Home||Releases||Neopets Info

Sign My Guestbook || View My Guestbook

Here are some previous games 2003-04

Remember not all previous game titles are here just the main, highly rated ones

The rating of this game is 7.5 out of 10

When the folks at Sonic Team were in the process of creating the original Sonic the Hedgehog, they knew they couldn't beat Mario at his own game. So, instead of cooking up another hop-happy Mario clone, they focused their efforts on speed. As a result, one of the most visceral franchises of the 16-bit era was born. However, the transition from 2D to 3D was a hard one for Sonic, and the series lost a lot of its focus in the process by trading in speed for action adventure elements and introducing an unnecessary--and unnecessarily large--supporting cast of characters. Sonic Heroes strips away a lot of the elements that slowed down the Sonic Adventure backpedals on a lot of the design decisions made in the Sonic Adventure games, and though it still exhibits many of the camera and control issues that vexed Sonic's previous forays into 3D, it's truer to its 2D roots than any other 3D Sonic game before it.

Sonic Heroes drops the adventure and picks up some speed.
Sonic Heroes strips out a lot of the shooting and hunting stuff found in the Sonic Adventure games, but it retains the large cast of characters. The game gets away with this by giving you control of three characters at once and dividing the characters up into four different teams--Team Sonic, Team Dark, Team Rose, and Team Chaotix. Each team member has his or her own strengths, and your abilities as a team change depending on which character you have set as the team leader. The team members are color-coded for easy reference, so blue characters have the most speed, yellow characters can fly, and red characters can bust through blocks that are otherwise impenetrable. The game makes it easy to switch your team leader on the fly, and you can cycle through team members by simply pressing the X and Y buttons. There are times, such as when you're in the air, that you're unable to swap out your team leader, which can lead to some awkward moments. It generally works well, though, and once you've mastered the different team formation abilities, swapping out team leaders becomes like second nature. The inclusion of the four different teams, however, seems a bit pointless since the game is virtually identical for all four of the teams, save for some different story elements in between levels. To be blunt, no one cares about these peripheral characters that Sonic Team seems hell-bent on pushing on gamers. People play Sonic games to play as Sonic the Hedgehog.

There's a little bit of light combat, which requires only a modicum of skill and strategy for proficiency, but for the most part, Sonic Heroes tries its hardest to recapture the hectic pace of the classic Sonic the Hedgehog games. You'll race down lots of narrow paths that are loaded with speed strips, corkscrews, and loops; you'll bounce off of strategically placed bumpers; you'll grind along miles of rails that seem to be suspended in thin air; and you'll frantically try to outrun pursuing enemies and rising lava levels. The different level themes, which include Sonic staples like the sandy beach, the sparks-and-fire factory, and the ever-popular casino-inspired pinball machine levels, will feel familiar to Sonic fans. The levels are loaded with lots of different paths that cater to the strengths of the different team leaders, thus allowing you to lean on whichever of the three team formations you feel most comfortable with. The level designs are pretty straightforward, though you'll occasionally find portions that aren't entirely intuitive. Moreover, it's likely that you'll find yourself plummeting into a bottomless nothing without any idea of what you did wrong more than once. The game's not terribly long, and most players should be able to wrap it up in around six hours. Fortunately, it is free of the bad action adventure filler that made up large portions of the Sonic Adventure games, thereby providing a more satisfying experience overall.

When Sonic Heroes works the way it's supposed to, the action is fast and exciting. Unfortunately, the game suffers from a problematic, finicky camera, occasionally spastic controls, and some bad clipping. The camera is largely stationary, and since the action in Sonic Heroes doesn't revolve around wide-open 3D environments, this works most of the time. But, on the off chance that you want to get a better perspective of your surroundings before you make a potentially death-defying leap, the camera is pretty uncooperative and will snap to a first-person perspective if you try to move it more than a few degrees, which doesn't necessarily give you the best view of your surroundings. Additionally, the camera will often snap to a dramatic, faraway angle when you're running along a giant loop or performing some other grand maneuver. Furthermore, the game is inconsistent about the relativity of the camera position to the controls, so it can be hard to know if pushing up on the analog stick will keep you moving forward or if it will cause you to fly off of the track. Aside from these camera and control issues, clipping difficulties will invariably leave you wedged behind some piece of level geometry, or--even worse--you'll be pushed through a platform, thus leaving you to fall to your doom. All of these problems should be pretty familiar to players who have gone through either of the Sonic Adventure games. It's really disappointing that in the past four years, Sonic Team hasn't figured out how to alleviate these problems, especially since there's a fun game buried underneath all of them.

Sonic Team also hasn't bothered to do much with the graphics engine that powered the Sonic Adventure games--and now powers Sonic Heroes--so the whole thing still looks like a glorified Dreamcast game. To its credit, though, the levels seem bigger than before, and the frame rate is rock-solid. The two-player game, which is basically a split-screen race through levels from the single-player game, doesn't run quite as smoothly, though at least the choppiness is consistent. It's not a technically exciting game to look at, but what it lacks in polygons, high-res textures, complex particle effects, and bump mapping, it makes up for with consistent art design and an exceptionally vibrant color palette that lets you know you're playing a Sonic the Hedgehog game, even when you're standing still.

It's far from perfect, but Sonic Heroes is the best 3D Sonic game to come along so far.
Sonic Heroes plays the nostalgia card heavily in the aural design, which features loads of familiar sounds, from the whirling speed-up sound to the different chimes heard when you pick up or lose rings. Of course, there's also a bevy of classic Sonic tunes. This sort of heavy reliance on old sound elements may seem a little cheap, but these sounds are inexorably linked to the Sonic experience, and ultimately, they still work. In fact, the biggest misstep in the sound design for Sonic Heroes is all of the new voice acting that was recorded for the game. There's a lot of preteen anime-grade voice work here, with Tails' squeaky, cutesy voice being the most ingratiating. However, since every single character will shout one of three or four different exclamations every time he or she executes an attack, you'll learn to abhor all of them in good time.

Sonic Heroes is the closest that Sonic Team has gotten to doing a 3D Sonic the Hedgehog game in the classic 2D fashion. What's most disappointing is that the problems in Sonic Heroes--which include the camera, the controls, and the clipping--are the kinds of things that could be remedied with a few extra months of fine-tuning. In the end, though, it's still a purer, more action-packed Sonic experience than either of the Sonic Adventure games. If you were able to overlook the problems found in those games, Sonic Heroes is easy to recommend. However, if you haven't already been acclimated to the quirks of the 3D Sonic the Hedgehog games, approach this one with a bit of caution.

The rating of this game is 8.5 out of 10

Company Line

The Mushroom Kingdom just got a whole lot more hectic as Mario & Co. double up for furious kart racing!

The latest in the acclaimed Mario Kart series is here, and this time, you won't be racing alone! Each kart holds two racers, so choose from Mario, Luigi, Peach, Baby Mario, Baby Luigi, Yoshi, Birdo, Wario, Waluigi, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Bowser, Bowser Jr., Koopa, and Paratroopa and pair them up any way you see fit. The character in front handles the driving duties, while the character in the rear doles out damage with six normal items and eight special items that only specific characters can use. Racers can swap places at any time, so switch it up on the fly to make the best use of your items as you tear around curves and over huge elevation changes.The Mushroom Kingdom just got a whole lot more hectic as Mario and company double up for furious kart racing, but this time they're driving two-seaters! Pick a partner and race through wild courses as you compete in tough circuits or duke it out with power-ups and items in battle arenas.

Released: November 11, 2003
Platform: Game Cube
Publisher: Nintendo of America
Developer: Hudson Soft
Genre: Party

Mario and his closest friends are trying to restore peace to Dream World by racing around a collection of all-new game boards-and tons of surprises await! The new game sports new game boards, more than 60 new mini-games, new playable characters, an expanded one-player mode and, of course, the multi-player madness that made it famous in the first place. This sequel extends Mario Party's reign as the king of the party game!
Call it social intercourse for gamers, because that's exactly what the Mario Party formula is all about -- even if that's kind of a kinky definition. Friends gather, tantrums are thrown, threats are tossed, beers are often spilled on the carpet, and everyone thinks they are the big, bad boss at the end, no matter who actually acquired the most sparkling stars. I guess you could call it fun, too, but there are still better multiplayer riffs.

The one major glitch with the entire Mario Party series -- not just this fifth installment -- is that the monotony of moving plastic pieces around a game board just isn't entertaining, no matter if it's on a Monopoly mat or digitized -- decorated with 3D razzle-dazzle --- on the GameCube. Think about it: In that Parker Bros. classic, the pewter thimble's transit is secondary to when someone actually lands on an occupied property; that's when the drama ensues, forcing players to cough up hard earned bucks pending how many little hotels are lingering on the block. The same goes for Mario Party; it's the mini-games that are the crème de la crème.

With an allotment of well over 70, it'll take you a good 10 to 15 nights of shuffling to unlock them all. That's spiffy, because as basic as many of the mini-games are -- requiring you to do things as simple as chasing a character around a circular arena or collecting the most coins, often times with the retarded precision of one button press -- the sheer volume can keep you compelled. If only you didn't have to deal with all that BS in-between.

Mario and ... the beanstalk? While you, along with three other characters -- whether those are tangible friends or CPU-driven opponents -- make your way around each board in search of shines, you'll discover a few new gameplay devices that slow the proceedings down even more. Firstly, gumball-like machines have been added in a bunch of non-strategic spots on each level, giving players items for free when they pass by. The trouble is, many of the items are worthless (so you waste time picking them up in the first place), and a limited range has been applied to many of them. For instance, if you had an item allowing you to switch positions with Yoshi, if he's not within about 20 spaces of you, you're out of luck. In previous games, that wasn't the case for a really good reason; it's tragically inhibiting, slowing the pace of the game down dramatically. Board games are merely exciting when confrontation erupts among players, whether that's Mario attempting to swipe a star from Princess Peach or Luigi bonking Boo on the head to shake a few coins loose.

Another headache is that the boards keep getting bigger. Mario Party 4 was pushing the square-footage limit, but MP5 truly makes games unbearable if you play for more than 20 turns. With more yardage to cover, it's more difficult to collect stars; and with the short-range targeting feature, that's another obvious problem.

But I've got to hand it to Hudson for trying. By plugging in a new story mode for single-player action -- which tends to be the most tedious aspect of all -- you'll be facing off against three of Bowser's pissed-off Koopa kids. They'll be scattered about the board at the beginning of each round, and your goal is to rob their change purses of every last coin. Sometimes that sneaky vulture Klepto will help out by dropping them on your head, thus inciting a mini-game battle; other times, you'll have to strut on over to their position. Either way, it's a lot more engaging than battling three A.I. opponents that are simply making up for your lack of local gaming pals.

Penguin stampede! As for everything else ... well, it's pretty much just like everything else. Once you've unlocked mini-games in any other mode, you can tap into your favorites individually without being tortured by round-about, dicing-rolling antics. Sadly, other attributes carried over from previous installments don't prove as positive. Simply put, the graphics, sound, and overall design of the Mario Party 5 still screams N64. Sure, the visuals are a lot crisper than Nintendo's last lackluster console, but the character models are still routinely dull. Let's just say a shot of Botox, some wide nips, some aggressive tucks, and a soundtrack remix by The Neptunes wouldn't hurt.

I've been partying with Mario since the annual series began five years ago. Heck, I still host occasional gatherings at my bachelor pad for friends that also feel the mini-game urge. So I write this statement with love: Mario, get with it -- get hipper, get slicker, and get as good as you outta be. Right now, you're phoning it in.

The rating of this game is 9.0 out of 10

No one messes with Mario's vacation! Super Mario Sunshine for Nintendo GameCube is Mario's biggest, most amazing adventure ever.

Nintendo's software lineup has always revolved around a core group of major characters who appear in games that, more often than not, turn into system sellers. You always get the impression that games featuring these characters are going to be given a little extra polish to ensure that everything comes together just right, even if it means that the game has to be delayed for months or years at a time. So, inevitably, games like Super Mario Sunshine are eagerly anticipated. Super Mario Sunshine is the first truly major release on Nintendo's GameCube, and it is the first starring role for Nintendo's most recognizable character on the system. Once you get past the excitement over the fact that the latest Mario game is finally here, you'll find a game that's generally pleasing but heavily reliant on a few new moves that seem more like gimmicks than gameplay innovations.

Super Mario Sunshine is the first new Mario platformer in six years.Super Mario Sunshine opens with Mario and his entourage escaping the daily grind of the Mushroom Kingdom by flying to the paradise of Isle Delfino for a holiday. But Mario's vacation dreams are cut short immediately after landing at the island's airstrip. It seems that the island is covered in graffiti and pollution, and the person responsible happens to look enough like Mario to lead to a sitcom-style case of mistaken identity. Mario's sentence is to clean up the island with the help of FLUDD, a water cannon that you wear on your back. Along the way, princesses will be kidnapped, ooze will be washed away, and large numbers of "shines"--the game's equivalent to Super Mario 64's stars--will be collected.

Super Mario Sunshine has a lot in common with 1996's Super Mario 64, an incredible game that set the standard for every 3D platformer that's been made since. Of course, previous Mario games were also outstanding, so Super Mario Sunshine has some big shoes to fill. It attempts to fill them by not straying far from the previous game's formula. The new game's equivalent of Mario 64's overworld castle is the town square. The hub area is large and nicely detailed and has enough different routes to the game's different level entry points to keep you from having to spend any serious length of time running from one place to another. It also has a rather large collection of secrets to uncover. Aside from the hub area and brief intro and finale sections, the game contains seven levels. Just in like Super Mario 64, each level is broken up into multiple sequential objectives, meaning you'll have to reenter each level multiple times before you're finished with it. Each one of the levels contains eight episodes, and completing an episode always results in obtaining a shine.

There is a total of 120 shines in Super Mario Sunshine, but you can finish the game with less than half that number. The level goals are often pretty straightforward, as you can solve practically any problem you come across by simply shooting it with water. Each episode starts with a brief look around the level that almost always shows you exactly what you need to do within a couple of seconds. Some of them are as simple as getting to a certain spot in the level and fighting a boss for the prize or racing another character to a specific place in the level. Others, such as the goals that let you surf on the back of a small squidlike creature, feel more like minigames.

Also making the transition from Super Mario 64 are the red coin challenges--you'll simply be sent on a scavenger hunt looking for a certain number of these coins. Each level has at least one mandatory red coin collection goal, and some of them must be performed within certain time limits. Each level also has one goal devoted to chasing the evil Mario clone around and hosing him down until he gives up and gives you a shine.

There are also a lot of goals that lead you into caves and other enclosed areas. Entering one of these areas triggers a brief but overused video of the Mario clone stealing your water cannon and whisking it away. You're then sent into one of several different obstacle-course-like levels that feature a bunch of floating and moving blocks textured to look like wood. These courses become more and more difficult as you progress through the game and have the ability to bring back that classic sense of platformer frustration that occurs when you see the goal, know exactly how to reach that goal, but can't seem to piece it all together and actually pilot Mario to it. Occasional technical issues also make for quite a bit of frustration, such as clipping problems that cause you to fall through objects or get you stuck inside walls or fences. While a few level goals truly stand out and will remind you of why you love the Mario series in the first place, many of the game's goals--particularly the red coin challenges--are simply tedious, and completing them feels more like a relief than a reward. The fact that you'll have to backtrack through each level at least seven times to complete the game also isn't much fun, even though the levels do change slightly from objective to objective.

Though we've waited a long time for it, Sunshine still has some rough edges.Controlling Mario is a snap. Most of his Super Mario 64 moves have been retained here, including the extremely useful turnaround and triple jumps. Mario's boxing skills don't come into play, however, as all his physical attacks have been replaced by the water cannon. The water pack comes with two standard nozzles. The cannon nozzle lets you spray water a short distance in front of you. Using the R trigger will activate your water cannon, and pushing the trigger in partially will let you spray on the move. Clicking the trigger in all the way plants your feet but gives you the ability to aim the cannon. The other standard nozzle is a dual hover nozzle that lets you lift off into the air. This is handy for making your way across gaps or adding a bit of height to your jumps. The pressure won't last forever, though, so you can't just stay in the air until your tank runs dry.

As you proceed through the game, you'll find other nozzles that can take the place of your hover nozzle. The rocket nozzle blasts you high into the sky but won't let you hover, and the propeller nozzle lets you launch yourself along the surface of the ground or water but never really plays a meaningful role unless you're bent on finding every last shine. You'll also eventually get to ride on Mario's dinosaurlike sidekick, Yoshi, but unfortunately he seems like he was thrown in as an afterthought. Yoshi is only useful for his strange ability to spit fruit juice all over the place, which in turn is used for only one required puzzle and a handful of optional ones.

Next >>