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[Mini Travel Review(s)] Naruto Versus Animal Cross- I mean Magicians -
08-08-2009, 06:10 AM
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--- What the fuck was I thinking when I bought these games?
Well faced with an impending eight-hour plane ride I figured that buying two DS titles would somehow ease my boredom. I also decided to buy a book in case these two games where shit.
I am so incredibly glad I bought that book.
As such I won’t rate them… You can judge for yourself.
---
From Bad To Worse
Butchered harry potter-esque animal crossing versus clumsy and clunky Anime platformer. I mean fighter.
---
So this game is such that… well I don’t really know where to start.
I mean really like how should I describe something like this?
Ok well here I go anyways. Think an almost exact format of Animal Crossing with slight variations of the Harry Potter variety.
Fuck that was a lot harder than I thought it would be.
When I say an almost exact copy of Animal Crossing I mean an almost EXACT copy of animal crossing. I mean there’s a town and your character moves into it from some other unspecified place. You name your character, you edit their appearance, name the town etc… Then you’re thrust in this cutesy world inhabited with a large variety of characters ranging from a talking television to a talking fruit-cup. Yeah it appears Animal Crossing has updated to included intimate objects as NPCs. Fuck wait this isn’t animal crossing… right? Actually it’s not even made by the same company. Like… blatant copyright I think e_e
Still the game has a few little things added here and there to differentiate itself from it’s clearly more refined and complete brother (more like step-uncle-twice-removed). It essentially features a school in which you learn various different kinds of magic. This could range from being able to turn yourself invisible to pulling a relatively harmless prank on a friend. Additionally different ‘Mystery’ random events pop-up from time to time. To be quite frank, each and every single time left me completely and utterly confused, “Ok so this is the random event… Now what?”
The game features you living in a dorm with no possible upgrades. So really you’ve been downsized. Additionally there’s no mortgage to pay! Yay? Well… Part of the fun of Animal Crossing was paying it off… It gave a sense of direction in an otherwise (lets face it folks) pointless game. This game (of course) eliminates that in lieu of the befuddling mysteries which leave one asking where to start and various classes which instruct different kinds of magics.
Sure there’s still the bug catching, fishing, treasure hunting and all that… But really it’s very much the same as Animal Crossing. However there was one major difference… In Animal Crossing the top screen is entirely two-dimensional while the bottom screen is more three-dimensional. In this game, both screens are occasionally three dimensional. This does look quite nice at times with a diverse atmosphere (more diverse than Animal crossing but with a land size about the same anyways) it sometimes results in a sluggish frame rate. You can also romance some of the residents… That’s right you can go on little dates with a fruitcake. Not a ‘fruitcake’ but a legitimate fruitcake that walks. To be honest I found this exceedingly unsettling to the point of it just being… stupid.
But all and all, you’re better off with Animal Crossing.
---
Frick where do I start with this one?
Unlike Magician’s Story and Animal Crossing, it does have a semi sort of storyline that follows the manga fairly well. But really unless you’ve read the manga beforehand, there’s no way you’d understand what the hell is happening.
On the surface the game seems to be alright. Boasting about twenty different playable characters, mostly cleanly animated sprites, a suitable different amount of ninjustu used via the touch-screen to perform actions like rubbing across the screen quite fast etc… But one major thing I absolutely found incredibly annoying is that none of the characters you unlock during the game are able to be used in single player. All of them are used for multiplayer. Yup and I don’t have any friends who I’d let buy this piece of shit. So there goes like what? Fifteen characters.
So you’re stuck with Sakura, Naruto, that guy with the white eyes and long hair, bushy-brow, Kakashi and someone else but to be honest I don’t even remember. I pretty much stuck with Sakura the entire time given her healing ability unlocked via skills purchased with in game points. It made things quite easy. But ‘easy’ is sort of relative I suppose…
I mean it’s a strange game with really stupid controls. Like… really awful. The control scheme has it so you need to press two different buttons to dash jump with the same finger…. Like? What? I don’t even. Some bosses are also needlessly complex and since the game has decided you don’t need any respwn points, you start at the beginning of the freaking level if you die (unless in a boss fight to which you start at the beginning of the boss fight). To be honest I’m trying to think of something else that could be added but really that’s pretty much the entire game besides that they have these talking cut scenes which really are more like people talking with avatars and such.
Compare this to that other Naruto Shippuden game coming out for the DS which will actually be in 3D… You’re much better off giving that one a shot. I mean they are all Naruto games, but you’d probably have more fun with the 3D one if you’re into this sort of thing.
---- Conclusion:
They were both a waste of money.
There are quite a few promising titles coming out and you’re far better waiting for those.
(Such as...)
Spoiler
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Crystal Bearers (Wii)
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08-08-2009, 06:34 PM
Nice reviews... I would never probably pick up those two games anyway (Naruto games seem to suck in general, and that first one just has a name that turns me off immediately). But this reinforced that, lol.
But...I'm glad you suggested those better games to buy because I had NO idea they were coming out with a third installment of Golden Sun. o_o I absolutely loved those games, they were by far probably my favorite hand-held games, lol. Maybe you'll review that one in the future.
[Mini Travel Review(s)] Naruto Versus Animal Cross- I mean Magicians -
08-08-2009, 06:10 AM
Linear Mode
