NBA Jam review for the Nintendo Wii

I reviewed the NBA Jam remake from EA Sports for the Nintendo Wii as a part of CGR Undertow.

Guilty Party review for Nintendo Wii

As a part of CGR Undertow, Ray Carsillo reviews Guilty Party from Disney Interactive Entertainment for the Nintendo Wii.

VIDEO GAMES LIVE!

Since the video game revolution really started plowing forward back in the mid 80s, one of the most underrated aspects of the aspects has been the music. The 8 and 16-bit processors that the Nintendo, Super Nintendo, and Sega Genesis systems could produce were not much more than melodic beeps and pings made to sound like a catchy tune.

Of course, times have changed. Now, many of the best and brightest games have scores composed by full orchestras or big time, main-stream bands, but those original compositions still bring back childhood memories of simpler times to go along with our simpler games. The themes from Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Mega Man, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Castlevania, are still lovingly talked about alongside the newcomers from Metal Gear Solid, Halo, and Kingdom Hearts.

The music from these games and the feelings of nostalgia they conjure up are only now starting to get the respect they deserve on a scale worthy of the sales of these monolithic franchises. In that vein, I present to you Video Games Live.

Video Games Live was founded back in 2002 by celebrated game composers Jack Wall and Tommy Tallarico and has been a tour de force ever since. With a full orchestra and choir in tow, Wall and Tallarico have put together a show that needs to be seen to be believed. Fortunately, I saw it about two weeks ago. With musical selections from over 20 video games played, and 40 more waiting in the wings ensuring that an audience will never see the same show twice, Wall and Tallarico mix in geek-based humor with a light show, scenes from the greatest games ever created, and musical acumen that rivals the best and brightest out there.

The show I went to at the Beacon Theatre was the most fun I've had in a long time. You had a costume contest for people dressed as video game characters, a Guitar Hero competition, and a random drawing for a Nintendo DSi. You had special messages from Hideo Kojima, the creator of the Metal Gear series, as he gave a special recorded greeting before the playing of the Metal Gear music, and Koji Kondo, the composer of the Mario Bros. and Legend of Zelda themes, give a special message as well.

There was a live Q & A with Ralph Baer, the man credited with inventing video games (he is also credited with inventing the light gun, the first video game system peripheral, and the popular kids' game Simon in the 70s), over Skype and it was impressive to see this legendary inventor at the ripe age of 87 still smiling at how his invention has changed and influenced the lives of so many people across the world.

You had YouTube sensations, pianist Martin Leung and Laura "Flute Link" Intravia, come on and do what made them famous on the stage. Martin is best known for playing the Mario theme on piano blindfolded and Laura plays a stunning rendition of the Ocarina of Time music on flute, in full green tunic like the Hero of Time. Both would accompany the orchestra on several songs over the course of the night, usually to standing ovations (I nearly leapt out of my seat when Martin started playing the Super Mario World theme).

There was a request portion (where I nearly lost my voice screaming for the Mega Man theme and starting a Mega Man chant in my section of the Beacon Theatre; I was pleasantly surprised to find it was incorporated later into the show) where everything many fans called for was played and many were pleasantly surprised when Martin broke into the original Tetris theme, just because.

There were classics played from Mega Man and Chrono Trigger to more recent games like Halo and Shadow of the Colossus, but no matter if you were young or old, newbie or wily old veteran, there was something to make every geek and video game fan smile and laugh.

Video Games Live is now on their fourth world tour, and much like the game music they play, are just beginning to receive the respect and recognition they deserve. Playing to sold-out shows all over the world and constantly adding new and beloved video game music all the time (including the one I went to at the Beacon Theatre), Video Games Live is an ever-evolving entity much like the games off of which they are based. It is with the utmost praise that I recommend that every video game fan should see this show when they come to your town.

-Ray Carsillo

HEROES IN A HALF SHELL

With this being the 25th anniversary of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mirage Studios and Ubisoft, who hold the video game licenses to the franchise, have been going all out with the shell-ebration. This includes a reissuing of some of the old 1980s action figures (which they were very kind to send me a Master Splinter figure; sweet!), a remake of Turtles in Time for the current generation of consoles, and the highly anticipated TMNT: Smash Up for the Nintendo Wii.

Now that TMNT: Smash Up is officially available; I want to take this time to analyze the first original TMNT game for this current generation of consoles. The basic plot of the game is that Master Splinter wants to hold a special ninjitsu tournament to see how far the turtles have progressed in their training. The prize would be any of the items of Splinter's trophy room. Of course, there is a catch. Splinter, Casey Jones, and April O' Neill are all going to be participating as well.

As the tournament progresses and a winner is about to crowned, the Turtles receive an emergency call from their old friend the Fugitoid saying he has been captured by Shredder. This is where you take over and progress through various fights before facing down Shredder and some Foot Soldiers.

The plot is simple, as it should be for a fighting game. No one besides Shredder should be the final boss and the fighting mechanics are great. Ubisoft took the same fighting engine that was used in the Super Smash Bros. series so you can have four-player grudge matches and the game flows very smoothly. The game looks beautiful with some awesome settings and great interactivity in the levels.

There are still a few things nagging at me though being a die-hard TMNT fan. First, the generic background music irritates me to no end. Can we PLEASE bring back the 80s theme? There wasn't even the new cartoon theme. I'll even take the "Go Ninja Go" rap from Vanilla Ice at this point.

That isn't my biggest gripe though. My biggest gripe is that after being promised tons of characters, the list was suddenly shortened just before the release and instead of having hidden TMNT characters Ubisoft thought it would be a good idea to have three Raving Rabbids based on TMNT as hidden playable characters. WHAT?!

No Bebop, Rocksteady, Krang (although they might try to pull off the Utrominator as an upgraded Krang without calling him that), Leatherhead, Baxter Stockman, Rat King, General Kragg, Wingnut, Ace Duck, Usagi Yojimbo, Tokka, Rahzar, Slash, OR ANY OTHER BIG CHARACTERS WE CARE ABOUT! Instead, we got the Turtles, Shredder, Splinter, Karai, April, Casey and...that's pretty much it. There were more stages than there were playable characters.

The most important thing about a fighting game after the fighting system itself is the roster of characters and TMNT: Smash Up sorely disappoints on this front. The majority of TMNT fans are still those of us who grew up on it and not catering to us is always a bad idea. I was really surprised with this considering the great job Ubisoft did when revamping Turtles in Time, but this really depressed me as a hardcore fan. Instead of trying to use this game to promote another franchise, Ubisoft should have concentrated on making this as good a game as possible.

Ratings are based on a score of 1 to 10 with 10 being the best.

Graphics: 8.5: For the most part the game did look beautiful. Some of the settings were a little darker than I liked and when some of the large maps zoomed out to show all the characters on screen, it was hard to tell where everyone was, but for the graphics were mostly crisp.

Audio: 5.0: The generic background music irritated me and made me long for the good old days with the 80s theme song. The SFX were average and the voice acting was solid using the newest cartoon's voice actors, but they didn't record a lot of lines so they repeat themselves frequently.

Plot/Plot Development: 7.0: The plot is not usually the strongest point for a fighting game. All you need is a reason to bring a lot of people together to duke it out and this game does that.

Gameplay: 8.0: The fighting mechanics are very good and all the characters have unique combos and special moves to fit their styles. Add in special Ninpo items like daggers, smoke bombs, and some mystical items that randomly appear on screen and you'll have a solid fighting game experience.

Replay Value: 5.0: An arcade mode, survival mode, and mission mode all make the game worthy of playing, including a nice amount of unlockables, but with none of those unlockables being characters from the TMNT universe, I have to dock this score a lot.

Overall (not an average): 4.0: This game reminds me of the original Smash Bros. for N64 and if this was two generations ago, this would be a great game. Unfortunately, it's not, so this game is not nearly as good as what we've come to expect from fighting games. A lackluster roster takes a lot away from the game and severely hurts the game's replay value because there are only a few characters to go through the game with. The engine is great and that is the number one aspect for a fighting game, but everything after that falls flat on its face and any TMNT fan will be disappointed at the very least, if not furious, over this game. A more casual fan might want to rent this just to take a look, but probably not.

TMNT: Smash-Up is available now for the Nintendo Wii.

-Ray Carsillo