[img align=right width=175]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-027/bf/U-027-S-01240-A.jpg align=right[/img]September 26, 1986 (22 years ago): Akumajo Dracula is released in Japan.
Alternative names: Castlevania, Demon Castle Dracula.
Consoles: Initially Famicom Disc System and MSX2 in Japan, later NES and others.
Heavily influencing the platformer genre in the late 80's, this vampire-themed game is one of Konami's most famous series. The original game is about some Simon Belmont, who disliked vampires for whatever reason, and particularly wanted to destroy Dracula (every vampire hunter's dream). Using his whip along with other awesome weapons (including a Bible and a flying cross), Simon battled through hordes of Dracula's minions in a demonic castle (hence the title), occasionally stumbling upon an angry horror movie cliche as a boss fight.
Throughout the sequels, gameplay underwent significant changes. RPG-type features were introduced in Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, and removed in Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse. The RPG elements were brought back about ten years later, although in a different form, for one of the most popular titles in the series, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. A surprise PlayStation hit during the era of 3D games, two-dimensional Symphony featured a completely reworked art style (influenced by Gothic and Baroque styles) and complete exploration freedom.
The franchise went on to make at least 24 (!) video games, with a couple more to be released soon. A motion picture based on the games was also promised, but after 3 years of planning, multiple script revisions, and a writers' strike, this possibility is somewhat dim.
Hoping on the bandwagon here...
Anyway, my name is Ben and I am a proud staff member on one of the best video game sites on the Web. My job on the staff is as Hardware Contributor, although I spend as much time on the games database as I do the hardware database. My main specialties are pre-SNES systems and Japanese systems. I am specifically interested in the Atari 7800, NES/Famicom, Sega Master System and the TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine. I joined the site on August 20, 2004, and became a staff member on July 7, 2007. In between that time I was essentially inactive on the site, but then I noticed how incomplete the database was and I decided to something about it. Not long afterwards, I applied for a position on the staff and got my current position as Hardware Contributor.
I am currently a college student in my second year and I plan to major in history. I'm currently trying to wrap my GE (general education) courses before I begin working on my major, and afterwards I might transfer to SJSU to get my BS. I am currently unemployed, and I haven't had luck finding a job yet. Aside from playing video games and going to college, I am a huge music fan and I also enjoy the occasional anime.
I've been collecting for about as long as I can remember, starting back when I was about 7 years old. During that time, I discovered the wonders of Funcoland and started collecting for the NES and Game Boy. A few years later, I began collecting for the Sega Master System and Genesis, and by 2003 I was into the Atari 2600. Just recently I've been into collecting for import systems, mainly the Famicom, Sega Mark III and PC Engine.
Learn more about me, after the jump if you want...
Continue reading Get to Know a Staff Member: ApolloBoy
This is now my second online selling/buying/trading review, and I have a great site for y'all; gameTZ.com!
GameTZ is not your everyday game site, in that it isn't an actual store, much like the dreaded e(vil)bay. But that is where the likeness stops. Due to this 'non-storelike' nature, I will not be rating this site on a point system.
Simply put, the site is designed for the trader, with ease in mind. You can add games you want to the creatively named Want List, you can add games to your Trade List, and you can even compile a Collection List!
After signing up and adding games to their respective lists, you then can search for matches, or other people that have things you want, or you have things they want. You can then start a Trade Offer, in which you write out the exact terms of the trade. The other party then can accept, or deny the trade offer. The trades don't necesarily have to be 'trades' to be trades. Example: You want Super Mario Bros. They want $6 + Shipping. That is done all the time. It doesn't have to be a trade.
Another neat feature is their 'Star System'. Depending on certain criteria, you can earn a Bronze, Silver, Gold, Double Gold, Triple Gold, etc, etc. Also, If you do international trades, you can get a Normal Globe and a Gold Globe. Some of the criteria are such things as: How many trades you have, when the last time you logged on was, etc. This star system, again, is in great likeness to ebay's star system.
Now many may be reluctant to use any other site other than ones that they are familiar with, and ones that have a firm, rooted background. Gametz has been online since October 20, 1997, and to date, 177197 completed trades have gone through.
All in all, gametz.com is a great website. They also have a great forum community. I give them an all around 'THUMBS UP'! "The best part?", I bet you're wondering... It's all free. 
EDIT: I am logical123 on gametz.com, if you were wondering. My profile is here.
Well, Dave did the first one, so I guess I'll do one too.
My name is Mike, I believe I am the newest Staff Member on this wonderful slice of Internet heaven. I joined the site on August 19, 2006 after I stumbled onto it through a series of recommendations. I immediately started loving scanning images and eventually started to enjoy filling in missing info. I knew I wanted to become a permanent part of this site right away. Earlier this year, I started a little blog called the Treasure Hunt Chronicles, mainly as just a way to keep track of when I bought stuff and the circumstances I bought them. It turned out to be very successful and I was asked to join the staff on July 22, 2008 at 1:09 PM, by 6:30 that afternoon, one of my dreams had come true. I was to be a blog writer, something I had never, ever thought I would do.
Well, that's quite the history on me and RFG, but RFG isn't my entire life, just 90% of it.
I am going to school for Environmental Studies and am in my 3rd year. My dream job would be to get into Wildlife research or management, but really as long as I get to work outdoors, I will be content.
I also love to hunt, I shot my first deer within an hour of my very first time ever hunting. It was a smaller doe, but she went down quick and painless and that's what is important in my book. She was also damn tasty.
I guess you could call me a collector in general, as I don't just collect games. I think it must be genetic as my dad, his brother, his aunt, and my grandmother are all major pack rats. Some people think it is weird, but no one ever has a problem borrowing something from them. But, I try to only collect useful or potentially valuable items. I used to collect records, I've got a few hundred but I've quit buying them simply because I have no room for more. So, games have become my main focus.
Learn more about me, after the jump if you want...
Continue reading Get to Know a Staff Member: NES_Rules
Well, any classic Nintendo NES fan will know that, like other consoles, the NES has its own number of sports games, such as Slalom, and 10 - Yard Fight by Nintendo. There are even games from third parties such as Tecmo's Tecmo Bowl and Super Bowl. One in particular, Ice Hockey, is the one that I will be reviewing here. Starting off, you will notice the cartridge and box art are different than most Nintendo sports titles. Most come in the black boxes that we've all seen at one time or another. Strangely, Ice Hockey comes in a bright blue box with a picture of some random ice hockey player. This is the only Nintendo sports title that hasn't had the cartoony style characters on the box and cart.
Now, as you first boot up the game, you are treated to some quite cheerful music and some small hockey players on the screen. Like most NES games, Ice Hockey has the option of either 1 or 2 players. As you press start on the controller, you get a screen of several options. On this screen, you get to choose your team (USA, Canada, Russia, Czechoslovakia, Sweden, and Poland), your opponent's team, the speed of the game, and the length of the game, ranging from 7, 10, and 15 minutes. The last thing that you will set up before the game begins, is the setup of your team. You choose which type of players will be on your team. Once all of the options are selected, the match can begin.
As the game begins, you will start out at center ice to battle for the puck. The gameplay mostly relies on being able to pass the puck, shoot, and how you selected your team. From the get-go, none of the teams have a statistical advantage over the others. Before the game, each team has five players (a stocky player, 2 average players, and a skinny player). The stocky players are the best at shooting and bowling over other players (which is pretty entertaining), the average players are average all around, and finally, the skinny ones are the fastest but tend to be the ones that get bowled over the most often. Also, each team has a goaltender as well. The controller only controls the player that is selected, but it will also control the goaltender no matter which one is selected. Fights can also ensue, and will continue until the ref stops it and sends the starter to the penalty box. Goals can be kind of hard to achieve at times, but when you do score one, it is damn satisfying! One other thing to note is that, when the game is paused, the pause sound is the same pause sound from Super Mario Bros.!
As you can see, this is one of the greatest sports titles to be released on the NES, and is personally one of my favorite nes games of all time. I'll give this game a 9/10
While reading Nik the Communist's great blog post about Myst turning 15 today, I got an idea (see his post here); A weekly historical blog!
Every week, on Saturday evening, or Sunday morning, I will do some research on meaningful historical occurrences within gaming history. Sounds like fun, right? Well, that is what I thought. But then I ran into a snag... I am not to great at what is called 'html' coding.
So! This will give me an opporitunity to use my brain on the weekend, when I am not in school. This will be not only a learning experience for you, but for me as well. If all goes well, then "Official Post Numero Uno" will be this Saturday Night/Sunday Evening! Wish me luck! And if you have any games that you want to see make their way into the post, just shoot me a pm!
And, have you all know, this post was my first lesson. None of the code was copied and pasted. Yay me? I think SO! *Applause*
So, make sure to stay on RFgeneration and KEEP IT ON 3!!!!
[img width=160 align=right]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-016/bf/U-016-S-03250-A.jpg[/img]
I am very glad I stumbled upon this wonderful website - I found out about it while searching for a book called Video Game Bible. Not only the site features one of the biggest game databases on the web along with built-in collection tracking software, it doesn't even have any ads! How often do you see that on the web nowadays?
I thought that this website deserved a donation, and if you can spare even a dollar, you should too (the link is here).
I am sure every one of us has some pretty old games in the collection (this is why you are here, right?). Well, I thought we may as well acknowledge memorable games by celebrating their birthdays! And this is why I have this feature. To narrow the scope, I will only post about games that were released after the crash, but are at least 10 years old (I think ten years is enough to realize whether a game has left any influence in the world of video games). I will also explain why this game is important enough to mention.
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September 24, 1993 (15 years ago): Myst is released.
Console: Macintosh initially, many more soon after.
While hailed by some as a "fancy collection of really obscure puzzles" or "interactive slide-show" (they may be right!), the popularity of the game could not be questioned. Myst eventually sold over 6 million copies, a record it held for almost 9 years, until the arrival of The Sims. The release of Myst also largely helped adopt the CD-ROM format on personal computers, since the game fully took advantage of the format with tons of images and music. Myst spawned four well-selling sequels, as well a couple of remakes, some spin-offs, and many imitators.
In my personal opinion, I would attribute the popularity of Myst to first-person view combined with realistic graphics (something first-person games of the era could not yet pull off), making the game very immersive, while the puzzles and lack of violence made it appealing to people who would not normally play games (even "moms" played it in the early 90's).
See also: If you liked Myst, then I would recommend horror adventures AMBER: Journeys Beyond (1996), or the much later Scratches (2006), as well as many other mystery games spawned by this style.
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Yet another crowded week. It's especially bad for Wii and PS3 owners...
| Playstation 3 | Xbox 360 | Nintendo Wii | •Baja: Edge of Control
•Buzz Quiz TV
•Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway (Also avaliable as a limited edition)
•Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2009
•LEGO Batman | •Baja: Edge of Control
•Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway (Also avaliable as a limited edition)
•Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2009
•LEGO Batman
•Warriors Orochi 2 | •Brothers in Arms: Double Time
•Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2009
•de Blob
•LEGO Batman
•Lost in Blue: Shipwrecked
•Pitfall: The Big Adventure
•Rebel Raiders
•Samba De Amigo
•Sim City Creator
•Twin Strike: Operation Thunder
•Wario Land: Shake It
| | PSP | Nintendo DS | Playstation 2 | •Buzz Master Quiz
•LEGO Batman
•Pipe Mania
PC
•Battlelord: King’s Bounty
•Command & Conquer 3 Deluxe Edition
•Everlight
•Flight Simulator X: Gold Edition
•Hired Guns: The Jagged Edge
•LEGO Batman
•Mount & Blade
•Nostradamus
•The Settlers VI Gold
•Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization | •Barbie Fashion Show: •Eye for Style
•Brain Quest Grades 3 & 4
•Brain Quest Grades 5 & 6
•Di-Gata Defenders
•Dinosaur King
•Disgaea DS
•Drop Cast
•Hi! Hamtaro Ham-Ham Challenge
•Kirby: Super Star Ultra
•LEGO Batman
•Margot's Word Brain
•My Japanese Coach
•My SAT Coach: Princeton Review
•My Little Pony Pinkie Pie's Party
•Nancy Drew: Hidden Staircase
•Pipe Mania
•Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure
•Shaun the Sheep
•Sim City Creator
•Time Hollow | •Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2009
•Dragon Ball Z Trilogy
•LEGO Batman (Also available in a bundle with a PS2 system for all 2 people that don't own one yet)
•Onimusha: The Essentials
•Pipe Mania
•SingStar Pop Vol 2
•Warrior's Orochi 2 |
 Because I'm kinda busy, I will keep my rundown fairly short.
So, this week you have a Wiimake of Samba De Amigo (which apparently isn't that great), a Wii adaptation of student project that gathered a lot of attention at the Independent Games Festival, yet another WW2 FPS (but a good looking one), a new Lego game (which usually turn out good), a new Buzz! game (pretty good trivia/party game), Wario Land: Shake It (Nintendo hasn't hyped this game at all. Why?), Kirby Super Star Ultra (Same. Why no love Nintendo?), Disgaea DS (ugly art, but supposedly good game if you like that kind of thing), and of course Mega Man 9! If you own a 360, PS3, or Wii, I expect you to buy MM9. If you don't I seriously doubt your classic gamer cred.
Also out this week on the PSN is Wipeout HD, a steal at just $20.
Sorry for the abridged look at this week's games. Hopefully school doesn't totally screw me over again next week.
[img align=right width=200]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-072/bf/U-072-S-08110-A.jpg[/img]Dragon Quest: The Journey of the Cursed King (in the US: Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King) is Level-5's third RPG for the Playstation 2, and also the third game ever by the developer. After the good Dark Cloud (2000) and the great Dark Chronicle (2002), Level-5 decided to take on the massive task of making the next instalment of the long lasting Dragon Quest franchise. Not only that, Dragon Quest: The Journey of the Cursed King (from now on called Dragon Quest 8 ) would become the first game of the series for the Playstation 2, as well as being the first Dragon Quest game with 3D graphics. Not an easy task, but Level-5 fulfilled all expectations.
The game starts when the evil mage Dhoulmagus tries to steal a legendary sceptre, locked away in a local castle. To reach his goal, Dhoulmagus cursed the castle and petrified everyone inside into plant-like beings except for three individuals. The King, Throde, gets transformed into a Yoda-like toad, while his daughter, princess Medea, gets turned into a horse. The last survivor of the curse is you, the hero of this tale, and the only one not affected by the curse in any way.
Despite the shallowness and classic feel of the story, there are some interesting plot twists that'll keep you entertained until the end. Along the way you'll meet three more characters that'll join you on your adventure: Yangus, Jessica and Angelo. Yangus is rough fellow that got his life saved by the hero and calls him "guv" out of respect. Another recurring line of Yangus is "Cor' Blimey!" whenever King Throde appears out of nowhere. Jessica is a hard headed aristocratic girl that wants to avenge the death of her brother, Alister, who got killed by Dhoulmagus some time before his attack on the castle. Angelo is a Templar Knight, devoted to Abbot Francisco, but lacking the will to follow the Templars' strict moral code.
This lively bunch sets out to find Dhoulmagus, and while doing so encounter countless other characters that need assitance of some sort to advance the main plot. The game offers alot of content and a whole world to discover. Rushing through the story without doing any sidequests will almost take up 50 hours. You can almost double that number when playing at a normal pace and getting involved in most of the sidequests.
Gameplay-wise, Dragon Quest 8 is an as classic RPG as it gets. Combat is turn-based and gets triggered by random encouters. Because there are only 4 playable characters, switching characters isn't an option, meaning all characters will level up at the same speed. When faced against a number of monsters, you'll have to assign tasks to all 4 of your characters first and then watch them get executed together with enemy attacks. Besides melee and ranged attacks, characters can cast offensive or healing spells, aswell as use weapon-specific abilities. Lastly, players can opt to raise the tension of a character to build up energy that can be released in a single, devastating blow; especially useful when doing a boss fight.
Characters differ concerning the spells they can cast, aswell as the attributes they can raise. When a characters levels up, you can assign points to any of 5 attributes of that character. 4 of those attributes are to increase damage done with specific weapons, 1 attribute is different for each character. Some tactics lie in the fact that not all characters can use all types of weapons. For example, Angelo is the only one that can wield bows. The maximum amount of points that can be assigned to an attribute is 100, which can be obtained at around level 40. This gives players some time to experiment with different weapon types first before having to stick to one type to get it as strong as possible. The different weapon types are swords, boomerangs, axes, clubs, knives, scythes, whips, staves, bows and fisticuffs (no weapon equiped).
Besides weapons, characters can also equip a piece of body armor, a helmet, a shield and an accessory. These aren't as many categories as in some other RPGs, but you'll still spend a great deal of time finding, buying or making better weapons and armour. That last option is available once aquiring an Alchemy Pot. You can throw in multiple items and see what new item pops out. This mini-game is similar to the "invention" system in Dark Chronicle or the weapon system in Rogue Galaxy. It's quite important to try out as much combinations as you can, because it's the best way to get a hold of some strong weapons/armour/items before being able to purchase them. That's needed, because the game can be pretty challenging, especially early on when it doesn't take much hits to get your party wiped out. After the game's ending you can load your saved game again to just before defeating the final boss and enter a complete new dungeon after which some of the hardest boss battles can be found. Sometimes you'll have to go through large stretches of land without really knowing what to look for. Although this might set off the less experienced RPGer, old-school gamers will love the classic approach to this RPG.
If I could say only one thing about Dragon Quest 8, it would be that it's a very polished, rich and complete games. Alot of thought went into the menu, which looks particulary nice. All your items can easily be sorted with an auto-sort option in the menu, where they are displayed with beautiful icons. Also nice is that, when pressing select, you get a "battle records" menu in which you can watch a full list of of monsters, collected items and Alchemy Pot recepies.
Coupled to the great gameplay are stunning visuals and sound. Graphics are some of the best on the PS2 and the best ever in the Dragon Quest series. The cel-shading suits the game perfectly, with characters and monsters looking like they've just escaped from an anime, yet staying faithful to the Dragon Quest franchise. Akira Toriyama did the character design of this game and is the man responsible for the Dragon Ball Z series.
Sound is just as nice with convincing voice acting (despite the sometimes over-the-top voice of King Throde), great sound effects and fantastic music. The songs are all classic orchestral tracks that really set the mood for the many areas that the game is rich. From the regal intro tune to the upbeat battle song or the creepy dungeon track; they all maintain the same high level and are never out of place.
I'll wrap it up by saying that Dragon Quest 8 is one of the best games in the series aswell as one of the best RPGs on the PS2. If you're looking for a good RPG, a game that will last a long time or just a good game in general, this is a must-buy. 9.3/10
This garage sale season is definitely winding down. We only went to around 20 sales on Saturday, but luckily, I had an awesome day at the flea market, so it made up for it.
Saturday Garage Sales
This was the from the very first sale. And it was a great sale, everything was priced cheaply plus it was all 50% off the marked price. The N64 was marked $5, PSOne car adaptor was marked $2, the Multi tap wasn't marked so that made it $0.50, and the N64 memory card was $0.50. I got it all for $3.
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These were from a small neighborhod flea market. He wanted $3 each, but said I could have them all for $14, then said $12, so I gave him $10. All but Commandos 2 are CIB.
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Sunday Flea Market
This table had a stack of 20-ish NES games for $1 each. I was absolutely sure I didn't own either of these so I didn't bother checking my list. Turns out I already had the Sesame Street game.
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These were from the guy that I've been buying from a lot lately. I traded him several Nintendo games (Super Mario World, Super Mario All-Stars, NBA Jam, LOZ:LttP, DKC, and DK 64) plus $20 for all the Sega games. I told the guy about the $1 NES games, and we made a deal of I would buy them for him (he couldn't leave his booth) in exchange for the CIB Dudes With Attitude.
Sega CD games:
Sewer Shark CIB
Rise of the Dragon CIB
Surgical Strike CIB
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers CIB
Wheel of Fortune CIB
Bram Stoker's Dracula CIB
Heart of the Alien CIB
Android Assault CIB
Cliffhanger CIB
Double Switch CIB
LoadStar CIB
Chuck Rock II (no game)
Dungeon Master II CIB
Star Wars: Rebel Assault CIB
Racing Aces CIB
Tomcat Alley CIB
Joe Montana's Football (no manual)
Dracula Unleashed CIB
Saturn games:
Pebble Beach Golf Links (no manual)
Slam N Jam 96 (no game)
College Slam (disc only)
NFL 97 CIB
Madden 98 (no manual)
Madden 97 CIB
Frank Thomas Big Hurt Baseball CIB
NHL Powerplay 96 (no manual)
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So, here we are. I suppose this is a foreword as to the intent of these articles, which are to review a game, new and old, after about a week of play through. The idea is there for a few reasons.
First; it'd be impossible for me to complete certain types of games I'd like to review, such as roleplaying games in a reasonable amount of time. Especially, and this depends on the game, prefer to play a game and try and unlock all the goodies.
Second; I have a life and if I did try to review everything in any sort of reasonable time period, I'd never get anything done. Ever. Especially with some games boasting hours of gameplay that exceed certain movies titles starring Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte. Meanwhile, I have a job and shit to do.
Third; I'm sure I could give other reasons, but look, mister, I don't have to justify my life choices to you!
The format of these reviews will generally be a pretty simple write up. There won't be a score given, because I find most scores to be trash in gaming magazines. They're always skewed and there's no real standard to compare it to. When you give Metal Gear Solid a 10 and Halo 3 a 10, are you saying they're exactly the same in terms of worth? Scoring is also useless because, lets face it folks, there's no such thing as a perfect game which would be that fictional 10, 100, A+, what have you that you're comparing games to and there never will be. The scores are a comparison to something that will never exist, so why make the comparison? Lastly, I think scores are generally misleading. When I read a review in a magazine nowadays, I'll see a game get all sorts of criticism but end up with a respectable score of a 8.5/85/B+ while a game that had no criticisms received a lower score. Lastly, I think they detract from reviews because the first thing people look for normally is the score and judge it from that alone instead of reading the actual review. If you want a score, go to gamerankings. If you want a review, well feel free to read my thoughts.
A bit about myself; I've been playing games as long as I can remember. My first dedicated console system was a NES I got when I was around 4, but I had been playing my Commodore 64 since I could walk. My first words were probably Load 'Miner49er,8,1. I've been playing games ever since, so I consider myself a fair bit experienced in the area. Some of my favorite games include: God Hand, King of Fighters, Star Ocean 2, Metal Gear Solid as a series, Final Fantasy 6, Fallout 1 and 2, Jagged Alliance, Rocket Knight Adventures, Resident Evil, Guilty Gear XX, the Megaman series and well...this can go on all day.
I consider myself a pretty fair gamer as well. There isn't a genre or type of game I explicitly hate. While it is well known that I'm a big fan of turn based, 2-d, and retro games, I enjoy games of all types and even genres I normally don't buy I have favorites for. A good game is good no matter what genre it is. I'll do my best to cover the major games and if this proves to be popular enough, I'll spring for a 360 so I can say I own every console currently on the market and appease the masses.
So now that's out of the way. I'm not responsible for the length of my rants. Read at your own risk. Or don't. My sense of humor might also hurt your brain at times.
That is all.
Once upon a time, in a galaxy located somewhere in the desolate universe named Cali-Forn I. A. a then, arguably, still talented George Lucas created what was originally supposed to be a Flash Gordan movie, but somehow, people felt that Lucas was too big of a hack, even then, to give him film rights to the franchise so told him to make his own setting. And create it he did. 4 years later, in 1977, came the franchise that made being a nerd more acceptable in the form of Star Wars, the sci fi space opera story of Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress except with more implied incest and Harrison Ford shooting stupid fish men who everyone but me can understand. The nerd world rejoiced and Star Wars became a hit, a classic, and a source of milk money for Lucas.
Since then we've had Star Wars products like you wouldn't believe: lunch Boxes, costumes, toys, hell, my friend's keg was an R2-D2 replica. Crank his top and you get cheap watered down beer. Good times. Continuing this trend of getting money to support his habit of ruining my childhood, the products eventually sifted into video games and here I stand with the six hundredth title in the Star Wars video game lineup: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, or as it will be herein referred as: STFU.
STFU is a game that takes place in between episodes three and four of the movies, which in actual numbers is between the last star wars movie and the first star wars movie. The game attempts to fill in some of the gap between the two films, much to the ire of many fans. You take the role of Darth Vader's secret Jedi apprentice, Galen Marek, who is only known within the game under the moniker of Starkiller; a character who continues in the Lucas tradition of trying to make bad ass out of someone who looks like they'd been pampered all their life. Marek is essentially trained by Vader to be his assassin in eliminating the remaining Jedi until Vader feels fit to overthrow the Emperor and take his parking spot, because I guess the handicap area just isn't cutting it.
The plot sees some twists, which I thought were interesting, if not predictable. However, one thing I wish to say is that plot was actually one of the strongest elements in this game. While sometimes the plot feels a bit thin and experienced sudden inexplicable jumps within the story in cut scenes, I felt that the overall plot was better than any of the newer movies. Starkiller is a fairly likeable, if somewhat under played, character with poor dress sense and the supporting characters are all interesting, if again under played. In fact, that seems to be the first half of the problem with the plot in that while there are a lot of cool characters, but none of them seem really explored too much. For instance, the love interest between Starkiller and his pilot never seems to be explained as to how it develops outside of one cut scene. The two never really seem to spend any time together, but I can see that as understandable in that we're here to play a game, not watch a movie. Out of interest, Darth Vader's character finally comes back into being a good villain instead of anything Hayden Christiansen did with him. The biggest problem with the plot, however, is that it never really feels like you're able to change anything since the canon has already been established as to what's supposed to happen via episode four. There is an exception in that you're allowed to slightly alter the ending with a decision you're able to make within the game, but the end result is ultimately the same.
The game play consists of you taking Starkiller through a variety of very linear missions that essentially amount to: "Go from point A. to point B. through environment F. and kill subject D", while you engage enemies in hack and slash saber play with a slightly stiffer control than Devil May Cry. Controlling Star Killer is easy, and I will say that he is well enough animated and has a variety of moves to unlock, however part of the problem is that you'll never use 90% of these moves unless you just want to be fancy, as a single combo is enough to last you through the game. Infact, it's disadvantageous to use anything but this combo as the electricity benefit that goes along with it stuns your opponents preventing sudden reprisals while you recover. As such, a lot of what should be the awesome fight scenes that occur during the cut scenes boil down to you pressing square square triangle triangle until whatever you're killing is killed and killed good and trust me, there's a lot of stuff that needs to be killed out there as EVERYTHING is trying to kill you, but I'll get into that later.
To aid you in you single handedly combating an army of genetically enhanced super soldiers and fish men assholes who apparently just don't like you being on a planet they happen to be on is one of the tauted features for the game's creation; the ability to use the force in new and unprecedented ways that surely belong behind a bullet point. This amounts to you getting three abilities that can be used in a number of ways: moving objects through the force via force grip and force push and shooting lightning from your fingertips and your giant polish sausage that doubles for a light saber, since I guess a weapon that might actually cut stuff is too hard core for an assassin. So, you have all these new and revolutionary powers at your disposal! Surely these break open the flood games of creativity and give you limitless strategies and improve gaming kind for forever! Not really. Everything that is done here using the force has been done before in an under rated game called PSI-Ops and pretty much anything else that decided to be derivative of it. In fact, anything found in STFU, PSI-Ops did better and more creatively and with far fewer limits to how you could use your powers. Using the force in itself is a problem, mostly due to one of the most glaring flaws in the game. The targeting.
You will find in this game that there are MANY times you'll try and hit something or use something only to find that you're just standing there like a goon, throwing barrels into the wall instead of the giant tin man who is firing rockets into your face like it was going out of style or using your lightning ability on some part of the environment because Starkiller apparently is angry that he was rejected as Dynamo in the Imperial run version of The Running Man. Half the time even when you do have a target that is actually killable, it isn't the one you need to kill. I realize your character is supposed to be an apprentice novice assassin when you first take control of him, but logic dictates you try and kill the asshole putting fist sized holes into you with his flak cannon over the imperial officer that falls over and dies from one hit. Hitting and acquiring specific targets is almost impossible if there's a group of targets and you're just better off diving headfirst into battle and duct taping the left analog stick in the proper direction with hopes your character doesn't decide to try and attack guys that are 10 feet behind him.
Speaking of falling over, you'll find that's something the enemies like to do. They trip over a lot of stupid stuff. You'd think for elite soldiers who don't have shoe laces, they wouldn't fall all over themselves half as much as they do. "What causes this?" you may ask. Another bullet point called Euphoria AI. As advertised, they claim it makes the enemies smart by giving them sub routines that make them wish to preserve their lives and act more realistically. In reality? This makes the Empire's most deadly soldiers blundering morons who fall all over each other a third of the time, stare at walls another third of the time, and lastly pay attention to you and ONLY you for the remainder. You will find that you'll walk into an area that is a huge battle between storm troopers and the native alien species who are duking it out until they see an iota of your existence where everyone suddenly drops what they're doing and goes apeshit crazy in an attempt to club you with their rifles until you have detached retinas.
The AI also really knows how to take advantage of the flaws within the game and exploit them on the level of any fighting game tournament player. Granted, I played the game on hard to prove I'm hardcore like that because the demo was pretty easy, but there are points in the game where the computer takes advantage of things that make it very very frustrating. The third boss in this game will haunt my nightmares of hard bosses, not because he was especially difficult in terms of developing a strategy to defeat, but because of unavoidable cheap hits that because of the difficulty take off massive amounts of your life bar. For example, when you're knocked down on the ground, it takes Starkiller a few seconds to get back up at which point you're defenseless. You might as well just have a big sign on the seat of your pants that says "Insert wide load here", as you will be raped and there is nothing you can do about it. At one point during my attempts to fight this boss, he knocked me down due to an unavoidable counter that he performed. After which he used force push to blast my almost full life bar down to about 15%. There are many times in boss fights that characters have almost entirely unavoidable, unpredictable, or plain unblockable moves that take off half your life bar and if they happen, you might as well just toss your controller down and wait for your game to reload after you die. This isn't just bosses however because there's a number of segments where you are just bombarded with enemies whose families you must have murdered in their sleep as they strive to do nothing but piss you off through cheap unblockable hits, some of which come from off camera so you never knew in the first place to dodge. This is a problem considering your main means of attack is either standing still and throwing things from a distance with your force grip or moving just slightly while you whack people with your big red club to teach them they've been naughty children.
There's also a section of the game that causes some people unforeseen amounts of frustration and it's the section where you have to bring down a star cruiser with the force. The problem here isn't that the section is difficult in itself, it's that the displayed controls are misleading. Instead of indicating that you should be pushing the left analog stick to the left, it appears that you're supposed to be pushing it to 9 O'Clock, so for the first 10 or 15 minutes of doing this segment I was faced with a mystery as to what I was doing wrong exactly which leads to another problem. If you have no clue what you're supposed to be doing, this game is very unforgiving and gives very few clues as to what you're doing wrong.
Overall, the game is mediocre and causes a number of problems for a number of crowds I found. You think that this would be a dream game for die hard star wars fans, as even with all this criticism the game is still worth a play through if you're an action fan and have some patience, however they seem to take issue with the a few issues, such as the apprentice's lightsaber being a foam replica and never really doing much damage to anything in particular or just the overall idea of the plot. On the other hand, action fans may be put off with some of the unfair and bad mechanics within the game as well as the rather shallow fighting. There also isn't very much replayability to the game, because you never can really interact with any of the characters or change the fate of the apprentice. So if you're thinking of getting STFU, give it a rent first, you can probably beat it in a single sitting as it's only about 10 missions long and decide from there as it might just be best to wait till the price has been reduced.
So, at approximately 1:15 PM CDT, I pseudo 'finished' the US Saturn database. Finished, as in put in as much data as I could knowing the information that I did. This couldn't have been done without the donors or the whole site as a whole! There are (you knew it was coming  ) some major gaps though... 
1. Game/Manual Scans... We need quite a few of these 
2. Box Scans... About 4 are blurry, and a few have the UPC cut out (I wasn't able to fill in that data)
and finally, 3. Reviews/Overviews/Easter Eggs/ETC... I don't think I saw ANY of these through out the whole db. I'll do a review on each of my Saturn games, and if you have Saturn games and like writing, just type up a short Paragraph (like Tan said  ) and sub it.
Inconsistencies aside, I think that this is yet another great step in RFgen becoming the true authority in the Gaming Database community, and in the Online Gaming Community as a whole. Baby steps, as they always say, baby steps...
But! I digress! Thanks to all who contribute in any way, be it pointing out errors, submitting corrections, programming the site, posting in the forum (a lot, or a little) or designing the site. You guys (and gals ) rock! Let us show the world why RFGEN is THE BEST DARN SITE EVER!!!!!
Thanks!!!!! To All Y'all!!!!
PS: Wow... I do use a lot of smileys don't I... 
Doesn't that box look lovely? I think it sure does, and if I wasn't poor I'd absolutely want that box. Turns out for those of you who are financially better off than me that this package will be able to be purchased, and for gaming aficionados like yourself I bet you find this package strangely exciting. Personally, I am as giddy as a school girl, and a Catholic one at that. Tee Hee.
Oh, and yes, there's other news as well. Turns out that Mega Man launches Monday, September 22 for WiiWare. Why, that's THIS Monday. Even better news, it launches on the 25th for PSN and the 1st for the 360. Won't that make you all happy. I am sure quite a few of you are probably looking to be schooled by Splash Woman, because you just like being abused like that.
All in all, great news about this throwback to retrogaming! Here's hoping that the expectations regarding this game aren't horribly dashed like another high expectation game recently did. (**SPORE**)
Mega Man 9 Retail Package??? [Capcom Admin's Blog]
 Praise the Gods! Our humble beseeching was heard by our humble lords. Our penitent pleas have been recognized by Yevon and in doing so he has ensured that the Wii was in fact the top selling console in Japan last week. What will Yevon do for us next week? Might he protect us from Sin? I only dread the thought of what city could become the next Zanarkand. They embraced technology too much, and in doing so were punished for the techological zeal. That's why I use a laptop powered by a hand crank, praise Yevon. Oh lordy, praise Yevon, for he is GOOD. Like I know that the Wii only sold 1500 more consoles than the 360 last week in Japan, but it least the cosmic order remains.
Oh merciful Yevon, what won't you do to protect your people? How we citizens of Spira praise your magnificence! Save Spira from Sin, in the name of Maester Seymour Guado! May we never experience the same fate as Zanarkand! Guardians, protect us!
Xbox 360 The Best Selling Console In Japan? Media Create Says 'No'
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We are a community of collectors, gamers and the likes, and some of us enjoy to let the world know what is on our mind. For those members, we have the community blogs, a place where they can publish their thoughts and feelings regarding life, universe, and everything. Some of those members might even choose to write about gaming and collecting! Whatever they write about, you can find it on their blog. You can either see the latest community blog entries in the feed you see to the left, or you can browse for your favorite blog using the menu above. Interested in having your own blog hosted on RF Generation? It's rather simple, first be a registered member, and then click the "My Blog" link that you see in the navigation above. Following those two steps will certainly get you on your way to blogging.
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