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Rating: E for Everyone
Summary: One day an old floating man comes and asks you to take care of his farm. From then on your taking care of farm animals, planting food plants, and hoing fields.
Graphics: I'm not too familiar with Gameboy graphics. All I know is they're worse than Harvest Moon 2. N/A
Smoothness: You know Gameboy's and their perfectness. 5/5
Camera angles: There's only one and you can always see your character on the sceen. ALWAYS! He/she can't go behind anything! 5/5
Sound: My REW file was corrupted, so I didn't have any sound. N/A
Voices: The voices... in my head! N/A
Music: Once again, I don't have sound. N/A
Characters: At the beginning of the game you can choose to be a girl or a boy and pick a four letter name. Your character is basically invincible. You can't get colds even if you work in the snow all day. You can also stay up as late as you want. The latest I was up 3:00 AM.
At the beginning of the game you can choose to have a cat or a dog. Later on you also get a horse. Neither of them are hyper active in fact they're lathargic now. They will probably move once every game hour. It makes loading the horse with vegetables a lot easier. Other animals include cows and chickens. It's easy to get either animal. The chickens are still kind of hyperactive and on top of it the chicken coop is much smaller than it was in the sequel. You get to run around the chicken obsticals as you attempt to feed them and throw their eggs in the place where you sell stuff. Cows are pretty lazy and easy to take care of.
In your shed there are Havest Spirits that "help" you somehow. How they help you I have yet to figure out. If you hit the water in the back room with an ax a floating lady will come and ask you if you dropped a golden ax. If you don't read the question (or just want her to shut up) and continue pressing "A" to say yes she will say you're lying, leave, and you will never see her ever again. Other spiritual characters include the random old man you "meet" at the beginning of the game. You only see him once a year when he comes to check on your farm. If you're doing a good job he will give you more land or a fishing pole.
There's even less to the townspeople in this game. They only sell you things and if they have nothing to sell they tell you to go die (but not really). Once in a while, a townsperson will come to your farm and ask for something or ask you if you want to go on a picnic or something. The picnics are notoriously short. All you do is ask people questions and you all stand in a circle.
The game with the stupidest character designs always get the biggest rave from me for some reason. Once again, I'm not impressed with Harvest Moon. 2/5
Controls: How confusing could eight buttons be? 5/5
Glitch count: The only glitches that I think would actually be in a not corrupted file would be the cows and chickens walking over each other and your character appearing over everything. If you're standing behind someone it will appear that your standing on their head. Also, the game is badly translated.
There are several glitches that are probably just there because my REW file is corrupted. One of them is when a Harvest Spirit asks if you want them to fix your ho or your sickle. When they take your ho or sickle they will never ever give it back. EVER! The other one is sometimes after you exit the game and come back to it you will suddenly be at the beginning of the next year with a randomly generated amount of money, fodder, and Harvest Sprit help time. It's crazy!
When the game is badly translated it takes a lot away. Otherwise the glitches are fairly minor. 4/5
Fun: The game isn't fun! Not even for workaholics! The problem is, is that there are no goals! There's only two house expansions that you can buy and they barely cost anything. The cows are simple to get (you don't have to plant a bunch of fodder and have a lot in the silos). After you get that there's nothing. 1/5
Things liked: I like how the horse doesn't run everywhere now.
Things not liked: There was nothing that I didn't like! Not...
Overall: This is just a numb farm sim. Nothing more. 1/5
Sequel: There's a review for Harvest Moon 2 on the Reviews 3 page. It was better than this one but still not worth buying.
Rating: T for Teen
Summary: Giddeon Wyeth is an unlikely hero. He doesn't jump through the halls of his work place like a gazelle, he can't fire any weapon worth crap, and he most certainly should not be trusted with superhuman powers. :D Okay, I'll stop being sarcastic now. It really does say he's an unlikely hero on the back of the case. Anyway, two species of aliens choose to reveal themselves on the same day. One species, known as Seekers, want to destroy the human race while the other wants to make peace. Giddeon's planet is destroyed by the Seekers and most of the human race is gone. Giddeon joins the other species of aliens to seek revenge against the Seekers.
Graphics: Hmm... The graphics weren't the best I've ever seen, but there was a lot of animating in this game. I have to give them credit for that. 5/5
Smoothness: Turn the anti-gravity off and stop using Shatter! This game is too hot for your Xbox! It has a tendency to completely freeze up too. What is this? A computer game? 3/5
Camera Angles: If you want good camera angles you're going to be controlling the camera a lot. This wouldn't be a problem if the right joystick weren't the same joystick you use to target enemies. At random points in the game you will get a camera that you cannot control, and these camera angles are awful! There is also some kind of glitch that happens randomly that seems to move the camera in the opposite direction that it's supposed to go (instead of pointing where your going it will point behind you). You cannot control the camera when this happens, and it's really annoying. 3/5
Sound: Ahhh... the wonderful sounds of explosions are music to my ears. However, sometimes the sound would disappear when the game was loading a new area. Also, for some reason during the cut scenes the sound goes way down. 4/5
Voices: The majority of the voices are understandable, and there is a decent amount of voice actors and talent. Once again, there's a problem with the sound going down during cutscenes though. The biggest problem I had was with the final boss' voice. I couldn't understand one word he/she was saying! NOT ONE! The fact that he/she went on for five to ten minutes made it even worse! 4/5
Music: The music ranges from cheesy heroic music to dramatic "oooooooo"'s and "aaaaaaahhhh"'s worthy of Halo. It's okay music... if it was just used at the right times. Sometimes you'll be wandering around aimlessly trying to find out where to go (it happens from time to time in all games), and this loud dramatic music will be going on. It's not very effective when there's nothing going on, and it gets annoying. 4/5
Characters: The main characters would probably include Giddeon, his brother, Ethan, his girlfriend, Olivia, and some random scientist with pistol he picked up on the way. The only thing you know about Ethan is that he's a war hero... for no reason (that might be cleared up in one of the sequels though). Olivia is just Giddeon's girlfriend. That's all. Before the Seekers destroy Giddeon's space station where he works, you get to choose whether to save Ethan or Olivia. The character that survives actually has more opprotunity to be developed than you would think they would. For instance, if Olivia survived the script would be different than if Ethan survived. This still lets Giddeon get close to Olivia or yell at his brother, so the character that survives isn't just static. The character that "dies" just doesn't have enough time in the game to get well developed. The only thing you get out of the random scientist is her pistol whipping people and being paranoid about people getting into the hundred-passenger ship that's one of the last left on the exploding planet. At the end of the game you find out something else about her, but it's random, and it doesn't help in anyway even if it was kind of unexpected. As for Giddeon, what's so fucking special about him? It even says right on the back of the disc case that he's "an unlikely hero" and yet the alien species just teach him their powers. No! His girlfriend/brother couldn't have learned their powers! I've seen first person shooters with better-developed characters! 3/5
Controls: There is a lot of things that Giddeon can do in this game (because he's an unlikely hero :D) including double wielding any weapon (ANY WEAPON), crouching, dodging, jumping, rolling, and even switching between 3rd person and 1st person views. It adds up to being too much though even if it does make the game really fun. I mentioned before the problem with having one joystick target enemies and control the camera. It makes it very hard to flee when you need to. Also, the same button that you press to reload also picks up weapons on the ground. The same button you press to dodge is also used to activate switches and buttons. This caused me a lot of pain when I dove dramatically into a pool of lava instead of pressing the button to bring up a bridge. Something my friend James said too, "Why would they let you use timeslip in the first person!?" 3/5
Glitch count: o.O Events that aren't activated, elevators that don't work properly, Giddeon's hair randomly getting short and being long, mobs of people running the exact same way, buttons that can be pushed twice that should only be pressed once, levitating on objects, levitating objects, completely unmodeled characters, slow reaction deaths, enemies that won't die, the list goes on! Advent Rising is a game that's so glitchy that even the cut scenes are glitchy! Black & White and Half-life combined aren't this bad! I looked at a walkthrough someone wrote to this game on the Internet, and they actually wrote ways that you had to avoid glitches! I looked at the list of game testers in the credits. There couldn't have been more than twenty people on that list! You look at a pretty well perfected game like Fable, and there are maybe hundreds of people testing the game! This game was NOT ready to go Gold at all. AT ALL! 1/5
Fun: Despite all it's downsides this game is very, very fun! If I could play Static-X and play this game... OMG! Much like Grand Theft Auto, Advent Rising is one of those games that are even more fun to play with cheats. The only way this game could get any more fun is if it had multiplayer... co-op! 5/5
Things liked: I like all the random explosions most of all. I also like how you can double wield anything including rocket launchers! Jumping is also fun (like it was on Stranger's Wrath). Giddeon is officially known as Gazelle Man in my book. Even if there are a lot of glitches my friend, James, and I still get a kick out of driving through people and looking back to find them falling over dead five seconds later.
Things not liked: This should have been a top of the line game with a guy like Orson Scott Card (writer of Ender's Game [very good book]) writing the script. Not even the storyline was that good though (compared to Card's other work at least). It also wouldn't hurt to have spent a little more time testing this game. Also, you should never have things breaking under the player's feet. The possibility of the player getting stuck is way too great to risk that!
Overall: With a crappy storyline, crappy controls, and an even crappier quality this game has more than the usual amount of downsides, and yet, it's one of the most fun games I've ever played. This is tough to rate, but we'll go with this. 3/5
Sequel: As Giddeon stumbles dying through a frozen wasteland at the end of this game, you finally think you're free at last of all the horrible glitches until an "Ewalk" comes up to save him. Then, the horrible truth is announced: To be continued... Let's just hope they get the game to gold before they release it this time. This game has potential. It really does. Oh yeah, I watched the video that plays if you don't do anything on the main screen, and it said this was going to be a trilogy.
Rating: E for Everyone
Summary: This old school racing game let's you race on skateboards, roller blades, and bikes on a variety of courses. Three seasons are offered in season mode: amature, pro am, and pro. If you come out of all the seasons the winner, you unlock new characters, gear, and courses for exhibition, free style, and time trial modes. This game is XTREME, dude!
Graphics: This is the first in the Xtreme series to be in 3d... and it shows. 4/5
Smoothness: If there's a lot going on on another part of the course the game might get a little choppy. Sometimes the game loads a little slowly as you're going down the course. A gate will just suddenly appear out of nowhere and most likely a bot will run into it. Both these problems are pretty minor though. Otherwise, it's as smooth as Playstation 1 can get. 5/5
Camera Angles: It's not such a big deal in a racing game where the only direction you can go is forward. Sometimes you bounce backwards off of things due to high speeds though so you can't see what's in front of you since the camera refuses to move backwards behind the player. Getting back in the game can be difficult. 4/5
Sound: Except those times when the sounds cancel eachother out... coconut for all! 4/5
Voices: The voices mostly consist of people going "oof" and "AGH!" when they get bitch slapped or run into something. There's also a music video that comes with the game by ULTRASPANK. It mostly full of screaming like most rock bands these days, but there's some singing as well. As big as this section is, it's not worth rating. N/A
Music: It's Xtreme! Rock and techno are the dominate music styles. My favorite. 5/5
Characters: Characters aren't so important in racing games. I suppose a characters weaknesses and strengths is as far as character design goes in this. 5/5
Controls: The controls are very simple. Just mash buttons are you'll do things. I don't really like holding down the X button all the time. That's one of the reasons why my X button no longer has paint on it. 4/5
Glich count: When you hit the sides of gates, you'll either say "oof" and slow down a bit or you'll fall down and start from zero MPH again. Nicking the bar and falling down are chosen at random. For example, it will appear that you hit the bar full on and yet you'll just nick it, or it will appear that you nicked the bar and you'll fall flat on your face. This glitch is particularly annoying as there are gates everywhere that it is suggested that you go through to get money for gear. Grind rails are a little bit glitchy too. When you jump for a grind rail, your character normally snaps to it when you're over it. Sometimes you just continue over the bar though. Other times, you run into the bar and slow to a dead stop. There's also no way to get off the bar so if you're being attacked by a fellow racer there's no way to hit them or get off the bar. Then, there's invisible walls on the sides of the course that do not match up with the visible sides of the course, and objects that you can see opponents through. 3/5
Fun: It's fun for a while, but once you figure out how to win races, it gets too easy and repeditive. 4/5
Things liked: I like the coconut sound when you run into bars. This sound is also a favorite for my sister, who hates video games for the most part (except 3Xtreme and 2Xtreme). I also like the free style Haunted House course. It's so creepy!
Things not liked: The Metro course and the gates. The gates are so very annoying! Getting the smack down on a grind rail isn't fun either.
Overall: An xcelent racing game for the old school gamer. 4/5
Sequel: There are no sequels that I know of. Hell, I haven't heard anything of 989 Studios since this game came out.
Rating: E for Everyone
Summary: This is NOT a racing game. It's more of a puzzler or platformer on wheels. When I say wheels I mean skateboards, rollerblades, bikes, and street luges. Apparently those were the four Xtreme sports of the mid to late 90's. You race on six different courses where your only objective seems to be to go through gates and hit people, not win the race.
Graphics: I'm very sad to report that the graphics for this game are better than 3Xtreme.
Smoothness: Very, even though there's sixteen racers at a time. 5/5
Camera Angles: Kind of different... but it's Xtreme! 5/5
Sound: I love that smacking sound! I was a little sad to find out that the coconut sound was not in this game. It was in the two sequels! 5/5
Voices: There's still some "oofs" and such. There's also an announcer that says "On your mark. Get set. Go!" too. It makes much more sense to rate this now... just for that. 5/5
Music: The music sounds like it would be cool, but it is always much quieter than the sounds even when you set it all the way up. 3/5
Characters: Once again, strengths and weaknesses are the character design. 5/5
Controls: The controls are just as simple as they were in 3Xtreme. This isn't a button mashing game though. Once again, you have to hold down the X button to go. 4/5
Glitch count: The gates worked much better in this game than they did in 3Xtreme. I think that's because everything on the course was 2D including the characters. A little glitch with the gates though. The glitch is mostly to your benefit though. On gates where you're supposed to go up a ramp to get through them, you can jump high enough to get through them if you press the square button diligently enough. 5/5
Fun: The first time I played this game, I thought it was hilarious. All you had to do was hit people. There wasn't any stimulation to win the races and all you had to do was go through gates. There's only six races though and after you play through them a few times and you're playing against impossible odds of winning, it gets old very fast. 3/5
Things liked: Betch slapping people!
Things not liked: You can't do any tricks? What's xtreme about going through a bunch of gates?
Overall: If you're looking for an old school racing game, this isn't it. 3/5
Sequel: There's a 3Xtreme and a 2Xtreme of course. See above for a review for 3Xtreme.
Last Update: 5-18-07
Created by: Emily Palmieri