aiming at. As for the punching part it is mostly hitting triangle a lot and sometimes hitting circle to counter. Nothing too fancy although it does look neat till the see the same animation plays out over and over again. I don’t think it comes up too often after the first section where Neo doesn’t have powers yet but this does have a few stealth sequences. They don’t feel that great and all you're doing is following the directions of Morpheus the entire time. Overall I remember the sections where the movie looked like a bad looking video game and now those same scenes are in one. They do fit in a lot better taken as a video game although the final twist is so out of left field I do not know what to think about it.

I want to like card based video games. As evident by the fact I keep buying them. This is the closest I ever got to learning and enjoying a original game based on using cards to move. Once again special ops master Solid Snake has been brought in to take down a terrorist plot to use something called Phythagoras. At first everything seems rather straightforward but in a very Metal Gear kinda way things aren’t as they seem. Especially in the gameplay department. Snake now uses cards to sneak his way through each level. At first it is only him but after a while another playable character is introduced to complicate things even more. As for the cards each one has a different use and the ability to move 3-4 spaces within 2 turns Snake gets each round. Others let him equip his trademark cardboard box or just let him shoot an enemy dead. I don’t have the patience to sneak past most of these patterns so I ended up just shooting everyone in the 2nd mission. Much easier to be sneaky if everyone is dead. Wuhahah This has all the trademarks of being a Metal Gear game between the overly complex story and the goal of being stealthy in each mission. You just have to worry about card costs and a good deck built for certain situations like boss battles.

Playing Mercenaries again reminded me that I didn’t own any open world games till now. This genre wasn’t very prominent in general but that fact will change soon. Mercenaries Playground Of Destruction lives up to the name. So many buildings will be destroyed by the time you get to the end of the game. All in an effort to stop North Korea from nuking the world. So the fact this narrative is still relevant today is somewhat depressing. At least the game is really fun. Blowing things up is great but the full package is what makes this game work. Between collecting one of the deck of 52 or the variety of missions everyone has it is pretty easy to find stuff to do. Overall this does everything you would want and it doesn’t have a ton of bugs like most open world games today.

This has to be one of Matt Rorie’s favorite games right? So many cute puppies that need to be chomped. I’m not sure if this is much of a video game though. Unless you really like looking at puppies. Time wasn’t isn’t an issue since my Shiba Inu Rose is still a puppy after 11 years of not booting this game back up. Sure it does have a few events like throwing a frisbee to see your puppy catch it for points. Most of the game is just grooming or petting your puppy. Would be nice if it was a little bit more complex but on a base level it is delightful. Just no reason to keep coming back for more after you see everything.

The fact that Bandai actually took out characters and stages just cause we weren’t caught up is an odd decision. Sure they would have been spoilers but it seems so dumb in highsight. As for the game it is based Luffy’s adventures across the seas as he seeks to be the pirate king. To do this he needs to find the greatest treasure of all One Piece. That barely even matters in game since they didn’t even try to tell a coherent storyline. Most of the fights barely even try to give a reason as to why they are fighting. At least the fighting part of this game controls well. Each character has their own unique moveset that is flashy and impressive looking when you manage to hit someone with it. Especially the ultimate attack which may just be a cutscene but it does look cool. Each fight takes place in a area and gathering up food is the way the characters charge up their special meter. The arena also has a bunch of gimmicks that can help or harm whoever gets close. Overall it isn’t a very good fighting game but it was better than nothing. Should be interesting to see if the lastest One Piece fighting game is any better than this one.

Putting out a original RPG adventure with no previous title is always tough. Brand recognition is very vital in the video game market. Which is to bad since unique games can be just as good. Radata Stories falls into the good category even today. Even now I was delighted by the perfect comedic timing they showed off during the introduction. I can’t quite convey the humor via text but I can say the fact that the voice over work was surprisingly good helped me enjoy it more. The main narrative early on is seeing Jack going from bumbling knight errant to a true warrior. He has zero skills starting off but his father was the one that saved the land in the past so he got a free pass into knighthood. I’m sure by the end some evil guy will try to destroy the world or something. Gameplay is of the action rpg variety similar to Tri Ace’s previous work. It seems to be well done and now I really want to check this game out again later.

Resident Evil finally makes the transition to a better control scheme. Ensuring this will be the kind of RE we’ll be seeing for quite a while. I may enjoy the forced perspective of the original games but you can’t say that this isn’t a massive improvement in every area other than some immersion. The additional fact that it is now possible to accurately shoot plagas enemies with the behind the back view was mind blowing at the time. Bringing back Leon was a stroke a genius at least for me since he was my favorite RE protagonist. Although I guess he became my favorite one after I finished this game ha. Oh adding in a new threat in the form of the plagas parasite enemies was a great idea too. Zombies were getting kinda tiring after 3 RE games. The thing I remember the most about this game is the first area since I had the demo for a while. I replayed it a lot and was pretty surprised when the chainsaw guy really sawed off Leon’s head the first time. For some reason I just wasn’t expecting it on my first death. A great game in every way and it continues to be a fun game to play.

A lot has changed since the last ROTK game. For one this one actually has a bunch of quests you can do that lead to duels and other things you might not see often. Thus expanding the variety of stuff you’ll see in one playthrough. Going by the back of the box Koei also added intelligence duels where you have to talk your opponent off a bridge with the power of words. Pretty silly but it does give smart officers something else to do. In general this is just more things to do in the world of the three kingdoms.

Phoenix Wright might just be the best defence attorney ever. As proven by this first game although his victories are almost always obtained with a little help from his friends. Half the battle is creating a cast of likeable characters and the translators at Capcom did their job well. Unless you really hate names that are puns (Wright is always right after all.) each character is likeable in their own unique way. While the gameplay will test your logical skills by putting together a acceptable defense for a defendant that always seems to get framed by some despicable villain. Which means you need to present the correct evidence that contradicts whatever the witness is saying. I should note this is the second game that I ended up importing. Knowing just the premise was good enough for me to pick it up a few weeks early. With my lack of Japanese knowledge I wouldn’t be able to read anything so it was great that this was one of the very few Japanese games that had english. I just wish they continued that trend to this day.

Uh yeah other than the obvious addition of both evil teams being in the storyline of this Pokemon game I don’t know about any of the little changes they made to it. This was about the time I got tired of the Pokemon formula even though I will continue to keep up with it. Nothing wrong with it at all since it is still a well put together game like always. Some of the story elements they added with this release were neat. Like having the player character's father be the final gym leader you must face was a fitting final gym battle. I’m pretty sure the rival evil gang storyline was pretty good too. Oh well more Pokemon was all the reason I needed to keep playing this series to this day it seems.

Popolocrois has a very distinct art style that makes it stand out from other pixel RPG’s. It looks like it has been hand animated instead of a bunch of pixels put together. The story has a charm to it for being rather straightforward at first. Which is thanks to the cast of characters prince Pierre meets along the way to saving his mother. Other than the first act the best thing about Popolocrois is that it has two games in one. Although you wouldn’t be able to tell that without knowing about the Japan releases that never came out here. Overall this isn’t a hard RPG to play through but I’ve never really enjoyed a game like this for the difficulty. I’m all about seeing the next story point and all the battling is just what I have to do to see it.

According to Square Enix the one thing Brave Fencer Musashi was missing was surf rock. Which is fine and certainly a unique way for them to go with the soundtrack. Although it only kicks in sometimes with most of the music being generic fantasy sounding themes. I do like the simple combo systems in action RPG’s. A light and heavy attack is all I really need in my action game hah. It also keeps the duplication aspect of Musashi’s sword from the previous game so he can absorb new skills from enemies. My memories of this game were that it ends unexpectedly and that it was a short game. Looking at it now it seems fine but nothing special other than it looks nice visually.

The world has gotten a little bit edgier than before after the release of Shadow The hedgehog. I hate to admit this but I rather enjoyed my time with this game when it was first released. It continued the storyline from Sonic Adventure 2 so I was willing to jump back in even with the new edgy tone. Do Hedgehogs need guns? This game answers that questions will an obvious answer of no. Shooting stuff is left up to a auto lock on and most of the time Shadow doesn’t even have a gun thanks to the limited amount of ammo. Making most of the game play like I’m still playing SA2 which is a good thing. The way Sega set up the varitible mission structure by if the player decides to be good/neutral/evil was a kinda a good idea. Too bad some missions require killing every enemy in the level. Which can lead to missing one and then running back through the entire level just to find one guy. A lack of unique bosses is a problem too. At best you’ll see variation on 5 different bosses multiple times over many playthroughs. Although I doubt anyone took the time to get every ending like me. So in the end I know this is a bad game and I wish it was better.

For a movie tie in this is a better than average game. I would even suggest this is a good beat em up. Other than slicing up an army of droids the boss battles were always the stand out sections. The fighting system is complex enough that it makes them feel like a super simple fighting game. All of the different force powers give the player plenty of different ways to deal with whatever stands in their way. Picking up and throwing a droid around is pretty useful in combat. Plus having the ability to heal whenever is always nice. I’m sure the fact this is based on the best movie in the prequel trilogy doesn’t hurt either. Overall this had what I wanted to see when it was first released and even today it is still enjoyable.

The amount of extra stuff in Tekken 5 is somewhat crazy. Right from when you boot the game it starts off with a polygonal shooter called Star Blade. I had thought Namco had stop putting games into loading screens by now but I would be wrong apparently. Also Tekken 1-3 are all playable in their arcade forms. Which would sadly be missing the silly CGI endings but still a nice bonus. Then finally the Devil Within is a beat em up starring Jin who is trying to control his devil genes. Oh Tekken 5 is apart of this package as well. Still easy to pull off juggle combos even when I sorta don’t know what I’m doing other than mashing on a button for a bit. It looks quite nice even after all this time too. Now that I’ve seen all that this game has to offer I might consider it one of the best Tekken games on the fact it has so much stuff packed in it.

The good and the bad parts of Underground 2 have been faithfully ported to the PSP. Additional characters and level make this an even better game than before. Having the full console experience on the go was good at the time. Plus Tony Hawk is almost made for on the go with all the small challenges that could be competed within a few minutes. To bad the story they went with had Bam Margera's “special” brand of humor. At least it does give the game a lot of personality even if I don’t like it. Plus I don’t even have to interact with it if I decide to play through the game in classic mode which is set up like the older Tony Hawk games. Nothing has changed control wise and the visuals are a downgrade compared to the PS2 version. Yet overall finally having access to this style of gameplay on the go makes up any misgivings I have with its flaws.

This is a classic point and click adventure game that makes use of the touch pad to give a bit more depth to the puzzles. The entire game revolves around two mysteries that must be solved. Our heroine has quite the tragic past going by the intro both her father and mother were shot. Turns out Ashley’s father wasn’t quite dead and now she has come to Blood Edward Island to finally meet him again 10 years later. To bad something has gone wrong and the only being she meets on the island is D who happens to be a ghost. Turns out her forgotten memories are linked to D in some way and so together they must solve all the puzzles on the island to reclaim their memories. I didn’t see anything complex in the intro but it looks like the touch screen will be used to put together signs to reveal a clue or even something basic as turning a crank. From what I’ve seen today it seems more than compelling enough to be worth checking out if you’ve never played it before and like adventure games.

Trauma Center once again proves that mini games set in a original setting can be more immersive. I’m pretty sure I could count on one of my hands the very few times a doctor has been the focus of a game. Which is unfortunate since it is done so well here. Dr Stiles is a rookie surgeon who must step up his game as his patients just keep getting worse. After hitting a critical point where he had to literally defuse a bomb things just ramping up with a deadly virus outbreak. Plus only he has the healing touch to stop it. Most of the mini games are just doing things a real surgeon would just in a video gamey way. Pull out glass, use antipoetic on wound and sew it back up after you finish. It has quite a few different tasks that I won’t go into. Just know that it all comes together well and it is no easy task to compete some of the final operations. They really test the speed and accuracy of your ability to use the touch screen on the DS.

Twisted Metal works a lot better as a portable title. Also it doesn’t hurt by this point they let me use X as gas instead of the dpad. Although the controls in general are a lot better than the first game. The different cars no longer feel like they are all tanks. I’m guessing the sense of speed helps out a lot. I always thought of this game as a greatest hits package level wise although I do think every level is new. The settings of some of them have been reused from older games though. The reason I might think this reuses old stuff is that this really fits the tone of Twisted Metal. Between Calypso being over the top and everyone getting a twisted ending it really recaptures the campy charm of the first game. If you’ve never played TM this might be the best place to start.

Looks like this game has the improved web slinging from the previous Spider Man game. It’s hard to convey why realistic web slinging is better but it does look a lot better whenever he swings around. In general this game just takes everything they made before and puts it into the Ultimate Spider Man universe. The fact they decided to use cel shading is just a nice bonus. This also has a dual perspective between Spiderman and Venom. They both control the same with Venom having some beefier looking attacks. As for the gameplay it is the standard beat em up formula. It does have some open world elements but it isn’t anymore more than busy work like collect tokens or a random mini event where the cops are in trouble.

A bunch of super short mini games worked so well last time Nintendo had to follow it up with WarioWare Touched. Now instead of using buttons it is all about the touch pad and sometimes the microphone. The randomness of what might happen next is in full effect here. Nintendo put a lot more time into introducing each character with a well animated cutscene. It was almost 5 minutes just for Mona’s introduction. I rather enjoyed these intros/outros in the first game so I’m glad they put more time into them. All of the new micro games are good and keeping up with the speed at which they expect me to compete them is tough. Yet that is why this format works so well. Gotta keep trying till you’ve mastered all the games enough to get a high score.

Conclusion

I conclude that import games are great when you don’t need to know what is being said. To bad my interest in importing came at the end of a era. At best each year from now on would have 1-2 games worth taking the time to import. After all just about everything comes out over here now. Also it is pretty apparent how much the video game industry has continued to rely on sequels. So many of these games are older franchises that just kept coming back. Hey it must work because I keep buying them. Tune in next time to see a game that proved that motion controls could work. Along with one of the best music games on the Nintendo DS.