Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (NGC)

Despite its looks P.M.T.T.Y.D. is a very fun game. I'd even go as far as calling it a well-balanced action-RPG. It's that good. It's no wonder it made it to the Players Choice list.



In the game you play as Mario (of course!) and are going to find a mystical treasure behind The Thousand-Year Door sounds like something out of a fairy tail right? I mean your following a treasure map to a legendary door to get at great treasure and fame. once you get to your island destination, however, you find a startling legend in the way of your treasure hunt. Princess Peach has been kidnapped! But oddly enough it seems as though Bowser isn't involved this time (weird...) but that's only half your worries. It seems another gang of thieves have discovered the door and they want in... but the door isn't everything we thought it would be! apparently a cataclysm crushed the city to bits before it was sealed away behind, you guessed it, the thousand year door. It was sealed with 7 artifacts the Crystal Stars, gems with a whole lotta kick to 'em. you have to get those gems! Have to!

They power you up anyhow so get them while you can. Throughout the game you end up solving puzzles beating the bad guys and saving the day on paper! Some puzzles are solved by blowing a part away with a gust of wind, or folding into a paper air plane. Any way you fold it Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is a great choice.

Sonic Heroes (NGC)

Sorry, I missed more days I'll make up for it with 4 new posts. :)

Sonic Heroes is another Players' Choice game though I don't think it's that good.

First things first, the game and story are divided up into 4 teams Team Sonic, Team Rose, Team Dark, and Team Chaotix. Each team is made up of 3 different characters which you can swich between at any time by pressing X or Y. Heres the catch, no matter what team you chose they all have pretty much the same moves as the characters from the other teams with slight veriations, also, the other characters follow along in different formations depending on the lead character. This makes Super Sonic interesting because he gets partners too but thats not the point, it gets annoying sometimes if your trying to do a solo move and they keep running up to try and help you...

Also the storyline is a little bit fuzzy. If you start out as Team Sonic you only get the storyline for that team, eventually meeting up with other teams and hearing unfamilier bits of information like "where's chocola!?" and your thinking "who in the world is chocola!?" (chocola is a small chao, but I don't know its importance or even if Team Rose finds the little critter because I haven't finished the game!) though Sonic Heroes isn't my favorite game, it's still pretty good.

Read the instruction manual or look up the controls online.

Kirby Air Ride (NGC)

Sorry, I missed a couple days but I was trying out Kirby Air Ride.

Kirby Air Ride falls in with all expectations for a Kirby game and even as a racing game. A fast paced easy-to-control racing that offers 3 games in one!

Air Ride is the basic lap race against up to 3 other opponents with 17 different machines and characters. Even race against other opponents with a NGC Broadband adapter!

Top Ride is a kind of minigame where you race with only 2 kinds of machines and get a birds eye view.

City Trial is a 3-D adventure mode where you explore the city with no set track and find your favorite machine upgrade it then compete in many different tasks.


Controls:
A/R/L: Drift/Charge
Analog Stick (left/right): Turn
Analog Stick (up/down): Nose Down/Up
C-Stick: Camera Angle
Y:Nothing
B: Nothing
X:Nothing
Z:Nothing

Get a look at the Air Ride machines/characters.

Super Mario Sunshine (NCG)

Super Mario Sunshine was first released 2002 but was re-released in 2003 on the players choice list. As you might assume being on the players choice list is no accident. SMS is a very fun game, this one bends from the classic Mario it still has the usual storyline. The Princess gets kidnapped (by bowser Jr. this time) after Mario, Peach and Toadsworth go to Isle Delfino a tropical paradise. The new twist is that Bowser Jr. can transform into a passable version of Mario himself! Bowser Jr. also carries a paintbrush made by Prof. Egadd, and of course F.L.U.D.D. (Flash Liquidizer Ultra Dowsing Device) is also a professor Egadd invention. Mario is ordered by court to clean the island, which is plauged by lack of sunlight because Bowser Jr. has drawn graffitti all over the island making the shine sprites, the energy scource of Isle Delfino, leave. The court rules that untill the isle is free from graffitti Mario won't be alowed to leave.

Gameplay is addicting as you use moves such as triplejump, walljump, or other classics (along with FLUDD) to stomp your way to victory! Unlike the metroid series you can only collect shine sprites and a select few Fludd power-ups (including yoshi!).

Controls:(see manual for detailed controls)

A: Jump

B: Dive/Action

Analog Stick: Move

C-Stick: Camera Angle

R/L: Camera Centers Behind Mario

Metroid Fusion (GBA)

Another Metroid series game. This one came out in 2002 and is no disappointment. Apparently made in conjunction with Super Metroid (SNES) in which Samus eradicates almost all metroids on planet SR388. Here is the story so far...

Samus has returned to SR388 to research a parasite known as "X". These creatures were once prey for the metroids but with the metroids gone they have grown in number. The X are a gelatinous creature capable of infecting and absorbing the skill, knowledge, and form (including offensive and defensive abilities) to later transform into that very creature! While researching the X Samus is infected by one herself. On their way back to HQ the X inside Samus multiplied in her central nervous system causing her to lose consciousness. Her ship drifted into an asteroid belt and jettisoned the escape pod with samus inside before crashing. Once back to HQ they discovered that the "organic components had become so integrated with her system that it could not be removed while she was unconscious" large parts of it were removed surgically. She was given minimal chance of survival. Then, someone found a cure, a vaccine made from the infant metroid from SR388 (see Super Metroid for details) should neutralize the X inside her. The cure was injected without delay and worked tremendously. Samus, however, had changed. her suit was now the fusion suit (seen above) and an explosion rocked the B.S.L. research facility. Samus went to investigate only to find the infected pieces of her power suit stored there were now gone, the X had also invaded the station. Stripped of most of her powers once more she ventured to recover them and discover what happened to the crew and her power suit, and to eradicate the X if necessary. Later however she discovered a startling question. Was she the hunter? or the hunted?

As I said earlier, a great game you can play over and over again! If you don't want to restart then try to find all of the items. Hours of gameplay in an easy-to-understand format with a rather deep story line.

Controls:
D-Pad: Move
D-Pad down twice: Morph Ball (LA)
A: Jump
A (in air): Space Jump (LA)
A (in air): Screw Attack (LA)
A (morph ball): JumpBall (LA)
B: Fire
hold B: Charge Beam (LA)
hold R + B: Missile (LA)
B (morph ball): morph ball bomb (LA)
hold R + B (morph ball): Power Bomb (LA)
L: Aim Angle Up
L + D-pad down: Aim Angle Down

Metroid Prime (NGC)

Since this is kind of my second post I'll tell you something I forgot before, I use abbreviations such as (NGC) for Nintendo Game Cube or (GBA) for Game Boy Advanced. The title will be the title of the game and the system.

Metroid Prime is part of the Metroid series, made in 2002, and made it onto Players Choice in 2003. It is a phenomenal game and is praised by many for storyline.

Short History of Samus Aran: Samus's parents were murdered by the Space Pirates a savage group of aliens that live up to their name when it comes to pirating vessels. The Chozo, a birdlike civilisation of incredible technological genius, adopted her and trained her. She now possesses an athletic ability unlike any seen and a Chozo-designed Power Suit to top it all off.

The Current Story: Samus invaded a Space Pirate ship in order to destroy it. Destroy it she did but not in the way expected, her power suit was damaged and most of her latent abilities (including the Vira Suit Augment [seen in picture above]) are now offline. Samus took her ship down to the planet Tallon IV the home of the Chozo only to find the entire race wiped out and a mysteriously deadly substance corroding the planet! Now it is up to Samus Aran to uncover the poison, solve the cipher, and remove the threat...before it removes her...

Like I said before, it is a really fun game! I haven't beaten it yet but YouTube.com has the final battle. It has enough fighting in it to keep the warriors hooked but puzzlers and item hunters can be kept just as busy as the rest. Every Latent and Extra ability you recover helps you on your way, as well as unlocking previous areas for hours of extras. You can scan things with your scan visor (which also interfaces with Chozo and Space Pirate tech) and you get bonuses such as an image gallery for scanning items, creatures, Chozo lore, and others.

Controls: (pretty simple)

D-Pad: Visor Switch

C-stick: Weapon Switch

Analog Stick: Move

A: Fire

Hold A: Charge Beam (LA)

B: Jump

B (in air after jump): Space Jump (LA)

B (in Morph Ball): MB bomb (LA)

Y: Missile Launcher (LA)

Hold A and press Y: Super Missile (LA)

X: Morph Ball (LA)

L: Lock On

R: Aim

About V.G.R.

Basic Post: I'm going to take different gaming systems and games and post about what they are like, how good a game it is, the main plot, etc.

I'll try to only review games I've played to avoid assumption on any games. Though I may request a person to review a game if I haven't played it. In that case please be fair about the games give it a chance to prove itself. Not all games are that much fun if you only play the first 15 minutes of it!

Also, even if you (or I) don't like the game take into consideration the genre of the game. I don't really care for sports games but if the game really does have good graphics, controls, elements, etc. I won't let my dislike for the genre get in the way of me calling it a good game! So I ask you to do the same.

One more thing,
Don't judge my reviews too harshly I'm only 14 and this is my first (and only) blog.