By Rob Siebert
Editor, Fanboy Wonder

The newest trailer for the Attitude Era mode in THQ’s WWE ’13 features none other than “the People’s Champion,” The Rock.

The trailer sees the wrestler-turned-actor taking on some of his most heated rivals, including Stone Cold Steve Austin and Triple H.

WWE ’13 comes out in North America on October 30. It will be available on Playstation 3, XBox 360 and Nintendo Wii.

Front page image from bleacherreport.com. 

TITLE: New Super Mario Bros. 2
PLATFORM: Nintendo 3DS
DEVELOPER: Nintendo EAD
PUBLISHER: Nintendo
ESRB: E
RELEASED: August  19, 2012

By Justin Polak
Co-Founder, Ambassador to the Mushroom Kingdom

Six years after the original New Super Mario Bros. is released, Nintendo unleashes the third title in the “New” series, New Super Mario Bros. 2. Why is number 2 the third game? Well, that’s because New Super Mario Bros. Wii was on shelves back in 2009! Ah, video games and their crazy sequel naming schemes! Okay, so I guess they consider the handheld and console “New” titles somewhat separate. It’s still weird!

I won’t bother making the joke that calling this series “new” is a wise thing or not, because enough video game journalists have done that already. However, I have to admit that questioning if Mario is growing stale or not is a legitimate point. At their core, 2D Mario games, as well as the 3D ones (but in their own realm), really don’t change much. What makes each game stand out is the finer details. Ever since the series’ inception, Nintendo has been good about shaking things up every other title.

For example, the original Super Mario Bros. started it all, obviously. The Japanese version (known as The Lost Levels in Super Mario All-Stars for US folk) evolved the original game slightly by making the game far more difficult while changing Mario and Luigi’s jump physics. Super Mario Bros. 3 kept the core gameplay, but revolutionized the series by adding world maps, multiple powers, bosses besides Bowser and many more tweaks. Super Mario World took what made SMB3 great and evolved certain concepts to fit the Super Nintendo. By the time Super Mario 64 hit the scene, Nintendo once again took the core of what makes a Mario game, and totally revolutionized the series with 3D gameplay. As expected, Super Mario Sunshine took an original concept, like SMB2 and SMW, and expanded on it.

Super Mario Galaxy was the last time Nintendo truly took the series to new places. I enjoyed Super Mario Galaxy 2 and NSMBW, but for the first time Mario sequels took a concept and kept going with it instead of tweaking or evolving it, aside from some very minor changes. Super Mario 3D Land was another great title, but at the end of the day it was the video game equivalent of a band’s greatest hits album.

I once again find myself enjoying a new Mario title, but I am growing concerned with the lack of innovation. Don’t get me wrong, the levels are still brilliantly designed, controlling Mario feels as tight as ever, plenty of secrets are to be found and the game still retains the usual easy to learn, tough to master feel. I just think that the charm of “what’s old is new again” is wearing thin. It’s great to see that Raccoon Mario is back, but at this point I feel that Nintendo is relying a little too much on old school memories to hold up NSMB2 and the brand name in general.

While the game does bring a new concept to the table, which is coin collecting, I have to admit that it’s very underwhelming. For the first time in Mario history, the total coins you have collected gets added up and displayed on a counter on the world map. There are newer ways to collect coins too, like the notable spin on the fire flower power up. Occasionally, Mario can collect a gold fire flower which grants him that ability to unleash much more powerful fireballs which produces more coins as well. There are also ways to turn enemies a gold color which, again, makes it easier to collect coins. If you have the time and patience to collect a million coins your rewards is…a new title screen.

Look, I’m alright with Nintendo giving us another classic based 2D Mario title. As much as I enjoyed the early 3D games, I remember thinking back then that it would be nice to see the old formula make a return someday. However, Nintendo needs to stop relying on familiar visuals and gimmicky concepts like coin collecting to deliver a top notch Mario game. Sooner or later, even the hardest of the hardcore Nintendo fanboys are going to grow tired of it. What worries me that that the upcoming New Super Mario Bros. U doesn’t look like it is going to change much either. I get that there are slight variances between the “New” games between handheld and console…but that’s all they are.

I’m not trying to be a typical internet cynic. In fact, at the end of the day I would still recommend this NSMB2, especially if you enjoyed either New Super Mario Bros. title before it. I just feel that I should give a fair warning that at the game’s core, you have already played it twice. I also am worried because through thick and thin, Nintendo has always been good about innovating their big titles like Mario, and I’m starting to see the company spin its wheels. It always brings me a warm feeling when I play a new Mario game, but I think it’s time Nintendo builds a new playground.

RATING: 7/10

Front page image, image 2 and image 3 from theverge.com. Image 1 from wii.mmgn.com. 

By Rob Siebert
Editor, Fanboy Wonder

A new promo for WWE ’13 features “The Baddest Man on the Planet” Mike Tyson discussing his time in WWE and hyping the game. Tyson talks about stepping into the ring with the likes of Stone Cold Steve Austin, John Cena and Brock Lesnar. The video features a brief appearance by Paul Heyman, as he impersonates Mickey Goldmill from Rocky.

Front page image from joystiq.com. 

By Rob Siebert
Editor, Fanboy Wonder

A new trailer for WWE ’13 is inviting gamers to relive the company’s “Attitude Era” from the late ’90s via the game’s Attitude Era mode.

The Attitude Era mode will act as a sort of Season mode for the game, allowing gamers to play as various wrestlers as they progress through the 65 match mode. As the trailer below indicates, such wrestlers will include Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Undertaker, Kane, The Rock, Mankind, Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Bret Hart and more. Players will also be able to unlock Attitude Era photos and videos, as well as bonus characters and arenas.

As an added bonus, fans who pre-order WWE ’13 will be able to unlock Mike Tyson as a playable character in the game.

For more on WWE ’13, check out WWE.THQ.com.

Front page image from thq.com. 

By Rob Siebert
Editor, Fanboy Wonder

Megaman and Sonic the Hedgehog, two icons in the world of video games, will meet in 2013.

They won’t be on screen, however. They’ll be in the pages of a 12-issue Archie Comics crossover that will run between the company’s Mega Man, Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Universe titles. The story will be written by Ian Flynn, with Patrick Spaziante drawing the covers.

In an interview with USA Today, Paul Kaminski, the man who edits all three titles, said Capcom and Sega, the companies that own Mega Man and Sonic respectively, agreed to the deal last fall.

“They’re both fun, adventurous and open to everyone,” Flynn told USA Today. “They both have heavy sci-fi themes, mainly robotics, underpinning them that give us something to build from and play off each other. That, and they both have mad-scientist nemeses with fabulous mustaches!”

By next year, Archie will have been publishing Sonic the Hedgehog comic books for 20 years. When Mega Man made its debut last year, Flynn said the company already had a good idea of how to handle it because of their success with Sonic.

But in an interview with Newsarama, Flynn said the heroes won’t be pals from the get go. They’ll actually be coming to blows.

“Sonic is known for smashing robots. Mega Man doesn’t do well around pointy objects,” Flynn said. “In any good crossover, you inevitably have the Hero vs. Hero fight. It’s just fun.”

On the other hand, Dr. Wily and Eggman will apparently be “the best of friends from the word go. They have so much in common – dreams of world domination, affinity for goofy killer robots, trouble with blue heroes – that they instantly bond.”

Promotional art for the crossover features not only the two main heroes, but Protoman, Knuckles, Bass and Shadow.

Click here for Justin’s half-assed walkthrough of Mega Man 2.
Images from newsarama.com.

TITLE: Fez
PLATFORM: XBLA
DEVELOPER: Polytron
PUBLISHER: Microsoft Studios, Trapdoor, Polytron
ESRB: E
RELEASED: April 13, 2012

By Justin Polak
Co-founder, Ambassador to the Mushroom Kingdom

I completely forgot that Fez even existed since it had such a long development time of roughly five years. I also remember being sold on the game when I saw a short preview video that showcased the game’s basic mechanics. Occasionally, the game would pop in my mind and I would wonder just when the hell would it be released. I even feared that it would be cancelled or become vaporware. Obviously, that isn’t that case seeing how you’re reading this review, but as usual with any game, big studio, (or in this case), independently developed, the tried but true question to always ask is if the wait was worth it.

My answer would have to be absolutely. I’m the type of person who loves games that are rich with atmosphere; the more mysterious the better, and Fez certainly delivers on that front. The game could have carried itself just fine using typical old school styled graphics with basic platforming, but thankfully it carries a unique spin to liven up the gameplay.

I guess you could take the last part of what I just said literally as Fez mixes in the puzzle with the platform by letting the player rotate perspectives in 90 degree increments, allowing four ways to view the game’s world. The catch is that while the world is 3D, each perspective treats the game as if it was 2D. For example, if a pathway or floating block seems out of reach, rotating the world usually saves the day. There is something insanely satisfying by partaking in simply turning the world. It would be like if you were to step into a painting of an optical illusion and were allowed to play around until you could work out how the forced perspectives were created.

Using this technique, it is up to you to control Gomez, the main character, to find the shattered pieces of the Hexahedron scattered throughout a seamless world. While you do need a certain amount of cubes (and/or anti-cubes) to access certain areas, you are basically allowed to explore the world in any order you want. Some cubes can be found by collecting eight cube bits at a time, while others only require you to reach a certain area of a section of the map. Anti-cubes and other puzzles require you to decode hints with subtle visual cues. I haven’t had to bust out a pen and paper for a video game in years.

While you could easily look up a solution online, that defeats the purpose of Fez, especially because the feeling of reward you get for solving a puzzle feels so damn good. You aren’t offered a helping hand in this adventure. Hell, you aren’t even offered a helping finger! Though, I do have to admit that some of the puzzles are a little too obscure for their own good. I don’t want to ruin anything for readers who haven’t played the game yet, but if you do crack and look up a solution, you’ll still be left scratching your head only because you’ll wonder just how you were supposed to work some solutions out with context barley bigger than a grain of sand.

Going back to talking about the game’s atmosphere for a bit, Fez features a chillingly-excellent-chiptune soundtrack by Disasterpeace. To be honest, I got just as lost in the music as I did the game itself. This is one of the few soundtracks I have heard that features mainly ambient music that is surprisingly listenable outside the game. If anything, it offered a different experience in itself, whether you are familiar with Fez or not. While I am known occasionally for gushing about video game music as it is, I mean it when I say this soundtrack is already one of my favorites. On off chance that you are reading this Disasterpeace (otherwise known as Rich Vreeland), my hat — er fez — goes off to you.

Anyway, while I realize that Fez was created with a laid back, relaxed state of mind to it, some players might be disappointed in the lack of obstacles (other than puzzle based ones) and enemies. If someone were to bring that up to me as an example of why they couldn’t get into the game, I would disagree, but I would also understand were they are coming from. The only other real fault is the price every puzzle based game like this pays: once you solve everything, subsequent playthroughs won’t be nearly as much fun as your first.

All in all, Fez is en experience worth diving into, even if I don’t have as much fun next time I venture through it. This is one of those games where all the elements came perfectly together to create a beautiful, memorable adventure that ranks up there with the best games. Also, it turns out to justify its lengthy development time! If you have an Xbox 360 (as that looks to be the only place you can get it currently), download this game right now!

RATING: 9/10

Front page image and screenshots from giantbomb.com.

Oh dear, here we go again.

How our old buddy Justin comes up with these ideas, we may never know. But the avid gamer and Final Fantasy nut has put together a little YouTube mix featuring footage of an adorable little duckling, and some music that FF fans should be more than familiar with…

For more from Justin, check out his YouTube page.
Front page image from gamefaqs.com. 

By Rob Siebert
Editor, Fanboy Wonder

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and DC Entertainment announced this week that  Injustice: Gods Among Us, a new fighting game featuring DC Comics heroes and villains in in the works.

NetherRealm Studios, the company behind last year’s Mortal Kombat remake, will create the game.

The trailer (shown below) features footage of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Lex Luthor, Harley Quinn and Solomon Grundy pounding away on one another.

Images from comicbookresources.com. 

TITLE: Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D
PLATFORM: 3DS
DEVELOPER: Kojima Productions
PUBLISHER: Konami
ESRB: M
RELEASED: Febuary 21, 2012

By Justin Polak
Co-founder, Ambassador to the Mushroom Kingdom

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is my favorite MGS game to date. The setting, characters, music and many other aspects captured my imagination back in 2004. The Subsistence version, released two years later, fixed minor problems like camera control and had loads of goodies. Last year, that same version was included in the HD collection for the PlayStation 3. One might be asking themselves if a 3DS port is necessary at this point, even from someone like me. Well, let’s find out!

As far as the controls go, MGS3D gave me my first experience with the Circle Pad Pro attachment. It felt kind of funky at first, but I got used to it as the game progressed. Plus, it’s a hell of a lot better than using the 3DS by itself. However, neither control scheme lets you automatically center the camera, something this game, especially on a handheld, desperately needed.

One of the more innovative elements about MGS3 was the backpack inventory system. Through a series of menus, Snake can select camouflage, eat food to maintain stamina, heal severe injuries, select weapons and perform other various tasks. While the focus on more survival `based stealth was fun, I never liked how you had to pause the action to do just about anything. It was annoying to change into better camo because you moved a few feet or stop to remove a gunshot wound in the middle of a heated boss battle.

The touchscreen now handles those functions, and while you don’t have to spend as much time clicking through menus thanks to shortcuts, the action still stops whenever you need to manage anything out of your backpack. It does succeed in making the effort less clunky, but the constant pausing still throws the pacing off.

What I did l enjoy was the inclusion of MGS4-like controls. It’s a lot easier to run and gun, for example. You can also move around in first person mode and even prop the camera behind the shoulder. Kojima Productions also included the red or blue damage indicators from Peace Walker which helps make life easier on the smaller screen. I have to admit that I wish the console versions included these features.

As far as the 3D itself goes, the effect works adequately for MGS3D.  They put effort into making the cinematic scenes more dramatic but not annoyingly so, where everything is popping out at you.  The 3D doesn’t really add that much to the overall experience, but I would by lying if I said it wasn’t a nice touch.

MGS3 veterans will notice right off the bat that some sacrifices were made to fit this game on the tiny 3DS cart. There is a lower frame rate, but it wasn’t as choppy as I thought as it was going to be before I first played it. The only real frame rate issues happen during some cut scenes, and even then it’s not that much worse than how it was on the PS2.

However, it is obvious where they made sacrifices. Aside from a few textures being a little more on the blurry side, there is obvious texture pop-in. It’s mainly shows as the vegetation around snake suddenly grows just a few feet ahead of him. The way it looked at times actually reminded me of how the Forest Spirit in the anime movie Princess Mononoke had plants grow wherever it stepped! That effect didn’t ruin anything for me, but still, more picky people out there might want to take a look at videos online before making a purchase.

A small, but fun addition is the ability to make camo by using the 3DS camera. You don’t even have to quit the game to either take a photo you already have and convert it, or even take a pic while you are in the middle of a session! It’s tough to actually photograph something that will work well with Snake, but it certainly is possible. My cat’s fur pattern was the best camo in the game at a couple of points!

At the end of the day, while I like the ability to play MGS3 wherever I go, I already had three copies of this game to begin with. This version sports the smoothest battle/stealth controls (with the Circle Pad Pro), but I still prefer the console versions, especially the HD version on the PS3. As a handheld game it works surprisingly well, long cutscenes and all. They even considered battery life by making the alert/evasion/caution phases a lot shorter, but actually having guards hunt for you for a long period of time is an aspect that I loved in the original version.

I would say that it is really up to personal tastes if you should own MSG3D. I’m a big enough fan to enjoy it on the go, despite my console HD preference. A person who had never played the game before might enjoy it, but I don’t think there are that many people who are into the MGS series that haven’t already trekked through this gem. The port was a fantastic effort by Kojima  Productions, but I don’t think it was entirely necessary to port MGS3 to a handheld.

RATING: 7/10

Front page image and screenshots courtesy of Konami.

TITLE: Xenoblade Chronicles
PLATFORM: Wii
DEVELOPER: Monolith Soft
PUBLISHER: Nintendo
ESRB: T
RELEASED: April 6, 2012

By Stephen McCarthy
Staff Writer, Evil Genius

Xenoblade Chronicles has finally been released, after a tremulous journey from Japan to our store shelves here in the states. After Europe got the game well before us and campaigns to get Nintendo of America to do the laziest thing possible and give us what the UK received, Nintendo caved and did exactly that. After all of this, was it worth all of the hype and praise that has been handed too it? Was it worth mounting a campaign to beg Nintendo to bring this stateside? I think it was worthwhile but I don’t think it is deserving of all the praise.

For quite a while the JRPG has been having some issues. It was the place to go for a good story and creative expansive worlds back in the late ’90s, but with games and technology catching up in terms of storytelling and world building, it seems to have had some trouble keeping up. The story is still more or less there, but the gameplay is old, stale and menu driven, and in the past years some games have been trying to find a way to make it more interactive and draw elements from other RPGs, from Fallout to Diablo to standard MMOs. These have all been somewhat hit and miss, and I think this game succeeds in a more traditional sense while falling all over itself when it comes to its more western-inspired elements.

While it is fairly fun, I think the game is held back by what I feel are design flaws. The menus, item management, sidequests and whatnot are all implemented in a way that I think seems like an afterthought. Quests are mainly fetch-based; a person asks for x number of items or x number of monsters to be killed, and so on and so forth. Rarely is it that you get something remotely interesting, like going down into a cave to search for an item that can mean everything to the village. Half the time the quest giver doesn’t even have a name. When I first enter a new area, I just simply talk to everyone to get all of the quests. If I manage to complete them before I move on then awesome; if not, oh well. I am not going to grind against enemies until I get lucky enough to get whatever items whoever is looking for.

That isn’t to say that all quests are completely boring and fetchy, but when it feels like 80% of them are this way then I stop caring to even read what people are saying. I can’t be bothered to figure out which quests are worth it. The worst part is that it feels like busy work and it is all so unrelatable that I just can’t get into it. It would be like in Fallout if some random person you talked to needed 5 raider helms to fix their roof. It doesn’t even make sense and just screams busywork.

Before we get into the thick of things, I have one thing to say: the item menus can all just go to hell. After 30 hours, I hate it probably more than anything else in the game. It’s quite obvious that the design of everything was created to facilitate use of the Wiimote. This game has the menus and leveling system of an old school RPG, but the menus lag behind. Instead of lists with names that you can blaze through, you have squares with pictures on them. You can’t easily scroll through and equip everyone quickly due to a lack of dual L&R buttons, which wouldn’t be so bad with an auto equip feature, but that is missing. I could rant on this for quite a while but it really isn’t a dealbreaker. You will either get used to it and accept it or begrudgingly try to avoid the menus as much as possible. After 30 hours I squarely fall into the latter category and I accept my fate at the hands of Nintendo’s terrible controller. However, I ended up using the Classic Controller Pro and it helped a lot.

Enough of this annoying but ultimately forgivable problems, the core gameplay is always where it is at and for an RPG where you will spend upwards of 30-50 hours using the system, it is even more important. There is plenty to do and plenty to explore but ultimately I think it falls short.

The classic three party system is used for battles but I never once had to change out my standard party once I got it assembled. About five hours in I had the characters I am still using, two attackers and one healer. There are other characters that use magic but there is no situation that I can’t smash my way through, which is a bit of a shame. While I am not one to always take the easy way out, I did find most of the battles to be fairly challenging in a new area until I leveled up. The bosses provided a decent challenge as well, but I was doing next to no sidequests and simply battling my way to a higher level which eventually stunts the growth potential.  Experience given is relative to the enemy level compared to yours so it makes it difficult and very grinding to over level.

While this is all well and good, by never switching characters I stunted other areas of growth. In Xenoblade Chronicles, characters have an affinity for each other that is gained through battle and quests…but mainly battle. The higher their affinity for each other, the better they work in battle together when it comes to combos and helping each other out. There is also the added bonus of learning more about the characters in scenes that can be activated around the maps in the game…if their affinity is high enough.  Needless to say this did not happen for me as everyone outside my three were pretty much iffy friends that had a common goal.

While some might say it is my fault for not changing things up, why should I? The game never challenged me to switch things up…ever. I use the exact same attacks and strategy in every battle and it has yet to fail me. This might eventually come to bite me in the ass but the characters still level up and gain skills at the same rate as if they were not in battle, so no foul there. The battle system is quite simple with characters auto attacking in battle with a set of skills to use on the bottom of the screen. Throwing in enemies and boss battles that challenge typical conventions would have been a welcome surprise and challenge, but it just isn’t there yet and after 30 hours, I don’t suspect it will outside of maybe a special hidden boss.

Seeing as how this game plays like an MMO with a lot of quests, it is nice to know that the maps are huge and expansive. Time changes, different weather, and different creatures in each area help to fill the world with an insatiable urge to explore. But once again, this is hindered. There is no loot to be found anywhere. There are items scattered about everywhere in the form of glowing blue orbs but those are random items and are never equipment. While I love to explore, and did, it all started to wear on me after a while. The atmosphere of each area is unique and exploring them is fun but at this point the story is in the driver seat.

A lot can be forgiven if the narrative is compelling and interesting, and Tetsuya Takahashi has succeeded for me in the past and he is doing it again. I am a fan of Xenogears and the Xenosaga franchise for which he was the lead scenario writer. All of these games have pacing issues, such as the too long cut scenes in Xenosaga Episode I, but the story was always compelling and full of great characters. I think the world and story of Xenoblade is a bit too slow to really get going, but now it is in top gear and I seem to be racing towards the finish. Outside of the slow start, this seems to be his most well-paced game.

In terms of concept, this time he has built an interesting world where two gods battled eons ago and injured one another to the point of slumber.  In the centuries following, life has sprung up all over the place on these two titans.  The lore of long ago and the secrets to be unveiled are satisfying and always seem natural. I never call out the story (sometimes the characters) for making no sense or pulling a cop out and given his past work, I have no reason to think that will be the case here either.

There is a reason this game is getting a lot of praise and the story is one of them, and it is the one area I don’t think will fall short but even if it does I don’t think it changes much.  Sometimes that is a personal feeling and I happen to like stories he weaves, but this time I don’t think it’s enough to make up for a lot of the shortcomings in other areas.  Xenoblade Chronicles is still fun and intriguing but I think its problems hold the game back from being something truly special and memorable.

RATING: 7/10

Front page image from nintendoartwork.com, screenshots from nintendoeverything.com.