Super Mario 64

• Developers: Nintendo
• Publisher: Nintendo
• Genre: Platformer
• Platforms: N64
• Release Date: 23rd June 1996
• Microtransactions: No

Pointy Polygon Pounding

So as I write this the switch has been out for a week and I am thoroughly enjoying every minute of its portable/TV console glory. Whilst the launch line up may be lacking it’s got me looking at the upcoming games and one has definitely peaked my interest much more than the others- Super Mario Adventure….. Sorry I mean odyssey.

Due to this trailer I was compelled to share my memories with you not from this game but from its Great grandad-Super Mario 64, quite possibly the greatest 3d platformer ever made. Picture the scene- Early March 1997, I swapped my Sega Saturn plus 10-15 games (which are probably worth a bloody fortune now) for a Nintendo 64 console with star wars shadows of the empire and Turok dinosaur hunter at Mega Swap in Accrington. The game I wanted more than anything was currently out of stock but a small glimmer of hope was given when the owner told me ‘ I know someone who is swapping their copy for Pilot wings tomorrow’

Bob Hoskins!

Holy Moly!!!! I rushed home to test out my new games and whilst I enjoyed Turok I decided that was the one I was going to swap for Mario. Saturday arrived and I begged my mum to take me over to Accrington so I could be there when the shop opened. One Turok plus £5 later and Mario 64 was in my hands!

I rang my best friend and he was round my house faster than the penguin on ‘cool cool mountain’. The game boots up and I hear the now famous ‘IT’S A ME MARIOOO!’ then the massive Italian plumbers mug fills my screen. That’s it I was hooked it was simply the best graphics I was ever going to see in my entire life, I mean how could it get better than this!!!

Then the opening cut scene with Lakitu flying through the world and under the bridge until the magic moment came and Mario jumps from the pipe and I took control. It truly was an amazing moment that nearly brought my 14 year old self to tears. From then it was 120 stars of pure platforming perfection. Racing giant KOOPA’s up a mountain, turning into a Mario version of the T-1000, swimming to the depths of a giant lagoon and then to top it off spinning a huge Bowser with his tail like something from a cartoon.

Looking at the game now, sure it has the classic N64 jaggies but it still holds up and who would have thought Nintendo perfecting the genre on their first attempt. There is only a select few games I will regularly replay every couple of years and without fail Super Mario 64 is the game I can always come back to and complete a few stars when the outside world is getting me down. If you have never played this game please please please give it a go and I promise you it will change your life!

PROS

• Control perfection for a 3D platformer
• Excellent variety of levels
• Changed the face of gaming forever  (editor’s note: These are the opinions of our freelance writer)

CONS

• Wish it had more stars to just keep going
• Hi editor here again, just trying to add balance. With some actual cons.
• Terrible clipping
• Falling through the world (or did Super Mario 64 invent that and everyone copied?)
• No luigi

Verdict

9.9/10   editors note: With all the bugs in this game, even to this day I believe this score is to high. 9.7/10 is more about right.

The post Super Mario 64 appeared first on Show Me Games - Independent Gaming Site, and Community.

The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past

• Developers: Nintendo
• Publisher: Nintendo
• Genre: Action Adventure
• Platforms: SNES
• Release Date: 24th September 1992
• Microtransactions: No

A link To the Past

In honour of the release of the new Nintendo Switch console and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild we have decided to take a trip down memory lane. Today’s piece will be on one of the biggest icons of video gaming and my personal favourite game of all time The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past.

This isn’t going to be your standard review as we’ve read countless of these over the years and we don’t need another one. Instead I’m going to talk about the things I enjoy about this game and how it changed the landscape of videogames and ultimately the legacy it left behind and why I love this game above all others.

By the time A Link To The Past was released The Legend of Zelda series was already a well-regarded series for Nintendo with the previous entries in the series The Legend of Zelda and Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link. Both games vastly different to one another, the first a top down multi-screen action adventure puzzle hybrid and the second a slightly more open world side-scroller adventure which is highly underrated. Then came along A Link To The Past and Nintendo took elements of both and decided if we merge these together we can have the best of both worlds and my god they did it.

Hylian Shield

At the time of release ALTTP really used the full stretch of power from Nintendo’s newest system the SNES. You could see the jump up in the graphics with how much more detailed Hyrule was now compared to the original whose different sections on the map whilst impressive for the time didn’t really have much to differentiate from each other. In this game we have a fully breathing different world, whether it’s the living Kakariko Village with its many inhabitants, or the Lost Woods with its darker setting and enemies and maze like structure, all the way to Death Mountain surrounded by caves and secret paths and falling boulders. Every section of this map was well detailed and planned out to really make you feel like you were exploring a huge world for the first time. This was truly the first major open world game.

It followed the same lines of the first game by having you explore dungeons to find new items and collect the magic pendants to different Ganon again but what truly set this apart from the previous entries of the series and other games from the time was the big twist. Once you have seamlessly Finished the game and collected all the pendants and about to fight Ganon – BAMN! you’re in a new world! The game restarted from the Dark World, an evil twisted version of Hyrule.

This sort of twist and switch up of the game whilst done to death nowadays hadn’t been heard of at the time, Nintendo went and through a whole new games worth of material there for you by including this and stepping foot into the Dark World for the first time and seeing the difficulty level rise the way it did was unheard of. Not only was this a massive curve ball but it truly made the game seem an epic size basically doubling the adventure time you expected. Having a more twisted version of the Overworld to run a gauntlet through was incredible, paths you had taken previously where now blocked off, towns and people you had met on your journey ruins and dead, it’s crazy to think how unconventional this seemed at the time but this is where Nintendo have succeeded time and time again and laid the groundwork for video game creators for years to come.

TriForce

Let’s move on to the soundtrack now. The Legend of Zelda series have always had fantastic musical scores but ALTTP may be the most perfect of these scores with the most memorable songs. For a game on the system Nintendo really utilised as much as they could with the music crafting individual pieces that would years later go on to iconic status.

Hiring legendary video game music composer Koji Kondo who had worked on the original game as well as the Mario series they managed to get another hit out of the gate with this score. The Overworld theme is now synonymous with the series as is Zelda’s Lullaby and The Great Fairy Theŵe. The amount of complicated music they included was astounding at the time and still to this day is one of the most complete soundtracks in video game history and is up there with the soundtracks of games like Mario, Final Fantasy VII and Metal Gear Solid on iconic status.

Master Sword

For me this game is about as perfect as a game can get and has been my favourite game of all time my whole life. I have ended up rebuying this game numerous times and played it consistently over the years. Whether it was the original on the SNES, the Four Swords edition on the Gameboy Advance or numerous Virtual Console versions on the Wii, Wii U or New N3DS, the game is timeless. If it wasn’t for this game we wouldn’t have half the games we have had over the past 25 years. From the gameplay to the story, to the soundtrack, the influence of this game is everywhere in modern gaming. From games like the Final Fantasy series all the way to modern classics like The Witcher, the Zelda influence is always there in the background.

Where people tend to credit Ocarina of Time as being the real needle mover in influence of Zelda it is easy to overlook this 2D classic but there is no denying all the groundwork that may have made Ocarina the consensus ‘best game of all time’ started first with A Link To The Past. For me ALTTP was the game that made me fall in love with the series and Nintendo as a whole, and started me on my journey of being a lifelong Nintendo fan. Hopefully Breath of the Wild and the Switch when released will give new gamers playing the series for the first time the same experience of wonder and astonishment I had discovering Zelda when I was younger. Here͛s to another 30 years of magical Zelda games and experiences.

Final Thoughts

• Revolutionary gameplay mechanics
• One of the best twists in all of videogames by introducing the Dark World
• Iconic soundtrack by Koji Kondo
• Laid the groundwork for videogames to come, influencing the entire market
• Nintendo truly taking gaming to the next-level using the full power of the SNES to incredible results

Final Score

9.9/10

The post The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past appeared first on Show Me Games - Independent Gaming Site, and Community.

• Developers: Nintendo
• Publisher: Nintendo
• Genre:  Platform
• Platforms: Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES)
• Release Date: 11th April 1992
• Microtransactions: No

One of the greatest of our time….

Super Mario World.  Easily up there as arguably the best Mario game of all time and is certainly a top ten all-time contender for most people.  A suitable jump forward from the NES
classics bringing everyone’s favourite plumber to the SNES.  Ever since then Nintendo have tried, and on the most part failed to create such a masterpiece.  Back in the days when Nintendo would try new things they had a go a continuing the saga with Yoshi’s Island but that paled in comparison and was generally snubbed as being more annoying than anything.

Now I am concentrating only on the 2D non-paper versions of Mario for the purposes of this, hence the reason that there is no mention of Mario 64.  The closest they came to recapturing the magic was “New” Super Mario Bros. on the DS.  Gameplay was much closer to the Mario world days and it was fun.  Nintendo then did what Nintendo does best and flogged that horse to death releasing similar versions for the Wii, 3DS, and Wii U, but each instalment seeming less and less like the Mario we loved.

Recipe for greatness

So what did they get so right with Super Mario World?  Well if that were an easy answer I don’t think Nintendo would have struggled so much to re-create it.  Firstly, graphically it was superb and still looks pretty good today, hence the reason I own the virtual console version of this game on my Wii U and 3DS as well as playing it on several emulators.  This was also the first time we met Yoshi who has come and gone throughout the series and he is used just the right amount, even being sacrificed on many occasions for an extra jump.

Next it’s the music.  To this day, over a quarter of a century later, I will still catch myself humming the main Mario tune from this game and it doesn’t even annoy me.  I think that was one of the things that did it, all of the music was catchy but never annoying, and that’s a rarity!

Now the gameplay itself was excellent, difficult, but not to the extreme.  In the days before internet guides, the hidden secrets such as the Star levels were phenomenal, with the added surprise of what it did to the world one you had fought your way through the secret hardest levels of the game.  The addition of the cape did make a lot of the levels easily passable but there was none of this crap you get these days where you can skip levels if they are too hard.  Pfft!  In my day you had to git gud!

Star Road

Finally the world map was simply excellent with secret levels and shortcuts aplenty.  The areas weren’t as separate as they seem to make them these days, not quite the desert/ice/fire/water worlds that seem to be the standard road map since.  Each level was named instead of having a number, and the “worlds” were just different areas that you moved between.  This made the entire world feel fuller, more accessible and it made you more inclined to explore areas sections that you had missed via an unexpected shortcut.

In conclusion, Nintendo got this one right and although the subsequent efforts have been enjoyable, none have been able to match Super Mario Worlds perfect balance which is why it still stands up today and I will no doubt be purchasing it again if/when it becomes available on the switch.

The post Super Mario World appeared first on Show Me Games - Independent Gaming Site, and Community.

Resident Evil 4

• Developers: Capcom, Capcom Production Studio 4
• Publisher: Capcom
• Genre:  Action Adventure, Survival Horror
• Platforms: Gamecube, Wii, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Playstation 2, Playstation 3,PlayStation 4, Android, Microsoft Windows, iOS, Zeebo
• Release Date: 11th January 2005
• Microtransactions: No

Little Red Dress

Resident Evil 4, when originally released smashed the Resident Evil tradition of clunky tank controls and awkward combat, by introducing…less clunky-ish tank controls, but with refined shooting mechanics. Capcom also added regional damage reaction to the enemies, one of the greatest meta games known to man, weapon upgrades, and one of the scariest enemies in a Resident Evil games, even to now (note: Resident Evil 7 not released yet).

Story, terrorists in Spain Blah blah blah… Umbrella Corps Blah Blah Blah… Kidnapped the Presidents Daughter Blah Blah Blah…look, it’s Resident Evil, the story is silly cheesy horror movie silly, not Hideo Kojima absolute waste of time bollocks. Just 80’s-90’s action movie silly.

Who does the US government decide to send to rescue the first daughter?

Who else but…

Leon Scott Kennedy, former Raccoon City rookie cop, now the lone person you send to rescue the Presidents gob shite of a daughter. I don’t think the US liked Leon, in fact I don’t think they like the presidents daughter. I feel they sent him hoping he’d die, and the terrorists would just do her in too.

This is your plot for the next 20-24 hours. During such time the game does manage to mix things up a bit.

LEON!!!!!!

The main mechanical differences from this game to the previous games, is how you aim. Previously you could fire straight forward, up or down. Now, the camera comes and stands over your shoulder, whilst your firearm has a laser pointer attached, which you can aim anywhere. This at the time gave a great amount of freedom.

Now the ability to aim better leads on to another great addition to Resident Evil 4, and that is regional damage when attacking. In the first three Resident Evils head shots could happen, but this time round you can actually shoot folk dead bang between the peepers! Which is great, but the regional damage, allows other such wonderful things. Such as shooting weapons from the hands of a perpetually pissed off, parasite protecting prick.

Even better though, is leg shots. Dropping an opponent to his/her knee before following up with a kick, knee or suplex! Causing massive damage and saving precious ammo in the process. Prompted by another new addition QTEs.

Las Plagas

The controls are still deliberately clunky, but the pacing of the game is such that it’s fine. You will have to get used to it because, if Dr. Salvador comes at you at full tilt, wishing to perform some rough neck surgery, your going to want to know how to quick turn and run.

Returning to this game again on the Xbox One recently, it took me awhile to reprogram my head, to get used to the controls again, due to becoming so familiar with dual stick shooters of recent years. After an hour or two of fighting I settled. It did make me aware though, that recommending this to someone who hasn’t played it, the controls may be the barrier which stops them.

Anyways, on with the waffle, QTE (Quick Time Events) were introduce to the Resident Evil series here. For the most part they work, not to intrusive or majorly difficult. But you have to keep your wits about you during cut scenes, because insta-death could be a button miss away.

Staggering or dropping an opponent to his knees, will give you the QTE prompt to perform a physical attack, something that masters of the game become extremely proficient at.

Besides a hilariously scripted knife fight during the second half of the game, the QTEs don’t overstay their welcome.

What Are You Buyin’?

Resident Evil 4, has a great selection of weapons, all of which can be upgraded in 4 categories (Firepower, Firing Speed, Reload Speed, and Capacity). Most weapons also, have a final special upgrade which will give the gun a special perk ie: the ability to shoot through 5 enemies, or and massive boost to damage.

Weapons are found, or purchased from a merchant, said merchant is one of the wonderful things about this game. He is random as all fuck, never appeared in any Resident Evil, before or since.

The inventory box is back, but this time can be upgraded. You will have to manoeuvre items around to fit weapons in at times, which turns into an awesome little mini-meta-game in and of itself. My general rule is keep the health to the right, and weapons to the left.

…Like You, I’m An American!

This games narrative is mental. Now I get the resident evil games are mental, seemingly written by a 13 boy with silly global big business conspiracies running through his head. This one however, the 13 year old, has matured, and refined his sense of humour, along with his ability to implement horror.

The game is quite random. It’s the random couldn’t give a toss elements that really solidify this game. The story is so stupid it’s brilliant.

The opening village is tense and terrifying, when a chainsaw wielding maniac comes smashing through a door you’ve just barricaded, and you hear the windows break upstairs. Pant browning tackle right there. Only to meet Johnny Deep tied up in a cupboard, and a random merchant wanting to flog stuff to you.

The game becomes very action heavy nearing the end, but still takes it’s time to scare the shit outta of you. The Regenerators are one of the scariest enemies I’ve ever faced in any horror game. You must use your sniper rifle in close quarters to shoot parasites in their body. All the while, they are panting in giddy lustful excitement over eating you. Truly horrific.

Resident Evil 4 runs the gambit of horror tropes, and pulls them off with a tongue planted firmly in it’s cheek.

We’ve got, creepy backwater towns, who’s resident want nothing more but to eviscerate you. A creepy old castle, filled with references to the occult, blood sacrifices and giant robot statues. Run down military encampments, were unholy experiments have been carried out, for god know how many years. All topped off with the titular twat Leon S. Kennedy, who’s lack of actual fucks given during his campaign is very comical.

Broken Butterfly

So you beat the game, what next? Well, you can start again, but this time in Leon’s R.C.P.D costume on offer, along with the Matilda Pistol (also from Resident Evil 2), and an infinite rocket launcher now available to purchase from the shop. Pretty sweet right?

But wait, there’s more, you also unlock Professional difficulty, where once you finish you have access to another costume, and another unlockable weapon. But, but wait once more! You have also unlocked a time score challenge mode completely separate from the main game called Mercenaries. In which you kill waves of baddies, trying to achieve a S rating. If you do achieve this, you unlock another weapon for the story mode.

Double but, plus another but wait!! If you purchase the game nowadays on any of the newer consoles you will also unlock, two extra short campaigns where you play as Ada Wong, Assignment Ada, and Separate Ways. When you complete these you unlock further costumes and firearms.

Signing out

For a game that is 12 years old (at the time of review), it gives you so much content, and hours of entertainment.

I’ve finished this game on the Gamecube multiple times, Playstation 2, Wii multiple times (Also my favourite version), Xbox 360 multiple times, and I’m currently on my 2nd play-through on the Xbox One. If you can get over the controls, this game is worth every penny. It’s also a great pass the pad type game, for having someone round and just having a gaming session.

PROS

• So much content
• Cheap
• Fun campaign
• Massive replay ability

CONS

• Graphics are dated
• controls are a pain at first

9.5/10

The post Resident Evil 4 appeared first on Show Me Games - Independent Gaming Site, and Community.

The Typing Of The Dead

• Developer: WOW Entertainment, Smilebit
• Publisher: Sega
• Platforms: Dreamcast, Arcade, Windows, Playstation 2, iOS
• Release Date:  30th March 2000 (Dreamcast)

We’re Meeting G Over There

So its been awhile since my last review and thats mainly down to a couple of reasons.

1. Im a lazy sod and more importantly
2. I’ve been addicted to the typing of the dead!

‘Woah woah woah there you idiot ‘ i hear you scream ‘its HOUSE of the dead not typing!’. Well sit down and ill tell you a short story on one of the weirdest, most excellent dreamcast/arcade games out there.

This game came out around in an era when SEGA was really experimenting with genres and their own titles spawning such classics as SEAMAN and jet set radio. They were not afraid to try anything. First released in japanese arcades in 1999 the game was a mod of sorts of the 1998 arcade sequel ‘The house of the dead 2’ The arcade cabinet is a sight to behold with a similar shape to the original light gun cabinet but the guns are replaced with bright white keyboards.

Less than a year later a port was released to the new SEGA console the dreamcast but only in North america and Japan, us europeans never got chance to play it except if you exploited the dreamcasts poor piracy restrictions *cough Utopia cough*.

The game is a carbon copy of house of the dead 2 but the characters in the game are all running round with dreamcasts on thier backs with keyboards attached to them, looking like some freaky SEGA ghostbusters. The difference between the two games is in house of the dead 2 you blasted away at the zombies using various guns here we use our typing skills! So for example a zombie pops up with the words ‘You’re Toast’ and you must quickly type this word out using all correct grammar and once completed the zombie dies and you are given a rating on how quick and efficiently you typed out the words.

The game also has the ‘excellent’ voice acting which was most prevalent in zombie games of that era, maybe the a zombie apocalypse is just another day for these guys! Another point I must make is some of the phrases that are asked of you to type, sure you get normal sentences like a ray of hope or small words like DO but its get weirder and weirder as you progress with sentences such as ‘i want to fill a bra’ and ‘touch my wattle’ Yeah it goes very very strange.

With some excellent boss fights and just a quirky concept It’s definitely one to pick up if you have the means to play it.

8/10

The post The Typing Of The Dead appeared first on Show Me Games - Independent Gaming Site, and Community.

• Developer: Capcom, Nex Entertainment, Capcom Production Studio 4
• Publisher: Capcom, Virgin Interactive
• Platforms: Playstation, Playstation 3, Playstation Portable, Microsoft Windows
• Release Date: 1st July 1999

With last years reboot of the Jurassic park franchise it got me thinking about what dinosaur related games I used to play. The Jurassic park games of the 16 bit era were fair to middling, with the titular game being the usual platforming licensed games of the early to mid 90’s. We had to wait until 1999 when resident evil director Shinji Mikami developed the survival horror classic Dino Crisis.

The game is set in the futuristic year of 2009, a team of special operatives named Secret Operation Raid Team, or SORT for short, are dispatched to Ibis island to take the evil scientist Dr Edward Kirk (who was presumed dead) back into custody. You control stunning polygonal sexpot Regina, and on arrival at the island you discover, that it has been taken over by dinosaurs, and not the nice friendly triceratops kind, but the flesh eating carnivore raptors! Its up to you and your team to discover how and why this has happened and get off the island (hopefully with all your limbs intact).

The gameplay is similar to resident evil but has some key differences. Namely the rooms in resident evil had pre-rendered backgrounds whereas in Dino Crisis they are all real time generated 3D and was a technical marvel on the PS1. The enemies also follow you from room to room, and in a nod to Jurassic park the raptors can open doors! Shinji liked to describe the game not as survival horror but as panic horror due to quick movements of the dinosaurs and random events occurring involving the giant T-REX. Other than the technical difference the game does play like your typical survival horror fare such as reading diaries of previous employees and solving puzzles.

Which brings me onto one of the negatives about this game, the puzzles. Towards the back end of the game I found the game relied on them too much and these rooms usually meant no dinosaurs which was slightly disappointing. Also, even though the game was a technical achievement for the ps1 you could still see the machine straining to the point that you could predict that the rooms with the most stuff going on in them e.g. an x-ray machine, that there would be no dinosaurs to fight as good ol’ PS1 just couldn’t cope.

Other than that the game was a great experience and in some ways my 16 year old self preferred this to resident evil. The game was ported to Dreamcast and windows but in all honesty there’s not much difference between all the ports. Dino Crisis was a huge hit on release and is currently Capcom’s 18th best selling game of all time- not bad to say they release a street fighter every 5 minutes. It also spawned two sequels the action orientated Dino Crisis 2, which added combo building and basically unlimited ammo into the mix, and the obligatory Dino Crisis in space with number 3. Both these sequels have there plus points and negative points but for me it will always be the first and original game that I would always come back to, If you’ve never played it give it a go. I just hope one day they reboot it instead of releasing lacklustre resident evil sequels every few years and with the success of Jurassic World now is a better time than ever.

Score

8/10

The post Dino Crisis appeared first on Show Me Games - Independent Gaming Site, and Community.

16th June 2015- There I was sat watching the Sony E3 press conference expecting the usual franchises with their usual updates and so far it was business as usual. ‘yippee’ I thought sarcastically -ps4 getting the COD maps early. New footage of Uncharted 4 showing off the power of the PS4, last guardian footage and street fighter 5 looking great.

So far so predictable it was very late so I was dozing whilst watching until suddenly the room goes dark and a familiar tune plays with the words ‘Shenmue’s story was left incomplete’ blazended across the screen. My 32 year old brain could not compute the images I was seeing and it the first time in my life where I actually pinched myself to check if I was awake. Yu Suzuki, one of-in my opinion- the greatest game developers of all time, announces SHENMUE 3. Holy moly!! Its real…… well if us fans pay for it!! Yes this was the Shenmue3 kick-starter announcement. The game I had been waiting for all my adult life is finally real!! Luckily it was funded in no time at all and now the long wait is on for the actual release date.

Why should anyone care about a sequel to a 15 year old game that many of the current generation of gamers wont have played or even cared about? Well make yourself comfortable and ill tell you about the tale of Ryo Hazuki, his dead dad, evil Lan Di and some bloody sailors- the truly wonderful and magnificent Shenmue.

Originally being developed for the Saturn before shifting development onto the white magician- the Dreamcast. The game is very unique as its based in 1986 in Yokosuka Japan. It starts as all good stories start with a murder at the hands of a kung fu master named Lan Di. You see Ryo’s dad has a mysterious artefact known as the dragon mirror and Lan Di demands it from him, a scuffle occurs and Lan Di threatens to kill Ryo so his dad gives up the location of the mirror- beneath a cherry blossom tree in the garden. Its then that Lan di gives the finishing blow and murders his dad and he dies in Ryos arms. The game then puts you in the shoes of Ryo and you have to investigate the murder. Thus begins a web of intrigue and betrayal and numerous weird and wonderful characters including the pre-mentioned sailors.

The gameplay was revolutionary at the time as it was completely open world and it felt more like a life simulator than an actual game. You could just spend your time shopping for capsule toys of popular Sega characters for your collection or nipping down the arcade to play arcade perfect conversions of space harrier rather than find your dads killers. It inspired countless games and arguably laid the foundations for 3d open world games such as Grand theft auto and the Yakuza Series.

It wasn’t all good as the game did have very clunky controls even for its time and the voice acting is ridiculous but I feel that just adds to its charm and the game gave birth to the QTE or quick time event which divides gamers to this day. There is a fighting mechanic which is a like a very dumbed down virtua fighter- which is understandable as it was originally titled Virtua Fighter RPG and was going to be the adventures of Akira before switching to its current state.

It really is a unique and excellent experience that I feel everyone should at least try. I think ill finish with a quote from Brendan Main from the escapist- If the Grand Theft Auto games have been vilified as crime simulators in which you can press a button to buy a hooker then run a hooker over with a car, Shenmue is a game where you can press a button to politely ask directions, then combo into cherishing your elders and always remembering to recycle. Instead of giving us a city to be tested and battered against in all directions, Shenmue builds you a world and asks you to follow the rules rather than break them

It is pretty expensive to pick up a copy due to the announcement of Shenmue 3 but it is definitely worth your while and I haven’t even mentioned the also excellent sequel Shenmue 2, but we’ll save that for next time!

8/10

The post Shenmue appeared first on Show Me Games - Independent Gaming Site, and Community.