WELCOME

May has been quite a productive month for me; from my car to my home I’ve done quite a lot. Wanna see?

1)       My cleared up my crappy room! Well it’s no longer crappy!  I have so much dust, junk, paper work and talcum powder around the room it isn’t funny. I’m bad at throwing finance paper away as I always think; “Oh, what if I need to keep it?” So they tend to pile up until they eat away at my bedroom floor. I’m terrible at dusting; I also use talcum powder to dry myself (which gets EVERYWHERE! Seriously. It’s deadly stuff). So yeah my room was a tip, but with mum we did a major clear up! No more dust/talcum powder, less crap, I now have a small flat screen TV in my room with a mini bookcase underneath to hold my DVDs. I haven’t cleared my financial documents yet but that’s the next step I plan to take in a few weeks.

2)       I’ve now got a savings account! Nothing major but now I feel like I’m doing an adult thing and savings some of my hard earned cash instead of just spending it.

3)       My right indicator bulb in my car had been off for weeks, since the beginning of April to be precise. I FINALLY got a new bulb about mid-May; I am now safe on the road again! Yay! Now all I need is diesel, which thankfully is cheap…wait a minute…doh!  

Almost immediately after I posted my last entry; I saw Katy! We went to the ICA College in London on 28^th April to see the Japanese film; Death Note, based upon the manga of the same name. I finished the manga recently (see my LJ entry on my thoughts on the entry). Basically I loved it! The whole manga is a masterpiece! The film was highly enjoyable, didn’t quite capture the essence of what makes Death Note so addicting but was very well done. The ICA College plan to show the 2^nd Death Note film in the summer, I’m sure Katy and I will be among the first to purchase a ticket! I had a good evening with her, not just because of the film and company but it was the first time I’ve stayed out so late since my salmonella poisoning. I didn’t get home till midnight which for me is a big deal!

Andy came back for 4 days on 14^th May. I saw him after work on Friday evening; we had the house to ourselves so it was nice just to be catch up in our own little space. The following day I had several chores to complete so we didn’t meet up until 2pm, again though we had the house to ourselves for several hours. It was probably the first time in ages that Andy and I were alone in my room let alone in my house! It also gave me the chance to show off our new furniture and have a laugh without interruptions from mum and Daniel (no offence to them!). Later on I picked Daniel up from Brian’s house and had to make dinner for the family (as mum was in London the entire day). I cooked 3 meals and 2 of them turned out ok! Daniel had spaghetti hoops and meatballs (not taxing but he seemed happy), Mum had lamb chops with chips and hoops (this one went a bit pear shaped, just the lamb really as it wasn’t cooked all the way through even though I grilled it at least 10 minutes longer than the suggested time on the pack) she ate what she could and I was a bit disappointed but now I know to put it in the oven! And last but not least, Chicken in white wine sauce with chips and vegetables (this most successful, as I didn’t poison anybody!).

He went back on the Sunday but 2 weeks later he came back for more! I saw him Saturday evening for dinner, we drove to Bluewater and had TGI’s (which, to me, has gone downhill. The menu used to be massive, now it’s all Jack Daniels’ this and Jack Daniels that). We then drove back home for some private time (fun all round!). The following day he came round for dinner, I wasn’t feeling my best that day but we still had laughs nether-the-less.  

We also had another catch up 2 weeks later; we went out to dinner at Bluewater on Saturday evening, which made a nice change since we usually stay in doors or stick around the Sidcup area but since all the stabbings, oddly enough, Sidcup isn’t as appealing as it used to be.

The following day Andy came round for dinner again (yes, we are trying to fatten him up! Hmm!), so not much went on apart from good food and company. Then on Thursday I went round his house after work; something I haven’t done in a while considering that previously I was too tired to do anything else after a long day at work. We had a laugh, a nice dinner, and although I didn’t stick around for too long, it was enough to keep us smiling until he returns for good on 18^th June!

My next visit was from George, a friend I hadn’t seen since Daniel’s 16^th birthday party – which then I wasn’t feeling 100% at and of course my attention was divided. He’s been going through a bad patch lately (I won’t go into detail ‘cos it’s not mine to go into) and lately all I’ve been able to do is e-mail and/or chat to him via MSN, which itself can only do so much. So he drove to Bexleyheath on Saturday 7^th June and we went out for lunch at Noodle Time. We mainly chatted about our recent events and past memories. We also walked a bit since George hadn’t properly seen the Broadway (Bexleyheath shopping centre) since he moved and was amazed how much it changed. For me only a few bits and bobs have improved but I live there so all changes become a blur in the end. He had to leave by 4pm but before then we drove around his old neighbourhood in his car (he still drives like a boy racer who just got his first pair of wheels!) and he had a go on my Wii (which he looked like he enjoyed). I also lent him some manga; hoping to get him into the Chobits and Death Note addiction! 

I haven’t spoken about work in a while; mainly because not much has happened. However May and June proved to be very busy months. It started off as bad but gradually turned into something much greater. 

As you may know, I was promoted recently; before Christmas I was told that my new title would be “Scheduling and Promotions Assistant” – which meant that I would still perform my regular office-based duties but I would also make promos across all kids programmes. I was told that I would receive training in Avid Media Composer and would move over to the production side of television; an area I haven’t been in since I was a freelancer for GMTV2 a year and a half ago. I was looking forward to this new challenge as I missed working in production and to be honest, my weekly duties in my role are not enough to fill up my whole week. If I did all my jobs back to back with no breaks from Monday morning, by Tuesday afternoon I would have nothing else to do for the rest for the week. So working in promotions was a welcome change. After 2 months of silence, in March an e-mail was sent around to everyone to confirm this, as well as other people’s promotions in my department, including other people told they would be making promos as well. I wasn’t fazed much as I thought we would all muck in and learn off each other.

Approaching the end of April; I noticed that other colleague’s new jobs were taken affect – but not mine. I hadn’t been told yet when I was getting training and when I would be making promos. In addition; over hearing conversations I heard that I might not be making them after all! Just researching for them!

I had enough by then so I decided to talk to my boss, who’s a good friend of mine, to ask the head of department what was going on. Mark (my boss) agreed that it’s about time I was told of the situation. Then on Wednesday 14^th May, Mark told me of the result of his chat with the head of the Kids department (also named Mark); basically I was told that I would not be getting any avid training. I would have to learn via other people, such as watching them and asking questions. The same was for promos; I had to learn to make them on my own.

So even though my colleagues have had the advantage of training and told how to make a promo, I’ll have to make do with none of the above. As you can guess, I was not happy about the result; it didn’t seem fair that everyone else had found their feet in their new roles yet I was being left behind to fend for myself. Most of my colleague had 3 days to 1 week’s worth of avid training and yet they expected me to learn it myself from watching others use it. Like learning Japanese by simply listening to someone else speaking it. I’m not stupid, I do pick things up quickly but I felt it was out of order. I was promised something that wasn’t given to me. Can you imagine how horrible it feels to watch your colleagues moving forward and achieving their goals when you’re stuck in the same place? What’s worse is that if I hadn’t asked when I did, how much longer would I have to wait to find out that information? 

As a result; I did some research on the internet and decided to book a training course for myself. Knowing that GMTV would not pay for it, I was willing to fork out over £500 for a 2 day course over a weekend. As I was getting ready to pay, mum suggested I talk with my father, Brian, who works high up in GMTV. I was reluctant as A) we don’t have a good relationship and B) I didn’t want to come across as a stroppy teenager who went crying to her father every time she didn’t get what she wanted. However; it gave me the idea to chat to another colleague, Amy. She’s a friend of mine who’s worked with me since I started GMTV so I decided to ask her opinion. So over a cup of tea/coffee; I asked her if it was worth paying for a training course outside of work and her thoughts on how I should progress forward. In a turn of events; she agreed to train me! It was a lovely surprise; I wasn’t expecting it as I presumed that all those who use Avid Composer would be too busy to train me. We wasted no time as that same afternoon I was sitting at her desk learning the basics! The lesson continued to the next day with pages of notes to reference from! We started to build 2 promos, a template to compile a cartoon and I also helped finish her other promos by selecting sound effects with the editor. Those 2 days really outshone the gloom that Wednesday had brought.

On my second day of training, I wrote a script for a promo concerning an up and coming new Action Stations schedule for the weekends on ITV4. I handed my script to Amy who said it was good and would forward it to the Deputy Head of the Kids department, Becky (who mucks in a lot with the Production Side of things). She gave me the A-OK to use the script and make a promo as a test run. So I got Mike (production assistant who does voice over work for several things) to do his magic and I began work the next morning. On my first day at working on the promo; it didn’t go as planned. I was hoping that everything would go smoothly, at the time I wanted to show everyone what I was I’m capable of but due to only learning Avid 2 days before and having not much help in how to develop my promo, I went a bit slowly. But, now thinking about it, it was a good thing that everything didn’t go my way at the time as I learn from it. I had to get Mike to re-record the voice over (as promos have to be 20 seconds long and the voice over was less than that), plus there were several issues concerning times and logo use, meaning that I had to stay till 7pm 2 days in a row one week. I worked tremendously hard though, despite my inexperience, the editor I worked with when finishing off the promo and Mark W (Head of Kids) both complimented me on my promo. Saying it was a “fab” first attempt and it really boost the show. Plus I got many “thanks” and kudos for staying late to work on late minute changes. Plus during this time, I was helping Amy with Wakey! Wakey! which is a job in itself, so the last week in May was a tough one but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Despite the uphill struggle to get there I can say I’m much happier now than I was before, and not just because of the compliments I received. Originally I typed up my ordeal saying it was unfair and, to be honest, whiny about it, but I’m glad I asked Amy to help and pushed myself to get things done as it all worked out in the end! I’m now finished my second promo – Pokemon. So if you happen to be up from 06:00 to 09:25 during the week with nothing to do; switch over to the CITV Channel, ITV4 for the weekdays or ITV1 for the weekend and look out for my promos! They’re on rotation now so hopefully you won’t have to watch too many episodes of Teen Titans before you see my work on screen! Let’s hope that this is the first stepping stone onto something greater.  

On the health front; I’ve had a little slip up on my gluten diet. About mid-day on a May Sunday, it was very warm outside so me, mum and Daniel had lunch in our back garden. We had mini snacks such as mackerel, mini sausages, salad, crisps and French bread. I was fine until I stupidly ate half a sausage roll and a pork pie…it was such a stupid mistake as I was thinking “I wonder if this has gluten in it?” as I took a bite of out a mini sausage but the thought didn’t occur to me when I had the pastry of the sausage roll! I had a stomach ache afterwards, which I put down as a “bad day”, it wasn’t till the evening that I realised what I done! Oh well it’s my first slip up since I started my diet, and some good did come of it, even though I had a stomach ache after lunch I actually recovered quicker than before I started it. So I’m getting better! Also; I had a heavy cold during the last week in May. I had one last year but couldn’t take any painkillers or decongestion as they irritated my stomach and made me feel sick. However I felt so fluey that I decided to risk it and take a decongestion. I’m happy to say I had no side effects! I took Decongestion/painkillers during the night time and I felt fine for that as well! Another sign that I’m on the way up!  

My main concern at the moment is my energy levels; they are not as high as I would like them to be. Sure it’s better than it was a few months ago but I’m still in the situation that if I spend one day with a friend, I have to spend the next few days recovering from it. For example Katy, after seeing the film with her I invited her out to dinner that same weekend. However after going to work, meeting Katy afterwards and not getting home till midnight I was wiped! I had to cancel the dinner, preventing me from seeing Katy again before she went back to university. Still, I can take tablets again and am recovering quicker from gluten, can’t have everything now can I?  

Wonder Boy in Monster World is originally a game that was released back in 1991 for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. It was later ported to the Sega Master System a certain amount of time later. Several years later, a ‘remake’ was made for the TurboGrafx-CD console, it featured new characters, music and graphics, however due to the consoles limited marketing the game failed to reach the popularity of the original version. Then in 2007 both version were made available on the Wii virtual console.

Wonderboy in Monster World is one of my favourite games of all time, one of the first I’ve played in my lifetime and I still have an original copy of it for the Sega Mega Drive (as well as the console). When I read several years ago about an enhanced version, renamed and in some aspects redone on another console, I was quite intrigued. It never occurred to me that I’ll ever get to play it, so I read much about it as I could on the internet and eventually the interest for it died down. It wasn’t until I bought a Wii and browsed through the virtual consoles that my interest re-sparked, I bought the Wii points needed and downloaded the remade version with glee. A few hours later, having already known what to do and all the boss strategies, I completed the game. It then got me thinking, which game is better and what version should others download if they hadn’t played either title?

Here’s where this guide come in, I’ve broken down nearly every aspect of each game from the plot to the characters, and at the end of each section I’ll select a winner. The one with the most points at the end is the better game; I’ll also do a small evaluation at the end.  This comparison is based on my experience with the Sega Mega Drive version of Wonderboy in Monster and the downloaded version of The Dynastic Hero for the Wii. Therefore I will not be comparing controls (as it would be unfair).

I’ll try very hard not to give any spoilers away, and if I do it’ll be more on the lines of boss and world descriptions rather than strategies and plot elements. Also, to save typing each game title I’ll use abbreviations, so Wonder Boy in Monster World will be WBIMW and The Dynastic Hero will become TDH.

I would like to thank Sega-16, a Sega site that has many articles and reviews of Sega Mega Drive games for this idea. They original did a comparison of the two games which was very insightful, because of them I decided to take it further, make sure to check out their site!

Got that? Good! Let’s crack on…

The Story

WBIMW: Shion is a boy who lives in Monster World, a planet infested with monsters (go figure?); he must set out into the world and stop the evil BioMeka’s plans to take over Monster World. Occupied by only his armour and sword, Shion sets off to save his people.

TDH: When the Fairy Princess, Brenna, is kidnapped by the lizard king, Mandra, Dyna must set out into the land of Tarron to battle Mandra’s evil forces and save Brenna, along with the rest of the world!

As you can see, the synopsis for both games is no longer than 2 sentences. There isn’t much difference between them apart from name changes and the princess has a slight more reference in TDH (although she’s present in WBIMW and has as much input into the story as TDH’s princess). There isn’t much development in the story throughout either games; the puzzles are the same, the worlds and battle the same bosses are relatively the same and the order to complete each one are identical.

Both stories are not grammy-nomination worthy; they’re just there to set the scene more than anything.

Winner: Draw  

The Hero

Every adventure needs a hero right? Who’s going to slay the beasts and save the damsel in distress when there’s no hero?!

WBIMW is centred on Shion, a blue haired boy with silver armour and a sword as company on his travels. With big anime eyes and no other facial features, he fits well with the Monster World environment as it has many cartoon based themes. His upgradeable weapon and armour only have small details between them but are effective enough to tell the difference between each upgrade and don’t make the hero look over done.

TDH’s main character is, in one word, ugly!

Dyna has a too detailed armour design and its all one colour, so it comes off as this big beetle armour mush! With his serious facial expression, he looks like a human who stumbled upon a cartoon world and is trying to get out! Who can blame him? If I stumbled into a world where everyone was much cuter and colourful than me I wouldn’t want to stick around for long! The details on the upgradeable weapons and armour are slightly altered and have different colours, but these don’t flatter the already too detailed beetle armour.

Shion was created with the Monster World; therefore he fits better in it and doesn’t look quite so dorky. Dyna was remake with the rest of the cast to give the remake a bit of an edge; ultimately Dyna is the worst looking out of all the remade characters!

Winner: Wonderboy in Monster World  

Gameplay

Both games operate like a platform game with added RPG elements, the games mostly involve jumping at the correct times to reach platforms, fighting random enemies and collecting gold to buy new armour for the dungeon ahead.

Both TDH and WBIMW flow fluidly from walking around the screen to throwing the sword at the enemy. Jumping is an easy task (important in platform games, if you can’t get jumping correct the game falls apart) as the buttons respond well. Entering through doors and areas in WBIMW is quick in simple, yet in TDH it seems to enter ‘slow mo’ mode when walking through doors, it’s quite noticeable if you’ve played WBIMW previously.

Our heroes can also perform magic; the character learns magic as the game progresses and can also increase the amount of times a spell can cast if they find the relevant hidden treasure chests. Magic is set on the bar at the top of the screen, two spells can be set at once, you perform spells by pressing the action button and selecting left or right (depending what spell you want). Somehow, in WBIMW, it’s much easier to perform as you can hold the action button and alternate between both left and right commands. In TDH however, you must press both buttons together at the exact same time, plus an enemy must be within range to perform. Therefore performing spells is slightly easier in WBIMW.    

Winner: Wonder Boy in Monster World.  

The Graphics

WBIMW had colourful graphics, they were detailed enough to separate the hero from the townfolk and demonstrate each world as its own. For the Sega Mega Drive, they were lovely visuals, though not the best, they did the job quite nicely for a side scrolling game. TDH pretty much keeps the visuals from WBIMW but introduces a more varied colour palette, sure they are not as bright as its older partner but TDH gives depth to rocky mountains and adds the shine to the monsters where they were flat before.

TDH is for the PC Engie/TurboGrafx CD, which I don’t have much experience in, but from what I seen there was not much else they could improve massively on visual wise, they did what they could; it would be unfair to give the edge to TDH when the graphics were basically the same as WBIMW.

Winner: Wonderboy in Monster World  

The Music

The WBIMW soundtrack, while not groundbreaking enough to be released onto a CD, had its charm. The melodies were simple but they were catchy, easy to remember (so they get stuck in your head easily) and they complimented each world very well. Even when some the tracks were repeated (e.g. the background track for the Pyramid level is the same for the Volcano level), the songs worked well with the cartooned theme world and its inhabitants, the music is a joy to listen to overall.

I haven’t found any proof yet but I’m almost convinced that Seikou Nagaoka, the composer for the original Tenchi Muyo OVA, provided the music for TDH. My first clue was that the song in the opening FMV had a song lifted from the Tenchi Muyo OVA soundtrack but with added lyrics! The rest of the tracks have many similar elements compared to the Tenchi Muyo soundtrack as well but it’s the opening song that gave it away.   

I did like his work on the Tenchi Muyo OVA soundtrack, I even have some of soundtrack on my ipod, but the tracks composed for TDH, though nice and easy on the ears, are not memorable. They are MP3 files and each track tries to bring something else into each level that the previous soundtrack doesn’t, but several tracks (like the main hero in TDH) are too serious compared to the cartoon styled enemies and environment, and some are even too quirky (if that makes any sense?).

Seikou Nagaoka tries his best, you can’t deny the music is good, but several tracks that are repeated work with one world but not the other. Using the same example above, for the music in the Pyramid level, Seikou Nagaoka adds an ‘Egyptian’ theme to it, which is fair enough but when the track is used for the volcano level as well, it feels out of place.  

Both soundtracks are good in their own right, but the edge ultimately goes to…

Winner: Wonderboy in Monster World  

The Script

TDH script is all over the place, many item and equipment names were changed when there was no need (such as Pygmy Armour was changed to Tiny Armour, or something like that), but their purpose remained unchanged.

TDH script tries to ‘jazz’ it up slightly, such as the characters offer a little more conversation and information compared to WBIMW, where all the townsfolk seem to be blunt and robotic. TDH also tries to be ‘hip’, such as providing the lines “What’s Up?”, “Y’know?”, “Go get ‘em!” etc, it almost seems like a ‘dumb down’ version of the original WBIMW script, which wasn’t exactly hard to follow to begin with!

Where TDH sinks more though is spelling, oh the spelling, even the most simple to spell words are left uncorrected. Sure, I’m not the best example of a good speller, but you’d think that SOMEONE would have corrected where someone else went wrong, especially on the RE-RELEASE on the Wii virtual console! Shame on those who couldn’t be bothered! 

The WBIMW script may not be very heart warming and more to the point, but at least there are no spelling mistakes, items have relevant names and it’s easy to follow without making the player feel patronised.  

Winner: Wonderboy in Monster World.  

Friends and Foes

This was the section I was most interested in when I found out about TDH, in this comparison I discovered a while back, it stated that most friends were replaced with cute creatures (such as bees and fairies) and the enemies are now all different. This section was the main reason my curiosity for TDH got the better of me.

Let’s start with the hero’s companions, both heroes gain friends to help them in certain dungeons throughout the game. The companions range from help defeat enemies to finding hidden hearts and gold. They cannot leave the town they originate from, so therefore they have limited use.

At first they seem untouched (apart from having slightly different coloured sprites), it’s not until you reach the Ice World when you notice the change. The ultra cool mini grim reaper in WBIMW is replaced with an ugly flying beetle and the even cooler baby dragon is replaced by a girly bee.

What’s the problem with that you ask? First of, the Ice World where you obtain the grim reaper/beetle is also known as the ‘Dark World’, it makes sense for a grim reaper to be there but not the beetle, I did a little research and I’m pretty sure beetles are not fond of the cold, therefore you would not find them in a glacier town. The same principle goes for the bee, originally known as the Dragon world, it’s located next to a volcano and it’s also near the desert, where a large pyramid is also located. Again, with little research, bees like warm weather to collect pollen but I’m pretty sure they would object to the heat from a volcano! (If I’m wrong about any of these facts please feel free to correct me). Then again, the incarnations of both helpers do the same amount of damage to enemies and provide the same amount of input to the story (which is not a lot) so apart from my rant above there’s not much difference.

Now onto the enemies, all the baddies on the TDH that the hero kills to progress and obtain gold are all the same. However apart from two, all of the bosses have had a make over. The bosses are now all a type of reptile, including the giant mushroom being replaced by a giant toad, the snowman in the ice world is now an ice dragon (a beautiful looking on too!); the two boulders in the dwarf village are now two turtles, and so on. It makes sense in a way to have all the enemies a collective race, but the mini baddies on the field that the hero kills seem distanced from the bosses all together, you’d think that the reptile baddies would send some reptile fiends to hold the hero off, but not one is in sight. The baddies are nicely designed and are easily the most detailed character sprites within TDH, it’s a shame they didn’t stretch their efforts to the smaller enemies as well.

Lastly, the random strangers that the hero talks to and/or saves within the game are mostly the same. The human’s walking around and sitting behind the shop counters are all intact, the only major changes are made to those who have a little more input into the story. For example the Dark World Prince is now non existent in TDH and the Princess you save early on has a new wardrobe, hair and breasts implants! You get a glimpse of her in the opening anime sequence of TDH; she has a wacky purple dress, green hair and Jordan’s breasts. Actually, all the new female characters created for the game seem to have had breast enhancements.

Personally, I don’t like some of the new characters; mainly my complaint goes towards the new helpers and the females that aid the hero in TDH. I understand if they wanted to add more females to the game to make it appeal a wider audience, but the size of the breasts are just ridiculous! Ok, I’m an anime fan and should be used to this sort of art by now since Japan like to make the female’s cleavage defy gravity, but still, it bugs me somewhat that TDH is basically a big strong man saving the world for these well endowed defenceless women.     

Maybe I’m reading too much into something that’s not there, but that’s the impression I get from this game. Don’t get me wrong, I think they were quite creative about the new bosses, but WBIMW characters fitted better into the context of the story and were more suitable for the intended audience. 

Winner: Wonderboy in Monster World  

Difficulty

This section is a little complicated considering that there’s no obvious winner, throughout both games I made many comparisons regarding this subject.

First off; the enemies are easier on TDH, this is not so obvious early on but as you progress, you notice that both run-of-the-mill enemies and bosses take more damage from the weapons provided. For example, in the beginning of the Ice World in WBIMW with the strongest weapon you can get before entering the town, you can kill the penguin enemies in 4 hits. However in the same situation in TDH, the penguin is destroyed in 3. In fact it seems like the enemies get easier as you progress, so the final boss is a pushover (especially without the buzz saw!).

On the other hand, TDH comes off as tight-fisted, for instance the enemies provide you with less gold, the difference is very noticeable in the last dungeon, as this place was a source for much gold if you wished to save up to buy some of the more expensive items in the game. Building up money to purchase weapons in TDH takes longer as items are worth the same much as in WBIMW. 

Also the potions that can be bought to recover the character’s health are very stingy! Early on in the game in WBIMW, the standard potion recovers the character completely and as the hero gains more hearts; you need to buy a stronger potion. In TDH, the weakest potion available recovers HALF of what the same potion in WBIMW does! The same principle applies to the elixirs (a potion that revives a fallen character once), the enemies have less health, but they do the same amount of damage to your character, so the player must be a bit more cautious in TDH. Despite this, I only died during one boss battle early on the game, the rest of them were a walk in the park. To sum it up, in TDH, it’s easier to kill and to be killed!

Another factor is the save points, in WBIMW you must save the game at the inn and if you happen to die, you’ll be greeted with a ‘GAME OVER’ screen and must re-start from where you last saved it. In TDH, if you die, you are brought back to the inn fully recovered, however your potions and elixir (if used before dying) are gone so must re-stock (spending money you lack in this version) but you don’t have to re-do any puzzles or switches activated before you died. So in many situations, you could just simply walk back to the boss battle with little to stop you.

Overall I feel that WBIMW has the right balance between recovery items and damage taken, damage dealt and enemy HP and buying weapons with money obtained. Despite being slightly harder and the final boss can prove to be quite tiresome, WBIMW feels more like a triumph at the end while TDH is quite easy throughout with little after rewards. Either way, which ever version you play first, the other version will be no different, puzzle solving wise.

Winner: Wonderboy in Monster World.   

Endings and Replay Value

Everything must come to an end right? Sadly happiness is not eternal, but games can be if they are enjoyable enough to tackle it from the beginning all over again, or if there are enough extras to come back to later on.

Both games lack replay value, unless like me you loved the game at a tender age and long to re-live your old favourites. There are no unlockables to speak of, there are a few hidden things (such as hard-to-find chests, getting max on all magic, etc) but unless you loved the game first time round you’re unlikely to pick it up again.

TDH has 4 save files, so if you’re the type of person who likes to try various ways of completing a game (like with the weakest weapon, or without dying) you can achieve it here and keep records of your achievements. However WBIMW has 1 save file only, so if you want to play from the beginning again you’ll lose your current record.

Ending wise, TDH comes out on top, it ties the hero with his old friends (so they don’t look like they were taken advantage and then disposed of like in WBIMW) and you’re also treated to a viewing of several world and character artwork in the credits. In WBIMW, the ending is rather abrupt and shows hints of a possible romantic interest with a particular character, but it’s nothing spectacular.

Both endings are not going to win any awards, but TDH is the lesser of the two evils.

Winner: The Dynastic Hero

Price and Memory

If you wish to purchase the original copies of both games, you can buy WBIMW cheaply in a second hand shop (if they’ve got it) or on eBay; I bought my copy for a fiver. Sega Mega Drive consoles are not too hard to locate and purchase neither. On the other hand, the original copy of TDH is very rare and difficult to find, just as much as the console it was available on. If you do happen to find it be prepared to burn a hole in your pocket. Both titles are available to purchase on the virtual console for 800 wii points each in Europe territories, which makes tracking down TDH so much easier and you pay a decent price for it! Considering TDH was a nightmare to find before hand, the edge goes to TDH, despite the fact that TDH takes up slightly more memory on your Wii memory. 

Winner: The Dynastic Hero

Conclusion

TDH – 2

WBIMW – 7

Draw – 1

Well the numbers speak for themselves, as the old saying goes, nothing can ‘out do’ an original, whether it’s a game, film or television series, the original is always closer to people’s hearts. So where does that lead those who have never touch either game?

Wonder Boy in Monster World was one of the best well known games on the Sega Mega Drive, all the elements work well with each other and it presents small challenges in its short life span. The Dynastic Hero is nothing more than WBIMW with a touch of cosmetic surgery; it’s like watching a film you’re fond of with improved special effects and with alternative costumes. Underneath the visuals nothing much has changed. If you pride yourself in playing/owning games that are rare and worth a fortune, The Dynastic Hero is the game for you. If you prefer the original version, Wonder Boy in Monster World is the one to go for. In the end, they are both good games and worth a play through if you want a good, cheap and quick RPG/platform game.

Andy came back home for a 3 week Easter holiday; since I was unable to take time off for him (since Mark, my boss, was on holiday and I’m the only one capable of covering for him) I only got to see him at the weekend. Despite seeing each other for 3 weekends we didn’t get up to much as one weekend I was ill; we mainly chilled at each others houses, took a work one day when the weather was lovely, played some games, just chilling really. I plan to hopefully visit him at uni one weekend in May or June as I haven’t seen his uni since October 2006. When he next comes home it’ll be a few days after my birthday (June 16^th) and a few days before I go on holiday! Yes despite not being fully recovered from my previous trip overseas I’m off to Greece for one week in June. I’m a little frightened actually, I’m still ‘on edge’ since my last holiday and since I know that even the WATER is lethal in Greece, I’m a little anxious. I’m sure once I’m out there lying by the pool side in the glorious sun I’ll be fine but when even your mother is concerned about you going (all parents are when their child goes on holiday abroad without for the first time), you can’t help but feel more so  yourself.

I saw Landa during the back holiday Easter weekend; I picked her up from her house, drove to Bluewater for a meal and some shopping. Whilst I was at her home (that I hadn’t been to in ages) I got re-acquainted with her parents. I saw her mum just before Christmas 2006 (!) but her dad I haven’t since…I can’t remember! Their English has gotten far (they’re from Yucaslavia), they both seemed well and they looked happy to see me (always a bonus - pleasing parents). At Bluewater it was quite busy (expected as it was a bank holiday), so we decided against the cinema as the queue was so freaking long! We had a nice Chinese lunch at Amoy and browsed some shops. I didn’t buy anything but Landa bought some jewellery and other random crap. We also had a coffee before I dropped her home. It's always nice to see Landa, even if our catch ups tend to be short. I plan to take her out after her exams have finished in May - maybe after that we can see each other more.  

I took both Tuesday 15^th and Wednesday 16^th off in April to celebrate my mum’s birthday! Her big day was Tuesday but I took the following day off as mum and Daniel were both on Easter holidays and I wanted to spend more time with them. The evening before, Monday after work, we went into London for dinner out. After a walk looking at all the restaurants in Leister square we settled on ‘Rock Garden’. It’s quite pretentious but the food was lovely! I had sea bass with Ratatouille (which I’ve never had before) and I ate every little bit of it! The fruit drinks they provide are nice too.  

On mum’s actual birthday she had a cold so didn’t feel too great, but we took a nice drive on the lovely sunny day to Faringham. It's about a 10 minute drive from my old 6th for college (North West Kent, Dartford), we has lunch at the Lion Hotel (food was ok, didn't have what I originally wanted) and then took a gentle stroll around the area 'cos the weather was lovely.

Farningham looks like a 'country side' sort fo town; there's lots of greenery, small old houses, streams and very narrow roads! It looks lively in the sushine and a perfect place to settle down since it's so homely and quiet - but I knew as soon as the weather turned icy I would be cursing whoever built those roads!  

We went back home to rest *cough play computer games cough* and then went out again for dinner at the Laughing Buddha (a Chinese restaurant near where I live). We always like this restaurant but we don’t go it very often, so it was nice to come back to it.

The next day was not as easy going as we had to take care of my littlest brothers; Robert and Oliver. First we did a bit of shopping (the boys were well behaved) and then we drove to Wilmington (again near my college) for a lunch out. The food was nice (gammon and home made chips) and although the weather wasn't as nice as yesturday and the outside play area was quite scruffy and falling apart - we had a laugh. I usually don't spend much time with them apart from when they pop round to say hi with Brian, Daniel usually sees them every weekend. But I really enjoyed that day as I was able to actually feel like their sister; I played football with Robbie as Daniel ordered the food, I taught Ollie how to swing himself (I had a go myself to feed my inner child), I had more energy that day that I've had in the past year! It made a nice change. Later on we came home, me and Daniel taught the boys how to play the wii. We played Mario Kart (with the wii wheel) and Wii sports, a few tears kicked off when Robbie lost and wanted a wii for his own when he had to leave. Overall it was a good day.  

What’s the status on my on-going health problems you ask? Well…

I’ve started my new diet that I mentioned in my previous blog; I’ve cut out wheat, gluten and dairy. It’s been hard, I’ve had my ups and downs but the benefits do out weigh what I’ve given up. First of; my stomach has been a LOT better, I still had my bad days/moments but I have more energy, I can do more, I don’t have to lie down as much after eating whilst before I was always in pain after eating, plus I’ve lost some weight! The bad side is that I didn’t realise so much stuff had gluten and wheat in them! Dairy was not so bad as I was originally allergic to dairy when I was about 8 so I’m used to not eating dairy by now, but the gluten…its in bread, pasta, pastry…so I can’t eat Yorkshire puddings (love them with roasts), pizza, pita bread with kebabs, burgers beer-battered or bread crumbed fish (so its a nightmare when trying to order a take away), cakes, garlic bread…so some of my favourite things! And although I’ve bought some gluten-free stuff from Sainsbury’s and Morrison’s – most of them don’t substitute the real thing. I’ll just be glad when I’m fully recovered!  

As for the ‘high liver function’ I mentioned in my previous entry; I had another blood test since then and although it’s still higher than the level it should be, it’s decreased since my last reading. The doctor said it might be because some people’s livers are fattier than others; it could also be raised if I’ve gained any weight lately (which I have). He wants to keep an eye on it just in case and have another test in 6 months. Several weeks later I got a letter stating that the last test result from my blood came through and apparently my copper levels are high…so now he wants ANOTHER blood test and a 24-hour urine sample…sigh…when will this ever end?

Title: Obscure 2 (a.k.a Obscure: The Aftermath)

Genre: Survival Horror

Platform: Playstation 2, PC, Wii

Certificate: 16+

Rating: 4/5

I haven’t been into survival horror for very long, 6 months at most, but from what I’ve seen so far I’ve highly enjoyed. Most of the survival horror titles I’ve played have been more psychological and centred on impacting fear through that, rather than gruesome monsters and heavy shooting. I bought a second hand copy of Obscure simply out of curiosity after reading a review highly recommending it, thought it was short and had its faults, I did still enjoy it somewhat and it was enough to make me pick up a copy of the sequel. Despite fearing it would be a copy of its predecessor I am glad to say that not only did I enjoy it more that Obscure 1 but am highly looking forward to another sequel (if they have plans to make one).

Obscure 2 takes place 2 years after the prequel, the 6 survivors of the awful events that happened at Leafmore High are now moving on and living their own lives, taking medication to suppress the mutation that affected them during the first game. Now at college, it seems as if history is about to repeat itself as strange purple flowers have started sprouting around the campus, sending students on a ‘high’ and eventually turn them into monsters! Accompanied by new allies, can the survivors of Leafmore High survive once more?

Obscure 2’s plot, like Obscure, is based upon teen horror/slasher movies, so there’s plenty of cheese and horror to go around. Obscure’s plot was quite predictable and lacking at the best of times but Obscure 2 is greatly improved. The beginning is very strong, although the middle part fades slightly it picks up with an unexpected twist towards the climax and the ending leaves a cliffhanger in hopes it’ll return for Obscure 3.

Obscure 2 makes references to drugs, sex, death and suicide – so it’s darker than its predecessor.   

You have 8 characters to venture against the darkness with, 3 who are survivors from Obscure 1. The new characters include the Asian twins Mei and Jun who are computer game geeks, Amy who’s also know as ‘Miss Wet T-Shirt of the Month’ and Corey, who is a skater. All characters have their own unique abilities that are all put to use to progress in the game; such as Mei ability to hack into computers, Amy’s skill at decrypting and Sven’s ultra strength to move heavy objects. Most abilities are just used for puzzle solving, this sadly takes away some of the creative fun as some abilities in the previous instalment could be used for combat and other purposes, however they are well performed with the co-operative game play. 

The characters have much more of a personality than the previous title; several times they’ll chat amongst themselves as you progress in the game, mostly it’s just chit-chat but other times they offer clues if you’re not sure where to go next. Some of the scripted lines are quite amusing and add to the joy this title gives.

Graphics are detailed enough to see the blood, monsters and gore!

Screenshot courtesy of Eurogamer

The graphics are quite luscious and detailed, the characters are nicely designed and all weapons are quite distinguishable. The characters movements are still quite stiff (especially noticeable when climbing or moving objects) and it’s not without its glitches, but it’s a definite improvement on the previous instalment.  

Most character voices are performed well enough, cheesy, but considering the plot is cheesy in itself, the voices fit the game, although some of the returning characters sound quite different to their older counterparts. The music is slightly more prominent than Obscure 1 and it is more fitting to the surroundings, it’s still obvious that the composer was inspired by the likes of Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill Composer) but he adds his own spin to the horror genre.

The mainly selling point of this and the previous game is the 2 player co-operative mode. In any stage during the game, a second player can plug in a second remote and control the second character. Like the previous game most of the time it works very well, controls are easy to get used to and whenever one player goes into another room the other player automatically joins them.

If however you prefer to face the darkness alone, the second character is controlled by A.I. Luckily the computer controlled character handily sees and attacks enemies that you haven’t seen yet or whilst you’re solving a puzzle. But they like to stick very close to your character and in many situations when you have to backtrack they end up getting in the way a lot of the time. 

In Obscure 2 acting together is even more vital as many situations and puzzles require you switch between characters such as one to pull the other up onto a high place to escape enemies, this helped built up many “tension” parts of the game and provided more for your friend playing rather than just “following the leader”.

The camera is, unfortunately, poor for both solo and 2 player game modes. The camera likes to stick right behind player one’s arse or pick the worse possible angle in certain rooms. You’re only given a small amount of control over it with the right analogue stick and whatever changes you do make, it doesn’t stick. Sad to say, you’ll the fighting more with the camera than with the enemies themselves!

A great addition to this title is the extensive use of puzzles, apart from shooting mutated monsters this title features some of the most exciting and varied puzzles, I haven’t seen so many since my old PC days when Sierra was at it’s high with titles such as Shivers and King’s Quest. They range from putting pieces of a jigsaw together (such as torn up maps), to word games (used in Mei’s computer hacking ability) and lock picking (Obscure just had you hold down a button, now you must actually work the pin through the lock!). Others include working the more acrobatic characters up onto high platforms and get them safely across to the other side of the room. There’s enough in the game to break up all the battles yet doesn’t overwhelm those who can’t stand to think with their heads neither. They were easily my favourite part of this title. If anything this should be built up more if there was an Obscure 3.

One of my favourite puzzles; Mei's hacking into computers

Screenshot courtesy of Eurogamer

Apart from the puzzles the only factor that makes this title slightly challenging is the lack of healing items and ammo. The previous game became increasingly difficult towards the end as healing items became rare and ammo was hard to find. This has been slightly altered in Obscure 2; healing items will appear in rooms if you happen to have a low supply – handy when you need it the most, not so much if you prefer to store some in your inventory for future boss battles. As for the ammo, it’s still scarce and hard to come by, but more weapons are available in this title, so if one gun is out of ammo you won’t be left to fight with your bare hands.

Like Obscure, the sequel incorporates melee and projectile combat in order to defeat the monsters that go bump in the night, you’ll be saying hello again to the bat and hockey stick, as well as enjoy the new additions such as crossbows and chainsaws. This somewhat takes away the ‘realism’ from the game, as Obscure mainly used items that could be found inside a school. Although Obscure 2 visits more areas, I highly doubt a hospital would keep a shot gun inside a broom closet!

An element that I miss from Obscure is the use of light; the enemy is highly photosensitive in both Obscure 1 & 2, in the prequel the students had to tape flash lights to their guns and aim the light at the enemy in order to kill the harmful creatures. Not only was this very unique and clever but it added some strategy to the combat that other gun based games lack. I was very sad to find that this game play element did not return for Obscure 2, the combat is now purely aim and attack. It’s good news for those who prefer just to get straight down to the killing but it’s such a shame that an element that made Obscure stand out was taken away in the next instalment.

Another element that was prominent in its prequel yet not in this title is replay value. Obscure had multiple difficulty levels, new weapons, costumes and even music videos to unlock. However Obscure 2 has nothing. Bugger all, zilch. No rewards for completing the game. So unless you have a friend to bring along to play every once in a while you won’t be returning to this title in a hurry once you’ve finished it.

Other faults include being able to hit your partner (a stupid feature to add as the computer controlled character is almost always in your way, although it’s funny when the character speaks of annoyance when being hit), the short life span (although longer than Obscure, still not enough for most gamers) and the irritating saving system; which involves observing flowers scattered throughout the game, however they disappear once you’ve use it once. This becomes a problem as the game has many levels that your characters will visit more than once, so after your first visit you’ll have to wait longer to save when you next drop by. It’s even more infuriating as in Obscure 2, if any of your two characters controlling dies you have to start from where you last saved it, quite different to Obscure 1 where you could continue on.

One last error is that no explanation is given to the characters from the first game that fail to appear in Obscure 2, although there is a hidden cut scene you can unlock towards the end of the game that features them – it raises more questions than answers any, the way to unlock it is not obvious and you can easily complete the game without knowing its there.

Overall this is a very worthy sequel, highly enjoyable and great for both single players and for those who wish to bring on a friend. If you’ve never played the first game I recommend getting a copy before purchasing this, if it’s just for the 2 player action then you can probably get away with just reading the character bios to get the jest of Obscure 1 plot. It’s a very good buy, especially when a brand new copy is only £20 – it’s worth every penny!

Title: Sega Superstars Tennis

Genre: Party, Sports

Platform: Wii, DS, Playstation 2, Playstation 3, Xbox360

Certificate: 7+

Rating: 4/5

“Sega Superstars Tennis” is basically the next level in Wii Sports Tennis, it takes all the best bits, removes away the bad, adds many more elements and mixes it with huge cast of colourful Sega characters.

You have a total of 16 characters (8 need to be unlocked) to choose from; the characters range from the popular Sonic the Hedgehog, to the newly revived NiGHTS and ‘hasn’t been seen in a decade’ Alex Kidd. If you’ve ever played a Sega game or owned a Sega console in your life, you’ll be very happy to see many elements dedicated to those characters. Such as Sonic’s Green Hill Zone court has the television with a ring inside, the chao cheering from the side lines and Sonic Adventure 2 music playing in the background. You can tell Sega had its fans at heart whilst developing this game.

The gameplay is very well thought out as you have much more control over the ball and racket compared to Wii Sports. Instead of just moving the remote to register a hit (like in Wii Sports) you have a variety of moves that allow you to input more strategy into the game and it feels more life like.

In addition you have the ‘superstar’ moves, whilst playing tennis a gold star is found underneath your character; if you perform a good move or progressively win it starts to glow. When it glows you can press the A + B buttons to activate ‘superstar’ mode. In this mode your character can perform moves that make it trickier for you opponent to win; such as Amigo summons maracas on the other side to distract the opponent. This feature can be turned off if you prefer just to play straight forward tennis.

You can play with either the classic controller, the wii remote sideways (both use buttons and the d-pad to play), the wii remote held upwards (like you use in Wii Sports) and with the nunchuck. Each input method has its own advantages; for example with just the wii remote you only control the racket and the computer moves the character for you, with the nunchuck attached you have complete control over the character’s movements and the tennis racket. 

The graphics are good; the character designs and level layouts are nicely portrayed, though they don’t reach the level of ‘Mario & Sonic at the Olympics’ or ‘Super Mario Galaxy’, they’re better than most wii titles.

The graphics and details capture the essences of the original levels, such as Green Hill Zone

There are 4 different modes of game play; Match mode is basically the same structure as Wii Sports Tennis, you can play with/against the computer or friends in singles or doubles game. Tournament mode allows you to enter a competition, again with the computer or your mates to see who the best tennis player is. The Games section has multiple mini games, each representing a different Sega game. You can play by yourself or with friends to beat the high score.

Superstars mode is where single players will get the most out of this game; you have 16 areas all representing a different Sega game, only 6 are open at first. These include Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Monkey Ball and Golden Axe. In each world you have 10 missions to complete, all involving themes from each Sega game using tennis to complete each mission. You are graded on how well you perform and some missions unlock new worlds, characters and songs from each game’s soundtrack. Most of the missions are very well thought out and range from quite easy to very challenging. This includes beating a horde of zombies from ‘House of the Dead’ (called ‘Curien Mansion’ in this game) with tennis balls, or aiming coloured balls onto graffiti on the other side of the “Jet Set Radio” court.

However there are a few missions that feel very out of place, the best example is the Sonic based missions where you simply move your character to collect rings on the field whilst avoiding enemy attacks. Despite the game giving you instructions on how to serve and the character a tennis racket – you don’t use it at all. If I wanted to move Sonic around collecting rings and dodging enemies I would’ve purchase Sonic the Hedgehog on the virtual console! Fortunately these types of games only count for a small portion of the missions; the majority are clever and highly enjoyable.

The major element that drags this game from a 5 star to a 4 is the computer AI. It’s very unpredictable in an unfortunate way, one minute the computer will play tennis like Serena Williams, the next it will stand there gawking at the ball as it flies past them. This problem doesn’t lie in the Match or Tournament mode as you can adjust the settings, it mainly lies in ‘Superstar’ mode, so some missions involving computer controlled characters can be a doodle and others can be too challenging for new players.

The last fault of this title is that the Wii version is the only version that lacks online gaming. So if online gaming is vital to you, I recommend you pick an alternative version of this game.

Overall this is a well put together game and enjoyable for a wide range of gamers. Not only it is quite enjoyable for both single gamers and those with many mates; it has many high-quality features that make this title very worth while. If you want a new challenge that you cannot get in Wii Sports, this game offers it. Or if you dreamed about having your favourite Sega characters together in one disc, you won’t be disappointed.  

Title: The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night

Genre: Platform, Action

Platform: Playstation 2, Wii, Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance

Certificate: 7+

Rating: 1.5/5

Let me paint you a picture; you’ve just re-loaded from a checkpoint for what seems like the millionth time. You check your ‘upgrade’ screen; all breath powers are good to go, you check your health/magic bars, full up to the brim. Now you are ready to take on the enemy! You climb up the hill for the Nth time and kill 2 warthogs that come charging at you. You continue upwards to kill 3 apes and 2 more hogs; you manage to survive (barely). Now at the top of the hill, ready to face the 9 apes that attacked you relentlessly and killed you before, you manage (with a bit of luck) to come out of the battle, this time a winner. Just when you think it’s time for another check point, or at least a breather from the enemies, no, another dozen apes come flying in. Along with their ‘daddy’, a huge ape that, with previous experience, can kill a fully healed Spyro in 2 hits. With no means of healing yourself or re-filling your magic, the apes destroy Spyro in a matter of seconds. You are revived to the spot you started at (again) and Sparx suddenly says; “Hay, try to not to die again!”. With high blood pressure, built up anger and completely frustrated, the only logical response is to shout at the TV screen and say; “WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK I’VE BEEN DOING FOR THE PAST 2 HOURS?!”

“The Eternal Night” is the sequel to the first ‘Legend of Spyro’ title; “A New Beginning”. The ‘Legend of Spyro’ is a trilogy that ‘revises’ the character Spyro, from a cute child-friendly dragon to a combat, all action hero. The new games were met with mixed reaction, from fans they cried out for the old Spyro while game reviewers welcomed the new change and platform-based game play. Though I loved Spyro since he was introduced on the Playstation and hold the games quite highly today, the ‘formula’ of gem collecting and cheesy cartoon-ish baddies was starting to wear thin by the time he came to the PS2. When ‘A New Beginning’ was released I was hesitant, missing the lovable innocent dragon, but I thought the first instalment in the ‘Legend of Spyro’ was quite enjoyable. Nothing ground breaking but I’d hoped that this game would be the starting platform onto something greater. I eagerly waited for the sequel, I added ‘Eternal Night’ onto my Christmas list, I insert the disc in my PS2, and by the end of it I was ready to smash it into tiny pieces!

‘The Eternal Night’ picks up directly where ‘A New Beginning’ ends; Spyro has lost all of his powers after the battle with Cynder and stopping the Dark Master from resurrecting. But The Dark Master isn’t about to give up yet, as the Ape King has his eyes set on ‘The Well of Souls’ and plans to resurrect him on the night of Eternal Darkness. Can Spyro regain his powers and stop the ape king?

The controls are a direct copy as the previous instalment; jump, glide and attacks are allocated to the same buttons. The game relies heavily on combat to complete the game, you have a choice of either melee attacks or a choice of 4 elemental breaths; fire, ice, electricity and earth. However unlike the previous game, the elemental attacks have undergone a small change. Instead of just having one button to breath a fire and another to unleash a special attack (that wasn’t much different from the other elementals) they now all have their own specialities. For example Spyro can now turn into an electric whirlwind or unleash an ‘earth bubble’ that can send the enemies flying! Or Spyro can perform an ice-effused tail whip that temporarily slows down enemies. So basically combat isn’t as repetitive as before, it still dominates the game but finding new ways to dispose of enemies is somewhat fun and creative.

Or, if the elementals aren’t enough for you, ‘Eternal Night’ introduces the new ability, ‘Dragon Time’. It’s basically the now over-used ‘bullet time’ ability, after pressing the button to activate it you have a limited time in which the world around Spyro slows down considerably. This ability is mainly to help Spyro progress in the game by slowing down fast platforms that he has to reach, but it also helps as back up in some boss battles and enemy encounters. 

Despite the controls being lifted from ‘A New Beginning’ a problem has somehow generated from development; Spyro can perform a ‘double jump’ just like before, which helps Spyro glide from a greater height. However the space you get to press the appropriate button twice in order to active it is very small. After pressing once, you have not even a second to react and press again; otherwise Spyro will start to glide at a lower height, often resulting in not reaching the platform required and trying again. Once the problem is picked up you learn to work around it but it’s extremely frustrating to compensate for this when you’d rather be concentrating on playing and having fun, rather than what’s going on with the buttons! 

Like the prequel, Spyro cannot increase his maximum health or magic throughout the game, but you can increase Spyro’s breath power via the upgrade menu which uses blue gems picked up from enemies and crystals. Though blue gems are harder to come by as the blue crystals are hidden for most of the game and are not always given when enemies are defeated. Therefore increasing Spyro’s breath powers is not as easy as the previous game, often leaving a weak Spyro up against much stronger enemies.

The enemies are ugly, strong and very annoying

The graphics have not improved since ‘A New Beginning’, at all. Sure some of Spyro’s fury attacks and moves are performed in another way so they now look different but in no way does this game push the PS2’s boundaries. The character designs have been re-used, level layouts have been re-structured but offer no variation and the same colour palette has been used from the previous instalment. Considering now that the PS2 is at the end of its life cycle, Krome Studios were incredibly lazy in this department.

Like pretty much everything else from this title, the music score re-uses many tracks from the first game. A few new ones have been composed (such as the sweeping out-of-place ballad sung during the credits) but there’s nothing there that will strike you and it doesn’t bring anything to the game, if ‘Eternal Night’ was silent throughout you probably wouldn’t notice the difference. The SFX, again recycled from ‘A New Beginning’, are clear enough and do the job required.

Elijah Wood and Gary Oldman return to reprise their roles of Spyro and Ignitus respectively, also Billy West (voice of Fry in Futurama) and Martin Jarvis join the cast, despite being ‘big name actors’ they don’t live up to their fame. It’s quite clear that the actors had little direction; several times I’m sure that a particular line in the script was meant to be sarcastic, yet Elijah Wood says the line in an upbeat friendly tone – no sarcasm to be heard. Compared to their performances in the previous game, the actors were obviously not warming up to this instalment, to be fair though, the script wasn't exactly a piece of art. 

Where most of the frustration from this game comes from is the ridiculous difficulty level!

Sure, the puzzles and concept is very easy to grasp and combat is basically button bashing, that’s not the problem. The problem lies with the battles themselves and that the unforgiving controls can lead to so many character deaths!

I cannot begin to count how many times Spyro was absurdly out numbered in battle, or had to face bosses that were capable of killing Spyro in literally 2 hits! It’s just unbelievable; it’s almost like Krome Studios at first intended for Spyro to be ultra powerful and have all his powers from the first game, therefore having enemies’ ultra powerful too. But then changed their minds about Spyro towards the end of development and forgot about the enemies!

The situation explained in my opening paragraph is one in many, due to this, player’s will most likely abuse “Dragon Time” to stay alive or pray that they’ll get enough fury gems to perform the ultra powerful attack and finish the battle quickly. To add insult to injury, Spyro can be harmed while being flung across the fielded by the previous enemy’s attack, while enemies become invincible when they are knocked down, only to get back up again with increased health.

This is not helped with the lack of check points. The previous game, when Spyro died, it restarted the player to the beginning of the section he happened to have died in. This helped with some of the tougher baddies as Spyro was able simply to tackle them straight away instead of ploughing through the level leading up to them. However in ‘The Eternal Night’, check points are far and few, combining with unfair battles and fragile controls can lead players to repeat the same sections many times over. Another annoyance is certain check points occur just before a cut scene, if you happen to die you have to watch the cut scene AGAIN! It gives no option to skip so you end up watching the same scene over and over again if you happen to be facing a difficult boss! It’s completely unnecessary and ridiculous!

I’ve played computer games for a very long time, sure some titles are quite difficult and yet are still enjoyable, and no game should be completely dismissed due to difficulty. However when the difficulty is raised so high that defeating enemies relies more on luck than skill, and your character is killed numerous times for no good reason, the fun dies very quickly. Especially when the rest of the game is no different to its older counterpart, only the most loyal Spyro fans will see this game to the end.

The title is aimed at children, the age rating is 7+, yet I cannot begin to imagine how a 7 year old would be able to complete this game without wanting to scream out in frustration continuously.

Despite the horrible game play, ‘The Eternal Night’ comes with means to keep the player coming back for more. Unlockables include in-game artwork and mini games; these can be viewed if a player collects a certain amount of items throughout the game. There are feathers, green masks and orange masks, many hidden and require exploration in order to find them. With over 30 features and 5 masks of each colour, there’s plenty scattered throughout the story, the question is however would you really want to go looking for them when the main game is as awful as it is? Many of the ‘platform’ game genre elements come into play when looking for these items, these include precise jump timing and climbing obstacles. However a hefty number of the items happen to be located over bottomless pits of doom or any other obstacle that results in death if not performed correctly, and considering the control scheme, death is a likely occurrence. If you have happened to defeat an enemy that took you ages to do and you are not sure whether you’ve progressed enough in the game to reach a check point, you’ll be constantly asking yourself’; “Is it really worth risk dying and doing the whole of this section again, all for one feather?”. Sadly, the answer will most likely be a no.

After the first ‘Legend of Spyro’ game, I didn’t have high expectations, but I did have SOME expectations! Even though a few very small elements that were improved from the first game, they were overwhelmed by so much that went wrong or were simply copied from the previous title, luckily the actual game is short in length (excluding all the times to re-load after dying). I can only hope that the 3^rd instalment, (‘The Darkest Hour’, slated for a late 2008 release) learns from this title’s mistakes and delivers a game that’s not only enjoyable and worth while but playable! Whether you enjoyed ‘A New Beginning’ or not, this game is not worth your time.

I can only recommend this game if you;

A) Like the sound of a dying dragon

B) Get a kick out of losing constantly, or

C) Are a die hard fan of Spyro.

Poor Spyro, come back when you’ve dumped Krome Studios!

Title: Super Mario Galaxy

Genre: Platform, Adventure

Platform: Wii

Certificate: 3+

Nunchuck Controller Needed?: Yes

Rating: 4/5

Synopsis: Every 100 years, a comet flies past the planet, dropping star bits as it passes and involves the planet in a white light. On this day, a festival occurs and Mario plans to go to the festival with his special one, Peach. However as he makes his way to Peach’s castle, Bowser decides to ruin this special event and captures Peach, to use her as part of his plans to take over the universe!

Wow! What can I say! I can see why it’s flying off the selves just like the Wii is!

To be honest, I’m not the biggest Mario fan, I’ve been more of a Sonic gal myself; my brother is the one who has 100% completed Super Mario 64 and Luigi’s Mansion, plus he insists on playing Mario Party most of the time. Mario has a huge legacy and even though I’ve not been that interested in him, I was intrigued by this title. It’s currently the most played game in my household at the moment, with both me and my brother playing with mum supporting!

The graphics are literally flawless, the graphics made me wide-eyes on “Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games” but this title tops that instantly, you can see all the textures of each surface, such as the shine on wet floors and the rough-ness on a wooden planet – they really are gorgeous! They are loads of fun and varied levels that are also diverse in difficulty to make both newbies and hard core gamers happy; such as finding hidden items, racing various characters, completing a level with only one life and collecting 100 purple coins! There are lots to do and when you think it’s over, there’s even more fun to behold. The music is also brilliantly composed, it captures many elements from previous Mario scores and adds its own spin to them as well.

I think that the ‘cuteness’ of some of the new characters and the story may ‘put off’ some players, but if you can believe that a fat Italian plumber can fight off a gigantic dim-witted dinosaur to save his all-pink and thrills ‘damsel in distress’ girlfriend, why not a cute star baby that can transform into planets? The controls also seem easy and fluid at first, but sometimes when you walk upside down on a planet the control can reverse suddenly, and some of Mario’s power ups (such as the spring and flying Mario) can really prove to be a challenge, more often frustrating!   

Originally I gave Mario Galaxy 4.5/5, but after finishing the game and unlocking a new mode I've dropped it to 4, reason being is that the new mode allows you to play as a different character - but apart from being a slightly better jumper and alternating the difficulty of some of the hidden stars, there's no difference between Mario's and the other character's modes! Which is a shame since with the new character they could've done many funny and interesting things with the dialogue, story, everything! Yet they didn't...wasted opportunity.

Overall though, a must have title for any Wii owner.

Title: Mario Party 8

Genre: Party, Board Game

Platform: Wii

Certificate: 3+

Nunchuck Controller Needed?: No

Rating: 3/5

Anyone who follows Mario would know of this series, for those who don’t, the ‘Mario Party’ series is basically a party game that features all the lovable characters from the Mario series onto a computer game version of a board game. The players have to collect coins within each board and purchase stars, the one with the highest amount of stars after certain amount of turns wins the game. Most of the titles in the series have very little different content from each other, so far I’ve played 2, 4 and 5 of the series and the only major difference between them is the selection of mini games and graphics. Is Mario Part 8 any different? No in short. But it has brought forward some nice elements I’d like to see in the future; on the other hand I’d like it to get rid off problems that have existed since the series began!

The graphics are nice enough, shows off the textures of the water and other surfaces nicely enough but compared to my current Wii collection it is one of the weakest, being less detailed and not exactly pushing the console’s boundaries.

There are added boards, though look identical to previous games, the rules have slightly been altered. So instead of purchasing stars you have to find the appropriate character to fork them over or you need to invest in hotels to come out on top - I like this variation of gameplay outside the mini games, instead of just wandering around the board buying stars. I’m also fond of the less screen time the CPU characters get whilst playing, in previous games you had to witness them make decisions on the board, play mini games, etc, though we still witness the mini games the whole ‘board’ playing is reduced – a step in the absolutely RIGHT direction! Hopefully the next title will take it even further.

The selections of mini games are a hit and miss; at a glance they appear very much the same compared to previous selections. Although some of the games make good use of the Wii remote in fun ways, other times they seem to be lifted off the Gamecube capabilities. Going from shaking the Wii remote up and down to pressing down on the d-pad seems quite odd; in addition the controls and rules for some of the games are a bit peculiar as well. For example on a previous 2 player racing game one player controls the speed whilst the other manoeuvres the vehicle, in the racing game on this title, BOTH characters control the direction of the vehicle, which leads to over-doing a turn whilst playing, so it’s quite unbalanced.

If you feel the whole gameplay has been stretched as far as it can go and hope this latest title will prove you wrong, don’t bother forking out the money as it doesn’t. One player action can get tiresome, multiplayer can be fun at times, but with many other party games available on the wii that perform much better than Mario Party 8, this title is only for die-hard fans! 

Title: Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games

Genre: Sports Party Game

Platform: Wii and DS

Certificate: 3+

Nunchuck Controller Needed?: Yes for Some Events

Rating: 4/5

When I read about this game coming out on Wikipedia, I had to rub my eyes; I thought it was a cruel, mean joke! For years I’ve read in mags such as “Offical Nintendo Magazine” where people have written in saying why Mario is better than Sonic or visa versa, now two major companies plus two of the most famous mascots in gaming history have joined forces to make this very brilliant game! It’s probably one of the best marketing techniques ever, why decide between a Sonic or Mario game when you can play both characters on the same disc? It's fantastic! So why have I not rated it 5/5?

The reasons are quite simple and probably could’ve been avoided if they were picked up before by the developers – but no game is perfect eh?

First of all, although you have a wide range of playable characters from both series, several characters that would’ve been a great addition have been left out. For example I cannot think as to why Blaze the Cat was chosen over Rouge the Bat, when Rouge has proved to be more popular and in more previous Sonic titles. Also, even though you can unlock different events and difficulties of other events, you cannot unlock anymore characters – that was a wasted opportunity! I mean come on I would’ve loved to see Boo race against Shadow! Or Toad against Tails! Such a shame really…

Secondly; in several of the events, if you do not perform a ‘jump’ or ‘throw’ correctly or do so too soon you often see the “Foul” text upon the screen, which is fair enough. However if you perform a triple jump and you get a “good” rating for each jump only to be told at the very end that your first jump was an inch over the ‘jump’ line, it is very annoying! It would’ve been better and nicer if they notify you as you make the foul jump rather than leading you to believe that you’ve broken the world record and actually end up forfeiting your turn altogether!

And last but not least; it’s so bloody tiring! Seriously I played for 2 days and my arms were ready to fall off! And doing the ‘dream race’ made my heart pound harder than I’ve ever heard it before! Its bags full of fun but if you’re ill or if your arms are still hurting from the previous game, you’ll not exactly be in a hurry to play again.

On the whole there’s enough to play by yourself or with friends, plus the brilliant graphics and enjoyable gameplay to keep all Mario and Sonic fans happy! If Wii Sports is not enough for you, try this!!

Title: Sonic and the Secret Rings

Genre: Adventure, Action, Fantasy, Platform

Platform: Wii

Certificate: 7+

Nunchuck Controller Needed?: No

Rating: 2.5/5

Synopsis: One day, while looking at a book on Arabian nights, he accidentally frees a genie by the name of Shahra. She tells of an evil being known as Erazor Djinn, who is wiping out the pages of the book in order to make the world of Arabian nights his own! Asking for Sonic’s help, he is sucked into the book and must battle this new foe before it’s too late.

I was very reluctant to give the game a 2.5 out of 5 rating, originally I contemplated a 2 but I eventually settled for 2.5 since it is a Sonic game and I had to give the benefit of the doubt since I haven’t completed it yet.

I have loved and pretty much followed Sonic’s progress from the Sega Mega Drive to now the Wii, I love both the 2D platformers on the 16-bit console and the 3D adventures on the Gamecube, when I heard he had moved to the Wii and also the PS3 – I aimed to make sure that the Sonic titles would be one of the first games I get for each console. At first, this game showed promise but after several attempts it’s proved to be more of a chore rather than an enjoyable game!

I know it’s an early title for the Wii but the control system is awful! Some of the controls (such as back step) don’t work and others need an extreme reaction to make them take effect. For example I had to literally throw the Wii remote at the senor bar to register a homing attack, with most times failing to and resulting in death! And even if you succeed the lock-on doesn’t always work so you end up plunging to your doom anyway! I’m sure that this is the game that caused all the property damage and physical injuries to players when the Wii was first realised because it was the only way to make most of the controls effective! Plus I hate the fact that Sonic is constantly moving, you have to hold a button down to stop him. The speed he walks and not knowing how to stop him at the start of the game is enough to strike fear into any new player’s hearts.

Controls aside the way the whole game is layout is tiresome, instead of the whole ‘learning curve’ at the beginning being all one level, each move has it’s own ‘page’ in the ‘storybook’ (also know as section) of the adventure menu, it’s annoying having to select each mission, do it, come out and have to select the next one when a simple fade away to the next would have been much smoother. The only positive things I can say are the voice acting is ok, the ‘comic panel’ story telling is interesting and the graphics are pleasable.

I think this will be one of the last titles I complete of my current Wii collection; it’s no where near as fun, enjoyable or as easy to play as previous titles from the Sonic collection. Don’t get me wrong, I think that performing Sonic’s moves and attacks using the remote is a great idea, it makes you feel part of the action, but when it only works 10% of the time, THAT’S not a good idea!

Title: Tomb Raider: Anniversary

Genre: Action, Adventure, Platform

Platform: Playstation 2, PSP, Xbox 360, Wii, Windows PC

Certificate: 16+

Nunchuck Controller Needed?: Yes

Rating: 3.5/5

Synopsis: Lara Croft has been hired by Jacqueline Natla to find one of the three pieces of an artefact known as the Atlantean Scion. The offer intrigues Lara as both her and her father have been searching for this artefact for a long while. As she travels to the ice land of Peru and journeys deep into the ruins, it seems Natla has something up her sleeve…

I’ve not been an avid follower of Lara Croft; I remember playing the original Tomb Raider on the Playstation that my friend lent me. I got stuck on the dinosaur but had to give back the game to my friend who eventually moved away and I wasn’t that interested to hire it out from my local Blockbuster at the time. Sure I admire the character since she’s hot, British and has a cool career, but I only really purchased this title since I liked the advert on TV and it was the only title on the Woolworths self that looked enjoyable.

The graphics are lifted from the PS2 version (according to a review I’ve read), which look nice and are detailed enough but a little ‘upgrade’ would’ve been nice, to reduce some of the glitches that I’ve noticed. The music score is nice enough to present the atmosphere, and the main theme on the title screen is soothing just like the original version on the PS1. I like the structure of the levels and the thought-required puzzles involved, although sometimes you perform moves that don’t always go according to plan, the game is quite enjoyable throughout. (I’m also very happy that I’ve finally got passed that stupid dinosaur! Yay!)

Like it says on the box, the Wii version does have some exclusive features; such as the ‘rubbing awards’, meaning you uncover ancient tablets in your surroundings and some puzzles have been altered to incorporate the Wii’s special features.

I also like the ‘interactive’ cut scenes, so instead of just watching Lara back flip, grab her guns and shoot the daylights out of the pack of wolves; you get given commands to shake your controls so that you feel part of the action. The other versions of this game do have interactive cut scenes but require button combinations; I think movements are easier and more fun to perform with physical movements than punching in buttons.

The biggest drawback of this title is the controls; first of all it relies too much on the ‘cursor’ of the Wii remote itself. The cursor is used to aim your gun, aim your flashlight, control the camera…so most of Lara’s moves, which is actually a bit tiresome. Plus also, for several parts of the game particular moves do not work unless executed in a certain way. Too many times have I jumped Lara towards a pole, Lara goes through the pole. I jump Lara towards the ledge to grab on; Lara fails to see the platform and falls to her doom. I jump Lara and release the grapple towards a hook, the grapple doesn’t grab and again I hear Lara’s spine snap in half. There are long periods of gameplay where it all works fine but when you reach a section when nothing seems to go your way and you’ve happen to have picked up items in the progress you have to pick them up again when restarting at the check point!

Another area where controllers are against you is during combat. On the PS2 version, all you have to do is hold L1 to lock onto the target, and no matter where your enemy goes your gun is sure to damage them when you fire. However on the Wii version the Z button (on the nunchuck) brings out Lara’s guns and locks onto the wii cursor, meaning that you’ll hit the enemy if the wii cursor is aimed at he enemy. This seems fine at first and somewhat fun but when the enemy moves or you get knocked over or the camera angle changes or all of the above, you have to re-aim with your remote or re position the camera and hope the enemy stands still long enough for you to shoot, it also doesn’t help if you don’t have a sturdy hand! This form of control may make you feel like you’re part of the action but it also gives you an unfair advantage compared to PS2 players. Eventually combat becomes easier to handle but the first boss will put most players into frustration.

Thankfully combat is a small part of the game compared to the rest, and when the controls are on your side, the game is fun to play.

The only other nick-pick thing is the subtitles, they are quite small which is fine if you sit quite close to the television but if you’re sitting at a healthy distance you end up squinting your eyes. Also when characters are talking, instead of saying “Lara: blah bah, Larson: blah, blah”, all the text rolls into one, no names are mentioned, so it looks like only one person is talking. It looks strange if you can’t hear what the characters are saying and have to refer to the text (like I was the other day when the house happened to be quite noisy) and in addition it looks lazy.  

I’m quite glad I’ve picked up this title now; despite the controls I’m quite enjoying this title. I also know that once I’ve completed the game I have several things to unlock on my second playthrough – a good reason to come back to this game. Whether Lara Croft is a good friend or a complete stranger to you, there are lots of elements here that will appeal to many gamers. Hire out if you’re unsure but I can guarantee, it’s worth the money!