Mental Analysis: Mega Man 2 (NES)

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed Review

Developer: Sumo Digital
Publisher: Sega
Platform: Xbox 360
Other Platforms: PlayStation 3, WiiU, PC and 3DS
Price: £24.99


This is just a personal opinion but I think Mario Kart could be the most overrated series of all time. Just because Nintendo thought of the concept of pitting Mario and friends in a racing game, its forever written in the gaming manifesto that every racing game based on a videogame series is forever dubbed as a shitty rip-off and for the longest time, they were. That is until Sega, Nintendo's long-time rival decided to make their own Racing game based on their Spikey blue mascot and a healthy dosage of other sega characters that tingled the nostalgia balls of any sega fanboy. Playing both Mario Kart and Sonic and SEGA allstar racing, I just feel that the latter is superior in every way. the character roster isn't based solely on one franchise, the vehicles had interesting designs that fitted the characters perfectly and while it takes elements from Mario kart, the one thing they didn't take was the cheap game play that would frustrate even the most patient guy in the world. To me, Sonic and SEGA all-star racing was one of the best racing games I ever played and one of the few games in recent years I would always pop back in every now and then.

So when the sequel was announced, I was hyped as hell. A sequel to one of my favourite videogames with a whole new and original system involving transforming your vehicle during a race? How can I say no to that?...You can tell where this is going...

Before I go on, let it be known that I don't think this is a bad game. Its just when compared to the original, I just feel that Transformed fails in comparison. I don't know about you but a sequel to a videogame is supposed to be superior to the original in every way, otherwise what's the point right?

The game starts off promising with the single player being the career mode where you can play through the World Tour that would pit you into missions that are similar to the game Outrun or you can play through the Grand Prix mode and race through all of the games tracks including all of the track Mirrored. There's also the time attack and single race modes that is standard in all racing games. There's also a multiplayer if your into that sort of thing. but despite the beefiness of the single player, its not until you actually start playing the game when things turn sour for me.

Lets start with the most disappointing part of the game which is the character roster. Almost half of the characters from the last game have been taken out and replaced by a new cast of rubbish characters save a couple of decent choices being Gilius from Golden Axe and Joe Musashi from the Shinobi series. Nights is also a playable character along with her evil counterpart Reala but once you see what exactly Sumo Digital DID to the beloved character, you wouldn't feel that angry about Ristar getting the shaft again.

Seriously, during the character design meeting for this game, didn't anyone object to turning Nights into something that will give me nightmares? They also included Vyse from Skies from Arcadia. Nice one, Sumo. Include a character based on a game that I'll never play because its one of those super rare games that asks for a stupid amount of money second hand. Finally, there's the celebrity appearance of Danica Patrick and Disney's Wreck-it Ralf. Wreck-it Ralf being a film that's YET to show up in my area in time of this review, might I add.

Returning characters also have different vehicles this time round to work with the transforming gimmick of the game. While some of the new designs are a massive improvement such as Tails' ride and giving Beat something more approachable than a fucking pimp mobile, some designs like Shadow's tank thing and Robotnik's not-egg-o-matic just left me wondering once again on who's bright idea was this during that character design meeting. Probably the same retard that thought Nights should be a failed attempt as an extra for Cars 3. Speaking of retards, why does the avatar in the game sound like PeeWee Herman with severe brain damage?

I should also point out that Alex Kidd will be a playable character on Christmas day. Timed DLC that's free? If it weren't for the this idea being easily exploited by hackers or crafty gamers, this would be the kind of module I could get behind as you would have a good reason to keep of your game and its not going to charge you anything. Something that Capcom will have night terrors about if this ever becomes a rule.

Moving on to the beef of this gaming curry that is the game play  its a racing game where the tracks are based on SEGA games and you have to try and make the 3 laps to the finish while using weird and wacky weapons or traps to fuck the other players over and help you climb the positions all the way to preferably 1st place. Pretty much what you would expect from a Kart racing game. The twist this time round is when the tracks would change to the sky or water and your character's vehicles will automatically transform to whatever terrain that your heading towards complete with sounds that sounds similar to the Bayformer movies.

If your playing transformed from Sonic and SEGA all-star racing then the first thing you'll notice is how floaty the controls feel at first. This is because the characters not only have different stats but they also have different "mods" that you'll have to unlock for each character. Meaning that if you have a favourite character but aren't happy with the way they control, then all you need to do is level them up until they level up to a mod that you would be happy with. Its a nice idea and encourages you to play with all the characters and increases the games' life expectancy but this concept falls on it's ass when your playing multiplayer offline with a friend as they'll probably have no idea what would be the best mod for them while can go straight for your favourite character with the best mod unlocked for them.

It adds layers sure but when it comes to playing games with a friend, your in it for the fun not to torture them. Going back to the controls, the cars handle well once you get used to the GTA 4 inspired physics. The boats handle a bit finicky because you have to wrestle with keeping the boat straight every time it has to turn a corner or is scuffed by another boat so god help you if you end up crashing as It'll straight up ruin your race . As you can imagine the boats are also the slowest of the 3 vehicle types in the game. Although they can be fun to use once you get the hang of drifting and knowing when to perform stunts when the waves knocks you into the air. Finally you have the planes that are easier to control but are a little harder to drift with. The planes are also the vehicles that can evade attacks easier as they can perform stunts at any time while with the cars and boats, you need to be in mid-air to quickly tap the right thumb-stick in order to perform a flip or roll before landing. Evading attacks are tricky with cars and boats as you either have to set traps of your own to block the attacks or you have to boost fast enough to avoid getting hit.

The items in the game have also been changed around and better thought out this time round but unlike the last game where the chances of you getting a decent item depended on how well your doing in the race, they decided to fuck it all up by making the items straight up random so that even if you are in first place, your still in with the chance of picking up 3 remote controlled missiles  Another thing that Sumo talked about pre release was how there was a better chance of getting an "All-star" where your character goes super for a short time and catapults through the track. While the "All-Stars" in the last game were fun and exciting as each character was different, Transformed once again falls flat on it's face as all of the "All-stars" are pretty much the fucking same.

Another knock against the gameplay is how cheap the CPU can be. Its great that the challenge it taken up a notch but there's a difference between challenging opponents and cheap assholes and would make you turn the console off in a bad mood. I cant tell you how many times I would be close to winning only to be sucker punched by a stray Ice ball, only to find myself in 4th place once I gained control of the vehicle again. Or I get hit while in the air over a pit just before I could land, only to fall into said pit and have to start again from 9th place.

Graphics have suffered a downgrade as well but this is understandle as before the game was released and was on display at conventions, people complained about sudden frame dropping and to be fair, I would rather play a game that looks bland and but plays well instead of a game that looks pretty and crashes mid-session. That being said though, the last game still managed to look pretty while being fast as hell so there's clearly something that went wrong in development, maybe they rebuilt the game from the ground up and weren't aloud to look at the previous engine's code or something.

It's nice to know that they actually hired some musicians to create some funky remixes of sega tunes for the tracks this time round instead of just taking music from previous games but this also means that you can no longer pick out music before each track or unlock any tunes which is a shame because that's another small feature that Sumo takes away from the experience. The remixes are nice but sometimes you want to listen to something horrible to piss your friends off while racing against them. Voice acting is disappointing as the lines from Sonic and his mates are pretty much taken from recent sonic games, not only that but in poor quality as well.

While I praise the game for trying to be it's own thing and prevent itself from being another Mario Kart clone, it feels that it's lacking in other things that made the previous game so much fun. the transformation gimmick is a great step in the right direction but the lack of decent characters and cheap gameplay that made me dislike
Mario Kart in the first place prevents it from being anything better. In the end, it all just feels rushed in order to be released in time to cash in on the Wreck-it Ralf film, a film that HAS YET TO FUCKING SHOW UP IN MY AREA!!! I really hope Sumo Digital can learn from their mistakes and improve on the formula. For a game that celebrates all things sega, it certainly feels lazy in terms of presentation. Where's Streets of Rage or Fighting Vipers? Or how about Phantasy Star or even Vectorman? Transformed is a good game and I recommend checking it out over any other Kart game but if your given the option, pick Sonic and SEGA Allstar Racing if you haven't already simply because that game has so much more to offer rather than just a new way to play.

This has been my mental analysis and I'll see you next time!

Resident Evil 6 Review

Developer: Capcom

Publisher: Capcom

Platform: Xbox 360

Other Platforms: PlayStation 3 and PC

Price: £39.99

   

Its safe to say that in the past few years, Capcom have managed to piss off just about everyone on the planet. What with ripping people off with "Special Editions", DLC which is already on the disc, Releasing titles with the bare minimum and pretty much drowning out Mega man and trolling the fanbase with...Rockman Xover. Now we have the newly released Resident Evil 6, without a doubt one of the most anticipated titles of the year.

Despite the amount of crap that Capcom pulled in recent years, I bought this game regardless. Why? Because I love Resident Evil, I loved this series ever since I played the remake on the Nintendo GameCube  This was the game series I discovered and played during High school and pretty much picked up all of the games after that on day one of their releases.

The series didn't go to shit for me until Resident Evil 5. Despite popular opinion regarding the 5th game, I personally didn't feel that it was that bad. Although only being able to enjoy the game with at least 3 beers in me per session might not have been a good sign. Outside the fact that I might be an alcoholic, I mean. Everything that Resident Evil 4 done right, Resident Evil 5 just fucks it all up with the equipment management, retarded co-up AI, Albert Wesker getting killed off in the most lamest way, generally being not scary in the slightest and DLC that came out by the time everyone stopped playing the game and traded it in for the latest COD.

I suppose after one bad game, a franchise is forever doomed as everyone was ready to tear into Resident Evil 6 like the zombies tearing into that bad guy from Day of the Dead. I was one of them when I heard the amount of garbage that came from the creators, Informing that Resident Evil 6 wants to be more action packed and less scary in order to compete with the likes of Call of Duty and the Nathan Drake games. As I said before, I was going to pick up the game regardless because I wasn't going to let all the bad stuff get in the way and decided to face the terrors that I was about to endure.

Being the most ambitious Resident Evil title to date, you have 3 separate campaigns to play through as well as an additional campaign after completing the others. In Leon's campaign, you and your new partner, Helena Harper must uncover the secrets of the new C-Virus while trying to escape a small town when it receives the same fate as Raccoon City after when the President of the United States gets assassinated before he was going to reveal the secret of Raccoon City to the rest of the world. Chris' Campaign  focuses on a bio-terrorist attack in China where Chris and his new whinny partner, Piers Nivans face off against a terrorist group calling themselves the J'avo, hired by the new organisation, Neo Umbrella. Finally, you have Jake's campaign which is pretty much written like a piece of fan fiction someone wrote. Jake Muller is the son of the long-time villain of the series, Albert Wesker. Who is targeted by the US as he is the only living human being with the antibodies that are immune to the C-Virus. Sherry Birkin (the little girl from resident evil 2) is sent into the made up country of Edonia to track Jake down and escort him back to the US all while the two are getting chased by a massive "Nemesis" like monster with a menacing mechanical arm.

The story as a whole is over the top as you would expect from a Resident Evil game but at least the 3 separate campaigns tie together with each other really well and have their own separate endings, all 3 being more satisfying than Resident Evil 5's cock up of an ending... The final campaign round things off by tying up the loose ends involving Ada and her beef in the plot. Leon's campaign being the strongest of the bunch as it falls into the more traditional Resident Evil plots by uncovering an underground lab and stopping a madman from taking over the world.

Chris' campaign is simply about Chris' past biting him in the ass and redemption...much like in Resident Evil 5 but instead of a hot piece of ass following Chris about, he just as an ass following him around. Out of all the new faces to appear in this game, Piers is simply the worst. While Helena and Jake being interesting characters and important to the plot, Pier does nothing outside of pulling grumpy faces and bitching at Chris' temper. It would have been better if Piers was replaced by Jill Valentine or Sheva from the last game, those characters would understand Chris' emotional pains more and it certainly would have made the ending of Chris' campaign a lot more sad (spoiler warning).

Finally Jake's campaign is fine, though the whole shipping with Sherry and Jake thing is a pile of DeviantArt pics waiting to happen which I cant help but feel that its a bit creepy. Especially since we've known Sherry as a little girl. However, it does show the series in general has aged with the times, I guess but I'm still aloud to feel creeped out a bit. Also the Nemesis wannabe chasing Jake is clearly a throwback to the sticklers that loved Resident Evil 3 and my final complaint is that Sherry's "healing factor" doesn't make much sense when it doesn't work into the game mechanics when your playing as her.

Speaking of the game mechanics, A lot has been added to the gameplay this time round to give the player more freedom of movement however some of these added things seem a bit pointless. The free camera control that most other 3rd person shooters have is rather needless aside from using it to try and get a better view of Helena or Ada's cleavage, all it would do is sometimes get in the way of the walls but not always, mind. I just feel that the camera should have been fixed behind the player's shoulders like in the last two games. Your also able to dodge and dive out of the way of enemies, even shoot while your on your back as well as crawl and shoot. Sounds pointless but there are sections of the game where this is nessasary which is kinda neat.

When your out of ammo, you can melee your enemies.Sounds like this would make the game easier but the melee also have a stamina bar that goes down pretty fast. I should also point out that this game is a lot easier than the previous resident evils but however, I played the game on veteran and I encourage other resident evil veterans to do the same otherwise the game will be too easy for those... "veterans". Another small thing they included in this game is to be able to switch sides on your camera when your aiming your fire arm. A simple feature but I like it. Its similar to what Fall of Cybertron has and I really hope more 3rd person games in the future will include this feature.

I should also mention that the AI for your partner has been greatly improved since the last game, meaning that the AI is actually competent  you don't need to keep an eye on their weapons or items this time around as they seem to have an infinite supply of ammo and no matter how much your partner gets overwhelmed, they seem to be able to look out for themselves. There are certain events where you have to keep an eye out for them but for the most part, they can look after themselves.

Item management isn't much of an issue as it is in previous games considering you no longer have to worry about your partner's. you can hold all of your weapons but your limited to how much ammo and herbs you can hold. Herbs isn't much of a problem. in order to use them, you convert the herbs to pills and place them in your herb container. When you take damage, you can tap RB on your controller and your character will take their Herb pill like a tic tac.

As I mentioned before, Leon's campaign works well. Its not until you play Chris or Jake's campaign where things start going sour. limited ammo makes sense in Leon and Jake's campaign because they are thrown into situations that they weren't really prepared for but in Chris' campaign, its just stupid. Chris is part of a military group that tackles Bio terrorists, why wouldn't he pack extra ammo? It becomes even more stupid when you run into bigger and more deadlier enemies than what Leon would be up against and all Chris would have left is a combat knife. Ammo for Chris' campaign should have appeared more frequently and it ruined the overall campaign for me.

Another thing I don't like is how in Chris' campaign, the new enemies are rarely introduced, leaving you confused and frustrated when the grasshoppers and spider mutated terrorists start showing up from nowhere. In Leon's campaign, the enemies are better introduced which makes me wonder if the campaigns were made by different teams that were given little feedback from each other.

Much like the previous games before it, you have your fan favourite  Mercenaries Mode where you need to take out anything and everything that moves in a squared off area within a time limit. Much like in the previous game, Mercenaries is a ton of fun and you will constantly keep playing to get that A ranking to unlock more levels, characters and costumes. I will say that trying to get an A ranking will take an incredible amount of skill and time.

There's also a mode called Agent Hunt where you take the form of a mutated monster and jump in other players games to try and stop them from playing, However I wasn't able to play it. Mainly because like me, no one wants a bunch of assholes jumping into their game and chose to play the game offline.

Graphically, it looks pretty damn good...for the most part. Despite it using the engine from the previous game 3 or 4 years ago, the character models look realistic with facial expressions that can rival the likes of LA Noire and the characters look overall cool as well as the monsters in the game with their gory glory...until you look at the background and environments. The backgrounds aren't the worst I've seen but the quality of the textures feel like they're from the Ps2 era. You can excuse the fact that there's so much locations in the game that they HAD to lower the texture quality but that would mean I had to call bullshit on that statement. Whoever was in charge of the textures in this game done a crappy job and should probably get fired and join the ever growing unemployment line.

I'm not kidding....fuck you whoever was in charge.

the music meanwhile, is fitting for the game but nothing really to write home about or for in any way memorable but I will say that the main theme for the menu screens remind me of Batman Arkham games which is kinda weird. Unlike the music, the voice acting is stiller  So stiller in fact that Resident Evil 6 comes with a second disc dedicated to alternate languages in the PAL version which is probably why because the textures are so shitty. Troy Baker does a great job at sounding like...Troy Baker by making Jake sound like Dante from Devil may Cry. I don't hate Toy Baker, its just annoying when a voice actor with an extensive pallet is made to sound the same in every role they take. Craig Roger Smith returns as Chris Redfield and the talented Mathew Mercer takes the role of Leon with a cooler and deeper voice than before. Eden Reigel takes the role as the older Sherry Birkin and probably put in the best performance in the game, I really hope she gets more work in voice acting.

Overall, despite the negative attitude of the fanbase and critics I managed to have fun with Resident Evil 6. Its clear that they jumped the shark with this title and tried too hard to please the fanbase while trying to attract the newer "Gears of War and Call of Duty" generation and unfortunately disappointing mainly the fans. But if I can be honest, I'd rather have a game that tried too hard than not bothering it's ass to impress and in this day and age where games are released with the bare minimum and potential unlockables becomes DLC, during the hardest times in recent years where almost every country is in debt beyond repair might I add. Its just nice to see a game that's actually worth it's retail price.

This has been my Mental Analysis and I'll see you next time!

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Mental Analysis Questions and Answers (Read First!)

To those that are new, welcome to my review blog. As you would expect, this is where I post my reviews on current and classic video games or even post how I feel about certain aspects of the gaming industry.

What happened to your old posts?

I deleted them because I felt that I needed to start off fresh. Looking back at my old reviews, they were mostly about me going on a tangent on the smallest thing about a video game or I said something that looking back, I feel like an idiot for spouting it.

How often will you be posting reviews?

Hopefully, I will be posting an article 3-4 times a month. Sometimes more if I have something to bitch and whine about regarding what recently happened in the gaming industry. It really does depend on how busy I am because as of right now, I'm doing full-time at university to get my bachelor's for Computer Arts and I also have other stuff to deal with such as personal life as well as professional.

How often will you be posting videos?

So this is how I will be doing reviews. If the game is brand new, expect a written article. As I said before, I have little free time. Usually by the time I have completed a video review, the game would be old and whatever I have to say about the game, has already been said by other critics. So videos are a rarity which is why the videos will be based on retrospectives of older games.

Are you looking for a profession in this?

Not really, I'm only making these articles and videos just to share my own opinions regarding my favourite hobby. My profession is in art and animation, not giving people a yay or nay on what video games they should or shouldn't be playing and at the end of the day, that decision is up to you. We all have different tastes in video games and just because I liked something, it doesn't mean that you will. These reviews are based on my experience from playing video games, not yours.

Would you review _____________?

Since this isn't a career, I tend to go for games that I have an interest in. I don't usually go for MMORPGs or games that are strictly multiplayer because like most hobbies, I prefer to play alone because I feel that a game should be able to stand on it's own instead of relying on a community that may or my not exist within the next month or so. I'm usually open to new stuff and I don't pick up a game to simply hate on it. I'm also limited to what systems I have so don't expect me to review the hottest new Ps3 exclusive anytime soon.

No review scores?! what sort of review is this?

I don't do scores because I feel that it makes the article I wrote completely worthless. I do understand why they're there though. not everyone has the time to read a whole review and would rather if reviewers would get to the point. Usually my opinion of a game would be summed up in the last paragraph, so if your in a hurry and want to get to the point, take what I said in the end and assume I said a 6/10 or something like that.