abhijeet's Games > Game reviews by abhijeet

Control scheme is genius

Posted : 7 months, 1 week ago on 4 June 2008 09:13 (A review of Super Smash Bros. Brawl)

The control scheme for Super Smash Bros is excellent. You use the A key for a normal attack, B key for special attack. The nunchuk direction controller is used to move and it's direction also changes the type of your attack. It takes about 10 minutes to learn and gives you about 6 different moves. Nothing complicated like pressing half a dozen buttons in sequence. The control scheme has the hallmark of genius - simplicity.

The arenas are awesome, they can be sprawling as well as dynamic. The wealth of characters with varied abilities is also impressive. There is a story mode (in addition to the standard tournament mode) that I'm playing through and it seems to be fun as well. Nintendo never ceases to amaze me with the quality of their releases.

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Endless Ocean review

Posted : 7 months, 1 week ago on 1 June 2008 09:37 (A review of Endless Ocean)

I was led to believe that the game consists of meandering around the ocean aimlessly. To my surprise, it's actually more fun than that. As you dive, you discover newer fishes and newer areas of the ocean. It's the new areas that interest me the most. So far, I've come across a forest of huge corals, an underwater cave and a hundred foot deep trench. The music is very good and changes with the area you're diving into. I still have to dive at night and it's supposed to look rather different, can't wait to get into that.

There are also small 'missions' you can accept, like being a diving partner for some tourist, helping find fishes for an aquarium, take photos underwater etc. They keep thing varied.

People who want a conventional 'game' should probably keep away from this one. Other people (like me) who want an interesting experience, beautiful visuals and a good background score will like this 'game'.

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Shows the way but doesn't get there

Posted : 7 months, 1 week ago on 1 June 2008 10:01 (A review of LostWinds)

Disclaimer: My opinion of the game might be tainted by my natural disinclination for playing RPGs.

The innovative gameplay is the highlight of this Wiiware game. The idea is simple - you control the power of the wind and it moves everything it touches. You move your character around and perform other tasks with the wind. You control the wind by waving the Wii remote around. The learning curve is almost flat, you're up and running within minutes. The game looks good for the most part, the Wii doesn't have mind blowing graphics anyway but the game looks pretty.

The problem is that the game gets tedious within a few hours of playing. I'm 4 or 5 hours in right now and I don't think I'll replay it once I'm done with the story the first time around. It might be because I don't like RPGs that much or maybe the game isn't the best around. Probably a combination of the two.

The only reason I'm even playing this is the innovative gameplay. This makes good use of the Wii's capabilities. I'm sure developers will be looking to re-create and even improve on this game. So it does show the way but doesn't completely deliver. The game does provide good value, since it's a cheap Wiiware download. So I don't mind just playing it once and being done with it.

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I rarely play RPGs, but ...

Posted : 7 months, 2 weeks ago on 26 May 2008 10:52 (A review of LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga)

... this is *Lego* Star Wars, after all, and all six episodes of it too. So far I've played (and finished) Episode I. The game play is ... easy, even by my low standards and the focus is more on getting through the levels rather than the action. It's a lot of fun to play. When you mix Star Wars *and* Lego, how could it not be? The action is fun too, it's awesome to wave your light sabre around and use the 'force' to move your opponents. You have to use the 'force' to get through all the levels by solving mini-puzzles. It's totally awesome, it really is. Clearly, they have aimed this at a younger audience and for the older Star Wars fans (yours truly included), anything works anyway.

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Deceptively simple and addictive

Posted : 7 months, 3 weeks ago on 23 May 2008 03:32 (A review of Boom Blox)

The idea is (deceptively) simple - take a tightly packed group of boxes and throw balls at boxes, pull at them, use other boxes to hit them etc. You get points for every box that falls over, more or less, unless there are multipliers and a few other tricks. Each stack of boxes is a puzzle that you can crack in several different ways. The physics engine is *very* impressive and so are the different puzzles. It's takes 5 minutes to learn, but I'm guessing that it will take me several hours to master.

You use the Wii remote to position yourself and then point at the box and then press the A button while you swing and then release the A button to release the ball. The ball's velocity is determined by how fast you move your controller. This type of natural gameplay cannot be done on any other console. This game really does make good use of the Wii's unique capabilities.

Did I mention you can have turn based competitive and co-operative multiplayer games? And that they are insanely fun too? There, I just did.10/10

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Online gameplay added to the fun

Posted : 7 months, 3 weeks ago on 23 May 2008 03:21 (A review of Mario Kart Wii (with Wii Wheel))

The gameplay of Mario Kart for the Wii is eerily similar to Mario Kart 64, which I loved. So it stands to reason that I love the latest game in the series too. The game looks great, all the elements are more polished and colourful. There are plenty of new tracks and vehicles. This is an excellent addition to this excellent series of games.

The strength of this game still lies in the gameplay, not technical virtuosity. The killer addition is online gameplay. Nintendo got this one absolutely right, again.

The only thing I don't like is the power up strategy. Basically, the further up the field you are, the worse power ups you get. The best ones are reserved for people lower down. It keeps the field competitive and is great if you're trying to come from behind but the flip side is that you can go from first to sixth or seventh in a matter of seconds. Still, it's about the only quibble I have after putting in some 50 hours of gameplay.

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Fun fun fun!

Posted : 7 months, 3 weeks ago on 21 May 2008 02:13 (A review of Mario Kart 64)

For the $15 I spent on this game, it's provided me with at least 30 hours of fun. It took a little while to master the controls (5-6 hours), but when I did, it was just awesome. Nintendo keeps it simple, nothing too fancy here, just a lot of fun. There are 16 tracks and 16 racers. The racers are only marginally different but the tracks provide good variety. Of the three racing games from the Nintendo 64, this one is the clear favourite. The two player mode works very well too and I've enjoyed racing with other people, even if they beat me sometimes.

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Got me console gaming again

Posted : 7 months, 3 weeks ago on 17 May 2008 11:00 (A review of Nintendo Wii console)

Nintendo knows how to build fun consoles and games. They've hit a home run with the Wii, once again.

Truthfully, the games I play overwhelmingly tend to be racing games or sports games. I never liked the idea of playing FPS games on a console while fidgeting with the aiming using the direction keys. I'd much rather play on a PC and aim with the mouse. I haven't owned a console in over a decade now, but that changed with the Wii. It hits the spot for both racing and sports, if they games designed properly.

As far as racing games go, there are two varieties - ones you steer with the wii remote and ones you steer with the nunchuk or classic controller. So far, I've tried about 5 different games and have come away satisfied with all but one. So it doesn't have the best graphics rendering engine or the most powerful processor, but the games are almost always fun to play.

The sports games tend to be more hit and miss. The Wii Sports package is awesome and makes full use of the Wii remote. Tiger Woods golf does well with the remote too. However, I haven't found any other satisfying game so far. Still waiting for people to get better at this.

The slam dunk, as they say, is the Virtual Console. It's a absolute stroke of genius. I'm especially enjoying the Nintendo 64 games - a console I never played with. Also like playing some of the classic NES and Sega games on offer.

All in all, this is a versatile and innovative gaming console that has got me console gaming again.

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Stress buster

Posted : 10 months, 1 week ago on 2 March 2008 07:10 (A review of Super Paper Mario)

The game is less action, much more puzzle solving. It's immersive yet relaxing. The dialogue is 80% funny, 20% tedious, which is a pretty good trade to make.

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Bundling Wii Sports was a brilliant idea

Posted : 10 months, 2 weeks ago on 29 February 2008 08:40 (A review of Wii Sports)

Nintendo made the right move by bundling this with the Wii. It gets you up and running and really shows how much fun this console can be.


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