Reviewer: Carrie Scherach
Title: Rayman: Raving Rabbids
Platform: Nintendo Wii
Price: $29.99
Rating: E for Everyone
Developer: Ubisoft
Publisher: Ubisoft
Age Range: 7 and up. Raving Rabbids has no violence and gives a humorous story line to follow. Upbeat music, energetic mini-games, and adorably odd rabbits make this game fun for all ages.
Buy It?: Yes. This is a definite buy that is great for family and friends. With up to 4 players, this a great game to get everyone involved. It takes great advantage of the motion and activity sensors incorporated in the Wii remote, for the best Rayman gaming experience yet.
Difficulty: Medium difficulty level. The mini games get harder as you progress through the game, but not impossible.
Learning Curve: Easy to pick up after a few mini games.
Total Hours of Play: About 9 hours
Family Factor:
Rayman fights the enemy rabbids in uncanny, but humorous mini games using bizarre objects, such as plunger guns and space ships. The game consists of races, shooting rabbids, dancing bunnies, and skill games. With no violence and silly antics, this is a definite must for almost any age.
Review:
Rayman begins the game picnicking, when he is approached by a swarm of raving rabbids, and ultimately thrust into an olympic arena with 4 challenges and a first person shooter board per level. After going through various levels, Rayman collects new items and outfits to adorn the cell that he has been imprisoned in if you complete every challenge. Don’t worry—if you can’t finish one of the challenges you can come back at a later time to finish the challenge. After each level he is awarded a plunger, which builds a ladder to his freedom.
The rabbids will win your heart with their hysterical gibberish screams and humorous attacks on Rayman. They blend to scenery with costumes and props as the setting changes with each level, from the wild west to a scary graveyard, and much more.
Raving Rabbids has been designed specifically for the Wii’s hands-on, action capabilities. The game design takes advantage of the Wii controls, with fun games, that get you moving and using the remote and your body to the full extent. A fun game to play with friends and family, Raving Rabbids features various mini-games. The games can be played through to challenge one player in story mode or up to four plays can duel it out as a party game. The games are amusing, and the ongoing humor pulls you into the story. You’ll find yourself and friends laughing as you swing your Wiimote around in circles over your head to see who can toss a cow further, or using the Wiimote and nunchuck as drum sticks while you collect dancing rabbids in a ‘Rock Band’ style challenge to name a few.
Some pitfalls like most games in this genre is the repeatitive music. The developer has spiced things up with offering some classic songs like ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’ by having it sung by the Rabbids themselves which is cute for only so long. The up side is that you’ll find yourself singing along. Another negative which may discourage some players is the similarity of the mini-games. It can feel that once you’re half way through the game, you’re just playing the same mini-games over again.
Overall, the game combines the motion-sensor advantage of the Wii remote, with off the wall fun in the mini-games. The games vary from sports and races to shooting and dancing games. With over 70 eccentric games to play, Rayman Raving Rabbids is a definite buy.
Related Games: Mario Party 8, Wario Smooth Moves
Showing posts with label ESRB Rating - E for Everyone. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ESRB Rating - E for Everyone. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Monday, April 28, 2008
NHL 2008 review (Xbox 360)
Review by: Will Kirschner
Title: NHL 2008
Platform: Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Playstation 2, PC
Price: $59.99 (Xbox 360 and Playstation 3) $29.99 (Playstation 2) $19.99 (PC)
ESRB Rating: E for Everyone
Developer: EA Canada
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Age Range: This game is appropriate for any age and can be played by anyone.
Buy?: I love everything hockey so it pains me to say this but it is definitely not worth the better part of a hundred bucks to get this on a next generation console. Your much better off getting the cheaper NHL 2K8 to fulfill your hockey hearts desire.
Summary: Lead your team to hoisting the Stanley Cup and complete victory. You take control of all aspects of a franchise and try and make your team the next great hockey dynasty.
Difficulty: Way too easy, way too lame. The shooting system, though much more realistic, is overly difficult for a simulation hockey game. There shouldn't be a way for me too drop six goals on one of the best goalies in the game as soon as I pick up my controller. I ended up simulating a good deal of the season and skipping over many games due to the boredom the game caused me.
Learning Curve: However long it takes you to learn the buttons of the game is how long it will take to master it.
Total Hours of Play: To beat a franchise it will take you 30+ plus hours of your life. To play a singular game it takes 30 minutes.
Family Factor: This game is hockey dumbed down for the kids. Checking systems is flawed because landing a good check is pretty much impossible. Fights happen, but they happen so rarely it isn't even worth learning the buttons.
Review:
I enjoyed this game at the beginning for all the wrong reasons: it let me beat the Devils up and down the rink. Otherwise, this isn't worth the disks it was written on.
Let me start with the passing system. The puck moves slowly, so strong fluid passes don't exist, leading to tons of interceptions. This can make a team attempt on goal nearly impossible. Luckily, skating is a breeze. Any average Joe could skate past the leagues best defenders and drop one in on the goalie. The new skating system is pretty, but skating for skating's sake would make this a figure skating game.
And, they ruined checking... they ruined checking! One of the most sacred tenants of hockey, defense at any cost, has been wrecked by this game. All too often I just glided in front of the net and dropped the puck in without any succesful checks from the computer’s team. This happened to me too, where I would just slide past an opponent, or even into him, and he wouldn't fall. There is nothing more annoying then being scored on because your check fails.
This brings me to the final point. Don’t buy this game! Fortunately for me this was my brother's purchase, and I played a whole season, simulating most of it to skip games and save my sanity. Online is barely redeemable because very few people play on it. The Owner’s Mode is the only redeeming point because there are a surprising number of things you can do with your players, like train them and build up your minor leaguers to superstar status.
This isn't a good reason to buy it though. Learn from my mistake and save your sixty bucks for something more worthwhile.
Related Games: NHL 2K7
Title: NHL 2008
Platform: Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Playstation 2, PC
Price: $59.99 (Xbox 360 and Playstation 3) $29.99 (Playstation 2) $19.99 (PC)
ESRB Rating: E for Everyone
Developer: EA Canada
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Age Range: This game is appropriate for any age and can be played by anyone.
Buy?: I love everything hockey so it pains me to say this but it is definitely not worth the better part of a hundred bucks to get this on a next generation console. Your much better off getting the cheaper NHL 2K8 to fulfill your hockey hearts desire.
Summary: Lead your team to hoisting the Stanley Cup and complete victory. You take control of all aspects of a franchise and try and make your team the next great hockey dynasty.
Difficulty: Way too easy, way too lame. The shooting system, though much more realistic, is overly difficult for a simulation hockey game. There shouldn't be a way for me too drop six goals on one of the best goalies in the game as soon as I pick up my controller. I ended up simulating a good deal of the season and skipping over many games due to the boredom the game caused me.
Learning Curve: However long it takes you to learn the buttons of the game is how long it will take to master it.
Total Hours of Play: To beat a franchise it will take you 30+ plus hours of your life. To play a singular game it takes 30 minutes.
Family Factor: This game is hockey dumbed down for the kids. Checking systems is flawed because landing a good check is pretty much impossible. Fights happen, but they happen so rarely it isn't even worth learning the buttons.
Review:
I enjoyed this game at the beginning for all the wrong reasons: it let me beat the Devils up and down the rink. Otherwise, this isn't worth the disks it was written on.
Let me start with the passing system. The puck moves slowly, so strong fluid passes don't exist, leading to tons of interceptions. This can make a team attempt on goal nearly impossible. Luckily, skating is a breeze. Any average Joe could skate past the leagues best defenders and drop one in on the goalie. The new skating system is pretty, but skating for skating's sake would make this a figure skating game.
And, they ruined checking... they ruined checking! One of the most sacred tenants of hockey, defense at any cost, has been wrecked by this game. All too often I just glided in front of the net and dropped the puck in without any succesful checks from the computer’s team. This happened to me too, where I would just slide past an opponent, or even into him, and he wouldn't fall. There is nothing more annoying then being scored on because your check fails.
This brings me to the final point. Don’t buy this game! Fortunately for me this was my brother's purchase, and I played a whole season, simulating most of it to skip games and save my sanity. Online is barely redeemable because very few people play on it. The Owner’s Mode is the only redeeming point because there are a surprising number of things you can do with your players, like train them and build up your minor leaguers to superstar status.
This isn't a good reason to buy it though. Learn from my mistake and save your sixty bucks for something more worthwhile.
Related Games: NHL 2K7
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
