The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

When a movie based off of spider man doesn't directly mention "With great power comes great responsibilty", can it be good?

The Amazing Spider-Man

STORY

Disregarding Spider-Man(2002), Spider-Man 2(2004) and Spider-Man 3(2007), The Amazing Spider-Man retells the origins of the webhead hero.  6 Year old Peter Parker is dropped off at his aunt and uncles home while his parents have something that they have to "take care of".  His parent die in a plane crash the next day, leaving him in the care of Uncle Ben and Aunt May.  10 years later Peter is somewhat of social outcast at his school, but has a crush on a classmate named Gwen, around this time he find his fathers breifcase in the basement, in which he finds a file containing some sort of scientific equation, and picture of his father with a coleague named Dr. Curtis Conners.  He sneaks in to a internship at Conners lab, and learns what the research is about.  Dr. Conners is trying to splice lizard DNA, with regenerative capabilities, which in theory could allow amputees, such as himself to regrow limbs.  Peter finds himself in a room full a spiders, and is then bit by one of them.  On his way home he discovers he now can climb on walls, has precognitive sense, and super strength.  When Uncle Ben is murdered, and he could have stopped it from happening, he uses his powers to stop crimes in new york.  But when a giant lizzard with a brittish accent is running around, he of couse decides to step up and be amazing.

CONTENT
This is a action film, so expect lots of fighting.  Spidey does ninja like moves, as he tackles several baddies, which can somewhat be unrealistic, but they're always cool.  Some kids are in peril from time to time, but our hero always saves them.  The Lizard is a bit scary, as he is a cross between animal and human, and he is aslo trying to turn everyone in manhattan into a crossbreed.  Kisses between Peter and Gwen are extremely frequent, considering the amount of kissing in the original trilogy.  Languge is present, around 4 words throughout the film, much less than the original.

CONCLUSION
Spideys back in a all new adventure, that's a remake of a old adventure?  This is an all right addition to the franchise, although the story isn't as good as the first two of the original films.  I would have to say this movie is on par with Spider-Man 3, the weakest of the trilogy.  There's some plot holes, but they're not that bad, and help to continue the story into the next film.  So to answer the first question, yes a Spidey film can be good if it lacks the most important line.

6.5 out of 10

DETAILS
STARRING 
Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spider-Man
Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy
Rhys Ifans as Dr. Curtis Conners
Dennis Leary as Capt. Stacy
Sally Field as May Parker
Martin Sheen as Ben Parker

Directed By Marc Webb

Music By James Horner   

Released July 2012

Rated PG-13 

Tony Hawk's Underground

 

The Tony Hawk series, has been around since 1999, and in it's more recent games, it stunk.  Many would argue, that Tony Hawk's Underground is the best game in the series, and I'm one of them. 

 

GAMEPLAY

The gameplay, in underground is simular to that of it's predecessers, but many features, like driving, and getting off you board were added.  Combo extending manuals and reverts, have been revamped, and a story mode is present, rather than random objectives.  The map's are pretty big, and have alot going on, with many different terrains/sections.  The actual skateboarding gameplay is great like that of it's predecessers, also multiplayer is as fun as ever, especialy to build a level with a friend, and then tear it up with them.

 

GRAPHICS

The graphics in underground, are not that great.  Less than average textures for the era, and choppy lines around the world plague the game.  But as always, the Xbox version was better than the PS2 graphic wise.

 

STORY 

The story of underground follows (insert your name here), as (insert your name here) try's to make his/her way to fame.  This is a story of friendship, betrayal, revenge and just plain stupidity.

 

AGE

Inside the game there is blood if you wipe out, but that can be turned off.  The main problem comes from the langauge, which includes B++++, B++++++, A++, H+++, D+++, and S+++.  Age 13 and up.

 

CONCLUSION

Tony Hawk's Underground is a fun but, crude game filled with cursing. 

I give it 7 out of 10.

 

DETAILS

Developed by Neversoft

Published by Activision

Released in 2003

Rated T by the ESRB

For Xbox, PS2, Gamecube, and GBA

 

 

inFamous

"Hey McGrath you totaly awesome, can i have your autograph?"  You might hear this while playing inFamous if your ranked as a hero, but if your inFamous you'll hear "Yo' McGrath, you is a piece a junk!"  Then your free to ZZZAAAPPP!!! him off the face of the earth.
Welcome to...


STORY
So there's a bike courier who get's a call to open a package, when he does, big city goes BOOOOM!  At the middle of the blast is him.  Shortly after this catastrophe, Cole McGrath (the bike courier) discovers that he has electric superpowers (shocking, right?).  Learning to harness his powers as Empire City, fall's into a violent crime wave and plague, Cole sets out to find the person who sent him the package, ultimately having to decide if he is the hero of his once great city...or the man who ensures it's anarchy.

GAMEPLAY
inFamous is based around Free Roam Parkour Action with Superpowers.  McGrath can shoot variations of lightning from his arms, such as bolts, grenades, and rockets.  He also can levitate, create a sheild(more of a force field) and even bring a lightning storm on opponents.  Meelee combat from the fists of fury are what McGrath uses when it's not smart to use up electricity.  Health replenishes by it self, but absorbing electricity heals you faster.  Empire City is huge, it's actually spread across 3 island buroughs, the Neon District, which has more skyscrapers and neon's, the Warren, a more slummy area more so decaying than the Neon area, and the Historic District, which is the original, older area of Empire City and home of the Blast Crater.  Traversing over the enviroment is relatively simple, and there's a ton of collectibles and side missions to distract you from the main missions.

GRAPHICS
The enviroments look good, not great like Uncharted 2: Among Theives.  Characters look rather stiff with no emotions, but this really did not affect the game for me.

CONTENT
This is a very dark, violent, game, filled with frequent language (STRONG FOR A TEEN GAME) and blood in the cutscenes.  Also McGrath can kill civillians he wishes, but is "rewarded" by being pushed down the evil path.  Some of the gravity behind the Moral choices in the game might not be understood fully by younger players(younger players should not be here though). AGE-15+ 

CONCLUSION
This is a fairly goo...wait...GREAT action game exclusive to PS3.  The main criticism I would like to give is how, no matter what side of the moral bar your on, the ending is basicly the same.  I give this game 7.75 out of 10. 

Star Wars Battlefront II

So how can I put this?  Take everything epic from Star Wars Battlefront and make a Sequel with more features.  This equals EpicX5 to get SUPER EPIC!!!



STORY
So the Game follows a unamed clone trooper through his career in the clone wars and eventually the empirial war against the rebellion.

GAMEPLAY
Take everything great from the first game and make it better.  Thats what happened here.  Besides the "Conquest" gameplay that saw in Battlefront 1, there are new game modes like capture the flag, heroes v. villians and space combat.  Campaign also includes structured missions with objectives, such as retriving power crystals or destroying certain objects.  The controls remain the same as the first game and most of the maps are also still there.  Almost all of the new maps are derrived from episode III, such as Mustafar, and the Jedi Temple.  One thing that I don't like that the main focus for vehicular combat is in the space battles, so there aren't as many vehicles in the ground maps.  This AI can be a bit dumb (Just Saying) but it was 2005 and this was the only game like this for consoles.

GRAPHICS
The graphics in this game are nothing special, but are not bad for the PS2/XBOX era.
The framerate can slow down if there's a ton of stuff on the screen.

CONTENT
Star Wars Battlefront II has no offensive content other than non-graphic sci-fi gunplay, and rare mild profanity(only in cutscenes).
AGE-10+

CONCLUSION
This is a great game for PS2/XBOX junkies, who want a great game that provide hours
of gameplay against the CPU.  If really are a big Battlefront fan, and also like EA's Battlefield, D.I.C.E. is currently developing a remake to be released in 2015.         This is the game I've played the most of any and I give 8.5 out 10...For Awesomeness.

DETAILS
Developed by Pandemic
Published by LucasArts
Released 2005 
Rated T for Violence and Mild Language by ESRB

Iron Man (2008)

Tony Stark...Genius, Millionare, Playboy, Philanthropist...
       IRON MAN

STORY
Genius weapons Inventor Tony Stark is taken hostage by some terrorists.  They tell him to build a bomb from peices of a bomb...he dosen't.  Instead he build's a suit of armor to protect him in his daring escape.  When he returns home, he's not only changed emotionaly, but physically as well.  A small reactor in his placed in his chest while in captivity, is the only thing between his life, and death.  He uses this reactor to power his suit, and in his spare time, builds newer versions.  When realising that the enemies of the U.S.A. are also using his wepons, he take personal responsabilty, and goes to destroy the enemy stockpiles.

CONTENT
Iron Man was the first super hero flick I saw that had sexual innuendo, and it did suprise me the amount.  There is alot of suggestive banter going on through the whole movie, but most of it is for comedic purposes.  Violence is present as this is a action film, Iron Man does shoot baddies, and kills them.  The terrorists can be frightning at times.  Overall the violence is not bloody.  Language is in Iron Man, but infrequently.

CONCLUSION
Iron Man is a fun action film, with hints of comedy, but is not appropriate for younger viewers.  Tony is a mega jerk for the first 20 minutes of the movie, but then there is something that changes in him.  This is the movie that started the Marvel Cinematic Universe,  with that awesome stinger at the end.  This plainly one of the best Marvel Studios films ever(theres been 8).  It's witty, gritty, and a ton of fun.

8 out 10

DETAILS
STARRING
Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man
Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts
Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane
Terrance Howard as Col. James Rhodes
Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan
Clark Gregg as Agent Phil Coulson

Directed by Jon Favreau

Music by Ramin Djawadi

Produced by Marvel Studios

Rated PG-13

Released 2008

  

Man of Steel (2013)

                                   MAN OF STEEL

So, this is my first movie review.  Man of Steel is an attempt to revamp the Superman franchise by...well...retelling his origin story.

STORY



As mentioned this one is a remake.  So anyway, Kal-El is sent to earth by is father (Jor-El) and his mother before the planet of Krypton blows up.  Shortly after he departs, a corrupt Kryptonian general named Zod kills Jor-El.  As he is sentenced, Zod vows that he will find Kal-El.  Shortly after this, the planet kabooms. 

Fastfoward

Kal-El crashes and is raised in Kansas, and as a youth is raised by Johnathan & Martha Kent. Growing up as Clark Kent, he slowly discovers his powers and struggles with hiding them.

Fastforward

Kal-El then tracks down what he believes to be a Kryptonian ship buried in a glacier.
After sneaking to the ship, he encounters a woman  and saves her, presumeing he was followed.

Change Perspective

Photo-Journalist, Lois Lane, encountered him at a military base that she was covering a story.  Begins tracking this mysterious, "Superhuman" by tracing him back to his origins.

Rewind

We now see a montage of Clark growing up...again.

Fastfoward

Now Clark has discovered his origins from Krypton, and meet's a Holographic version of his father.  Armed with sheer strength and...Formal Kryptonian dress, he sets home to find that same pesky lady with the camera, from here, there is about 1 hour and 45 minutes chock-full of ACTION!

CONTENT

This is an action film, and there's alot of violence.  Buildings get destroyed, Smallville is decimated, and the death toll while unmentioned, would be huge just from collateral damage. 

Superman has to brake his moral code to save innocent civillians(I was dissapointed with this). 

There is a good amount of language, but not as much as Batman: Arkham Asylum. 

On a positive note Clark does go to a church, to ask a priest what he should do in a
grave situation. 

Also in this adaption, He has good, old fashioned values like Captain America does in his films. 

CLOSING THOUGHTS

One of the Major themes I picked up on, was that everyone CAN choose their destiny.  What I mean by this, is that in the film, all Kryptonian children are genetically engineered beings, and all are created with a certain duty to maintain in society.  Kal-El is the first natural birth on Krypton in hundreds of years, and being free of gentic enginering, he can choose his own path.  In life, God creates us with the ability to think, and decide what we are going to do with our lives, and this film creates a reminder that if we were not able to decide things such as our destiny, we would not make it far in society.

CONCLUSION

This is a very fun action film, with some flaws, but it's one heck of a ride.  I really enjoyed Man of Steel, and hope that you will enjoy it too as soars to DVD November 12th.

8 out of 10

DETAILS

Top Billed Cast

Henry Cavill-   Kal-El/Clark Kent/Superman

Amy Adams-  Lois Lane

Michael Shannon-  General Zod

Russel Crowe-  Jor-El

Kevin Kostner-  Johnathan Kent

Diane Lane-  Martha Kent

Lawrence Fishburne-  Perry White

Directed by- Zack Snyder

Produced by- Christopher Nolan

                     Charles Roven

                     Emma Thomas

                     Deborah Snyder

Story by- Christopher Nolan

                David S. Goyer

Score by- Hans Zimmer

Rated- PG-13

Release- June, 2013/ DVD-November 12th 2013

    

Batman: Arkham Asylum

So if you didn't notice, I played Arkham City first.  In light of receiving the May '13 issue of GI,  I couldn't wait for the soon to be released Arkham Origins, so I bought Arkham Asylum.

STORY

Joker brakes out of Arkham, Batman Defeats him before throwing a Punch and gives mister J first class service...back to the Asylum.  The Joker then initiates a elaborate prison riot, which only the caped crusader can stop.

GAMEPLAY

So... The gameplay is a bit harder in this one because the freeflow doesn't flow as well(in other word's I can't "Flow" because I'm used to Arkham City) Predator maps have different layouts than arkham city, and different takedown styles are also present.  Arkham Island is freeroam, so you can search for riddles and trophies.  FEAR is the main gameplay.  To go into detail about predator, Batman uses his arsenal of gadgets to hunt his foes, he takes them down by tying them to gargoyles, pulling them of walkways with the batclaw, exploding wall into them, and even just taking them out silently.  He uses his "detective vision" to see where the bad folks are, and other points of interest, like guns, or interactive objects.  Combat uses a freeflow system, so that means alot of button mashing in certain orders to accomplish your goals. 

GRAPHICS

The enviroments look great, and the character models look pretty good, but thier more choppy than Arkham City.

CONTENT

This one has lots of dead people littering the enviroment, semi-frequent cursing, and some revealing outfits for females.  On the positive not, Batbrain never kill's anyone, only knocking them out... and braking all thier bones.  AGE-13+ 

CONCLUSION

This is a real great one if you love action games.  It's won multiple game of the year awards for 2009, and ranked as the 2nd best licensed game ever made(after arkham city of course).  I give this one 9.5 out of 10.

DETAILS

Developed by Rocksteady

Published by Square Enix/WB Games

Released in 2005

Rated T for Alcohol & Tobacco Reference, Blood, Mild Language, Suggestive Themes and Violence by E.S.R.B.



Motor Storm: Artic Edge

 

3,2,1 and Go!  Motorstorm is another popular racing game series only on PlayStation besides Gran Turismo.  MotorStorm goes for Arcade like fun as instead of realisim.  This title, Artic Edge is so far, the only MotorStorm not to be released for PS3.

 

GAMEPLAY

The arcade, no speedometer, boost till you blow up gameplay is still here.  The focus is on Snow and Ice racing instead of deserts.  The basic rides seen in the original motorstorm are present, as well as snow vehicles such as snowmobiles.  While basicly the same setup and gameplay as the first game, the AI is not that great in this game.

 

GRAPHICS

Graphics are extremley toned down from the PS3 games.  The models are not as textured, and the surroundings are very plain.  The framerate also is down.  The PS2 version is just slightly better than the PSP version.

 

AGE

The cars get destroyed easily, and this might be scary to younger kids.

 

CONCLUSION

This is a good PSP game, keep in mind that the PS2 version is still just a updated portable game.  This is probualy the best racing game for PSP, but if you have a PS2, I would go with NFS: Most Wanted.  I give this 7.8 out of 10.

 

DETAILS

Developed by BigBig Studios

Published by Sony Computer Entertainment

Released in 2009

Rated T by the ESRB

For PSP and PS2

 

 

 

 

Wii Sports

With so many sports games aiming at realisim, as opposed to pure fun, it's hard to play them for hours straight.  Ninteno changed this, when they released the Wii with a game that comes short in many ways, but is still the best game for the console.  Please enter Wii Sports. 

GAMEPLAY

There are 5 sports in this game, we will go over each.

Baseball-It's very basic arcade baseball.  One player hits the ball, by swinging the remote like a bat.  The other player flicks the remote, and uses the face buttons, to control pitching.

Tennis-2 players keep the ball going back and forth, but watch it...where you swing is where it goes.

Golf-Hold the remote down, and swing, just like the real deal, face buttons are used to turn, and change clubs

Bowling-Use the Remote as a bowling ball(don't let go)

Boxing-Uses the nunchuck and remote, simulates arms, to players swing at each other(technicly not at each other, but beside each other.

Two other modes are existant, and they are Practice, which has minigames related to each sport, and Fitness Age, a test that give you 3 of the 15 minigames at random, and based on your performance, tell's you your "fitness age".

GRAPHICS

This game has better than normal Wii graphics.  The cartoon Mii's do it justice.

AGE

ALL AGES!!!!!!!

CONCLUSION

Wii Sports is a great game, and if you have a Wii, you most likley have it.  This review is more for people who bought their Wii second hand.  It's more fun than your average sports game.  8.5 out of 10.

 

Madden NFL 12

Football is one of the greatest sports around, and since the earlier days of video games, the strive to make the perfect copy of the game has been present.  Madden NFL is really not the best football franchise, but it has the monopoly due to the exclusive NFL license.  Let't take a look at the 2011 edition.

 

GAMEPLAY

 The football gameplay we expect is here.  There are some minor gameplay changes from 11, including the sun setting in real time.  Play selection in the classic style found in the SNES-PS2 era games is complicated making finding your play harder.  This is fixed by using GameFlow, which gives you 3 options on offense and defense.  Tackles look good, but are still pre-scripted as in older games, so sometimes it's a choppy movement.  I never have mastered the advanced controls, but I doubt that you will even need them to play.

 

GRAPHICS

Great graphics, the players actually look like themselves, and every wrinkle can be seen on the jerseys.  Grass is in 3D and the closer fans in the stands are not flat.  The surroundings to the stadiums are what is actually there. 

 

MODES

Sadly from what I have read, this is the last Madden to have franchise mode.  It also has superstar mode, season mode and play now.

 

AGE

You gotta know the game enough to play.

 

CONCLUSION

MADDEN NFL 12 is a decent football game, but has nothing on ESPN NFL 2K5.  With not that innovative gameplay, but great graphics, I give this one 7 out of 10.

 

DETAILS

Developed by EA Tiburon

Published by Electronic Arts

Released in 2011

Rated E

For PS2, PS3, PC, and Xbox 360

Mario Kart Wii

 

It a me, a Mario!  Get ready, set, go!  Mario Kart Wii is most likley the best racing game for wii, it has good tracks and gameplay.

 

GAMEPLAY

The basic Mario Kart gameplay is retained, with wacky colorful tracks.  New powerups are included such as bulletbill.  Three different control scemes are available, but the best is the gyroscope controls.  As far as the racing, you go around a decently sized track 3 times.  Power ups are used to knock other karters off the track and for speed boosts.  Retro tracks from earlier Mario Kart games such as Double Dash and Super Circuit.

Also for the first time Motorcycles are used for racing, and Mii's are used for characters.

 

GRAPHICS

On the Wii, cartoon styled games look better than the realistic games.  This is one of the better looking games for the Wii. 

 

AGE

All Ages.

 

CONCLUSION

Mario Kart Wii is a great game, if you have a Wii, you should pick this one up.  I give it a 8 out of 10.

 

DETAILS

Developed by Nintendo EAD

Published by Nintendo

Relesed in 2008

Rated E

For Wii

 

 

 

 

 

 

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit



Need for Speed, was the staple of awesome racing games 10 years ago.  It had it's problem years, and the developer was switched to Criterion, the creator's of Burnout.
Let's take a look at the 2010 title.

GAMEPLAY
HP keeps the fast paced, drift based racing established by earlier games in the series.  Police chases return for the to the old, action packed, intense Hot Pursuits.  The races are all time trial's and sprints, so no circuits are here.  The cars are unlocked by gaining bounty, instead of purchasing them with XP's, and there's a nice collection of them, from Dodge, Mazda, Ford, Chevy, Porche, Voltswagen and many other makes.  Where this one ranks different is that you can play as a cop, on top of being a awesome street racer.  Police mode consists of chasing the racers, and bumping into their cars until you "bust" them.  This is the first NFS to let you play as the police since NFS: Hot Pursuit 2, which came out in 2002.  Freeroam is present, but there isn't much to do, races are not accessible from this mode, and there are no dealerships, shops, safehouses, gas stations to blow up and police vehicles to watch for, like in Most Wanted.  

GRAPHICS
Very good graphics, detailed surroundings blurring as you whiz by, almost better than Gran Turismo 5.  Cars are realistic models, and look like the real thing, but still don't look as good as Gran Turismo.  The Framerate keep's where it's supposed to be at all times.

AGE
Street Racing can have a negative affect on younger children, so 6+.

CONCLUSION
Hot Pursuit is a good racing game, but lack of freeroam race access, no offline multiplayer and no xp's present, it jacks down it's value to me, all game's like this need to have split screen.  All together Graphics, don't make up for the losses on gameplay.  
7.9 out of 10.

DETAILS
Developed by Criterion
Published by EA
Released in 2010
Rated E10 for Mild Violence
For Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, iOS, Android and PC



    

 

Call of Duty: Black Ops

 Call of Duty, the best selling Video Game franchise ever.  Black Ops, is currently, as of Jan. 2013, the most popular in the series, being the seventh installment.  This game breaks away from the WWII setting, and the near future setting of Modern Warfare, to go explore the espionage of the Cold War.  Everything you know about Call of Duty, changed with this entry.

GAMEPLAY

Black Ops, keeps to the shooting frenzy, all out war found in previous installments.  Classic weapons from the 1960s era, some of which that are in COD: MW2 as well, like the M16, and the AK-47, and  adding new weapons to the mix, such as a crossbow.  Black Op shootout's have a different feel than the ones in MW2, mainly because the HUD, is different, and your squadmates usually are wearing civillian clothing.  Mission structure also include's infiltration and sniping, massive firefights, and sometimes downright awesome cinematic sequences.

GRAPHICS

While slightly better than MW2, nothing much has changed.  The framerate, which is a issue for some PS3 games, actually keeps at it's Xbox 360 counterparts speed.  Character models are very detailed, and the enviroments are detailed much better than MW1, and WAW.

STORY

Alex Mason has been captured and is being interagated by an unknown enemy, being forced to recount his life's story about the Cold War.  Mason, Woods, and Bowman were a team of undercover C.I.A. black opratives, sent to  assassinate Fidel Castro in Cuba, during the Bay of Pig's invasion.  After assassinating Castro, the team goes through a very intense firefight to get to an airstrip. Once there and on the plane, Mason sees that the runway is blocked, Mason then jumps off and clears the runway to save his friends, but at the cost of being left behind.  After soon learning that Castro is not dead, and that he shot a body double, Mason is sent to Vorkuta prision in the U.S.S.R., where he meet's Viktor Resnov, the story then blossoms, by the way, thats just the first mission.

AGE

This game has very intense violence, and alot of blood and gore.  Languge is extremely fowl, and includes multiple uses of the f word.

There is a mature content filter, which cut's out all s-words, f-bombs, and blood.  With content filter Age 14 and up, no content filter, Age 17+.

CONCLUSION

With fun gamelay, a great campaign, and a interesting story, I award the Black Ops campaign 8.75.

DETAILS

Developed by Treyarch

Published by Activision

Released in 2010

Rated M for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, and Strong Language by the ESRB

For PS3, Wii, PC, and Xbox 360.

 

Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy

The PS2, has had many great games released for it, but the most ambitious, and best one for it's time, was Jak and Daxter.
Developed by Naughty Dog, the team that created Crash, and after the Jak years, the largely acclaimed, Uncharted series.

GAMEPLAY
This game breaks away from the average, platform game idea.  It presents a semi-open world, with no loading times.  It's features different sub-sections of a region, making little free-roam levels, that you walk trough.  It's basicly Super Mario 64, without the castle.  The core gameplay revolves around exploring the world, to finding power cells, by completing, platform challenges, performing tasks,
and paying locals.
Once you have collected the required amount of power cells, you move ahead to the next set of area's to find more power cells.  Other collectibles such as precursor orbs (egg things) plague the world as well. 

GRAPHICS
For a game that came out in 2001, the graphics are very good, and beat most of what you would see on the wii.  Cartoonish worlds, and characters, help with the graphical side of the PS2, because, if it's not real, the better it looks.

STORY
Jak and Daxter have snuck to the forbidden island, against the green sage's will.  While there, Daxter falls into a well of Dark Eco, causing him to turn into a little animal.  Can Jak help his friend, or will he have to stay a rodent....forever.

AGE
Jak and Daxter has some cartoon violence, but nothing offensive.  Age 5 amd up.

CONCLUSION
Jak and Daxter presented a new kind of game, with fun, freeroam, platforming levels.
For a family game, or an adult wanting to relive the excitement, from when they were kid's playing SM64, or even if your looking for a great waste of time on the PS2.
8.5 out of 10.

DETAILS
Developed by Naughty Dog
Published by Sony Computer Enterainment
Released in 2001
Rated E by the ESRB
for PS2, and PS3

New Super Mario Bros. Wii

 

The Super Mario series has had many great games, but after Super Mario 64, there was a lack of side scrolling mario adventures.  As with New Super Mario Bros. for the DS,  this title includes all the best ideas in the series, with the classic, unbeatable side scrolling gameplay. 

 

GAMEPLAY

New Super Mario Bros. Wii has the gameplay of all it's predecessers.  To name a few of the features, it has the overworld map, first seen in Super Mario Bros. 3, the wall kick, first seen in Super Mario 64 DS, and the ability to ride Yoshi's, first seen in Super Mario World.

Goombas, Koopas, Bullet Bill's, and Shy Guy's are some of the bad guy's you'll find in the mushroom kingdom, this go round.  The side scrolling gameplay remains solid, and the boss fight's are quite fun, but are hard at the same time.  The main area where this game is totally different, is that it has up to 4 player, drop in/drop out, offline Co-Op play.  In Co-Op mode, you all play together, at the same time, to guide Mario, and his pal's in their quest to save Peach.  Alot of new power up's were also introduced, with the crazyness of SMB3, but slightly more helpful in your journey.

 

GRAPHICS

This game has amazing graphics, for the Wii, which are perfect cartoon animations.

I think, that NSMBW has some of the best graphics for the console all together.

 

STORY

Princess Peach was kidnapped again, this time, by the koopalings.  Can Mario and his pals save the Princess, or get squashed by the Koopa's trying?

 

AGE

That's an easy one, 4 and up.

 

CONCLUSION

This is a fun game, and one of the best game's for the wii.  The main problem, comes to difficult stages for the younger gamers, that the game appeals to.  If you are a long time Super Mario fan, or new to the series, or even just looking to find a great game for your wii, check it out.  I give it 8 out of 10.

 

DETAILS

Developed by Nintendo EAD

Published by Nintendo

Released in 2009

Rated E by the ESRB

Only for the Wii

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

Ultimate Spider-Man

 

Remember the warm and fuzzy feeling's from Spider-Man: the movie game?  Remember the even fuzzier feeling's from Spider-Man 2?  Imagine, the open manhattan of Spider-Man 2, in a real, breathing, talking comic book.  In Ultimate Spider-Man, we get all that and more than we could ask for.  The game loosley follows what happened in the "black suit" story ark of the Ultimate Spider-Man comic series.  Keep in mind that this is a different dimension than the movies, and the original comics, the long running series  "The Amazing Spider-Man". 

 

GAMEPLAY

Ok, so the freeroam Manhattan from Spider-Man 2, with part of Queen's added is in the inviroment.  You can't enter the Shops, and resturants like in the predecesser, but that's all right.  Combat, is just slightly different, once again having the kick button.  The main mission's are fun, but the side missions get old.  The main feature that make's Ultimate different than 2, is that some of the missions involve playing as the archnemesis, Venom.  The venom mission's involve jumping, and downright combat in linear levels.   Venom can hurl cars, and whack enemies from a distance using the suit's tendrils.  To gain health, you must feed on civilians/enemies.  After story mode is finished, Venom is a playable character in freeroam.

 

GRAPHICS

The graphics in the game are much better than Spider-Man 2, but that's because it went for cell shaded cartoon style, rather than real.  The game looks, like a moving version of the comic book.

 

STORY

The game follows the story of Peter Parker, 3 months after he seperated himself from the black suit.  And the events that followed after Eddie Brock bonded with it.

 

AGE

 It's not a scary game, but it does feature fantasy violence, which involves Spidey beating the bad guys, and some minor cursing, including H+++, D+++, and A++.

 

CONCLUSION

Ultimate Spider-Man is a fun, but short super hero action/adventure, freeroam, load of happyness.  It is a tad short, but if you have a last gen console, you should check this one out.  I give it a 7.9.

 

DETAILS

Developed by Treyarch

Published by Activision

Released in 2005

Rated T for Mild Language, and Violence by the ESRB

For Xbox, PS2, Gamecube, DS, GBA, and PC