Spore Review

In Spore your goal is to raise your own species of creature from its start all along its evolutional chain. This is done with five stages throughout the game: Cell Stage, Creature Stage, Tribal Stage, Civilization Stage, and Space stage. Each of these stages is an actual different genre of game further making spore unique besides the fact that you watch over a species for “billions” of years.

The cell stage is basically a Top-down arcade. The main goal in it is simple, Eat as much as you can as fast as you can; other then collecting parts that’s the main thing to do. Before starting the option to make three different cells is available: Herbivore, Carnivore or an Omnivore. While playing as a Herbivore your main source of food is going to be plankton while eventually upgrading to seaweed as your cell gets larger. The Carnivore however eats bits of meat floating around until large enough to eat smaller cells or attack cells to burst them open and get meat from them. The Omnivore can eat both meat and vegetation so if you’re into having an open path once the creature stage opens up this is the choice to make.
As you continue on killing creatures you’ll eventually start unlocking parts by killing creatures who have parts you don’t have, or you can find them in asteroids or creatures others have killed. As you evolve further and further you’ll start growing and see that you’re now hunting cells who were previously hunting you, so it’s a way of getting revenge. While food you’ll be earning Evolution Points which you’ll spend in the creature editor to buy parts to help you survive. To get into the creature editor you have to send out a mating call, so the creature editor is basically millions of years of adaptions.
Even though this sounds quite simple I must admit its pretty fun especially once you’ve got your character done with all the evolution upgrades. You’ll be top dog for the most part, king of the food chain, hard for other cells to take you down since plenty of defensive parts are now protecting your cell.

Once you finish off the Cell Stage, it’s time to start the Creature Stage. After growing legs it’s time to go on land and further evolve your species. This Portion of the game is a Simulation. During this stage you’ll find you need to eat to stop your creature from dying of hunger. If you made a herbivore you will eat fruits from bushes or high trees if your creature is tall enough; while carnivores will need to hunt other animals. This is where the evolution points come in; you can befriend another species or hunt them into extinction to earn points. Befriending/Hunting another species will also earn you unique parts that the creature has. Another way to find parts is searching bones on the ground. As your creature evolves you get more and more health. During this stage if you are connected to the Spore network you may see creatures created by other users/buddies/ your own creations. In this stage you can make anything as awesome looking, wacky looking, or a real life animal. The only limit is your imagination. But watch out for epics! Epics are giant creatures with a thousand or more hit points. It’s next to impossible to kill them because they can take you out in one hit. When an Epic comes through its common to see entire nests of creatures fleeing the area in fear of dying. One thing I would enjoy doing in this stage is killing off a species that didn’t like mine from the start, or attacked my creatures nest. Once your done running around in packs you’ll be a sentient being and it’s time to start up tribes.

The Tribal Stage is essentially an RTS where you have to take care of a tribe. During this other species are becoming sentient enough to form their own tribes. There are two ways to deal with these other tribes. The first way is by being social towards them: sending them gifts and performing music for them. Gifts are food that you have collected so you’re giving them what they need to survive. When you perform songs depending on how developed the other tribe is you’ll need more instruments. So then you play what they want when you want it and hopefully they’ll like you more. However even if your being friendly to most tribes there’s still the chance of being raided by an enemy tribe.
The second way of dealing with other tribes is to attack them, kill them, and destroy their hut. For this you’ll be able to make weapons, however the ability to do this depends on your actions in the creature stage. If you were very social during the creature stage then it’s probably a good idea to continue in this fashion since it would be easier for your species.
You’ll also need to gather food for your tribe. There are several ways of doing this. If your social then you’ll be occasionally be given food. Carnivores will have to send out members of their tribe to hunt other creatures. There is also the option of fishing and eating that. Herbivores however just need to gather fruit found in bushes and trees. You can also domesticate animals in the wild by giving them food and then you’ll keep them as a pet behind your hut.
After every tribe you’ve defeated or allied yourself with you’ll add on to your totem pole. What I would always do as a little celebration at the end of the Tribal stage I would take all twelve members of my tribe and have them dance around the bonfire at the center of my land. Give it a try its hilarious watching all your tribe members dance together. Now that you’re done dancing around a fire, it’s time to start up a civilization in the next stage.

The civilization stage is also an RTS like the Tribal stage, however this time it’s about building an economy, and building your military/ religion. Depending on how you’ve approached other creatures throughout the game, aggression or with non aggression. All of the opposing cities will be members of your own race just with different beliefs, the way to pass this stage is to convert them to your beliefs, or force them into it. Instead of sending out tribe members to do things, this time you’ll be sending out vehicles “cars”, “boats”, and “planes”; which you will design yourself to look however you want. You’ll also be designing homes, work industries, and entertainment buildings. You must strategically place these in your cities for your people to be happy/ angry and to optimize money made. Once you’ve got the planet conquered where else do you do? To space of course in the Space Stage!

In the Space Stage you’ll be going to space and exploring further then no creature has explored before. Or so you’ve thought, in the creature stage you may or may not have been visited by sentient beings in their own spaceship. However now it’s your turn to go from planet to planet in this god game/ space simulation. You can expand your species to another planet by Terra forming that planet into a suitable environment. You’ll also get to enjoy abducting and relocating animals, even if you’re relocating them planets away and you get to watch them thrive and see the planet grow.

Even though Spore was a great game it was still a letdown in some ways. The game is very short, it’s possible to beat the game within a day if you played it straight through (there is an achievement for this). This is not the original game we were shown where it was more realistic. Instead we got a game with bubble looking creatures and less realistic gameplay. For example there was the ability to stay in the water and create water creatures. However this was scraped from the game among other things because it was too realistic. Instead we were given the colorful Spore we have today.


I would give Spore a solid 8 out of 10

-Theipaz


Gameplay:

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Review

In the nation of Amestris there are people who one would consider gods, the Alchemists. Alchemy is a science of equal exchange, where to obtain something you must first be willing to give up something of equal value. For example, if you clumsily knock over a radio and break it into tiny pieces one would think that it’s gone for good. However with alchemy it can be fixed, an alchemist would draw up a transmutation circle, place the broken parts on the circle and then activate it, at this point the radio is rebuilt, like magic.

Alchemy is based on equal exchange, this isn’t always the case, for some things there is no equivalence. Our protagonists Edward and Alphonse Elric learned this as young children. Around the age of seven Ed and Al’s mother Trisha died of an illness that burdened her for years that her children didn’t know about. Heartbroken from their loss they decided they would bring her back to life. During the transmutation the reason human transmutation was illegal became clear, there was nothing you could give up in place for the soul. Regardless of having the right ingredients of the body, they didn’t have what it took to make a soul. Instead they made a monster, something that wouldn’t be described as human, it was simply horrifying. As sacrifice the little brother Alphonse was taken, along with the left leg of the older brother Edward. In dear attempt to get his little brother back Ed sacrificed his arm to attach Al’s soul to a suit of armor in the corner of the room. Ed was then given auto mail, metal limbs, by a family friend and vowed to get their bodies back. With this in mind Ed joined the military and became a State Alchemist.

State Alchemists are funded by the military to research their specialized field; Amestris is a military nation so alchemy is used in war unlike other nations. With state funding Edward researched the Philosophers stone, a mythological stone that allows one to do alchemy without abiding to the laws of equivalent exchange, even human transmutation.

Along their journeys Ed and Al run into a group called Homunculi, Artificial humans, at their core: Philosopher stones. Another group is also looking for the philosopher stone as a key to immortality, a prince from the nation of Xing. Along their journeys to get their bodies back the military becomes ever watchful, this becomes apparent from Führer King Bradley visiting Ed when he is in the hospital and telling him good luck finding out everything he can about the philosophers stone and human transmutation and to report the results to the military.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood is a breathe taking story about two brothers who wish to get their bodies back, want to make everything right, and want to make sure no one else dies on them along the way. Each episode is brilliantly made; when one episode ends it has you begging for the next one. Each episode makes you emotionally drawn in and you feel for the characters thanks to the great writing. There are parts that will make you laugh hysterically such as Edward throwing a fit about being called short as he exaggerates and changes what the person said. There are also times where you will cry, you will feel sorry for the characters loss. Lastly there will be times where you feel uncomfortable (in a good way) because of the animes dark storyline. Time after time I would recommend watching this anime, it truly is a masterpiece.

The story flows nicely; since the series is 64 episodes some people would think it would be very drawn out. However every episode sticks to a topic and finishes it within the episode and leaves you will a nice little cliff hanger making you want to see the next episode.

While watching the series you are constantly on your toes because the characters you care about are constantly being put in life or death situations. Whether they’re fighting a Chimera (a creature born from fusing two animals together with alchemy) or fighting some crazed man who wants you and what you represent dead. The main characters have no real advantage over everyone in the alchemy world so they are fighting to save their lives at many points with a lot of close calls.

The writers did a great job in creating their own world, filled with people with emotions, real reactions; you could believe these people really could exist. They are bold and stand up for what they believe in and love the hobbies and fields of work they are in such as Winrey Rockbell and making automail (metal limbs).

Note: This series is called Fullmetal alchemist: Brotherhood, not to be confused with the original series Fullmetal Alchemist. When the first series was being developed it caught up with the manga, at this point they were given the permission to create the rest of the story themselves. Brotherhood is not a sequel to that series; it is the original story in the manga. So some episodes of Brotherhood will be similar until the point where the first series split from the manga.

Skate Review

In the world of skateboarding games there is one that really sticks out as unique. That game would be Skate. Skate revolutionized skateboarding games. No longer was skating unnatural like in the tony hawk games. In the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series, regardless of these games being fun there was a very unnatural feel to it. You would press all sorts of button combination's to do tricks. However in the Skate series the right thumb stick controls the board and your feet, for example, moving it down and then up makes you do an Ollie. Tricks are done by adding to this: moving the thumb stick down and then out to the left or the right would make you do a kick flip or a heel flip depending on which way you moved it. Many feel this game is one of the more realistic skating games. When you go to grind along a rail instead of somehow being gravitationally pulled into the rail like in the TH games, you must now land on the rail or else you are going to fall off.

The whole story line in skate is to try to get your name out there and become famous. You do this by beating scores on spots, skating for sponsored and famous skaters, make skating videos of you grinding rails jumping gaps, and take pictures of you hitting sweet spots. Once you start getting your name out there you start doing more and more and you end up doing photo shoots for magazines.
When you design your character you’re able to choose all sorts of things ranging from his hairstyle, his clothes, and his board. The skateboard is fully customizable with a variety of parts from different companies you can mix and match. Both the clothing brands and skateboard parts are real world items so chances are you’re going to be able to find something you may own or want to own in game. I was pleased to find a zero that I owned was in the game, so of course I was set with the board I was going to use the entire game.

Like most games this game has its flaws. You’ll actually notice the game’s biggest flaw right away; you can’t get off your board. This makes it pretty hard for getting to certain spots you may want to start off from, and of course this makes stairs impossible. Luckily the game makes up for it by having what’s called a session marker, it’s kind of like a save state. Basically you mark a spot and once you go hit LB and up you’ll return to that spot. This makes re-doing the same spot over and over until you are satisfied with your accomplishment so much easier.

I would give this game a good 7/10

Here is some game play; remember to subscribe!

Super Mario 64

When the Nintendo 64 came out Super Mario 64 was one of the first titles available. This game was the first game in the Mario franchise to take the jump to 3D. All sorts of Mario fans loved this game when it first came out, and many still love it to this day and say it still stacks up to games today.

The game starts off with a letter from princess peach asking Mario to come to the castle for cake. Unfortunately once Mario arrives he is told by Toad that the princess peach and himself have been kidnapped by the evil Koopa King; Bowser. Luckily the princess is in this castle, so you don’t have to look forward to being told “But our princess is in another castle.” Yes Mario, This is the castle you are looking for. All throughout the game you are running around collecting stars in worlds hidden in paintings locked away in rooms. You need to collect the stars because Bowser locked the doors and you need a certain amount of star power to open the doors. Bowser also enchanted certain parts of the castle, such as the endless stairs where you need 80 stars to be able to climb them, or else they will be endless. As for the paintings having a world inside of each of them... well, this is the Mushroom Kingdom, you never know what to expect. However considering the worlds are filled with Bowser’s minions I would say the enchanted paintings are Bowser’s doing.

Being the first time a Mario game has been in 3d (unless you count Mario Tennis for the virtual boy as being 3d… I don’t) Nintendo has certainly out done itself on making a very fun game. Mario is introduced to all sorts of new jumping made possible in the 3d world such as back flips, slide flips and other unique abilities. Not only was Super Mario 64 fun and enjoyable back when the Nintendo 64 first came out, but it’s still very enjoyable today and aged very well. This game is HUGE with levels all over the place and hidden levels scattered throughout the castle. If you still have a Nintendo 64 and don’t have Super Mario 64 for some odd reason, I urge you to buy this game, you won’t be disappointed.

I would give this game a fantastic 10/10

Here’s some gameplay, enjoy!