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Sometimes I get annoyed. This is one of those times. And whenever I write a review offline I seem to find that some of the reviews cannot be posted on ukreviews.com. So that’s why I’m posting them here, a bunch at a time.
-----------------------------------------
Space Channel 5 – DC
We’ve all seen the dancing games such as ‘Bust-A-Groove’ and ‘Dance Dance Euromix’. In a way, they’re somewhat limited towards Space Channel 5, as in they really haven’t got a strong story mode. But then again, SC5 hasn’t got two-player mode either.
ºººPlotººº
The story is that the intergalactic ‘Space Channel 5’ has had their ratings falling dramatically recently to two other reporters and channels, Pudding from Channel 42 and Jaguar from his pirate TV station, ‘BroadShip a Go Go’. You play the intrepid reporter called Ulala, who works for SC5, and while waiting in the local spaceport a story begins to emerge – Morolians have landed and are forcing people – to dance!
ºººGraphicsººº
The graphics in SC5 are outstandingly brilliant – the Dreamcast has lived up to expectations once again. As you follow the dance movements of the Morolians, Ulala copies what you press (up, down left right, shoot). Depending on whether you succeed (or not), Ulala and her followers either rejoice by doing a flashy dance or hang their heads in shame as the ratings keep on going down.
ºººSoundººº
And the sound of the game is practically second to none. Every section has a slight edge to its music that’s different to the previous sections. The whole game is like visually playing a CD (like Vib Ribbon for the PSX, a class of a game); dancing your way through a variety of emotion-inducing tunes. The SFX follows the music like a charm too. I think that football manager games can take note of this games music and learn from it.
ºººConclusionººº
Well, what else is there to say? 4 levels, about 12 minutes each with increasing difficulty (like doing the reverse of what the Morolians say) and an extra mode - once you’ve completed the standard mode - with new paths and different music. And that’s about it. Oh wait; Ulala certainly looks better than Lara Croft, especially the hair.
Advantages:
Innovative
Brilliant music and graphics
Increasing level of difficulty
Disadvantages:
The ‘Auto Dance’ cheats
Only 4 levels
If you’re good, it’ll only last a day.
-------------------------------------
Tee Off – DC
The first thing you notice about Tee Off is its use of cutesy graphics. Being open-minded, I find that Tee Offs combination of cutesy graphics, individualistic sounds and intriguing gameplay works well.
The concept of Tee Off consists of two disproportionate parts - the first, and consequently the largest, is to blast your way through several courses set in different areas of the world - USA, Scotland, Australia - and achieve the lowest score of each tournament. Each tournament consists of 18 rounds (rather than 72) on one of these courses, and 15 other NPCs (Non-Player Characters) also compete. The spoils? To the victor, a hundred points. To second place, eighty points. The tally decreases as you go down, and last place receives no points. After successfully completing the world’s courses, an assortment of goodies are willfully disposed of into your care. The variety could contain new characters, new golf balls or new golf clubs. After gaining these, they not only become available in this 'World Tour Mode', but also in 'Free Round Mode'
Free Round mode is essentially practice before you play in the World Tour Mode and also a multi-layer mode. It consists of three areas: Point tourney, Stroke Play and Match Play. Point Tourney is eighteen holes with 1-4 players and the highest score wins - 10 points = hole-in-one; 5 points = albatross; 4 = eagle; 3 = birdie; 2 = par; 1 = bogey; 0 = below a bogey. Stroke Play is the classic one round of golf - the player with the minimum number of strokes through 18 holes wins. Finally, in all the Match play modes, the object is to win more holes that your opponents. This can also be done in a number of ways:
- Single (one-on-one)
- Threesome (Two teams, 1 vs. 3, compete by turns)
- Foursome (Pair up in 2 teams, compete by turns)
- Fourball (Two teams of two compete with one ball per team)
- Best Ball 1 vs. 2 (1 vs. 2)
- Best Ball 1 vs. 3 (1 vs. 3)
In addition, Match Play can be modified to make it even harder by invoking a Club Suspension Penalty - the winner of each hole can make clubs of the other team unavailable for later holes.
The ultra-fun element of Tee Off is its 'Gate Ball' mode. A game similar to croquet, the idea of Gate Ball or 'G-ball) is for your team to successfully score more points by hitting balls through gates. G-ball follows a number of rules:
- The ball must be passed through the first, second and third gates on the court in order, then hit the goal at the center of the court to clear
- To win G-ball, one of the two teams must either clear all of their balls or have the most points at the end of the time limit. One point is awarded for each gate passage, two points for the final gate.
- The first gate must be passed with one stroke and not go out of bounds or the ball will be called "out", and the first gate must be repeated.
- You can only score points when passing gates by going through them the right way.
You can also score points by hitting opponent’s balls off the court.
Overall, Tee Off offers a variety of simple repetitive sounds combined with the concept of realistic golf (+ mini game) and in a why that's suitable for nearly everybody.
Advantages:
Simple + Easy to use
Variety of characters + clubs
Gate Ball
Disadvantages:
Repetitive
Not suited to those new at golf
Easy enough to win
---------------------------------------------
Breath of Fire 3 – PSX
BOF 3 is another in a long line of vivid RPGs for the Playstation. You take the part of Ryu, a dragon accidentally freed in the mines; but takes a human child's form. Little does young Ryu know of his power OR his past. It’s your job, by controlling him, to unlock this ultra-ordinary story to its full potential.
ºººPlotººº
To start, Rei finds the young Ryu naked and unconscious in the wood next to his home, under the wrath of two currs. Rei use his better judgement to save Ryu and take him home? Rei presumes that Ryu is an orphan, like Teepo who is also under Rei's care. Rei and Teepo feed each other by hunting or stealing from the near McNeil village, and have earned themselves a bad reputation. Yet recently the year’s harvest has been poor and ravaged by monsters? Ryu couldn’t have come at a worst possible time. Unbeknown to Ryu or Teepo, Rei can transform into a psychopathic tiger, which he uses to help him hunt.
The story goes on to say that the reason behind the poor harvest was the result of a monster called a 'nue', from the nearby mountains. Rei calls it upon himself to kill this monster using his tiger abilities, but Ryu and Teepo insist on traveling along? Meaning that Rei not only has to kill the monster, but also has to protect Ryu and Teepo without showing them his tiger powers, as they could be hurt. This becomes your first major task in which you control Ryu. Good luck!
ºººCharactersººº
Along the way, you meet numerous other people who help Ryu unfold his past. Playable characters include:
- Nina: A princess of Wyndia, the greatest kingdom in the land. She dislikes her parent’s restrictions and is a high-class magic user.
- Garr: A mysteriously strong man with an equally mysterious past. He wins Ryu and the party in a Contest of Champions, and chooses to help Ryu in his quest. Garr can be more helpful that you think.
- Momo: A scientific researcher who follows in her late father’s footsteps. Armed with a cannon and with particularly useful analytical abilities, Momo helps Ryu out of a tricky spot on more that one occasion.
- Peco: The vegetable of the party. No really! Peco is an onion shaped thing. He gains hit points at a ludicrously fast rate, and his power matches this, making in invaluable member of the team. Truly the oddball of the game.
There are also masters who help the team. Over 15 of them help Ryu and the gang? Gain a few levels under each master and receive a new skill to use. Supercombo is such a skill? Go up 10 levels under Bunyan the Woodsman, and then talk to him to receive it. (Supercombo gives you the chance to hit more than once in a given round - follow the on screen buttons to attack up to 12 times in one round). However, it can be difficult to gain all the skills available. Also, go up a level under one of these masters and specific abilities/statistics may increase.
ºººGameplayººº
Story wise, BOF3 offers over 40 hours of distinctly puzzling Gameplay in only one CD. Graphically, BOF3 fairs well under the light of the Final Fantasy series - not drastically over complicated like Vagrant Story or majorly simplified like Final Fantasy 6 or Chrono Trigger. One thing I found was the clever way to design 3-D trees: get a 2D frontal view, and arrange 3 of these across the vertices of a hexagon, so the center of this 'hexagon' contains 3 cross-overs, rather than the images being across the edges. (Get that?). Yet, the effect looks good, and is only noticeable when looking down from above (all you see is three lines crossing in the middle). Sound wise, BOF3 offers a variety of background jingles and casual SFX to complement the Gameplay -which works extremely well for a game competing against the FF series.
ºººFun elements (?!)ººº
BOF3 offers a few mini-games, the major one being a fishing spin-off which is only needed once to continue the story in the whole game. The idea is that there are fish at different distances away and at different depths requiring different bait and different movements to attract them. Simple? Yep, it is.
ºººThe Worldººº
There are 4 continents to attract your attention, each with something new and intriguing to find on each. Visit the castle of Wyndia and help Nina through the dangerous dungeons of her castle. Visit the mines from whence you came to obtain the greatest power. Visit the old temple to explore and understand you past through Garr. Travel across the ocean and the desert to find Myria - maybe a key to the answer?
Advantages:
Something different from the FF series
Not overly complicated
Easy to play, difficult to master
Disadvantages:
Not top of the range like FF
Over 40hrs Gameplay
No FMV
----------------------------------
Power Stone 2 – DC
With 4-player, third person beat-em-up action over 8 frantic levels, Power Stone 2 involves the most furious and exciting multiplayer action available for the Dreamcast to date. N64s Perfect Dark Multiplayer only beats the game.
With 14 different characters combined with 8 levels and optional team battle, every multiplayer game is different. The weapons available as pick-ups are varied and the inclusion of CPU controlled characters adds spectacle. One disappointing aspect is that you can’t save how many wins you have (like Perfect Dark), or play other people online.
ºººPlotººº
There are two other main areas in Power Stone 2: Arcade and Adventure. Arcade is simple – battle through 6 levels involving two easy bosses (made more difficult by changing the difficulty setting in the option menu) and you can gain extra options or one of two extra characters. (Random items from Adventure mode can appear in Arcade mode and Verses mode.)
The Adventure mode may only be one player, but a usual change to the usual arcade mode ploy. The concept of Adventure mode is to collect as many items as possible, fighting through like in Arcade mode. It’s true! These items can be in the form of projectiles (grenades to machine guns to firecrackers), swords (swords and wands of different elements), restorative items (apples, bananas and cake) and another 180 of different sorts. Through the first time through only yields the basic weapons and items, to get more powerful items you need to participate in the mixing of these items in the ‘Item Shop’. Here you meet Meg and Pride (the unlockable characters) who aid you in the purchasing, selling and mixing of items. In adventure mode, the amount of money you collect after each stage depends on the time taken and the difficulty setting – find a right match and you’ll rake those new items in.
ºººCharactersººº
Each character has specific abilities – Falcon can double jump, Accel can shoot) – and each character also has a transformation. To achieve this transformation stage, you have to collect three ‘power stones’. In this stage your attack and defence is raised, and two new techniques are added to your disposal. After time (or using the new techniques) you turn back to normal, disassociating yourself with all the gems and dropping two, allowing you or your opponent to pick them up. Take Gourmand – he trains as a Cordon Bleu chef but transforms into a big purple dragon with a French moustache.
Though the main thrill of Power Stone 2 is the multiplayer mode. The graphics are nearly second to none, and the sound throughout the game can be varied, and at times, amusing. The only downfall I feel is that the game suffers in one-player longevity. It can get extremely repetitive.
Advantages:
Multiplayer fun
Graphical excellence
Adventure mode
Disadvantages:
Linear
Repetitive
Only eight levels
No online option
Thank you for your time.
JCSuperStar
-----------------------------------------
Space Channel 5 – DC
We’ve all seen the dancing games such as ‘Bust-A-Groove’ and ‘Dance Dance Euromix’. In a way, they’re somewhat limited towards Space Channel 5, as in they really haven’t got a strong story mode. But then again, SC5 hasn’t got two-player mode either.
ºººPlotººº
The story is that the intergalactic ‘Space Channel 5’ has had their ratings falling dramatically recently to two other reporters and channels, Pudding from Channel 42 and Jaguar from his pirate TV station, ‘BroadShip a Go Go’. You play the intrepid reporter called Ulala, who works for SC5, and while waiting in the local spaceport a story begins to emerge – Morolians have landed and are forcing people – to dance!
ºººGraphicsººº
The graphics in SC5 are outstandingly brilliant – the Dreamcast has lived up to expectations once again. As you follow the dance movements of the Morolians, Ulala copies what you press (up, down left right, shoot). Depending on whether you succeed (or not), Ulala and her followers either rejoice by doing a flashy dance or hang their heads in shame as the ratings keep on going down.
ºººSoundººº
And the sound of the game is practically second to none. Every section has a slight edge to its music that’s different to the previous sections. The whole game is like visually playing a CD (like Vib Ribbon for the PSX, a class of a game); dancing your way through a variety of emotion-inducing tunes. The SFX follows the music like a charm too. I think that football manager games can take note of this games music and learn from it.
ºººConclusionººº
Well, what else is there to say? 4 levels, about 12 minutes each with increasing difficulty (like doing the reverse of what the Morolians say) and an extra mode - once you’ve completed the standard mode - with new paths and different music. And that’s about it. Oh wait; Ulala certainly looks better than Lara Croft, especially the hair.
Advantages:
Innovative
Brilliant music and graphics
Increasing level of difficulty
Disadvantages:
The ‘Auto Dance’ cheats
Only 4 levels
If you’re good, it’ll only last a day.
-------------------------------------
Tee Off – DC
The first thing you notice about Tee Off is its use of cutesy graphics. Being open-minded, I find that Tee Offs combination of cutesy graphics, individualistic sounds and intriguing gameplay works well.
The concept of Tee Off consists of two disproportionate parts - the first, and consequently the largest, is to blast your way through several courses set in different areas of the world - USA, Scotland, Australia - and achieve the lowest score of each tournament. Each tournament consists of 18 rounds (rather than 72) on one of these courses, and 15 other NPCs (Non-Player Characters) also compete. The spoils? To the victor, a hundred points. To second place, eighty points. The tally decreases as you go down, and last place receives no points. After successfully completing the world’s courses, an assortment of goodies are willfully disposed of into your care. The variety could contain new characters, new golf balls or new golf clubs. After gaining these, they not only become available in this 'World Tour Mode', but also in 'Free Round Mode'
Free Round mode is essentially practice before you play in the World Tour Mode and also a multi-layer mode. It consists of three areas: Point tourney, Stroke Play and Match Play. Point Tourney is eighteen holes with 1-4 players and the highest score wins - 10 points = hole-in-one; 5 points = albatross; 4 = eagle; 3 = birdie; 2 = par; 1 = bogey; 0 = below a bogey. Stroke Play is the classic one round of golf - the player with the minimum number of strokes through 18 holes wins. Finally, in all the Match play modes, the object is to win more holes that your opponents. This can also be done in a number of ways:
- Single (one-on-one)
- Threesome (Two teams, 1 vs. 3, compete by turns)
- Foursome (Pair up in 2 teams, compete by turns)
- Fourball (Two teams of two compete with one ball per team)
- Best Ball 1 vs. 2 (1 vs. 2)
- Best Ball 1 vs. 3 (1 vs. 3)
In addition, Match Play can be modified to make it even harder by invoking a Club Suspension Penalty - the winner of each hole can make clubs of the other team unavailable for later holes.
The ultra-fun element of Tee Off is its 'Gate Ball' mode. A game similar to croquet, the idea of Gate Ball or 'G-ball) is for your team to successfully score more points by hitting balls through gates. G-ball follows a number of rules:
- The ball must be passed through the first, second and third gates on the court in order, then hit the goal at the center of the court to clear
- To win G-ball, one of the two teams must either clear all of their balls or have the most points at the end of the time limit. One point is awarded for each gate passage, two points for the final gate.
- The first gate must be passed with one stroke and not go out of bounds or the ball will be called "out", and the first gate must be repeated.
- You can only score points when passing gates by going through them the right way.
You can also score points by hitting opponent’s balls off the court.
Overall, Tee Off offers a variety of simple repetitive sounds combined with the concept of realistic golf (+ mini game) and in a why that's suitable for nearly everybody.
Advantages:
Simple + Easy to use
Variety of characters + clubs
Gate Ball
Disadvantages:
Repetitive
Not suited to those new at golf
Easy enough to win
---------------------------------------------
Breath of Fire 3 – PSX
BOF 3 is another in a long line of vivid RPGs for the Playstation. You take the part of Ryu, a dragon accidentally freed in the mines; but takes a human child's form. Little does young Ryu know of his power OR his past. It’s your job, by controlling him, to unlock this ultra-ordinary story to its full potential.
ºººPlotººº
To start, Rei finds the young Ryu naked and unconscious in the wood next to his home, under the wrath of two currs. Rei use his better judgement to save Ryu and take him home? Rei presumes that Ryu is an orphan, like Teepo who is also under Rei's care. Rei and Teepo feed each other by hunting or stealing from the near McNeil village, and have earned themselves a bad reputation. Yet recently the year’s harvest has been poor and ravaged by monsters? Ryu couldn’t have come at a worst possible time. Unbeknown to Ryu or Teepo, Rei can transform into a psychopathic tiger, which he uses to help him hunt.
The story goes on to say that the reason behind the poor harvest was the result of a monster called a 'nue', from the nearby mountains. Rei calls it upon himself to kill this monster using his tiger abilities, but Ryu and Teepo insist on traveling along? Meaning that Rei not only has to kill the monster, but also has to protect Ryu and Teepo without showing them his tiger powers, as they could be hurt. This becomes your first major task in which you control Ryu. Good luck!
ºººCharactersººº
Along the way, you meet numerous other people who help Ryu unfold his past. Playable characters include:
- Nina: A princess of Wyndia, the greatest kingdom in the land. She dislikes her parent’s restrictions and is a high-class magic user.
- Garr: A mysteriously strong man with an equally mysterious past. He wins Ryu and the party in a Contest of Champions, and chooses to help Ryu in his quest. Garr can be more helpful that you think.
- Momo: A scientific researcher who follows in her late father’s footsteps. Armed with a cannon and with particularly useful analytical abilities, Momo helps Ryu out of a tricky spot on more that one occasion.
- Peco: The vegetable of the party. No really! Peco is an onion shaped thing. He gains hit points at a ludicrously fast rate, and his power matches this, making in invaluable member of the team. Truly the oddball of the game.
There are also masters who help the team. Over 15 of them help Ryu and the gang? Gain a few levels under each master and receive a new skill to use. Supercombo is such a skill? Go up 10 levels under Bunyan the Woodsman, and then talk to him to receive it. (Supercombo gives you the chance to hit more than once in a given round - follow the on screen buttons to attack up to 12 times in one round). However, it can be difficult to gain all the skills available. Also, go up a level under one of these masters and specific abilities/statistics may increase.
ºººGameplayººº
Story wise, BOF3 offers over 40 hours of distinctly puzzling Gameplay in only one CD. Graphically, BOF3 fairs well under the light of the Final Fantasy series - not drastically over complicated like Vagrant Story or majorly simplified like Final Fantasy 6 or Chrono Trigger. One thing I found was the clever way to design 3-D trees: get a 2D frontal view, and arrange 3 of these across the vertices of a hexagon, so the center of this 'hexagon' contains 3 cross-overs, rather than the images being across the edges. (Get that?). Yet, the effect looks good, and is only noticeable when looking down from above (all you see is three lines crossing in the middle). Sound wise, BOF3 offers a variety of background jingles and casual SFX to complement the Gameplay -which works extremely well for a game competing against the FF series.
ºººFun elements (?!)ººº
BOF3 offers a few mini-games, the major one being a fishing spin-off which is only needed once to continue the story in the whole game. The idea is that there are fish at different distances away and at different depths requiring different bait and different movements to attract them. Simple? Yep, it is.
ºººThe Worldººº
There are 4 continents to attract your attention, each with something new and intriguing to find on each. Visit the castle of Wyndia and help Nina through the dangerous dungeons of her castle. Visit the mines from whence you came to obtain the greatest power. Visit the old temple to explore and understand you past through Garr. Travel across the ocean and the desert to find Myria - maybe a key to the answer?
Advantages:
Something different from the FF series
Not overly complicated
Easy to play, difficult to master
Disadvantages:
Not top of the range like FF
Over 40hrs Gameplay
No FMV
----------------------------------
Power Stone 2 – DC
With 4-player, third person beat-em-up action over 8 frantic levels, Power Stone 2 involves the most furious and exciting multiplayer action available for the Dreamcast to date. N64s Perfect Dark Multiplayer only beats the game.
With 14 different characters combined with 8 levels and optional team battle, every multiplayer game is different. The weapons available as pick-ups are varied and the inclusion of CPU controlled characters adds spectacle. One disappointing aspect is that you can’t save how many wins you have (like Perfect Dark), or play other people online.
ºººPlotººº
There are two other main areas in Power Stone 2: Arcade and Adventure. Arcade is simple – battle through 6 levels involving two easy bosses (made more difficult by changing the difficulty setting in the option menu) and you can gain extra options or one of two extra characters. (Random items from Adventure mode can appear in Arcade mode and Verses mode.)
The Adventure mode may only be one player, but a usual change to the usual arcade mode ploy. The concept of Adventure mode is to collect as many items as possible, fighting through like in Arcade mode. It’s true! These items can be in the form of projectiles (grenades to machine guns to firecrackers), swords (swords and wands of different elements), restorative items (apples, bananas and cake) and another 180 of different sorts. Through the first time through only yields the basic weapons and items, to get more powerful items you need to participate in the mixing of these items in the ‘Item Shop’. Here you meet Meg and Pride (the unlockable characters) who aid you in the purchasing, selling and mixing of items. In adventure mode, the amount of money you collect after each stage depends on the time taken and the difficulty setting – find a right match and you’ll rake those new items in.
ºººCharactersººº
Each character has specific abilities – Falcon can double jump, Accel can shoot) – and each character also has a transformation. To achieve this transformation stage, you have to collect three ‘power stones’. In this stage your attack and defence is raised, and two new techniques are added to your disposal. After time (or using the new techniques) you turn back to normal, disassociating yourself with all the gems and dropping two, allowing you or your opponent to pick them up. Take Gourmand – he trains as a Cordon Bleu chef but transforms into a big purple dragon with a French moustache.
Though the main thrill of Power Stone 2 is the multiplayer mode. The graphics are nearly second to none, and the sound throughout the game can be varied, and at times, amusing. The only downfall I feel is that the game suffers in one-player longevity. It can get extremely repetitive.
Advantages:
Multiplayer fun
Graphical excellence
Adventure mode
Disadvantages:
Linear
Repetitive
Only eight levels
No online option
Thank you for your time.
JCSuperStar
That's falcon. he could do a double jump, but even better was one of the unlockable characters - Pride. He fires homing missles, instead!
Powerstone 2 rocks!!!
I rented that a good 3 or 4 times and whenever I did, it remained in the DC along with 4 pads for the entire day. It was sooo much fun!
My player was the red guy who released about 100 giant missiles as his first special move. He was great!
I rented that a good 3 or 4 times and whenever I did, it remained in the DC along with 4 pads for the entire day. It was sooo much fun!
My player was the red guy who released about 100 giant missiles as his first special move. He was great!
It didnt like the copy/paste from word so there might be a few grammatical errors. Sorry!
Sometimes I get annoyed. This is one of those times. And whenever I write a review offline I seem to find that some of the reviews cannot be posted on ukreviews.com. So that’s why I’m posting them here, a bunch at a time.
-----------------------------------------
Space Channel 5 – DC
We’ve all seen the dancing games such as ‘Bust-A-Groove’ and ‘Dance Dance Euromix’. In a way, they’re somewhat limited towards Space Channel 5, as in they really haven’t got a strong story mode. But then again, SC5 hasn’t got two-player mode either.
ºººPlotººº
The story is that the intergalactic ‘Space Channel 5’ has had their ratings falling dramatically recently to two other reporters and channels, Pudding from Channel 42 and Jaguar from his pirate TV station, ‘BroadShip a Go Go’. You play the intrepid reporter called Ulala, who works for SC5, and while waiting in the local spaceport a story begins to emerge – Morolians have landed and are forcing people – to dance!
ºººGraphicsººº
The graphics in SC5 are outstandingly brilliant – the Dreamcast has lived up to expectations once again. As you follow the dance movements of the Morolians, Ulala copies what you press (up, down left right, shoot). Depending on whether you succeed (or not), Ulala and her followers either rejoice by doing a flashy dance or hang their heads in shame as the ratings keep on going down.
ºººSoundººº
And the sound of the game is practically second to none. Every section has a slight edge to its music that’s different to the previous sections. The whole game is like visually playing a CD (like Vib Ribbon for the PSX, a class of a game); dancing your way through a variety of emotion-inducing tunes. The SFX follows the music like a charm too. I think that football manager games can take note of this games music and learn from it.
ºººConclusionººº
Well, what else is there to say? 4 levels, about 12 minutes each with increasing difficulty (like doing the reverse of what the Morolians say) and an extra mode - once you’ve completed the standard mode - with new paths and different music. And that’s about it. Oh wait; Ulala certainly looks better than Lara Croft, especially the hair.
Advantages:
Innovative
Brilliant music and graphics
Increasing level of difficulty
Disadvantages:
The ‘Auto Dance’ cheats
Only 4 levels
If you’re good, it’ll only last a day.
-------------------------------------
Tee Off – DC
The first thing you notice about Tee Off is its use of cutesy graphics. Being open-minded, I find that Tee Offs combination of cutesy graphics, individualistic sounds and intriguing gameplay works well.
The concept of Tee Off consists of two disproportionate parts - the first, and consequently the largest, is to blast your way through several courses set in different areas of the world - USA, Scotland, Australia - and achieve the lowest score of each tournament. Each tournament consists of 18 rounds (rather than 72) on one of these courses, and 15 other NPCs (Non-Player Characters) also compete. The spoils? To the victor, a hundred points. To second place, eighty points. The tally decreases as you go down, and last place receives no points. After successfully completing the world’s courses, an assortment of goodies are willfully disposed of into your care. The variety could contain new characters, new golf balls or new golf clubs. After gaining these, they not only become available in this 'World Tour Mode', but also in 'Free Round Mode'
Free Round mode is essentially practice before you play in the World Tour Mode and also a multi-layer mode. It consists of three areas: Point tourney, Stroke Play and Match Play. Point Tourney is eighteen holes with 1-4 players and the highest score wins - 10 points = hole-in-one; 5 points = albatross; 4 = eagle; 3 = birdie; 2 = par; 1 = bogey; 0 = below a bogey. Stroke Play is the classic one round of golf - the player with the minimum number of strokes through 18 holes wins. Finally, in all the Match play modes, the object is to win more holes that your opponents. This can also be done in a number of ways:
- Single (one-on-one)
- Threesome (Two teams, 1 vs. 3, compete by turns)
- Foursome (Pair up in 2 teams, compete by turns)
- Fourball (Two teams of two compete with one ball per team)
- Best Ball 1 vs. 2 (1 vs. 2)
- Best Ball 1 vs. 3 (1 vs. 3)
In addition, Match Play can be modified to make it even harder by invoking a Club Suspension Penalty - the winner of each hole can make clubs of the other team unavailable for later holes.
The ultra-fun element of Tee Off is its 'Gate Ball' mode. A game similar to croquet, the idea of Gate Ball or 'G-ball) is for your team to successfully score more points by hitting balls through gates. G-ball follows a number of rules:
- The ball must be passed through the first, second and third gates on the court in order, then hit the goal at the center of the court to clear
- To win G-ball, one of the two teams must either clear all of their balls or have the most points at the end of the time limit. One point is awarded for each gate passage, two points for the final gate.
- The first gate must be passed with one stroke and not go out of bounds or the ball will be called "out", and the first gate must be repeated.
- You can only score points when passing gates by going through them the right way.
You can also score points by hitting opponent’s balls off the court.
Overall, Tee Off offers a variety of simple repetitive sounds combined with the concept of realistic golf (+ mini game) and in a why that's suitable for nearly everybody.
Advantages:
Simple + Easy to use
Variety of characters + clubs
Gate Ball
Disadvantages:
Repetitive
Not suited to those new at golf
Easy enough to win
---------------------------------------------
Breath of Fire 3 – PSX
BOF 3 is another in a long line of vivid RPGs for the Playstation. You take the part of Ryu, a dragon accidentally freed in the mines; but takes a human child's form. Little does young Ryu know of his power OR his past. It’s your job, by controlling him, to unlock this ultra-ordinary story to its full potential.
ºººPlotººº
To start, Rei finds the young Ryu naked and unconscious in the wood next to his home, under the wrath of two currs. Rei use his better judgement to save Ryu and take him home? Rei presumes that Ryu is an orphan, like Teepo who is also under Rei's care. Rei and Teepo feed each other by hunting or stealing from the near McNeil village, and have earned themselves a bad reputation. Yet recently the year’s harvest has been poor and ravaged by monsters? Ryu couldn’t have come at a worst possible time. Unbeknown to Ryu or Teepo, Rei can transform into a psychopathic tiger, which he uses to help him hunt.
The story goes on to say that the reason behind the poor harvest was the result of a monster called a 'nue', from the nearby mountains. Rei calls it upon himself to kill this monster using his tiger abilities, but Ryu and Teepo insist on traveling along? Meaning that Rei not only has to kill the monster, but also has to protect Ryu and Teepo without showing them his tiger powers, as they could be hurt. This becomes your first major task in which you control Ryu. Good luck!
ºººCharactersººº
Along the way, you meet numerous other people who help Ryu unfold his past. Playable characters include:
- Nina: A princess of Wyndia, the greatest kingdom in the land. She dislikes her parent’s restrictions and is a high-class magic user.
- Garr: A mysteriously strong man with an equally mysterious past. He wins Ryu and the party in a Contest of Champions, and chooses to help Ryu in his quest. Garr can be more helpful that you think.
- Momo: A scientific researcher who follows in her late father’s footsteps. Armed with a cannon and with particularly useful analytical abilities, Momo helps Ryu out of a tricky spot on more that one occasion.
- Peco: The vegetable of the party. No really! Peco is an onion shaped thing. He gains hit points at a ludicrously fast rate, and his power matches this, making in invaluable member of the team. Truly the oddball of the game.
There are also masters who help the team. Over 15 of them help Ryu and the gang? Gain a few levels under each master and receive a new skill to use. Supercombo is such a skill? Go up 10 levels under Bunyan the Woodsman, and then talk to him to receive it. (Supercombo gives you the chance to hit more than once in a given round - follow the on screen buttons to attack up to 12 times in one round). However, it can be difficult to gain all the skills available. Also, go up a level under one of these masters and specific abilities/statistics may increase.
ºººGameplayººº
Story wise, BOF3 offers over 40 hours of distinctly puzzling Gameplay in only one CD. Graphically, BOF3 fairs well under the light of the Final Fantasy series - not drastically over complicated like Vagrant Story or majorly simplified like Final Fantasy 6 or Chrono Trigger. One thing I found was the clever way to design 3-D trees: get a 2D frontal view, and arrange 3 of these across the vertices of a hexagon, so the center of this 'hexagon' contains 3 cross-overs, rather than the images being across the edges. (Get that?). Yet, the effect looks good, and is only noticeable when looking down from above (all you see is three lines crossing in the middle). Sound wise, BOF3 offers a variety of background jingles and casual SFX to complement the Gameplay -which works extremely well for a game competing against the FF series.
ºººFun elements (?!)ººº
BOF3 offers a few mini-games, the major one being a fishing spin-off which is only needed once to continue the story in the whole game. The idea is that there are fish at different distances away and at different depths requiring different bait and different movements to attract them. Simple? Yep, it is.
ºººThe Worldººº
There are 4 continents to attract your attention, each with something new and intriguing to find on each. Visit the castle of Wyndia and help Nina through the dangerous dungeons of her castle. Visit the mines from whence you came to obtain the greatest power. Visit the old temple to explore and understand you past through Garr. Travel across the ocean and the desert to find Myria - maybe a key to the answer?
Advantages:
Something different from the FF series
Not overly complicated
Easy to play, difficult to master
Disadvantages:
Not top of the range like FF
Over 40hrs Gameplay
No FMV
----------------------------------
Power Stone 2 – DC
With 4-player, third person beat-em-up action over 8 frantic levels, Power Stone 2 involves the most furious and exciting multiplayer action available for the Dreamcast to date. N64s Perfect Dark Multiplayer only beats the game.
With 14 different characters combined with 8 levels and optional team battle, every multiplayer game is different. The weapons available as pick-ups are varied and the inclusion of CPU controlled characters adds spectacle. One disappointing aspect is that you can’t save how many wins you have (like Perfect Dark), or play other people online.
ºººPlotººº
There are two other main areas in Power Stone 2: Arcade and Adventure. Arcade is simple – battle through 6 levels involving two easy bosses (made more difficult by changing the difficulty setting in the option menu) and you can gain extra options or one of two extra characters. (Random items from Adventure mode can appear in Arcade mode and Verses mode.)
The Adventure mode may only be one player, but a usual change to the usual arcade mode ploy. The concept of Adventure mode is to collect as many items as possible, fighting through like in Arcade mode. It’s true! These items can be in the form of projectiles (grenades to machine guns to firecrackers), swords (swords and wands of different elements), restorative items (apples, bananas and cake) and another 180 of different sorts. Through the first time through only yields the basic weapons and items, to get more powerful items you need to participate in the mixing of these items in the ‘Item Shop’. Here you meet Meg and Pride (the unlockable characters) who aid you in the purchasing, selling and mixing of items. In adventure mode, the amount of money you collect after each stage depends on the time taken and the difficulty setting – find a right match and you’ll rake those new items in.
ºººCharactersººº
Each character has specific abilities – Falcon can double jump, Accel can shoot) – and each character also has a transformation. To achieve this transformation stage, you have to collect three ‘power stones’. In this stage your attack and defence is raised, and two new techniques are added to your disposal. After time (or using the new techniques) you turn back to normal, disassociating yourself with all the gems and dropping two, allowing you or your opponent to pick them up. Take Gourmand – he trains as a Cordon Bleu chef but transforms into a big purple dragon with a French moustache.
Though the main thrill of Power Stone 2 is the multiplayer mode. The graphics are nearly second to none, and the sound throughout the game can be varied, and at times, amusing. The only downfall I feel is that the game suffers in one-player longevity. It can get extremely repetitive.
Advantages:
Multiplayer fun
Graphical excellence
Adventure mode
Disadvantages:
Linear
Repetitive
Only eight levels
No online option
Thank you for your time.
JCSuperStar
-----------------------------------------
Space Channel 5 – DC
We’ve all seen the dancing games such as ‘Bust-A-Groove’ and ‘Dance Dance Euromix’. In a way, they’re somewhat limited towards Space Channel 5, as in they really haven’t got a strong story mode. But then again, SC5 hasn’t got two-player mode either.
ºººPlotººº
The story is that the intergalactic ‘Space Channel 5’ has had their ratings falling dramatically recently to two other reporters and channels, Pudding from Channel 42 and Jaguar from his pirate TV station, ‘BroadShip a Go Go’. You play the intrepid reporter called Ulala, who works for SC5, and while waiting in the local spaceport a story begins to emerge – Morolians have landed and are forcing people – to dance!
ºººGraphicsººº
The graphics in SC5 are outstandingly brilliant – the Dreamcast has lived up to expectations once again. As you follow the dance movements of the Morolians, Ulala copies what you press (up, down left right, shoot). Depending on whether you succeed (or not), Ulala and her followers either rejoice by doing a flashy dance or hang their heads in shame as the ratings keep on going down.
ºººSoundººº
And the sound of the game is practically second to none. Every section has a slight edge to its music that’s different to the previous sections. The whole game is like visually playing a CD (like Vib Ribbon for the PSX, a class of a game); dancing your way through a variety of emotion-inducing tunes. The SFX follows the music like a charm too. I think that football manager games can take note of this games music and learn from it.
ºººConclusionººº
Well, what else is there to say? 4 levels, about 12 minutes each with increasing difficulty (like doing the reverse of what the Morolians say) and an extra mode - once you’ve completed the standard mode - with new paths and different music. And that’s about it. Oh wait; Ulala certainly looks better than Lara Croft, especially the hair.
Advantages:
Innovative
Brilliant music and graphics
Increasing level of difficulty
Disadvantages:
The ‘Auto Dance’ cheats
Only 4 levels
If you’re good, it’ll only last a day.
-------------------------------------
Tee Off – DC
The first thing you notice about Tee Off is its use of cutesy graphics. Being open-minded, I find that Tee Offs combination of cutesy graphics, individualistic sounds and intriguing gameplay works well.
The concept of Tee Off consists of two disproportionate parts - the first, and consequently the largest, is to blast your way through several courses set in different areas of the world - USA, Scotland, Australia - and achieve the lowest score of each tournament. Each tournament consists of 18 rounds (rather than 72) on one of these courses, and 15 other NPCs (Non-Player Characters) also compete. The spoils? To the victor, a hundred points. To second place, eighty points. The tally decreases as you go down, and last place receives no points. After successfully completing the world’s courses, an assortment of goodies are willfully disposed of into your care. The variety could contain new characters, new golf balls or new golf clubs. After gaining these, they not only become available in this 'World Tour Mode', but also in 'Free Round Mode'
Free Round mode is essentially practice before you play in the World Tour Mode and also a multi-layer mode. It consists of three areas: Point tourney, Stroke Play and Match Play. Point Tourney is eighteen holes with 1-4 players and the highest score wins - 10 points = hole-in-one; 5 points = albatross; 4 = eagle; 3 = birdie; 2 = par; 1 = bogey; 0 = below a bogey. Stroke Play is the classic one round of golf - the player with the minimum number of strokes through 18 holes wins. Finally, in all the Match play modes, the object is to win more holes that your opponents. This can also be done in a number of ways:
- Single (one-on-one)
- Threesome (Two teams, 1 vs. 3, compete by turns)
- Foursome (Pair up in 2 teams, compete by turns)
- Fourball (Two teams of two compete with one ball per team)
- Best Ball 1 vs. 2 (1 vs. 2)
- Best Ball 1 vs. 3 (1 vs. 3)
In addition, Match Play can be modified to make it even harder by invoking a Club Suspension Penalty - the winner of each hole can make clubs of the other team unavailable for later holes.
The ultra-fun element of Tee Off is its 'Gate Ball' mode. A game similar to croquet, the idea of Gate Ball or 'G-ball) is for your team to successfully score more points by hitting balls through gates. G-ball follows a number of rules:
- The ball must be passed through the first, second and third gates on the court in order, then hit the goal at the center of the court to clear
- To win G-ball, one of the two teams must either clear all of their balls or have the most points at the end of the time limit. One point is awarded for each gate passage, two points for the final gate.
- The first gate must be passed with one stroke and not go out of bounds or the ball will be called "out", and the first gate must be repeated.
- You can only score points when passing gates by going through them the right way.
You can also score points by hitting opponent’s balls off the court.
Overall, Tee Off offers a variety of simple repetitive sounds combined with the concept of realistic golf (+ mini game) and in a why that's suitable for nearly everybody.
Advantages:
Simple + Easy to use
Variety of characters + clubs
Gate Ball
Disadvantages:
Repetitive
Not suited to those new at golf
Easy enough to win
---------------------------------------------
Breath of Fire 3 – PSX
BOF 3 is another in a long line of vivid RPGs for the Playstation. You take the part of Ryu, a dragon accidentally freed in the mines; but takes a human child's form. Little does young Ryu know of his power OR his past. It’s your job, by controlling him, to unlock this ultra-ordinary story to its full potential.
ºººPlotººº
To start, Rei finds the young Ryu naked and unconscious in the wood next to his home, under the wrath of two currs. Rei use his better judgement to save Ryu and take him home? Rei presumes that Ryu is an orphan, like Teepo who is also under Rei's care. Rei and Teepo feed each other by hunting or stealing from the near McNeil village, and have earned themselves a bad reputation. Yet recently the year’s harvest has been poor and ravaged by monsters? Ryu couldn’t have come at a worst possible time. Unbeknown to Ryu or Teepo, Rei can transform into a psychopathic tiger, which he uses to help him hunt.
The story goes on to say that the reason behind the poor harvest was the result of a monster called a 'nue', from the nearby mountains. Rei calls it upon himself to kill this monster using his tiger abilities, but Ryu and Teepo insist on traveling along? Meaning that Rei not only has to kill the monster, but also has to protect Ryu and Teepo without showing them his tiger powers, as they could be hurt. This becomes your first major task in which you control Ryu. Good luck!
ºººCharactersººº
Along the way, you meet numerous other people who help Ryu unfold his past. Playable characters include:
- Nina: A princess of Wyndia, the greatest kingdom in the land. She dislikes her parent’s restrictions and is a high-class magic user.
- Garr: A mysteriously strong man with an equally mysterious past. He wins Ryu and the party in a Contest of Champions, and chooses to help Ryu in his quest. Garr can be more helpful that you think.
- Momo: A scientific researcher who follows in her late father’s footsteps. Armed with a cannon and with particularly useful analytical abilities, Momo helps Ryu out of a tricky spot on more that one occasion.
- Peco: The vegetable of the party. No really! Peco is an onion shaped thing. He gains hit points at a ludicrously fast rate, and his power matches this, making in invaluable member of the team. Truly the oddball of the game.
There are also masters who help the team. Over 15 of them help Ryu and the gang? Gain a few levels under each master and receive a new skill to use. Supercombo is such a skill? Go up 10 levels under Bunyan the Woodsman, and then talk to him to receive it. (Supercombo gives you the chance to hit more than once in a given round - follow the on screen buttons to attack up to 12 times in one round). However, it can be difficult to gain all the skills available. Also, go up a level under one of these masters and specific abilities/statistics may increase.
ºººGameplayººº
Story wise, BOF3 offers over 40 hours of distinctly puzzling Gameplay in only one CD. Graphically, BOF3 fairs well under the light of the Final Fantasy series - not drastically over complicated like Vagrant Story or majorly simplified like Final Fantasy 6 or Chrono Trigger. One thing I found was the clever way to design 3-D trees: get a 2D frontal view, and arrange 3 of these across the vertices of a hexagon, so the center of this 'hexagon' contains 3 cross-overs, rather than the images being across the edges. (Get that?). Yet, the effect looks good, and is only noticeable when looking down from above (all you see is three lines crossing in the middle). Sound wise, BOF3 offers a variety of background jingles and casual SFX to complement the Gameplay -which works extremely well for a game competing against the FF series.
ºººFun elements (?!)ººº
BOF3 offers a few mini-games, the major one being a fishing spin-off which is only needed once to continue the story in the whole game. The idea is that there are fish at different distances away and at different depths requiring different bait and different movements to attract them. Simple? Yep, it is.
ºººThe Worldººº
There are 4 continents to attract your attention, each with something new and intriguing to find on each. Visit the castle of Wyndia and help Nina through the dangerous dungeons of her castle. Visit the mines from whence you came to obtain the greatest power. Visit the old temple to explore and understand you past through Garr. Travel across the ocean and the desert to find Myria - maybe a key to the answer?
Advantages:
Something different from the FF series
Not overly complicated
Easy to play, difficult to master
Disadvantages:
Not top of the range like FF
Over 40hrs Gameplay
No FMV
----------------------------------
Power Stone 2 – DC
With 4-player, third person beat-em-up action over 8 frantic levels, Power Stone 2 involves the most furious and exciting multiplayer action available for the Dreamcast to date. N64s Perfect Dark Multiplayer only beats the game.
With 14 different characters combined with 8 levels and optional team battle, every multiplayer game is different. The weapons available as pick-ups are varied and the inclusion of CPU controlled characters adds spectacle. One disappointing aspect is that you can’t save how many wins you have (like Perfect Dark), or play other people online.
ºººPlotººº
There are two other main areas in Power Stone 2: Arcade and Adventure. Arcade is simple – battle through 6 levels involving two easy bosses (made more difficult by changing the difficulty setting in the option menu) and you can gain extra options or one of two extra characters. (Random items from Adventure mode can appear in Arcade mode and Verses mode.)
The Adventure mode may only be one player, but a usual change to the usual arcade mode ploy. The concept of Adventure mode is to collect as many items as possible, fighting through like in Arcade mode. It’s true! These items can be in the form of projectiles (grenades to machine guns to firecrackers), swords (swords and wands of different elements), restorative items (apples, bananas and cake) and another 180 of different sorts. Through the first time through only yields the basic weapons and items, to get more powerful items you need to participate in the mixing of these items in the ‘Item Shop’. Here you meet Meg and Pride (the unlockable characters) who aid you in the purchasing, selling and mixing of items. In adventure mode, the amount of money you collect after each stage depends on the time taken and the difficulty setting – find a right match and you’ll rake those new items in.
ºººCharactersººº
Each character has specific abilities – Falcon can double jump, Accel can shoot) – and each character also has a transformation. To achieve this transformation stage, you have to collect three ‘power stones’. In this stage your attack and defence is raised, and two new techniques are added to your disposal. After time (or using the new techniques) you turn back to normal, disassociating yourself with all the gems and dropping two, allowing you or your opponent to pick them up. Take Gourmand – he trains as a Cordon Bleu chef but transforms into a big purple dragon with a French moustache.
Though the main thrill of Power Stone 2 is the multiplayer mode. The graphics are nearly second to none, and the sound throughout the game can be varied, and at times, amusing. The only downfall I feel is that the game suffers in one-player longevity. It can get extremely repetitive.
Advantages:
Multiplayer fun
Graphical excellence
Adventure mode
Disadvantages:
Linear
Repetitive
Only eight levels
No online option
Thank you for your time.
JCSuperStar