Battalion Wars and BWii:Battalion Wars 2

It's been 4 months since I've done a review of any kind and with good reason,no one blogs anymore.It's FACEBOOK this, FACEBOOK that which is really quite a shame

I don't play as many video games as I used to,why? Becuase usually I'm either too busy reading,sleeping,or doing schoolwork.But there is one video game I can't get enough of here it is

One's things for certain,it's worth much more than the $5 I paid for

Battalion Wars (GameCube)

Developer: Kuju Entertainment
Publisher:Nintendo
Year:2005

Plot: 6/20 (It's completely unoriginal in every way possible,but then again it has few nice twists and come on,it's a purposely satire on American warfare,you can just tell by the the cartoony infantry and vehicles and bad accents so while it's not much it's not a total loss.Basically 2 nations (Frontier and Tundra) make a truce that is quickly broken (by Tundra) thus creating war)

Graphics: 20/20 (The graphics are absolutely stunning,very detailed,the environments are very lush and huge. The actual battalions despite being cartoony still look really good.When the Bombers drop their bombs the explosions are really good.No blood though.)

Concept: 20/20 (Basically you are the commander,and though you don't have a physical appearence you can switch between units.You lead the battalion through a great variety of missions whether it's shooting down gunships or capturing flags or bombarding the artillery.If your unit dies the game nicely switches over to another unit)

Levels: 16/20 (Usually they are all very interesting and the objectives are always differ,the real problem is although they differ sometimes they play out the same [Like Missions 18 and 20] other times they are the same [missions 3 and 8] but they're still amusing and addictive and regardless I can't get enough of them)

Challenge: 14/20 (The problem with this game is first it's waaay to easy [the first levels are tutorials but still] then come about Mission 6 it becomes ridiculously difficult,and it just bounces between easy and hard til' the end. And while the first missions are nice they are I found very hard to learn but easy to master. That kind of thinking has ruined many a video game.Of course now that I've played them so many times all them are simple)

Music: 7/20 (At the very beginning I can hear some of the music but it dies down in the action which is very annoying,but at the very beginning it's very nice,the best music is within the cutscenes though,very beautiful)

Final: 14/20 (It is a fun game,but to be honest it isn't perfect. It's too hard at some points and at others it's too easy,I don't get to hear the music becuase it dies away,I should be glad with the effect but I'm not and some of those missions get repetitive. It's a solid title but it's more about the action than anything else)

The sucess of the first garnered a sequel

BWii: Battalion Wars 2 (Wii)

Developer:Kuju Entertainment
Publisher:Nintendo
Year:2007

Plot: 11/20 (The plot is greatly improved,while it's still not original.Basically after a terrible defeat from the last game, Kaiser Vlad vows vengeance by deceiving all other nations into fighting while he can look for a superweapon that he can use to destroy them all,he begins by deceiving the Anglo Isles into attacking the Solar Empire)

Graphics: 18/20 (Everything looks noticeably better than the first game,but I felt like the environments could've had more detail and they could've taken more time on the vehicles while preserving the lovable cartoony look.The most impressive part is the water effects by far in naval battles)

Concept: 18/20 (Only 3 things have truly changed. First you can now play as a naval battalion,next you can capture all sorts of facilities that will resupply certain types of units,and finally there is an online multiplayer,I haven't played that so I won't give a score. Other than those new additions it's pretty much the same formula.It's also nice that I can now play as a bunch of nations rather than just one)

Levels: 12/20 (This game suffers from the same problems the first game did plus adds more like instead of a variety of objectives,instead you're stuck with Capture this Base,Capture those Docks,however there are a few standout levels like Campaign 2,Mission 3 or the final mission)

Challenge: 8/20 (It's not so much that it's too easy,more so that the challenge depends on if you want to capture the facility or not.If you don't capture any except the one that ends the mission,things will be waaay to hard,but if capture every facility in sight,it's waaay too easy plus you still have the same problems from game 1)

Music: 16/20 (The one thing that was fixed was the music,now the music is not only better than the original,it's a lot more intense and it doesn't die away come a batttle. In the cutscenes it's very fitting for the moment.Although sometimes it's repetitive)

Final: 14/20 (It's still a really good game and the new additions are really nice,the real problem is it hasn't addressed what plagued the original and added some new problems. It also comes off as more about the story than the actual missions. Not to mention the game relies too much on facilities. But hey the plot has still improved and for once I can hear the music and besides I haven't been able to try the multiplayer yet. Currently it feels more like an expansion pack with Wii controls rather than a sequel)

The Siren Song

This one is the sequel to awesome hit (though not too well known by my peers) The Shadow Thieves it continues the saga of frustrated, sarcastic, and smooth talking Charlotte Mielswetski and her cousin not-so-frustrated,sarcastic,nor smooth-talking Zee who always end up taking on the Greek Gods and totally winning at that.

The Siren Song (Ursu)

Year: (2008)
Publisher:Atheneum

Plot: 20/20 (Our hero from the last book finds herself grounded due to leaving to save the world without those parents knowing,on top of that Zee hasn't been acting like himself and a strange new kid has showed up. Her parents then force her on a History-themed cruise but of course nothing goes well when there's Poseidon and vengeful Phil to deal with)

Characters:20/20 (No creepy Mr. Metos, more of the irritating parents cliche,the same vile Phil but with a twist of egotistical Poseidon and of course the same lovable main characters)

Settings: N/A (I didn't pay much attention to the settings this time,I was too busy lauging at all the humor,or slapping my face in exasperation whenever Maddy said anything)

Writing: 20/20 (It's quite scary,this book was actually as well written as the original,something incredibly rare in books)

Final: 20/20 (Ursu has actually managed to keep the series going with no evident decline in quality,of course this score might only be temporary becuase I need to back and pay more aention to the settings)

Newsies

I've decided to freeze all those promised ones from all those "Up Next" ones, I think I'm just gonna take requests {At least a week and see where that goes} and while I'll keep the "Up Next feature" it'll work by category rather than by what's in line

Now the one I'm doing right now is a request from Asm,this one is technically a musical but I didn't pay much attention to the songs so I honestly can't comment on that one. Like I said I watched that movie yesterday.And considering it had the dreaded D logo of cheesy fakeness it wasn't so bad.But since it based on real events I shall grade this from a movie perspective rather than as something from the actual thing

Ok enough nitty gritty and onto the real thing

Newsies

Year: 1992

Presentation: 16/20 (The movie actually started off pretty good and kept my attention,it wasn't perfect or near it,but to say it was superb would be an understatement all the same)

Plot: 12/20 (Basically Jack Kelleyleader of the newsie boys {these are the boys that sell newspapers to people and buy from the company for twice that and therefore have to sell a lot of papers to make a living,in this case they sell New York World newspapers} decides to organize a strike when the president of the paper company decides to raise the price for buying the paper to the newsies.While that's a good plot that shows promise it's just barely over modest. The plot is based on a real event and that real event lead to child labor laws so I can't be too critical however)

Characters: 20/20 (All of the characters are well developed,not one seems spineless or lacking,While David does leave some personality to be desired,he good enough besides he's supposed to be "The Brains" anyway. Little Les is a very convincing character,kind of cute {in a less hormonal way thankfully} but mostly innocent which is the real charm of this movie.The villain is just the kind of villain we need,a subtle,nastier,grim one simply putting profits before people.That's the problem with most villains,they're usually psychotic maniacs that set elaborate traps)

Bale's Role: 20/20 (Much more outstanding than his portrayal of Batman,nails his work on being the brawny smooth talker,and kept the charisma the real leader had though the real leader couldn't talk so good,but he was probably smarter)

Pullman's Role: 12/20 (He was really good at being the perfect president in Independence Day (whoops forgot to mention him),but well in this case he seems to portray his character Denton as fuity[the newspaper guy who covers the strike in an important rival paper,then helps Jack make a paper for all children],now I don't know about the real Denton but this guy seems a little to fair-weather and flaky for my likes (I'm not much for the real Denton if the real Denton was like that).But then again he also came off as helpful and willing to do the right thing)

Duvall's Role: 20/20 (He plays greedy,profits first newspaper owner Joseph Pulitzer who in the movie raised the price of the papers making it too difficult for the newsies to be able to feed themselves,he didn't actually make to much of an appearence but for what he did was great,I think he made a cameo in The Godfather as well)

Moscow's Role: 6/20 (He played "The Brains" of it all,but well he just doesn't seem much like the brains either,he seems more like that sidekick that gets in the way and never talks. He seemed to portray the quiet part of The Brains rather than of course The Brains)

Set: 12/20 (It looked old fashioned and sort of like old New York,but all the same it also looked like it could be Paris, Salzburg, or one of those cities on continental Europe.Well at least the old-fashioned part was done right)

Execution: 20/20 (Despite all the misgivings,it was still well executed,the right lines,just the right time to break out in song,all the follies were drowned out by something Kelley said)

Final: 14/20 (Not bad for a post-1970's Disney movie, not only was it well executed,but it also was close to the actual 1899 Newsboys strike.Still the acting left a few things to be be desired but hey when you need a good sleepover movie that leaves you laughing all night this my friends is a good movie.Don't expect too much if want something really boring though or if you want a movie with the most top-notch set.)

Announcement

Well it was great to have a nice few months off,but I'm back again

I've officially lost the paper telling me what to review so I'm all for requests. All I know is I was supposed to review a movie,oh wait I just got a request to review Newsies from Asm.

If you read this blog,please make a comment, PULEEZE?!? I hate it when my blog is read but there's no comment to tell me so,it's very discouraging when you don't know if you have attention or not,and it takes time out of my summer to do this

That's all

-Uber Psycho Tom

The Shadow Thieves

Unlike most books this book title is literally what it says.It's actually about shadow thieves but it's not quite that simple and I'll explain why soon

I came across this book when I was bored,Asm had told me about this book so i thought I'd give it a go,so I asked Asm if I could borrow it much to her delight. Now onto the review


The Shadow Thieves (Ursu)

Year: 2007
Publisher:Antheum

Plot: 20/20 (Basically you have a sarcastic,smooth talking girl who has things turn on her when a cat appears out of nowhere,then her long lost cousin from England comes over,and then everybody gets some weird sickness which is believed to be a problem from the Underworld oh yes that's right Greek Mythology isn't Greek Mythology in this book.It turns out some demi god has made an army of clay henchmen who then steal shadows to build an army to overthrow none other than Hades who rules the underworld)

Characters: 19/20 (I liked all the characters in the books, we have smooth talking,sarcastic,nerdy Charlotte Mielswetzky and a polite,calm goody-goody who goes by the name of Zee.Mr.Metos is kind of creepy though.My least favorite character is easily Hades becuase he's too lazy and he doesn't seem to care much about what happens all he cares about is keeping the throne and Persephonie. I pity Charon most of all though and maybe you'll agree when you actually read the book)

Settings: 20/20 (I love how the Underworld is depicted as a gray drabby town rather than hell or a land of ice,and the River Styx in which Charon has to ferry the dead over to underworld very nice,it's not really hot lasva like it's been usually depicted as)

Writing: 20/20 (Only a goddess could write like this,until now! OK,ok a little over-the-top but it's quite amazing style how ell everythings described and the sense of humor left in)

Final:20/20 (If all books were this good I wouldn't be able to hold a job for more than a minute. It's not my favorite book but it's certainly a good book with allusions to mythology certainly more fun than say The Odyssey)

Up Next:

Chronologically: Time Bandits (Movies)
Books: Warriorcats:The Original Set

Star War: Shadows of the Empire

It's been a while since I've done a review of any sorts at all let alone a video game review.But since it's time for a video game review here I go

Most love the movies,some love the video games,some only like Princess Leia's hair do,and some only like the famous lines "Luke,I'm am your faaather" (I fit in all those categories).Either way it's still Star Wars.If there was ever a franchise that had too many video games for it's own good it would be Star Wars. However with that bad there is good I am going to review one of the good.

This game takes places somewhere in between episodes 5-6,............I think.This was one of the many jewels for the Nintendo 64 and one of the many good games actually made by LucasArts.I came across this game when I randomly went through a drawer of cartridges at Leffler's house.Naturally I put it turned th system on and started playing here's my outlook

Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire (Nintendo 64)

Developer: LucasArts
Publisher: Nintendo
Year:1996

Plot: 5/20 (The plot is pretty weird,unecessary and it's more like just another weird chink in Star Wars,in a way it's like a bad fanfic plot,in a way. It starts off after the battle on Hoth in The Empire Strikes back,then stuff happens after The Empire Strikes back I don't care anymore)

Graphics: 20/20 (This game though was an early game actually did not suffer from blurriness. Somehow LucasArts managed to make a game with graphics quality that it seemed only Nintendo could do)

Concept: 15/20 (A pretty straightforward concept,use the lightsaber,use it some more and more.Pretty nice and simple)

Levels: 14/20 (Above average levels yes but they got worse and worse as time went by,I preferred the Hoth stage the most)

Challenge: 20/20 (This game offers something most games really don't have any more,CHALLENGE.The first stage was tremendously hard and you can tell it's a perfect 20 and a good game when it's easy=to-learn,hard-to-master)

Music: 20/20 (I love the music in this game,and it was actually orchestrated which was quite rare back in 1996 plus the music is beyond good and evil [not close to Mario but still beyond good and evil]

Final:13/20 ( While it's not good,it's still one of the best Star Wars games out there and still a very solid N64 game and video game for that matter.Wouldn't recommend playing it all the way through more than once though)

Up Next:

Chronologically: The Shadow Thieves (Books)
Video Games: Sonic Game Gear Collection

PlayStation 2,PlayStation Portable,and Atari 2600

I've reviewed quite a few consoles since I started this blog practically all of them by SEGA most of Nintendo's, all of Microsoft's and few in between. The few that I have played but haven't reviewed are slowly being put on the list.

And since the last 2 Sony systems and the first real successful console are up now,well here I go.

I always hated the Sony brand,they've made the market for closed-minded hardcore gamers obsessed with blood and guns and they've always seemed corporately arrogant. Alright onto the review

PlayStation 2

Games: 9/20 (There are a lot of games for this system,by now they're should be enough to fill a garden shed and that's just with 1 of each,with all the copies sold you could fill a mansion,but the main drawback is most of these games are crap like Disney:Sing It)

Graphics: 12/20 (Impressive graphics but primitive compared to the likes of GameCube and Xbox,early games look comparable to the Nintendo 64 [Dead or Alive 2]

Design:0/20 (Looks like an ugly skyscraper,too heavy,and prone to breakage plus it can't read discs half the time)

Technology: 20/20 (In a day when DVD's were rare and expensive,$300 was a bargain not to mention backward compatibility which was all but forgotten)

Final:10/20 (Terrible system but no one can deny the technological aspects of the PS2)

After dominating the console industry,Sony went handheld with the unoriginal name of...............

PlayStation Portable

Games: 2/20 (Not a lot,and not a lot of good in fact like the Lynx I can only name 4 good games Grand Theft Auto:Liberty City Stories,Grand Theft Auto:Vice City Stories,Daxter,and Monster Hunter)

Graphics:19/20 (Graphical marvel the PSP is,it's like putting the Ps2 into a handheld,PS2 wasn't great for it's time but considering the fact most handhelds were still 2D and the DS had N64 based graphics,this is a perfect but 2D wise PSP is no match for DS)

Design: 16/20 (I liked the design on this one,compact and well placed buttons but the thumbstick leaves something to be desired and it could have better battery life)

Technology: 20/20 (The first handheld to use discs instead of cartridges,plus web browser and photos and MP3's this handheld is the perfect multimedia center)

Final:14/20 (The only SONY system I actually can respect in any way,but no match for DS)

Onto the first cartridge based system that mattered,the first 30 million seller,the first system with real 3rd party support it is........

Atari 2600

Games: 12/20 (Don't get me wrong this system has a lot of games and a lot of good games like Pitfall!,Adventure,Night Driver,Space Invaders,Tennis,Kaboom!,Tanks,but it also is loaded with garbage like Pac-Man,E.T. the Extraterrestrial,Karate,Custer's Revenge,and Raiders of the Lost Ark)

Graphics: 9/20 (Atari 2600 was never known for having attractive graphics,earlier games look more like pixilated puke but hey some look pretty good[ex:Ms. Pac-Man])

Design:18/20 (I loved the design,the faux wood style gives me a "right-at-home" feeling but it was too big and heavy)

Technology:20/20 (First system with dettachable controllers,first that could support many add-ons and so much more,easily a perfect)

Final:15/20(Good system,best-of-the-best before 1985 but with a huge storm of inexperienced 3rd party developers making games and throwing em' out into the market,no one could tell the good from the bad which of course helped cause the Crash of 1984)

Favorite Games

PlayStation 2: Final Fantasy X
PlayStation Portable: Monster Hunter
Atari 2600: Adventure

Up Next

Chronologically: Star Wars:Shadows of the Empire (Video Games)
Consoles:Sega Master System and Turbo Grafx-16