Top Ten Games of 2011

Every year I play a lot of video games and it's easy to forget some of them. In order to combat this I always create a list of what I believe to be the ten best games of the year (In my opinion). Below I will list the games I liked the best this year starting from ten and working my way down to one.

10. Catherine 

Catherine isn't as good as I wanted it to be, but I still enjoyed it. I was more concerned with the story than the sometimes tediously frustrating block moving puzzles. The puzzles were okay, but after a certain point I didn't want to do them anymore. With that said the story of Catherine was very adult oriented, which doesn't happen much in video games. Catherine may not have been one of the best games ever made, but I will certainly remember it.

9. Disgaea 4

Disgaea 4 is ridiculous. The same level grinding madness returns with loads of new features. The story of Disgaea 4 wasn't very good, but I still enjoyed it quite a bit. I played this game a TON this year, so it's only natural that it would make this list.

8. Mortal Kombat (9) 

Mortal Kombat returned to the video game scene with a vengeance. Juggle based combos paired with brutally violent visuals are what Mortal Kombat is all about. The fighting stands on its own, but the excellent story mode sets a high bar for stories in fighting games.

7. Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3

Capcom listened to the pleas of its fans and released Marvel Vs. Capcom 3. The fast paced fighting and wide variety of characters make this an excellent fighter. Capcom made the poor choice of releasing Ultimate in the same year as the original, but it's still a better version of the game.

6. Yakuza 4

Yakuza 4 is the most complete Yakuza game to make it to America so far. More than that it offers a wider variation in gameplay than the other games in the series. Playing as keriyu is cool, but it was nice to play as three other characters who all felt unique.

5. Pokemon Black/White

It's 2011 and Pokemon is still awesome. Nintendo can keep cranking these games out until the end of time and I will love them. The turn based RPGs will continue to live on as long as Nintendo keeps Pokemon alive, and that makes me happy.

4. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Naughty Dog made another great third person shooter filled with amazing action set pieces. While Uncharted 3 may not top Uncharted 2 it is certainly on the same level. I liked that Naughty Dog tried to bring out the backgrounds of its characters. At the end I was left wanting more, so I hope the Uncharted series continues.

3. Batman: Arkham City

Arkham Asylum was great and Rocksteady made another great Batman game with Arkham City. While I think that Arkham Asylum was a better game I still had a ton of fun beating down thugs and flying around in Arkham City.

2. Bastion

I was pleasantly surprised by Bastion. I never thought that a download only game would make a large impact on me, but Bastion proved me wrong. The great music, narration, art style, and gratifying combat combine to make one of the best games in 2011.

1. Skyrim

I have done almost everything there is to do in Skyrim, except the main quest line. My save clocks in at around 60 hours, and I am still eager to play more of this game. Even with how broken Skyrim has been for the PS3 it is still my game of the year for 2011.

     -Manny

Review of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3

This review is based on my experience with the PS3 version of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

Score: 3/5

Last February Capcom answered the prayers of their fans and released Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Now it’s nine months later and Capcom has released Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. It’s easy to see why they would push out a new version of the game so fast, but it’s just as easy to think of reasons why they shouldn’t have. The Marvel vs. Capcom series is well known for its over the top action and Ultimate MvC 3 follows in grand fashion.

Ultimate MvC3 plays almost exactly the same as original MvC3. You choose three characters and then you proceed to beat the living crap out of your opponent. There are three attack buttons, which correspond to light, medium, and heavy attacks. In place of the fourth attack button that’s standard for most fighting games MvC3 adds a launch button. If you tap the shoulder buttons the characters you’re not using will come in for an assist attack, but if you hold them you can switch which character you’re playing. In an attempt to make the game even more accessible Capcom added a super mode called X-Factor. If you push all four buttons your characters will glow red, gain speed, and receive a large damage boost. Well timed X-Factor usage can completely turn around a match.

Full screen attacks like this are common in Marvel Vs. Capcom.

The simplified gameplay has deterred some hardcore fighting game fans from picking up on Marvel vs. Capcom 3. The skepticism is warranted, but it couldn’t be farther from the truth.  While it’s easier to pick up on than most other fighting games there is no shortage of high level gameplay. It’s easy enough to pick up on the basics, but if you want to get good you need to learn all the advanced techniques. Just like every other fighting game it takes a great deal of time and effort to get “good”. MvC3 is an excellent fighting game that’s easy to pick up. If you haven’t picked it up, then Ultimate MvC 3 is easy to recommend.

If you already own original MvC3 you’re most likely concerned with the things Ultimate adds and changes. Like most fighting game iterations Ultimate MvC3 adds new characters, stages, balance changes, and small changes to the basic mechanics. The balance changes of the old characters work well, and some characters seem completely new because of it. New characters are the reason most people will be interested in Ultimate. The game adds twelve new characters to the already robust roster of the original game. Capcom did a good job with making each character feel unique. It’s easy to see that there was a great deal of time and effort that went into the new characters, but it’s a shame that the same sense of care didn’t go into the rest of the game.

Phoenix Wright is one of the fan favorites added to the game.

The changes to the game mechanics are basic and people who aren’t deep into MvC3 probably won’t care very much. X-Factor can now be used in the air, which makes air combos even crazier than they were before. X-Factor was thought to be overpowered, so Capcom changed it for this game. It lasts for a shorter amount of time, but the attack boost it grants still seems like a bit much to me. The HUD has been overhauled and stands out a bit more on the screen.

Other than new characters and stages there is very little new content to Ultimate MvC3. The arcade mode is still pretty much useless. You fight through six stages until you fight Galactus, the oversized final boss. The payoff is a terrible ending for the character who hit Galactus last. They consist of two or three pictures with text boxes. They are almost all terrible, so it’s not even worth playing through arcade mode unless you want to practice your skills on halfway decent AI. The twelve new characters all get their own endings. I was upset to find out that all of the characters from the previous game do not get new endings. The effort that went into creating the endings seems like it was minimal, so it seems crazy that they wouldn’t make new ones for the old characters.

If you spend enough time to beat arcade mode
you can see terrible pictures like this one!

The only mode that received worthwhile changes is the online mode. In the original version of the game it was almost impossible to find a match. To make matters worse you would get booted to the main menu whenever the game couldn’t find a match. The net code in Ultimate MvC3 is vastly improved from its predecessor. Finding matches is extremely easy, and the game is good about matching you up with people near your skill level with good connections. Online play still hitches up a bit, but that’s the way online games go these days. The ability to watch matches online is a much welcomed addition as well, but it should have been in MvC3 in the first place.

There are a few things about MvC3 that shouldn’t happen, but they do. I played the PS3 version of this game, so that may be the source of the problem. Upon starting the game a dialogue box pops up asking if you want to search for new DLC. When you say no the game says that it’s updating your player data. There should be absolutely no player data to update before the game has even been played. This problem happens all the time. Every time you go back to the main menu the game will update your player data, which takes an excruciating amount of time. On its own that wouldn’t be a big deal, but the game saves immediately following the player data update. When the game is saving you can’t move around the menu and the game is more or less frozen. Ultimate MvC3 has a mandatory install on the PS3, so load times like this are inexcusable, especially for the second iteration of a game.

The huge character roster in Marvel Vs. Capcom 3
is one of its drawing points.

Ultimate MvC3 is a great game. It’s a slightly improved version of MvC3 with more characters. I feel as if Capcom could have waited a bit longer to release the game to fix some of the problems and add more content. Before the games release they announced a free post release DLC mode called Heroes and Heralds. It’s an excellent mode, but it was released a month after the games initial release, so I can’t factor its inclusion into a review of the game. Since Ultimate comes not even a full year after its predecessor I can’t comprehend why they wouldn’t hold it back a month in order to tighten everything up a bit and include Heroes and Heralds.

If you didn’t like Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, then you won’t like Ultimate either. Ultimate is made specifically for people who are avid fans of the first game who are hungering for any new content whatsoever and people who play fighting games extremely seriously. If you have MvC3, but don’t really care about the changes then Ultimate is a hard sell. However, if you don’t have MvC3 then Ultimate is a great value at forty dollars.

Note: This review is also posted on Giantbomb.com

     -Manny

The Wii Motion Plus Problem

The Wii Motion Plus is a ridiculous concept to me. It's an add-on for the Wii Remote that adds more fidelity to the Wii Remote's motion capabilities. You hook the tiny box onto the bottom of the Wii Remote in order to enjoy the type of motion control the Wii originally promised. I never picked up a Wii Motion Plus add-on, because I had no desire to pay twenty dollars for it, and there were absolutely no games I wanted that supported it.

The stupid looking box at the bottom makes the
Wii's motion how it should have been in the first place

     

Nintendo is well known for releasing ridiculous peripherals that don't work out as planned and the Wii Motion Plus is one of them. It was released too late in the Wii's life to make any kind of difference. The magic of Motion controls had already worn off by the time the add on was released in June of 2009. Nintendo could have tried to push the Motion Plus, but they didn't. It is now 2011 and there are only four retail games that require Wii Motion Plus, and Twenty eight more games that have the option of using it.

     

There's only one of those games that's even worth playing to me. In November of 2011 Nintendo released Zelda: The Skyward Sword. It require Wii Motion Plus, and it's the first game I want to play that has anything to do with the add-on. The Motion Plus allows for 1-to-1 motion between the Wii Remote and Link's Sword in Game. I've always been a huge Zelda fan, which is why I want to play this game. In an attempt to try and save money this year I asked for Skyward Sword as a Christmas Gift. I didn't ask for a Wii Motion Plus, because I figured I could buy it on my own.

     

Much to my chagrin Nintendo has discontinued their Wii Motion Plus add-on. Now they only sell Wii-Remotes that have the add-on built in. The last thing I want to do is buy a new Wii Remote when the Wii is on its way out. Nintendo has made it clear that Skyward Sword will be the Wii's last major first party release. They're much more concerned with the Wii U. Wii Remotes with the built in add-on are going for thirty-five dollars on Amazon, but I opted to buy the discontinued add-on for twenty-five dollars instead. It won't arrive for at least five days after Christmas, which means I'll have to wait a bit before I can play Skyward Sword.

     

Nintendo has a history of doing this kind of thing and I'm getting sick of it. The new circle pad for the 3DS, is even more outrageous than the Motion Plus. I payed two-hundred-fifty dollars for a 3DS and then the price dropped. Now I feel like I got an unfinished handheld, because Nintendo is adding two extra shoulder buttons and a second analog stick. These moves are making it increasingly clear that Nintendo is falling behind the times. There are other places for gamers to turn and things like this could eventually become a problem for Nintendo.

     -Manny

     

Bastion Review

This review is based on my experience with the PC Version of Bastion

Score: 5/5

Bastion is an action RPG developed by the newly formed Supergiant Games. What immediately sets Bastion apart is the fact that the entire game is narrated dynamically. Almost every action you make will be commented on by the smooth voiced narrator known as "The Stranger". The idea of an ever present narrator has the potential to turn sour, but Bastion pulls it off brilliantly. The unique narration, beautiful hand drawn graphics, moving music, interesting story, and fast paced gameplay combine to make Bastion one of the best download only games available.

In Bastion you play as The Kid who is one of the survivors of what is referred to as the calamity. He finds himself in a safe haven, not surprisingly called The Bastion. It's been badly damaged by the calamity and needs to be repaired. Your job is to find cores that can rebuild it. In order to collect the cores you'll need to visit new areas and fight through hordes of monsters. Along the way you'll gain experience, money, and 
items.

The Kid wakes up not knowing what happened.

Initially the combat system seems shallow and easy, but that judgment quickly fades away. There are numerous enemy types in Bastion and they're coming at you almost constantly. In order to tackle the varied enemy types The Kid is equipped with a wide variety of weapons. At first you'll only have two weapons to choose from, but that arsenal grows at a rapid rate. There are melee and ranged weapons, but most melee weapons also have a ranged attack. With melee weapons you just mash the button to cut your opponent. With ranged strikes you hold down a button and release when you're ready to attack. If you release when kid is glowing green you will pull of a critical hit. You can equip two weapons at once, which allows for you to deal with various situations.

In the beginning its easy enough to hack at your enemies or shoot them down, but the difficulty ramps up quickly. This is where the dodge roll and shield come in handy. The dodge roll allows The Kid to move around quickly to escape situations. The shield blocks almost all damage when its out. If you put it up right before taking a hit  The Kid will counter the enemy attack to damage them. The timing is hard to master, but it's certainly worth it on later levels. In addition to these defensive moves The Kid can equip various combat abilities. These can be anything from frag grenades to creating friendly monsters.

Enemies come at The Kid fast and furious.

Bastion's combat system is all about choice and playing the way you want. The wide variety of weapons allows for many different play styles. This may be why I never found myself becoming frustrated with the combat. It helps that health is never really an issue, because you carry healing potions with you and they are easily restocked. While the enemies do get stronger as the game goes on, so do you. There are numerous materials to collect that can be used to upgrade weapons. This is another instance where choice comes in. Each level of a weapon makes you choose between one benefit or another and it all depends on how you want to play. The upgrades can easily be switched, which is a nice bonus.

When he's not defeating enemies to get a core, The Kid is in The Bastion. Returning a core to The Bastion allows for the placement of a new building. These allow for The Kid to switch and upgrade weapons, or upgrade his own stats. There are a few more acquired later in the game that relate to challenges.

Collect cores to rebuild the Bastion.

The final piece of the puzzle is the narrator. He's constantly involved with everything I've described so far. He never repeats himself and almost everything he does flushes out the world that Bastion takes place in. Paired with the mellow music and the hand drawn visuals the narrator helps to make Bastion's world feel unique.

I would highly recommend Bastion to anyone. The story took me around six hours to complete, but the game still has much more to offer. There are numerous in game challenges and a new game plus that make it worth going through at least twice, if not more. Words don't really do Bastion any justice. It's one thing to hear me describe it, but it's a whole different thing to experience it for yourself. The PC version of the game has a demo, which is a good way to get a taste of what it's all about. Supergiant Games hit it out of the park with their first release and I hope to see more of the same from them in the future.

Note: I have also posted this review on Giantbomb.com

     -Manny

10 Years of Melee

This year, more than most other years I have been noticing that a lot of Iconic game franchises are celebrating their 10 and 20 year anniversaries. The first two that pop into my mind are Sonic, and the Jak and Daxter franchise. These anniversaries have been notable because major game journalism outlets and the game companies themselves have been making a big deal out of it. This prompted me to start thinking about other franchises or games that are having their ten year anniversaries. After a bit of searching I came across the fact that one of my favorite games ever is having its tenth anniversary today!

That's right! Today Friday December 2nd, 2011 is the tenth anniversary of Super Smash Brothers Melee. It's crazy to think that I've been playing this game for close to half of my life. Sadly I do not have my Gamecube memory card with me at the moment, but I am confident in saying that I've put more hours into Melee that any other video game. I played Melee so much that my controllers would break from too much use. I'm not normally a huge fan of multiplayer video games, but there is something about Melee and the Super Smash Brothers franchise in general that's grabbed hold of me and refused to let go.

The original Super Smash Brothers came out in 1999. When I first heard about it I was nine years old and my mind almost exploded. The fact that all of my favorite Nintendo characters could fight each other was a ridiculous concept. I didn't have a Nintendo 64 in 99', but I made sure to play Super Smash whenever I could. Two of my friends had the game and we would get together and play all the time. Characters and items would fly all over the screen creating a blissfully chaotic experience, which we loved. My go to character in the original was Kirby and I was ridiculously good with him. I haven't played the original much since 99', but it's my understanding that Kirby was pretty overpowered. For some reason I don't personally own an original Super Smash Brothers cartridge. They're fairly cheap now, so  might have to pick one up.

When Melee was released in 2001 I didn't have a Gamecube. Only one of my friends did and I would be at his house almost every single weekend to get in as much Melee as I could. Melee improved upon the original Super Smash Brothers in almost every way (Some may disagree with me on this). There were exponentially more characters, stages, and items. They even added a story mode, and trophy collecting. Melee was the ultimate Nintendo fan-service experience. 

The Summer of 2001 I received a Gamecube for my birthday. I didn't get Melee immediately, but when I did I played it all the time. At first I would play with my younger brother. I was a lot better than him so we'd mess around a whole lot. I didn't use Kirby as my main anymore, because I didn't like him as much. Melee was a much faster game than the original and Kirby didn't pack as much of a punch. During my first few years of Melee I mainly played as Ganondorf and Fox. One day when I was messing with my brother I bet him that I could beat him with Princess Peach, who I had only been a handful of times. I ended up crushing him and finding out that I wanted to use Peach all the time.

From that point on I got a lot more serious with Melee. I practiced with Peach all the time. Lucky for me a few of my friends got deep into Melee at the same time. We'd often turn off all the items so we could fight with our pure gaming skill. I move from game to game quickly, so I don't really linger on one long enough to get super good at it. Melee was a different story. I practiced for years and never seemed to get bored. I even entered a tournament at my local mall when the sequel Super Smash Brothers Brawl was released for the Wii.

I liked Brawl well enough, but it'll never be as good as Melee to me. Brawl was much more floaty and not as fast as Melee. I'm not necessarily saying that Melee is one of the best games ever made, but it's certainly one of my favorites. When I play Melee I genuinely have fun and I'll always remember it fondly for that. There's something special about the extreme chaos that the game has to offer.

Happy Tenth Birthday Melee!

     -Manny