Toro Let's Party (Toro to MoriMori) - Review

トロともりもり

Title: Toro Let's Party

Platform: Playstation 3

Developer: Sony

Genre: Party Game

CERO: A

Toro Inoue is back for another quest to become human! Sony's feline mascot has a party game ready for you to play and enjoy!

Gameplay

Toro to Morimori is a party game, up to 4 players, and is loaded with mini games! You start out the game with a few that are playable right away, but the rest you unlock through the story mode.

Story mode is set up like a children's story book, a narrator explains whats going on, then you have dialogue between Toro and his many furry friends, and then the featured minigame (everything is set up episodically)

The minigames are fun! There is quite a variety to choose from including archery, basket ball, centipede, ninja....ing?, and much more. You will have plenty to play with your family and friends, as well as by yourself!

 Impressively Toro takes full advantage of the Playstation's famed Sixaxis motion sensor that's built into the the Dualshock 3 controllers. For example, the ninja star game (pictured above) you use the shoulder buttons to aim, and then flip the controller to throw; or in the basket ball game you use the controller in the motion of shooting the ball to play. Now this works out really well for some minigames, but it feels hard to control on others (not like Lair bad, but still clunky). Now not all of the games use it, so don't expect this to be a Wii game by any stretch, but the use of the Sixaxis definitely adds to the variety this game has to offer.

overall, this plays like a very solid party title. If only it got released stateside, we might have a world competitor to Mario Party.

Score: 8/10

Presentation

As with most PS3 exclusive game, you can expect this game to look gorgeous. And your expectations will not betray you! Not quite to the level of Metal Gear Solid 4, Final Fantasy XIII, or The Last of Us but still smooth, shiny, and polished! Toro takes that cartoon style that normally only looked appropriate on the PS2, and reshapes it to fit well with the PS3. Take your polygonal cats, round out the edges, and add some beautiful textures, and you got Toro! The appeal to these graphics, really, is just how sharp and smooth everything looks! the subtitles, the menus, characters, backgrounds, everything just blends so well together.

The menus are simple and easy to follow, the voice acting is great, the graphics are smooth, really no complaints here! this game is very well presented.

I think really the only thing holding it back from a perfect presentation score would be it's "just average" soundtrack and it's lack of animated cut-scenes in the story mode... but I mean these are small complaints.

Score: 8.5/10

Story

Toro is a cat, he wants to be human, so he plays games to earn his right to humanity. That's the basis, the rest of it is just wacky Japanese humor. And it is VERY Japanese humor, if you have no sense of culture you will get lost.

This is a party game, so the story really isn't a huge focus (and I find myself saying this a lot, so I'll review a story game next) but it does have a fun cast of characters, and a good enough story to get the game going.

As previously stated, the story mode is set up like a children's book, and it can sometimes feel kinda strange playing through the story as an adult, because when the narrator talks you feel like you're watching Nickelodeon Junior, which admittedly challenges your masculinity. but just do some push ups and drink a beer and you'll be fine! (You will have this same feeling if you have played Scribblenauts: Unlimited) But, in truth, some children's games are just plain fun for everyone, and that's what this is.

Overall though, the story is cute and the characters are good, nothing to in-depth, but hey, its a party game right?

Score: 7/10

Import Friendliness

I'll just start by saying straight up, this game was released in China with a complete English option. It's region free, the menus are in English, subtitles are English, the instructions  the trophies, IT'S IN ENGLISH. So that's why it gets a perfect score here.

If you buy the Japanese version you will have a bit of trouble, because it is text heavy, but if you don't know Japanese just buy the Chinese+English version, its cheap, its English  it is 100% Import friendly!

Score: 10/10

Final Thoughts and Score

This game is great, its fun, it social, its English, its pretty, this is a high recommendation for anyone looking for a good fun time with friends and family.

FINAL SCORE: 8.37/10

Update Non-Review

This site is going to be dedicated to games that are exclusively across seas, so I will not spend the time reviewing games you can get here (mostly because they have ass tons of other reviews)...
but if you have a game you want to get outside of your region for whatever reasons, and you still wanna know about it, like our Facebook page and contact me!

https://www.facebook.com/GameNoriba

On a side note, since I will not review it, God of War: Ascension has absolutely wonderful Japanese voice acting, and holy shit it is gorgeous! If you like God of War games still (which I've only played the first one so far, so I do) then this is an absolute must! And it was on sale in japan so I ended up getting it for about 25 USD!!

Gundam Extreme VS. Review

機動戦士ガンダム エクストリームバーサス

Title: Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme VS.

Platform: Playstation 3
Developer: Namco Bandai

Genre: Fighting

CERO: A

Gundam is a wonderful blast from the past, with a continuing universe that's been expanding since the 80's! How appropriate that we get a cross-universe fighting game that features every different Gundam universe. This is one of my personal favourites so lets have some fun!

Gameplay

Gundam is, at its core, a brawler. You have your basic attacks, blocks, ranged attacks mapped on the signature triangle, circle, cross, square. as you battle you build-up your EX bare for a super move, which increase your mech's power. unique to this game is your HP bar. you have a certain amount of HP per life, this is the big number at the bottom-left, and then you have your Team's HP bar up top-left. Every Gundam is worth a certain amount of you team's HP, and when you die that number is subtracted from your Team. This mechanic breath's a bit of life into the brawler genre, and gives a new perspective on team play.

And this game has a myriad of ways to present this battle system to you. you have an arcade mode, which feels like it sounds, you have multiplayer, vs COM, online, etc.Then you have the "story mode" type mode that's set up on a a couple grids. each grid has key battles as well as normal battles, all with different kinds of enemies, objectives, and requirements. some fights you will have to have a certain team mate, others you have to play as a certain gundam, you might have to keep someone alive, you might have to maintain a certain amount of HP, kill a certain amount of enemies. point being that the game forces you to play on it's terms, which really keeps a could-be-repetitive game nice and interesting.

In these grids you'll run into battles to earn badges, these are especially specific conditions that are much more difficult to get, and it will feel very rewarding to earn them. earning these badges is also a large part of the games PSN trophies. This part of the game is what I spend the most time on.

That all being said this game is really easy to get stuck in, and you will find yourself going back to older battle to grind required characters that you never use. And every character's playstyles are vastly different, so doing some battle will be grueling if your not comfortable changing like that on the fly.

overall the game is smooth, fun, challenging, and is loaded with content that will keep you coming back for hours!

Score: 8.5/10

Presentation

VS. is one of the prettiest ex-arcade titles to date. The characters and backgrounds are smoothly cell-shaded, which goes really well with it's anime roots. the effects are flashy, colourful, and energetic. the menus are very aesthetically pleasing, and generally easy to navigate. Not to mention the tons of nostalgic gundams and wonderful character portraits from the ages. Really nice Lincoln Park cameo at the home screen, a surprisingly fitting opening song. And, of course, you have the wonderful TV quality voice acting for all the characters from the different series! It's really well put together, but the soundtrack is rather forgettable , almost reminds you of the Dynasty Warriors notoriously average soundtracks. 

Score: 8/10

Story

As with most arcade games, VS. really doesn't focus on story. the Trial Mission Mode (that grid thing I talked about) is about the closest thing to a story this game has. And as with most crossover games, the story that is there is patchy and scattered. The few scenes of story you get are really cool and well put together. But story is clearly not the focus here, and its very steeped in fan-service. If your not into Gundam, its easy to skip past.

You do have, on the other hand, a wonderful collaboration of different Gundam universes and a large pantheon of playable characters. Which is hugely important, especially in the Fighting Game genre, having a dick load of characters!

Score: 7/10

Import Friendliness

By default, being on the Playstation 3 system, this game is region-free. Buy it anywhere, play it anywhere! So that much gives you the accessibility. for collectors, buying it black-label can get fairly prices (last I checked near 80 dollars), but you can get it cheap from Hong Kong for like 30 USD, so its easy to obtain just to play. 

Now, the ugly part, if you don't know Japanese you will have a very hard time getting into it. The menus are extremely Kanji heavy, and for the "guess-and-press"ers, they are organized strangely, so you will have to do research to figure out what you are doing. The game is not entirely un-playable, it will just take a heavy study of online guides and walkthroughs to figure out what certain objectives are and what everything does...

especially in a game with such a wide array of objectives. In short, it's text heavy.

Although, once you do figure out where everything is, you can still enjoy the basics without knowing much. I mean, in the actual meat of the game, you don't have to know Japanese to know how to actually fight.

Score: 6/10

Final Thoughts and Score

This game is clearly sweet, and is still one of my favourite PS3 games. If you can take the time to learn the set-up or the language, you will be in for an incredible fighting game.

Final Score: 7.37/10

Mushihimesama Futari ~ver 1.5~ Review

虫姫さま　ふたり
Title: Mushihimesama Futari ~ver 1.5~

Platform: Xbox 360, iOS
Developer: CAVE
Genre: Shooting
CERO: A

As this is my first review, I'm going to give you the layout. I will review 5 different areas: Gameplay, Presentation, Story, and International Friendliness. each category will be on a 10 point scale, and then the final score will be a combined average on a 10 point scale as well. The final score is reflective of my over-all opinion of if you should import this game or not, you may refer to each individual section if, say, you already speak japanese completely fluently and you want to ignore that, or if you don't care about the story. Okay thank you so much, LET'S GO!!

OH SHIT!!

Gameplay

Mushi is a shoot-em-up, and a good one at that! from CAVE, a well known Japanese shmup maker, mushi is an internationally popular title. you've got your basics here: an arcade mode and a score attack mode. There is a multiplayer mode, but honestly it's nothing special, and I enjoy single player a bit more. Each mode brings you through level after level, each with a big boss and a sub boss. you're given three lives per credit (infinite continues in arcade mode) and one hit kills you. the more you kill the more gems you get which rack up your points. sometimes enemies will drop power-ups and bombs.

The battle system is simple, but still good. Definitely not to the complexity of games like Zanac, but Mushi still holds her ground. the levels are well designed, and the bosses are challenging and fun. The real appeal of Mushi, and really all cave shooters, is to memorize and master the levels and to get the highest scores. If you are not interested in getting High Score, or if you don't have an arcade mindset, this game can get a bit repetitive.

there are three levels of difficulty, essentially easy, medium, and hard. Here is where one of my few beefs with this game comes in. Easy mode is VERY EASY, medium is reasonably difficult, and hard mode is essentially suicide. once you get the hang of it its no big deal, but when you're new there is quite the learning curve. I have to say, though, once you get good you won't want to play anything other than super hard mode!

SCORE: 8/10 

Presentation

Mushi looks great! the did revamp the graphics from the arcade version to be more suitable for the Xbox 360 system. The characters are well designed, the enemies are well designed, and the art is gorgeous. 

One major bonus to Mushi's presentation is how colourful and alive it is. It definitely keeps you interested as you run through its beautiful levels. On top of it's liveliness, it's music is also very well suited and gets you excited while you take on the challenge.

The downside to this though is that, although better than the Arcade version, the graphics are still very jagged and do look a bit dated. if you play this on big TVs this will be a lot more noticeable. On top of that, the recording quality of the voice acting, sound effects, and music are not the greatest. Combined you do feel like you're playing a last gen title, on a current gen system. Now overall, this is fairly standard for CAVE shooters, so it doesn't really stand-out as particularly bad by any means.

Now this bothers me, and it may not you, but there is no full screen mode, so the whole game will be played in a window in the middle of your screen.

SCORE: 6.5/10 

Story

As an arcade game, there really is not story to speak of, so I will focus more on the universe of the game. The universe this game creates stands out. you've got elements that only the Japanese could ever think about putting together: Anime Girls, Giant Bugs, Dinosaurs, and Explosions. It's easy to get lost in, because of it's unique quirkiness. add on top of that the wonderful art, and cool CG you get between levels, and you've got yourself a neat little world that is completely it's own.

SCORE: 8/10

Import Friendliness

This game is absolutely region free! it's even localized completely on the iOS! these are great ways to rank your score up. The game is rather inexpensive (usually about 39.99-49.99 USD) so you're not losing life and limb getting it over here. and the game is loaded with English mixed in with the Japanese  Outside of navigating menus (briefly) not a lick of Japanese is required for playing and enjoying the game! This game is essentially the epitome of Region Friendliness!

SCORE 9/10

Final Thoughts and Score

Mushi is loads of fun, easy to get into, and wonderfully quirky. This game is responsible for my recent fascination with Shooting games. it has my high recommendations!

FINAL SCORE: 7.87/10