Shovel Knight

Console: 3DS, Wii U, PC

Genre: Platformer

Release Date: June 26, 2014

Date Reviewed: July 4, 2014

Gameplay:

Shovel Knight takes another whack at the classic plat forming genre. The style for Shovel Knight takes place in the NES era. With classic 8 bit graphics and 8 bit sounds/music. It has a mixture between Megaman, Castlevania, and Mario. It mixes these three great games together to make its own step into the classic plat forming series. The game plays just like you would expect it if you've ever played an NES plat forming game before. Feels exactly like the three games I mention above. Shovel Knight feels like a fresh entry overall. The basic principle of the game is going through different levels; beat each knight to advance forward and save the Shield Knight from the evil Enchantress. You are a knight that wields a shovel as his weapon of choice. You attack with your shovel and perform certain tasks to venture through each level with this mighty shovel. From downward thrusts so you can bounce on objects and enemies to swooping your shovel to deal with enemies, the shovel has many uses.  Each boss knight has its own special attack and abilities. Just like in Megaman you need to find out what their patterns are to defeat them. Some of these bosses are not the easiest.

Ahhhh Classic.

In Shovel Knight you can even upgrade your shovel to perform new attacks. Shovel Knight can also purchase new armor that has different effects to the player. Just like in Mario you are on an over world map and you are able to choose any level, any time. Sometime on the world map there are random events as in mini boss battles, and treasure to grab by using certain items. If you are the type of person that needs to collect everything than you can even collect music notes. Return these music notes to the bard in town and he will buy them off of you for 500 gold a piece. When you give the bard these music notes he will add them to your collection so you can go back and speak with him at any time and listen to the music you have unlocked. Shovel Knight provides an excellent difficulty level as well just like in the classic plat formers. It starts off moderately easy and then picks right up and ups the difficulty level. Some levels make you want to pull your hair out but in the end are very rewarding when you finally beat it.

Graphics/Visuals:

Shovel Knight is an 8 bit plat forming adventure. It takes place during the NES generation of plat form gaming. The visuals and style of artwork is outstanding. Very colourful game, great looking backgrounds, fantastic looking enemies, great animations and NPC’s. All in all it is a very nice looking 8 bit game and a fantastic edition to the NES plat forming series.

Epic Boss Battles!

Soundtrack/Music:

Wow. Shovel Knight has one of the most amazing soundtracks I have even heard in the 8 bit era. Each and every song is unique, different, and makes your ears sing. You can tell they put their heart and soul into this game, into the music. The music is so good that it’s making me unlock and find all of the music notes hidden in the game. I often find myself going back to the main town just to listen to the music I have unlocked. Each boss, each level, and zone has its own unique soundtrack and every single one of them is a breath of fresh air. You can even get the entire soundtrack on download; it is very well worth it. Some people even got this game just because of the amazing soundtrack.

Epic Soundtrack!

Final Thoughts:

Shovel Knight is a breath of fresh air to the 8 bit plat forming series. It feels very familiar yet very new. With a mixture of the greatest plat forming NES games with a hint of its own style, Shovel Knight is a fantastic addition. Beautiful music, addicting and challenging game play, and beautiful art work, Shovel Knight is a must purchase. In fact I purchased it for all three platforms! My recommendation is to buy it on the 3DS or the Wii U just because you can quickly switch between all of them items with just a tap of your finger. The PC version provided no quick select tool.

Overall Rating: 10/10

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Wolfenstein: The New Order

Console: Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360, PS3, PC

Genre: First-Person Shooter

Release Date: May 20, 2014

Date Reviewed: June 5, 2014

Wolfenstein has always been a huge part of my life. I have played every single one including Wolfenstein 3D. I have always held this series close to my heart and always found each game in the series to suck me into the action and story. This is my review on the newest edition to the Wolfenstein series. Wolfenstein: The New Order. I am reviewing this for the Xbox One version.

Game play:

Wolfenstein: New Order is not your ordinary FPS. It has two campaigns, mostly very similar to one another but different outcomes. Without spoilers you basically choose a campaign for one of two characters. At the beginning you do not have that option. You have to select which character is part of your campaign right off the first mission. Once the game has been beaten you are able to go back and choose the other character for you campaign. Wolfenstein has stealth mechanics and well as full blown action packed mechanics. Depending on which difficulty you choose you will be using more stealth the harder it is and more running and gunning on the easier difficulties. Wolfenstein is a very challenging game. If you're looking for a real challenge then go and try the Uber difficulty. You may throw a controller or two. Wolfenstein has a mixture of good FPS action, movie like cinematics, stealth gameplay, a perk system, and a fantastic story that action made me use some of my emotions.

The Perk System is great!

The perk system is a fantastic way to customize your play style. Whether it be stealth, demolitions, run and gun, etc... Each tier of perks has it's own prerequisites you need to do in order to unlock that perk. One example is you have to kill 5 guards while being stealthed with throwing knives. Once you do this challenge you unlock a new perk allowing you to carry more throwing knives with you. If you're a completionist then you will want to try and get all of the perks. But that is not all there is too do for you completionists out there just like in the other Wolfenstein games in the series.

In New Order, there are a ton of things to collect. Some of them are harder to find then others due to them hiding in secret locations. Sticking to the old Wolfenstein system you are able to find secret doors and switches to open up secret areas to add to your collectables. One set of collectables that I really enjoyed finding are the golden items. They are scattered everywhere and most of them are tough to find on your own. They can be hidden behind the smallest cracks and you will walk past them. Besides golden items you can also find encryptions. When you find all of the encryptions you can go into the main menu under extras and try to encrypt the codes to unlock cheats and funny little additions to your campaign. There are also things like models, letters, and audio files to collect which make exploring much more enjoyable.

The gameplay overall is very fun and addicting. If you rush through the game you will complete it in roughly 5-6 hours. But if you spend the time exploring and collecting everything it will take you 10+ hours. Keep in mind that there are two campaigns you can play. The cinematics and cut scenes pulled myself into the game even deeper. Some characters make you hate their guts and want to hunt them down while other events and characters make you want to sob and weep. Each character has their own unique

story and some of them you really get to know. Finally, there is a wonderful easter egg hidden in the game. When you are in your hide out go to the very top floor. You will see a mattress with pictures above it. Look at the mattress and it will show an icon to examine called "Nightmare". Hold X to sleep on the mattress. When you fall asleep you will be in the very first Wolfenstein game and you have to fight your way out of it.

Duel Wielding guns!

Graphics/Visuals:

This review was done on the current gen consoles. It was reviewed on the Xbox One so it will be graphically superior to the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions although it still does look great on the last generation.

The graphics in Wolfenstein are overall very well done. I wouldn't say exceptional due to it being on Xbox One. It doesn't look "next gen." The cut scenes are very beautiful and cinematics are great and really get you involved in what's going on as well. The gameplay visuals are good but like previously stated, doesn't feel "next gen". Overall I was still impressed with the visuals in the game. There is a lot of gore in the game and some people may feel uneasy. In one cut scene after you escape the labour camp there is a cut scene that happens and it was even making me somewhat uneasy. But it added great effect to the game overall.

Soundtrack/Music:

The audio in the game was really great. The soundtrack really impressed me overall. I have always been a fan of heavier music. As soon as you enter the main menu you hear this wonderful soundtrack. It has a "Wolfenstein" feel to it. The music in game and music in the cinematics and cut scenes were all very well done and added to the already great experience of the story and action within the game. Overall it was fantastic!!

The Main Menu music.

Overall Rating: 9/10

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Mini Review: Brutal Doom

Brutal Doom is a MOD the someone created for Doom 1 and 2 for the PC. This MOD adds a ton of new features to the games. Such as unique gun animations, updates textures to enemies, fire, and special effects. The game is unchanged from the original story but adds a more modern feel to Doom. You can zoom in with each gun as in scoping in, and each gun as a reload animation. The guns are updated as well. Each gone as a new texture to it and the pistol is now an assault rifle. Each gun has it's own unique animation and they all look incredible. Every monster in this MOD also has new some new animations to it. The gore is much more intense, hence the name. When you shoot and kill an enemy blood sprays everywhere and sticks to the walls and ceilings. The blood also drips off of the ceilings. The explosions looks really good as well and the glow from the barrels are great.

Brutal!

Brutal Doom also adds a ton of new options and difficulty settings. There are 7 different difficulty settings each have a challenge of their own. There are also other options as well to make it feel like a more modern FPS game. You can make it so you can look around and control the view with your mouse like in modern FPS game which is needed for Brutal Doom. You can even add a cross hair to your view to make it easier to aim. The features added to Brutal Doom is a great touch. I love running through the game with the shotgun and blasting them to bits. The shotgun animations are incredible and make you feel god like. This MOD does a fantastic job of keeping it "Doom" like. It does not change the story or gameplay. Just updates them. Fantastic MOD, I recommend it to all Doom fans. 

There is only one small minor problem with this MOD. When you reload your guns it does not tell you how much ammo is in the clip, only how much ammo you have left over after reloading your ammo clip and can get annoying at some parts. But it is a very minor thing and you get used to it right away. One other feature is executing. When you boot an enemy and go up to them with your fists you have a chance to perform an execution. These are brutal!

The flame effects and the assault rifle.

The MOD also offers an all new soundtrack. It is the same music from the Original Doom games but re done with a metal sound to it. It is truly incredible. You can also insult the enemies. From flipping them off your telling them to "F*ck off"!

Overall Rating:

8.5/10

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Here goes...

Castlevania 1 (NES)

  

Well here is my first review on what some say is a great installment on some old classic NES games. This is the first installment of three on the NES. To my knowledge you are some dude named Simon Belmont and you have a whip, which later powers up to a flail. Your one bad*ss who enjoys slapping ghouls, ghosts, bats, cats, rats, and whatever else gets in your way. So here we go!

Gameplay/Controls:

I like the idea of power ups being hidden in some blocks, kind of like Mario Brothers. You can break the random candles on the walls for hearts, money bags, and also find certain items. Each item has a unique purpose, at a cost of 1 heart each use. (Nothing is free!) An example of a great weapon on the first boss is the axes. The axes can be lobbed to help you kill the boss, a flying bat. Each item can be utilized in certain areas to help you out, but at other times be completely useless. For a prime example, you get the Blue bottle, (seems like a Molotov cocktail) and you toss it on the ground and it makes a flame. That is extremely useful against flying enemies. (Sarcasm) In that case, the Cross, (acts as a boomerang) would be more useful in that situation. Another one of Simon's power ups look like a flail which you can get to increase your whips damage and range, are quite easy to stumble upon. Without some of these you would be dead meat in some situations.

I like the idea of ascending and descending on the stairs. This is quite a unique function to have for a game of this time (1986 on the Family Computer Disk System in Japan, which was ported to the NES Cartridge in North America in 1987.) Alot of older games were more simple than this game, I can see why for its time it was a favorite among many NES gamers.

The controls seem a bit sluggish, as in when you need to be critical in timing all the time. There seems to be no midair control at all. Those flying horsehead Medusa things that knock you off ledges and downstairs, you need to be critical in hitting those. It almost seems that they will always knock you off a ledge so that you die. One of the flaws I have noticed in the overall gameplay is that, if you proceed up a set of stairs, and get knocked back down them, you die! It’s as if you fall into a bottomless pit and just, well, die. Maybe Simon falls down and cracks his skull open how do we know?

Graphics/Background:

The graphics for this game are not too shabby. They seem to utilize the color red a lot. Then again this game is older than I am by 2 years! Majority of the other backgrounds are well done.The Enemies all have a unique look which is good. They do not seem to recycle the sprites which is good. Many of the older games do this which is a lazy game designer’s way out. I am colorblind so the colors always mess with me. Red/Blue/Greens are the worst for me. So the red backgrounds, as I am told, really mess with my eyes. These older games really rack a toll on my sight after gaming them, but all in all this games Graphics are not too shabby!

The axes, best for slaying this Bloodsucking Rat!

This is the "Red" color I am talking about!

BGM/SFX:

 The music for this game is alright. It gets annoying after a while though. The SFX when you collect things is pretty cool; it makes you want to collect more and more items. The sound of the whip is pretty accurate for the age of this game. The noise it makes when enemies die is ok too. Makes kind of like a boom noise. The other thing that is annoying about when you die is it’s almost like the Price is Right jingle they play when you die. It gives you that sense of feeling that you’re a failure, you suck, and you need to end it NOW. Why even keep trying? All in all this games Sound and SFX are pretty solid.

Uniqueness/Creativity:

I might catch some flak here but this game is very much like a typical Dracula/Zombie/Undead killing game. There is some superstition in the background of this game with the crosses and such. This game probably is one of the best side scrolling games for its time. The adventure aspect of it is quite good too. I also give this game thumbs up for the stairs being implemented and being functional. This is why it is set apart from other side scrollers where you can only jump on blocks to ascend or descend.

Closing thoughts/Statements:

All in all I give the first Castlevania credit for being a solid game for its time. It’s not a bad game, it’s just the controls are clunky and sluggish. If the controls were a little more responsive, the game would have been a lot better. I would strongly suggest this game to anyone with a love for sidescrolling good old ghoul bashing madness!