Final Fantasy VII

Company: Sony

Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Sony
Genre: Role Playing
Platform: Playstation 1
ERSB Rating:T for Teen

______________________________________

Premise:
The premise of the game is to take control of Cloud and two others to save the world
Play:
The game is balanced between exploration and combat. Exploration centers around sending the player around the world and completing missions. Combat consists of using three characters chosen by the player. During battle the player can attack, use magic, summon monsters, or use items. Since this game is on the play station 1 console the controls are as follows: X button makes the character run, O confrims commands, triangle opens the menu, square does nothing, and the L1,L2,R1,R2 buttons don't do anything either.
Engagement:
This game is extremely engaging: its been called the RPG game that all others RPG'S are rated off of. The story is complex, deep, and well written. However, if the player does not follow closely on the story its easy to get lost in it. The characters: Cloud, Tifa, Barret, Vincent, Red XIII, Cat Sith, Aries, and Yuffie come with their backgrounds and their own side stories for the player to follow. Next, the combat is very fun. Combat allows the player to add magic (also called Materia) to the characters to give them different status and abilities. This makes combat fun, and different each time.
Story:
The story for this game is huge, beyond all belief. In a very short(and spolier free) summary the story is as follows. Cloud a former member of an elite private army called Soldier joins a rebel group named Avalanche. Avalanche and Cloud go to a Mako Reactor and blow it up. Once blown up Cloud and Avalanche realize that the true enemies are Shinra(the company that owns the Mako Reactors and the private Army soldier) and former first class soldier Sephiroth. Turns out Sephiroth wants to destroy the world, while Shinra wants to find the promise land

Resources:
There are three resources within this game: magic, health and money. Money can be obtained by completing missions or killing monsters. Money is needed to buy new weapons, buy new materia, and much more. Health is needed to stay alive during battles. This is managed by using healing magic or using a healing item. The last resource is magic. The only way magic power can be restored is by using a magic restoring item.

Challenge:

This game is challenging, down to the core. The player needs to have a firm RPG knowledge to be able to understand how the combat and character building works. If he doesn't the game will get very hard because he will not know what he is doing. Other than that the game is not that challenging in terms of exploration. The game tells the player where he has to go and the player finds it on the map, it is simple.

Rogue Trooper: Quartz Zone Massacre

Company: Nintendo

Publisher: Eidos Interactive

Developer: Rebellion Developments

Genre: Third Person Shooter

Platform: Wii

ERSB Rating:T for Teen

______________________________________

Premise:

The premise of the game is to take control of Rogue as he battles the Norts on Nu Earth.
Play:

The games pacing is set by the player. The world is not fully open, but it is big enough where the player can choose how he wants to tackle certain battles. So the player can sneak and take out enemies without alerting any one, or he can go and knock on their front door. Since this game is on the wii the control scheme is unique to the system: wii mote aims the gun, "A" button rolls the character, "B" button shoots the gun, "C" button makes the character crouch, "Z" button to zoom in with certain weapons, nun-chuck to throw grenades, D-pad to switch weapons and grenades, "+" button to bring up the quick menu, and "-" to cancel.
Engagement:
This game took a great idea and followed through on it. Play how you want. Even though the game is linear, the levels are open to be explored at the players pace. When the player spots an enemy base he can decided how he wants to proceed: sneak in and kill them without alerting every one, set up traps and lure the enemies into them, or walk in guns abalzing. The player can choose, a walking one man army. The story is great! Taken from the pages of the British graphic novel "2000 A.D", and it very accurately represents it. However, if the player is not a fan or has no idea what "2000 A.D" the story can still be enjoyed.
Story:

The story of Rogue Trooper is about an all out war between the Norths and Southers on Nu Earth. Nu Earth is located between two black holes, being a great strategic importance for either side(Black Holes can transport an army anywhere in the galaxy). The war has been going on for so long Nu Earth's atmosphere is inhospitable for any kind of organic life due to repeated nuclear bombings. So both sides were reduced to fighting in bio-hazard suits. However, late into the war the Southers created a bio-human that was the perfect soldier in every way. They were trained from birth to be killers, and they can breathe the poisonous atmosphere of Nu Earth. During one skirmish Rogue and his friends were sent to battle the Norts in the Quartz zone. The battle went bad, it was an ambush. Every one was killed but Rogue. From here Rogue abandons the Souther army and goes “rogue”. His mission was to take control of the quartz zone, now it’s a vendetta against the man that plotted the ambush and to revenge his friends death.

Resources:

There are only 2 resources in the game health and ammo. In order to find more health rogue needs to create it from scrap metal he finds, or he can take med packs off of dead enemies. Ammo is the same thing. If Rogue can find scrap metal he can manufacture ammo and sometimes gun upgrades.

Challenge:

The challenge in this game varies. The enemy A.I ranges from incredibly stupid to downright hard. This throws the challenge aspect off a little bit, however it does not ruin the game. Another challenge comes from the player. He has to asses the situation he is in: “Storm the base or sneak in”. Both of which has its advantages and disadvantages. Choosing the wrong approach can make the game much more difficult. The most difficult challenge however is maintaining your resources. Although ammo can be manufactured deciding what type of ammo is important: “frag grenade or stun grenade?”

Silent Hill Shattered Memories

Company: Nintendo

Publisher: Capcom

Developer: Capcom

Genre: Survival Horror

Platform: Wii

ERSB Rating: M for Mature

___________________________

Premise:
The premise of the game is to take control of Harry Manson as he searches Silent Hill for his lost daughter, Cheryl

Play:
The games pacing is balanced between exploration, puzzle solving and chase sequences. The exploration involves the player searching Silent Hill, looking everywhere, in gas stations, schools, hospitals …. Harry must find keys to open doors while using his cell phone to discover hidden ghosts. Since this game is on the wii, the controls make it fun to play. The wii mote controls where the flash light points, “A” button calls Cheryls name, “Z” button to make Harry run, press down on the d-pad to look behind you, move the control stick to activate the character, and push the plus button to take out Harry's cell phone.
Engagement:
This game is extremely engaging because the world of Silent Hill is so well designed, employing such realism, that it almost feels real. The game is known for its psychological interpretation. During the game, the psychologist will give the player questions or pictures to color. Depending on the player choices, the game changes characters appearances, manipulates the monsters, and upends the environment. The game analyzes the players responses in order to create a horror environment specific to the current player. The monster chase sequences set this game apart. During the game, monsters will appear and all the player can do is run. Fighting back is not an option. The chase sequences are scary because the monsters are smart and work as a team against the player.
Story:
The story starts with a third person view of Harry Manson, whom the player assumes is alone, driving an old car, in an unidentified location. He slides on the snow, crashing into a ditch. He passes out. When he wakes up, he checks his surroundings and then looks for his daughter, Cheryl. Harry believes that she was in the car with him. Harry grabs his trusty flash light from his glove compartment and searches the town of Silent Hill for his daughter, only to realize that everything is not as it seems.
Challenge:
The games challenge is unbalanced. The investigation is insultingly easy. For example, most of the keys needed to open doors can be found within a couple feet of the door. The only time where this game was challenging was during the chase sequences. The monsters work as a team, and the player cannot fight them. The most a player can do is use a flare to keep the monsters at bay, but once it runs out, the chase begins again.

Resident Evil Darkside Chronicles

Company: Nintendo

Publisher: Capcom

Developer: Capcom

Genre: On Rails Shooter

Platform: Wii

ERSB Rating: M for Mature

____________________________________________

Premise:

The premise of the game is to take control of one of the many characters as they try to survive and combat the zombie virus outbreak. Characters: There are many different characters the player can take control of within the game: Leon Kennedy, Claire Redfield, Jack Krauser and Steve Burnside. All the characters play the same, however, their view points of each level are completely different from their partners.

Play:

The games pacing is balanced between hardcore on-rails shooting with random quick time events. Each level has common enemies with a few unique ones tied in. The quick times events are level specific but they are all solved the same way, shaking the nun-chuck or by doing contextual button presses. The controls are unique since its on the wii: aiming with the wii mote, b button to shot, z button to bring out the knife, shake the nun-chuck to use the knife, and + button to use the green herbs to heal.

Engagement:

If you don't know your Wesker from your Wiskers the story aspect of engagement is going to be lost for most new players. However, that does not mean the game is a failure, its just hard to follow. The FPS person views allows the game to mess with the player and build up dramatic tension as enemies are jumping from all parts of the screen. Also the light gun action forces the player to have fast reflexes to kill the zombies as quick as possible, because they cannot move the player, only the game can.
Story:

The Resident Evil story never lets down for fans, but it can be hard to follow for new comers. The story takes place in South America with classic characters from the franchise, Leon Kennedy and Jack Krauser. They were dispatched by the U.S government to search for a man named Javier and destroy the t-virus he mysteriously obtained. The t-virus has the ability to turn people into zombies and plants and animals into B.O.W's (Bio Organic Weapons). Leon and Jack reach the South American village and realize that the t-virus was released and the village, which is now littered with zombies. Jack and Leon go through the village looking for the guide that was supposed to take them to Javiers mansion. They find him dead and move on. Eventually Leon and Jack fight through hordes of zombies and reach a mysterious church. Within the church they find a teenage girl named Manuela, she passes out from loss of blood before Leon and Jack are able to talk to her. Then a giant amphibious looking monster jumps out, which force Jack and Leon to kill it. Once they kill it, Jack demands that Leon tells him all their is to know about the t-virus. Leon does and the game takes a flash back to Resident Evil 2. In Resident Evil 2 Leon is a rookie cop on his first day of work. On his first day, there is a t-virus outbreak. While Leon tries to escape from the city, he meets a woman named Claire Redfield. Claire was searching for her brother before the t-virus was released into the city. Leon and Claire escape and the flash back end. When Leon finishes his flashback the search for Javier continues. Resources: There are only two different resources in this game: ammo and health. Ammo can be restored by shooting environmental objects i.e: crates, barrels, dressers, lights, cars, etc. Another way it can be managed is by finding it scattered throughout the environment. The same thing applies to finding health packs.

Challenge:

This game actually follows the traditional easy, medium, hard, and extreme levels perfectly. Easy there are less enemies and they do less damage. Medium they do normal damage and there are moderately more enemies. Hard there are lots of enemies and they do 3X the damage then they do on medium. So a player can cater the challenge to his liking. In addition the boss battle requires intense pattern memorization, in order to defeat them. Once the player completes the game, un-lockables become available: tofu showdown and alternate costumes. The tofu showdown replaces all the zombies with giant pieces of tofu which do extreme damage. Another challenge of this game is thanks to the online leader boards. Players can compete too earn the highest score possible on certain levels.

New Super Mario Brothers

Company: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo
Genre: Side Scrolling Adventure
Platform: Wii
ERSB Rating: E for Everyone
____________________________________________
Premise:
The premise of the game is for Mario and his friends to rescue Princess Peach from Bowser.

Characters:
Within “New Super Mario Brothers”, there are 4 characters that the player can control: Mario, Luigi, Blue Toad and Yellow Toad.

Play:
The games pacing is all platforming and minor puzzles. Within each level, the player has to run through the level jumping on enemies or jumping over obstacles. The minor puzzles are secret areas that the player can uncover by finding a hidden block within the level. The game has two control schemes: wii mote only or wii mote and nunchuck. The wii mote control scheme uses the d-pad to to move, the 2 button to jump, the 1 button to run, and the + button to pause the game. The wii mote and nunchuck set up uses the c button to run, z button to jump, and the analog to move.

Engagement:
Played alone, or in a group, this game is engaging and fun. For solo players, the challenging platform, combined with nostalgia from other Mario games, makes the play captivating. Playing Multiplayer, the engagement comes from players helping or competing against each other.

Story:
Mario games tend to have basic stories that are easy to follow. The story starts off with Princess Peach having her birthday party. Suddenly, the party is crashed by Bowser, Bowser Junior, Koopa Brothers and Bowsers’ minions who kidnap Peach. Mario and his gang then give pursuit in order to rescue Peach and defeat Bowser.

Resources:
There are many different resources in the game, and they come in a variety of shapes and sizes. For example, there are several kinds of mushrooms: Red, Green, Blue, and each has it own function. Red Mushrooms make Mario grow bigger, blue mushrooms make Mario shrink, and green Mushrooms give Mario extra life. The next resources are power ups: fire flower, propeller mushroom, ice flower, penguin suit, and the star. The fire flower allows Mario to shoot fire balls at enemies, the ice flow allows Mario to shoot ice balls to freeze enemies, the penguin suit allows Mario to slide on ice and shoot ice balls, and the star makes Mario invincible. The resources can only be found by hitting yellow blocks within levels.

Challenge:
Mario games are known for their incredible simplicity in their controls combined with an unrelenting challenge in play. The first levels are very easy, but they’re to let the player get used to the game. Once the first world has been beaten, the game gets much harder as the levels start to throw more environmental hazards and enemies towards the player(s) while power ups show less frequently.

No More Heroes

Company: Nintendo
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Grasshopper Manufacture
Genre: Action-adventure
Platform: Wii
ERSB Rating: M for Mature
___________________________________________

Premise:
The premise of the game is to assume the character of Travis Touchdown. The goal is for Travis to fight his way up the ranks of the United Assassins Association finishing as the number one Assassin.

Characters:
The player only controls one character: Travis Touchdown, a young adult anime loving, wrestling fan, who lives day to day trying to become number one.

Play:
The game's pacing is very balanced; it’s an open world, but it can only be progressed by following a linear path. The player has to earn enough money doing odd jobs like collecting coconuts or filling up cars at the gas station. Once enough money has been made doing menial jobs, the player can enter a ranked assassin match. Then the games pacing changes to combat, and the player has to fight and win against multiple enemies, most especially the character (the boss) who holds a higher rank . Once the boss has been defeated, the whole process of collecting money and re-entering is repeated. The controls being on the wii system add a different control scheme: A button to attack, B button for strong attack, C button to lock on, Z button to block, swing controller in any direction triggers a death blow on an enemy.

Engagement:
This game has been a mixed bag with critical reviewers: either players love it or hate it, there seems to be no in between. However, there are many reasons why players liked the game. First off, the writing in the game is brilliantly done (sometimes it doesn't make sense, but its all in good fun), the combat is something that is completely new in how it utilizes the wii mote functions, and the cell-shaded graphics make it look awesome. The combat is extremely engaging because the player can choose how he wants to decapitate the enemies, or he can choose to kill them using wrestling moves. The variety and depth makes no two battles play out the same.

Story:
The story to this game is laugh out loud funny. Extreme gore is mixed with various types of humor ranging from potty humor, to black humor, historical humor, literature humor and so much more. To move on, the main character Travis Touchdown is a man with many obsessions: money, women, wrestling, violence. The stereotypical young man living in poverty (he lives in a motel called "No More Heroes"), he lives day to day. One day, he wins an online auction for a beam katana, and paying for this auction item ruins him financially. He can no longer buy his beloved wrestling videos and video games. He eventually meets a women named Sylvia Christel and she offers him a job to kill a man named Helter Skelter. Travis kills him and is dubbed rank 11 by the United Assassins Association (UAA). Once Travis regained financial footing he wants to go back to his normal life, but Sylvia convinces him that he can become number 1 assassin. Travis then sets out to kill the other 10 assassins in front of him..

Behaviors:
The behavior for the character has already been created by the game designers, this includes: walking, running, talking, melee attacks, climbing, driving, and swimming. Given the range of behaviors available, the progression of the game should be much less predictable in its outcome and game play. However, the combat and overall challenge of the game is so fun , that its linear progression can be forgiven.

Resources:
The player has to manage a three resources: health, money, and beam katana energy. In order to restore health, the player has to find health packs that are scattered through out the open world, or he can restore it by saving the game. The next resource, money, can be earned by doing menial jobs, or by killing high ranking assassins in a UAA rank match. The final resource, beam katana energy, can be restored in two ways. The first is by shaking the wii mote charging the katana until the energy meter is full. The second way is by finding batteries pick ups from killing enemies.


Challenge:
This game is very hard right from the start. The Enemy AI do a lot of damage, and they block (even on the easy setting). One downfall on the challenge in combat is that the enemies do not work together, they just appear in groups. The biggest challenge are the boss fights. Each of the 12 bosses (there are 11 UAA assassins, but there are other bosses besides them) has their own weakness and a specific strategy necessary to kill them. For example, Destroyman announces his attacks before the actual attack. Memorizing those patterns allows the player to pre-empt the attack. If the player does not do that, he will be quickly killed. The next challenge within this game is the menial jobs. While the task is menial, the actual playing of it is very hard because they are timed, and complex to master. Also, how well you do in the job determines how much money you get paid.

Eternal Darkness: Sainty's Requiem

Company: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Silicon Knights
Genre: Psychological horror,Thrid Person Adventure
Platform: Gamecube
ERSB Rating: M for Mature
___________________________________________________
Premise:
The premise of the game is to control the main character, Alexandra Rovias-a college student, as she investigates the mysterious murder of her grandfather Edward Roivas and searches for the “Tome of Eternal Darkness”.

Characters:
The player controls many pre-designed characters throughout the game. Each character has their own unique magic abilities as well as Stamina, Health, and Sanity meters. These characters drive the game play. The game’s characters are as follows: Alexandra Roivas, Pious Augustus, Ellia, Anthony, Karim, Dr. Maximillian Roivas, Dr. Edwin Lindsey, Paul Luther, Roberto Bianchi, Peter Jacob, and Michael Edwards. All the characters are related, each from a different era of history, and they can be played consecutively.

Play:
The pacing changes drastically throughout the game. When the player controls the main character, Alexandra, they are able to go anywhere within the mansion (open world) while searching for "Tome of Eternal Darkness" entries and clues to her fathers death. When a piece of the "Tome of Eternal Darkness" is found, a flash back sequence is initiated, and the player takes control of the new character introduced in the flashback. During these flash back sequences, the level is very linear with some mind twisting puzzles. As with all games, there are enemies to combat, the player must kill or be killed. So, all in all, this game is balanced between linear sections of combat and puzzles and open world environments.

Engagement:
This game has received acclaim for its engagement with the player: well written story, unique innovation, complex magic and battle system. The battle system is very engaging because it makes the player think before they start their attack. This battle system incorporates a strategic dismemberment which requires planning ahead. For instance, if you see a zombie, you should cut its head off before you start your attack. Although the zombie does not die,it’s mobility is inhibited, making it easier to eliminate it. This also applies for magic with one exception: the player needs to memorize the monsters magic alignment. If the player cuts the monsters head off using the wrong magic, instead of the monster becoming impaired, the player will be severely hurt. The most engaging aspect of this game is its sanity meter. The sanity meter is drained when enemies spot you. Once the entire meter is empty, weird things start happening within the game. Strange noises can be heard that frighten the player including footsteps, women and children screaming, doors slamming, the rattling of chains and the sound of a blade being sharpened. Another effect is that the player can walk into a new room and find themselves on the ceiling. A very scary effect, that is common in horror movies, is that walls start to bleed profusely. At times when the sanity meter is low, the game will do something very interesting: it breaks the 4th wall. For example, the game will simulate the television volume being lowered by having a fake volume bar or the T.V will simulate being shut off, and will remain off for a couple of seconds. The worst tactic(that every gamer is afraid of) is the game telling the player that the memory card is corrupted and needs to be reformatted. The game starts reformatting the memory making the player think they are losing all their data.

Story:
The story of Eternal Darkness is about the main character Alexandra Rovias. Alexandra is summoned to Rhode Island because of her grandfathers’ mysterious death. The police tell her that they have no leads, and have given up on the investigation. Alex then swears to investigate the murder herself and find the answers. While searching through her grandfathers mansion, she discovers a secret room. Within that room, she finds a book called "The Tome Of Eternal Darkness". When she touches the book, she has a flash back in history to the time period of 26 BC. She watches the Roman soldier named Pious, who was led astray from his army by enticing voices coming from a temple. Within that temple, he touches an artifact that transforms him into a undead warlock, and he becomes a slave to an ancient. Further into the story, Alexandra discovers Pious is trying to summon his ancient god into physical form on earth. If that happened earth would be thrown into Eternal Darkness.

Behaviors:
The behavior for the character has already been created by the game designers, this includes: walking, running, talking, melee attacks, using items, magic attacks, climbing, and swimming. Since the range of behaviors available, the progression of the game should be much less predictable in its outcome and gameplay, however, since the levels are linear it detracts from the second play through.

Resources:
The player has to maintain 3 resources: Magic, Health, and Sanity Meter. All three resources are easily manageable. Health can be recovered by killing certain enemies, using magic, or using artifacts. Magic can be restored by walking around, or finding magic pads that restore it. The sanity meter can be replenished in many ways: performing a killing move on an enemy, using magic to restore it, or finding a sanity meter artifact.

Challenge:
This game is very challenging because of its combat system, and its puzzles. The player has the ability to target specific enemy body parts during combat. Attacking certain body parts helps the player in battle. For example, while fighting a chimera, cutting off one of its heads can make it bleed to death or hasten the death process. The games puzzles are very challenging because they blend magic and traditional puzzle aspects (finding a key to a door). The player can use magic to destroy barriers to progress further in the game, however the challenge is that the player has to use the correct spell to break the barrier. The final challenge is that the player has to watch their sanity meter, to make sure it does not drop too low. The sanity meter creates challenges for the player allowing the in game character to even create fake monsters that can be dispersed with only one hit.