Ah yes, Soundwave. One of the few G1 transformers that has been hardly ever remade but really probably deserved to be. We’ve had a ton of Megatron’s and Starscreams but Soundwave has had what, that Beast Wars bat that turned into an Alligator? I’ve always thought Soundwave was cooler than Starscream personally, and who is more deserving of a remake than Megatron’s right hand man?
Ah yes, Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. Things finally start to come together for out portable Castlevania titles. This one is set pretty far in the future compared to most of the other Castlevania games so the overall styling is a bit of a treat as well, well, it could have been… The Belmonts are pretty much the heroes of the Castlevania series but really there’s probably as many if not more games NOT starring Belmonts than there are games with them. This game is one of those games, starring the fruitiest hero of any game in the series, Soma Cruz. Even is name is ridiculous. Instead of a cape he wears a long white trench coat. At least it’s not black like some Matrix wannabe. Still, the fruity hero thing worked in the best game of the series, and it works pretty well here. In fact this is the closest we’ve gotten to Symphony of the Night on the GBA. The best aspect is the ability to switch weapons. There’s even a gun weapon however it doesn’t appear until the end of the game, it’s slow to fire, and generally sucks. You’d think for a game set in modern times the weaponry would be a bit more… modern. Of course that would take the sword slashing fun out of things. Like its predecessors, this game features a customizable power up system. This one centers on collecting souls of monsters. Each soul causes different things to happen, usually dependant on the monster it was collected from. For example, collecting a bat soul will allow you to emit sonar attacks. You can equip several different souls at a time, one of each type. Some are always active, others you activate manually. The souls are used rather cleverly to find the “real ending”. You’ll have to use a specific set of souls in order to achieve the true ending. The plot for this game is also quite a bit divergent from the previous games. You see, in 2023, when the game is set, Dracula is dead. Like dead dead. You’re character is called to Dracula’s castle and as he absorbs souls, be becomes consumed by the desire to become the “new Dracula”. Soma will have to over come this or face off against Julius Belmont in order to save himself. Of course killing the Belmont means becoming the new master of the castle. Yeah, who knew such a flakey guy could be so sinister. Plot nuances aside, the game play on this title is rock solid. It’s not quite as good as Symphony but it comes in a pretty close second. The castle is large and interesting, the enemies are closer to their more traditional selves after Harmony’s oddball designs. Control is good, the soul system is much better than the DSS and magic books of the previous two GBA titles. Best yet, there’s a decent sequel waiting for you when you finish this one, though Dawn of Sorrow will require a DS to play. Chances are you’re only going to find this game in the double pack with Harmony but either way, alone or doubled up, it’s still worth the price of purchase.
It seems to me that Hasbro was strongly considering the upcoming classics line near the end of Cybertron. We got Blurr, we got Breakdown GTS, and we got Smokescreen, right at the tail end. It’s actually fairly rare for Hasbro to release a G1 homage recolor and actually get the name correct. We’re lucky that Smokescreen wasn’t named Ironhide or Silverstreak really.
But no, this color scheme belongs undisputedly to G1 Smokescreen, and the appropriate name was assigned. Still, that’s only one hurdle for Hasbro to overcome. The other is mold. This deco could have easily been applied to a repaint of Repugnus and called Smokescreen.
GBA – Atlas – 2 Players
This game is a remake of the classic NES hit Super Doge Ball. While it doesn’t feature the old well known Kunio Gang (aka “The River City Ransom Guys”) it does play identical to the original with many extra bonuses. For instance, we are treated to nice little cut scenes of the team’s nose less manager chick between each round. It should be assumed that if this game actually had a story beyond slamming balls into the other team, that the manager would probably be the love interest of the main character Ken. Though of course Ken is only main character because the manual says so, and because he is captain of your team. It doesn’t even mention he’s captain of anything in the game.
If you’d have suggested to me twenty years ago I’d be a Castlevania fan I’d have laughed in your face. I have zero interest in the whole Gothic Horror genre, I dislike the soul crushing difficulty of the NES games, and frankly, the whole Dracula thing is kind of derivative.
Then I played Symphony of the Night on the recommendation of pretty much everyone in alt.games.final-fantasy. Ok, I purchased it at the Greatest Hits price then it sat on me game shelf until halfway through college. Eventually I needed something to play so I picked it up.
I don’t review too many movies. Generally, I don’t find I have too much to say about most movies I watch so I steer clear of trying to do detailed reviews. However, Advent Children is one movie I found I had a lot to say on, and it’s the sequel to a game I’ve reviewed twice in one of my favorite game series that I’ve done many reviews for, so I’m sort of obligated. I’ll also add, before I get started, that this review contains spoilers for the film, so if you care about having the plot ruined, which the movie does a good job of doing itself, don’t read too much into this. Most of the spoilers are probably fairly minor and vague though if they don’t fall intot he obvious category.
