Rise of a Ninja Vs Ultimate Ninja Storm

Ok before I start this post, I would like to say I do not like my 360 more than my PS3 or my PS3 more than my 360, I think they are both great systems and they both have their share of problems. I mean, just because I have to pay for Xbox Live doesn't mean I don't think Xbox Live is awesome, and just because my PS3 takes sometimes (literally) hours to find a match when playing online doesn't mean I still don't play my PS3 online. So, please do not think I am a fanboy for either side, just because I think one of these games is way better then the other one doesn't mean I like that system more, ok now that I said that I hope to get alot less hate mail.

Alright, this post is going to sort of be my opinion on which game is better, Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm (for the PS3) or Naruto: Rise of a Ninja (for the Xbox 360). First of all, Storm does have some really fancy graphics, but in my opinion I really don't like them, they look to... real... well... a better way to explain it would be like this, when Naruto's jaw moves around like he is in a mix of the Dreamcast version of Sonic Adventure and an old Godzilla movie, I sort of get a little creeped out. I would like next generation anime game graphics to look like Dragon Ball Raging Blast since those kind of graphics actually look like the anime, on Storm they just kind of look like they tried waaaaay to hard and totally went overboard with it. The graphics in Rise of a Ninja aren't exactly amazing, they just seem like the standard for a next generation anime game, so it doesn't really knock the game down a peg, but the graphics aren't so beautiful that you would buy the game to just look at it. In my opinion I think the Storm development team just took the free roaming story mode from Rise of a Ninja and then tweaked it to make it less "free", a bit less fun, forced you to do side missions in order to continue the story, then added their own fighting system. Oh, and let's talk about the fighting, you see, in regular Ultimate Ninja games, the fighting is the highlight of the game, but in Storm all you do is press the attack button over and over again and you will win every fight, and then once your friends learn this, the whole fight is pretty much decided by whoever hits the other person first. I practically proved this when my friend gave his 3 or 4 year old brother the controller and he beat me with a perfect 10 times in a row even though he had no idea how to play. In Rise of a Ninja the fighting system isn't really something to brag about, it's better than Storm's and it is pretty fun with friends but there is always something wrong with the substitution jutsu whenever I am playing, I know I pressed the button at the right second but sometimes it just doesn't want to let me do substitution. Oh and the difficulty curve of Rise of a Ninja, jeez, I remember one of the very first enemies in the game being able to practically get a perfect on me, then when I use a jutsu on him he blocks the whole damn thing (in Rise of a Ninja, a Jutsu will only do damage if you do a series of quick time events, and if your enemy presses the button before you, then he dodges), and I'm not talking about a boss or something, this was a straight up common enemy I ran into on either my first or second mission after becoming a Genin. Ok, so let's say some nice things about Storm, well, first of all they did a great job testing for glitches, I didn't find a single one, but in Rise of a Ninja... ugh... I run into glitches all the time, several of which freeze my game. Also, in Storm, to perform a jutsu you have to actually hit your enemy, which kind of makes sense, but in Rise of a Ninja you do the opposite of charging at your opponent and waiting until he has a second of weakness, you see in Rise of a Ninja you run into a corner press the button combination and hope your opponent doesn't hit you with a kunai. Anyway, overall, I say go with Rise of a Ninja since adventuring around Konoha doesn't get boring until hours of gameplay, but in Storm it gets pretty boring quickly, let's hope that Storm 2 is going to be better than the first, because so far it looks pretty badass.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 First Impressions

Wow, I seriously didn't do this already? Ok then, well as I am sure none of you know, the difference between a "short review" and a "first impressions" post is that a short review is longer. That being said, this probably won't be very long, especially since sometimes I become at a loss of words sometimes when it comes to shooters. Ok so, when I first saw all of the trailers for this game, I realized something, they weren't hilarious like the trailers for the first game, so I thought this game wasn't going to be funny, but I still decided to buy the game since it looked awesome. Thankfully, I was wrong about the not funny thing, since so far the game is really funny so far. I haven't gotten a chance to play Squad Rush Mode in Multiplayer since I have a PS3 and the store for Bad Company 2 doesn't work, basically meaning my pre-order was useless. That aside, from what I played in the demo, Multiplayer is pretty fun. I started story on easy for some reason, and I realised easy was... well... easy, so I went to my campaign and I could actually switch the freakin difficulty, I had to restart the whole chapter, but that was not really a big problem for me, I was just happy to be playing on normal. Oh yeah, and speaking of cool convenient things you can do in this game, you can PAUSE CUTSCENES! Yes! Finally another game that you can pause cutscenes, a trait that was my favorite in... Kingdom Hearts 2 I believe, but sadly in Bad Company 2 you can't skip cutscenes (or at least as far as I know...), but that is forgiven because of being able to pause cutscenes. The begining of the game was sort of the low point, but not that much, I was just in the mood for some comic relief and whatnot, but in the begining chapter your (spoilers start here) playing as like professionals, and not to mention the first gun you pick up has a recoil that practically sends your crosshair flying up into the clouds (spoilers end here), however it wasn't that bad, and I'm pretty sure you only play as them in the begining. I also like the campaign trophies/acheivements, I'm not sure why, well maybe because they are just kind of hilariously titled, I couldn't help but laugh when I got the first one after beating chapter 1, if you get the game you'll know why, or maybe it isn't that funny and it's just me, I don't know. Either way, I seriously recomend this game, but my friend shared a very important tip for multiplayer when we were talking about the game today, and it was "never use smoke grenades", he said the reason for it was because you can pretty much see through the smoke pretty easily and if you throw one, your basically tell your enemies "hey, I'm right here in this general direction" and they will either throw a grenade and you'll die, or they'll noobtube you, and you'll die. I remember watching a video on his Xbox, where they were giving tips and they were saying the smoke bombs were awesome, and we pretty much proved him wrong in every way. Anyway, this game is great, I totally recommend it, and alot of people even say it is better than Modern Warfare 2...

Noby Noby Boy First Impression...

Ahhh, I love the number 99, and this is my 99th post so the next post will be super aweso... oh wait, nevermind, this is my 99th post including the 7 "sorry there will be not post tomorrow" posts so it doesn't actually count... but hey we're 7 away from 99 so yeah... man almost 100 posts and still only one viewer... jeez, I must suck...

Well enough about my miserableness let's talk about Noby Noby Boy, a game I am glad I bought for the amazing low low price of $5 over PSN. It's by the makers of Katamari so I knew it had to be good, and weird, but this game is like a whole other level of weird... Also, this game is quite relaxing, much like many people tell me Flower is like, and the music of Noby Noby Boy adds to the relaxation factor. Oh and as I mentioned, this game is just... weird, and I mean WEIRD, I tried explaining the game to my friend and he thought I was high, let me try to explain it, ok so you go around stretching and eating stuff so that you can feed hearts to this girl thing named Girl, who stretches to other planets, and theres a space squirrel, oh and a parret that tells you if your online or not. See, I sound like I'm on acid or something. Also, I'm not even sure if I'm playing the game right but somehow it's... just fun, like I don't even know how, but it's... just fun somehow. Sorry if today's post was sort of short and maybe even lazy, but I am TIRED and I just finished a 6 paragraph history class project.

MAG Short Review

Ok, so out of the three short reviews I'm doing this week I think this might be the shortest, I mean if you thought I had trouble thinking of stuff for fighting games, well I haven't even reviewed an FPS game before, but hell I'll give it a shot. Well, the first thing I noticed about MAG was that I died pretty quickly... and then after I died, I died again... and again... and again... but hey that's how all FPS games are when you start out anyway right? So trust me after leveling up a bit you won't be dieing every 2 seconds and who knows, you might just get a kill streak. Oh and speaking of kill streaks I would rather not compare this to any Call of Duty games, because I just consider them games that are in the same genre but you simply don't compare them, get both or only get one of them I would prefer it if people would just shut up and stop comparing the two because their both really good, so I'm not saying if I like Modern Warfare 2 more than MAG, and I mean I really couldn't tell you since I only played Modern Warfare 2 with a friend. Ok so now that I got that out... back to the review, so about 6 or 7 hours of gameplay I realised something... this game is online... and there has been no lag... like at all, seriously I actually forgot it was online, that's how well the game plays. Also, don't think you can just start playing with 256 people at once from the start, but it doesn't take that much leveling up at all to do so, and also don't think you can play deathmatch or team deathmatch with 256 people since there are special games made specifically for the certain number of players, if this still sounds confusing you'll understand completely when you play the game. However, the bright side is that you still get XP for killing people no matter what mode of gameplay your playing, you could be trying to steal enemy vehicles but instead your sniping from your favorite spot, and you'll still get XP. So, in short, this game is really good and in my opinion well worth the $60 I paid for it, and I thought about giving some sort of rating system... but for now I'll just go with a thumbs up or thumbs down, and this one definitely gets a thumbs up.

PS3 Wand (Motion Controller) Vs. Project Natal

Ok, so I am not trying to do a "I am a PS3 fanboy so Wand!" or a "I am a 360 fanboy so Natal", I will be buying both so I don't want people getting the wrong idea, I mean I sort of take the Wand as a peripheral and Natal kind of like a separate console, and I mean that Natal trailer practically made me crap my pants, it was just so awesome, but I am proud to say the following statement that I will definitely stand by all the way "If the Ape Escape PS3 Wand game comes out along with the PS3 Wand, I WILL get it before Natal if they are released around the same time." I am dead serious about that because I am not gonna bitch to Sony about a new Ape Escape game then when it finally comes out push it aside for later because of the shiny new thing from Microsoft, hell no. Also, about the Wand, I know that isn't the official title for it but it's what I like to call it, oh and another thing about it, there is actually already a list of games that are going to be made for it, I copied this list directly off of Wikipedia so I'm not sure if it's 100% accurate:
Ape Escape (working title)
Echochrome 2 (working title)
Eccentric Slider (working title)
Sing and Draw (working title)
Champions of Time (working title)
Motion Party (working title)
Resident Evil 5: Alternative Edition
The Shoot (working title)
Tower (working title)
Under Siege

Oh and there is a list of games that will have motion control added in through software updates, again copied from Wikipedia: LittleBigPlanet, Pain, Flower, Hustle Kings, High Velocity Bowling, and EyePet. With no official word on any Natal titles I really hope we get something good for a launch title, like one of those games shown in the trailer. Also, one thing that really interests me when it comes to Natal is fighting games, it showed a fighting game in the trailer and honestly that was my favorite part of the whole video, I never bought fighting games on the 360 because of the crappy d-pad, but Natal could actually change all of that and make me really want to start buying more fighting games for the 360. But like I said before, with the PS3 Wand I get an Ape Escape game with motion controls, I mean I could literally be waving the net and stun club around to catch monkeys, on the long awaited next gen Ape Escape game... I think that if they come out during the holiday season I will try to get both of them for Christmas, and I seriously can't wait for Natal because I see it as sort of the future of gaming, like maybe we won't be getting a next gen system this year since it's way to soon, but we get the next best thing with Natal. And this might not be a very positive thought to end on but... I really hope Natal and the Wand don't... you know... suck...

Katamari Forever Is Awesome!

Well since I am quite busy, I will make a short review of Katamari Forever. Ok to start off this is the longest Katamari game I have ever played, espcecially since it has missions from other Katamari games like the make the moon mission from Damacy. around level 20 something, I had to make the Sun and I thought I was finished but surprise there are actually 34 levels, yea thats awesome. And yes the mini-game during the credits was great, oh and you can unlock the mini-games from Beautiful Katamari and Me and My Katamari. Well the graphic filter thing is cool too, nice to see different kinds of art styles. You can also jump with the six axis controller but that is extremely unresponisve so I just use R2 to jump. By the way the graphics in this game are awesome. And last but not least the amount of cousins in this game is amazing, they must have every cousin from every Katamari game plus more. Well I might do a full review later but this is just because I have stuff to do and I don't like to go without posting. Remember I update every other day. Well back to, obviously Katamari Forever.

3 Awesome Ideas for PS3 games (because of Blu-ray)

This is not a "the ps3 pwns everything else" list because I love my Wii and think the Xbox is awesome. This is a "A blu-ray disk can hold 50 freakin GB so can someone please take advantage of that to make an awesome game" I mean, a ps2 disk holds something around 2 or 3 gigs, and we got Tenkaichi 3, just imagine what you could do with 50 gigs. This is not a "top" 3 list technically because this is in no particular order. These games are obviously just ideas and will most likely never be made into a game.

Idea #1: Battle Stadium B.O.N.D. (Bleach, One Piece, Naruto, Dragon Ball)
Ok just hear me out, with 50 gigs you could take the roster of DBZ Tenkaichi 3, add some of the extra characters (like SSJ3 Vegita) from Raging Blast, then the roster from Bleach Heat the Soul 6 with a few more recent characters and releases, then the roster for One Piece Unlimited Cruise 2 with some more recent characters and characters like Pandaman, and then the roster of Naruto Accel 3 add some PTS characters and like I said before, more recent characters. Then have the graphics of your average PS3 game with like 10 stages from each series, some of which could be interactive stages (like in Blade Battlers 2nd). It could also have character customization, an awesome story mode, 4 player vs mode, mini-games, and online. You have to admit, it would be awesome to have Luffy, Naruto (future), Goku, and Ichigo all fight at the same time online would be pretty cool.

Idea #2: Bleach PS3 Game
Well Naruto got a PS3 game and Dragon Ball Z got two PS3 games, I want there to be a Bleach PS3 game. Whether it be Blade Battlers 3rd, or a Heat the Soul game on PS3, it should be made. Honestly the closest thing we have to a Next gen Bleach game is Versus Crusade, well actually... Versus Crusade was amazing so... anyway, back on topic, it would be awesome to have a Bleach PS3 game, and since SEGA doesn't like America getting the Bleach games made by Sony, the PS3 is Region free so people could import it with ease.

Idea #3: Gantz PS3 Game
Ok so after actually playing the Gantz game last year I realized how awesome the idea of a Gantz video game was, and how Konami could pull it off flawlessly. Now when Gantz ends (the manga is in the final phase) just imagine a Gantz game that was Co-op and went from the very beginning to the very end. Now the first time you play through story mode, whoever is supposed to die in the story, will die, but afterwards you could play in free mode, and for a character to die in free mode you actually have to die as them in a mission, however if you get 100 points you could of course bring them back, get a stronger weapon from the weapon room (like an H gun, Enhanced Gantz Suit, and Gantz Bike), or just leave the Gantz room and get the ending.

This list was fun to make so I may come up with more Ideas later. Remember I post every other day. Ahhh back to Akatsuki Rising, Katamari Forever, and Muramasa.

Ever Wanted to Play Your Japanese Psp Games Online?

Note how I said Japanese. Do not follow these instructions unless the game you want to play is in Japanese and it is on the list in this wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adhoc_Party_for_PlayStation_Portable
Well if it is on that list then make a Japanese PSN account, as instructed in this very helpful video. Keep in mind the application called Adhoc Party is what you will be downloading and it is free so no need for credit card info stuff.

Then go into the Japanese Playstation Store and download the thing with this icon:
Now you have to have your PS3 connected to the internet with a CABLE and not wirelessly to use this app. Now put in your PSP game and make sure the wireless switch thingy is on, then go to the searching for people part of the game (usually under multiplayer) and click on the 3rd option in the ad hoc party app (keep in mind that in Japanese the circle button is ok and the x button is back. Then it should take you to worlds, so just join a world that is not full and there you go. Oh yeah and if you get a 1005 error then pick the first menu option and keep clicking the right option for ok then pick the third menu.

Importer's Guide: How to play

Ok (ha! were u expecting "Ahh!" weren't you!) so this will be a guide on how to play game's of other regions separated in sections by console, so without further delay, let's get started!

Gameboy Advanced:
The GBA is REGION FREE! so go ahead and buy any region GBA game and it will work.

Nintendo DS:
REGION FREE!

Nintendo DSi:
REGION BLOCKED! Yes, it is true, the all new shiny DSi is region blocked so don't upgrade to it unless you are 100% possitive you won't buy any games of other region.

Sony PS1:
REGION BLOCKED! Ok old systems are ok to be region blocked because I mean come on, how much would it suck for Square Enix America if everyone bought the Japanese version of Final Fantasy 7.

Sony PS2:
REGION BLOCKED! Ahh the best game system I have ever played, but sadly it's region blocked, however if you have a model 70012 slimline you can buy a flip top and swap magic disks to play imports, I think you can do it with a original ps2 but I'm not sur... oh crap I said "Ahh" didn't I?

Sony PS3:
For the most part REGION FREE! WOOT! Yeah, well I have heard rumors of SOME games being REGION BLOCKED but for the most part the PS3 is REGION FREE, thanks Sony, you may have gotten alot of things wrong with the ps3, but this is one of the good things.

Sony PSP:
REGION FREE!

Nintendo Gamecube:
REGION BLOCKED! I want to see a pie chart of how much money Nintendo would REALLY lose compared to the made up number they THINK they will lose... Anyway a nice gamecube freeloader will fix the problem, but remember this important fact: GAMECUBE MEMORY CARDS ARE NOT REGION FREE LIKE PS2 MEMORY CARDS! IF YOU SAVE JAPANESE DATA ON A MEMORY CARD WITH DATA OF ANOTHER REGION ALL OF THE NON JAPANESE DATA WILL BE DELETED!!! THIS WORKS THE SAME WITH SAVING AMERICAN DATA ON YOUR MEMORY CARD WITH JAPANESE DATA!



Nintendo Wii:
REGION BLOCKED! Ok this is the one that pisses me off, installing the Homebrew channel has become so complicated because of Nintendo trying to stop it... just look for instructions on http://www.wiibrew.org/

Xbox 360:
IT ALL DEPENDS ON THE DISK! Which basically means game's like Ghostbusters work on all region consoles (I offer this region free disk to Europe as an apology for not only being delayed but also because No More Heroes was censored in their country).

Those are pretty much all of the systems I know how to play Imports on and from now on I will post mostly every other day (there might be special occasions that I will update daily) so please check every other day for new posts.