Final Fantasy II: Insanity and frustration!

I remember that I got Final Fantasy Origins for PS, just for one thing, original Final Fantasy in a better look with many facelifts. I didn't care at these days for the other thing in that CD, called Final Fantasy II. I cared with it nowadays. And ended up on one of these RPGs, that are a lot different than usual RPGs. Yeah really. This is what I observed from the game...

Prepare to die!

You've got a story better than original Final Fantasy, and your party talks, something that didn't exist in the first. Your whole party could learn spells unlike the first, which needed a mage. You've got a canoe at the beginning, instead of the original's canoe at mid-game. Then...

It will give you insanity and frustration, then fits, the more you go deeper into this machine-o-doom! Let's see if Firion can say "Prepare to die!" as freely as he wants.

Nothing in Final Fantasy is called Experience Points, or XP. You wanna make Maria a powerful girl with dual swords? Go ahead, but let her attack with swords so she could be a great offender. Don't upgrade me her swords to level 9  then say "no, she should equip knives from now on", you will restart from zero, as you make Maria learn how to hold knives. You want to make Firion a mage? Don't just make him kill monsters with whatever he is holding, let him DO magic so he could be a mage. Don't make him fight monsters with your weapon so you could gain MP. Hey wait, are there spells like Cura? Never. Want to make Gus heal the most HP? Then make him heal a lot using the Cure 1 spell, then it will upgrade by time to Cure 2, Cure 3, etc.. Don't expect to find a Cure 6 scroll hidden somewhere, unless you're talking about a magical weapon.. That's for.. player status.. Oh, and you have 63 inventory slots only. You can't stack 99 potions like in original FF. Not to mention that Key (or important) items are going to fill 1/4 of the inventory. Be wise with your inventory! Enemies please?


The bosses were insane, assuming you had Mythril weapons of course. The next time you challenged a gaint blue turtle in the ice, unprepared... surprise! Only one guy got you out of this problem, or you went and figured out where's the weakness... maybe you don't have it yet.

ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!

Yeah... and roars in your face as well with his surprisingly powerful attacks and high defense. Now let's move on? What about the ogre from the original? Aww, his size now gives him the power to unleash an attack to execute a process that tries to delete your HP. Come the next day asking for the Ogre Chieftain, okay?

Then the famous repetitive mission of "rescue the damsel in distress" is on it's way. You expected to fight some goombas and that's how you do it? You expected the mission to be as easy as the original's Garland?? Wrong! Think again. Warlocks and Spiketoises await you.

Then you open a chest, just a chest... WOAH! A monster fills the whole screen, maybe two! That's what I just want to run away from his face... that's more powerful than the original's Hill Giga which seemed to be a hoax, be prepared for the real Hill Giga! Chances of me beating that fiend (is he more powerful than the original's first fiend?) were at this time, 50%, and it gets up the less Gigas I face. But I did say goodbye when two taken me out... And for your information, one guy couldn't take you out as safely as four guys could. Same for three guys.

Gordon: I just defeated the Hill Gigas! Ye.. FIRION? MARIA? GUY?

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Many rooms in that wonder are nothing but hoaxes. You expect a room full of chests right? The room with that valuable thing that made you go into that killer dungeon for it? Once again, nope. These hoaxes are empty rooms with a higher monster spawning rate, that is, if you entered this room, you come up in the middle, and chances that the two steps you'll move to the door are full of monsters, that will punish you for taking this route. Millions of these rooms are spread in the game.

All that, were frustration and halfway insanity. Yeah it's still long, but I have one more thing! Let's make you go out frightened right? And here's the most insane thing to happen in the game, and the most creepiest!

For a poisoned Wind Drake, you go to talk to him and know what's the next thing you'll do. He gives you his valuable thing, but talk to him again. He tells you to bring that thing to the said place again..... before you press X, touch your iPhone screen or anything, lower your sound volume and prepare for the Wind Drake's roar... in your party's face. We expect a frightened and coward Maria and Guy (and YOU) as you all think that he will eat you now.

That's all what I got to say about Final Fantasy II. Yeah it should have given you fits and made you gave up, but for some reason I didn't give up... But I'm grinding, oh no....

Wake up, PookSpot!

Hola again guys! Pooka Mustard is back after a long gaming journey... Yet PookSpot is forgotten right?


Though I have exams a few days later, I will try to make a post before I start. Let's stop these reviews I was making in these days and start something else still par to gaming, righty?


Which takes me to the upcoming post... it is...

DJPimpDaddy plays Dragon Warrior - 1st episode

I highly suggest you select the button: "Watch on YouTube" and view in 1080, which is how NES was ment to be played. (kidding) - DJPimpDaddy

Christmas Flash Gaming: Super Mario Crossover

Let's celebrate Christmas, by writing the next Pookspot review, and introducing our new writer, DJPimpDaddy.. I may go low on activity the next days due to exams, so here we go... Let's talk about Super Mario Crossover, one of the best free online flash games available on the internet. It's the one which remade the original Super Mario Bros and added characters out of Super Mario's native environment. It can also be played as a PC version of Super Mario Bros, with the addition of being able to back track each level unlike the original NES version.

The story is the same as the original Super Mario Bros, the princess is kidnapped and you have to rescue her. With the help of more characters, Mario and others makes their way to saving her.


There are lots of music tastes here. You not only have the great Mario soundtrack, but you have the music from The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, CastleVania, Blaster Master and the others... You can turn any of these soundtracks on at any time given, so you can play as Link while the Super Mario soundtrack is on.


The graphics are the same 8-bit NES graphics you would expect, so here it gives some nostalgia taste :p. Of course, as long as it's NES graphics then you expect good retro game graphics in Super Mario Crossover.

The gameplay is how Super Mario Crossover shined..... You play in the same famous levels that Super Mario Bros hosted, and not only that, you can play with other character's out of the Super Mario, the same way they were controlled in their respective games. For example, Link moves, jumps, and can swing his sword and chuck his boomerang, as well as doing downwards and upwards thrusts, the same way he was controlled in Zelda 2 (chucking the boomerang from the original Legend of Zelda). If you are tired from their limited capabilities in the Mario worlds, you can use the cheats you find to make the trip easy and keep up with Mario. If you can't use a certain character in a stage because you couldn't do a jump well with your character, you should use Mario, because Nintendo built these stages for Mario to cross. There are many modes, one mode involves you playing with any character you want before the starting of a stage and before a game over (just like SNES Super Mario 2), another involves playing with only the chosen character, and there is a survival mode in which if a character died, he could be revived only by 1-ups. It's a cool remix of a cool classic game, huh? It includes saving data, which is also an addition to the whole game, and makes it easier for people who have real life to deal with, to continue the progress of their game. You save a text file and whenever you want to load the save, you press "Load Game" and pick up that text file, you have all your progress back.

And overall, the whole game is based on the classic 8-bit versions of graphics, music and gameplay. This means retro gameplay, glorious 8-bit graphics, and classic music. The list of playable characters includes (from left to right on the choose character screen): Ryu (Ninja Gaiden), Link (Legend of Zelda), Mario (Super Mario Bros), Bill Rizer (Contra), Simon Belmont (CastleVania), Megaman (Megaman), Samus Aran (Metroid), and finally, Sophia III (Blaster Master).

CONCLUSION:

So what do we have here in short? A collection of characters placed into one glorious game, all of them are in the masterpieces of 8-bit graphics, retro gameplay and classic music, all of them are controlled the same way they were controlled in their respective games... With saving games, cheats, and lots of modes... You can relive Super Mario Bros on your PC, or play the fun crossover involved in Super Mario Crossover... And the best part: for free. This the best flash game on the whole internet, and if you want to relive Super Mario Bros, no other flash Super Mario game was as accurate as Super Mario Crossover was in reliving Super Mario Bros...

10/10: One of the best flash games on the whole internet!

Minecraft (PC)

As a celebration of Minecraft's 1.0 release, I'm going to review Minecraft, the game that brought attention of 4 million people around the world. An addictive game that sold a lot of copies and brought a lot of people into one game, thanks to Markuss Persson (or Notch), the creator of this brilliant game.

This game has no story, but here is my rendition of the story: You appear in a world made of blocks and pixels, and your goal here is to mine blocks in order to build houses and high top castles, as well as pixel art, while surviving hordes of monsters including the famous exploding Creeper, the mysterious Enderman and fighting the ultimate and the only boss in the game, the Enderdragon, where your non-building adventure ends.

There are music in the game. You can have them turned on or off depending on your mood, and occasional music will pop up when it's on. But there are also music discs gained by either dungeon chests or by making a skeleton kill a creeper, and they are worth chasing after because of their rarity and because they are better than the occasional music. The sounds are not that bad, but the new TNT sound is not that good and so is the Enderman's noises.

The graphics are like 16-bit pixels, but they aren't bad as 16-bit graphics brings back memories from the SNES and Genesis era ;). The best part is that you can customize them and make a "Texture Pack", and you can edit your player's skin so that you can log into servers with a special look, different than the look Notch gave you. If you have a powerful computer, you will enjoy how wonderful Minecraft looks with Far and Fancy graphics set.

The gameplay is the best part of Minecraft. It's the reason why it sold out over 4 million copies. The reason why it gained great popularity in the gaming world. You build, craft, mine, and survive through hordes of dangerous monsters. You got three modes to choose from: Survival, where you have to survive your first day in a new world by making a shelter, while crafting, mining and smelting the needed stuff until the shelter is built, then you have to hide in the shelter at the first night, and then continue expanding your world and fight monsters the next morning when most monsters disappear. There is Creative mode, where you've got most of the blocks used in Minecraft and some stuff to toy with, and build anything you'd think of using an unlimited supply of blocks and stuff. You can also fly in this mode by double pressing space quickly, which is useful in creating high end castles. There is the last mode, Hardcore, which is the hardest mode in Minecraft because it's locked on the hardest difficulty and you have one life, dying in a hardcore world will result in the world being deleted, which makes you think and fight carefully the whole way in that world. If Minecraft gets boring though, you can play it Multiplayer, where you can show your builds to people, chat with them, play with them, and showing off your cool self made skin. Minecraft has more secrets than just those, as I can't put them all into one article, but keep track of the updates Minecraft receives, as they increase replay value of Minecraft as well as add new stuff into the game.

TIP: Before you would buy Minecraft, you should check Minecraft.net and play the free Minecraft Classic, one of the older versions of Minecraft. It is basically just like the Creative mode in the full release, except with fewer blocks and no stuff. I'd try that version of Minecraft, and if I liked it, I would waste the 20 euros needed to buy the full version of Minecraft, from Minecraft.net (Minecraft is available as digital copies only). If you can't afford the full version but still want to play Minecraft, then Minecraft Classic is your only way to enjoy the great game (albeit without the survival and monsters), and you can play it multiplayer as well.

SERVERS

One great thing in Minecraft is the existence of Multiplayer Servers, this where you can play with other people and show them your builds, as well as not feeling bored or being alone in Minecraft. There are a lot of servers running Minecraft around the world, but ThisWeekInMinecraft has a pretty decent and well moderated server with multi worlds, and depends on the Bukkit server application which uses plugins including anti-grief plugins. Its available to Minecraft 1.0.0, so if you want a server to play on, then ThisWeekInMinecraft is one of the best Minecraft servers on the internet.

CONCLUSION

A simple story (or no story at all), good sounds and graphics, VERY GREAT gameplay, and many modes to choose from as well as many directions to take in the game, makes me rate this 10/10. This game is also available on iOS, iPod Touch, Xperia Play, and it's coming soon to the XBox 360, meaning a lot of ways to play this game albeit in creative mode on the portables. I recommend you to burn 20 euros on this great game..

RATING: 10/10: The Best PC Game choice!

Super Smash Bros Melee (NGC)

I’m addicted to this great fighting game. Your favorite characters from Nintendo are here, only to fight each other, with their crazy and exclusive abilities and combos on the table. With 26 (with 11 to be unlocked) characters to choose, this game gonna make your day.

The music is a great aspect in the game.

You have most of Nintendo’s great soundtrack. Like the SMB ground and SMB underground mix in the castle area, and the original SMB ground ported from the NES in Mushroom Kingdom I, SMB2 music in Mushroom Kingdom II, and the Great Bay from Legend of Zelda. The sound effects are well done, you can hear voices of most of your characters, and also every move in the game has its sound effect. Moves from the prequel had their sounds redone for Melee.


The graphics are being the coolest on the GameCube, more excellent than it’s prequel in graphics. It looks more like a mix of cartoonish and real graphics, and the 3D look is great enough to make the game look excellent. Well, no single thing in the graphics looks bad.

And you will ask me “what about the gameplay?” I say it’s the best part of the game besides the music. It’s really the best part in the game. Fighting is a bit different from others. You play in a 2D area like other fighting games, but you have to make your enemy’s damage percentage (which is 0% on start) go higher up by hitting your enemy with the different moves and combos, then at the right percentage, you must knock back your enemy using a powerful move (smash hit). With 26 of your favorite Nintendo characters, including Mario, Link, Samus, Pikachu, Fox and Kirby, and also characters added into this installment of the Smash Bros titles, like Bowser, Falco, and Zelda, you have plenty of characters to challenge, and plenty of characters to play with. Everyone’s combos and moves are different from others, leaving you to try to explore a character’s powers and exploit that character’s weakness points.

Its multiplayer is also another reason for its success. It’s the best game in 4P action. And truly it is. You can play the Melee mode, which is a standard fight for 1-4 human players, with different modes dedicated for it like time, stock, coins. And there is the special melee mode, which makes a fight a bit unusual and more different from a standard melee. One of the special Melee modes is the giant Melee, which will make every character in the field giant. Then here’s the stamina mode, where health (150hp) is used and you have one chance to beat all players on field before you lose your health and become tame. There is also the tournament mode, which is another reason why this game is successful. Gaming tournaments also used Melee’s tournament mode, to the point that some people won high profit out of these tournaments.

And the game’s not limited to fighting, as you have goals to complete, in order to unlock everything in the game, from characters to stages, to trophies that holds information for the player. These goals include doing bizarre tasks, and beating teams of CPUs. Trophies are won by picking them up in 1P classic mode, or by doing a lottery (costs coins), and sometimes for achieving a goal. Some trophies unlock hidden stuff, so try to grab any trophy you see in the game.

CONCLUSION

A crazy fighting game, high end music and graphics, loads of Nintendo characters to pick, learn and play them, great gameplay and the greatest multiplayer mode in a fighting game, this is one of the greatest fighting games ever made for the GameCube.

RATING: 10/10: The best choice!

Pacman World (PS)

It's Namco's arcade classic, Pacman, now transferred from the arcade genre to the adventure genre, and it's not short or easy most of the time! Yet it retains most of the arcade genre features, including maze levels, and even the original arcade version of Pacman, in this game which is the 20th anniversary of Pacman.

It was Pacman's 20th birthday. His friends were coming to celebrate his birthday, but all of a sudden they were kidnapped. Pacman finds his party ruined, and knew that the ghosts were behind that mess and he went to rescue his friends, and stop Toc-Man, the robot Pacman that was behind all that mess.

The theme music is remixed from the original Pacman and some levels have parts of that great music! The theme music is my favorite in the game. The sounds are all realistic and fit to Pacman, yet there are the old nice sounds like his death sound, etc...

The graphics are well done especially for the PlayStation, nothing is blurred out and sometimes the graphics are so colorful. Pacman himself looks astounding and everything is crystal clear. And explosions are real, too.

The gameplay is the greatest part in the game, as in the past two games I reviewed. Pacman is not limited to chomping ghosts now, or collecting pac-dots and power pellets, but now it’s an adventure with mind thinking and stuff like that. You have health and have to keep it up if you want to get past the game. You can do butt-bounces to bounce off trampolines and kill non-ghost enemies, and you can rev-roll to open some doors and fly through a gap by a rev-roll platform, and kill non-ghost enemies using it. He can even throw the pac-dots at non-ghost enemies, and he still has his power pellet to kill the ghosts for a short amount of time. But is that really it? Nope, there is more than just that. The fruits that earn you more points in the original Pacman are used now as keys to doors that might include 1-ups, switches, or even something that will make you advance in the current level. Even Galaxians, are now used as keys to doors that will lead to mazes that are played the same way as the original arcade Pacman mazes, but with the health Pacman World featured.

Finally, you have access to an arcade mode where you play the same exact version of the arcade Pacman we all are used to. Without any additions either! So by having Pacman World, you also have the original arcade version of Pacman at your PlayStation, ready to be played at any time.

CONCLUSION

The story was to rescue your family and stop the bad guy, the music and sound were good, the gameplay is an amazing change in the Pacman world, and the addition of the nostalgia arcade version of Pacman, makes this one of the titles I like and love to play on the PlayStation.

RATING: 8.5/10: Amazing!