Messages

1301

NWR Forums Discord / RE: Bloodworth and the coca-cola company..?

« on: March 08, 2006, 09:48:50 PM »

*like Pepsi better

1302

NWR Forums Discord / Chuck Norris Stole Your Bike

« on: March 08, 2006, 08:59:00 PM »

This may have gone around already, but I'm posting it here because this is where it belongs.

http://www.4q.cc/index.php?pid=fact&person=chuck

Enjoy Refreshment.

1303

NWR Forums Discord / Pryopizm and Bugs: The best of friends

« on: March 08, 2006, 08:37:04 PM »

Pryopizm: life would be so much easier if I wasn't such a sissy regarding bugs
Bloodworth: skitters
Pryopizm: yeah, found a spider in my bedroom
Bloodworth: hooray for steel toed boots
Pryopizm: haha, I require distance
Pryopizm: I usually use a vacuum cleaner
Pryopizm: but it's still at my old apartment
Pryopizm: so, now I'm sleeping in the living room
Bloodworth: hey I just thought of a new funhouse thread
Pryopizm: oh?

1304

NWR Forums Discord / RE: Mafia III: Day Two

« on: March 08, 2006, 06:48:34 PM »

The band was starting to rehearse, and BlackNMild was nowhere to be found.  I was starting to get a little pissed, but then I saw one of his girls come into the club alone, searching for him.  

I headed back to his private cabana, but I was too late.  I found his head in a laundry basket with another one of the girls just standing over it, staring.  There was an empty glass by the bed, so I curiously sniffed it.  "That amateur still drank this stuff until his dying breath?  It was hopeless anyways."

I realized then that his body was actually nowhere to be found.  I called the police to report the murder, but they claimed they already knew and that it had been reported in the morning paper.  (Who still reads the newspaper in this town?)  

"If you knew about this, why didn't you recover the body?"  
"Oh the body's here in the morgue"
"If his body is there, why is his head still at the crime scene?"
"It is? ......Well that's it!!  I knew the body felt a little lighter, but I just couldn't think of what was missing"

"Well, we executed Wandering last night.  I bet he's the guy that killed your singer."

Wandering was too weak and too high to be a threat to anyone.  My confidence for the justice system and my own safety was at an all-time low.

1305

NWR Forums Discord / RE: Mafia III: Day Two

« on: March 08, 2006, 05:37:01 PM »

oh crap, voting's already over?  I'll have to try to jump on before going to work in the morning

1306

NWR Forums Discord / RE: I'm sorry... so sorry...

« on: March 08, 2006, 05:27:21 PM »

Quote
DISCLAIMER
All content on this site, being a mixture of parody, satire, and lame humor, is for entertainment purposes only. If any content is found to be offensive or objectionable in any way, please accept our apologies... but we also suggest that you get a life.

1307

TalkBack / RE: Naruto Games Arrive in North America

« on: March 07, 2006, 08:27:12 PM »

that site is classic
a must read for everyone on the Internet

1308

NWR Forums Discord / RE: Mafia III: Day One

« on: March 07, 2006, 04:09:45 PM »

The heat was unbearable.

I opened the club late, hoping that the sticky heat might subside, and that those pirates would have found someplace else to go drinking.  My club has been frequented by them far too much, and the dance floor needs enough scrubbing without having the blood of one of my customers blood spread all over it.

The ceiling fans were making a difference now, but as soon as the band starts to play, the bodies will fill in and the air will thicken again.  I tried to focus on my duties at the bar and the few honest sailors who had just come off the ships to flirt before collapsing in their rooms.  

The band's lead singer, BlackNMild, enters.  His shirt is open wide, from the heat of his ego, rather than the warm tropical evening.  His arms are as far around his group of half-dressed girls as he can manage - as usual.  

"You're in early," I say.  "I'm not giving you any more advances before shows.  If your whores think you're good for the cash, you can pay them after you've earned your share." He casts a challenging glance my way, and walks to the back patio for a smoke.

1309

NWR Forums Discord / RE: Mafia III to have Rev features

« on: March 06, 2006, 09:18:23 PM »

Ah, so that's why we have to endure such a long delay

1310

TalkBack / RE: PGC Turns Seven Years Old

« on: March 06, 2006, 08:47:11 PM »

School

[RiskyChris]

1311

TalkBack / RE:E3 Runs Out of Floor Space

« on: March 06, 2006, 08:40:01 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: RiskyChris
I hear Reggie alone takes up half the floorspace.

Confirm/deny?

Only his presence.  Like a magnet, crowds will either be attracted to or repelled by his presence, depending on whether he's in name-taking mode.

1312

NWR Forums Discord / The brilliant world of voice recognition

« on: March 06, 2006, 04:51:51 PM »

So, I had to call SBC/AT&T today about an ongoing billing flub caused by Sprint.  Anyways, they've decided to abandon pushing buttons in favor of the more "user friendly" voice recognition computer operators.

STUPID COMPUTER: "To get started, say or enter your phone number"
BLOODWORTH: *types in
STUPID COMPUTER "It will be easier to help you if you give me your phone number."
BLOODWORTH: *types again
*repeat until I scream "operator"

STUPID COMPUTER "To find someone that can help you, please say what you need in a few words" *gives examples
BLOODWORTH: "Unauthorized charges?"
STUPID COMPUTER: "I'm sorry I didn't understand.  Try..." gives more examples
BLOODWORTH: "Unauthorized charges.... wait - Billing"
STUPID COMPUTER: "Ok, service.  Would you like to add service or cancel service? You can also say 'none of the above'"
BLOODWORTH: "None of the above"
STUPID COMPUTER: "Ok, New Service.  I'll connect you now"

1313

Nintendo Gaming / RE: The Official Chibi Robo Thread

« on: March 04, 2006, 09:05:45 PM »

I tried looking for those back in the fall.  It must have been a ridiculously limited run if it was ever on sale to begin with.

1314

Nintendo Gaming / DS Lite Elite

« on: March 04, 2006, 09:02:32 PM »

So mine's not going to be here for at least another week, but who's gotten their own piece of Liteness already?

1315

TalkBack / RE: INTERVIEWS: NST Discusses Metroid Prime: Hunters

« on: March 03, 2006, 04:30:22 PM »

Yeah, I do the knee thing too, Artimus.  I'm hoping that the DS Lite will make the size of the system less of an issue.  I cannot stand the thumbstrap in any situation.  

Oddly enough, despite the fact that I use inverted aiming on every console FPS, inverting the controls on Hunters makes it unplayable for me.  WEIRD.

I think that the single player game will progress somewhat like Fusion, giving you access to multiple areas at once, but shutting off certain areas at times.  The Hunters themselves feel like fighting Dark Samus in Echoes since you're toe to toe with an enemy that's very much your equal.  

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TalkBack / RE: INTERVIEWS: NST Discusses Metroid Prime: Hunters

« on: March 02, 2006, 04:14:09 PM »

UncleBob, I wouldn't hold your breath for voice chat in Tetris DS.  Easy as it may be to put in, I get the impression that the Tetris team is very small.  I did find out that the same guy that programmed Tetris on Game Boy is working on this version.

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TalkBack / RE: INTERVIEWS: NST Discusses Metroid Prime: Hunters

« on: March 02, 2006, 04:00:45 PM »

Thanks for the compliment, but please be aware that it was a team effort.  Jonathan Lindemann, Jonathan Metts and David Trammell actually wrote most of the questions before I went up to NOA.

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TalkBack / INTERVIEWS: NST Discusses Metroid Prime: Hunters

« on: March 02, 2006, 05:28:59 AM »

PGC speaks with two of the lead members of the NST team about the development and evolution of Metroid Prime Hunters.

Earlier this week at NOA Headquarters, we had the opportunity to learn more details about the development of Metroid Prime Hunters from Director Masamichi Abe (pronounced "ah-bay") and Lead Technical Engineer Colin Reed from NST. Bill Trinen served as translator for Mr. Abe.

PGC: I understand both of you also worked on Pikmin as well?

Reed: Yeah, we worked on Pikmin together and 1080° on the N64 together. So we've worked together a lot.

PGC: How large was the development team on Metroid Prime Hunters?

Reed: I think the largest sized team got up to maybe thirty people.

PGC: Is that quite a bit larger than other DS games?

Abe: I think so. (laughter)

PGC: What led to the decision early on to make Metroid Prime Hunters a multiplayer game? Was it influenced by Metroid Prime 2?

Abe: Actually, when we first started the project, one of the main focuses of the DS hardware at that point in time was the wireless functionality and being able to play with other people wirelessly. Because of that, we felt that the multiplayer aspects of Metroid Prime Hunters were going to be very important and that was kind of our starting point.

Then as an idea of introducing a new element to the Metroid series - really bringing in something that we haven't seen before - was this idea of the different bounty hunters. We had this idea early on and thought that would be a good way to introduce this new content and this new element to the gameplay and take advantage of that in the multiplayer.

PGC: Do you think that this new element is going to influence the future of Metroid games, such as Metroid Prime 3 on Revolution? Or is it going to be something that's self-contained, and if it's in a sequel, it would be a "Hunters" kind of sequel?

Abe: I think there's definitely a possibility for it to influence the series. Personally, I don't know what's going on with Metroid Prime 3, but I think that because we've been able to use this opportunity to introduce these new bounty hunters, then I think that just opens up more opportunities to continue to flesh them out and explore different avenues with them in future Metroid games.

PGC: At what point was it decided to go online? I think that earlier they mentioned the feedback from E3 last year.

Reed: Definitely. After last year's E3, we got a whole load of feedback. There was a certain amount of disappointment that we weren't intending to go online at that point. The schedule for when the Wi-Fi stuff was starting didn't really match up with our schedule for finishing. So, that's why at that point we decided to go into those issues.

PGC: Voice chat: was that just a natural extension? At about what point did that come in?

Reed: I have no idea when that got implemented. It's a fairly new technology, and it's just something that came up just as we were finishing up when we decided, "Yeah, why not? Let's put it in."

PGC: So it was pretty easy to put in there then?"

Reed: Oh yeah. It was really easy to put in actually.

PGC: Great. That shows that there may be a chance that it will show up in a lot more games.

Reed: I believe so.

PGC: With the DS online capability, most of the games that we've seen have been four players. Is that a technical maximum or do you think that in future games or simpler games that maybe more players will be able to join-in online?

Reed: An online game is always a trade-off between beauty and number of players. So we've tried to take a nice compromise. The thing with the more players is that the more players you have, the larger arenas you have to have. There are always these technical trade-offs that you have to make. I think that we've made a nice balance with this game, but it's not by any means a technical limitation to stop at four.

PGC: That also influences the voice chat functionality? It would be too much information transferring to try to talk and play at the same time?

Reed: It's always a balance that you have to take, yeah.

PGC: What other kinds of elements were added in addition to the online and the voice chat once you knew that you had more time to work on the game?

Reed: I think that it was mostly a case that it gave us the extra time to be able to polish the game. We got the chance to make so many more optimizations, and to get the framerate running at a solid state and to try all these new shiny material kind of effects. It gave us that time to just step it up a notch. So we're actually pretty thankful!

PGC: Yeah, the reflectivity on the morph ball looks really nice.

Reed: It was one artist just hammering away in the middle of the night. He comes to show us what he did, and we were like, "Oh that's cool, let's use that." (laughter) Then the effect just spreads off and starts getting used all over the place. Then we have to reel them back in and say, "Ok. No, he's using it too much."

PGC: Was there ever a point during development when you thought that maybe with this new control scheme and all these other characters that it might be better as a different franchise?

Abe: No, not so much. From early on, one of our key focuses was really creating this as an extension of the Metroid universe while at the same time upholding the traditions of the Metroid franchise, everything from the continuity of the story to the graphics. In that sense, I think it's really always been a part of the Metroid series.

PGC: Who was responsible for working on the designs of the new characters and how difficult was it to try to get them to fit in to the Metroid universe?

Abe: Actually from the very initial stages of game development, our art team worked in collaboration with the lead designer at Retro Studios, who is in charge of the design of the Metroid franchise, the Prime franchise in particular. We had a lot of discussions with them to not only talk about the design of this game, but also in creating the new characters, working with them to make sure that these characters fit into the overall Metroid Prime series.

PGC: Hunters takes place between Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2. How does that work out with continuity? Is it not really influenced by either game?

Reed: It's not really influenced at all by either of the stories. It's just a side story, really. It's a separate mission.

Abe: As Richard [Vorodi] was saying earlier, the ship that you see in the game is the ship from Metroid Prime, whereas the suit Samus is wearing is the suit from Metroid Prime 2. So, where the character is, in terms of development, fits somewhere between the two. Maybe there are some events that happen on either side, but that's kind of the general flow of where it would fit.

PGC: Other than the different morph forms, what are some of the gameplay differences between the different hunters?

Abe: In addition to the morph forms, the effectiveness of the weapons can change, depending on which hunter is using the weapon. The simplest example is the charge missiles. When Samus uses the charge missiles, the homing is very effective, and they are able to home-in on targeted enemies very easily. Whereas, other hunters, when using the homing missiles, the homing may not be as effective for them as it is for Samus. In that sense, there's a balance between how effective different weapons are with different hunters.

PGC: How was the single player mode first conceived and how did it change throughout development? We didn't see much single player for a very long time, so it's almost as if it's just been revealed.

Abe: Actually for both modes, development started at the same time. The thing about multiplayer mode is that you've got a variety of different modes. People can pick it up and play it very easily and quickly understand what's appealing about it. Whereas, with the single player mode, you really need to spend a good half-hour or more to really understand what's appealing about it, what's interesting, what makes it different. In that sense, the single player mode was just something that was harder to show to people. We really wanted to show it off earlier, but we felt that we'd rather create demos using the multiplayer mode and show people the appeal of the multiplayer Metroid and save the single player mode for later.

PGC: How did the control layout influence the level design and the enemy design?

Abe: It wasn't really a driving direction in terms of changing level design based on the control scheme, but because we've gone from a control stick to the stylus/touch-screen control, our real focus in designing the levels was just to make sure that the actual gameplay didn't get more difficult or the actual control didn't get more difficult. In that sense, we just took our standard process for designing levels and fine-tuned the level design more for the stylus control. But to say that we had to shift the way we designed the levels wouldn't be very accurate.

PGC: During the presentation, [Richard Vorodi] said that the length of the game is maybe just a little bit shorter than the first Metroid Prime. What kinds of incentives are there for replaying the game – bonuses or harder difficulties, etc.?

Abe: It's pretty standard in terms of what you would expect from a Metroid game, having an unlock system to encourage people to go back through and play the game. But at the same time, just doing a speed run is going to be a lot of fun for people, and I think that people will enjoy the challenge of trying to beat it faster than everyone else.

Reed: There's a couple of other things. When you finish the game, we do actually show the time that you took to get through the game. Also, we keep track of the total enemies killed through the whole life of the game. So each time you play, it keeps adding up and adding up and adding up, and I'm sure there's gonna be forums where there's like, "Ah, I got a million kills. I got two million kills." (laughter) There's all that online competition that I think that will be going on. It's always interesting to see what ways people find to play your game.

PGC: Before, people were pretty comfortable with there being 3D Metroid on consoles and 2D Metroid on handhelds over the past couple of years. Now that Hunters has kind of broken that barrier by putting 3D on a handheld, do you think we'll still see some 2D sequels in the future?

Abe: I guess. I'm sure that they'll probably put out some more 2D Metroid games.

PGC: Just a couple of fun questions. Some of our staff wanted to know what some of your favorite characters and weapons are in the game as well as how you two stack up against the other players in the office.

(laughter)

Abe: I prefer Kanden, and I'm really not very good. (laughter)

Reed: I think my favorite character is Weavel. I like his affinity gun. I love his HUD. I did all the HUDs as well, so that's probably my favorite. And I… don't ever play multiplayer so I'm pretty terrible. (laughter) I'm looking forward to playing once the game comes out. It's just that, obviously, I've been very busy.

There's always a group of guys every day. They're always like down at the end of the office battling away. (laughter) I think that's one of the reasons why all the characters are so balanced. It's just because we've played it so much. Not me personally, but everyone's played it so much. (laughter) Sometimes you’re like, "John, you gotta get back to work you know?" but they're just playing it, and it's all for the good of the game. That's one of the beautiful things about it. All the characters are totally balanced. We don't think there are any broken, too-strong characters.

One of the things that's really interesting to me - when you start playing team games – is how your combination of characters can influence the way that a match goes because your abilities can help each other. It's going to be very interesting to see how people end up playing the game.

Thanks again to Mr. Abe and Mr. Reed for taking the time to speak with us.    

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TalkBack / RE: Midway Promises Revolution Game in 2006

« on: March 02, 2006, 05:15:23 AM »

I think Midway should make Mortal Kombat for Eye Toy.

1320

TalkBack / RE: PREVIEWS: Metroid Prime: Hunters

« on: March 01, 2006, 05:07:08 PM »

Regarding the timing of the article, I apologize, but I got this up about as fast as I could, given circumstances.  I don't have a laptop, and unlike IGN and others, PGC doesn't have the resources to buy them for all of us.  I'm sure anyone with a laptop was updating from the very room we played in or the airport - I would.  We went to the airport from the event, I had a later flight, drove home, started writing, turned it in for editing at 2:30 AM, and posted the article in the morning before getting ready for work.

[Treasure delivers a great 2D fighter that's Wi-Fi compatible – then nearly destroys it by adding a card system.]

1321

TalkBack / REVIEWS: Bleach DS: Souten ni Kakeru Unmei

« on: February 27, 2006, 05:52:35 AM »

Treasure delivers a great 2D fighter that's Wi-Fi compatible – then nearly destroys it by adding a card system.

Bleach DS is part of a series of Bleach fighting games released by Sega.  I was a http://www.planetgamecube.com/reviewArt.cfm?artid=4480>little disappointed with the GameCube game, but since I had heard the DS game was being developed by Treasure and would be on Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection with four players, I decided to give it a shot.      

At its core, Bleach DS is a strong 2D fighter that feels familiar in the basic areas.  The Y, X, and A buttons are for quick, medium, and strong attacks, respectively.  You block with R, and the B button is used to perform a "quick step" which for many characters is a short-range teleport that can get you behind your opponent.  One interesting characteristic of Bleach DS is that there are two planes to fight on, one in back and one in front.  This allows you to split up the chaos in four-player mode or to side-step attacks by pressing the L button to switch between planes.  Bleach DS also eschews the standard two round win requirement in favor of longer single matches.    

Special and super attacks are done mostly Street Fighter-style with quick cross pad movements.  However, Bleach DS takes advantage of the touch screen to give you an assortment of hot keys for each of your character's moves.  It's a handy option for anyone lacking the dexterity to perform all the keystrokes or the patience to memorize them, but it does take a bit of time to adjust to moving your thumb over to the touch screen's extra buttons.  Two separate meters regulate how much you can use specials and supers.  The frequency with which you can use special attacks, make quick dashes, and change planes is controlled by a meter on the bottom of the screen which recharges whenever you stop momentarily.  Super moves are only available when you fill the green meter near your life bar.  It can fill three times as you attack or take damage, and each full bar allows you to use one of your lesser super moves.  Most characters also have more powerful super attacks, or bankai attacks, which require three full meters to execute.    

Performing combos in Bleach DS is completely old-school.  While there is a challenge mode to teach you combos for specific characters, these are a far cry from the preset combos in the GC version that can be executed by simply tapping the A button over and over.  No, combos in Bleach DS require impeccable timing and careful attention to positions, and they often require you to perform some tricky juggles.  Also, if you're on the receiving end, there are some handy techniques in place that allow you to Damage Cancel and get out of a combo.    

There are 28 fighters to choose from once you've unlocked everybody, including the twelve captains and Ichigo and his posse.  The bottom six characters seem to have been thrown in mostly for fans since they have fewer attacks than the others. Still, it is quite hilarious to see Kon, the tiny stuffed lion, battling it out against Bonnie, the giant boar that Ganju rides.      

In case that isn't a clear enough example, the characters have a pretty wide variety of fighting styles, and fans will be pleased to know that bankai attacks have a much greater effect on gameplay than the FMV slideshows in the GC game.  The bankai attacks are extremely different for the few characters that can use them.  Byakuya's bankai is a simple large-range, multi-hit attack.  Ichigo transforms for a set amount of time, giving him a speed boost and completely replacing his normal attacks with extremely powerful projectiles. Kurotsuchi summons his crazy baby-faced caterpillar bankai to run over opponents like a freight train. But my favorite is Komamura, who summons a towering giant with arms spanning the length of the screen.  You can actually control the giant, smashing the right arm on the ground and then the left arm, effectively slapping your opponent back and forth across the screen.    

There are several different modes to mix up the game a bit.  Arcade mode puts you through the standard paces with about six battles or so.  The Story mode is the longest stretch of the game. Starting off as Ichigo, you'll have to meet specific requirements in each match to clear the mode.  Then you'll have 22 more "episodes" to fight through, with multiple matches in each.  The final episode is pretty much a full retelling of 40 or 50 episodes from the show, so if you're concerned about spoilers, you'd better catch up to episode 60 or so before playing.  After you're done with the first leg of the story, you'll also unlock Time Attack, Survival, and Challenge modes.    

Bleach DS has a robust suite of multiplayer options.  When no one's around, you can set up a match against three other CPU players with eight degrees of AI settings.  Friends can join two or four player matches even if they don't own the game, since Bleach DS supports download play.  On top of that, Bleach DS is the first fighter on the system to sport online play through Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.  You can play against friends, in ranked matches, or in unranked matches.  In unranked matches, you also have options to play four player games, to choose between death match and point match games, and to play without using cards.  Since the game is only officially available in Japan, that's where the majority of players are as well, so it's not uncommon for the game to move extremely slowly to make up for the lag.  Fortunately, the lag varies from match to match depending on who you connect to, and I have been able to play a lot of matches online.      

I haven't won many fights, though.  Despite Nintendo's goal of matching players according to skill level, I consistently get beaten over and over again.  It's simple.  You think you're a good fighter?  None of your buddies can come close to your skills?  Bleach DS will probably teach you how much you suck at fighting games if you play online.  But wait, there's more to it than raw talent, isn't there?  Sure, there are some legitimately tough guys out there and others are spamming the same move over and over (that's supposed to be fun?), but this sucker just used two bankai attacks in a row – what just happened?  Enter the card system.    

In addition to all of that awesome stuff above, Bleach DS features a card system that pretty much breaks the game in multiplayer.  In single player it's harmless and even seems "cool" at times.  You basically create decks of cards, which can be earned through completing various tasks in single player or by buying extras in the shop.  Then during a fight, random pairs from your deck pop up on the touch screen, and you can touch a card to activate it for a few seconds.  There's a huge variety of cards, and importers are already at a disadvantage for not being able to read them.  The effects consist of defense or attack changes, healing, invincibility, forcing your opponent to jump or crouch, prohibiting your opponent's special attacks, temporarily giving you unlimited super meter, etc.  There are four power levels for each type of card.  The effects of level one cards are hard to notice, but level four cards increase the power or duration of these effects significantly.  However, level four cards are hard to earn, and this where the system completely unbalances multiplayer games.  It's no longer a game of raw fighting skill, but a game of who has the best cards and can stack them in his favor.  If your opponent has three or four healing cards in his deck, you're going to need a deck powerful enough to offset that unless you're far more skilled than him.  The unlimited super meter card is the worst offender since part of the fighting strategy is to forego lesser moves in order to build up strength and attempt a stronger move.  With one of these cards, that strategy goes out the window, and there are characters like Soi Fong who can easily defeat an opponent just by using her level three super twice.  Thankfully, you are able to play without cards in unranked battles, but ranked battles have no such option, and fighters with lots of high level cards can be found even in the beginning tier.    

Despite the detrimental card system, Treasure has put together a pretty solid title that can appeal to fighting game fans as well as Bleach fans.  Aside from reading the cards (there are guides available online), importers shouldn't have too much trouble.  The main menu is mostly spoken in English, so navigation is just a matter of listening closely, and the submenus aren't too difficult either.  Bleach DS: Souten ni Kakeru Unmei can be ordered from our partners at http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=273&products_id=7443>Lik-Sang.

Pros:
       

Strong combat system  

Online play  

Touch screen hot keys

       Cons:
       

Card system unbalances player match-ups  

Online play shows how bad you really are

               Graphics:  8.0
       Player sprites are large, detailed, and represent the characters well, but overall there's nothing spectacular.  A lot of art from the show is included in cut-scenes.

               Sound:  8.0
       There are an impressive number of vocal samples for a DS game, and the full opening theme from the show opens the game.

               Control:  8.5
       The touch screen hot keys are a nice feature to keep from having to memorize everyone's moves and to get new players involved quicker.  What's even nicer is that the hot keys are completely optional, and more precise variations can be performed with the cross pad and buttons.

                      Gameplay:  7.5
       Bleach DS has a solid fighting system with some useful combo escapes and a few other tricks to dodge attacks.  Fighting online may not be as chummy as Mario Kart, but it's still nice to get on with real people anytime you want.  Unfortunately, the card system can completely unbalance multiplayer, and if you aim to compete in ranked battles online, you'll have to play through all of single player first to get high-level cards.

 

       Lastability:  8.5
       With a long story mode, several other single player modes, local multiplayer, Wi-Fi, and cards, artwork, and sound clips to collect, Bleach DS has plenty to keep you going.

 

       Final:  8.0
       Sega and Treasure have delivered a good 2D fighter that's enjoyable, whether you're a fan of the series or not.  The card system can hurt the multiplayer experience if your deck's not on the same level as your opponent, but there are options that keep the cards from breaking the game completely.      

1322

NWR Forums Discord / RE: MAFIA III: Operation Revolucion! (Ninjas vs Pirates)

« on: February 26, 2006, 11:42:28 PM »

Apparently TYP got the same memo.  What the crap am I doing again?

1323

NWR Forums Discord / RE: Naruto thread for Tuesday

« on: February 26, 2006, 07:03:26 PM »

heh... it was a joke, considering how we haven't seen him for something like 20 or 30 episodes now.

There were a lot of cooler things they could have done with various characters.  Hinata got a little extra exposure in the beginning, but that was about it.  Some of the longer side stories I didn't mind so much, but a lot of it has been lame stuff like the Curry of Life.  It just feels like the main writers pretty much left the guys on the TV show on their own.

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NWR Forums Discord / RE: Naruto thread for Tuesday

« on: February 26, 2006, 06:49:54 PM »

lol who's sasuke again?

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NWR Forums Discord / RE: Perrin Kaplan

« on: February 25, 2006, 10:55:09 PM »

Quote
In true Nintendo form, Perrin used her Game Boy Advance as her focal point, playing Donkey Kong Country while going through labor.