Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams (360) Review

After a friend showed me a trailer for the PC version of Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams, I was interested in trying it.  Sure, I'm not really good at platformers, but the premise and gameplay looked intriguing.  Once it came to XBLA, I knew it was finally time to give it a whirl.

When the game starts out, the two Giana sisters (Cute and Punk, as they are called in the game) go through a vortex and end up in some other world.  There is no real written story to the game, which very much harkens back to platforming games of old.  The world the sisters enter will change when the sisters do.  Punk Giana has a much more fairytale-looking land, while Cute Giana has a bone-filled land of death.  The best part?  You switch sisters on the fly, and the world changes too.  It's really cool looking, and fun to see how all the scenery and monsters change with it.  To top that off, the music also changes, which is awesome.  Cute Giana has a more mellow tracks and Punk Giana gets heavy metal.  So seeing as each stage has 2 different looks and 2 different musical tracks, you can see why each stage takes a bit longer to load than you might expect.

As cool as that feature is, it is a platforming game, so we have to look at the controls.  The only problems I have are sometimes the jump feels a little floaty.  This makes landing on platforms and monsters a bit difficult at times.  Another thing I have trouble with is Punk Giana's dash.  I sometimes have trouble aiming it where and how I want, but I don't know if this is an issue in the game or with my controller.  Other than those two things, the controls are great.  They are responsive, which is necessary in any platforming game.  Once I figured out that Cute Giana's twirl can function as a double jump, it became easier to land where I wanted to.

There are a total of 23 levels of varying length.  There are 3 bosses, and each one is at the end of the level, not a level in and of itself.  Getting at least 4 stars on the boss stages will unlock that whole world for Hardcore Mode.  That is easier said than done.  In each level there are gems to collect, which can net you up to 3 of the 5 stars possible in a stage.  Thankfully, you don't have to collect every single last gem in a stage to get the 3 stars, so you don't have to obsess over it.  The other 2 stars are for not dying (too much) in a stage.  These are somewhat lenient, but you will likely need to redo some stages another time to get a better score.  You will need to get a good chunk of the stars, since those unlock the boss levels.  You only need about half (thanks loading screen tip!), and so far it hasn't been a problem for me.  If you go slow and look around, you should get enough gems for 2 stars, so just work on the not dying part!

Giana Sisters can get pretty difficult.  Getting hit once will kill you, unless you picked up a shield gem.  This can be problematic on the bosses and parts with enemies grouped close together (or off the screen).  Most times you will fall onto spikes or into acid.  Some parts require very steady movement and precise jumps, and it's not fun to get sent back for a slight mistake.  Some of the crazy frantic platforming reminds me of Legend of the Mystical Ninja back on the SNES (jumping and ducking on moving platforms).  The parts with quick switching are reminiscent of Ikaruga for the Gamecube.  Practice will make perfect in this game, so thankfully there are lots of checkpoints.

If you are after the achievements, be prepared to do each stage at least 4 times.  Once to complete it, once for score attack, once for time attack, and once on hardcore.  Completing it would be the easiest part, as score attack and time attack can be rigid, and require a fair amount of skill to complete for a medal.  As far as I can tell, to get a medal, you have to beat the target time or score.  There's no second place, just first.  It's a bit rigid for my taste, since even some of the earlier stages had me redo them, trying unsuccessfully to beat the score. Getting all the achievements will be for the top players only, since you only get 1 try for each stage in Hardcore.  There's even an Uber Hardcore, which has 1 life for the entire game.  That's just crazy.  Hats off to the few who can pull off such a legendary feat!

All in all, Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams is a good game.  My favorite part is the level and music changing when you swap sisters.  If you are a completionist, there is a lot of content here.  There's a good amount of fun and content even if you aren't, but you probably won't go through the stages in every mode.  It can get pretty crazy just navigating through the levels, but it was fun.  If you enjoyed platformers of yesteryear,  Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams should be right up your alley.

As a bonus, I'll give you some quick tips to make it easier:
1.  Take your time.  Unless you are doing Time Attack, you have as long as you need to get the stage done.  Take the time to look around.  It really helps to see where you are headed so you can plan a bit ahead.  Also, if you are getting jittery from jumping and dodging in the harder parts, pause the game and take a breather.  It might sound silly, but that helped me during a few of the more difficult parts.

2.  You can only dash or twirl before you touch the ground/kill a monster.  Not of each, just 1 period.  So look at which one you will need before just jumping and winging it.

3.  The twirl can function as a double jump.  It took me too long to realize this.  It makes landing on the small platforms so much easier.  Just hold the button down to slow your decent.  Remember you can switch while doing it and still be twirling.

Hell Yeah: Wrath of the Dead Rabbit (360) Review

A character with a red scarf who rules over hell?  No, this isn't Disgaea, it's Hell Yeah: Wrath of the Dead Rabbit.  It stars a skeleton bunny named Ash who has the noble task of...retrieving some lewd pictures of himself and kill those that have them.  He'll also kill lots of other creatures on the way, just to be safe.

This is a very colorful game.  The bright colors are in a stark contrast to the dark nature of the game, and it works really well.  This makes it seem so lively and different than most games.  It's just oozing with character and looks unique, and the visuals just might be the best part of the game.  Even the over the top violence is so cheery looking that it almost seems wrong...almost.

I really like the music is Hell Yeah.  The vocal tracks are really nice and catchy, especially the shop music.  I also really like the music for the cute world, and it is also used as the ending credits theme.  A lot of the music in this game is catchy and perfectly fits the level they are used in.  There is no spoken dialogue, save the title screen, but I like that.  It feels like a throwback to older games.

Most of the time, Ash rides around in his death wheel, which can saw creatures to death and is equipped with a gun to shoot the out of reach monsters.  You get three basic types of guns.  Machine gun types that have rapid fire, rocket types that are strong but take longer to shoot and grenades.  I never actually needed or used the grenades, since they are limited.  The other two weapons refill quickly, and did the job fine.  The wheel jumps, as the game says, like a rocket pack, so you hold down the button longer to jump higher.  This works fine for the most part, but there are times when I would forget this and end up undershooting my platform.  I always prefer a double jump, but this works fine when you get used to it.

The Right Trigger (RT) will spin the wheel or shoot the gun if used in conjunction with the right stick.  Considering how few buttons are actually used in the game, you think they could be separate buttons.  I had some trouble jumping and shooting, since hitting the stick and RT at the same time would not shoot, but use the saw.  You can also grind your way through rocks, but sometimes it was hard to stick to them while grinding up.  There were also several times I felt the hitboxes were borked.  I ended up killing more monsters because I would get hit while trying to jump over them, whether or not you were that close to it.  It ended up being easier to just kill everything and not try to be fancy.  You get a fair amount of health, but stumbling upon a random spike would result in instant death.  Very old school, but also annoying since sometimes you can't always see the spikes until it's too late.  Ash also seems to get slippery on the edge of ledges, which would either screw up your platforming or drop you to your death.

Occasionally, there are parts where you must go sans wheel.  You are just a rabbit on foot.  You can't attack but you get the double jump that I wanted in the wheel.  Another use for Ash's jump is if you hold the button, he can bounce off of walls.  I did this numerous times on accident, and it irked me.  I tended to hold the jump button down when jumping, simply because using the wheel trained me to do that.  To me, using the wall jump where you had to use it was a crap shoot, since it never seemed to go how I wanted it to.  I would either end on the wrong side of the shaft you can bounce up, or I landed on the edge and slid back down before I could get my bearings.  Needless to say, it added some frustrations.

As mentioned earlier, Ash is tracking down monster that may or may not have anything to do with his missing pictures, and kill them.  There are 101 to kill, to be exact.  After each is damaged enough, there is a mini-game that is used to kill them in some overblown way.  There's maybe 10 or so unique animations, but most are enjoyable multiple times.  They are definitely over the top, and pretty gory.  Well, cutesy-gory, if that even makes sense.  Most of the mini games to actually get the kill are fine, but several can be over before you figure out what to do.  If you have played any of the Wario Ware games, they are like that.  Most have generous time limits, but there are a few that can get pretty aggravating (steal the honey, I'm looking at you).  Overall, they aren't that bad, but you may die a few times while trying to figure them out.

Luckily, death carries no real penalty other than losing whatever money you gathered since the last check point.  It saves fairly frequently, too.  It can be annoying when you have to travel back a fair distance to where you were when you died, but it could have been much worse.  Boss fights will have to be repeated fully, though this wasn't a problem after the first boss.  There were a few times where the difficulty spiked, which lead to more deaths and more aggravation.  These stood out to me, since most of the game is fairly relaxed.

In addition to being in the wheel and on foot, there are a couple of sections where Ash pilots a vehicle, like a submarine or a space ship, or even jumps into a turret to gun down his monstrous victims.  These are nice, since they break up the normal gameplay with something a little different.  They weren't the best sections, but they weren't very long, either.  A nice distraction from the main game, and a welcome addition.

Another thing thrown in are missions given by the future version of yourself.  While that part is cool, the missions themselves were not very fun.  Most are self-explanatory, like collect all the red "coins" or kill x amount of monster in y time.  There isn't a lot of leeway in them, so you better practice them to have a chance.  The worst ones involve doing tricks.  They list the button combination, sure, but they don't tell you that you need lots of height to pull them off.  That coupled with the fact you start falling faster after a bit makes it annoying to figure out.  They also have you do them where there are lots of obstacles in the way.  I really hated most of the missions I tried, so I just did the first ten I could for the achievement and ignored the rest.

Overall, Hell Yeah: Wrath of the Dead Rabbit is very unique game in several ways.  It was enjoyable, even if some parts were really frustrating and the missions were terrible.  It has a gory charm all its own, and while not a short game, doesn't take as long to finish as it would initially seem.  If you like achievements, it was a fairly painless 400 and can be done easily in a week.   I got it for half off on sale, and it was worth the $7.50 to me.  Although, I don't see myself buying the DLC at all.  If you like quirky games, gory games or platformers, give the demo a shot to see you like it too.

One Piece: Pirate Warriors 2 (JP) Demo Impressions

(A.k.a.:  Who the hell are these people?)

Now, let me start with what little knowledge I have of One Piece.  Oh, and fair warning: I'm not going to look up anyone's names until after I write this, so it's all based on memory.  Sorry if you are a huge One Piece fan, you'll likely want to strangle me.  Anyway,  I read the manga back when I had a subscription to Shonen Jump, which was many years ago.  I remember reading past when he got the cook (Sanji, I think) and was in the middle of getting the shapeshifting reindeer (whose name escaped me).

I'm going to guess that this game takes place waaaaaaay beyond what little I know.  I see Usopp (or who I assume is Usopp), and he went all Carrot Top on me.  He has a 'fro ponytail and guns (I don't mean rifles).  I remember him being a scaredy-cat and now he can apparently bench the rest of the crew.  Zolo (I still remember when they called him Zoro in the manga) is all "17th century samurai" now?  I guess the do-rag wasn't cutting it.  And Nami...well, she must have saved all that money to buy implants, jeez.

Now...who the heck are the rest of these people?  There was a woman (named Robin, I think) that summons arms and legs out of the ground.  I don't know what devil fruit she ate, but it is creepy.  Then there's the guy with the long katana and can create bubbles...he says "room" a lot.  Rounding out what I assume is Luffy's crew is some guy with robot arms and Jack Skelington.  Yeah...I'm going to have to look into who these people are, since I'm not sure there will be a story mode like the Bleach musou-wannabe or Ken's Rage 2 that explains the rag-tag band of pirates.

Well, enough ignorance, so let's get to the gameplay.  It was really fun.  You can play as both Luffy and..."Room" guy (I'll look up his name later).  They play a bit different from each other, but you can really see the Dynasty Warriors roots here.  Most of the attacks they had hit lots of guys and were satisfying to pull off.  There were also lots of enemies on screen at once, something I really miss from the older DW games.  When you fill up the Style meter (I think), you will temporarily switch to your partner and can play as them for a few seconds.  It was pretty fun to do so, since it allows you to try Usopp and Zolo, who you cannot select in the demo.  Also the "musou" attack (circle button) can be charge to do more damage and take multiple bars.  It was a strong attack and they were cool animations, to boot.  I had to experiment a bit to figure how both of these functions worked, but they were fun to use.

I've heard the game is supposed to come out in the summer here, so I'm betting it will be subbed and download only.  So far it seems like it will be one I want to check out.  I'll have to see if I should try the first one, or if this one is just a huge improvement over it.  Oh, and find out who all these people are...

Air Raid: Fall of Cybertron Transformer Toy Review

Even though I already have the Shockwave figure from the Fall of Cybertron line of Transformers, I was interested in getting the recolor of the mold, Air Raid.  Why?  Well, after looking at his weapons, I figured it was worth it to double dip on the mold.

Don't cross him, seriously.

I really dig Air Raid's bot mode.  He has a nice dark red and black color scheme, with some dark gold accents.  His chest is different than Shockwave's, and I actually like it better.  His head looks cool too, but if I had to pick, I think the signature purple cyclops is a better head.  There is some light piping, but it's not very good so don't expect to have glowing eyes on Air Raid very often.  He doesn't have much kibble, and the wings don't really get in the way.  His legs are a big skinny, but does stand well on his own.

Air Raid's head can turn around, and the shoulders have swivel and hinge joints.  The elbows have hinge and ball joints, giving the arms great posability overall.  The only weakness there is the wrists, as they cannot turn.  With the arms so posable, you probably won't notice though.  There is no waist movement, but he has ball jointed hips.  His knees are hinged, as are his ankles.  The feet don't swing very far, so he can't really stand in the myriad of poses he is capable of, unfortunately.  It's that way because of his alt form, so let's move on to the actual alt form.

It's a floating...cannon?

To me, this is the weakest part of the figure.  As a recolor of Shockwave (from the same line of toys, but an earlier wave), his alt mode is very slightly retooled.  My main problem with the Shockwave alt mode was the wings were too small, but it was farily accurate to the in-game model, so I could let it slide.  This time, Air Raid's alt mode is advertised as being ""Cybertronian Mobile Artillery".  It does look more like a floating cannon than a jet.  The only part I actually like better is there is a small peg on the top to store his sword, but you can also turn him upside down and have a figure hold him as a cannon.  His alt mode is ok, but I think he looks far better and is far more fun to play with in his robot mode.  It's a plus that his weapons store so easily on it, and he's not very hard to transform.

To me, this is the best part of the figure.  I'm a sucker for blades, and I really like the sword that Air Raid has.  It has a lot of translucent red plastic that looks nice, with a painted silver edge.  The sword is split in the middle and these two halves can fold back.  This makes it nice and compact for storage on the alt mode, but could also be attached onto another figure's arm to make a sort of claw.  You could also not fold it back all the way and it looks kinda like a crossbow to me.  A surprisingly cool and versatile weapon.

Of course, that's not his only weapon.  Air Raid also comes with an arm gun/blade contraption.  It can be held like a gun or attached to his arm.  When held, it looks pretty cool, but the blade just hangs back and doesn't plug in or anything.  It's slightly less awkward when attached to his arm, but not by much.  When the blade is extended, it is pretty long and looks vicious.  You could have him hold it with the blade out, but I think it looks much better on his arm.  The part with the gun/blade is removable, leaving him with a double barreled weapon.  If you've seen Shockwave's gun without the signature part on the end, it's very similar, just with 2 barrels instead of 3.  I really like the look of it, but it's not too steady on my figure.  it's just the way this one's hands are produced.  The arm gun attaches super tight when put on my Shockwave figure, so it's not a fault of the mold, just that particular figure.

But does it make Julian fries?

Just like a light nigh infomercial, "wait, there's more!"  You can take the gun/blade part off (or even leave that part attached to the double-barreled arm gun), extend the blade and attach it do the sword.  Just split the sword blade a bit and you make a big and crazy sword.  It's not very practical (assuming plastic toys fight), but it's neat.  A very anime style giant weapon that looks cool but unwieldy.  You could also conceivably mount the gun/blade to a peg and give someone a bayonet or a sweet looking arm blade.

If you liked the Shockwave mold, Air Raid is just a slight retool of that.  If you aren't in love with the weapons, there isn't much reason to get him if you already have Shockwave.  If you don't have the purple cyclops and aren't particularly attached to the character, I'd recommend getting Air Raid.  The robot is solid and the weapons are lots of fun to play with.  Just like Fall of Cybertron Starscream, I had to order him on Amazon since I still haven't seen one in stores.  He was in stock almost constantly, so he shouldn't be too hard to find.  That should also mean he won't be price gouged, so you can find him at cost (maybe plus shipping).