Available on Steam for several years, Ys Origin is finally making the jump to consoles in the form of a release on the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita, as announced at the PSX 2016 conference. If you dug Oath in Felghana, then you'll feel right at home with the platforming, action-RPG combat of Ys Origin. The game releases on PlayStation hardware on February 21 of 2017.
Saturday, December 3, 2016
Gran Turismo Sport (PS4) PSX 2016 Trailer
Arriving next year, Gran Turismo Sport has improved considerably since its initial reveal trailer last year. While short, this trailer from PlayStation Experience 2016 is nothing but sweet. If you're looking for another racer after exhausting everything that Driveclub had to offer, then Gran Turismo Sport looks like it will take that mantle well.
Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom (PS4) PSX 2016 Gameplay Trailer
At the PlayStation Experience 2016 conference, a new trailer for Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom was revealed. The game shows some story elements as well as the new action-RPG direction of the combat. Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom hits the PS4 sometime next year.
Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy (PS4) The Comeback Trailer
We got word that Crash Bandicoot's first three outings were getting the remake treatment. Today at the PlayStation Experience, we see the first footage. Some may not dig the lighter and brighter colors, but I personally really dig it. All three classic Crash Bandicoot games are in full HD glory, making for a trilogy of games that both fans of the series and newcomers can enjoy.
Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite (PS4, XB1, PC) Teaser Trailer
There were rumors of this coming, but it's nice to get an official word. Marvel vs. Capcom is indeed getting a new entry, and so far we know that Iron Man and Captain Marvel will represent the Marvel side while Street Fighter's Ryu and the long-desired arrival of Mega Man X represent Capcom's corner. Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite will hit PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC next year.
Thursday, December 1, 2016
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (NS, Wii U) Life in the Ruins Trailer
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is one of most anticipated games due out next year. Nintendo took the opportunity to reveal the second major trailer for the game this evening. Between the stunning environments (including a town, revealing that Link isn't totally alone in this game) and incredible-looking combat, Breath of the Wild looks to be a fantastic entry in the long-running franchise.
Review Round-Up - October - November 2016
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| Party all season long with SuperPhillip Central's featured game of the month, Mario Party: Star Rush. |
October saw the reviews of Azure Striker Gunvolt 2, which amazed me with its Mega Man-like action, earning an A grade. Gurumin 3D: A Monstrous Adventure satisfied with its dungeon-crawling goodness and cute charm with a C+ grade. Then, two Nintendo 3DS eShop games scored the same B grade, Drinkbox Studios' Severed and Circle Entertainment's Fairune 2.
Moving on to November, River City: Tokyo Rumble brawled and bashed its way to a C while Mario Party: Star Rush, one of Nintendo's big holiday games of the season, partied its way to a B-. Ittle Dew 2 surprised with its highly competent Zelda-like structure, earning a B+, and finally, Disney Magical World 2 delighted, allowing me to give the game a B grade.
Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 (3DS eShop) - A
Gurumin 3D: A Monstrous Adventure (3DS eShop) - C+
Severed (3DS eShop) - B
Fairune 2 (3DS eShop) - B
River City: Tokyo Rumble (3DS) - C
Mario Party: Star Rush (3DS) - B-
Ittle Dew 2 (PS4, XB1, PC) - B+
Disney Magical World 2 (3DS) - B
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| Celebrate the season with Mickey and friends in Disney Magical World 2. |
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King (3DS) Story Trailer
Despite having some downgrades like non-orchestrated music, the upcoming port of Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of Cursed King to the Nintendo 3DS promises a compelling RPG adventure to play at home or on-the-go. Check out this new trailer that delves into the story of the game without going too deep into spoiler territory.
Tuesday, November 29, 2016
Disney Magical World 2 (3DS) Review
Two more reviews will cap off the month here at SuperPhillip Central. The first here is Disney Magical World 2, a game which I covered its first entry two years ago. How is the sequel compared to the original? Let's find out with the SuperPhillip Central review!
Taking the worlds of Disney and its characters, mixing them up into an interactive fantasy world, and presenting players with an abundance of tasks to do and options to consider sounds like an awesome time, right? Well, that's what the original Disney Magical World indeed was, and with this year's sequel, Disney Magical World 2, the same superb idea is present. That said, the opening moments and some presentation problems do somewhat distract, but overall, if you have a Disney fan in your life with a Nintendo 3DS, Disney Magical World 2 would be quite the gift.
Disney Magical World 2 starts you off with creating your character, the avatar that will move through the kingdom of Castleton, interacting with characters both Disney and generic. You have the option of choosing boy or girl, hair type and color, eye color, height, skin color, or you can opt to just use your Mii associated with your Nintendo 3DS system. Either way and with either sex you choose, you're able to dress in anything you want, regardless of your gender, which is very nice.
Though you might get excited from the opening of the game, featuring a bombastic vocal tune, the excitement soon turns into tedium, at least at the start of the game. What you get is a meeting with Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Goofy, and Pluto, and after that, an extended tutorial covering the basics of the game. This is everything from learning how stickers work (the main means of progression in Disney Magical World 2), finding out how to discover materials to be used in creating clothes, furniture, and even food, how to run your cafe, how to fish, and a lot more that makes for a long and quite boring first hour or two of the game, especially if you've already played the original.
Thankfully, after you're done with this tutorial, you're let loose to do a number of tasks. The main goal of Disney Magical World 2 is acquire stickers through performing various tasks. At first, these tasks aren't very complicated whatsoever. They can be as simple as creating an odd number of new dishes at your cafe, making a certain number of new furniture, or crafting a specific amount of clothing. As you move forward and gain more stickers, the tasks become a little more convoluted and/or they require a larger time investment to complete.
The purpose of stickers is that many parts of Disney Magical World 2 are locked away behind sticker gates. Earn enough stickers, and you can unlock these gates, awarding you with new content. For instance, at Chip 'n Dale's furniture creation shop, you can consistently earn new recipes for new furniture to create by gaining more and more stickers. It's the same thing with Daisy Duck's clothing shop, where the more stickers you earn, the more new types of clothes you can make.
Castleton is the main hub of Disney Magical World 2, a three area large kingdom that has three districts to it. One is main street, where the shops where clothing and furniture creation destinations are located, as well as Scrooge McDuck's store, where the goods inside-- from furniture to clothing and accessories-- change out every six hours.
Meanwhile, the the west is the residential district, where Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and the rest of the crew live. Your house is also located here, where you can customize both the outside and the inside-- the latter allowing much more customization options than on the outside. The cafe is also here, where you perform duties like using material recipes to create snacks, main courses, and desserts; decorating the interior in one of many themes, and throw parties where you can invite specific characters from many classic Disney films like Aladdin, Peter Pan, and Cinderella, for instance.
Lastly, the northern part of Castleton houses the castle as well as portals to other Disney worlds from films like Winnie the Pooh, Frozen, Lilo and Stitch, Alice in Wonderland, The Little Mermaid, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Each world is home to an episode board. Episodes unlock after earning a specific amount of stickers, and many feature your character going through dungeons (though these are massively more linear than in the original Disney Magical World), using a magic wand given to you by the mystical wizard Yen Sid to defeat ghosts. As you gain materials found and earned in these episodes, you're able to craft more powerful costumes for better health and stronger wands to deliver more damage to enemies. Other episodes like in Winnie the Pooh's 100-Acre Wood and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' forest have no combat, instead feature you doing miscellaneous tasks like finding objects, crafting certain furniture, and talking to specific characters to complete these episodes.
Disney Magical World 2 may have a lot to do (and that's an understatement, really), but it's all available to players at their own pace and leisure. Though you do need to collect all 100 initial stickers to see the game's ending, a task that took me close to 30 hours to do, it's nothing that needs to be done immediately. You can create your perfect room, through crafting furniture from materials, and if you lack a certain material, the game provides you with a material log to note where a given material can be located, such as a certain world's episode, for instance. You can create a cafe empire, completing various missions to have your cafe go up in rank, allowing you to craft more servings at once for more coinage. Take on requests from various townspeople and Disney characters, take photos with your favorite Disney stars, and much more. There is a multitude of tasks available, and it helps abundantly if you dig Disney. This is the type of game that children will definitely love.
With a more discerning eye, however, there are some issues with Disney Magical World 2. For one, there are frequent loading times. While limited in their duration and time they will cost you, they add up as you always get a loading screen upon moving from area to area, indoor to outdoor, etc. Performance isn't perfect with notable frame-rate issues. And as already stated, the intro tutorial goes on way too long, which will probably make more impatient people wish they could just skip it if they don't just drop the game immediately because of it.
Disney Magical World 2 isn't for everyone. If you cringe at the thought of your character dancing with Disney stars on a stage while sugary sweet Disney music plays, you might not find yourself enjoying this game. For everyone else, there is a massive amount of content to be found, where you're never at a loss for something to do. The relaxed structure means you don't necessarily have to do something in order, save for a world's list of episodes, that is. Interacting with accurately written Disney characters like Winnie the Pooh, Olaf from Frozen, and the Dwarfs from Snow White will make plenty of people smile as they play, even with the performance problems and beginning tutorial.
[SPC Says: B]
A world where Disney dreams come true
Taking the worlds of Disney and its characters, mixing them up into an interactive fantasy world, and presenting players with an abundance of tasks to do and options to consider sounds like an awesome time, right? Well, that's what the original Disney Magical World indeed was, and with this year's sequel, Disney Magical World 2, the same superb idea is present. That said, the opening moments and some presentation problems do somewhat distract, but overall, if you have a Disney fan in your life with a Nintendo 3DS, Disney Magical World 2 would be quite the gift.
Disney Magical World 2 starts you off with creating your character, the avatar that will move through the kingdom of Castleton, interacting with characters both Disney and generic. You have the option of choosing boy or girl, hair type and color, eye color, height, skin color, or you can opt to just use your Mii associated with your Nintendo 3DS system. Either way and with either sex you choose, you're able to dress in anything you want, regardless of your gender, which is very nice.
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| Depending on the season, Mickey and friends will be all dolled up in themed clothing. |
Thankfully, after you're done with this tutorial, you're let loose to do a number of tasks. The main goal of Disney Magical World 2 is acquire stickers through performing various tasks. At first, these tasks aren't very complicated whatsoever. They can be as simple as creating an odd number of new dishes at your cafe, making a certain number of new furniture, or crafting a specific amount of clothing. As you move forward and gain more stickers, the tasks become a little more convoluted and/or they require a larger time investment to complete.
The purpose of stickers is that many parts of Disney Magical World 2 are locked away behind sticker gates. Earn enough stickers, and you can unlock these gates, awarding you with new content. For instance, at Chip 'n Dale's furniture creation shop, you can consistently earn new recipes for new furniture to create by gaining more and more stickers. It's the same thing with Daisy Duck's clothing shop, where the more stickers you earn, the more new types of clothes you can make.
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| The characters in the various Disney worlds will appreciate you more and more as you go along. |
Meanwhile, the the west is the residential district, where Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and the rest of the crew live. Your house is also located here, where you can customize both the outside and the inside-- the latter allowing much more customization options than on the outside. The cafe is also here, where you perform duties like using material recipes to create snacks, main courses, and desserts; decorating the interior in one of many themes, and throw parties where you can invite specific characters from many classic Disney films like Aladdin, Peter Pan, and Cinderella, for instance.
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| You're looking snazzy for the camera, you three! |
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| Enter these types of world episodes to eliminate ghosts with your magical wand. |
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| C'mon, gang! Let's give this turnip one final pull! |
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| Accomplish a certain goal in-game, and you'll be invited to a swanky and beautiful ball. |
[SPC Says: B]
Monday, November 28, 2016
SuperPhillip Central's Favorite VGMs - "Monster Mash" Edition
Hello, SPC faithful and passersby! It's Monday, so that means it's time for SuperPhillip Central's Favorite VGMs! Five fantastic tunes from video games both past and present are here to make your Monday a little more tolerable.
Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire start things off. It seemed timely with the recent release of Sun and Moon. Then, Mario Party 8 gives us a song from one of its boards. Mega Man X7 might not have been a quality game (but bless their hearts for trying), but its soundtrack is indeed quite good. Finally, Yokai Watch continues the monster-battling fun started by Pokemon, and as a sharp shift in tone, Shin Megami Tensei IV: FINAL caps off this edition.
Just click on a VGM volume name to hear the song, and check out the VGM Database for all past VGM volumes featured right here.
v1276. Pokemon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire (3DS) - Petalburg City
It's no secret to Pokemon fans that Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire were remakes of the Game Boy Advance's Ruby and Sapphire! I am lapsed Pokemon fan myself, who was actively engaged (see: obsessed) with Pokemon back in my middle school years when the series hit North America. After many years and generations, I'm returning to the franchise with Sun and Moon, games I feel like I really should play.
v1277. Mario Party 8 (Wii) - Koopa's Tycoon Town
Mario Party 8 is one of the weaker entries in the series. I'm not even talking about the use of motion controls. Those didn't really bother me, as generally performing a gesture or shake worked properly. The sameness of the series just wore me down after eight installments, and while the new era of Mario Party by developer ND Cube isn't optimal, I appreciate the change, most notably with the most recent release, Mario Party: Star Rush on the Nintendo 3DS.
v1278. Mega Man X7 (PS2) - Conflict - Escape Stage
Mega Man X started out firing all on cylinders when it debuted, and it continued really up until the PS1's Mega Man X5. When X6 and X7 hit, those represented a dark period in the sub-series, and X8 eventually brought it back into a positively light. One constant of the sub-series, however, is its fantastic rockin' soundtracks. Mega Man X7 is no exception. While it's not my preferred soundtrack in the series, there's no doubting its quality.
v1279. Yokai Watch (3DS) - Sakura New Town
We haven't seen this series on SuperPhillip Central's Favorite VGMs yet. Pokemon started off this edition, so why not include a Level-5-developed series inspired by Nintendo and Game Freak's creation? Yokai Watch features creatures, though the level of comedy and humor is much greater. It's a series that's charming, quaint, cute, and doesn't take itself too seriously. While it hasn't had as much success in the West as in Japan, Yokai Watch has seen some level of success all the same, which is quite cool.
v1280. Shin Megami Tensei IV: FINAL (3DS) - Kinsicho Underground
The Nintendo 3DS has taken up three slots this edition of SuperPhillip Central's Favorite VGMs. That's okay, as I absolutely dig the system and its exhaustive library of games. Shin Megami Tensei IV: FINAL is an atypical 3DS release, meant for adult audiences primarily, rather than for everyone like many of the system's titles. Kinsicho Underground is a remarkably chill song to listen to, so I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire start things off. It seemed timely with the recent release of Sun and Moon. Then, Mario Party 8 gives us a song from one of its boards. Mega Man X7 might not have been a quality game (but bless their hearts for trying), but its soundtrack is indeed quite good. Finally, Yokai Watch continues the monster-battling fun started by Pokemon, and as a sharp shift in tone, Shin Megami Tensei IV: FINAL caps off this edition.
Just click on a VGM volume name to hear the song, and check out the VGM Database for all past VGM volumes featured right here.
v1276. Pokemon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire (3DS) - Petalburg City
It's no secret to Pokemon fans that Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire were remakes of the Game Boy Advance's Ruby and Sapphire! I am lapsed Pokemon fan myself, who was actively engaged (see: obsessed) with Pokemon back in my middle school years when the series hit North America. After many years and generations, I'm returning to the franchise with Sun and Moon, games I feel like I really should play.
v1277. Mario Party 8 (Wii) - Koopa's Tycoon Town
Mario Party 8 is one of the weaker entries in the series. I'm not even talking about the use of motion controls. Those didn't really bother me, as generally performing a gesture or shake worked properly. The sameness of the series just wore me down after eight installments, and while the new era of Mario Party by developer ND Cube isn't optimal, I appreciate the change, most notably with the most recent release, Mario Party: Star Rush on the Nintendo 3DS.
v1278. Mega Man X7 (PS2) - Conflict - Escape Stage
Mega Man X started out firing all on cylinders when it debuted, and it continued really up until the PS1's Mega Man X5. When X6 and X7 hit, those represented a dark period in the sub-series, and X8 eventually brought it back into a positively light. One constant of the sub-series, however, is its fantastic rockin' soundtracks. Mega Man X7 is no exception. While it's not my preferred soundtrack in the series, there's no doubting its quality.
v1279. Yokai Watch (3DS) - Sakura New Town
We haven't seen this series on SuperPhillip Central's Favorite VGMs yet. Pokemon started off this edition, so why not include a Level-5-developed series inspired by Nintendo and Game Freak's creation? Yokai Watch features creatures, though the level of comedy and humor is much greater. It's a series that's charming, quaint, cute, and doesn't take itself too seriously. While it hasn't had as much success in the West as in Japan, Yokai Watch has seen some level of success all the same, which is quite cool.
v1280. Shin Megami Tensei IV: FINAL (3DS) - Kinsicho Underground
The Nintendo 3DS has taken up three slots this edition of SuperPhillip Central's Favorite VGMs. That's okay, as I absolutely dig the system and its exhaustive library of games. Shin Megami Tensei IV: FINAL is an atypical 3DS release, meant for adult audiences primarily, rather than for everyone like many of the system's titles. Kinsicho Underground is a remarkably chill song to listen to, so I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.