Dissidia (Square Enix, 2009)

The SSBB of Final Fantasy (Up to X, not including X-II).
This is an arena based Final Fantasy game which allows players to select characters from the first ten Final Fantasy games, one each from the side of good and evil.

Visuals
———–

7 / 10

All the characters look great, for a handheld game with unlockable costumes. Clipping issues are hard to notice since the pace of the game counters that problem or is merely non-existent. It is a great pity that characters can’t be personalised in terms of appearance… Road less travel with no tumble weed

Audio
———–

7 / 10

Voice acting is fairly dull and unenjoyable. Can’t really say I really felt for the characters a single bit, so I’m just going to award it poor marks here. The Background music, oddly, I enjoyed and loved. Whether it has been remixed, remastered, retouched or nothing done to, don’t care because it sounds great

Gameplay
———–

8 / 15

Tutorial wasn’t too insightful and it felt like all the buttons in the game really hard to comprehend and most of the time, ignored. It wasn’t until later in the game where the game gets harder as you level up and must resort to using it to dodge some lethal blows, which makes you feel that the buttons then make sense and really pick it up.
Story mode takes you into the story mode (obviously) for each character (only side of good, well so far when I’ve been playing it) trying to save the world (cliché #1) with each battling their own personal demons (cliché #2) and stop the world from falling into chaos (cliché #3). Cliches counter time…
Since Cloud is popular, I’ll just talk about what I had to suffer playing him… so now… Cloud… He is being supported by friends but the weight on his shoulders (cliché #4) is so great he can’t focus his mind and wonders why he has to fight (cliché #5) he fights SSBB type battles one-on-one and encounters his nemesis Sephiroth (cliché #5) and coerced into looking for find for a fight to the death (cliché #6) and I have no interest in going any further for those who want to play the game.
There is a single player mode along with arcade mode for those that want to play that. Single Player or Custom Match allows you to set up matches against the CPU and the characters of your choice. Oddly, there isn’t a practice mode here… though, there’s a greater emphasis on actually levelling up because as you level up, you unlock new skills and abilities. During battles, you can randomly gain accessories, but most of the time, it is just too random.
This game does have unlockable, but they are all purchasable within game via the use of PPs and the PPs have no other function… though…. what do you exactly do after you’ve exhausted the PP store? O yeah… the villainous villains are all purchasable unlocks. Though, if you are after the true bosses of the game, you must actually finish the game. If you are after the exclusive character equips, you must play the story mode, though, you’ll rarely find it in the Inventory store, which can be found in the character customising section. There’s also a trading section if you want some exclusive items, though, I haven’t drummed up the desire to trade certain things for a level up, since I’d rather leave it for the near to impossible levels… if and when I do get there…
When playing, there was always the constant problem of camera angles being a main factor of frustration and causing anguish everywhere it goes such as walls and if someone is directly above or below. Even with the arrow pointing the direction of someone, it still doesn’t help the camera in its cause. I would of just preferred if the camera was focused right inside of keeping your eyes on the opponent and character than character with horizon.
The aerial combat is highly questionable since that kind of battle can be summarised as a game of slaps. If you miss, it is the other guy’s turn and there’s a possibility of pulling one attack or the other and the other can be delayed slightly.
I must say though, I loved the EX system and the ultimate attacks being tied in with it. Once you play it, you’ll learn to understand why it is actually…. really really good!
Don’t be even the chance fooled by the online feature as it is just… well… a complete and utter lie and when I checked the box, it ever claimed to be able to connect to the world wide web… perhaps then should of just considered calling the online game, not online and offline, nothing to do with internet… how stupid…

Longevity
———–

3 / 5

It is far too on and off and I’m constantly playing it on the move than at home… which is disappointing. If it can’t be played everywhere and anywhere, then I really can’t give it higher marks

Stabs
———–

7 / 10

Yay!

FFVII and FFVIII fans can rejoice again!
Ultimate attacks feel like it is proper
Challenges
Selectable unlocks
Almost an SSBB styled Final Fantasy bash-em up!
Equipment and Accessories system

Boo!

Online feature is a lie!
Story is a dull-eyed sleepsfest and 10 out of 10 for being unoriginal
Once everything is unlocked, it just feels disappointing after that
Pretty impossible to win higher level match
Exclusively just 1 on 1 match
Too reliant on spamming
The Grind!
AI seems to be programmed too well and will really start to kick you every time
Just two characters from each series
Not making me to want to play more
Poor camera angles during battles

Normally, I don’t have anyone else review this game and their own personal opinion, so here’s a new one to prop up, main issue is that he’s only played Custom matches only, which is about half the content of the game

4 / 5 – DevilKraven

Yay!

Play as hero & villains
Aerial combat
Simple attacks
Selection of characters
Unique character actions
Leveling during battles

Boo!

Camera during play
Repetitive aerial attacks
Simple Attack Scheme far too repetitive

Scores
V: 7 / 10
A: 7 / 10
G: 8 / 15
L: 3 / 5
S: 11 / 15

Total:
36 / 55 – Worth a go, but don’t hold your breath about this game
65%

If you are looking for a casual styled pick up and play to enjoy, go elsewhere since this is for the fans of both the SSBB crowd and FF fanatics
All the gloss of the game is just heavily countered with the stupidity of the down and no proper online feature… lie!

Will Sports Resort (Nintendo, 2009)

Sports now on an island…

Visuals
———–
6 / 10
Nothing too new and nothing really to break the bounds of normalcy… just the same old same old as the series just goes…

Audio
———–
7 / 10
Refer to above… just a lot of old sounds just repeated but there are a few new stuff added to it just to pass off as something that could be new… but hey… at least something has changed…. slightly… Nothing wrong, the sounds works fine, nothing being played too wrongly… they are all in the right spots and nothing too annoying to want to go deaf for life

Gameplay
———–
8 / 15
I wanted to award this game with a higher score but I just simply can’t… like… 11 than the 8… this game was badly let down with stupid games that couldn’t take a hint as to the controls and some of the games being completly annoying as well to play… but still… I might as give a low down as to each of the games and how good they are…

Swordplay: Kendo type game swinging a Shinai
Wakeboarding: A snowboard but on water
Frisbee: Throwing a frisbee around… obviously
Archery: Must it get any more self-evident than that?
Basketball: fairly obvious but you only need a Wii-mote… defeats the accuracy problem…
Table Tennis: Tennis but on a table with a small bat and a smaller ball
Golf: you should know this one from Wii Sport
Bowling: read above
Power Cruising: Jet Skis… but racing…
Canoeing: you paddle as if you’re a Native American
Cycling: biking as if you’re in a race… -_- yeah… Tour de France style…
Air Sport: Skydiving, and flying in a plane

Swordplay: Duel – you can flail like hell or play it smart… though flailers can get you; Speed Slice – Flailers can still exist here but this is where you can; Showdown – You try to make your way from point A to point B and those that are attempting to get in your way is an army of Shinai weilding people… green people that are slow and random swingers, pink armor people that aren’t females but are smarter than the greens, gold being the more smarter than the pinks and big ones being the boss. There are a few complaints about showdown even though it is a good game… some of the harder characters have a habit of blocking too much, can’t do a full 360 horizontal swing, can’t do thrusts, can’t do sword disarming techniques, can’t hold the sword a different way, can’t fake a swing actually… the list goes on… but hey… it is a good game… actually… I’ve listed a lot of complaints… oops
Wakeboarding: I’m pretty sure that wakeboarding is to do with the feet not hands and legs can cop more grunt than hands can…. err… no offense to the handicapped… but the margin of error is so small and when you think that you have it right or would land correctly… you’re wrong and if you find a way to perfect the land technicque which a friend has found, you look like a nut and if you were to do it for real, you would be suffering injuries which may require a full face reconstruction… that’s how bad the look can be to dodge certain problems
Frisbee: Frisbee Dog; Frisbee Golf… I only tried Frisbee Dog and I’ve played Ultimate Frisbee (why is it classed as an ultimate sport for crying out loud?!?)… I know how to throw straight and angling my shots along with knowing both forehand and backhand throws… but why does it hate my movements so much?!?
Archery: Truth be blunt… first game I tried and I loved (maybe the sole reason)… simple and easy to understand but very hard to master… but this does has a glitch… but it doesn’t really matter, it is still fun! But when you reach the last last of hard/expert… I doubt anyone would be able to survive that long there for just one reason… you work it out when you see it or play it.

Basketball: 3-Point Contest; Pickup Game… Only was bothered trying out 3-Point Contest and it was okay… requiring a bit of time to adjust your accuracy within the game
Table Tennis: Match; Return Challenge… I was only really bothered with Match but the controls are still screwy as hell… and I play(ed) Table Tennis long enough to know how to do fairly annoying shots and I couldn’t even do blocks and heavily backswinging balls… along with being able to do my trademark serves, couldn’t read the way the balls are going due to the isometric pong view which doesn’t help (edit: I’ve never had so much glitch in a game of table tennis ever before and I can’t even select the type of shot I wanted… mainly backhand only!)
Golf: Same as the old Wii Sports golf with some extra courses though it does have some extra swinging action, but it is very annoying with the setting of position and reset in case you were off initially… whether is is a lot more similar to real golf… I can’t really tell any one
Bowling: Bowling; 100-Pin Game; Spin Control… These all can be found in Wii Sports, one from actual bowling and two from traiing options but there are some differences… slightly… but at least now… the controls respond a lot better and you can now become a lot more precise but heck… when I loaded up 100-pin, everyone wanted to play because it was the funniest thing ever conceieved but it was a lot more breath taking than 10 pin and trying to nail a spare off a split

Power Cruising: Slalom Course; VS… A pretend jet skiing game and it is okay… but I didn’t enjoy it that much…
Canoeing: This damn has gotten me stumped… I know how to paddle aggressively fast and do strong strokes but the controls just does something else… I would say that this game is bugged… but hell… if you feel like working it out…. by all means… do it because I couldn’t be bothered after 5 minutes of trying
Cycling: The controls are just stupid… I don’t cycle a bike with my freaking arms! I steer with my arms and cycle with my legs… how silly… at least it isn’t as bad as canoeing
Air Sport: Skydiving; Island Flyover; Dogfight…

Longevity
———–
3 / 5
It’ll last and friens will love to play it…. but the flailing… dammit…

Stabs
———–
Yay!

Some interesting games there
At least there’s a proper fix instead of being very inconsistant
Each Game no long just one of itself
At least some of the game repeats have some fixes
Collectable Achievements?
Skill points shown
At least it also comes with a Wii motion plus

Boo!

Most of the games are just horrible
No fun training exercises
Why pay more for something that should of been resolved aeons ago?
People can flail and get away with it
Collectable Achievements?
Old skill points can’t be carried over
Comes with only one Wii Motion Plus…. Dammit…
There’s no free roam option to just visit the island and do as you please… well… almost as you please…
Table Tennis feels stupid… rather play it for real than in the game… and I never play near the darm table

Scores
V: 6 / 10
A: 7 / 10
G: 8 / 15
L: 3 / 5
S: 6 / 10

Total:
30 / 50 – Not your average okay game but… this is quite good!

A Stadium next maybe? (Include cricket for crying out loud!)

Writer’s notes: I’m sorry, but I’m down to the point where I’m starting to be out of cash and games to properly review. So I’m now down to designing independent type games. I wish I can do extended versions of my reviews but I really don’t see the need for them nower days… unless I’m being paid to do it and/or there is a greater readership for them then I’ll consider doing them again…
As of right now… I really need to redo Forza 2 because the amount of time between reviewing and playing… there were a few concepts which I didn’t get…
For the time being… I’m going to review the game as much as possible to make up for the lack of the extended version of the games review.