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![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/bf2-1.jpg\")
<\/a>*That* Battle of Jakku!<\/p><\/div>\n
The first <\/span>Battlefront<\/em> game of the new era was released in the prime of the Disney <\/span>Star Wars<\/em> hype train – that is to say, the month before <\/span>The Force Awakens<\/em> came out.\u00a0 Although the game was a bit\u00a0lacking on the single player\u00a0side (no campaign, aw), I spent a ridiculous amount of time playing online with my good friend Josh.<\/span><\/p>\n With Battlefront II<\/em>, we got a decent and well-put together campaign (yay!), but everything else was just lacking that little something special.\u00a0 After all the hours I had put in with the first one, I was disappointed with the little things – the way you level up, the way you unlock abilities and cards, the way the multiplayer maps were laid out, and even the menu screens… none of it felt like it “gelled” nearly as well as the first one.<\/p>\n I put this one at the top of my playlist because I had an Xbox Live Gold account I needed to make the most of.<\/p>\n Verdict<\/strong>: Not bad overall, but really makes\u00a0me long for the old days.<\/p>\n Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled <\/strong><\/em>(Xbox 360)<\/strong><\/p>\n Think this game looks fun? I won’t go over how fantastic Turtles in Time<\/em> was on Super NES, because everyone should know that by now.\u00a0 Re-Shelled<\/em> is unfortunately not nearly as good.<\/p>\n There’s quite a difference between moving flat sprites left\/right and up\/down in a given space, versus having a 3D-modeled character\u00a0that is\u00a0able to move 360 degrees.\u00a0 In a beat ’em up that requires you to hit moving things,\u00a0it makes it\u00a0a little trickier to make sure you’re facing in the right direction so you can\u00a0actually connect with something.\u00a0 Because of this, it just feels like a button-mashing fest without much strategy involved.<\/p>\n Two more\u00a0things stand out to me about this game.\u00a0 First,\u00a0the colors seem washed out, making everything look rather plain and uninteresting to look at.\u00a0 Second,\u00a0the music\u00a0didn’t incorporate anything whatsoever from the original’s amazing soundtrack.\u00a0 Here were these great tunes that sounded amazing back in the day (and still hold up quite well), but didn’t get the remixes they deserved.<\/p>\n Verdict<\/strong>:\u00a0 Shame.\u00a0 Could’ve been something fun, but… it wasn’t.<\/p>\n Disney’s The Little Mermaid<\/strong><\/em> (NES)<\/strong><\/p>\n Don’t remember this from the movie…but I also really don’t remember anything from the movie.<\/p><\/div>\n There are\u00a0only five very short stages in this game, and it took me a little over\u00a020 minutes to beat.\u00a0 Its reputation for being a little on the easy side is well-deserved, but I still somehow managed to die a few times during this play-through.<\/p>\n The only other thing I can think of commenting on is the plot and whether or not it’s actually the same as the movie – I don’t think it is, but then again it might be.\u00a0 I’m too lazy to Google it, which is pretty bad… I know Katie next door made me watch it with her a time or two when we were kids, but I must have mentally tuned out.<\/p>\n Anyhow, not much to say about this one, but only because it’s so short!<\/p>\n Verdict<\/strong>:\u00a0 Good music, tight controls, decent game!<\/p>\n The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse <\/strong><\/em>(Super NES)<\/strong><\/p>\n *hums Chappelle’s Show R Kelly tune*<\/p><\/div>\n This one was in my Top 100, and while it’s still a great game, it might get knocked down a few notches.\u00a0 Not that it hasn’t aged well – it actually has!\u00a0 It’s just that I didn’t realize it suffers from the same problem as The Little Mermaid<\/em> in that it’s quite short.<\/p>\n Not only that, but the system the game has\u00a0for upgrading Mickey’s outfits\u00a0throughout the game (which I once thought was a cool thing to be able to do) doesn’t really work.\u00a0 There are lots of branching paths and you can explore quite a bit\u00a0to find all kinds of coins to try and pay for these upgrades, but the moment you get to the first shop, you realize that they cost way more than the amount you’ve found so far.\u00a0 You might be able to upgrade one of your suits later in the game, but that’s about it.<\/p>\n Stage 3 shop – still not enough coins for anything useful.<\/p><\/div>\n Other than that, I encourage you to at least give the game a try.\u00a0 It borrows a bit from other Capcom games, the controls are great, and (although unrelated to the game itself) the issue of Nintendo Power<\/em> with this game on the cover is probably my favourite issue of any magazine, ever.<\/p>\n Mega Man boss design contest FTW!<\/p><\/div>\n Verdict<\/strong>:\u00a0 Still enjoyable!<\/p>\n Vs. Excitebike <\/strong><\/em>(Wii U Virtual Console – Famicom Disk System)<\/strong><\/p>\n One of the few different-looking things from the first game – the title screen.<\/p><\/div>\n I was looking forward to trying this one out, even though I knew it was just a version of Excitebike <\/em>that had multiplayer added into it.\u00a0 I loved the original, so I was interested in seeing what other gameplay elements they changed\u00a0for this quasi-sequel.<\/p>\n There’s a solo qualifying session before each “main” multi-competitor event – too slow, and you’ll miss the big race –\u00a0so that’s pretty neat.\u00a0 The music\u00a0is completely different than the original’s, which is fine I suppose.\u00a0 Oddly enough, there’s music playing\u00a0during the\u00a0races this time around, and while it’s not all that bad, it’s nothing special either.<\/p>\n There’s also a\u00a0decently fun\u00a0mini-game between events that breaks up the monotony a bit.\u00a0 As interesting as it is, it feels cheap.\u00a0 Not sure what other word to describe it…\u00a0 it just…\u00a0 well, look at it.<\/p>\n See what I mean?<\/p><\/div>\n Overall, the main portion of the game feels a bit more difficult than the original.\u00a0 While still fun, I enjoyed the first one’s “pick up and play” feel as opposed to this one’s\u00a0slightly more hardcore and less forgiving nature.<\/p>\n Verdict<\/strong>:\u00a0 Only for Excitebike<\/em> super-fans… which I am, but even then, it’s nothing overly spectacular.<\/p>\n LittleBigPlanet <\/strong><\/em>(PlayStation 3)<\/strong><\/p>\n Ahhhhh!!! Run!!!!<\/p><\/div>\n I was already in the process of recording Battlefront II<\/em> when I decided to do this whole “play all my games” thing, so LittleBigPlanet<\/em> is technically the first “big” game to show up on my list.<\/p>\n I got to the second set of levels when my recording issues popped up again.\u00a0 They’ve been the source of many headaches since I’ve owned my elgato GameCapture HD, but for the most part it has worked pretty well.\u00a0 It all boils down to how powerful my laptop is versus what my recording quality settings are, so I had to scale things down a bit… but it still looks pretty good.<\/p>\n Ugly.\u00a0 Thankfully, it’s (mostly) been figured out.<\/p><\/div>\n This is still an extremely fun game, but the physics have a way of kicking you in the nuts.\u00a0 For instance, this car you’re supposed to zigzag through narrow hallways with bounced wildly, and it took me a few minutes to un-wedge it from this position…<\/p>\n …which sucked, considering the vehicle is needed to progress to the next part of the stage.<\/p><\/div>\n These sumo-wrestling boss guys at the end of one of the game’s later stages bounce high in the air, and the intent is for you to pop the ball on top of their heads.\u00a0 Well, one of them happened to bounce wildly enough to knock the other one upside-down – if this happens, there’s no way to flip him back upright, because he doesn’t\u00a0have anything for you to grab onto (like the above-mentioned car does).<\/p>\n There was literally no way for me to defeat the one on the right in order to move on, and the level had to be restarted.<\/p><\/div>\n So yeah, although I still greatly enjoy the game’s aesthetic, controls and overall gameplay, it was the little things like that that had a tendency of souring the experience a bit for me.<\/p>\n<\/a>
Think again!<\/p><\/div>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>