Dead or Alive 2 Review

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(More customer reviews)If you like fighting games at all, stop reading and buy this game (unless you don't have Soul Calibur, in which case, get that first). If not, read on.
If not for Soul Calibur, this would be the definitive fighting gameon the Dreamcast. As it is, it comes in second to Soul Calibur, but theyare very, very close.
Soul Calibur has a slightly better fighting systemthan Dead or Alive 2, but Dead or Alive 2's system is one of the best ever.The problem is that the counters play too large a part in the system, andbattles can sometimes turn into a volley of counters.
As for thegraphics, it is too close to call. I'd say that Soul Calibur and Dead orAlive 2 tie for the best graphics on the Dreamcast. The environments areabsolutely stunning (especially the Opera House), and the players move veryrealistically. Of course, the cinemas are completely incredible (what iseven more amazing is that they are rendered in realtime). The graphics evenlook good enough to be first-generation Playstation 2 games. Jaws willdrop.
The main problem with Dead or Alive 2 is that it has a limited1-player mode. In the past, fighting games had only Arcade (1-player) andVersus (2-player) modes. Then Soul Edge (and its sequel Soul Calibur) camealong, added a Mission Battle mode, and spoiled us. Dead or Alive 2 has thetraditional Arcade mode (called "story" mode in this) where youfight six opponents and then the boss, but after Soul Calibur, we have cometo expect more from a fighting game when our friends cannot join in. Inbetween some of the battles in Arcade mode, the aforementioned beautifulcinemas are displayed, serving to progress the story. Once you beat theboss, you are treated to a ending cinema, which, for all 12 characters, isshorter than the between-fight cinemas, has little to do with the story,and is somewhat disappointing after seeing the incredible cinemas. If onlythe endings were more like those of Tekken 3, or even like thebetween-fight cinemas, your hard work would be more rewarding.
Dead orAlive 2 also features a Versus mode, a Sparring (training) mode, a TimeAttack mode, a fun Survival mode where you scramble to pick up items forextra points, a Team Battle similar to that of Soul Calibur, but amazinglyhas absolutely no load time, and the most extensive Option mode I've everseen. The real meat of Dead or Alive 2, however, is the Tag Battle mode. Init, you have five options: Player (henceforth abbreviated P) 1 vs.Computer, P1 & P2 vs. Computer, P1 vs. P2, P1 & P3 vs. P2, and P1& P3 vs. P2 & P4. Finally, a four player mode in a fighting game.Those of you who have played any of Capcom's Vs. series or Tekken TagTournament will know what to expect from this mode. For those who don't,you pick two characters and can switch between them in the middle of afight, even to the extent that you can do tag-team moves or combos. Thecharacter who is not fighting slowly regains energy, so part of thestrategy is knowing when to pull your fighter out for recuperation. To winin this mode, you must defeat both your opponent's fighters.
As if theTag Battle wasn't cool enough, the best part of the game is the stages.They are multi-tiered and dangerous. In most stages (perhaps all, I'm notcertain), there are "danger zones" in which you can knock youropponent for extra damage. For example, one stage is surrounded by anelectric fence. Also, most (again, perhaps all)stages are multi-tiered,meaning that you start off one on level, and you can knock your opponentdown to another level. For example, in the Opera House, you start off atthe very top, in the balcony. On one side, there is a railing through whichyou can knock your opponent to send him or her flying down into the nextlevel of seating. You guessed it, just like the danger zones, a fall to thenext tier will cause extra damage to your opponent. This extra damageforces you to strategize about your position in the stage (i.e. you want tobe away from the danger zones or any edges), and this feature is a welcomeaddition to the genre.
Overall, Dead or Alive 2 is an innovative andmust-have Dreamcast game.

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The world has become a very chaotic and disoriented place ever since the tragic murder of Fame Douglas, the sponsor of the legendary "Dead of Alive 1 World Combat Championship". We must now rely on you to ensure that the world returns back to a state of peace.

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Fatal Frame 2 Review

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(More customer reviews)I have to say that I'm a huge fan of the survival horror genre. I absolutely love the Resident Evil series. Last year I picked up the first Fatal Frame on a whim and I was thoroughly surprised. Not since Nemesis burst though a door and chased after me had I been so scared. So after numerous sleepless nights (from ghostly nightmares) I finished the first game. Never had I anticipated a sequel to a game like I had for Fatal Frame.
Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly starts off simply. Two young twin girls, Mio and Mayu, are talking to each other in the sun. We see flashbacks of a horrible accident that Mio has about the past. Supposedly her sister, Mayu, was chasing after her and fell down a hill, injuring her knee. Mio starts to apologize to Mayu, when all of a sudden she notices Mayu is nowhere in sight. She looks for her and sees she's wandering off into the woods. Mio calls after her, but she doesn't stop, or answer. Mayu keeps walking, and suddenly it's pitchblack. Mio finally catches up to Mayu and they come to a small village. A village that they can't leave. Ever.
Muahahaha!!!
Just joking. Seriously though, this game is super creepy. I can't play it by myself, I find my heart racing and don't want to open another door. Who knows, maybe I'm lame, but ghosts creep me out.
If you're not familiar with the gameplay, your weapon is a "Camera Obscura," which shows things that normally can't be seen with the human eye. This means ghosts and any other kind of unnatural apparition. You then take pictures of these ghosts and it acts as an "exorciser." The storyline is great and full of surprises. The graphics are beautiful and the lighting is amazing. Definitely pick up this game if you love horror movies or survival horror games.

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Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterflyis a new journey into fear, with the terrifying themes and feel that made the first fatal Frame such a hit! When Mio and her sister Mayu return to their old hometown, they follow a strangely glowing crimson butterfly deep into the forest. There, they discover an abandoned village that hides an ancient, horrifying secret.

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Fatal Frame III: The Tormented Review

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(More customer reviews)Tecmo's survival horror series Fatal Frame continues to outdo its competition (resident evil, Silent hill)in the spook factor with its mix of Japanese lore, the universal fright of ghosts and its bizarre sacrificial rituals. The latest entry in the series deals with Rei Kurosawa, a young photographer who has recently lost her fiance in a car wreck. While taking pictures of a rumored haunted house she snaps a photo in which her dead lover appears. This and incident sets in motion theevents for Fatal Frame 3: The tormented.

For fans of the series very little has changed in terms of actual gameplay but there have been a few major changes in the game setup. The biggest difference that gameplay is split into two worlds, a dream world and the real world. The dream world is of course the nightmarish aged decaying world of "the house of sleep" while the real world is modern Japan where you investigate pieces of the dream world and learn info on what is happening in your dreams.

The second biggest change is the addition of two playable characters, Miku (from Fatal Frame 1) and Kei (uncle to the two girls in Fatal Frame 2). By using 2 characters connected two the first 2 installments, Fatal Frame 3 attempts to explain the events of the malice in all three games.

Tecmo once again succeeds in realising a brilliant, vivid world. The game's use of sound and background noise truly ups the scare factor. While walking empty corridors you can hear voices echo in the background, perfectly beating bells will ring faster to make you think danger is imminent only to have nothing happen while in other silent spots ghosts appear and attack out of nowhere.

The graphics are up to TECMO'samazing standards although some of the characters look a bit "blockier" compared to the beautiful rendering that was done on Fatal Frame 2. The controls are a bit clunky at times but these are minor problems in the game as they crop up very little.

Those who found Fatal Frame 2 to be a bit on the easy side will find more to challenge them. Players will have to alternate between characters to reach certain parts of the house. Film is limited so make each shot count (if you can), And NO more staying in finder mode during battle. This new batch of ghosts can actually weaken your shot the longer you wait for them.

There are more frightening spirits in this game too. The sinister sword/cleaver weilding priest can run superfast as well as cut you. The black figured/shadowy tormentors intimidate with their wispy movements and nondefined bodies. And of course it wouldnt be Fatal Frame without a even villaness, in this case a evil blue tatooed lady who silently walks the house of sleep corridors waiting for you. And on top of it all the death screams the spirits wail as they die really is unnerving.

The house of sleep is a twisted setting. Loaded with bizzare rooms, some truly disturbing, others scary in their strangely familiar look. As you explore you'll see rooms that are plucked from the first two games. Fatal Frame 1's large tatami Grand Hall and rope hallway reappear as do Fatal Frame 2's Osaka house. And then there are rooms unqiue to Fatal Frame 3 like the "ruined hallway" which has blacken figure shapes burnt into the walls with Japanese shinto ropes hanging down-all bizarre.

Overall Fatal Frame 3 is a solid video game and a superb example of the survival horror genre of video games. Despite a rare clunky control and one or two bad camera angles, this game is a solid 5 star release. totally frightening and HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

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Fatal Frame 3: The Tormented is a haunting Japanese style horror game where nightmares become reality. A young woman named Rei is having twisted nightmares. These dark dreams take her to the "House of Sleep", where she encounters hideously tortured souls who are being overtaken by a curse. Meanwhile, a deadly tattoo and deadllier secrets of life and death are waiting to destory her, unless she is quick enough to stop it. But Rei's dreams is only the beginning of the nightmare, making Fatal Frame III: The Tormented the most terrifying virtual experience to date.

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Ninja Gaiden Sigma Review

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(More customer reviews)I played this on the Xbox a while ago and thought this was an excellent game and there wasn't much room for improvement.

So far I've played this for a few hours and must say this game is DEFINATELY worth playing again. New levels, new bosses, new weapons, new scenery. But you probably knew all this already.

The biggest difference, at least to me, is the controls. They were excellent on Xbox, but this is WAY better. NG Black had a few frustrating jump sequences because camera would sometimes lose the perspective of the place you needed to see. This seems like it's been imporved a great deal. Because of tighter controls, action feels much faster, but at the same time easily manageable.

16:9 screen format is also a big improvement, since now it's not as easy for enemies to sneak up on you.

Wether you played this before or you are new to NG, or for that matter PS3 - this is the one to have. It's a difficult and lenghty game, but it's one of the best games I ever played (and I've played many since the original Atari)

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Product Description:
Superior graphics on PS3 Sigma version with enhanced colors and gameplay speed.Three brand new Chapters added to PS3 Sigma, totaling 18 Chapters.Rachel is playable character now including updated story line.25 new Missions in Mission Mode for both Ryu and Rachel.New enemies & 3 new Boss characters, totaling 70, with retuned & enhanced AI. New weapons including dual-wield katanas, double swords, Ninja magic, and others.New combos and special action moves such as running & fighting on surface of water.New destructible environments and items.New innovative six-axis controller functionality to assist in fighting enemies.Upload Karma scores on Playstation Network to compare leader boards.Additional content made available later in 2007 to further enhance the Ninja Gaiden Sigma PS3 experience.5 difficulty levels, including access to easier "Ninja Dog" level at any Chapter during game allows for playability for all skill levels of gamers.

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Ninja Gaiden II Review

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(More customer reviews)NG2 had a lot of expectations to live up to. Having beat it, here's my review of what Team Ninja got right and what it got wrong. (I played on Path of the Warrior difficulty, so the easy setting may be slightly different)

Good:
* Much more detailed enemies and graphics, including the ability of nearly every bad guy to be amputated/decapitated and or chopped in half.

* Bodies of most enemies stay around after death, giving you an increased feeling of carnage and destruction. Leave a trail of death to follow!

* Cool weapons

* Easy saving of games at Dragon Statues

* Massive Boobage - unrealistic proportions and extra jiggliness

Bad:
* Some massive slowdown in certain levels when lots of enemies are onscreen. Game over screen visual effects styling is bad and often VERY slow framerate.

* No map. WTH? Some levels you need a map

* Almost completely WORTHLESS ninpo! The Inferno magic is about the only one that does anything (homes in on baddies). But being that many of the bosses are fire-based demons or flyers, magic is almost worthless. Piercing Void is absolutely useless as it requires you to target an enemy and by the time you launch he ball, the baddie has moved. Short-range on the wind magic equally useless.

* Some lackluster level designs, especially caves, tunnels, or building interiors. Several levels feel rehased, especially the Flying Fortress level.

* Added feeling of "cheapness", due to reliance on button mashing and cheap tricks by the level designers. Several areas of the game are maddeningly frustrating due to this kind of cheapness, whose idea of challenging you is to throw wave after wave of the same enemies at you, or put ranged attackers well out of your reach. Examples are the grenade launching soldiers that spam explosives at you from afar or archers, usually appearing in pairs. Exploding jellyfish/mines that respawn. There must be at least 30 of these each time you encounter them.

* The damn biting fish are all back, including the big grabby swimming ones and the airborne ghost piranhas.

* Stupid looking/ugly enemies, with lots of them having some skull motif.Many of the enemies' faces are modified versions of skulls. Stupidness includes wolves that hold katana in their mouths and chop you with them?!

* Having to kill bosses a second time. 1 guy you have to kill 4 times. I know this is a trademark of the NG series, but 4 times???

* Lack of replay value. NO UNLOCKABLES except a measly sound test option and new colored costumes when you begin the game again after beating it. No Sonia as a playable character, no Missions like in NG Sigma. Would be great to be able to play Sonia or Muramasa.

* Lots of dumb unrealistic mechanics like the ability to swim in lava! WTH??.. Invisible barriers everywhere, limiting your interaction with the environment and keeping you several feet away from touching what looks like accessible scenery. Another is the lava filled armadillo boss that comes out of the crashed air fortress.. this thing was the machine's power core??? Back to the cheapness of the design: this boss exploded after you beat it, causing instant death if you don't know what to do before hand. This boss is tough enough if you are playing it the first few times through and to have it explode and kill you is a cheap trick.

* Some bosses are VERY easy to kill with a fully upgraded Scythe

* Much uglier, sloppier items interface w/ blood splatter motif.

The predecessors Ninja Gaiden Black and Ninja Gaiden Sigma were much better in terms of gameplay balance.

Rent this first if you are a casual fan. Having owned and beaten all the variations of the first NG, I am highly disappointed by this game, especially the lack of extras. After seeing how many features Sigma packed onto the PS3 version, I expected those to carry over to NG 2. No chance. No way to view beaten cut scenes, no photo gallery, concept art, rotatable models, nothing!! It feels like a rushed product. No replay value at all. Perhaps they're going to double dip and release NG 2 Omega. Still a very good game, mind you, but just feels half-done.

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Product Description:
This long-awaited sequel to the best-selling Xbox action game pits legendary ninja Ryu Hayabusa against hordes of malicious enemies as he sets out on a journey that will determine the fate of the human race. With an assortment of new weapons, moves, enemies, and locations, Ninja Gaiden II redefines the action game genre, providing a visceral, thrilling experience that just can't be found anywhere else.

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Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Review

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(More customer reviews)By now, you are familiar with the infamous Ninja Gaiden double-dip. Released a little over a year ago on the XBOX360, Ninja Gaiden II comes to the PS3 as Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2.

After a lengthy 8 minute install, you begin the game. The wait is made a little better (or worse, depending on your perspective) by a series of comic book stills with cheesy voices and sound effects while it's copying. The improvements are vast and numerous, starting with the graphics. As good as the 360 version was, Sigma 2 is better. Enemies are lavishly detailed, moves are flashy and spectacular with terrific lighting effects, and bosses are absolutely HUGE. Some levels, gameplay mechanics and enemies received small tweaks, and some are completely revamped. I beat the 360 version and now having completed Sigma 2, I can say that playing the PS3 version is almost like a new experience, especially because of the introduction of several new bosses, online play, mission mode, and 3 new playable characters: Momiji, Rachael, and Ayane. There are a total of 17 levels, 2 or 3 of which are totally new (1 level each for the playable characters). There is none of the slowdown that plagued the 360 version, although I noticed that some bodies now vaporize in order to save processing power. Story is pretty much nonsense and a lot less focused than Ninja Gaiden/Sigma, having you jump around the world, so just ignore it.

First of the changes is the oft-mentioned easier difficulty. I played on "Path of the Warrior" ("Path of the Acolyte" is the other starting difficulty) and found it very easy to defeat many of the bosses. You can just brute-force attack many of them and spam with the same moves over and over. This is how I defeated most of the bosses, even the later ones in the game. The last 3 bosses are especially easy. Arrows and projectiles are on auto-aim. Often you can just jump up and shoot blindly while facing in the direction of opponents. Pushing L1 also snaps to targets, making it very easy to kill attackers from a distance, especially those annoying archers or rocket launcher soldiers. Arrows (and all projectile weapons, including Ayane's exploding shuriken and Rachel's sub-machine gun) are now unlimited, removing a lot of the tactical decision-making and conserving you need to do. You can also move now while aiming, which is a plus. Gone are Ryu's windmill shuriken and incendiary shuriken. I miss the windmill shuriken.

Powering up your Ultimate Technique now is a lot faster it seems. The controls are very forgiving and don't require precise timing as they did in the past. Many of the combos also seem easier to execute and often times, I wonder if I've been triggering combo fatalities by accident. Items and save points are much more numerous. This is the first game in the series where I've actually had a problem with too many items. You can only carry a max of 3 of each of the restore items (small health restore, big health restore, magic restore). Items don't increase in price each time you buy them from Muramasa like they did before. Also, a big change is that he now upgrades your weapons for free. There is usually one or two upgrade statue per level. You can upgrade one weapon once per shop. Previous versions allowed you to upgrade whenever you wanted, as long as you had the money (very expensive), forcing you to save up and strive for more ultimate technique kills because they rewarded you with more essence. The abundance of items and the free upgrades makes collecting essence now rather pointless, because you'll have all this money but nothing to buy. Lastly, load times after dying have been greatly reduced to a few seconds, removing a lot of frustration experienced by players in previous NG games. The downside is that menu load times are inordinately long. If you find a magic scroll or technique scroll, it can take several seconds for the demo video to load, and several seconds after pushing X to close the screen.

Next is the toned-down violence. The menu system is now painted blue instead of red blood splatters. Arms, legs and heads can get chopped off, but they disappear in a wisp of blue ether instead of rolling onto the floor. In the 360 version, heads rolled everywhere and buckets of blood sprayed out from severed limbs. It's all gone here.

New bosses include a giant Buddhist statue at the end of the first level, a pair of tengu, and even the Statue of Fricking Liberty! Some of the bosses have their special attacks removed and made a lot less aggressive about attacking and blocking. You no longer have to time attacks perfectly. Just button mash.

Thankfully, a lot of the "cheap" moments players complained about from Sigma are gone. The piranha ghost fish are still here though, but those extremely annoying exploding jellyfish are gone. Gone also is the ridiculous ability to swim in lava. "Invisible walls" are also a lot less apparent. In the previous game, areas that looked like you could walk around are unreachable, destroying the illusion of depth. In Sigma 2, it's not as noticeable.

Weapons are fun to use, with some being very flashy and cool to see in action, like the tonfa, which turns Ryu into a lethal whirlwind of skull and limb cracking goodness. I don't ever get tired of powering up Ryu and seeing him go berserk on a group of bad guys. Locales include a futuristic Tokyo, NYC, Venice, South America, Mt. Fuji, some non-descript sewers and tunnels of hell or some other demonic dimensional warp. Sky City Tokyo is beautiful and lovingly rendered. NYC is less so. Times Square, Brooklyn, and Liberty Island look bland and inauthentic (because I live here). Some of the levels feel recycled directlty from Sigma (Airship Daedalus = airship stage from previous, Draga Dai = Vigoor city, sewers, lava levels).

Verdict:

Are all the gameplay changes good? No. Is Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 fun? Yes, without a doubt. I enjoyed playing the new sexy female characters and the mission mode. It's a shame you can't play the entire game as one of the girls and you lose all your weapons when you begin a new game. One of the weirdest, most juvenile and sexist things you can do is jiggle the girls' goodies with the SIXAXIS.

Replaying on Path of the Mentor (unlocked by beating the game), I found it a lot harder and I got killed several times on level 1 by even minor enemies. They are a lot more lethal and harder to kill. Too bad this difficulty wasn't available at the very beginning to choose from. Chapter Mode also opens up, which lets you choose any chapter to replay.

All in all, a fun game with good replay value, and I'm glad I bought it. It's a stunning display of the PS3's capabilities and a blast to play as everyone's favorite ninja.

My rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars.

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Product Description:
The most intense, challenging, action-packed ninja adventure is back, exclusively on the PLAYSTATION3 computer entertainment system! Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 is the "ultimate" Ninja Gaiden, featuring characters from the previous installments that have defined the franchise. It radiates a striking visual appeal in high resolution display, featuring character and environmental graphics whose quality exceeds the original Ninja Gaiden Sigma. Combining both melee and long-range battles against enemies, the game requires skillful and strategic playing to successfully journey through the missions

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