That’s right everyone, you can now play this somewhat timeless classic of a series on your Xbox 360 today. Andrew and I grew up playing the original Backyard Football, and we played it a lot. Heck, Andrew beta tested the original, and I had a 300-0 record in the campaign mode. Sadly, this game is a lot different compared to the one we played, and not in a good way. You basically make a football team filled with a bunch of kids from the Backyard Football league, and some professional players and, well, only the pros are kids. You get to pick the name of your team, which compared to past games, aren’t as nearly customizable. Sure you can still pick your colors, but that’s really about it for customization. Once you play through the entire season, you get to play in the playoffs and play for the Backyard Championship.
Now I realize that I do sound like I am doing nothing but bashing this game from every side. I must say that this review is going to be a little different then those in the past. This game is intended to be played by little kids. The controls are beyond easy to figure out. You only use 4 buttons max in the entire game. You don’t get to pick who you throw the ball to, instead you just press the A button and it automatically picks a receiver to pass it to. Plus, the achievements are really easy to get. At the end of the first game, I got 8 of the 10 achievements in the entire game. Each achievement is worth 100 points. The commentary is also pretty funny, but it gets old really fast for older players. The graphics are pretty good and you can somewhat tell where they put in some of the detail. On top of that, who doesn’t want to see a virtual kid version of Tom Brady tackling a scrawny little kid for a 8 yard loss?
Overall, this game is targeted for little kids. For those who want to teach your little ones how to play video games, this game is perfect. As for those who grew up playing this game when they were little… well that’s a completely different story. None of the players can talk anymore, no women players, and no more Super Colossal Cereal Bowl. On a personal note, I haven’t been so disappointed in playing a game that I grew up with since I played Blood Bowl.
For those who love fighting games and are looking for something fresh (well, sort of), then look no further because Super Street Fighter IV is officially out. For those who have played Street Fighter IV (and read my review) this game is not the exact same game. This game introduces 10 new characters from Street Fighter II, III, and Alpha 2. They also introduce two brand new characters. The first is Juri, who is a Taekwondo fighter who works for Seth. The other is Hakan, a world famous oil wrestler who owns most of the olive oil industry. One thing that you will notice about this game is all the characters have pretty much been balanced out so there really is not a clear cut powerhouse (although Zangief is still a pain to beat). They also brought two bonus stages. One is destroying a car, which was originally on Street Fighter II, and another where you have to destroy twenty barrels as they come down.
As for all the characters that were previously in Street Fighter IV, all of them have twelve different colors for their outfits, as well as two Ultra Combos. As soon as you beat Arcade Mode with a character, you have the ability to go back and play it again with the same character; only you can have the original Japanese voice acting if you choose. You also have the option to skip all the bonus stages.
As far as online play goes, they have added more options for those who wish to kick ass online. Team Battle allows you to join with three other players and have a four-on-four fight. Replay Channel lets you record your fights so you can go back and watch them later. Endless Battle is a never ending cycle of fights with up to eight people fighting one-on-one.
Overall this game is amazing. For those who already own Street Fighter IV, you might feel as if this game is just the same with downloadable content already on the disk. As for those who do not have this game and wish to pick up an awesome fighting game, this is it. The game is $39.99 brand new, which is a steal for this game, thirty-five characters, and lots and lots of playtime both on and offline. This game is so far in my opinion the best Fighting game of 2010.
To say that a wrestling company can get a video game made after only 5 1/2 years of existence is truly remarkable. When I first herd that TNA was getting a video game made for them by the same company that brought usMortal Kombat, I was stoked. For those who don’t know what TNA is, it stands for Total Nonstop Action. The game is pretty amusing. TNA’s exhibition is really good with the standard singles and tag matches, but they also have some special matches such as the cage match, tables match, and the Ultimate X Match. In the campaign, you play as a wrestler by the name of Suicide, who is TNA’s biggest superstar. He gets attacked by Jeff Jarret and the Latin American Exchange (LAX), where he is beaten to a bloody pulp and left in the middle of Tijuana , and you were so badly beaten up that Mexican plastic surgeons reconstruct your face and you work your way back up to the main event status. The game is decent. I do cut them some slack, especially since it is there very first video game. The things that I enjoy about this game are the fact that the arena’s you wrestle in, at the beginning of the game, have an Indy Racing type atmosphere. The characters looked amazing since Midway was able to get everyone on the roster to do all the voice overs, scan their faces, and let them do some of there wrestling moves to make this game look as realistic as possible. There are also several combo moves for each wrestler. There were several of things that I didn’t like about this game. Some things you will notice only if you are a wrestling fan and watch the show. First, before they do the entrances to the ring, they say that the Impact Zone is the loudest building in wrestling, yet at the time they had a maximum seating of 900 people. Second, some of the wrestlers you unlock as playable characters were released from their contracts while the game was still in production, like Senshi, who was released almost 5 months prior to the game’s release. Now as far the what a non-fan would notice, I had a problem with pinning my opponent, since they made the pin button the same as when you wanted to get out of the ring. In other words, when you pushed the ‘Y’ button and you were meaning to make a pin fall, you would often roll out of the ring. Another problem is once you beat the storyline with Suicide, that’s it, it’s game over. There aren’t any other storylines with any of the other wrestlers. I would recommend this game to only wrestling fans. Granted, you can now buy this game brand new for only $10. As far as if it is worth it? That’s really your personal opinion. I really do enjoy their product in real life, and hopefully TNA Impact! 2 will be a lot better when it is released.
Leisure Suit Larry is taking over your Xbox with Magna Cum Laude. This time we have Larry, who is enrolled in college, and is trying to get on a popular tv show called Swingles. The host of the show Uma doesn’t think that Larry is popular enough to be a contestant on the show, so she makes him prove that he is a hit with the ladies by bringing different items from women all around the city. This game is really entertaining, especially if you compare it to Box Office Bust. The controls are easy to learn, there are hardly ever problems with the camera, and the mini-games and storyline are entertaining as well. In this game, you have the ability to purchase dozens of items that will help you throughout the game such as cheats, clothing accessories, and loading screen of behind the scenes artwork and real pictures of what the girls in the game look like in real life. The women in the game are interesting and the cutscenes are amusing, especially the ones that occur after you get the girls back to your dorm room. Those cutscenes are actually more funny then they are sexual. Something always goes wrong as soon as Larry gets them in the bedroom. There really isn’t much I can say that is bad about this game other then the fact that this is not recommended for the kids (the name should be a major hint at why). This game has lots of language and full frontal nudity. The mini-games are fun as well. . You can play pong, jump on a trampoline with DDR like controls, and even square dance (yes you saw it correctly, square dancing and pong in the same game). I personally loved this game. Compared to it’s sequel, this game is incredible. Although this game is rather difficult to find now, it is worth picking up and playing.
Ah yes good old Dante. I had wanted to play you for a while, and when I saw you during the Superbowl this year, I was counting down the days until the release date.
In this game you play as… you guessed it, Dante. Dante, a lot like Mario, is after his beloved lady. Your main objective is to kill Lucifer, who has your beloved Beatrice under his control. At first, you are pumped to play the game. If you asked for blood, this game delivers in that department, and then some. The controls are somewhat easy to figure out. Lots of moves and combos available to slaughter your enemies, and the boss fights are fun and challenging. There are definitely some negatives though. After awhile you start to lose interest in the story. Not even halfway through the game I was bored with the game and was trying to force myself to complete the storyline. For those who have played God of War, the game has that atmosphere, but just like Saint’s Row, it just feels too much like a knock off. For those who haven’t played God of War, you are going to enjoy this game. The replay value is moderate, but I personally don’t fall under that category. Note to EA, if you are going to advertise during the Superbowl, make sure that you don’t let people down and leave an everlasting impression, because you just failed in my book.
At last, the sequel to one of 2007′s best games is finally out. In this game you start off as Desmond, who escapes from the facility that he was held in durring AC1. You are taken to a secret hiding place of the assassins and are put through a newer version of the Animus. Instead of playing as Altair, you play as Ezio. Ezio lives in 15th century Italy. Ezio takes the role of the assassin after his father and brother are betrayed and murdered. Throughout the entire game your main objective is to find and kill everyone involved in your families murder. They introduced so many new things in this game that make killing people much for fun. In this game, you can now swim, and have more weapons that are unlocked as the story progresses. Some of the new weapons are poison knives, a gun, and a flying machine. All of these make fighting enemies seem a lot less tedious.
This game is still a long game. There are over 200 missions overall in the game with about 25-30 hours of storyline gameplay. The controls are still simple to use, the camera is great, but again, still has some minor flaws.
I can’t tell you now much fun this game is. The only thing I can tell you is go to the store and buy this game now! It is worth every penny. This game is by far in my personal opinion one of the best games to be released in 2009 for the Xbox 360. A serious contender for game of the year.
Oh yeah, if there is any game that was able to compete with Mortal Kombat back in the arcade days it was Street Fighter. Now we have Street Fighter IV. It is just like your classic Street Fighter game. It keeps the game play at it’s roots by staying with the classic 2-D feel with the fighters in full 3-D. You still have your classic arcade mode, which is a blast to play. They also introduce a storyline for each character using cut scenes from the old Street Fighter anime series. The only problem I had with the storyline was that every other fighter had their rival as Chun-Li.
They introduced Focus Attacks which are counter-attacks after absorbing you opponents attack. They also introduced “Ultra Combos,” which are long combos that are made into cinematics. There are 8 unlockable characters in this game including Gen, Rose, Dan, and Cammy. The controls are simple to use, and are like most other fighting games. The online play is so much fun. For those who aren’t very good at fighting games be warned, if you play online and don’t know what you are doing, you will be dominated. The only negative I have with this game is the lack of atTournament mode. For those who are fans of Street Fighter, or fighting games in general, this is a most have. By far in my opinion the best fighting game of 2009.
If there is one game series that has ruled the XBox since it’s launch, it’s the Halo series. This time they are back with Halo 3: ODST. The game follows 5 members of the Orbital Drop Shock Trooper unit (ODST). You start off as a Rookie who is deployed into a city that has been abandoned and overrun by covenant forces. You find many different items, and are shown exactly what happened as you play though the missions.
The game is great. The controls are almost exactly the same as Halo 3, with a couple of new features. First, a push of the X button will activate your hud, allowing you to see outlines of anything around you that is moving, and give you better night vision. They also introduced a health bar. This will get annoying when it gets low, as your health doesn’t regenerate when you are out of combat. This game includes the Halo 3 Mythic Disc, which is Halo 3′s multiplayer modes, and every map pack released. This disc is a waste for those who have downloaded all the map packs.
While this game is fun, the storyline is really short. It will take you about 5 hours depending on how good you are. I beat the storyline on normal in around 5 hours. The game is still fun to play, and is worth picking up, but in my own opinion it is a little overrated. Hopefully Halo Reach will live up to all of it’s hype.
Editor’s Note: We are launching a new segment called Classic Rewind, where our staff will review some of the older games from the XBox 360, XBox, and other consoles. This is the first article in this series. We welcome your comments and requests. -AN
Call of Duty 4, or CoD4 for short, is definitely worth picking up. The game is probably one of the best first-person shooters in recent history. You play the game as a member of the British SAS and as a United States Marine. The game alternates between the two soldiers throughout the campaign. In the campaign, you fight a Russian terrorist organization led by Imhran Zakhaev, who wishes to return Russia to the days of the Soviet Union, and the Op-For terrorist group in the Middle East led by Al-Asad. The game is very well put together. The controls are simple to learn, especially if you have played other CoD games, or other first-person shooters. Based on how you do at the very beginning of the game during the training miss, it will recommend what level of difficulty you should play choose for the campaign. For those who like a challenge, try playing the game on Veteran. It is very frustrating (I had to pop my batteries back in the controller several times), but it just makes you strive to beat it even more. If you think the campaign is too short (it will take you about 5 hours, depending on the level of difficulty) try playing the multiplayer on XBL. While you will run into your occasional cheater or child, CoD4 still has one of the best online experiences. Once you reach level 55 on XBox LIVE, you have the option to “prestige,” but you have to start all over again with our weapons, perks, and rewards. Overall the game is a blast to play. It is definitely worth going and paying the $20 bucks. You will have fun playing the game for hours on end.
The guys at Rockstar have finally come out with the last chapter in the GTA4 series. In this chapter you play as Luis, a personal bodyguard for Gay Tony. Tony gets himself in serious debt to members of the mob and has to repay them, but his nightclubs are not making enough money to pay back the debt. While I really don’t want to get into detail about the storyline, I have to tell you some outskirts of the game. During some of the missions, you overlap with Niko and Johnny from the previous two games, which I personally think is amazing since you get to see things from a completely different perspective. They also introduce a character by the name of Yusuf. Yusuf is a Arabian man who comes to Liberty City to expand on his families fortune. They brought back parachutes to TBOGT, which are still fun, and they even introduced an achievement for them as well. They also introduced new things that I now look forward to in future GTA games such as cage fighting, drug wars, golfing, nightclub management, and the ability to repeat missions once you finish the storyline. As far as the actual storyline is concerned, it will take you about 10 hours to finish depending on if you do any of the side missions. There are several times while playing the game that you think that the story is over, but it actually keeps on going, which keeps you at the edge of your chair. Overall the game is amazing, I still go back and play it all the time. This should tide you over until GTA5 comes out.
