Super Smash Bros. Melee: Stages

Back again with another post about Melee, this time I'm talking about the Stages that are within the game, and the types of stages they are and how they separate the men from the boys. The stages in the game are based from many different famous battlegrounds and locales in different Nintendo games, including Hyrule Temple from the Legend of Zelda games to the Planet Brinstar from the Metroid Prime series, all of which have exotic graphics, detail and looks to them. Even though Smash Bros. Brawl consists of over 30 stages, Melee holds up it's end of the bargain by having at least 15-20 stages for players to show their might on, and the maps come in all sizes from small close quarters fighting based maps to large scale/all out brawl fest maps that are meant to have a lot of people fighting on it. What makes the stages in Melee different from N64 besides the graphics is the new mechanic of on going things in the background that can sometimes affect the stages or the stages themselves that could affect game play. The following video is an example of a how a moving stage can be a somewhat factor in a battle.

As you can see the game was changed quickly, even though the player was against A.I it can affect how you play when the stage is moving and different objects in the background can come to either aid you or work against you causing you to not only to watch your back against other players or A.I but also you need to watch the enviroment. Since many or most stages in Melee have this factor with them it makes it a somewhat challenging task for many of those that are veterans to the Smash Bros. series.

As you can see from the picture above, Melee offers players many different stages that players can choose to brawl on with places stretching from Starfox's Ship to Pokemon Stadium, and many in between Melee does not let players down with the amount of stages to select from. In Melee there are 32 stages fight on, and of those 32 stages, there are over 10 stages that have the "enviroment effect" to them that make them somewhat challenging. Even though some stages present a challenge to fight other players Melee proves with it's stages

 and characters that it is able to take the spot as the #1 Gamecube to ever be made.                                      

Super Smash Bros. Melee: Character Roster.

  After the release of the first Super Smash Bros. many of the gamers where demanding for more and more of their favorite characters to be put into the next game if they were to make one, and so when Melee was created and released, Nintendo had answered all the fans demands by adding in more characters then many could imagine for a fighting game! When you first boot up Melee you are greeted to a extensive roster with many familiar faces from the original game (which was about 12 characters) characters like: Fox, Mario and D.K return to have more face offs against other Nintendo characters but in Melee, Nintendo decided to be over generous and add an extra 13 characters to the game to make it an even better reason to own the game! Even though the game's sequel Super Smash Bros. Brawl boasts an even bigger roster than Melee, but the roster for Melee is a huge advancement from the original N64 game.

Original Roster for Melee

As you can see from the picture it isn't much of an improvement from the original Smash Bros.but it is a big enough addition to please many of SSB fans around the world, and oddly enough Nintendo decided to add the secret characters from the N64 as playable characters right from the start!

Full/Final Roster for Melee

In this pic it shows the true reason of why Melee is a game that is different from it's predecessor, with an extra 13 characters that span over 6 famous Nintendo games, although it is a good amount of characters they also certain requirements that the player is made to meet in order to unlock and play as those characters, which makes Melee a game that's definitely worth playing over and over.

"You say you want a revolution?", well The Beatles: Rock Band creates one for all music games!

Game Info/Structure:

WOW. That's all I can say to describe this genius creation of a music game, being a Beatles fan I was excited to hear they were creating a Rock band that was devoted just to the music archives of The Beatles, and once I heard it was being released I made it my mission to have on my game shelf, and a good decision it was to have it! Let me start off with things that I dislike about the game, and believe the list is very, very short. The only problem with the The Beatles: Rock Band was that the company didn't continue to release more song (DLC) after a month or so when many fans were demanding more song from the "Hard Day's Night" and "Help!" albums instead the flow of DLC's just stopped at the end of the "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album, but besides that small issue there is nothing I dislike about the game. Now to begin the long list of stuff I like about this game, I will start with the amount of songs included with the game; spanning over a decade of Beatles songs, the game includes over 45 songs to start and over 20 more that available as downloadable content. Also another aspect about the game that I like is the fact that the developers highly detailed each one of the Beatles to match their looks during that year or time period! The set of the game is really simple, you play each note as it floats down a "guitar highway" towards the bottom of your screen, with the ultimate goal of achieving 100% notes played by the end of the song chosen. The characters are also very simple: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, the four members of the famous rock group: The Beatles.  The storyline is easy to follow, even easier if you know the group insides and out! You are thrust into being a "member" of the group and travel throughout the world playing songs at many famous venues and almost experiencing it as they did, the animation of the game is somewhat simple and is an exact reflection of the original Rock Band's, but with a little more detail added to the characters to give it more creativity to it. The sound and music of this game are truly awe-inspiring for it is you playing all of the "Fab Four's" classic's again in your home!

What Others Think:

"The Beatles bleed from every asset in the game. Along with the new vocal harmonization, the art direction is specifically meant to convey what the Beatles were all about. The models themselves are distinctly recognizable, but keep that cartoony flair that we love from Rock Band. You can play through all their famous venues (and “dreamscapes” reflecting their songs during their recording career, such as retro russian imagery during “Back In The USSR”). Their movements are spot-on, the screaming girls are there, and they even have the pre-performance banter built into the songs themselves.

But the real showstopper for me was how markedly different the game is from other music and rhythm games. Though the formula is the same, and you can play with up to six people, this is the first game that really emphasizes you playing an instrument and singing at the same time. It’s a different kind of challenge, and for me, it was far more satisfying than the typical wankery of over-the-top guitar tracks and challenges.

Not to say the game isn’t tough, of course. On expert difficulty, you don’t get Dragonforce levels of ridiculousness, but all the members of the beatles were amazingly techncal players in their own right (hell, check out Ringo’s drumming on “A Day in the Life” or “Rain”). If you’re coming into this game looking for pretzel-fingered mind benders or endurance challenges, this is not a game for you. If you’re looking for some of the best songs ever written in rock and roll and a good time playing them, I would venture to say that this is a better investment than even the other Rock Band games.

And besides, it’s the fricking Beatles. This is the consummate party game. Everyone knows their songs. Plus, all songs are unlocked from the get-go in Quick Play, and the Easy difficulty is defaulted to no-fail, so even Beatles fans unfamiliar with Rock Band can drop in with minimal learning curve." - Alex Lifschitz, Gear Live: Playfeed.

My Point of View:

Since I got the game on 9.9.09, I have beaten the main storyline and achieved the highest level of being a guitar and bass player for the band (which isn't really hard to begin with). My highest score ever on the game was over 1.5 mill with a 4 player band (which isn't full seeing as the max is 6 players) on the song "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" which is well over a 7 minute song, but easy enough to get over a million on as long as the people that are in the band have had enough experience in playing the game before. Since I've beaten the game I've helped people get to higher ranks by joining their "band" and assisting them in getting a really high score for their own band  Besides that I drop in to play a few jam sessions with some buddies that I met while playing online, and so far until I get more messages for help or to play with friends I just jam solo with the Fab Four. In my own personal opinion I give The Beatles: Rock Band, a definite 100% and well deserved and well earned 10/10. 

Super Mario Crossover FTW? (PC Only)

Game Info/Structure:

Since being released in 1985, Mario has conquered the gaming world for many years on almost every platform from SNES to the Wii, and finally it has found a way to dominate on the PC. At first it started out as a gaming sensation and revolution, allowing players to play as both Mario and a new character (his brother Luigi), but it didn't stop there Mario continued to wow players in his many sequels with his bro. Many have tried to recreate this game as a flash on the computer but all have failed, for they have only created simple "clones" of the original, but one game enthusiast has done the unthinkable! Jay Pavlina or "Exploding Rabbit" (username and site name) has been able to recreate a flash version of Mario with a few extra add-ons to maximize the gameplay of Mario on a whole new level. The structure of the game stays true to the original Super Mario Bros. the level's are the same, the graphics and even the music, somewhat. A few new aspects have been introduced into the "crossover" edition of Super Mario Bros. including a difficulty system with levels of "Super Easy" to "Extremely Hard", so the game can offer a challenge or just be fun to those inexperienced with the game! But what makes this game different from the original is that you only had 2 characters to choose from: Mario & Luigi, but in crossover you have over 8 characters to choose from! the roster is as follows: Mario- from the original.
                              Link- from the Legend of Zelda Series.
                              Samus- from the Metroid Prime Series.
                              Simon- from the Castlevania Series.
                              Mega Man- from the Mega Man Series.
                              Bill Rizer- from the Neo Contra Series.
                              Ryu Hayabusa- from Ninja Gaiden.
                              Jason/Sophia- from the Master Blaster games.
Included in the new crossover over flash game is the ability to activate cheats that you can unlock by meeting or completing certain hidden challenges throughout the entire game. The storyline is also the exact same as the original: you play as one for the 8 characters and have to rescue your princess that has been taken to Bowser's Castle, along the way you enter many other castles defeating many Bowser's only to discover your princess is in another castle. The sound and the music is the same also, if you play as Mario, the game is uniquely designed to play music from the game of whatever character your playing as which overall makes the game so much better.

What Others Think/Game Link:

"What’s impressive about Super Mario Crossover, aside from the painstaking recreation of the original game, are how these six disparate characters all feel like they were ripped from their own classic NES titles, but fit in perfectly to the Mario levels. I’m impressed with the amount of tweaking this must have taken, to keep the integrity of the original characters but also make them work with the enemy behaviors and level designs of Super Mario Bros." - Chris Kohler, Wired Magazine.


"Super Mario Bros. Crossover is, really, nothing short of genius. The game’s remixer, Jay Pavlina has done an excellent job of combing our childhood faves into a game that feels less like a mashup and more like one that was organically made." - Chris Gampat, 2d-x.com

Link to play game: http://www.explodingrabbit.com/games/super-mario-bros-crossover

My Point of View: 

When I first played crossover I thought it was only a flash similar to the original, but once I started it up and noticed all the characters entering the main menu I was amazed. Players will love the new difficulty system along with the ability to choose characters from classic and favorite Nintendo games, there is absolutely nothing that I dislike about this game, Jay Pavlina is a genius for creating the game like he did there is no glitches or bugs in the game and every few months he adds a new character to the game roster. So far since I have started playing at home, I have reached world 4-2 using Link as my main character and my current score is 382, 931 with over 10 lives.  I have began to notice that the easiest way to beat Bowser is to use Jason/Sophia as the character for every stage that has "-4" in it because he can grab onto the roof and drive so it makes it easier for you not to get hit by the obstacles or the flames Bowser shoots at you. In my opinion I believe that Super Mario Crossover is a definite game to play a lot and have in the bookmarks section of your computer and so I give Super Mario Crossover a 100% and a 10/10.

Demonic Defence 3!! (PC Only)

What started out as a simple stick defense game on stickpage.com, Demonic Defence 3 has transformed into a computer gaming sensation across many other sites. There are only a few things to say that are likeable about DD 3 (not saying its bad, just not a lot of things), its good for things like having a continuous level progression that never ends and also how you are able to buy different weapons and spells and even upgrade your castle`s defence`s with such things as Archers, Gunners, and just constantly upgrading the fortifications. The funny aspect about this game that`s different is that there is no real storyline, but your basic objective is to protect your castle from fully being and surviving for as many levels as possible with no real end to the game. The animations for DD 3 are really quite simple for it is a stick game with stick figures and these figures can be created and designed like they are in the game using Adobe Flash Professional. The strategies for the game are really based on how you have your spells and castle strength/defence of the castle set up in the earlier rounds (the stronger and more defence, the easier it will be later on). The music that plays in the background while you play the game is repetitive but also very amusing to listen to, for it gets you in the mood to actually try and defend your castle :P

*Link for the game's song: http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/5437

* All credit goes to Newgrounds user ParagonX9.

 Link to play the game:
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/194317
Reviews for Demonic Defence 3:
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/194317

My Point of View:

I have been playing Demonic Defence for over a few weeks now and have become fully accustomed to a perfect strategy to get farther in the game's leveling system, in my opinion the game is good to play, but play it too much and you are expected to get bored very, very fast. My score right now is over 1.1 million and I have reached level 102 and saved it there, I haven't played it since. So I have basically given up on it, so in my opinion DD 3 is a good game to play if you are looking to pass the time if your bored, see as it never ends, but never the less I would give DD 3 a 8/10/.

Battlefield Bad Company 2

Game Structure:

Starting off in modern times between 2009-2010, BFBC 2 is about a unit of elite U.S army soldiers that pursue a Russian war criminal from South America to the U.S to capture him and the dangerous weapon from WW2 that he holds in his possession, with the ability to turn the tides of the war for either the Russians or the Americans. Many aspects of the Battlefield series are very highly liked by all shooting game fans, and what defies BFBC 2 as a shooting game is the intense amount of detail put into the destruction caused by players playing online or single player that makes the outfit of war seem more realistic than that of the Call of Duty series. In my mind there isn't really much to not like about the game, except one minor glitch that hasn't been fixed and that is the loading system for online, in which if doesn't load properly will reset your rank and your weapons cache to the lowest during the game session of which your signed into. Besides that issue nothing is to be disliked about this game by me. Developed by DICE gaming company based in Sweden and EA in Canada, BFBC 2 has destruction animations like no other game, that is thanks to the Frostbite graphics/destruction system developed by DICE, this unique system is what brings the real building destruction of war to both the single player and online modes, this is what truly makes BFBC 2 a game to have on your shelf.  The storyline of the game is at the most: ok..., only because it doesn't really go anywhere once you beat it, just basically ends but it's the characters of the story that make it worth playing. In the game you play as wild card, but by-the-book soldier Preston Marlowe in the army unit known as Bad Company, along with Demo Expert: Haggard, Techy: Sweetwater and Commanding Officer: Sarge. The difficulty in this game sadly, isn't anything challenging for I have beaten the game on it's hardest mode and know it is anything but challenging. During the late weeks of December though the game became extremely worthy to play when the Vietnam DLC was released which allowed players to travel back to the infamous Vietnam War and relive many events during the war against other online players.

What others had thought:

IGN Review: http://ps3.ign.com/articles/107/1072833p1.html

Main Game Site:  www.battlefieldbadcompany2.com/


Walkthrough for Single Player Mode:  http://www.gamewinners.com/Cheats/index.php/More:Battlefield:_Bad_Company_2:_Video

My Point of View:

Since I have owned the game, I have beaten it on the hardest difficulty and also the easiest difficulty for the Single Player mode, and in the online mode the maximum level for the ranking system is level 50 and since purchasing the game back last March I have only made it to level 26 because the ranking in BFBC 2 is longer and more difficult to achieve than it is in the online mode for the Call of Duty series. Although it takes longer to rank it is a good thing because the game realistically shows that you need skill and patience in order to rise higher in the ranks of the military rather than just rank really fast like Call of Duty 4, Modern Warfare 2 and Black Ops. Like the many of the Call of Duty titles, Battlefield is for sure game to grab the attention of many serious shooting game fanatics and is a definite competitor against the COD series, so all those that love destruction and shooting: Battlefield Bad Company 2 is the game for you!

Streets of Rage fights from Sega in '91 to Sony in 2011 still as the greatest beat 'em up games ever.

Created in 1991 for the Sega Genesis, Streets of Rage was one of the first games to be a "foundation" of later fighter and beat 'em up besides Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. The game was designed and "constructed" during the early 90's and revolves around three former police officers turned vigilantes that fight to take down a crime syndicate that has taken over the city they reside in. The animation/graphic of the game are pure "old school for they are 8-bit graphic animations rather than the 3-d animations seen today. The game was developed by longtime award winning company: Sega, but mainly designed by a small group of developers known only as: "Team Streets of Rage" that developed the game, while it was published under the name of Sega. The gameplay structure of Streets of Rage is very straight forward known as a "beat em up" classic and is a side scroller, similar to Super Mario and like many game it's structure has the usual material: difficulty system, character selection and control change. Sadly though, like many games it also has cheats included in it to assist those that are too lazy to play through the entire game, which consists of only 8 stages!  In my personal opinion and knowledge of the game, it is one of the first games I played and is considered one of my most favourite  games I have, it has good graphics, 2 player co-op/ versus capability and a good storyline. I have beaten it too many times to count, i have beaten it on all difficulties including the secret ones, and have competed with the top 10 people in the world for the record "speedrun" of the game, and as per tradition of first playing it at my uncles I play it every Friday and do a marathon of all 3 games, and always conquer them all. Streets of Rage also comprises one of the best video game soundtracks ever! Yuzo Koshiro the famous composer and creator of the SOR series music, is one of the most respected video game musicians ever, because of his genius works of art in the Streets of Rage series. The 3 given difficulty settings: Easy, Normal, Hard make it a fun time for those that all new to beat em up/ side scrolling games, while Hard (and the Maniac difficulty) make it a for sure challenge to those that are accustomed to fighting games.

Cheats for the Original Sega Version:

http://www.gamewinners.com/GEN/StreetsOfRage.htm

Game Site/ Info:

http://www.sega.com/games/streets-of-rage/

Reviews for SOR:

"Streets of Rage is THE beat 'em up for Megadrive owners to buy. The action is great, especially with two players on-screen at once! For once, the players act as a team, using each other to produce moves not available in one-player mode. The graphics are great. The sprites are excellent, and at times the screen is chock-a-block with thugs ready to send you to your doom! The backdrops are similarly detailed, although the scenery on each level could've done with being a bit more varied. My one substantial gripe is the fact that the game doesn't present much of a challenge on EASY mode. Gary and I completed the game in two-player without using one continue! However, put the difficulty level on HARD and the action is made all the more enjoyable and challenging. Beat 'em up fans should check this out as soon as it hits the streets"

- http://www.meanmachinesmag.co.uk/review/179/streets-of-rage.php

So in my opinion and from videos and a review fans of any type of old beat em up games, should absolutely try and find SOR or purchase it for the PS3 or XBOX 360 and experience the sensation that was the basis of all fighting games to come!