Rainbow Six: Vegas

November 16, 2006 – Hanging upside down outside the unlicensed Stratosphere casino called “Vertical Spire,” a thousand feet above the neon Strip, your silenced 92FS pistol aimed at the head of an unsuspecting terrorist, one thought creeps into your mind.

“Hey, that’s the Bellagio!”

Yes, across the Strip the fountains of the sprawling casino resort continue their magical light dance, comfortably oblivious to the terrorists that have taken over Sin City. As Logan Keller, you don’t have that luxury. With a quick order to Team Rainbow, your squad breaches the tower restaurant, exploding through the glass windows in an expertly-timed assault, just as you squeeze the trigger.

Vegas, baby.

Team Rainbow’s newest mission finds the team at arms with Irena Morales, a Mexican terrorist that is smuggling bad guys across the border into the States. Intel puts her in the small border town of San Joshua del Mosquiera. In Mexico, Six learns that a major assault is being planned in Las Vegas. We’ll leave the rest of the story to you, but take note that there is a decent storyline in place, and that Ubisoft’s latest effort is setting the stage for future entries along the same storyline. We’re hoping Ubisoft goes with a more exotic locale than Rainbow Six: Carson City or Rainbow Six: Reno, but we’ll have to wait and see. Either way, it’s clear that the Rainbow Six franchise is back as a premier tactical shooter.

The pretty fountain!

For a while, it looked as if Rainbow Six was in danger of losing its identity, thanks to screaming message boards proclaiming, “It’s too hard,” “It’s too slow,” and “I want an energy sword.” The result was 2005’s Rainbow Six Lockdown, a run-and-gun arcade game take that would make Tom Clancy blush. With Ubisoft Montreal back at the helm, Rainbow has been reined in to pay homage to its roots — squad-based combat with a healthy dose of slow and deliberate room-clearing tactics. At the same time, Vegas has been infused with some new, more mainstream elements like a regenerating health system, streamlined controls and open, sprawling environments. The result is the most accessible and among the most satisfying Rainbow Six titles yet — a treat for former Delta Force operatives and acne-ridden Halo gamers alike. If only there were more strippers.

What Vegas lacks in lap-dances though, it makes up for in hard-as-nails realism. Like every Tom Clancy title, Rainbow Six is Clancy-proofed, meaning that every weapon is accurate in appearance, reload time and recoil. If the Glock 18 can’t be customized with a silencer, then by God the Glock 18 won’t be customized with a silencer. Even on the outfitting screen, the weapons look exactly like their real-life counterparts. We know because we googled.

Vegas is our second favorite insertion point.

And the weapon selection is diverse, featuring a number of assault rifles, submachine guns, shotguns, machine guns and pistols. If you are low on ammo, go ahead and pry an AK-47 from the cold, dead hands of an enemy. You are able to carry two large weapons or one large weapon and a bulletproof shield, which is another great way to play the game. Along with those slots, you can carry a pistol and two gadgets, such as frag grenades, C4 explosives, non-lethal flashbangs or smoke grenades to mask your movement. And again, every weapon is accurately modeled, every blast radius is right on, and every bullet is deadly.

In the field, the focus on realism means that Keller and the rest of Team Rainbow can only take a few bullets before the blood-red Game Over screen pops up. And even then, a single head shot or well-placed blast from a SPAS 12 will put you on the floor. A regenerating health system allows for some breathing room.

Regenerating health system? Now before you get your Kevlar assault panties in a bunch, know that Ubisoft did not throw an overshield on its operatives. You will still die, and die plenty, so much so that inexperienced players will find even the normal difficulty setting too challenging. And the Realistic setting? Fuhgetaboutit. A bullet or two is enough to take you out. When you do take a bullet to the arm or the leg, your vision is blurred, the screen goes dark red, and all you can manage to do is move away from enemy, fire and take cover, and pray. If you manage to escape harm and take cover, your health will slowly recover. Compared to an energy bar, this health system keeps the action flowing while retaining a high level of difficulty.

The core of Rainbow gameplay has always been squad-based. In Vegas, your team is down a man as you will command only two teammates instead of three, like in previous games. There are no individual orders either. New team members Walter and Park, fresh out of training at Camp Pendleton, move together and are tied at the hip. Controlling your team is simpler than ever. Simply aim and click A and so goes your squad. Aim at a door and they will prepare to clear the room, taking proper position and reloading their weapons. Aim at a bomb and they will defuse it. Aim at a rope and they will rappel. You can also plug in a headset and give simple voice commands to your team, which it will dutifully follow.

This simple control scheme is a welcome addition in the more open environments — you’ll shoot it out in a Mexican train yard, on casino gambling floors, outside on the Strip, and on the Hoover Dam. As such, you’ll need to move your team quickly to cover your flanks while you work for a good position.

And positioning is really what Vegas is all about, thanks to an excellent new cover system. By holding down the Left Trigger, you will switch to a third-person view and duck behind cover, be it a slot machine, an Axe Body Spray sign or a bombed out Dodge Durango (product placement, you see.) While in cover, you can still aim and safely blind-fire. Among the greatest moves in the game is placing your reticule on an enemy face, popping out from cover for a split second, firing a single, brain-splattering round, and sliding back into cover. By pushing up on the stick, you can pop out above cover. By hitting left or right, you can pop out to the side. The system is, quite simply, the best use of cover in any shooter, more intuitive and smoother than even Gears of War. From a doorway, you can pop out, check that the room is clear, and then actually bend all the way around the wall — you have 360 degrees of movement. By letting go of the left-trigger, you swing right back into first person.

The solid snake cam.

Going back and playing other FPSs just isn’t the same anymore. When I duck behind a corner, I don’t want to stare at a poorly-textured wall before strafing out into the open. I want to peak around the corner, line up a shot, and shoot things. The only downside to the cover system is that Ubisoft found your squad to get a little crowded at times, so the fourth member of Team Rainbow was removed to make room.

Rappelling is another excellent gameplay touch. Be it from the roof of a Mexican church or a giant Vegas casino, having the ability to breach through windows adds yet another option when you clear rooms. By flipping upside down on the rope, you can creep down for a quick peek, do a little recon, let your team know where the bad guys are hiding, and order them in. Or you can go silent and pick off a few tangos before they know where you are. In any given situation, you always have a number of options for how you want to breach a room. Do you split the team up or stay together? Do you frag and clear? Do you use flashbangs so as to not endanger a hostage? Or do you go in guns blazing? (No).

Inverted rappeling and thermal goggles: deadly combo.

The options are there, and after a few deaths, Vegas will feel like a trial and error game, but in a good way. That’s to say that you died because you didn’t follow proper procedure — you either ordered your squad into a bad position or you didn’t cover your flank or you were simply outgunned. Patient Rainbow players already know that a bit of recon work and a well-timed breach are the keys to success. You have the option of switching the rules of engagement from weapons-free to infiltration, which means your squad will only fire when fired upon. This gives you time to get into position and issue the order that every terrorist fears: “Go! Go! Go!”

Thankfully, you have the snake cam at your disposal, with which you can look under doors to scout a location. You can also hit the back button to tag tangos, which tells your team who to kill first.

Enemy AI is solid but shows occasional stupidity. Terrorists will try to flank you, will throw grenades at every opportunity, will hide behind cover, and have very good aim. When I use the shield, I will sometimes walk while crouched straight up to an enemy, and he will fire right into my shield with his machine gun. While crouched, only my bullet arm is exposed to an enemy in front of me, but this guy still managed to hit nothing but shield. Then he reloaded and did it all again.

The story mode lasts about 10 hours the first time through, mostly because Vegas is tough. You can also play cooperatively online with up to four players, which is among the most enjoyable co-op experiences out there. Imagine coordinating over your headset with three friends. Who is going to rappel through the north window? Who’s going through the main entrance? Who’s throwing the flashbang? And when it’s all said and done, you countdown “Three, two, one,” and go. Awesome.

You can also play through a number of maps in a Terrorist Hunt. Basically, there are 50 terrorists out to get you, and your mission is successful when each one is pushing up daisies.

Versus multiplayer has always been a strength of Rainbow Six, and that doesn’t change here. The game comes with 10 huge maps suited for 16 players, including a casino, a Mexican Village, the Hoover Dam and some classic maps like The Streets. Game modes include Sharpshooter, Survival, Team Sharpshooter, Team Survival, Retrieval, and Attack and Defend. The team modes are especially fun because you have to work together to succeed. In the new mode, Attack and Defend, one team has to recover a package and reach an extraction point. Well let’s say that briefcase is tucked away inside a heavily-guarded casino vault. A few guys will have to toss in a bunch of grenades and assault from the front. Others will flank around the back. And one sneaky fella with his eyes on the prize will go for the grab. Finally, the entire team will try to clear a path to the extraction point. This makes for excellent multiplayer, pure and simple.

RPG! RPG!

Online, you also customize your character using the Persistent Elite Creation tool that allows you to unlock different clothing, armor and weapon choices and trick-out your antiterrorist. You can even use the Xbox Live Vision Camera to import your own ugly mug onto your character, and the tool works very well.

Visually, Vegas is a bit washed out and fuzzy, although the game still looks great. The environments are nicely detailed, featuring exploding slot machines and food in the kitchen. From the chopper, you can spot most of the Sin City’s largest casinos, like Paris and the Mirage. The animations look great, especially when your team clears a room or crashes through a window. The blood effects are excellent, and you’ll dynamically spray terrorist guts all over the city.

The sound is wonderful, with a pulsating soundtrack straight out of an episode of 24. The dialogue is especially well done, including gritty lines from your squad like, “Get on your knees! I will f***ing shoot you!” The terrorists offer their own quips. Sometimes you’ll shoot a guy and his friend will say, “He’s dead? Sh**! That bitch owed me money!” There’s also a hilarious debate on videogames that a few terrorists will engage in while you spy on them with the snake cam. The gunfire effects are dead on, and the explosions rattle the entire area, as they should.

Map your ugly mug with the Vision Camera.

Closing Comments
Rainbow Six: Vegas returns to form as an excellent tactical shooter, but is much more accessible for the average shooter fan with streamlined controls and a simple health system. The sprawling levels like the glowing Fremont Street or the Hoover Dam open up Rainbow like it’s never been before, and the result is a balanced shooter that is as much close-quarter combat as long-range head shots. The new gameplay mechanics, notably the intuitive cover system and inverted rappelling, are simply outstanding. While the visuals are solid, the textures and colors are muted and appear washed out. The sound, on the other hand, fuses a pulsing anti-terrorist soundtrack with gritty dialogue — “I will f***ing shoot you!” — and even some humor — “Hey man, you play videogames?” The multiplayer options feature huge, well-designed maps, a variety of modes and four-player co-op. In total, Rainbow Six: Vegas is the best first-person shooter on the Xbox 360. Viva Las Vegas indeed.

Source: http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/745/745678p3.html

My few comments on this game is great fun, when teamed with a good friend and take multiple entries into a single room while dodging and returning fire, is just an overwhelming fun and great success. This game can hold up to 4 players at a time on split screen and online play (which I think the online play was greatly a failure compared to the single player) , and tends to attain more of its greatness when you have a friend nearby to push the game out. It is definitely worth getting, with friends or not.

Guitar Hero III: Legends Of Rock (Xbox 360)

A small, hardworking outfit enjoys modest but respectable success, until one day when their latest effort unexpectedly explodes on the scene, lights up the charts, and everyone makes it big. But then there’s a fight about money, and in comes another agent promising even more riches and adoring fans. A bitter public breakup follows, and the members go their separate ways — on to new, competing projects.

Hopefully, one day we’ll get the Behind the Music episode that reveals the dirty details of the Harmonix/RedOctane/EA/Activision/MTV music-game mudslinging that’s turned out to be one of the more interesting industry stories of this hardware generation. Until then, we’re all better off just enjoying the results of their competition fueled by bad blood. First up is Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.

While EA and Harmonix went off to try to make lightning strike twice (i.e., Rock Band), Neversoft inherited the Guitar Hero franchise that started the storm. Best known for the annual event called Tony Hawk, it was reasonable to harbor doubt in the choice of a developer not really known for music games suddenly put in charge of the hottest music franchise in, well…ever.

There’s really not a whole lot to “get” about Guitar Hero, but whatever there is, you absolutely have to get it right. If the song selection stinks, or if the note layouts are boring or don’t make musical sense, or if the strum/fret timing is off…then the whole game suffers for it. These are the three critical components, and Neversoft absolutely nailed them. In fact, aside from a few misguided artistic choices and a new “boss battle” feature, the developer transition would be virtually invisible to anyone who wasn’t keeping up with the news. They “got” Guitar Hero, and they got it good.

[Click the image above to check out all Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock screens.]

The Song Remains the Same
You’ve been on tour before, so you know how it works: five colored fret buttons, one strum bar, and a cascade of chords. Tilt your controller for invincible Star Power when solos get a little hairy, and keep your playing perfect so point multipliers are in effect as long as possible. The better you perform in Career mode, the more in-game cash you get to unlock new songs, guitars, characters, outfits, and other miscellaneous fluff. The harder songs are grouped in the higher tiers, and at the end of it all is an insanely difficult song that will do its best to give you carpal tunnel.

The game modes are essentially the same: solo or co-op Career and Quick Play — and if you have a 360 or PS3, online play. (Ed. note: The Wii version has online play as well.) The cooperative Career is actually new, and you’ll want to put forth the effort here because it’s the only way to unlock certain “co-op friendly” songs in the setlist. It’s understandable that Neversoft would want to incentivize co-op career in some fashion, but it’s kind of a hassle if all you want to do is unlock every song. (There was initial concern that the game would ship without a Quick Play cooperative mode, and indeed it has, but an automatic patch already exists for the 360 version that adds this much-needed multiplayer mode, and RedOctane plans to issue similar fixes for the other versions soon.)

The biggest structural change to Guitar Hero is the new “boss battle” that happens three times during your in-game career. Between the regular set and the encore, you’ll be challenged by Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello, Guns N’ Roses’ Slash, and ultimately Death himself. The first two guys wrote original tracks that alternate riffs, and Star Power is replaced by “Battle Power” — attacks that unleash harmful alterations to your opponents’ note patterns. The idea is really solid and adds a fun twist to regular songs. The concept itself of a guitar battle is nothing new, and the inclusion of a frantic metal rendition of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” as Death’s battle song honors this musical tradition. The only problem comes from the difficulty of these battles not matching up all the time with your chosen difficulty level. The first battle against Tom Morello, for example, happens in an early tier. Playing on the “hard” difficulty, it’s already a lot tougher than the Tier 2/Tier 3 songs you’re warming up on. It’s not impossible if you play well and use your power-ups efficiently (throw over multiple attacks at him at once), but it is kind of a roadblock.

Getting the name power of Morello, Slash, and even ’80s hair icon-turned-reality sideshow Bret Michaels was a wise move and indicative of the brand’s popularity (the Sex Pistols even rerecorded “Anarchy in the U.K.” specifically for the game). And while the in-game models of these music icons look sharp and animate well, the returning cast of original rockers like Xavier Stone and Judy Nails have mysteriously turned into animatronic, bee-stung rejects from the local Chuck E. Cheese’s. Guitar Hero’s art direction was never award-winning to begin with, and aesthetics remain one area where the game has a lot of room to improve — “deformed” is only cute when it’s super.

[Click the image above to check out all Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock screens.]

Rock and Roll Will Never Die
But where the game got worse with how it looks, it actually gets much better with how it sounds. Guitar Hero II’s setlist — and this is the touchy part about musical tastes — was severely lacking in energy, despite the inclusion of some truly excellent songs. But Harmonix went with a “something for everybody” approach that ended up alienating people that weren’t necessarily fans of certain musical genres. Guitar Hero III remedies this in two important ways. First, the setlist itself is varied, but at the same time stays true to the spirit of the original Guitar Hero by including songs that emphasize interesting — and, more importantly, fun — guitar parts. The fingerpicking and hammer-ons found in Weezer’s “My Name Is Jonas,” the crunchy rhythms of the Who’s “The Seeker,” the laid-back grooves of Santana’s “Black Magic Woman” — regardless if it’s your cup of tea, each song feels like it belongs there, and even the songs you’re not totally in love with still have something fun about them (unless it’s “The Metal” by Tenacious D or “3’s & 7’s” by Queens of the Stone Age — they’re just outright terrible).

The second way the songs are better is how they’re played. The notes and chords are laid out in natural and engaging patterns that make sense musically and with the way your hands are moving. They’ll even jump from different guitar parts within the same passage of the song (e.g., starting with rhythm chords and then playing parts of the lead), because it’s just more interesting that way. It’s engaging on normal, challenging on hard, and absolutely brutal on expert — but you’re once again feeling like a true guitar “hero,” and that’s something that Guitar Hero II lacked for a lot of people.

Many songs benefit from the original master recordings, and the remainder of the covers are performed competently (the guy they got to stand in for Ozzy Osbourne on “Paranoid” definitely earned his pay). And the ultimate song you unlock and play during the end credits, DragonForce’s “Through the Fire and Flames,” is truly the most awesomely ridiculous inclusion in a Guitar Hero game to date. On expert, it’s possible to fail this song at 0 percent completion — almost immediately. Some might consider it player abuse, but the truly hardcore are going to love dissecting that song’s patterns for all of YouTube to enjoy.

Other items of note: Should you be deciding between multiple versions of Guitar Hero III, it’s best to identify what you’re more interested in. The Wii version doesn’t (yet) have downloadable-content capabilities, and doesn’t look as good as the 360 or PS3 versions (which isn’t saying much), but the new Les Paul controller is wireless once you stick a Wii Remote in the case, and everything sounds and plays just as good. (If you do get the Wii version, be sure to turn off your remote’s rumble, because Star Power activates an annoying pulse that can throw off timing). And on that note, the new Les Paul itself is a welcome improvement over the old SG and Explorer models, featuring better buttons and a strum bar that cuts back on registering accidental up/down strokes.

It’ll be intriguing watching this battle of the bands unfold. EA and Harmonix have the power of MTV and the drum dynamic, but it’s very reassuring to know that Guitar Hero is in safe, capable, and understanding hands.

Hands doing that devil-horn thing.

Source: http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3164068&sec=REVIEWS

WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2008 for Wii

Of course, everybody knows what this game is. Probably only newborn babies aren’t aware of this game. Just to get on the topic, WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008 is developed by YUKE’s Future Media Creators and released for such a lot of gaming consoles. These are PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PSP, Nintendo DS, and also for Wii. This is the latest edition of the ever long-running wrestling show, the WWE SmackDown! video game series based on the, of course WWE itself. This game is the sequel to WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2007 and is the first SmackDown game to include the ECW.

Gameplay

For this sequel of WWE game, the wrestlers now has two fighting style that they can use, one primary and one secondary. Each of the wrestlers’ fighting style has its own advantages and disadvantages in each particular match type. This are the available fighting styles: high-flyer, hardcore, submission artist, powerhouse, showman, brawler, dirty, and technical. For the wrestlers’ special move, those are based solely on their primary style.

Modes

Several different game modes to be played are allowed on this game, of course, each of them has their own goals and options. The general manager and season modes of previous games have been merged into the new “WWE 24/7″ mode. Players can also choose to play one of the game’s included superstars, a created superstar or as a general manager of one of the brand. Playing as a wrestler, the goal is to take that wrestler and achieve “legend” status. Several match types to be played are allowed on this game. This mainly includes the Iron Man Match; Battle Royal; Hell in a Cell; Tables, Ladders, and Chairs; Hardcore; Ladder match; the Elimination Chamber; and Royal Rumble among others.

For the Wii Platform

The game differs significantly on the platform that it is played on. For the Wii, its version features five match types. These are, Single, Tag Team, KO Match, Triple Threat and Hardcore. The Wii version lacks a WWE Shop and features a smaller move list compared to the other options.

Smash Bros Brawl (Wii)

At E3 2006 this year, Nintendo dropped a bombshell that really wasn’t unexpected (in fact it had been mentioned before). They would be creating a brand-new Super Smash Bros. game for the Nintendo Wii.What was unexpected was that they didn’t reveal the game at their pre-E3 press conference, and that the game itself included a HUGE surprise . . . Solid Snake of Metal Gear fame would be a playable character (along with a host of others Nintendo characters, including much-requested Pit of Kid Icarus fame). Once again, the world is extremely excited and overtaken with anticipation for the 2007 release in one of Nintendo’s absolutely juggernaut franchises.

And that juggernaut all started with a little Nintendo 64 cart released in 1999. That game was the original Super Smash Bros., the first game ever to pit Nintendo’s biggest stars against each other in an extremely fun and crazy party game that won-over the hearts and minds of anyone who layed their hands upon it. But how does that game fare in this day and age, on the dawn of the newest game in the series, in a time when online play is the norm and options aplenty are expected?

For the answer to that question and much more information on the original game, read my full review. And keep your eye out for information on the newest game, Super Smash Bros. Brawl (the trailer is viewable at the end), as we edge ever closer to it’s release. But for the moment, it’s time to dive into the world of N64 Smash!

Super Smash Bros. (Super Smash Brothers)
System: Nintendo 64
Also Available On: None (Wii for download highly propable)
Genre: Side-Scrolling Brawler (fighting)
Released: 1999
Players: 1 to 4 simoultaneous
Save: Cartridge, saves automatically
Developer: Hal Labs (creator of Kirby)
Publisher: Nintendo
Origin: Japan

Super Smash Bros. is a hectic four-player brawler for the Nintendo 64. Viewed from a side-perspective, it’s the closest thing to a fighting game that Nintendo has ever released (excluding the game’s sequel of course, Super Smash Bros. Melee on the GameCube), the game takes all of Nintendo’s most popular franchise characters and plops them into a brawl-fest extravaganza that begs to be played by anyone who owns a Nintendo 64. By the end of the Nintendo 64’s life-cycle, the game had gone on to become one of the best-selling games in the N64 library (selling over 5.55 million copies worldwide) and had kick-started a great new franchise for Nintendo. Smash Bros. had became THE reason to own a Nintendo 64 according to many people, not to mention the life of any party it was featured in.

In the game you select from one of a multitude of classic Nintendo characters. Your choices include Mario, Donkey Kong, Link (Legend of Zelda series), Samus (Metroid series), Yoshi, Kirby, Fox (Starfox series), and Pikachu (Pokemon series), as well as four hidden characters you can unlock by fulfilling certain conditions. You then select from several Nintendo themed stages.

The goal of each battle is to rack up the other player’s percentage, shown on the bottom of the screen, and then knock them clear off of the stage. The higher a player’s percentage, the further they will fly when being hit. Since the goal is to be the last player standing or the one with the most kills in the end, much of your time with Smash is concentrated on keeping yourself from being knocked off the stage (which can happen either by falling off the platform, or being knocked so hard you hit the edges of the screen). And when you are knocked into the air, players are left frantically doing everything in their power to get back to safety and solid ground (if they are close enough to the edge their character will grab it automatically). This often results in hilarity as players go to and fro trying to knock each other out and in return making amazing “come backs” by using their moves wisely to get back onto the stage.

Every character has a bunch of moves unique to them (from Kirby’s Copy ability to Yoshi’s Egg Throwing to Samus’ Charge Beam), including moves that are designed to help the character get back onto the stage once they are flown asunder (i.e. knocked off the platform).

These moves are extremely easy to perform, and Super Smash Bros. is really designed so that anyone can play the game. You perform special moves with the B Button, and regular attacks with the A Button. Up B, Down B, and B on it’s own will each perform a different special attack. For example, with Link, Up B makes him swirl around with his sword, hitting anyone in the vicinity (known as the Spin Attack in the Zelda games), Down B takes out a Bomb that can be tossed and B will hurl Link’s Boomerang, which flies in whatever direction you throw it and then comes back to you. The Up+B move is generally the move that will help that character get back on stage.

There really isn’t a lot of technique or skill to the moves in Smash Bros. It truly is a game that is accessible to pretty much everyone, there are no complex moves or combos to be remembered or memorized here (as in a traditional fighting game), since how you perform each characters move-set is the same. Each and every character can only perform three special moves, no less and no more. Although thankfully they are pretty much unique with each character.

The crux of the gameplay and what differentiates a novice from a pro is learning how to time attacks and making sure you have a handle on the different moves that can be performed depending on whether you simply press, tilt or “tap” the control stick while hitting the A Button. When you “tap” the control stick (which means pressing it in that direction until it hits the side then letting go) it allows you to perform powerful “Smash” attacks which are moves designed to knock other players out of the arena, but outside of that there are many useful moves characters have by just using standard attacks and they will be different depending on the direction pressed, whether you are in the air or on the ground, and whether you press the button by itself or press the button while tilting the control stick. And knowing when, where and how to perform each of these moves is important, and something that will come in time the more you play the game and learn it’s intricacies.

The rest of the controls are just as simple. You can use any of the C-Buttons or up on the control stick to jump with any character, and most characters have a double-jump (there are a few exceptions. Yoshi can only jump once but he goes higher and further than most characters, Kirby floats, as you’d expect him to do, etc.). The Z Button or R Button will put a bubble around the character that acts as a shield. This will block attacks, though the shield can be broken if you hold it while another character hits you enough times. Once broken you will be stunned and unable to move for a short period, leaving you completely vulnerable to attack. The A button will pick up items, which you can drop by pressing R or throw by tapping the control stick in a direction and pressing R. And the start button allows you to pause the game, wherein you can zoom in and rotate the camera to get a better glimpse of the action. Finally, the L Button will taunt.

Even though the game doesn’t initially seem to take much skill to play, there are some more advanced techniques available that you will want to learn and master. One of the most basic is rolling. You can do this by holding Z to bring up your shield and tapping the control stick left or right, this can be used to dodge attacks. Another advanced technique allows you to roll without taking damage from a fall. Do this by tapping Z just as you hit the ground after you’ve been hit by an attack.

Smash Bros. is chaotic and fun once you get four-players together who know how to play the game. The action really lights up though when you include items and level hazards into the mix. It’s oh-so-satisfying when you throw a bomb into a group of players and succeed in knocking all three of them out at the same time with one shot! Manage to do this with one of your moves and you can just imagine the boasting and “ooing & awwing” that goes on between players (as well as an in-game audience that will cheer, chant player names and make “ooo” and “ahh” sounds as players knock out others or make death-defying saves, etc.).

Many items are featured in the game and they range from clobbering items to throwing items, healing items, projectile items and power-ups.
A full list of the items will be featured below to give you a better idea of how the game works and what each item does.

Containers – Items will sometimes randomly drop out of the sky, but generally you will get them by breaking open one of these containers to reveal the items inside. Be warned that not all containers are created equal, sometimes it won’t be a container at all, but instead a bomb that will go off when the container is broken!

Crate: A big crate that holds three items. Only Donkey Kong can carry this item. Can’t be thrown very far by most characters.

Barrel: Holds three items and rolls once thrown.
Capsule: Holds only one item, makes a nice projectile item when thrown.

Egg: Similar to the capsule. This item generally comes onto the play field by the Pokemon Chancey who will throw them. Sometimes they will heal you, other times they will hold one item. Like the capsule it makes a good throwing item.

Clobbering Items – These are blunt items that you can use to, as it says, clobber your opponents. Most of these items are very useful and all of them can be thrown effectively, which is a very good strategy for knocking players out. Sometimes it’s better to throw the item than actually using it.

Beam Sword: Obviously inspired by Star Wars (in the Japanese version the sword even emits a humming sound), this is one of the best weapons. It has a long reach, which results in great throwing and an extremely damaging Smash attack.

Hammer: It’s the Hammer made famous in the original arcade Donkey Kong! Once picked up you will start swinging it up and down automatically. You can only jump once while holding it and will fall straight down (meaning to your death if you happen to fall off the platform). An extremely cheap weapon that’s hard to defend against. Generally players will avoid anyone who picks up this weapon. The Hammer comes complete with the classic Donkey Kong ditty.

Home Run Bat: Taken from EarthBound, this is one of the best weapons. Besides making a great throwing weapon, if you do a smash attack with it the weapon can knock the player clear off the stage in one shot, no matter how high or low their percentage is.

Paper Fan: An extremely weak yet effective weapon. It’s best use is that it can be swung quickly and will easily break shields. Although it can’t be thrown far, it’s wild when thrown and thus effective.

Projectile Items – As it says, these are items that shoot something out, allowing you to hit players who are further away. Generally a projectile will stretch across the entire screen when used (exception being the Fire Flower).

Raygun: This gun contains a certain amount of shots that will run out once depleted. The Raygun is extremely useful as it’s shot will go across the entire screen. In addition, it can be used to juggle an opponent if your shots are timed right. Get it down and you can even juggle a player across the entire screen to their doom!

Fire Flower: The classic Super Mario Bros. power-up returns here and works much like Bowser’s fire attack in Super Mario 64. Once the item is picked up pressing A will release breaths of fire. The fire will slowly get smaller the more you continuously use it until it eventually runs out. Regardless, the item does a ton of damage if you can’t escape it’s burn.

Star Rod: This item from the Kirby series will hurl stars across the screen when the player does a Smash Attack. Outside that it also makes a damaging clobbering item and contains good throwing range.

Power-Ups – These items heal you or give you some other beneficial effect such as invincibility. Always race to pick these items up, you don’t want your opponents to get the benefit!

Maxim Tomato: This tomato will heal 100% percentage points off of your meter.

Heart Container: This Legend of Zelda standby will completely heal you! Very helpful.

Star: This classic Super Mario Bros. item will make you invincible for a short period of time. Comes complete with the classic Mario ditty.

Throwing Items – As it says, these items are great for throwing. The land mine is a awesome item for laying traps. Keep in mind that thrown items will bounce off of certain walls in the environment.

Motion Sensor Bomb: This mine will stick to any surface you throw it at. Anyone who steps near will be blown away! Great for setting up traps and good, chaotic fun especially when combined with other weapons.

Bob-Omb: The classic Mario series enemy makes an appearence here as one of the best weapons in the game. The explosive power of Bob-Ombs is always fun and always deadly, although they can be deadly to you too if you do not get out of it’s blast radius (which goes for all explosives).

If you don’t pick this weapon up in time it will get up and start walking around the stage until it eventually flashes and explodes.
Bumper: The bumper is an extremely fun weapon. Once thrown the item will lay wherever it lands, and any players that hit it will, naturally, be bumped off of it.

Get several bumpers together in one area for some really chaotic fun! The higher a player’s percentage the further they will be bumped!

Red Shell: This classic Super Mario Kart item will move across whatever platform it lands on, knocking any characters it comes into contact with into the air.

Can be very damaging and dangerous, avoid at all costs if it’s on a platform. It is weaker however than the Green Shell.

Green Shell: Also from Super Mario Kart, the Green Shell will only move in one direction wherever thrown, but does much more damage than the Red Shell if it makes contact with a player.

Pokeball: Last, but definitely, definitely not least is the Pokeball. Thanks to the genius of Nintendos’ franchise characters, Pokemon make a significant contribution to Super Smash Bros. and are embedded in every aspect of the game.

Pikachu is a playable character, obviously one of Nintendo’s biggest stars, and there is naturally a Pokemon stage as well, which features random Pokemon that will come out of a door to attack you. But the biggest contribution to Super Smash Bros. from the Pokemon series is most definitely the Pokeball as an item. In the Pokemon games the Pokeball is used to capture Pokemon, and in Smash Bros. it likewise will release random Pokemon when a Pokeball is thrown onto a flat surface, where they will pop-up and proceed to attack or do whatever special move they are famous for. The Pokemon attacks are all very cool and most of them are extremely damaging.

There are many Pokemon in the game, and below is each one and what attack it does when used. Naturally, when a Pokeball is released onto the play field, every player will scramble to get their hands on it, knowing that it has the potential to do some major damage and possibly turn the tide of battle in their favor. More than one Pokeball can be on the stage at once, and when that happens LOOK OUT, some majorly chaotic action is about to take place! Run for cover!

Snorlax: One of the best Pokemon, Snorlax will fly into the sky, then come back down 3 times bigger than when he flew up, Body Slamming any player foolish enough to get in Snorlax’s path, knocking them away.

Meowth: Probably the least liked Pokemon in the game, Meowth will appear and do his Pay Day attack, which will shoot coins in four directions whilst he stays in place. Very easy to avoid.

Starmie: A great Pokemon though somewhat easy to avoid, Starmie will use his Swift attack, flying to the nearest player and shooting stars across the screen.

Blastoise: This Pokemon will appear and shoot heavy blasts, via his Hydropump attack, that can easily knock players off the stage. However, Blastoise himself will move back with each shot, often times leading to himself falling off a ledge. Regardless you don’t want to get in the way of his shots.

Charizard: Uses his Flamethrower attack, this awesome Pokemon will appear and blow fire in both directions, similar to the Fire Flower but much quicker.

Clefairy: This Pokemon will use it’s “Metronome” attack which mimics that of other Pokemon. So it will randomly do any of the attacks listed here on this page.

Koffing: Koffing will use Poison Gas which amounts to shooting puffs of smoke out from wherever he is positioned. The puffs don’t reach very far but if you do get caught they will juggle you for a while.

Beedrill: Easily one of the best Pokemon you can get, Beedrill will fly across the screen, then come back bringing a host of other Beedrill who will continue to fly across the screen using their Pin Needle attack. Any player that gets hit by one of the Beedrill will get knocked straight up in the air. Extremely damaging and very dangerous for any player with a high percentage.

Onyx: This awesome Rock Snake Pokemon will fly up into the air from where he was released and proceed to do his Rock Fall attack, which, true to it’s name, will drop rocks from above, damaging any player’s below.

Chancey: This friendly Pokemon will appear and throw out eggs in both directions. Generally the eggs contain items, but sometimes they will heal you instead. And on rare occasion, the Eggs will sometimes hold explosives.

Goldeen: This Pokemon is completely useless. Once released it will do it’s “Splash” move, which is just that, it will simply splash around like a fish out of water, which does no damage. Though it can fuel a player’s rage for getting such a useful Pokemon!

Hitmonlee: Probably one of the best Pokemon you can get, Hitmonlee is true to his fighting type and will kick any player in his path with his High Jump Kick, for massive damage. For reasons unbeknownst to anyone, Hitmonless’s cry sounds suspiciously like that of “Psyduck” . . . why does he say Psyduck? Maybe Psyduck was originally supposed to be in the game? The world may never know.

Mew: This Pokemon is hidden until you unlock all the secret characters. Once unlocked Mew will appear at random and is very rare. Unfortunately he will not do any attacks, but if you do manage to get him during the single player game he will add a few thousand points to your score.

There are several aspects of Super Smash Bros. that make the game unique (including it’s credits screen, which has the name’s of everyone on the team flying by, wherein you can shoot the name to select and read information about it in the top, pause the action or even press start to have it zoom by. They update this for Melee).

It’s style of play was very original for the time and even today it’s style of gameplay inspires other games that follow in it’s wake. And one of those reasons has to do with the items, they really mix up the battles and make it very fun. Thankfully, you’ll eventually unlock a feature that allows you to turn items on and off, and set the frequency. This can add some mad fun to the game. For example, you can set the only items to come on to be Pokeballs and Bob-Ombs, and set the Frequency to very high. You don’t know what chaos is until you get four-players battling each other with that set-up!

The stages also do their part in making each battle unique. Each stage has it’s own layout, and every stage has a “level hazard”, whether it’s a tornado on the Hyrule Castle level (which will swing characters around and fling them up if they get caught in it), which will appear and disappear at different spots at random, or the rising acid on the Metroid level, it all succeeds in adding just that much more chaoticness to the action.

The most compelling part of Super Smash Bros. is obviously it’s four-player free-for-all mode, which lets four players battle it out or lets you set computer controlled opponents if there are not enough human players available.

You select characters by moving your corresponding “chip” (round icon with your player number on it) to a character and pressing the A Button. Pressing B will de-select a character, moving the “chip” back into your “hand”, wherein you can select a different character. You can switch between four different colored outfits by pressing the corresponding C Buttons (Up, down, left or right). Two players can’t be the same color. In the right corner of the player’s selected character field is the option to turn that “HMN” (human) player into a “CPU” (computer-controlled) player, which also allows you to select the CPU’s difficulty at the bottom. Along the top of the character select screen is an option to switch between “Free-for-All” and “Team” modes at the top left, and the middle bar lets you change the number of lives (stock) or if you are playing Time, change the time limit. On the top right is the back button.

Unfortunately, the game doesn’t have too much in the way of options though. Included in the multiplayer are four-player free-for-alls, where every player is against each other, as well as Team Battle, where players are on teams. Both of these modes can be played in either Stock or Time. Stock gives each player “lives” (The number of lives that everyone starts out with can be changed from 1 to 99) , and when they are depleted then that player is out of the match. The remaining player left standing wins. After a match the stats for the match are shown on a victory results screen, which displays the KO’s (Knock-Outs) and TKO’s (Times Knocked Out), points awarded and the place of each player (1, 2, 3 or 4) with the winner doing a victory dance and the other players standing in the background clapping.

Time is exactly that, you set a time limit, and when it’s up, the player with the most KO’s wins. Also included though is a team-mode. This allows players to be on teams, differentiated by color, where they share lives and/or score. Other options can be tweaked within the menu, such as friendly fire, handicap, level select and damage percentage (the lower the number the less characters will fly when being hit. Turn this all the way up for some chaotic fun).

There is also plenty of versus stat data available, found under VS Record in the Data option. Here you can view detailed battle data that includes very detailed specifics, down to specifics on each character, such as how many total KO’s, Self Destructs (killing themselves) and TKOs (Times the character was knocked out by other players) each character has, as well as win% (each characters share of total KO’s), total play time with that character, Use% (this particular character’s share of the total play time percentage), and Avg. (average number of opponents in vs. battles).

Also kept are info on the characters overall ranking in comparison to others in the game (1st, 2nd, 3rd), the characters share of total play time, and that characters total damage they’ve given out, and total damage they’ve recieved. You can even view a chart that pits each character against each other and gives detailed statistics, these include the total share of KO’s between the two characters (win%), number of times the character has KO’d the other one (KOs), number of times the other character knocked off this one (KO’d), and Avg. (the average number of opponents in match with these characters).

These statistics lose some meaning however when you realize that names and profiles for players aren’t kept. Therefore the statistics are only totals and general specifics on the character, it doesn’t keep track of say how many times a certain player has KO’s a certain character (unlike in it’s sequel, Super Smash Bros. Melee, which has much more detailed statistics if you can believe it). However it is fun to look at these numbers and the detailed statistics are definitely welcome.

Unfortunately, the game doesn’t have a whole lot going for it single-player-wise. The main mode of play for single-player has you battling in match after match to reach the Final Destination (where you will naturally face off against the game’s unique boss). At the end of each match you will be awarded (or punished) points depending on certain battle conditions. For example, you will be awarded points if you successfully hit a character each time you attack without missing (No Miss times the # of successive hits), you will lose points if you do the same move over and over again (Cheap Shot), and you will be rewarded for doing your taunt as the match ends (Taunt). There are many other conditions that will award you points, some quite obscure and it can be fun to discover new ones or try and get a certain condition that awards you highly (the name’s of the conditions you’ve met will be displayed on the screen so you can try and figure out what it was that gave it to you).

During single-player you can select the difficulty level (very easy, easy, normal, hard and very hard) as well as the number of lives, between 1 and 5. Most of these matches have you facing off against the other characters in the game, such as Link, Samus and Fox. Others though pit you against a unique, altered character (such as “Giant Donkey Kong”) or a team of characters (Such as Yoshi Team, which has you facing off against easily beaten Yoshi’s of all colors, or Kirby Team, which has you fighting multiple Kirby’s each with the power of another character in the game). Most disappointingly however, once you beat the game your reward is simply an artistic picture of your character. The game really has no story to speak of though so it’s not completely unexpected.

There is however a really cool gallery mode, for lack of a better term, under the Data option if you select Characters. Here you can read a profile of each and every character you unlock in the game, complete with an in-game character model on the left who will do random moves and actions, as well as details on popular appearences (games the character has appeared in), data on their special moves and overall background text on the character. These are fun to read and give you some insight into the famous Nintendo icons.

Thankfully, the game has quite a bit to unlock (all of which can be cleared under Backup Clear in the Options menu, including specific achievements relating to unlocked characters [newcomers], high scores, saved bonus stage times, versus records, prize data and an option to erase all saved data), including a music test, some additional game options, a secret stage, and coolest of all, four additional characters. You unlock them by fulfilling certain requirements within the game (such as beating the game with any character on any difficulty), wherein you’ll have a match against that character, earning them to play as if you can manage to defeat them. These hidden options are also where the other two single-player modes come into play.

During the main single-player portion of the game, in between battles, you will play three mini-games. The first one is “Board the Platforms“, the second is “Break the Targets” and third is “Race to the Finish“. Race to the finish simply has you trying to reach the finish line while avoiding hazards in the way that include other characters (in “polygon” form).

The first two mini-games though are also available in separate modes where you can play them freely with any characters you have unlocked. The record times are saved and the goal is to keep playing them to try and beat your best time. These games also factor in to unlocking secrets.

The first mini-game, Board the Platforms, has you going through different maze-style environments, using the same side-scrolling perspective as the regular game. Various obstacles are in your way and the goal is, as the title says, to try to jump onto each platform in the stage. By pausing the game you can see a layout of the level, showing you where each platform is. However just cause you can see a platform doesn’t mean you’ll know how to get to it, and therein lies the fun. As well as playing them over again to beat your previous record times, and the times that other people may have set on the stages.

Just as fun, or maybe more so, is Break the Targets. The style of the game is similar to Board the Platforms, in that you make your way through a layout trying to break each target with one of your moves, and there are various moving platforms and other obstacles to make things more difficult, and causing you to try and figure out how to reach certain targets. The first time you play these games is especially fun since you have to figure out how to get each one. Break the Targets is neat cause you can use any of the characters moves to break the target, and therefore there are multiple ways to get each one, which means that trying different combinations will often times result in an improved record time.

Both of these mini-games are great fun and provide a lot of incentive to keep playing the game, not only to unlock the rest of the secrets, but also to beat your previous time and set hard-to-beat records for your friends to try. Unfortunately, unlike in the sequel to this game, there are no player profiles available, as well as no name-entry, so you won’t be able to tell who set the record. Certainly disappointing.

There is also a Training Mode available for the game under Single Player. This allows you to see the damage attacks give off, lets you keep track of combos and lets you mess around with speed settings for slow games or faster paced games. You can also set the status of the computer player (Stand, Walk, Evade, Jump or Attack) as well as make items appear. Obviously training is good for letting you learn the player’s moves and get a feel for how the game works.

So how does this game, released in 1999, hold-up nowadays? While the game is most definitely dated, particularly in the graphics department but also in the music department (the music is excellent, no doubt, but mainly because the majority of the level themes in the game are literally the tunes ripped straight from the game in the series. So how can you deny the Zelda theme or the Donkey Kong Country theme?), where the music is as basic as the original tunes (very few are updated), what hurts the game most is probably the graphics. The game is very, very simple and about as basic as you get. Link for example has very few facial details, and actually the viewpoint is such that you can rarely even see his face, much less the details (the camera is generally pulled further out than in), and once it does get in close it’s obvious how much detail the game lacks. Link’s character model for instance is much, much, much less detailed than in Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Having said that, the graphics don’t hamper gameplay at all in that sense, and once you start playing you won’t even notice, especially since the backgrounds and level details are generally better and moving animations in certain levels will keep you from focusing on the low poly count of the characters.

Smash Bros. does however contain LOADS of slowdown. Fortunately, the slowdown doesn’t seem to really hamper the gameplay as much as you’d think, actually it somewhat seems to actually make the game better! Particularly when there’s lots of explosions (which tend to slow the game down), the slowdown only seems to accentuate the “boom” factor and make the effects pack more punch. Actually, “punch”, for lack of a better term, is one area where this game seems to excel when compared to it’s sequel, Super Smash Bros. Melee. Quite simply, the sound effects seem to have more punch in this game, especially the explosions. They really sound punishing and huge, and like-wise other effects, such as a shot from the Raygun, are loud and overwhelming, making the weapon feel very powerful. And in that sense Melee almost seems subdued in comparison.

And while we are on the subject of comparisons, there are many aspects of this game that will be noticeably different to anyone who has only played Super Smash Bros. Melee. First off, while the characters aren’t necessarily balanced as well as in Melee, in the original game many of the characters actually seem to be more useful. IMHO, characters like Ness and Kirby in particular seem to pack a lot more damage in this game than in Melee. Maybe you need more skill to actually hold your own with those characters in Melee, but I seem hard-pressed to find out where they actually improved the characters in Melee (these in particular) when compared to the original. In the original I can use every character just fine, whereas in Melee there are certain characters that seem to be at a major disadvantage. And that is one area where I think the original Smash excels. It is simply more accessible and it’s very easy to use any character in the game. Another disappointing spot is noticing how some moves have narrowly become completely ineffective in Melee. Links boomerang for example is very useful in the original. And overall it just feels like many characters lost their “luster” in Melee. Ness for example seems much better in this game, particularly his yo-yo moves.

The hilarious Super Smash Bros commercial!

It’s also disappointing to see how the explosions and other sound-effects were subdued in Melee, as well as the ineffectiveness of most Pokemon in Melee. In this game, Pokemon are very useful and seem to cause more damage (or players get hit by them more often). In Melee it’s almost rare to see players actually attacked by Pokemon, who are generally easily avoided. Particularly Snorlax seems nearly useless in Melee, wherein he is to be feared in the original.

Turning the tables however, going from Melee to the original game will be very hard for people who never played it. Super Smash Bros. is simply SOO basic in comparison. Hardly any one-player options, very few vs. match options, and just a total lack of game modes and particularly, a huge lack in skill and technique. When you first go to play the original Smash after playing Melee, many things will strike you. You’ll find yourself trying to do in-air and ground dodges, and especially you’ll find yourself trying to charge up your attacks, which don’t exist in this original game. Moves just go . . . it’s a very strange feeling at first and might be hard to get used too. It’s amazing how simply taking away charge attacks changes the gameplay so much. In the original there is much less skill involved since timing attacks isn’t as prevalent since there is no delay (which happens when you charge) between attacks. It makes a ton of difference in how the game plays.

The bottom line is, if you have never played the original Melee and come into this original game without ever having played it, then you will most likely be disappointed and totally taken aback by the simplicity of it all. If you however got into the game with the right mind set, knowing how basic it is and the lack of options, etc. then you can still have a grand ol’ time.

The game is in all honesty just as fun as Melee, the only problem is that it gets tiring twice as fast since there simply is not as much to see or to do as in Melee, and less skill involved. The extra punch that items, particularly explosions and Pokemon, have in this game adds a lot that will be noticeable going straight from Melee, and in many ways makes this original game more chaotic than it’s more defined and complex sequel, which to some players will mean it’s more fun. And don’t even think about getting this game if you do not have four people to play it with, as the single player is extremely lacking and unless you are a huge Smash Bros. fan then you won’t get much out of it.

FUN FACTOR – 9.0
Super Smash Bros. is a tremendously fun game. Though ideally it should mainly be played when you have four human players battling along. Despite the lack of options, there is enough here to satisfy your appetite for some hardcore Nintendo butt-kicking.

Graphics – 7.5
Very basic, very low-poly count characters, rough edges, major slowdown, crappy ending screen pictures (Thanks a lot Nintendo!) and not much detail to be found anywhere. Regardless, once you get battling you won’t even notice.

Music & Sound – 8.0
Classic Nintendo themes, for everyone from Mario to Pokemon to Metroid to Starfox . . . this line-up simply can’t be beat. How can you argue with a classic? So the music is great by default, outside of the classic medleys though, there isn’t much in the way of new music. The announcer voices and cheers can sometimes be, but the sound effects, especially the explosions, are excellent, possibly even better than in Melee, packing more of a punch. You won’t get any remixes here however.

Presentation – 9.0
From the character intro’s when each character comes to battle (something I miss from Melee, they could’ve done some really cool ones!) to the whole “kid playing with Nintendo stuffed animals” theme to the the way the celebration screen folds up into a paper airplane and flies away at the end of a vs. match to the unique character select screen, there isn’t much here to complain about. Presentation is all good and manages to spark the game up some and make it seem lively and fun. It also does some interesting things that haven’t really been seen before, such as the ending credits screen. Which actually makes watching the credits fun!

Ingenuity: 9.5
For it’s time, and even today, the Super Smash Bros. series is one of a kind. You honestly can’t beat a game that has all of Nintendo’s most popular characters beating the crap out of each other in an all out brawl, and no one has done it better than Nintendo, who only continues to improve the series with each release. This game is original and unique no matter how you slice it. And a game other companies will strive to match.

Replay Value: 8.5
If you have four-players then this game can keep you going for years. The fun never seems to run dry. However single-player wise the game is lacking. Without player profiles you can’t see who has done what or set what record, and within a matter of days it’s possible to have unlocked everything in the game. Regardless the game recieves props for keeping the gameplay fun to the best of it’s ability, and when it’s fun, it’s FUN. You’ll definitely be playing it for a while. Although, especially if you are coming in from Melee, it can get old quickly due to the simplicity.

Should I buy the game on Wii?

For those not in the know, Nintendo is banking on the fact that you will be able to download games from Nintendo’s entire classic system library on the Nintendo Wii (for a small fee), through what they are labeling the “Virtual Console“. This includes games for the NES, SNES & N64 platforms, as well as Sega Genesis and Turbografx-16 games, and possibly more publishers will follow in the future. The Wii console is also backwards compatible, meaning you can play GameCube games on the system, effectively making it every Nintendo console in one.

So is Super Smash Bros. for N64 a worthwhile download for your money? This really depends on what you are looking for. If Nintendo makes the game online-enabled, and you enjoy four-player fun, then by all means, go for it! If it is not made online-enabled, and you do not have four people available to play the game with, then I would only suggest to buy the game if you know you will have four people to play with on occasion. Else-wise, the game really is only going to satisfy people who are already fans of Super Smash Bros. or who are big Nintendo fans and want to see what all the fuss was about when the original Super Smash Bros. hit.

For anyone else, I would suggest buying Super Smash Bros. Melee over going the extra mile to purchase the original game. If the game is made-cheap though, and especially if Nintendo makes this original internet-less game online-enabled, then I would definitely suggest purchasing it. For all it’s basic-ness it is still a fun game and you will get some enjoyment out of it even in the face of much more advanced games, including the sequel to Super Smash Bros. Melee, Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Regardless, nothing can ever replace and original, and that’s what this game is.

Source: http://www.videogamesblogger.com/2006/08/20/classic-n64-review-super-smash-bros.htm

Never Winter Nights 2 (pc)

In many ways, Neverwinter Nights 2 is the game fans expected to see out of the original. It’s almost as if developer Obsidian Entertainment listened to customer feedback and combined the Baldur’s Gate model with that of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and tossed in a dash of Neverwinter Nights to create the sequel. It’s like playing Baldur’s Gate II using the D&D 3.5 rules but with a 3D camera that allows you to spin the view and zoom in when you want a good look at a bad guy’s face. In the end, performance and AI issues drag the experience down a bit, but this is a far superior game.

It was a smart move to take the design of the sequel and back up a bit. This is an old-fashioned party based adventure, which is really what most RPG fans, and particularly what D&D fans, want to play. The original Neverwinter Nights was a focused on your lone hero. You would get an occasional brain dead henchman to follow you around but you were more or less on your own. The new game allows you to take several NPCs along for the ride from a fisticuff-loving Dwarf fighter, a Tiefling rogue, a Gnome bard (seriously) and even a farm-gal turned warrior. There’s a good mix of NPCs that you meet on your adventure and best of all is that you have complete control over them in how they fight and which skills and feats they acquire as they gain levels.

The biggest issue with your party members is that they’re not particularly bright. From frustrating pathfinding issues to their liberal use of spells and potions, unless you take complete control you’re going to get annoyed – fast. Nothing is more frustrating than seeing your party members suck down valuable potions while fighting a bunch of rag tag orcs. Thankfully, you can alter their behavior patterns or even better turn off the companion AI completely and take control of everything yourself.

The solo campaign is a huge step up from that of the original. It’s very long – it’ll take a lot of hours to get through it all and replay value is very high due to your character options. The story isn’t bad, but it is a bit slow at the start. In fact you’ll spend a lot of time fighting generic thugs once you reach Neverwinter itself and thugs, even of the spell casting variety, get a bit old after a while. Things do pick up considerably, though, particularly near the end of Act I.

As far as storytelling goes, it’s not in the same league as Planescape: Torment, or the Baldur’s Gate series for that matter, but is head and shoulders above Neverwinter Nights and the Icewind Dale saga. There’s no reason to supply storyline spoilers, but there are parts of the campaign that feel like it’s just a direct path to your main goal. There are very few side quests. They’re there, but they are few and far between. In Neverwinter Nights 2, you have a goal to reach, and you’ll spend almost all of your time trying to reach it. People with a cat stuck in a tree are just going to have to wait.

So you have a role-playing game with a good enough storyline, a lengthy campaign, solid NPC interaction and accompanying voice work, the D&D 3.5 rule set, lots of nifty magic items and even an item/alchemy workbench to make your own goodies ala Knights of the Old Republic.

What’s not to like?

Unfortunately, Neverwinter Nights 2 plays at times like a game that had to meet a deadline and was ushered out the door a few weeks before it was ready. Going back to your party members for a moment: at times, even with all of the AI turned on, they’ll simply stop following you. It’s aggravating to run down the road only to notice that your entire clan is back a few hundred yards with a drool cup under their mouths. Usually after going to a new area the AI resets and everything is fine, but stuff like this adds up after a while. In addition, there are times when the game literally breaks, and doesn’t allow you to enter a new area or continue a vital plot conversation. You are absolutely stuck. Thankfully, a workaround was found by members of the community to fix these issues – if you get stuck inside this loop make sure you have your main character selected before starting a conversation or entering a new area. Without doing that, the game can simply break.

Source: http://www.gameshark.com/reviews/2509/Neverwinter-Nights-2-Review.htm