Billyx7 Reviews

World of Illusion Starring Disney's Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck (1992 Video Game)

World of Illusion

[10 July 2005]

This game unlocks of great memories of me and my best mate sitting for hours on end playing World of Illusion on the Mega Drive. I was only a kid when I first played it and was instantly hooked for hours on end with the games quirky platform fun and also the ability to play my favourite Disney characters, Mickey, who had previously starred in another Mega Drive favourite of mine Castle of Illusion and the other character is Donald Duck, who had previously starred in Quckshot. The plot of this plat former sees our two heroes learning to become magicians and in a practise performance just before the big show they are sucked into a mysterious world ruled by the evil sorcerer Pete. You can figure out the rest for yourself.

You'll proceed through various environments with the duo, ranging from lush yet dangerous woods, filled with ant soldiers, with cheesy grins who charge at you in a group of four and up. After this you will trek through Rocky mountains, walk in the heavens and plunge to the depths of the ocean. Alternatively, playing Donald will take you to a tropical island and inside of a book while Mickey will walk through Atlantis, which Donald cannot venture alone. Also on two players you can reach other areas and old Donald, with a hand from Mickey can fit through those cracks with a "gentle" pull, catapulting him across the screen, and probably into something unpleasant

The game offers a rich gallery of enemies ranging from a bunch of armoured angry ants, hairy spiders and eagles which will be new to first time players but if you're a Disney fan you may notice a few familiar faces, such as the cards from Alice in Wonderland, along with the Mad Hatter and the witch from "The Sword in the Stone" and the evil overlord, played by Pete, the general Mickey Mouse antagonist. However the majority of the enemies are original ideas tied in with Disney inspiration, all of the style and charm seen in many a Disney movie is replicated here. A few notable ones would be the starfish in the underwater levels thats jumps in the air, with a really stupid grin and plummets down to land on his face, which looks so damn funny. While not as charismatic as the starfish the other enemies either are past creations by Disney or they are new characters by the Walt Disney co.

The music seems to fellow a peaceful theme and apart from a few exceptions. Quite a lot of the tunes are pretty damn good and some of them are the types of tunes that will stay in your head for a while. The peaceful forest tune helps create a relaxing atmosphere, as dose the tune for the sky Levels. The hillbilly banjo music in one of Donald's levels has to be the best however and tends to deviate from the norm with some fast and furious, not to mention toe tapping tunes thats sounds brilliant. The sound effects are also pretty good and both Mickey and Donald have a selection of voice samples that sound authentic, especially when they are attacked or if they perform an ounce of magic, Saying "Alakazam" in reasonably clear voices, for a Mega Drive it's not bad at all.

So, with a quirky two-player mode along with two similar yet differential one-player modes this game has quite a bit to offer. Although it seems to focus on younger audiences even older gamers can find fun in this if they sit down and play it. It is also rich with challenge and with these qualities plus smooth and pretty graphics, nice music and impressive sound effects it is possibly one of the best Disney games on the Mega Drive and defiantly one of the best two player plat formers on the console. It should be in any collectors cupboard, Disney fan or not, because it is a great joy to play.

Fatal Fury: King of Fighters (1991 Video Game)

Fatal Fury

[10 July 2005]

Fatal Fury is the first in the series of SNK's fighting game legacy. It features 3 playable characters, Terry, Andy and Joe, and they have entered the King of Fighters tournament to defeat Geese Howard who killed Terry and Andy's Father 10 years a go.

The music at times is good and even great, especially at Raiden's and Geese's stages. But the sound effects are utterly ridiculous. Terry sounds ridiculous at the pitch his voice reaches when he shouts out "Power Wave" or "Burn Knuckle".

Graphically, the game fares a little better but not by much. The characters are drawn pretty well, but animate poorly. Richard Myer looks especially jerky in his animations. Other graphics aren't that great, either. The Power Wave effect is by far the worst incarnation on the Neo Geo. The backgrounds are pretty decent, though, but some of the animations are recycled frequently in them. At Michael Max's stage, you'll swear you're seeing a multitude of twins cheering the fight.

Looking for a Fatal Fury game to enjoy? Play Fatal Fury Special (Best of the original series), Real Bout Fatal Fury 2: The Newcomers (What I call the Street Fighter Alpha of the series) and Garou: Mark of the Wolves. Sure, SNK evolved Fatal Fury into these games, but Please ignore this one. Start your Fatal Fury experience with Fatal Fury 2!

Kingdom Hearts (2002 Video Game)

Kingdom Hearts

[10 July 2005]

When I first heard about Disney and Square making a game I was thinking....gee Square first The Bouncer and now this. Then when Kingdom Hearts started shaping up I was thinking hey this kinda looks clean I'll give it a shot. So I swallowed my pride and since I'm 23 by default I'm not a big Disney fan so I thought eh I'll bare with it...This game has once again brought me back to Disney, while not as hardcore as before I don't loathe it now, and proves to me when Square puts it's mind to it they can make any septic eat their words.

I love the Graphics in Kingdom Hearts, The Square characters look like you'd expect lifelike and edgy. Disney Characters look on par with their Movie counterpart, and everyone in the game has that special added Disney animation where they can come off as a reel person. With their facial expressions and body language. The worlds are colourful and the Summoms are spectacular wait till you see Halloween town.

The Story starts off basic. But then opens up in ways you don't expert it. I don't want to spoil it and also answers the question why don't any of the Final Fantasy's take place on the same world but Cid always end up in them if you pay enough attention. Any who you play Sora your average um....young Teen I should say? Well you and your Friends Riku and Kairi want to leave home and explore other places things take a bad turn and the three of you are separated. Your goal is to find your friends but also a lot more in between again I'm not spoiling it.

This game is humorous, long, exciting, emotional and one of the best games for PS2.

Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening (2005 Video Game)

Devil May Cry 3

[10 July 2005]

The original Devil May Cry was a land mark action game. It was the first game that showed 3D 3rd person action games could play like the classic 2D games. Tight control, pattern based bosses, and a high learning curve with an unrelenting difficulty. In a time of games that were far too easy and lasted 5 hours, Devil May Cry stood head and shoulders above the rest as being addictive, over the top, difficult, just plain stylish game that was remarkably fun to play. It is one of my favourite games this generation of hardware, and maybe ever.

Then Devil May Cry 2 was released 1 years later. And DMC Fans like myself were bitterly disappointed. Who was this mute clown who looked like Dante but had none of the cheesy coolness of Dante in DMC? Why the heck did they change the functionality and utility of sword combos? How come the dual pistols wouldn't fire as fast as you hit the button, Like DMC1? How come the bosses were ridiculously simple and could be killed just by taping down the shoot button and walking away for a half an hour? DMC2 was a soulless mess, looking aesthetically like DMC, but the game play didn't live up to the high watermark set by the original.

Which Bring us to Devil May Cry 3. Capcom listened to the fans and went back to the drawing board for DMC3. Dante is back with a vengeance, smug, louder, and just plan cooler than before.

Devil May Cry 3 is my new favourite action game and quite possibler my favourite action game of this generation. It was an incredibly rewarding experience to battle through the game and conquer it on its highest level of difficulty, Heaven or Hell! mode. Even now after 65 hours of playing, I still want to plug in the disc in and see what other kinds of sick combos I can come up with. This is a game where your battle tactics and how you play the game are limited by your imagination. Dante's been on vacation for the last four years, but this game is a hell of a way to make up for lost time.

Final Fantasy VII (1997 Video Game)

Final Fantasy 7

[4 July 2005]

The story of Final Fantasy 7 is one of the most important parts of the game. A company called Shinra have built reactors all over the world to drain the planet's energy. The Reactors suck up the energy and transform it into what is called Mako which is like the electricity for the world. Problem is, the planet needs this energy to survive and it is getting weaker and weaker as each reactor drains more of its energy. If Shinra don't stop then it could be fatal for everybody living on the planet. But Shinra don't plan on stopping. All they care about is the money. The people of the world use Mako all the time and Shinra make big cash from it all.

Shinra's headquarters are based in a rundown city called Midgar. Midgar is divided into sectors and each one is basically a slum. In Sector 7 are a group called Avalanche who plan on taking down Shinra to stop them damaging the planet. But it's not just the planet they are after Shinra for. Some of the group members have a history with Shinra that has affected their lives so there's even more reason to stop them. Avalanche's plan is to blow up every reactor that is sucking away the planet's energy.

You start the game taking control of Cloud Strife. He's an ex member of Soldier, the elite military force of Shinra. Cloud has a big history with Shinra too and after he here's about this Avalanche group, he decides to help them. But Cloud is only after money. He's a Mercnary now after his job from soldier and is looking for pay. Your goal is to take out the Reators in Midgar, playing the lead role of Cloud Strife. But things don't go the way Avalanche planned on. After bombing the second Reactor, Cloud is stuck hanging from a ledge after an explosion. The Reactor's bomb goes off and cloud falls far below, away from Avalanche pals, and his childhood friend, Tifa, who joins the group on their mission. Cloud meets a young woman called Aeris on his landing on a bed of flowers in a church. She takes quite a liking to him and just as they were getting to know each other, in walks a Mysterisous man by the name of Reno. Aeris hastily asks for cloud's help in fighting off reno and his soldier troops as they try and capture Aeris. Aeris has her own secrets and is trying to avoid the Shinra.

Cloud gets caught up in Aeris problems and eventually, after finding Avalanche again, they help save Aeris from the Shinra after she is captured. The head over to Shinra HQ and Cloud finds what he didn't want to find. A sword from a very powerful man, who Cloud once knew from Soldier, planted in the back of the Shinra president. This man is Sephiroth. Everyone has heard the tales of him. He used to work in Soldier and was very powerful. He was the highest ranked of all soldier members and everyone wanted to be like him. But Cloud has a past with him and he wants to settle the score. He and his Avalanche team members go in search of Sephiroth..

There is also the very innovative Materia system. I like this very much. Each weapon for your characters will have slots to place little balls called Materia. There are many different types of Materia- Magic, Like cure, Ice, Cure, Fire, Summon, the big monster spells like Ifrit, Shiva, Bahamut, support, these are Materia which give added affects to your spells like All which makes you cure everyone in your team. There are others too and there are loads and loads of different Materia to get throughout the game. Some slots in your weapons are linked and this means you can put in two Materia that will give an added affect in battle such as linking Cure and All. This will enable you to cure all of your team members in battle all at once. At first it can seem a little complicated but it becomes very easy quickly. It can be a tactical affair too as equipping Magic and Summon Materia lowers your HP but increases you MP. They also raise and lower other stats such as Strength and Spirit.

You know, when I first played FF7 when I was a young lad and I had only just gotten out of the first city, Migar, I couldn't believe how big the game was. To think I'd just gone through hours of game playing and I had only just exited the first city of the game, and then I enter the world map! In that sense, this game is huge. The world map is so big. You won't realise how big it is until you actually reach the outside of Midgar for the first time.

You guide Cloud's team through the world in search of Sephiroth, visiting many different areas such as towns, run down villages, harbours and caves. Not long after you reach the world map, you will come across the Chocobo ranch. Chocobos are chicken-like birds which you can ride on. You can actually go out and catch your own wild Chocobo and raise it to take part in the Chocobo racing tournaments, in a spectacular amusement park called the Gold Saucer.

The story will keep you glued to playing it through from start to finish and even after you beat it, there are absolutely tons of extras to do. It really is quite extraordinary how huge this game is. You'll become attached to the characters and will want to see the game through to its end to see what will happen to the characters, the story and the planet.

Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi (1990 Video Game)

It would seem that the 'Secret of Shinobi' was that Joe Musashi was in a really, really crap game

[30 May 2005]

Shinobi was always a hot license for Sega. After Joe Musashi's initial appearance in the Arcades in 1986, everyone wanted a piece of him. Shinobi was released on almost all of the major formats, and sold like hotcakes. Shinobi made his MegaDrive debut in 1989 with the Revenge of Shinobi, which, in terms of Shinobi games, was pretty good (especially compared to the god awful mess that was Cyber Shinobi).

And then Sega tarnished the name of Shinobi again. Poor Joe Musashi is being tossed around like a rag doll, and now he has been tossed into a large pile of turds. Which is exactly what Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi is....nothing but a big, fat, steaming, stinky pile of turds. This game reeks. Get it away. It is a stain on what would have been a great MegaDrive game collection (mine that is, don't let it stain yours) I once suffered the curse of being an impulse buyer. Whenever I had money, I'd buy a game, I didn't care what game it was, as long as it was a new game. I bought this heap of turds for £20 along with other games at car boot sale. of course, once I got home, I was immediately in denial over whether it was crap or not. Shadow Dancer is the runt of the series. It's easy as hell, and it sucks to play. The Secret of Shinobi was that Joe Musashi was in a really, really crap game.

It makes Cyber Shinobi seem good Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi is a bit of a graphical mess. It doesn't look as good as Revenge of the Shinobi, which came out a whole year earlier, yet, it uses a lot more colour. Joe himself looks stupid now, more like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man than the ninja he was in Revenge of Shinobi. Enemies are ugly and generic, no imagination put to work here at all. Backgrounds are nice and colourful, which is a bonus, except for the fact you don't want to play the game for more than 20 minutes. The game does, however, run a little smoother than it's older brother. A complete shame.

The soundtrack of Shadow Dancer isn't too shabby, being compiled of techno-ish toons which are easy on the ears, but then again, it's nothing memorable. Sound effects are bland and outright disgusting. To make things worse, they are limited too, so you'll be hearing the same awful sounds over and over and over again.

'So what is this supposed stinking heap of turds all about, stoney? I hear you cry. Well, for starters, Joe Musashi doesn't really have any big secrets. All the game is really about is a rather angry lizardman creatures taking over New York City, and taking various citizens of the Big Apple captive. Seeing Joe is the hero sort, he decides to rid the streets of the ninja scum, and be praised and such. Nothing to write home about.

Shadow Dancer screws part of the Shinobi formula up...you can only take one hit. In a cheap attempt to give the game higher difficulty, all Sega have done is increase the frustration level. So here we have Joe, who has obviously been weakened by staring in a bad game, taking on the bad ass ninjas of NYC. He has the edge over the average ninja these days...he has a dog. This white pooch is quite handy, but as weak as Joe, one hit, and you're canine friend is turned back into a lovable puppy. Joe still has his stock standard magical powers, but now, he can only handle one at a time, and you'd better not waste it.

Don't expect this one to last you long folks. Apart from the fact that it plays quite horrendously, it's also pretty short, and easy game. The cheap system of only letting you have one hit won't worry you too much after long. After you finish it, I guess you can always try to get 100% on the bonus stages, but why you would want to play through it again is beyond me.

Avoid it in any way you can. It drags the name of Shinobi through dirt, and then hangs it out to dry. Even Cyber Shinobi was better, and it was pretty damn bad.

QuackShot (1991 Video Game)

One of the great adventure classics!

[30 May 2005]

In late 1991, Sega released this excellent and much underrated game. Travel around the world with Donald Duck in your search for special items in your search for King Garuzia's treasure.

This game was released about the same time as the mighty Super NES, and it could compete with anything that system had to offer. Some of the best 16-bit graphics ever. The characters are all very detailed and colourful. The Bosses are even better. Of course there is the animation of Donald himself when he gets tired of standing in one place for too long. The best thing this game offers in terms of graphics is the backgrounds-which are simple outstanding. Each stage greatly varies from the next, from Egypt to Mexico, to the amazing opening stage in Duckberg The sound effects set the stage perfectly, as they change from the energetic tunes from Duckberg to Mexico, to the quiet, eerie sounds of the Mexican pyramid to Transylvania.

This game has great gameplay, The screen moves as you move, revealing more screen for you to move, enemies could be there as well. There are a lot of different areas, and tasks to do, which makes this game very fun but challenging. You can use your weapons in more ways than one which is great. I must say, that the Sega Mega Drive not having many games like this, it really is great.

There are so many side scrolling platform games on the Sega Mega Drive, so you are probably wondering if good old Quackshot is worth playing. In a word yes. Give it a try, even if you have played many of the other hundreds of "side scrolling platform games". Overall, Quackshot gets an 8 out of 10 from me.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004 Video Game)

Well I'll admit it......I'm impressed.

[5 May 2005]

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas will now officially be the third GTA Game. It had an immense amount of hype surrounding it from the start. The question is, did it live up to the hype? In my opinion, it definitely did in every way, and the game has literally set a benchmark for the future in video gaming, one in my opinion that cannot be surpassed.

The theme in this game is all to do with the ghetto lifestyle and living. The main character is named CJ, and he is the first main character that has black skin in GTA. The lifestyles in this area are also similar to what you would expert, such things as rap music is prominent and everything to do with ghetto world.

The graphics have gone up a few notches since Vice City. It is noticeable that Rockstar has spent some time fixing the jaggedy-edged graphics in Vice City to come to the smooth and amazing graphics of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The graphics pretty much push the ps2 to its limit, and represent the hard work that Rockstar has put into the game.

The map size in this game is truly amazing. The map surpasses Vice City in area by nearly six times. You will literally not believe how big this game is when you see and play it, the map just does not do it justice. The terrain varies from the country side to the city, and the missions you undertake in the game often require you to drive around all areas of San Andreas, and this is notably very fun.

Finally, I must address one last issue: the adult content. Not to be 'uncool' but honestly, this game is NOT appropriate for children. Parents, if you really know what this game contains and know your child, and still think it is okay for them, then it probably is, but if you have any doubts, at the very least do more research before buying it for them. lastly, I would Definitely not buy the game for ANY children under thirteen or fourteen, no matter how mature. Beyond that, it's your decision, Mom and Dad. Choose wisely.