*WARNING VERY EXPLICIT*
Blame it on the Mayans or maybe the holidays, but this episode is all shades of crazy.
The TFGP crew review Farcry 3 and Persona 4 for the Vita.
We talk all about this year’s Video Game Awards (VGA’S) , and we start the discussion of what game should win our Golden Motorboat Award for Gaming Excellence.
We also go old school TFGP and add a small TFGP After Hours at the end.
This weeks Artists Spotlight is Turtle Creek.
*Warning Explicit*
Redline is what happens when you mix F-Zero, Speed Racer, and NASCAR together in a blender and put Sonic The Hedgehog, Rainbow Dash, The Flash in charge of direction as they all say “All of the cars in this race must be as fast as WE are. No exceptions.”
Redline is something that anybody with even a slight interest into Japanese animation or a film about extremely fast racing will want to check out. It has compliments right on the box so you KNOW it’s a thrill to check out and AnimeNewsNetwork.com gave it a praising review calling it a ‘must buy’ so surely this film is the epitome of an era of anime that’s been left behind by other studios, right? While not breaking any grounds other than being completely hand drawn, Redline is a fantastic ride that simply has to be experienced.
Harem anime is a really hard sub-genre of anime to sell without making itself look ridiculous. You have the idea that here you’re going to watch a romedy (romantic comedy) but with an extra emphasis on actual fanservice: tits and ass mostly. Pit one protagonist up with possible multiple women and VOILA you have yourself an ‘harem’ anime!
Those in Japan have to make that sell which isn’t hard for them but here in the West it’s a bit of a different battlefield in the anime industry and its audience. Much like how hard it is to find quality television and movies (with a few gems hidden amongst them), you have your hundreds of generic anime amongst the great series that are worth checking out. Cat Planet Cuties succeeds in standing out mostly because it’s not shoving memes and cutaway jokes in your face whenever possible. It’s aware it’s supposed to be something lighthearted because isn’t a psychologically breathtaking, mindbending series. However it did something that I haven’t seen for awhile: took itself seriously and treated the audience as if it had a brain.
COINS, BITCHES! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?
Seriously though, if there’s one thing to start off this review is to know this is the ONE Mario game to indulge players in an addiction that’s been more than 25 years in the making (but never truly fulfilled): collecting the gold coins in Super Mario games. Whereas the “New” Super Mario Bros series hasn’t evolved in the musical department very much, I feel that each game is far different from each iteration that’s been released so far that they all stand on their own 2 feet and New Super Mario Bros 2 is one hell of a guilty pleasure enjoyment of digital playground goodness that I’m going to try to overlook the ONE big problem the game has…but we’ll get to that later.
We all know the story: Princess Peach is kidnapped once again and you as Mario (or Luigi) have to save her, so we’re not going to dive into the story here at all. Time to focus on the gameplay and why this is a must-own for 3DS owners!
Warning: The content of this review is based on material that is 17+, and as such the review itself will be written to reflect the same nature. ~ Haru
Panty & Stocking w/ Garterbelt is Japan’s answer to South Park and a parody/tribute/mockery/play off of Western media and it’s shown to you RIGHT at the start with an art style that mimics cartoons shown on Cartoon Network. But it’s deceptive because this is ANYTHING but a piece of children’s Saturday Morning programming. Why Panty & Stocking w/ Garterbelt is so offensive it’s nothing short of brilliance, and why any anime fan (or a general audience of good sense of humor) should owe it to themselves to watch this will be explained RIGHT HERE in my review of it! Just get yourself a kleenex or two, you might be GAINAX’d by the time we’re through.
Do you want some Genesect loving the U.S. never got from Pokemon!? Nows your chance! Nintendo is finally givin us ‘Murrrcans this Pokemon and all you have to do is buy Pokemon Black 2 or White 2 between October 7 and November 12 and connect to Nintendo WiFi!~Melo
Pew Pew…New Video from the upcoming Halo 4 here are the lovely sounds the UNSC weapons make. Enjoy :)
-El Six
Halo 4 UNSC Weapon Sounds (by HaloWaypoint)
Source: youtube.com
Sooo what do you guys think of this beauty. I’m thinking that I need to update my Graphics card. Although not stated this is the PC version. For now it looks like this is the PC game of next year. I know I will be getting it, how about you?
-Six
Crysis 3 - CryEngine3 Tech Trailer (by gamespot)
Source: youtube.com
Don’t know how many of you remember this but I did get a chance to watch this when I was younger. Now although it would be kind of cool to see this again I can’t help but to put my hands over my eyes. This is childhood memories that they are messing with but who know it could turn out better than I am thinking it would be. Check out the article to see what SONY has planned. What are your thoughts?
-El Six
Following Disney’s big announcement that Joss Whedon will once again write and direct the followup to the third-highest-grossing film of all-time, Marvel’s The Avengers, the studio has issued a statement via HitFix.
Read more at comicbookmovie.com
“Hey NG Fans we have a surprise for you”
“Oh really? Hey what’s that? :D”
*Team Ninja show Kasumi (from Dead or Alive) and her nice backside and head for all of 3 seconds in the entirety of TWO APPEARANCES IN THE GAME*
“:I”
“Eh? What do you think?”
What do I think, Mr. Hayashi? I think you built up hype to absolutely nothing, that’s what. I mean, not that you had to TRY to sell me Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 since it’s based off of an excellent game…but oh well. Thanks for the letdown, jackass.
Aside from the extremely BRIEF appearance of my favorite DOA fighter, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 was…..average. Which is disappointing since I gave Ninja Gaiden 2 absolute praise up and down. The retraction of several features that were in the original often made me question why other things were left intact: trust me, the loss of massive blood and violence is only the TIP of the problems I had with this game despite it being somewhat entertaining. Matter of fact, playing this game opened my eyes why my fellow PS3 Brony, “Scootachair” had trouble getting into the game in the first place.
For example:
- Why give me a secondary weapon slot to ‘equip’ if it’s the ONLY damn thing I’ll ever have? Why give me the option to ‘equip’ it if it’s a necessity throughout the game? Matter of fact, where are the incendiary shurikens? The windmill shuriken? The smoke bombs? Where are my options for God’s sake?
Oh right, the explosive shurikens are now used only by Ayane whom you control for all of ONE LEVEL, just like Momiji.
- You don’t have a score attack/rank at all in the entirety of the single player campaign.
This defeats more than half of the reason for the enemies to be showing up right here alone.
Why, then, are you given twice as many enemies in certain areas and 1/4 as many in others? In many sections I found myself running merely through empty corridors where enemies SHOULD have ambushed me in hordes of 20 when instead I saw as little as 3 or not at all. There are moments where I literally laughed out loud going “Oh my God…are you serious?” because of so many sections of NOTHING. I can understand a difficulty/learning curve, but this was terribly paced. Why is the boss for Chapter 2 harder than the boss in chapter 4?
Rooms and locations that once contained the iconic Ninja Gaiden Trials are now just left without a single thing to replace them: it’s empty space. Since you have no score attack/ranking in ANY level at all, all you’re left to spend the currency on is on your health items and once you max out your inventory of those, what else is there?
Nothing, because the game doesn’t allow you to upgrade your weapons as you see fit like the original Ninja Gaiden 2 does. This creates a LOT more pacing issues that I had trouble getting around than I had hoped. Levels where I would have normally gotten a Level 3 Dragon Sword or Vigoorian Flail now proved a “bird of a different feather” because the game simply slaps my hand and says “No, Gamer. We upgrade when I SAY we do”.
Because the game has NO end level ranking and the enemies are nothing but currency grabs for health items, once I had enough to be sure I would survive all I ever did was just skip multiple battles at once by running past enemies. I only stopped once coming to road blocks where I had to defeat X number of enemies in order to advance. If the game is designed for me to enjoy it less because all it cares about is pushing me into battle after battle but doesn’t even reward me in any substantial way for doing so, then you’re doing something wrong.
- Absolutely zero connection between the main story and extra levels that you get in this Sigma-fied version of Ninja Gaiden 2. Sure, you can argue that with Ayane’s level that THAT is the way how she got the Eye of the Dragon back and you can argue Rachel’s cameo to say “Hey boys~ Now you can play as me for all of 40 minutes!” had some sort of importance……..if nothing else, to show you that the devil from the FIRST Ninja Gaiden wants revenge for being slain (to be mentioned all of TWO times, might I add) and then to be killed just as easily the first time.
Now I wasn’t think it was going to be much. I didn’t think they’d be mind blowing or as intense as the other stages of the game but I had hoped they’d have at least SOME sort of connection and since they went through the trouble of having the VA for Ryu dub some new lines (only a few it appears) why didn’t they have Ryu meet up with these secondary characters in-game so that there could be some feel of consistency? They feel completely detached as they stand now.
- Why am I not allowed to use Lives of a Thousand Gods whenever I want? Why does it have to be applied immediately to my health and how come it’s been nerfed in this game? Ninja Gaiden 2 let you use the item when you want and WHEN IT WAS USED it refilled your health entirely AND extended it permanently. In Sigma 2, all it does is extend it and refill your health up to whatever damaged red area you may have on the bar. That may not seem like a bit deal to some people, but when you have a game that’s tough as nails as Ninja Gaiden 2, and you’re all out of health items you have to have some sort of back-up plan. Sigma 2 takes that away entirely but maybe it’s just ahead of the curve because…
-…THIS GAME IS PISS EASY. Where is the challenging gameplay? Where are my sweaty palms I should be having? Where are the moments where I shout “FUCK!” at the top of my lungs and hold back from slam dunking the controller? Why is it the only hard parts are where I’m controlling underpowered side characters? Why are all of the Greater Fiends so easy to defeat? Why is their health so easily depleted? Why are so many enemies so easy to defeat? Why was the “Cave Snake” fight section taken out? Why are so many genuinely previously challenging areas so GOD DAMN EASY TO PASS? Why so many Muramasa shops when I can’t upgrade any of these weapons because the game says “Haru, you’ve upgraded that weapon already. Go upgrade another because we say so”? Why did the Bow controls change and WHY does it auto-aim-and-lock-on with infinite arrows?
THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE NINJA GAIDEN: THE VIDEO GAME FRANCHISE ON THE PLANET THAT SENDS FEAR INTO GAMERS, NOT WELCOMING THEM WITH OPEN ARMS. If you can’t handle Ninja Gaiden then you simply are not hardcore enough to handle it; end of story! Yet this game has NO issues taking out key features or changing them up entirely just to kiss casual gamer ass.
It’s NOT a bad game in its own right. For the rules it sets itself up, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 is simply an ‘ok’ game. But I can’t help but feel that the additional levels and campaign footage/changes COULD HAVE BEEN DLC FOR THE 360 ORIGINAL so that everything else would be left alone! It would no doubt strengthen the original’s content by far but because it’s a sequel to an adaption (Sigma) of an enhancement (Black) of a game (the original Ninja Gaiden) I HAVE to make hard comparisons between the two. If you want to get into Ninja Gaiden, Sigma 2 may be an okay way to start but if you want to see why it has the fanbase it has that respects its players, you’ll want to strap on your safety gear and buy Ninja Gaiden 2.
When considering the changes, there simply IS no contest: the original is by far the better video game.
But, y’know, thanks for the T&A, Hayashi. ~ Haru
So who wants to be a Millionaire is still going and has gone through some changes…man I haven;t watched in a while lol. Anyways looks like somebody did not own a NES when they were little. Like some of the comments said you would think the Konami Code would be enough pop culture that most people might know what it is. Check out the Vid.
Konami Code Millionaire (by cdschwan)
Source: youtube.com
Rambo! no way check it out tell us what you think.
