Two Reviews

Two video game reviews in this week's The Coast by yours truly.

One you should avoid (my young padawan) and one you should go out and buy right now.

The first is Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II. Man. was that a brutal game to get through.

You may notice that some of my game reviews come long after their initial release, this is because sometimes I get bored with a game and move on to a different one. It's a bad habit, and I should stop, but I don't.

SWTFU2 was one of these games.

I also don't like reviewing games until I've completed them as much as possible, which is why many games never end up gracing The Coast's lovely pages. But I digress.

I had the Wii version of SWTFU2, which probably only made things worse (what with the horrible graphics, design, controls), but I figured I played through the first one on Wii, which was actually pretty good, might as well do the sequel there too right? Wrong. Part 2 was even worse than the original. It felt so blocky, repetitive and a real chore to play through. For entertainment purposes, it was a tough sell. But I was looking at my stack of games, thinking it was getting to that point where I need to trade some in and noticed that I still needed to finish that horrible game. So I powered through the rest on easy just to get it over with. Got my $5 EB Games credit, or whatever it ended up being, and it was out of my life for good.

It's sad when such a great premise, such as playing a character who can control the force almost without limit, ends up falling completely flat on its face.

For my review in The Coast, click here.

Secondly we have a must own title if you happen to own (or are planning to get) a 3DS - Mario Kart 7. Let it be known that I've been a Mario Kart fan since the Super Nintendo days, which could influence my opinion one way or another. This time, it was decidedly positive.

Mario Kart 7 is probably the best title in the franchise since the pivotal Mario Kart 64, which was pure gold back in the day (and still available on Wii's virtual console). MK7 mixes up the formula a little bit by adding hang-gliding and underwater portions of levels which change up the pace of races in interesting ways. There are lots of tracks and different karts to chose from and the online suite is similar to the Wii version, making it the best example yet of how to do online on the 3DS.

The review online has a couple of typos, so I'll post the fixed text here:

Mario Kart has been around since the Super Nintendo days and hasn’t changed too much over the years. This iteration---the first in 3D---adds a few things to a tried and true formula. Karts can now soar through the air or submerge underwater, opening up new possibilities for shortcuts around the tracks. Some new items have been added as well, like the 'Super Leaf' (which gives your kart a Tanooki tail as seen inSuper Mario Bros. 3) and the Fire Flower allowing you to hurl fireballs at opponents. What hasn’t changed is the sense of randomness and fun that has been a staple of the series since the beginning. With 32 tracks, 16 new and 16 classics, you can get lost for hours. It also brings over the great online multiplayer suite found in Mario Kart Wii so you can try out your skills on real opponents, there is surprisingly little lag online and racing against other humans only adds to the craziness.