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Shaman King: Master of Spirit (GBA)
by sn0zb0z
Story:
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The game is based off the popular anime by the same name. Yoh Asakura is known as a shaman. Someone who can communicate with spirits. A spirit named Amidamaru joins Yoh on a journey to become the Shaman King, an event that only happens every 500 years. You play as Yoh and travel on the journey with your ... friends and spirits to stop Magister's evil plan to bring back Mephias (an ancient Shaman King) and take over the world.
Gameplay:
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To get to each level you follow a path. The paths go in different directions and you have to complete a level to get further along the paths. You can go back and redo levels if you wish, but you have to follow the path so if you want to complete a level you did a while back you have to complete the levels in between to get there which can be rather annoying. Sometimes you only have one choice of what level is next and other times you will have two or even three choices.
The game is a side-scrolling adventure. In each level there are various creatures to fight and platforms to jump to and you must make your way from one side to the other. Some creatures are harder to defeat than others, but most are rather easy. As you go along you collect spirits/guardian ghosts which you can then select as your main spirits to help you defeat enemies.
You can also pick up various items or buy them. For example, a hamburger can be bought for 1000 yen and will increase your health by 120.
The controls are simple, although having said that fight and jump felt the wrong way round to me, but perhaps that's through years of playing Playstation games where those moves are usually the opposite way round. Still there's nothing more annoying than accidentally trying to fight thin air instead of jumping and ending up dying from falling off a platform. There are special moves which you use the R and L buttons for. You can assign spirits to these two buttons and they allow you to do different, more powerful attacks. You are limited to how many times you can do special attacks though.
Audio:
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The audio varies between levels but it is rather repetitive. There is always the option to turn the volume down/off though.
Graphics:
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The characters all look as they do in the show. The background is simple (sky and grass) but it looks fine and there's nothing to distract you. The graphics aren't anything special, but they're good enough and as good as any other Gameboy Advance game.
Price:
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This game varies quite a bit in price. Recently I've seen it selling for around £50, but at the time of writing this it is selling from about £15 and before the random price rise it was roughly this price. While it's a fairly easy game to find the number of people selling it is limited which is often reflected in the price.
Overall:
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Shaman King is a good game overall. It probably helps if you like Shaman King as otherwise you may find it a bit boring at times, but if you like side-scrolling adventures this is worth playing. Recommended.
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Super Mario Advance 4 (GBA)
by lorrainek858
I grew up playing games on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), most of my favourite games when I was younger included my favourite plumbers Mario and Luigi and their dinosaur friend Yoshi, and of course Princess Peach, who always seems to be running into bad luck and getting captured by the villain in this game King Bowser. I ... honestly spent hours trying to rescue the Princess in games such as Super Mario Bros 1, 2 and 3, Super Mario World 1 and 2, The Lost Levels and of course Mario 64 when Mario became for 'advanced' on the Nintendo 64 console. The Mario Franchise has brought gamers worldwide countless hours of entertainment, and their games were one of my favourite past times when I was a child.
Which is why when I found this game on Amazon, I was so happy as it is a little portable piece of my childhood that I can carry around with me and play on my long and frequent journeys on the bus or at night time when I want to wind down after a long day.
This game originated from the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) though I only really played it on the SNES on my Allstars Game cartilage.
First things first, for anyone who isn't exactly familiar with the Mario franchise, here is the storyline behind this game:
Mario is sent for at the start of this game by Princess Peach as Bowser and his Koopa Kids have been let loose again and are terrorising the Mushroom Kingdom, the kings in 7 different castles laid out around this map have been turned into strange animals and overthrown by Bowser with the aid of a Magic Wand. Mario must retrieve the Magic Wands and return them to their rightful owners, so as to restore peace in the kingdoms.
You can play this game as either, Mario or Luigi. You cannot play this game on multiplayer, though as it is a Game boy Advance game it is more likely that you will want to play alone anyway.
So there you have it, you set off as Mario comes across both enemies (such as Boo, the Koopa Troopa's, Thomp, Goombas, Bowsers Children in Castles at the end of each land and also king in need of rescuing) you travel through the Map through 8 different worlds and lots of different levels, restoring peace in each land and beating the bosses to retrieve back the magic wands, the concept of the game is really similar to other Mario games and is quite fun to play.
This game is set out, like many other Mario games, in a map kind of view, there are a number of different areas including a few secret areas laid out in the game, which are briefly described in the Added Extras part of this review.
The different power ups within this game include:
Red Mushroom: Makes Mario grow and then he can take an extra hit from enemies
Star: Makes Mario invincible to enemies for a short period of time.
Raccoon Tail: Allows Mario or Luigi to fly for a short period of time
Fire Flower: Allows Mario to shoot fireballs to kill his enemies
Green Mushroom: Gives Mario an extra life (he can gain up to 99 lives at any time)
Hammer Suit- Allows Mario to shoot hammers like the hammer bros enemy
Frog Suit- Allows Mario to jump and swim like a frog, swimming in water is much easier when Mario is wearing this suit.
Added Extras:
Warp Whistle Map- allows Mario to skip worlds when he blows it on the Map area of this game.
Cloud Map- a cloud that allows Mario to skip a level on the Map.
Hammer Map- Allows Mario to break through boulders on the map to get through to secret items.
Music Box Map- Puts enemies to sleep on the map for a limited time so you can skip by them without having to fight against them.
Red Mushrooms Map- Allows Mario to open one box out of three,that holds a special item in it that can be used at a later date.
Blue Card Map- Allows Mario to compete for the chance to win extra lifes, by matching up faces on a rotating platform.
Coin Ship Map- Appears randomly when you get all the coins in some levels, a ship full of coins and chances for extra lives.
Ship Map- Allows Mario to play Matching Pairs in order to win power ups and prizes.
This game is really easy to play, though the game isn't so easy to play that any child I am guessing under 4 would have the co-ordination to play even though the game is rated E for everyone, though there are some children that advance quicker than others. None the less I would say that this game is more suited to children aged 6 or 7 up, as from this age on they would probably get more fun out of it and be able to cope with at least the easier levels. Though there is mild violence (in which I mean you have to kill enemies and by jumping on their heads) it is really cartoonised and not very aggressive or harmful.
The graphics on this game really don't disappoint, they stay true to the old Mario games. This game is played in a 2D format, advancing from one side of the screen to another. I am really glad that Nintendo decided to stay true to past game in this way as I think that this is part of the 'charm' of the better Mario games. The graphics are both simple and efficient to their purpose, each world is decorated in a detailed and colourful way and the game is drawn up in a cartoon display just like past Mario games.
The Mario level music is also very similar to the old Mario games. This is great for Mario fans, as the music on older games is unique to Mario games and easily recognised as it is upbeat and catchy. The tempo of the music increases if your timer only has 100 seconds left on it to 'hurry you up' to complete the level.
This game is for the Gameboy Advance, but it is also compatible with the Nintendo DS and DS lite, you can put it into the bottom cartilage socket and play this game just like on the GBA, though of course there are no touch screen abilities when you are playing it on the DS or DS lite.
You can buy this game on Amazon used for around £10-30 and new for around £65 at the moment, I wouldn't buy the new game if you weren't planning on playing it, as I imagine it is a collector's item, though the used games, £10 is a great price to pay. I ended up paying £23 in total for my copy new on Amazon, I don't think it would be easy however to buy this game on the high street, due to its age.
Overall I think that this is a fantastic and really well thought out game that has brought me countless hours of entertainment, both on the Gameboy Advance and the SNES. This game was a brilliant buy and worth every penny to me, it is great to have a portable version of this game to take with me and play anywhere. This game is a must have for any Mario Fan, I believe that the classics are really the best when it comes to Mario games. 5 out of 5 stars!
*also on ciao under lorrainek90
Read the complete review |
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Super Mario Advance (GBA)
by lorrainek858
I grew up playing games on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), most of my favourite games when I was younger included my favourite plumbers Mario and Luigi and their dinosaur friend Yoshi, and of course Princess Peach, who always seems to be running into bad luck and getting captured by the villain in this game King Bowser. I ... honestly spent hours trying to rescue the Princess in games such as Super Mario Bros 1, 2 and 3, Super Mario World 1 and 2, The Lost Levels and of course Mario 64 when Mario became for 'advanced' on the Nintendo 64 console. The Mario Franchise has brought gamers worldwide countless hours of entertainment, and their games were one of my favourite past times when I was a child.
Which is why when I found this game on Amazon, I was so happy as it is a little portable piece of my childhood that I can carry around with me and play on my long and frequent journeys on the bus or at night time when I want to wind down after a long day.
This game originated from the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) though I only really played it on the SNES on my Allstars Game cartilage.
First things first, for anyone who isn't exactly familiar with the Mario franchise, here is the storyline behind this game:
Mario is dreaming, and is in a strange land (aka Mushroom Kingdom 2) where a Toad named Wart has taken over and is making the locals sad.
Mario (and co.) must go through a number of levels and defeat a number of different bosses in order to free the dream worlds Magic Kingdom 2 citizens from the evil Wart, and the story begins....
You can play this game as either, Mario, Luigi, Toad or Princess Peach though this game is only a one player game. Each character in this game handles differently and has their own abilities:
Mario- Handles normally, has no special ability
Luigi- Quite hard to handle as he is quite 'slippery', when Luigi jumps he flys in the air for a while as he shakes his legs, this is really distracting for me and has left me rarely ever using him as a player.
Toad - Handles normally, has no special ability
Princess Peach- Uses her skirt to fly through the air, she handles quite easily and is my favourite character to play with on this game.
So there you have it, you set off as Mario (or your selected player) and go through the levels ahead, killing enemies (such as birds, shy guys and fish) by aiming and throwing vegetables at them and also killing bosses (like Birdo or a Rat that throws bombs at you).
The different power ups within this game include:
Red Mushroom: Makes Mario grow and then he can take an extra hit from enemies
Star: Makes Mario invincible to enemies for a short period of time.
This game is really easy to play, though the game isn't so easy to play that any child I am guessing under 4 would have the co-ordination to play even though the game is rated E for everyone, though there are some children that advance quicker than others. None the less I would say that this game is more suited to children aged 6 or 7 up, as from this age on they would probably get more fun out of it and be able to cope with at least the easier levels. Though there is mild violence (in which I mean you have to kill enemies and by throwing vegetables at them) it is really cartoonised and not very aggressive or harmful.
You cannot play this game on multiplayer, though as it is a Game boy Advance game it is more likely that you will want to play alone anyway.
The graphics on this game really don't disappoint, they stay true to the old Mario games. This game is played in a 2D format, advancing from one side of the screen to another. I am really glad that Nintendo decided to stay true to past game in this way as I think that this is part of the 'charm' of the better Mario games. The graphics are both simple and efficient to their purpose, each world is decorated in a detailed and colourful way and the game is drawn up in a cartoon display just like past Mario games.
The Mario level music is also very similar to the old Mario games. This is great for Mario fans, as the music on older games is unique to Mario games and easily recognised as it is upbeat and catchy.
This game is for the Gameboy Advance, but it is also compatible with the Nintendo DS and DS lite, you can put it into the bottom cartilage socket and play this game just like on the GBA, though of course there are no touch screen abilities when you are playing it on the DS or DS lite.
You can buy this game on Amazon used for around £5-10 and new for around £10-30 at the moment, I wouldn't buy the new game if you weren't planning on playing it, as I imagine it is a collector's item, though the used games, £10 is a great price to pay. I ended up paying £18 in total for my copy new on Amazon, I don't think it would be easy however to buy this game on the high street, due to its age.
Overall I think that this is a fantastic and really well thought out game that has brought me countless hours of entertainment, both on the Gameboy Advance and the SNES. This game was a brilliant buy and worth every penny to me, it is great to have a portable version of this game to take with me and play anywhere. This game is a must have for any Mario Fan, I believe that the classics are really the best when it comes to Mario games. 5 out of 5 stars!
*also on ciao under lorrainek90
Read the complete review |
