Tecmo Bowl Kickoff NDS Review

Tecmo Bowl Kickoff - Nintendo DS Review

The original Tecmo Bowl and Tecmo Super Bowl for the NES were 2 of my favorite games ever. Especially Tecmo Super Bowl. When Tecmo Bowl Kickoff came out for the DS, naturally I had to play it. Here's my review:

The Good:
1. Same fun Tecmo Bowl gameplay.

2. It has a player and team editor. (which is nice since there is no NFL license)

3. Fun old-school style cutscenes.


The Bad:
1. No NFL license. This really SUCKS. I would have loved seeing all those classic NFL players again. Instead we get generic players who often have really weird names.

2. The passing cursor is hard to distinguish when choosing receivers. The cursor is white, and when you switch receivers, it changes to a different white. Whoever designed it can blow me.

3. Dodgy AI and game logic. Players will sometimes run AWAY from the ball carrier before making the tackle etc... The AI seems to call random plays.

4. The game is just way too easy. I win nearly every game by a huge margin, and have never LOST a game.

5. Really questionable catches, interceptions, incomplete passes, and cheap feeling special moves.

Yay: Big Nostalgia trip. +1

FINAL BADASSIAN SCALE RATING: -1 NOT SO GOOD


CONCLUSION:
It's fun to play for a season or two, just long enough for the nostalgia to wear off. It's probably one of my favorite games on the DS, but that's not hard to do considering how much shit gets shoveled onto the DS. (and the Wii for that matter) Ultimately though, I ended up feeling diasppointed. Perhaps it has more to do with that old saying "you can never go back" than any fault with the game.

Hakuna Matata (Afrika) PS3 Review

Hakuna Matata (Afrika) PS3 Review

Note: I bought the Asian version of the game, and since I don't read or speak Japanese, I had to stumble my way through the game or find guides to use. It doesn't seem to take away too much from the gameplay experience, but I felt that should be noted. Also I have not played this game all the way through to completion.

Liked:

1. Very beautiful graphics and animations. They aren't quite photorealistic or jaw droppingly amazing, but they are VERY gorgeous. They do have a "wow" factor when you first start seeing them. The animal animations are the most eye-catching. You could very nearly imagine you were watching real animals sometimes.

2. Good soundtrack. The instrumental score is very nice, and reminds me of John Williams sometimes. Excellent stuff, although possibly somewhat repetitive.

3. Tons of animals. I think every African animal I could think of, plus many more are included in this game. All of them are done in great detail.

4. The National Geographic library has some really nice photos of the animals in it. It's a shame I couldn't read all the text.

5. You can export the photos that you take onto a memory card, and then transfer them to your PC. Unfortunately they only export as 672x448 pixel PNGs, so desktop wallpapers are out of the question.

6. There's several cameras and lenses to unlock, along with new areas with new animals. This kind of helps keep you playing. I think if everything was available from the start, it would get a little old pretty quickly.


Didn't Like:

1. Long load times in the beginning, plus a 2.5GB mandatory install. Also the save times are long, and the save game file is something like 378 megs.

2. If you get too close to an aggressive animal, it charges you and you black out and wake up back at base camp. That's fair enough, but you lose any shots you had taken before you got gored. THAT can SUCK.

3. There's no fast travel option for traveling to different areas, with the exception of the Base Camp after you gain control of the jeep. So that means everytime you go back to base, you have to spend part of your limited day manually driving back to the area you want to be in. I suppose it's realistic, but it's a bit annoying. Especially if you got gored by a buffalo a few times trying to get a great mug shot.

4. It does get a bit old going around photographing animals. It's fun to try and get cool shots of the animals, but the equipment you have even a few hours into the game is pretty shitty. I'll have to see if I have the patience to get deeper into the game and unlock better stuff.


Yay: The sheer beauty of the game, just needs to be experienced. It's definitely one of those "experience" type games. If the concept of the game appeals to you, it's worth a play. +1

Final BS Rating: +3 HARDCORE