It’s been a pretty long time since I picked up the Big Boss PSP bundle back in June. What happened to it? With all of my articles devoted to Starcraft 2 as of late, some of you may be wondering if I had even played it yet. The answer is most definitely yes. I’ve been playing Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker on my hour long commute home from work every day now for the past month, and I’ve actually already gotten the credits to roll but the game has so much post-game that I suspect that I will eventually hit 100 hours in this game. Hit the jump to read the review on what I now consider my favorite Metal Gear Solid game of the franchise.

Solid Snake, Old Snake, Naked Snake, and Big Boss…who?
The Metal Gear Solid games have never had the most straightforward storyline and characters. Jumping right into Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (which was originally titled Metal Gear Solid 5), can confuse even fans of the Metal Gear Solid games with all of the jumps in time and protagonists throughout the Metal Gear Solid series. Those that have not really kept up with the series may not be aware that Metal Gear Solid 3, Portable Ops, and Peace Walker all revolve around Naked Snake, aka Big Boss, while Metal Gear Solid 1, 2, and 4, all revolve around Naked Snake’s cloned son, Solid Snake (who then ages a lot in Metal Gear Solid 4 and gets the nickname Old Snake).

In a way, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is a sequel to Metal Gear Solid 3 and Portable Ops, because it continues the tale of Naked Snake/Big Boss. Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops doesn’t really add much to the storyline and can be skipped without much repercussion. If you want to enjoy Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker’s storyline thoroughly, the only other Metal Gear Solid game you need to have played is Metal Gear Solid 3. Don’t worry about Metal Gear Solid 1, 2, 4, Portable Ops or the Acid games.

If you’re in the unfortunate position of not having played Metal Gear Solid 3 (my previous favorite Metal Gear Solid game in the series) and are interested in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, you should wait until you’ve played Metal Gear Solid 3 first. I want to recommend playing through the PS2 version of the game before starting Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, but Metal Gear Solid 3 is being remade for the new Nintendo 3DS system so it may be worth it to simply wait for that and then dive into Peace Walker afterward. But, if you want to just get cracking on Peace Walker (which can still be enjoyed a great deal) without having played Metal Gear Solid 3, I will provide a quick spoiler-filled summary of Metal Gear Solid 3.

SPOILER WARNING: I may not do a great job since the Metal Gear Solid storylines are pretty convoluted, but here goes. Naked Snake’s mentor, The Boss, is secretly commanded by the US Government to defect to the Soviet Union back in the early 1960s. She is given nukes to bring to the Soviet Union, and to maintain the United States’ innocence, they send Naked Snake to kill The Boss to prove the United States’ innocence in the matter. The Boss is aware of everything, and in a way, helps Naked Snake up to the final point in the game when the two battle. Naked Snake kills The Boss, and inherits the nickname Big Boss as a result. Of course, Naked Snake can’t believe what happened to his mentor, and is not happy with the way The Boss was basically sold out by the United States. From there, both Portable Ops and Peace Walker continue the tale of Big Boss after The Boss’s death as he creates his own military force, called the Militaires sans Frontieres (Soldiers without Borders) and Outer Heaven (Big Boss’s base that is referenced in the first Metal Gear Solid game).

While I didn’t find Peace Walker’s storyline to be as deep or interesting as Metal Gear Solid 3, it was still a much better effort than Portable Ops and Peace Walker gets to hold the prize of having the most phenomenal gameplay in the entire series.

The Best Aspects of the Metal Gear Solid Games
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is in the unfortunate situation to be on the PSP – an aging handheld console that most gamers have already forgotten. That means that many gamers and fans of Metal Gear Solid that don’t own PSPs will never get to experience Peace Walker’s culmination of the best gameplay aspects of the Metal Gear Solid games. It takes several of the new base management and army management features introduced in Portable Ops, but refine them to such a level of enjoyment and convenience that the game becomes very addicting while providing interesting missions and enjoyable gameplay of the older Metal Gear Solid games.

The game is broken up into missions comprised of core storyline missions and extra operations. Both mission types can take place in one zone or across several zones as you make your way further into the jungles of Costa Rica. One of the best parts of the mission structure of Peace Walker is the ability to replay any of them to get better rankings, which sometimes unlock new special equipment when you S-rank them. Mission rankings are based on how fast you are, how often you get detected, and how many troops you had to kill. Earning S ranks on missions often require going through the mission quickly without being detected or having to kill anyone. Being able to choose which of the dozens and dozens of missions to replay for a better rank, more gear, more soldiers, and more secrets provide for easy portability and shoot the replay through  the roof.

One of the primary complaints about Portable Ops was that the controls were difficult to use. The PSP’s control system is pretty awkward due to the fact that there is no right analog stick. This makes the traditional 3D game difficult to play since several PSP games (Portable Ops included) force the player to move with the left analog stick and control the camera with the d-pad. Therefore, it is impossible to move and control the camera at the same time since your left thumb can only handle the analog stick or the d-pad at one time. Peace Walker changes things up, so you move with the left analog stick and control the camera with the right face buttons (square, circle, triangle, and x). Aiming and firing is regulated to the left and right triggers, and the menus are accessed with the left d-pad. It feels weird at first, but it’s definitely a better way to play this 3D-based game. For those that did enjoy the Portable Ops control system, it is still an option to use for Peace Walker if you wish.

Gotta Catch ‘Em All
The Pokemon aspect of soldier collecting in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops returns in Peace Walker, but it has been redone to be far more enjoyable. Any soldier you knock out in a mission can be recruited into Big Boss’s army, and unlike the tedious process of dragging a knocked out soldier back to the team’s truck or a teammate, you can simple make use of a new tool called the Fulton Recovery System. All you need to do is go up to the unconscious soldier and use the Fulton – which will deploy a hot air balloon and lift the unconscious soldier back to your base (who will then get convinced until he joins your army). You can even find P.O.W.s out on various levels to recruit as well. As Big Boss’s fame increases over the course of the game, you even have new soldiers showing up at the base who simply want to join because they Big Boss’s fame continues to grow.

What makes the game so Pokemon-like is that every soldier and P.O.W. in the game has a different personality and skills. You can only have a finite number of soldiers at your base devoted to the different departments: combat, R&D, medical, etc. The higher the soldier’s skill level, the higher the level of your department, which often allows for new items and weapons to be designed and unlocked, etc. Some items in the game can only be unlocked if you recruit specific individuals. What makes the game feel so Pokemon-like (besides the deploying the parachute on the unconscious soldier to capture him for your own army) is that your soldiers level up, can be used for missions, and can even be traded with other players. In the game, you can use a tool to analyze the skill level of a soldier out in the field to decide whether to capture him or not, so there’s a lot of fun just going around and finding soldiers that would increase your R&D level so that you can upgrade your gear. It’s almost like a big Easter egg hunt and the army management aspect of the game works very well.

Monster Hunter in my Metal Gear Solid?
I haven’t played too much Monster Hunter (it’s in my PSP backlog pile), but I believe that the core mechanics of what made Monster Hunter so popular in Japan find their way into Metal Gear: Peace Walker. There are some obvious gameplay designs that are a little more Monster Hunter than traditional Metal Gear Solid fare, but there are even actual Monster Hunter missions through a collaboration between Konami and Capcom. The gameplay design that feels like Monster Hunter and adds more replayability to the game is the ability to replay missions over and over, most notably the ones that let you take on bosses such as mechs and tanks. Mechs randomly drop equipment parts and AI pieces, allowing you to construct your own customizable Metal Gear, and smaller sub-bosses like tanks and attack helicopters can be captured for you to deploy in non-playable missions. On top of this, your combat soldiers level up when you take on combat missions, and you level up your skill with weapons whenever you use them. In short, while Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is an action game, it is loaded with RPG-elements and army management elements that make the game last well beyond its 20 hour main storyline.

Final Thoughts
I haven’t written a review in a long time, so I apologize if this one seems all over the place. I feel almost like I haven’t even covered all of Peace Walker’s gameplay features (such as its adversarial and co-op multiplayer), but from everything I’ve gotten to play, this is a Metal Gear Solid fan’s dream come true. It’s unfortunate that this game was made for the PSP instead of the PS3, but as a new PSP owner because of this game, I can certainly say that the game delivered far more than I would have ever expected and I must say that it is worth buying a PSP for any major Metal Gear Solid fan (like myself).

Peace Walker may be tough to get into for those new to Metal Gear Solid, but the enjoyable storyline and meticulously designed gameplay elements more than make the game worth checking out for current PSP owners. Worth buying a PSP for though? Probably not. But as a Metal Gear Solid fan, I don’t know how this game could have been made any better (except maybe better load times) and I plan to continue playing it for dozens more hours to come. The game just keeps on giving. I don’t know how the next Metal Gear Solid can top this.

Grade: A

I really wanted to write about Starcraft 2, but decided to give any non-Starcraft playing readers a break. You’re welcome. (By the way, SC2 is awesome!) During my non-Starcraft time, I’ve been playing through the special edition of Monkey Island 2 which came out in early July. Since I loved the first one and love the Monkey Island series in general, I figured I’d take it out for a spin. So is LeChuck’s Revenge better than the original? Hit the jump to find out.

Twice the Story
I’m not sure if it actually is, but Monkey Island 2 feels like a longer game than the original. The story is well written, as you follow the adventures of Guybrush Threepwood, Mighty Pirate, as he tries to take down the evil ghost pirate LeChuck. As you move through the storyline, you meet up with familiar characters from the original, and there’s a lot of fun to be had. The writers were not afraid to make fun of tired cliches in storytelling, and the end sequence borrows a lot of Lucasarts tropes. It gets pretty fun, although I must say the actual ending of the game really leaves something to be desired. It’s…weird. But everything up to that point is great.

Twice the Humor
The Monkey Island series is pretty funny, and Monkey Island 2 is no exception. There are the regular slapstick gags, dry jokes, and some stuff you won’t expect. The humor can be hit or miss, but for the most part I found it all pretty amusing. There is a great musical gag, some really funny dialogue, and a wonderful “philosophical” moment. I mostly play these adventure games for the storyline and the jokes, and in this sense Monkey Island 2 does not disappoint. The third thing I look for in adventure game though…

Twice the Frustration
…is generally the puzzles. And I can’t for the life of me figure out how I beat Monkey Island 2 as a kid without cheating. Some of the puzzles are just too obscure and too hard, and especially in the second section of a game, there are way too many options open. I think I might be getting too old for all the trial and error. Luckily there is a progressive hint system, but I don’t really like to use those. There are also parts of the game that just feel like they drag, mainly due to some antiquated gameplay. You can’t fast travel anywhere, so you have to physically watch Guybrush walk from place to place. I think the developers could have updated some of that stuff and not taken away from the gameplay.

Twice the Presentation
I must say, the presentation of the special edition is top notch. With the exception of Largo Legrande, whose voice actor is wretched, the voice acting is top notch. Also the music is absolutely wonderful, 21st century renditions of the old midi files. The graphics are great, and Monkey Island 2 is just a fun game to play or to watch. So top marks for that.

Final Thoughts
I went into Monkey Island 2 Special Edition thinking I’d enjoy it much more than I did. It’s still a great game, and well worth playing through if you haven’t before, especially at arcade pricing, but some of the difficult puzzles combined with all the wait time when you’re walking around really started wearing me down at the end. It also didn’t help that the ending left a bad taste in my mouth. That being said, I still hope they put out the third installment, Curse of Monkey Island, on XBLA some day. I never actually got to play that one, and would love to see them “fix” the ending of this one!

Final Grade: B

It’s been about a month and a half since I picked up the Big Boss PSP bundle, as I was so excited to play Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. Of course, it was recommended that I play through Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops first, and so I’ve finally done so. Now Peace Walker is finally sitting in my PSP! In any case, I am ready to share a review on Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops. Is it still worth checking out today?

Some Background
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops was not the first Metal Gear game released on the PSP. Prior to its release, Metal Gear Acid 1 and 2 had hit the PSP and while they contained Metal Gear characters, their gameplay was card-based and their storylines were in an alternate universe than the Metal Gear Solid universe. Fortunately, by the end of 2006, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops was released, giving PSP owners a true Metal Gear Solid game. While the game was not directed by Hideo Kojima, the legendary creator of Metal Gear Solid, Portable Ops’ storyline is canon with Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid universe.

Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops reintroduces us to the role of Naked Snake, a.k.a. Big Boss. The storyline continues six years after Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, where [spoilers ahead] Naked Snake has killed his mentor, The Boss, and his former unit, FOX, has gone rogue. Naked Snake begins the game captured by the FOX unit and imprisoned in a cell. With assistance from a young Roy Campbell in the cell across from his, Naked Snake is able to free both himself and Roy Campbell so they make a break for it. As the storyline develops, we learn that Snake and Campbell are situated in Colombia, where a new army unit is being formed by a rebellion leader named Gene. Snake and Campbell both agree that the best way to stop the crazy Gene and his army is to begin creating their own army by capturing and recruiting Gene’s followers. The game’s cutscenes and storyline are presented through voiced, animated comic book scenes. They are amazing and I loved this style of storyline presentation.

Raising an Army
While the general Metal Gear Solid gameplay remains in tact with Portable Ops, the major difference in this particular game is the introduction of a new gameplay feature allowing you to capture enemy soldiers and persuade them to join your side. Unlike previous Metal Gear Solid games that all focus on Solid Snake (Naked Snake’s son) and how he makes his way through each game, Portable Ops is a more team-based affair. In general, any soldier you knock out can be dragged to the team’s truck or a hiding teammate (more on that later) and the soldier gets brought back to Snake’s base as a prisoner. After days of persuasion (uncontrolled by the player), each captured soldier eventually turns and joins your side. You can have a total of 100 soldiers in your army, and Portable Ops has certain functionality that takes advantage of being able to command various troops.

First off, there are three passive unit groups in your army: spies, tech and medical. With spies, you can deploy your soldiers onto the various stages/areas in the game, providing you with the ability to see items on the map, increasing the number of items on the map, reducing enemy health on the map, etc. Putting soldiers into the tech teams allow them to create more gadgets and equipment for you, and staffing the medical division increases the stamina and health regeneration of your field army between deployments. Each soldier you capture and recruit (even recognizable NPCs like Metal Gear Solid 3′s Raikov!) has their own statistics, abilities, and skills. Some have passive skills that allow them to function better in one role than another so it’s often very evident from their skills if a soldier should be placed in a spy squad, the tech division, or the medical division.

Finally, there’s the field army, which consists of soldiers you want to deploy in the field (dubbed the Sneaking Squads) for the stages themselves. Every stage allows for a 4-man squad to be deployed, along with 3 other backup squads. Personally, I didn’t find much use for the other 3 squads at all, so it’s best thought of when creating the field squad as having 4 members that will be deployed when you start a stage. Soldiers with Sneaking based skills have various abilities, such as being able to sneak faster, being able to drag unconscious enemy soldiers faster, and being able to immediately transport items they pick up back to base. This last ability is probably the most useful ability in the game, as each character can only carry a maximum of 4 items at a time (a very noticeable limitation when you play this game).

When you start a stage with your 4-man squad, 3 of them remain hidden in cardboard boxes near the entrance. At anytime on the stage, if the squad member you are controlling can find a place to hide on the map in a cardboard box (denoted on the map whenever you want to try to change squad members), you can hide there and switch to one of our other three squad members. This is useful when certain squad members have abilities that make them more adequate for the task at hand. However, it is possible for these soldiers that you have recruited to be killed and lost forever. Special NPCs will simply get injured and will recover with time, but randomly generated NPCs that you recruit can be killed in action. Fortunately, by the time I ended the game, I had maybe 30 or so army members on the bench so if I lost a soldier, I was able to have another one take his place on my sneaking squad. I know it sounds insensitive, but this is war!

General Gameplay Comments
The introduction of the army gameplay feature makes the game more interesting and I found it to be enjoyable. It almost felt like Pokemon or something, as I went around capturing various enemy soldiers looking for the ones with the best stats and abilities, etc. Combine that with the traditional stealth-based gameplay of past Metal Gear solid games and Portable Ops plays quite well. I’m usually too impatient to play stealth based games, but for some reason or another, I enjoy the stealth-baesd gameplay of the Metal Gear Solid games. Something about sneaking behind enemies and putting them in sleeper holds or shooting them with tranquilizer guns and stuffing them in a locker just doesn’t get old. I also think that I can enjoy Metal Gear Solid games because even if you get discovered, the game is not over and you can take action to handle the situation – unlike some other stealth games where it can prove to be frustrating when a simple detection means game over.

The controls for the game are also not as bad as I feared them to be. Initially, I had some trouble since there’s no analog stick on the right side of the PSP, so you had to use the left analog stick to move and the left d-pad to control the camera. This basically meant that you could not move and control the camera at the same time – a potential major issue for any 3D based game. But, for some reason or another, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops was fine for me. Hitting the right trigger (I believe) would center the camera right on Snake, so if you’re moving and don’t have time to fiddle with the camera, you can quickly just bring it behind him and that is what I used when I was on the move. But also, because Portable Ops is a stealth-based game, you will be hiding and standing still probably more often than being on the move. This makes it so the limitation of not being able to freely control the camera while you’re moving not as big of a deal – because after all, you’re not moving that much right? When I started Peace Walker, I was almost inclined to go with the Portable Ops control scheme, just because I had already grown so used to it!

One of my main nigglings about the game (and maybe this is not as just specific to Portable Ops) is that I spend a good amount of time in the game collecting various weapons like assault rifles, sniper rifles, shotguns, and SMGs. However, I never used any of them throughout my entire game. The Metal Gear Solid games have always favored non-lethal methods to taking out enemy soldiers, and in Portable Ops, this is especially true with the fact that if you don’t kill the soldier, you can recruit him! So, while you find all sorts of new equipment to kill people, you may potentially never end up using any of them.

Portable Ops = Portability?
I believe that I read somewhere that Portable Ops was designed with the portable PSP in mind, and therefore each mission/operation was made short so that the game is portable. I still don’t think this game is portable friendly enough. There’s no quicksaving, so even if the scope of each mission is smaller than traditional Metal Gear Solid missions, each one still takes a good 15 minutes or so. And if you get stuck with a cutscene, that’s another several minutes that you can’t rewatch later. Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops is not a game that I could take with me to the mall to play while my wife moves from store to store. Fortunately for my case, I have a 40 minute subway ride, so I am able to play the game in a long sitting and this is what works best for it.

Final Thoughts
I enjoyed playing through Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops. I felt that the game’s new soldier recruiting gameplay mechanic added an enjoyable Pokemon “gotta catch em all” addictive quality to the series. The cutscenes were amazing, and the core Metal Gear Solid gameplay elements were still present and timeless. However, I also felt that the game was lacking overall depth – it was not an epic game. Considering it took me something like 12 hours to make it through the game, I think half of that time was spent being redeployed to the same small stages over and over to go back to find a special weapon or a new soldier to recruit. In a way, I think on a second playthrough, since I know I don’t even need all these fancy weapons, I could probably blow through the game in 3 hours or so. While the storyline was well presented, I also felt it was not as thrilling as past Metal Gear Solid games, and its overall scope was narrower than what I have come to expect out of a Metal Gear Solid game. The boss of the game was somewhat of a pushover too. Fortunately for me, Peace Walker looks to go back to being epic in scope once again, and I am curious now to see how much better Peace Walker is than Portable Ops.

Portable Ops is still quite an enjoyable game, and holds up well 4 years later. For Metal Gear Solid fans that do pick up a PSP for Peace Walker like I did, I definitely recommended playing through this prior to starting Peace Walker. For those new to Metal Gear Solid, I would recommend playing through some of the other Metal Gear Solid titles first. In fact, it may be worth waiting for the new Metal Gear Solid 3 remake on the Nintendo 3DS and then coming back to check out Portable Ops and Peace Walker for the complete Naked Snake storyline presented in a portable format.

Final Score: B+

After clearing through the first two God of War games earlier, I decided to make my way through God of War III to complete the trilogy. Keep in mind that I’m someone that has not ever really loved the gameplay of the God of War games, but surprisingly, God of War III has enough going for it that even I was generally impressed with it. Hit the jump for my review.

The End of Kratos?
God of War III is supposedly the final arch in the trilogy of God of War games. For those that have not played the first two, it’s probably worth playing through them first before jumping into the third one due to the storyline. After all, God of War III opens up where God of War II left off: Kratos and the Titans are climbing Mt. Olympus to take on the Gods – with Kratos still longing for vengeance with Zeus’s death after what Zeus did to him in the second game. Of course, complications happen along the way up that prevent Kratos from immediately killing Zeus at the beginning of the game, so God of War III thrusts us into how Kratos makes his way back up Mt. Olympus.

Whether this is really the last God of War game remains to be seen – after all, another PSP God of War game is being released later this year, and even series with trilogies these days still come out with prequels and all that (see Halo). I don’t think either Sony or Microsoft will stop their beloved God of War and Halo franchises…so we shall see what happens next.

Notable Improvements
For those completely new to the God of War games, please check out my review of the first two here. I will assume that you’ve played the first two games already if you are interested in this third one. Having played through the first two games before the third, I was completely blown away by the new graphics engine for God of War III. It’s phenomenal. The graphics are so good that I actually found Kratos to be a little scary since he had this “not quite realistic”/”not quite video-game” look that just scared me. A lot of his gruesome kills are also perhaps a bit too much – especially now in full HD. Do I really want to watch him rip the head off a God? I would decline, but I guess some people do enjoy it.

Graphics aside, the gameplay in this game remains similar to the series but with improvements. Kratos has more weapons, items, and abilities to use – and to avoid spoilers, I’ll avoid talking about the specifics of the new “toys” Kratos gets to play with. In short, if you enjoyed the previous God of War games and the way you earned new weapons, items, and abilities, God of War III will continue to deliver. I’ve always found the combat engine to be a bit shallow, and while God of War III brings minor improvements to the combat engine, it still remains too shallow for my taste. I have not suddenly fallen in love with the series’ combat engine after playing the third game.

What I do really appreciate is how much the PS3 allowed the developers of the game to really “go to town” with everything else about the game. First of all, God of War III has huge enemies that you have to take on – larger than any of the previous God of War games. In previous God of War games, you would be climbing  walls and ceilings in mundane hallways – but in God of War III, the team behind God of War III has removed those boring climbing areas and instead emphasized most of the climbing in this game on actual huge enemies. You’ll be climbing on a Titan’s arm and then he’ll lift it up and then you have to be hanging on as you move. It’s hard to explain, but it not only works, it’s thrilling.

God of War III also follows in its predecessors’ footsteps by breaking up the action sequences with puzzles. The puzzles in this game are among the best I’ve seen – not frustrating enough to force you to go to your computer to look for a solution, and not boring enough that you think they’re merely a waste of time. There is a puzzle room in the game that has puzzles related to portals, reminding me of Valve’s beloved Portal game. What I loved the most though was the puzzles related to the Labyrinth towards the end of the game. The Labyrinth is basically a huge cube, and once inside, you have to flip various switches and levers to rotate the Labyrinth, which in turn completely rotates the field of play you’re on. The floor you were just standing turns and is a wall now – the wall you’re holding onto is now the ceiling, etc. Very innovative and watching the various transitions of this Labyrinth was something I never grew tired of.

Final Thoughts
This is probably one of the shortest reviews I’ve written for a game. Having just played through the first two games prior to this one, the entire trilogy sort of whirls through my head at this point. To be honest, God of War III does everything right for the series, and is an epic conclusion to the trilogy. If you’ve had problems with the God of War combat being a bit shallow, God of War III isn’t going to quite change how you feel about the series. But what did make me enjoy this game is everything else that was nearly over the top: presentation (amazing graphics and sound), gore (perhaps a bit too gory for me, but maybe for the Mortal Kombat fans, this is what they wanted) sex (a mini-game involving doing the Goddess of Love?), scope (fighting against huge Titans and murdering Gods), etc. If you’re a God of War fan, you’ve already played through and most likely loved this game. For everyone else, I recommend checking this out along with the first two games if you’re a new PS3 owner.

It’s interesting to see how different Eastern and Western game design is when I compare the pinnacle of the Western action/adventure game, God of War III, with the pinnacle of the Eastern action/adventure game, Bayonetta. Bayonetta’s gameplay was perfection, yet its storyline was completely nonsensical, and what ultimately held it back from attaining the highest score. Then there’s God of War III – a game with arguably shallow gameplay, but flawless production value and an epic storyline. Both deliver excellent gaming experiences, but both fall a bit short of what I would consider gaming perfection. As the action/adventure genre continues to evolve, I would love to see a game with Eastern gameplay design and Western production value. God of War III comes close, and for that, it comes highly recommended.

Final Score: A-

Between all of my random gaming sessions on my PC, 360, and PS3 since I bought my PS3, I’ve been devoting time every once in a while to making my way through God of War: Collection, the PS3 HD remakes of the PS2 original God of War and its PS2 sequel, God of War II. I’ve finally completed them both and starting God of War III now. In any case, before I get too far into God of War III and it starts skewing my thoughts on the first two, let’s get to the review.

God of War
God of War was originally released on the PS2 back in 2005 by one of Sony’s own Santa Monica Studio. Hard to believe that its release was only five years ago, but it went on to win Game of the Year awards that year. Being a Sony owned IP, the series has become a series staple ever since then, with titles releasing on both the Sony PSP and PS3.

God of War follows the story of Kratos, a captain in the Spartan army who makes a deal with the original God of War, Ares. In return for saving his life, Kratos gives himself to Ares, and does his bidding. In his bloodlust, he was tricked by Ares into murdering his own family, and the game follows his journey of revenge to kill Ares and become the new God of War. Being based on Greek Mythology, the premise of the game features various characters, locales, and stories from Greek Mythology that have been modified a bit to shape the addition of Kratos into the world. It works wonderfully, and if it’s one thing I can say about God of War is that it’s storyline is phenomenal. The scope is huge, the cutscenes raw, and even Kratos himself is such a well designed and while angry, still quite the likeable protagonist.

Of course, the original issues I had when I played with the game back in 2005 were that the gameplay lacked the enjoyable depth that I had grown accustomed to from other competitors in the same genre, such as Ninja Gaiden and Devil May Cry. While I do still agree that God of War’s gameplay is not as enthraling as its Japanese competitors, its storyline is so good that it nearly makes me forget about the simplicity of its gameplay. TO be fair though, I don’t have any issues with its gameplay – the various weapons, special abilities, upgrades, etc. work fine – but it just seems to be lacking that special hook I find in Japanese games, such as Ninja Gaiden’s charge and decapitating combo system, and Devil May Cry & Bayonetta’s style system. Of course, God of War’s storyline easily dwarfs anything the Japanese seem to come up with to tell for their action/adventure games, so at least the God of War series has that major strength going for it. God of War also still destroys Dante’s Inferno – so don’t even bother with that one.

There are a couple negatives with the original God of War in the remake – one minor and one major. The minor issue I had with the remake is that the video cutscenes in this game seem to be in its native 480i or whatever form it originally was in back in 2005. It’s definitely rough on the eyes, but because it doesn’t quite affect gameplay, I’ll let it slide. The bigger issue with the game, and thankfully it happens in only a few places in the game, are its more frustrating gameplay elements: the beam balancing and the climb up the towers of spinning spikes towards the end of the game. For a game as fast-paced as God of War, to have to resort to walking slowly across balance beams (and even having to jump over moving spikes, etc.) just gets frustrating. The most frustrating though are several towers towards the end that have spinning spikes and if you mess up and get him by one, you get knocked all the way back down. It happens far more often than you expect, and this part of the game really had me cursing out loud – something that is quite rare for me. Overall though, the game still holds up quite well by today’s standards, especially after the “HD” remake.

God of War II
God of War II takes place where God of War left off, and [MINOR SPOILER AHEAD] Kratos has killed Ares and become the new God of War. Unfortunately, what fun is playing a game when you’re already a God? In any case, Zeus has some beef with Kratos and his war mongering, so he kills Kratos but as Kratos makes his way into the underworld, he is saved by the Titan Gaea. The Titans are basically are the Gods’ parents, and now that both of them have beef with Zeus, they sort of team up to bring him down. Overall, the sequel’s storyline is weaker than the original God of War’s epic scope because it feels a bit forced. In a way, the first God of War game could have basically been a one shot game with a finished storyline but the sequel drags it out a bit. The first half of the game is pretty bland, but the story picks up and finishes strong to set up a conclusion to the trilogy in epic fashion.

While the storyline of the second one isn’t quite as good as the first, a lot of enhancements have been made to the sequel’s gameplay that make the sequel not exactly inferior to the first. The two major issues with the first game – the blocky low res video cutscenes, and the frustrating balancing and spikey tower type gameplay elements were practically removed in the sequel. Maybe the technology got better when the PS2 version was originally released in 2007, and the cutscenes were able to be rendered in 480p then? Who knows – but the cutscenes in the PS3 re-release of God of War 2 are more inline with the new HD gameplay engine. It also looks like the team behind the sequel took the complaints of the frustrating balancing and spikes to heart, as they have been pretty much removed from the sequel.

The sequel also brings more interesting gameplay enhancements with the ability to swing from certain areas with Kratos’s chained blades and stop time during certain parts of the game to gain an advantage against enemies or to solve puzzles. I can’t forget the puzzles – God of War II has several of them, and to a degree, they actually are done well so that there is sometimes a nice little break from all the killing to solve certain puzzles. Often times the solution to a puzzle is something gruesome anyway, but I for one found the increase in the sequels’ puzzles not a bad thing. What’s also good is that the sequel clocks in at about 12 hours compared to the original’s 8 hours, so while the storyline is not as great, from a gameplay perspective, it’s superior to the first.

Final Thoughts
If you’ve never played one or either of these games and you’re a current PS3 owner, I definitely recommend checking this collection out. At the bargain price of $30 retail (or $60 bundled with a PS3 Dual Shock controller), it’s definitely worth owning. It took me about 20 hours to make it through both games, but with several difficulties, and various treasures to unlock, you can play the game for a lot longer if you enjoy the gameplay. Like other popular Western games, the God of War: Collection has a strong storyline, and if story is a major factor in your gameplay enjoyment, the God of War: Collection will deliver. Of course, if you’ve already played the original releases on the PS2, I can’t quite recommend them again, and it’s even difficult for me now to figure out a score for this collection based on games that were re-released. Am I reviewing the games in their original form, the quality of the re-release, or the what the experience would be like for a first time player of this HD collection? This collection certainly doesn’t have any innovation behind it, but it’s a good classic gaming collection nonetheless and worth owning for any PS3 owners that missed out on the original two games on the PS2.

Final Grade: B+

If you’re short on time, here’s the gist of this review: if you like Green Day, then you’ll like Green Day: Rock Band. Despite the music genre getting a little over-saturated these days, Green Day: Rock Band is still a solid entry in Harmonix’s lineup that is sure to please fans of the band. The music game does show signs of old age though, and it’s just not as compelling as The Beatles were last year. Hit the jump to find out why.

Soundtrack – Having a Blast
There are very few albums that I consider worth listening to from start to finish without skipping any tracks (Weezer’s blue album, Smashing Pumpkins’ Siamese Dream, and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Blood Sugar Sex Magick come to mind). Green Day Rock Band features two such albums: Dookie and American Idiot, which are what I consider to be Green Day’s best two albums and the strongest aspect of Green Day Rock Band. In addition you get a smattering of tracks from Green Day’s other albums, including the majority of 21st Century Breakdown (the other songs were featured as DLC in Rock Band 2 and are compatible with GD: RB).

American Idiot and Dookie warrant a purchase on their own. Dookie is a throwback to the time when punk went mainstream in America, and its fast strums and lyrics about um…creative time wasting recall a time when MTV still showed music videos. I’ll never forget the video for Longview – a classic. American Idiot, released 10 years later, shows a real evolution in Green Day’s music: it’s a rock ballad, one that you can now see on Broadway if I’m not mistaken. Crazily enough, if you listen to American Idiot in sequence, it tells the story of “Jesus of Suburbia”, the album’s protagonist and the name of my favorite song on the album. It is an amazing musical piece of work. These two albums plus the other tracks, which are all the ones you’d really want anyway, make up a solid library, provided you like Green Day of course. You can also export the songs to Rock Band 2 or 3.

Gameplay – The Static Age
There aren’t really any gameplay innovations in Green Day Rock Band. There are only three venues, which is a bit of a bummer, and the 40+ tracks are split into these three venues. They are broken up by sets, which you can play through in any order you like. One thing that really bugged me is that I couldn’t make a setlist – I had to play one song at a time. With load times and with added animations before the song starts, I felt it was a bit of a drag – I just wanted to get to the songs.

Difficulty wise, it’s definitely more challenging than the Beatles: it’s a lot of fast strumming. There are also some tricky chord progressions that are a lot of fun to play. That being said, I haven’t even been in the red at all on Expert difficulty for guitar, so it’s definitely doable. The bass lines are definitely a highlight in this game, as are the drum sections. Green Day features three extremely talented musicians, and the style of music changes throughout the game. The vocal parts are a lot of fun to sing along to and the game includes harmonies as well. Harmonix seems to have basically adopted an “ain’t broke don’t fix it” mentality, and it serves them well.

Nitpicks – Give Me Novocaine
I don’t know, I love Green Day, but I think the music game genre is getting old. For this game, I found myself just trying to get through the songs, and so the aforementioned load times/animation sequences didn’t help that. Another thing that bugged me about the game was that my calibration was all off and I had to recalibrate my rig. I’m not sure if it’s because I got a new Jasper unit or what, but it’s frustrating, plus my guitar and drums don’t calibrate with exactly the same numbers.

I also think the setlist/venue thing is outdated in general. I don’t know if Guitar Hero’s “warrior of rock quest-line” business is going to help change things up, but the genre is screaming for something new. Another nitpick I have is the fact that this game came AFTER The Beatles Rock Band. It doesn’t make sense. I love Green Day, but they aren’t The Beatles, and although their music lends itself well to this type of game, I don’t think they are quite deserving of their own title.

Final Thoughts – Welcome to Paradise or Boulevard of Broken Dreams?
As I said in the intro, it comes down to this question: How much do you like Green Day? That will determine how much you like the game. It’s a solid music title, and there were definitely multiple tracks that I really rocked out to. The drums in particular are tons of fun. I’d say wait and pick it up when the game is cheaper (I got it for $45), or borrow a friend’s copy. Still, I could play Jesus of Suburbia all day and be happy – that song is awesome.

Final Score: B

Not owning Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops when I picked up my new PSP with Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, I instead spent my “honeymoon” phase with my new PSP playing Dissidia: Final Fantasy. I’ve spent several hours playing the game on my commute to and from work lately, but I think I’ve played enough at this point that I’m ready to move onto a new PSP game. Read on for my thoughts on what this game is all about and whether it’s good or not.

The Ultimate Final Fantasy Fan-Service
If you don’t even own a PSP, you probably have no idea what this game is so let me summarize the game in one sentence: the star hero and villain of Final Fantasy I through X are pitted together in a fighting game. With the universes of Final Fantasy I through X so large and the cast of characters in each so many, it’s kind of sad to see only one playable character from each side. Still, each game is represented very well known heroes and villains: Final Fantasy IV’s Cecil and Golbez, Final Fantasy VI’s Terra and Kefka, Final Fantasy VII’s Cloud and Sephiroth, Final Fantasy X’s Tidus and Jecht, etc.

The storyline pretty much has the 10 heroes and 10 villains teaming up on two sides going up against each other, but to be honest, the storyline isn’t too important nor does it make much sense. In the story mode, you are able to play each of the 10 heroes through their own “campaign” which consists of about 15 or so battles across 5 stages (more on that later). In between stages, the Final Fantasy character you pick will converse with the other Final Fantasy heroes he’s tagged along with (they split into smaller groups). The final battle is between the character you’ve chosen and his sworn arch-enemy.

Anyone in love with all the Final Fantasy games will definitely squeal with delight over so many little touches that are put in for the fans. While there are only 10 heroes you can choose from, the help menus (there’s a ton of help menus in this game) all are provided by various Final Fantasy characters as well, and they’re written in their way of conversation. Seeing Final Fantasy X’s Wakka give me advice in his own manner and Final Fantasy VII’s Yuffie also give me other help advice while also talking about stealing had me appreciating all of these little touches. There’s even a mail delivery system where moogles send you new mail every day!

One of my favorite aspects that also will appeal to Final Fantasy fans is the music – it changes depending on who you are playing as. I played through Cecil’s campaign, and so the main musical tracks were from Final Fantasy IV, but when playing through Cloud’s campaign and Tidus’s campaign, I heard memorable tracks from Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy X. It really felt like this was heaven for a Final Fantasy fan that has stuck with the series for so long. The ONLY negative thing I might want to speak about is that with so many effiminately designed heroes and villains walking around, I felt like the entire game was some sort of yaoi or something and was a little uncomfortable at times. (I wonder if the Final Fantasy female players find this type of game droolworthy.)

A Fighting Game…
Ok let’s back up a step – did I say fighting game? Yeah – Dissidia is a fighting game, but not a fighting game in the traditional sense like Street Fighter or Tekken. It’s more of an arena based fighting game, where the two combatants can jump and float through the air, skate across ledges and run up walls, all while trying to do damage to each other. The damage system is confusing at first (it still kind of is, actually), but there’s really two meters you need to worry about and two attack types that affect each meter. The first meter to worry about is your health meter – which can be reduced if your opponent attacks you with an HP attack.

The major twist between Dissidia’s damage system and other fighting games is that the HP attack is not a constant value. It’s actually its own meter called the Bravery meter and there are Bravery attacks as well. By attacking an opponent with a Bravery attack, you will reduce his Bravery meter and increase your own if you successfully land it. Note from the screenshot above that Tidus has 229 – that’s his Bravery meter. If he does an HP attack, he will deal 229 damage to Jecht. But If Jecht attacks Tidus with an HP attack, he will only do 69 damage. There’s also something called a Break, which occurs when you can reduce your opponent’s Bravery meter to 0. By doing that, you will gain the Bravery that sits in the pot in the middle (818 in the screenshot above) and that will be added to your Bravery meter for your next attack. Once you attack with it though, your Bravery drops to 0 and you have to earn it back. The Bravery meter not only makes the combat system a bit more confusing, but in a way, it also seems to allow a matchup to go “back-and-forth” more.

…With RPG Features
On top of this fighting game, there’s an entire RPG like progression system. Each battle won awards Gil and Exp, your characters level up, can find new equipment to equip, can use the Gil they earned in battle to buy items and accessories from the store, etc. It’s basically like an RPG but with a real-time arena-based combat engine for the battles.

The way the storyline plays is that you move your character along a grid, engaging enemies, opening treasures, etc. And the more you play, the more you can unlock – you gain another “currency” called PP in this game that allows you to unlock all sorts of additional features such as being able to play as the villains, getting new items to use, and turning on faster experience and money gaining. In short, the game is a fusion of a RPG and a fighting game that actually works.

Is It PSP Friendly?
Dissidia is the first PSP game that I’ve played seriously on the PSP, and maybe because it’s one of the later releases that it has so many PSP friendly features. First of all, it has a Data Install feature, allowing you to install something like 500 some meg to your memory stick so the game loads faster. It also saves practically every time you exit a menu, and you can quicksave any time you are on the menu. One of the big concerns I with playing certain PSP games is that it’s not meant for quick play and quick stop – like if I was waiting for my wife to shop and she comes out of a store early what am I going to do with my PSP game? Dissidia passes this convenience test and is recommended as a game that you can easily play on the go.

Final Thoughts
Based on my review, it seems like everything I’ve been saying about the game is a compliment, but I’ll say my primary negative here: I still got bored of it after just playing through three of the ten characters’ campaigns. All of the Final Fantasy fan-service and RPG features seemed like they would really rope me in, but the combat and story just got boring to me. After fighting dozens of enemies throughout the campaign, I still felt like it was just a grind when in fact the combat is really the main gameplay! The game even encourages playing through the campaigns several times to unlock new items, but after playing through Cecil’s campaign 3 times, I called out Uncle. Let me off this grind train!

Of course, your mileage may vary on this one: how much you love the Final Fantasy games and how much can you enjoy playing a quasi-fighting game like this one by yourself without a real compelling storyline. There is multiplayer for the game, but I wasn’t interested enough to check it out. For a certain type of Final Fantasy fan, you may really end up loving this game. With me, I need a little more meat in terms of storytelling and gameplay for me want to play it further. In short, the game’s presentation is stellar but the actual gameplay itself can get quite repetitive so keep that in mind if you’re interested in checking it out!

Final Grade: B

It’s no secret that cmfl3x loves adventure games, and he’s talked a lot about how much he loves Phoenix Wright. How he feels about adventure games is probably how I feel about strategy games. Like him, I’ve decided to do a retro review of Advance Wars: Dual Strike since I just spent the last couple of weeks on my commute to/from work playing it after I beat Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes. I’m glad I finally got around to playing through the entire game. It’s a game that just keeps on giving and giving. Read on for why.

What is Advance Wars about?
Advance Wars: Dual Strike is the third game in the Advance Wars series, a turn-based military strategy game with cutesy characters. The original game debuted on the Game Boy Advance, and its sequel, Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising, was also released on the GBA. In each game, you are able to choose a commander to take into battle, and each commander has unique abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. For example, one commander type may have really strong infantry, so all of his infantry units get a damage and move bonus, and his special ability could also potentially augment his infantry units. However, his infantry strengths are offset by perhaps weak air units.

The way the each map in Advance Wars generally flows is that each side’s primary objective is often to either destroy all units on the opposing side or capture the enemy headquarters. Each map has buildings that can be captured by infantry. The more civilian buildings your side holds, the more money you make per turn. Money allows you to purchase infantry, vehicles, air units, and sea units based on whether you can capture airfields, seaports, and “factories”. Thus, the game pits two sides often deploying their infantry on a map, trying to capture buildings, earn money, and create more military units to overwhelm the opponent. Some maps have fog of war, making it difficult for you to see enemies that hide in forests, or even right in front of you. Terrain also plays a big role, as units in mountain or forest terrain tiles get a bonus to defense, etc. Every unit is counterable by another unit, and the way battle works is the attacking unit always gets first strike, and the remaining defending units retaliate.

Advance Wars has been highly popular because of its deep and enjoyable tactical gameplay that is simplified enough to not be overwhelming. So how does Dual Strike compare to the original games, and as its own standalone game?

What Advance Wars: Dual Strike Brings to the Table
Thinking back, Advance Wars: Dual Strike came out less than a year after the DS launch, and therefore the developers decided to take advantage of the two screens the DS provided. In order to do so, Advance Wars: Dual Strike sports several levels where you have battles going on in two different areas with different armies on the different screens.If you can win early on one of the screens, the commander from that screen joins the commander on the other screen.

Dual Strike introduces this new partnering mechanic in other levels as well when each side gets to pick two commanders to control their forces at the beginning of a level. The two commanders idea is not unlike  Capcom’s versus fighting games – each of the two commanders on your side can be switched between who is commanding and who is on the bench. The commander that is deployed affects the troops on the field with his abilities, positives and negatives, while also at the same time building up his special meter. Knowing when to use which commander is important.

With the new idea of tag teaming commanders, both commanders can fill their super bars completely and you choose a tag super, which often times is denoted the “Dual Strike”. When this happens, the side that runs the special gets to take two turns in a row, with the bonuses that each commander provides for each of the two turns. In a way, this dual strike feature is crazy since one side can move and attack twice before the other side can act. The new features that Dual Strike brings to the Advance Wars series are interesting and enjoyable.

An Absurd Amount of Replay Value
The campaign itself is about 26 missions, each consisting of about 30-45 minutes in length. That by itself makes for a pretty lengthy game already. But what makes the replay value of this game shoot through the roof is the sheer number of modes and unlockables that you can buy as you play the game. There’s a shop in the game that you can use your hard earned campaign “score money” – currency you gain based on how well you clear through a level. In this shop, you can buy all sorts of various items such as new characters to use, extra maps to play in the skirmish modes, etc. There’s even a “Hard Mode” for the game that allows you to play through with your leveled up commanders, easily more than doubling the campaign’s length.

If you don’t feel like playing the campaign with its scripted sequences, enemy commanders, and enemy commander types, there are dozens of maps you can play in just Skirmish mode where you pick your commanders, the AI commanders, and just start at equal footing with only two infantry units and see who can win. In a way, it’s almost like Chess and it can be enjoyed forever.

There are other extra modes like Survival and Combat, multiplayer through wireless or turn-based on the same DS, and even a Map Editor so you can make your own maps. This little game probably has more replay value than most games on current consoles!

Final Thoughts
The game is tons of fun, but I do have to share one minor negative about the game: it’s a bit imbalanced. Some commanders definitely have better powers than others, but at the end of the day, the sheer wealth of options, replay value, and enjoyable gameplay make the imbalanced commanders easy to overlook when you evaluate the game as a whole. Marvel vs Capcom 2 is still fun for a lot of people, even if there’s only a handful of characters that are the best. Advance Wars: Dual Strike is probably not that bad, and you’ll probably be spending most of your time playing this game against the AI anyway so the imbalanced commanders is moot.

If you’ve never played Advance Wars before, you have to check Advance Wars: Dual Strike out. It’s one of the best games I’ve ever played, and even though I’ve already beaten the game, I’ll probably end up spending another 20-30 hours enjoying the Hard mode to level my Commanders to max, and the additional modes that the game offers. You don’t have to have played the original two to enjoy Dual Strike, although characters that return in this game you won’t really know. All that will do is make you want to go check out the older Advance Wars games – which in my mind, is a good thing! The series deserves all the love it can get.

Final Score: A

Like the original Street Fighter IV, I’ve spent enough time with Super Street Fighter IV that I can already give it a review. After all, it’s a fighting game that doesn’t have much of a single player component to play through right? Super Street Fighter IV is the expansion/sequel to last year’s Street Fighter IV. With Super feeling more like an expansion, I’m only going to cover the new stuff in this review. Check out my writeup for the original if you want to know why Street Fighter IV and Super are so good. The question now is, what does Super Street Fighter IV bring to the table and is it worth it?

10 New Characters
Super Street Fighter IV adds 10 characters to the playable roster, upping the total selectable character count to 35. This is a ridiculous number of playable characters to use for a 1v1 fighting game, and any fighting game fan should be able to find someone they enjoy with the vast selection. Several old favorites return in SSFIV, with Dee Jay and T.Hawk from Super Street Fighter II, Guy, Cody, and Adon from Street Fighter Alpha 3, Ibuki, Makoto, and Dudley from Street Fighter III, and two completely new characters: Juri and Hakan. While it may seem like cheating to call it 10 “new” characters, the Street Fighter universe has so many interesting characters that the inclusion of any ones from older games will make fans of the series quite happy. What’s also more convenient this time around is that all playable characters are unlocked from the start and there are several balance changes for the returning cast (i.e. Sagat is no longer as overpowered as he once was).

2 Ultra Combo Choices for Every Character
In Super Street Fighter IV, every character now has 2 Ultra Combos to select between when choosing your character. Returning characters have kept their original Ultra Combo, but are granted with a new one to choose from while new characters have two new Ultra Combos off the bat. The different Ultra Combos add a welcome strategic benefit to your character, as most of the Ultra combos function differently, are linked into differently, and can be used differently. For example, one character’s first Ultra Combo may be ground based, but his second one is anti-air. If that character had a relatively weak anti-air game or had a playstyle that forced his opponents to be airborne a lot, the player now has the choice to select the Ultra Combo that is more suited for their taste. It’s definitely a positive.

Car & Barrel Bonus Stages
Super Street Fighter IV is a hardcore fighting game wrapped up in a colorful “nostalgic” shell. People that will be playing this game for the long run will be primarily focused on the online play and skip over most of the single player altogether. Then there are the more casual players, who want to pick up Super Street Fighter IV for nostalgia, and the car and barrel bonuses stages are certainly welcome in that domain. Destroying a car and watching a guy come out and say, “Oh, my car” just like in the days of Street Fighter II is sure to put a smile on any Street Fighter II fan’s face. Of course, the amount of benefit these bonus stages bring besides a trip down memory lane is quite little. Fortunately, the bonus stages can be turned off in the Options menu if you grow tired of them.

Endless Battle
The single most requested feature from the original Street Fighter IV does indeed make it successfully in tact to Super Street Fighter IV. Endless Battle allows players to set up a room of up to 8 players where the winner of each match stays and the remaining players in the room rotate through and try to take on the winner. Some call it quarter matches or player rooms, but regardless, it’s here and it works beautifully. Finally, Super Street Fighter IV allows you to play Street Fighter online as a social affair, rather than the 1v1 lonesome battles of the original Street Fighter IV. It’s an excellent mode, but it appears that an online Versus mode is no longer an option in the game. While some would argue that Endless battle for two players makes this mode redundant, I would have liked to see a Versus mode for two players with quick continues, so that both players could keep playing without having to go back to the character select screen, choosing characters, choosing Ultras, choosing the stage, and waiting for loading again just to replay the same matchup.

Team Battle
Super Street Fighter IV also sports a new “Team Battle” mode, which allows players to play 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, or 4v4. In each Team Battle, both sides pick their preferred fight order for their players and the winning player of each match plays the next player of the opponent’s team. It sounded like it was going to be awesome the first time I heard about it, as I assumed there would be team-based matchmaking. Unfortunately, this is not the case. You cannot grab 2 other buddies and search for another team of 3 players to go up against. Instead, you have to create a room, invite your buddies, and then wait as random other players join to fill up the room. The host is the only one that can pick teams, so if you want to actually play against another team of friends, the chances are very slim since any team that has to try to find another room to join doesn’t even know if they’re going to be able to be on the same team. It’s up to the host of that room. In short, you will not be able to play Super Street Fighter IV competitively as a team.

What’s even more annoying though is that there is matchmaking for Team Battle, but only as a solo player. You can request to get put into a Team Battle game and you can specify how big of a team you want. But for some reason or another, you can’t play with a team of your friends. There’s no stat-tracking or anything for teams, and while it may have been a huge undertaking to implement the structure and Leaderboards for teams, it’s only the natural progression of games this generation as we in the West have grown accustomed to Blizzard’s battle.net and various console multiplayer shooters. If it’s one thing the Japanese need to learn from Western developers it’s multiplayer matchmaking design.

Replay Channel
I didn’t think I would be using this feature much, but the Replay Channel is actually enjoyable! It’s debatable whether the replays are even organized in the best way, but from navigating the menus, it appears that there are particular channels for different groups of characters. You can join a channel and watch whatever is on (sort of like TV channels) and other players can also join to watch the same channel and all of you can chat together. Then there are “channels” for you to view all of your past battles, as well as a stream of the most recently uploaded replays from players. It’s all pretty neat but I would have loved if I could have just picked a channel to watch only my character that I wanted to study, and not 5 different character matchups in that same channel.

Tournament Mode
While a Tournament Mode was added as free DLC to the original Street Fighter IV last year, it’s surprising that Super Street Fighter IV did not ship with a Tournament Mode of its own right out of the box. Fortunately, Capcom has announced that a free Tournament Mode will be available for downloade starting June 15th. This Tournament Mode will supposedly allow you to win emblems/icons from winning Tournaments, but you will also have to play in Tournaments to defend them once you acquire these rewards. Sounds like it could be a lot of fun for the more competitive Street Fighter players.

Disrespecting Owners of the Original
One thing that did irk me a bit is how Capcom was telling Street Fighter IV owners that if they held onto their game, they would get a special bonus in Super Street Fighter IV. Instead of selling Street Fighter IV while it was still worth something, we held onto our discs hoping to see what the special bonus was all about. Then we find out that it is a selectable costume color that is available if you have a Street Fighter IV save game on your hard drive. With the weak bonus not even needing the original disc, some fans are rightful peeved. Many of us thought maybe if you inserted your original Street Fighter IV disc into the game, you might be able to download additional special costumes or something for use in Super. No such luck.

Final Thoughts
Super Street Fighter IV is not perfect, but it is a very worthy expansion. It manages to supersede the original Street Fighter IV in every way, making it practically irrelevant.  A new BlazBlue expansion/sequel is being released this summer for $40. I believe all that is significant in it is 3 additional characters. Compare that to everything you’re getting in Super Street Fighter IV, and I can easily see why it’s not only worth its price, but why it deserves its own disc release. I don’t know if Super Street Fighter IV is that much more of an accessible game than the original Street Fighter IV, but one thing is for sure: it’s more enjoyable. More characters, more Ultras, more stages, and the highly requested Endless Battle mode make the game worth buying for any fighting game fan.  Super Street Fighter IV has replaced the original Street Fighter IV as the best fighting game this console generation. If you have any inkling of desire to play a fighting game, Super Street Fighter IV is the one you need to get. If you’ve already spent time with Street Fighter IV and are not excited about this release, then the game is probably not for you.

I found it very difficult to determine whether to give Super Street Fighter IV a perfect A or a “slightly flawed” A-. Without the Team Battle mode, it would have been a game that addressed basically all of the shortcomings of Street Fighter IV, making it a perfect expansion/sequel. But with the original SFIV game already being nearly perfect, how could you mess up the formula? By not delivering on one of the new features advertised for your new product. Capcom did not produce Team Battle mode correctly and I can’t help but feel disappointed since it had so much potential. This was the fighting game that would become THE online Japanese fighting game to rival Western shooters in multiplayer design! But nope, we have to go back to just playing 1v1 if we want to play Super Street Fighter IV competitively. I guess I can’t complain too much, since I’m having a lot of fun still playing it solo.

Final Grade: A-

Ever since I got my PS3, I came to the realization that I wanted to get a headset for the system since there wasn’t one included in the box. What if I wanted to play one of the PS3′s online games at some point like Mag or Uncharted 2? At the same time, my flimsy 360 headset is falling apart and only allows for voice chat – I still would like the ability for the game audio to come out of my headphones so my wife won’t be disturbed at all. Wouldn’t it be great to find a gaming headset that was not only compatible with both the 360 and PS3, but also allowed for voice chat and game audio all within the headset itself? Enter the Turtle Beach Ear Force PX21, a gaming headset that allows you to listen to game audio and participate in voice chat at the same time while being compatible with the PS3, the 360, and PC/Mac (just in time for Starcraft 2 and its integrated voice chat support). Read on for my review.

Addressing the “False” Negatives
From initial reviews I read on this product, there were two false negatives that I seemed to encounter. The first negative was that there were too many cords to keep track of. People that are complaining about this are just silly. Maybe they are just so used to wireless these days that any number of wires is too much. The PX21 headset is attached to a 16′ cable that splits into a USB connector and a PC audio connector. To use the headset on a PC or Mac, simply plug the PC audio connector into the headphone jack and the USB connector into a USB port. The USB port is what will power the headset and provide voice chat support. This is the same way for the PS3 – voice chat is handled through the USB port.

What’s included in the Ear Force PX21 box

The headset package also comes with a stereo audio cable that connects to the PX21′s PC audio connector, transfering the game audio to the headset. Finally, there’s a small cable that allows you to connect the PX-21 headset to the 360 controller for voice chat. That’s really it. When you think about it, a headset that needs to carry over game audio and voice chat support is going to be a little more complicated than a pair of iPod headphones and I can’t see how Turtle Beach could have done the cabling for this product any better.

The second false negative people complain about is “hissing”. This is most notable when you turn on your console and headset, but there isn’t any game audio coming out of the headset yet because you’re still on the 360/PS3 dashboard. Or, you may start to hear the hiss when a game is loading – basically any time there isn’t audio coming out of the headset. Most people agree that the hissing goes away (or is drowned out) as soon as game audio starts, and I will agree with that statement. However, I think the hissing is nowhere near as big of a deal as people make it out to be. It’s actually very minor, and for those of you that are as old enough as I am to remember cassette tapes, the “hiss” is like when you’re listening to a cassette on your Walkman and there’s an empty gap between songs. It’s insignificant and not something that is strong enough to be considered a negative for this product.

The Real Negatives
There are still a few real negatives that I must mention when considering this product. The first negative concerns the USB and audio connector split on the cabling. They don’t split very far. This means you can’t wrap the USB cable of the headset around your furniture one way and the audio connector a different way. They have to pretty much be together. Minor issue for some, and I had to route my cables differently than I had originally planned when I discovered that the split between the audio and USB cabling was not very large.

How to connect the Ear Force PX21 to the 360. Where’s the HDMI cable in this diagram?

The second, more important negative is if you are using only HDMI for your 360 audio/visual connection and nothing else. This is because the only way the PX-21 can capture game audio is through the red and white stereo input cables somewhere. If you’re going with HDMI straight from your 360 to your TV and the TV plays your sound, you cannot get the audio to come out of your headset unless you also plug in the media out cables that are included with both the 360 and PS3. Basically, if you’re going with a TV audio out only + HDMI setup, the PS3 works. You plug your HDMI cable into both your PS3 and TV, and then plug in the supplied composite cable input into the back of your PS3 and the red and white audio cables into your PX-21 red and white audio in cables, which then plug into the audio in of the TV. The problem with the 360 is that the HDMI port and the media port are far too close together so you cannot connect both unless you physically break open the housing of your cables so that they can be next to each other. Therefore, you may be forced to just go with a component video connection if you are relying on TV audio out for your 360 and want to get game audio into your PX-21 headset. This is more a fault of Microsoft’s poor 360 port design, but it would have been nice if Turtle Beach figured out a way around the issue.

Connecting the Ear Force PX21 to the PS3 and TV audio does allow for HDMI

If you have a receiver though, you may be fine if you are employing the same setup I am. Both my PS3 and my 360 have HDMI out and plug directly into my LCD TV. Then I have red and white audio cables connecting my TV audio out to the “audio in” behind my audio system receiver. The PX-21′s audio cable (highlighted in blue in the 360 diagram above) connects between the audio cable coming from the TV and the audio inputs on my receiver. Thus, I can keep my receiver off but the audio will still come out of my Ear Force 21′s in this setup. The TV itself does the translating between HDMI audio in and stereo audio out.

The various control features on the Ear Force PX21 amplifier

Your Mileage May Vary
There are also a couple things that I have some minor fault with but am not sure if my experience with the PX-21s are objective enough that I would call them blatant negatives. The first is the inline amplifier that allows you to mute your mic, control the voice chat volume, the game audio volume, etc. It’s heavy. I feel uncomfortable wearing the headset and letting the amplifier dangle in the air due to its weight. I worry that the cabling between the amplifier and my headphones will come loose or something. The amplifier comes with a clip, so you can clip it somewhere, but I guess since I usually just wear a t-shirt when I’m gaming, it’s hard to really find a pocket or a lining on my upper body to clip the amplifier to. I usually just lay the amplifier on the couch alongside myself to alleviate my concerns with its weight. However, I actually just noticed last night that part of the plastic sides that attach the spring of the clip to the amplifier has already broken off. I’m not sure if that’s a result of user error on my part or that the plastic in that area is too weak.

The design of the headphones themselves also seems a bit odd. They’re shallower than I thought they would be, and have all sorts of moving parts. I’m not a big fan of too many moving parts, since to me each moving part is a potential area that can break. I can sort of understand a little bit that the earphones have the ability to turn 90 degrees so that they are both facing one side – Turtle Beach advertises this feature so you can comfortably rest the headphones around your neck if you’re not wearing them. What I don’t understand is why the earphones also have the ability to turn up and down to such a large degree. Aren’t most people’s ears (and head) vertically aligned? Why would I need the ear pieces to take on a trapezoidal shape where the ear pieces are each tilted 45 degrees inward? Whose head is like that?

In minor relation to the headset design, this may be more specific to my head/ears but my right ear would get a little sore after wearing the headset for longer than an hour. I don’t know if it’s me or the headset, but it’s not enough that I want to stop wearing them. I simply just take them off and then put them right back on again. However, I have a pair of $20 Sennheiser HD 202′s that I used to use for just listening to game audio, and I felt that those headphones were more comfortable and I could wear them for much longer periods of time without feeling any discomfort. But again, YMMV on this as everyone’s head and ears are not the same so I can’t necessarily hold it against this headset that my right ear gets a little sore.

I do have to make a note that over the last four sessions that I used my Ear Force PX21 with voice chat on my 360, in two of those times I’ve lost voice chat. What happens is that suddenly I won’t hear anyone, and when I talk, the 360 seems to indicate that I’m talking, but there’s nothing. When that happened with my 360 communicators, I would just disconnect the cable from the controller and plug it back in again to solve the problem. It doesn’t quite work this way on the PX21, and I have to struggle for several minutes plugging and unplugging various cables to try to get the voice chat to work again. My friends told me that they would just hear static coming from me. It seems like whenever I first start using the headset for voice chat it’s fine, but if the cable gets a little loose because it gets pulled out a little or something through my own action, I have a hard time trying to get the voice chat working again. With the 360 communicator, if I was having problems, I would unplug the cable and I would hear my party’s voices come out of the speakers, but with the PX21, that was not happening when I unplugged the cable from the 360 controller. It seemed like the 360 still thought the headset was plugged in or something. In any case, I haven’t been able to figure out why exactly this problem has happened to me twice already, but it’s definitely a negative for me even if it may not be happening to other owners.

The Joys of the PX21 Headset
Believe it or not, even after all those potential negatives that I’ve mentioned, I’m pretty satisfied with the product and am now consistently using it. Wearing this big headset is a lot better than wearing the flimsy 360 communicator, and the most important aspect of the headset is that it works (well, most of the time). I don’t know how I can really describe it, but imagine what it’s like to wear a headset that allows for both game audio and voice chat that actually works. If this combination is something you desire, consider the PX21. The audio is great and I love how I can adjust the voice chat and game audio on the in-line amplifier when I’m playing. In games like Modern Warfare 2, I am now preferring to play the game audio through my headset instead of my speakers, just because it’s a much more personal experience and hearing a helicopter or footsteps right next to your ear through the headset beats a speaker several feet away. The only thing is I can’t put this headset on every time I game because then my wife is starting to give me a hard time that I’m trying to ignore her or something every night. But, any moment I need to voice chat, she understands and doesn’t hound me.

Recommendation
In spite of its negatives, I don’t quite regret my purchase of the PX21 and I am now using it for all of my gaming audio these days on the PS3, 360, and PC. However, I do think it’s a little bit expensive though, as it retails for $80. Considering 360 headsets are $10-$15, PC headsets are about $20, and PS3 Bluetooth headsets are about $40-$50, you’re basically paying for all of them combined in order to play with one headset. On top of that, the Turtle Beach PX-21 has a direct competitor in the Tritton AX180, another universal gaming headset that retails for $70. The combination of some people complaining about the Tritton AX180′s flimsier (and more fragile) design and the good things I heard about the Turtle Beach 360 gaming headsets had me go the way of the Turtle Beach PX21. Now that I’ve seen issues with the Ear Force PX21, I am curious to test out the AX180 as well to determine which is the better headset. Maybe once my Ear Force PX21′s break? In any case, $70-$80 is a lot of money for just a gaming headset. The combination of its somewhat steep price point and notable negatives makes this headset decent, but certainly not a must buy.

Final Grade: B-