Beastly the game of no consequences or police

Sorry it's been a long time, but you know...Life.

Now lets go back to some games shall we? This time I'm setting my sights on another game based off of a movie.

As my blog post says I'm refurig to Beastly for the Nintendo Wii. I will get it out there now, that I didn't see the movie this was based on...I did see Beauty and the Beast so that's close enough in my mind. You know rich guy insults a witch and gets cursed to look ugly. The horror!!! In my opinion the guy actually still looks kind of hott, I mean his body is still nice. The witch didn't make him fat with a face full of pimples. 

Anyway, he kidnaps the quiet girl and keeps her in his house so they can fall in love. 

So, you think because this is a game based off of a movie you would get to play as the main characters right? Come on now, you should know better! You get to play as generic girl A or generic boy B, you know just in case you want to feel like your apart of the story but using a character that you don't even get to name. 

Yes, for the entire game your character is referred to as "You" not even he/she so don't think there is any replay value by picking another character. I know I checked. 

So what do you actually do you may ask? 

Well the first thing your introduced to is the school social network sight where you can "Like" or "Dislike" people posts. I didn't even realize you could do this on my first play threw, and it has no influence to the plot at all. Like most things you do in the game, it is pointless. From this page you see that you can unlock pictures and change settings be "friends" with the characters from the movie. Also, you cannot type in your own posts. Hooray for totally Not Facebook!!

The actual game starts with a clip from the movie, that explains nothing at all. You just see that rich hot, douchbag is running for president agents quiet smart girl. You can control a character here, and talk to the quiet girl. All she wants is to get enough people for the school trip to Manchu Pichu, so she asks you to get signatures from other students. So you walk around and talk to a bunch of people, then go back to her. Such Doesn't this sounds like such interesting game play? It is time for the first think you can do that would try to qualify this as a game. Throw things at campaign signs. Apparently you want douchbag to win the election, and have to stop any negative propaganda. So you throw stuff at the signs of his pooly drawn face that are graffiti. It's not like your using motion controls so you just have to point and press A. Then you count ballots.....A for one side B for the other. If it is blank or a Joke Ballot you throw it away. Yawn...if it seems like I'm rushing with run-on sentences, I am. This game is so boring and un-eventful waiting in line would be more fun.....

So after rich douche wins president he says he is going to throw a party. There is also something about rumors being told about Mary-Kate Olson but that's not explained. 

So you head to the party that is all access. Woo! No invitation required!! 

You go up to the bouncer and he asks for an invite and he heard nothing about this being an all access party and you need to get back to the end of the line...

I take back my statement from earlier, this game makes you wait in line for two minutes...you sit there and do nothing for two minutes.  

I would like to mention that I didn't pay full price for this game, I played $15 to much, but not full price.

After that exciting gameplay moment that will surly go down in videogame history. You force your way to the front of the line, only to get kicked out again.
You then go back to school and talk to rich guys friend, who says he will give you an invite if you give a note to rich douche girlfriend.
Lots of Padding...Dulll Dulll Padding.

Then you get into the party!!! At this part of the game you have to walk around and  "take pictures" for the school paper. So you walk to spots that have cameras on them and you unlock screen shots from the movie. I guess at this time your soposeto to be interested in some sort of plot point between the girl and rich boy, and that Mary-Kate is going to curse him or something. That is not really important at the moment though, what is really important that you need to be popular by showing off your awesome dance moves!

 Does anyone remember playing Flash Flash revolution? That's basically what your doing, with the Wii mote you press the arrows and your on screen character stands still and waves their hands in the air, while not responding to any actions you are commanding.
Your sprite just stands there waving their hands in the air while listing to the same repetitive tone that people think is house music I guess. You know, it like anything you are doing is totally pointless. At this point in the game you finally get to help Mary-Kate curse the rich kid. This mini game is the worst. It is just a timing game where you have to press A at the right point. It seems to be a guessing game when that is. Normal QTE will have a clear indicator about when to press A. This one has some vague flashing motion on a picture of a flower. Your like constructing curses with it...I have no idea what's going on really, and you have no idea that you do it I think. For the rest of the game you're trying to find out what happened to rich boy, by committing felonies.

I'm totally serious, the first thing that happens after Rich Douche is cursed you try to break into his locker to find out where he is, and when you can't get near it, you pull the fire alarm and not only break open one locker but six.  You don't get caught, or punished nor it is mentioned again.
Right after, you go to his house looking for him, and talk to another character from the movie. Some lady who says "No, No, Mr. Superman's not home" or something like that. You see a car drive away and "know" that you need to follow it, and steal someone's motorcycle of the street to follow it. One again, no police or anything. You just have to avoid the normal things on the road like oil spills and open man holes. Just weave in and out, almost like Spy Hunter but not as fun or anything like it not all because your on a stolen motorcycle in a video game that has nothing like the movie at all. Except for little totally out of context clips that I think are meant to move the plot a long, but are so minor that you would have had to see the movie to know who these people are and why they are helping the Rich Kid. Also, your character seems to be in the dark about everything, so the fact that you see these moments. How can your character know what is happening if the point of this game is to find out where rich boy is. Most of the cut scenes are 30 seconds long, and kind of show what you need to be doing in the next section, like seeing Rich Kid, who is now called Hunter, sneaking around to a Halloween party. 

Speaking of a Halloween party, it's Halloween! You talking to bitchy girlfriend and that other guy...I know it's lazy of me to not look up any names, It might even be unprofessional but are you reading because you actually care? If you care...Then sorry? 

So back to not caring, your told to play a crane game for cheep dollar store candy, and I have to say this is probably the worst mini game in the whole game. None of the games are that great, flash games for advertisements seem to function better. This game is barely responsive. Remember in Kirby you have the mini game where you have to pick up a fat or thin Kirby for lives. 

This is like that, but this one you have to hold the Wii mote sideways, and roll it forward to try and pick up the candy. It works about half the time. I did rush a bit, so I failed and had to retry a few time, then it became personal, so I gathered all my gaming skill and picked up the candy eyeballs and gummy bats. Victory was sweet! After the candy is retrieved, you will discover that I lied. There are police in this game, they just don't do anything. 

Apparently there was a murder, or an attempted murder they don't make it clear. They think it was Hunter though. The three policemen in the area, tell you to leave at first. Then after about a minute they leave the a murder scene unattended, so you now get to commit felony number 5 (maybe) by disrupting a crime scene. By playing I Spy. So you look for bullets, a movie ticket and other stuff, that most likely has nothing to do with the murder case at all. After you witness Hunter fleeing on a motorcycle and you steal another bike to follow him. After, you do end up at his house, and get to golf with Neil Patrick Harris off of a roof. After it  is strait to the Zoo. 

If it seems like I'm rushing again, at this point the game is starting to just push you along the non existing plot like it is surprised that anyone would play it for this long. Back to the golfing portion if you are really interested, you ever play NES golf, or even Mario Golf? It's is like that, kind of hard to fuck up. 

At the Zoo it's time to commit felony number 7 and climb the wall to break in after hours. Kind of like the hexing game, you need to click on the hands at a certain time to go up the wall. If you get the rhythm down it's easy. 

After you break in, it's time to learn facts about animals. You can go up to the different exhibits and read about animal facts, because a security guard catches you in the Zoo. Oh no!!! 

You tell him that you work there, and in order to prove yourself be asks you animal trivia....Because that proves you work there....

Another cut scene, it's about Elephants...

Finally the last part of this dumb dumb game. 

You finally head to Manchu Pichu, the final chapter in this epic tale of wandering around comitting felonies and not finding out any information at all! Or even seeing the main characters. They didn't even show a movie clip of them at the field trip or anything.

In South America, you need to take pictures of land marks and play spot the difference for some reason. 

You need to find what is different between a drawn picture and a color picture. Your teacher also says there will be a quiz, so you read facts on billboards around the area (if you want to I didn't) and once you pass....That is the end. I'm serious, it just cuts to a clip from the movie of hot guy (back to normal) and girl run to each others arms and saying that they are beautiful...on the inside (HA!!!). Then you see stuff on the totally not facebook.

I'm not being lazy, there is no resolution, you have no idea what happened to the people the game is about. I have no idea how hot guy turned back to normal, and how the girl he kidnapped was cured of her stalkhome syndrome, or if Neil Patrick Harris gets his eye sight back or anything!!

The only  "reward" I could find  for finishing, is a 30 second clip of the hot guy working out in his underwear. That is very sallow of me but what can you expect, this was the worst game I have ever played in my life. The fact that it is a game based off of a bad movie doesn't mean anything here. I expected it to be bad, but not so lazy that there isn't even an ending.

The Question is, did his game suck because it was clearly marketed at girls? The movie was made during the Twilight phenomena, and I guess it was popular enough to get this game, but..I don't know what I was expecting to be honest. They should have stuck with copping Twilight and made this game trivia based.

Don't waist you time...Unless you want to laugh and wait in line.

Once again, may the stars guide you 

Hoshi*

The Token Chick

Alright, it's been a while sorry but inspiration has finally struck. There have been a lot of discussions about female characters in video games. There is a mutual agreement that a lot of female characters only appear in the game as fan service. You know, Boobies!! In a lot of cases, they are treated as a prize in many situations. The archetype of the hero going on a grand adventure to rescue the princess has become immortalized by Mario and Link. I know they weren't the first characters to do it, but they are one of the most recognizable.

Peach and Zelda will be talked about eventually. I want to try and focus on the female characters that appear in games that are not about the adventure, and are not considered the prize.
Girls like this tends to fall into a goofy side kick, or the unattractive tom boy. What makes characters like this special, is that you can tell they were just thrown into the game to be a contras the main character sometime, or just because they want to appeal to another demographic. AKA...A character a female gamer would be able to relate to in a dominantly male game. So do characters like this suck? If they do suck, why could they have been so much better. What qualities do they have that make a good characters, but are just ignored or brushed off.

This isn't going to be a list of something, I would rather give some examples and explain why they work or not.

Let me start with a big one, that I personally hate.
Amy Rose.
She is one of the prime examples of a Mary sue. Yet, she tries to be proactive but it gets her into more trouble. I'm going to admit, I like sonic, but it's not my favorite game series. I have only played the Sega games and Sonic adventure II for the gamecube. Sonic on the game cube has given me more memorable experiences even though  I mostly played with the Chao's, but I found most of the gameplay fun and enjoyable. I was soooo happy to not play as Amy in the main story line. She, unlike Sonic, cannot run as fast, and her main attack is a larger hammer. I think what bothers me the most is the fact that she is just obsessed with Sonic. It's like she is the worst of a fan girl that stalks him, gets herself into trouble and has to be saved by him. Even though he clearly doesn't have any interest in her. So why was Amy added?
According to Wikipedia, Amy was first created for the Sonic Manga, and her first official game release was Sonic Cd, but not given a staring role till Sonic Adventure for the Dreamcast. Before that, only other female characters in Sonic were humans. Amy is described as a "self proclaimed girlfriend of Sonic" and her entire personality is centered around wanting to impress him or disliking those who would try to harm him. What is there for a girl to relate to? Her obsessive fangirlizm? That seems to be what her personality boils down to. In my own experience, the guys I know find Amy to be annoying because her only trait seems to be screaming "Sonic".
Yet Wikipedia also says she is the fifth most popular character is Sonic and the most beloved female character. She doesn't have much to compete with in the female character category. Cream is a little girl, Rogue is...Sexualized, and the human characters are....I can't really describe them because I find it weird that the humanoid hedgehogs are having relationships with humans. Her following could contribute to her role in the television series, but her personality doesn't seem to change much. I am beating on Amy a lot, and she does have other qualities. She is defiantly courageous, when it comes to defending her beliefs she doesn't back down to any challenge. She will even blindly go up agents Eggman's robots to help her friends. It's just that annoying "Sonic" voice that gets to me.

Someone that works well as a token chick has to be 


Let me get back to you on that....I know it's totally lame and a cop-out, but I honestly cannot think of a token chick that I enjoy. Someone like Laura Croft and Samus are the main characters in their own series of games. This idea of a Token girl in games is almost uncommon. This idea is mostly found in television. 

So if I have any readers out there, please enlighten me! 

May the Stars Guide You 

*Hoshi

Evil Women and the Awesom Woman Who Take Them Down

This is a new segment I want to start is dedicated to Evil Woman and the Women to Take Them Down. You know like the title says. I mostly decided to create this because I wanted to make a top ten kinda list, but I figured it would be more fun to go into detail about individuals. Plus, I get to talk about the females that appear in games that were marketed at male gamers. These women will be more than just a skimpy outfit, and big tits. These area badass women that might not always be on their best behavior but can be an inspiration for other girls out there.

Also Warning this blog post will contain lots of spoilers!

So lets start by talking about one of my favorite game series Phoenix Wright.

I first discovered this game when a friend of mine told me he was stuck, and I might be able to help figure it out. He was playing Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney, the first game in the series to come to America for the DS. For those who don't know the game it's about a rookie defense Attorney named Phoenix getting his start in the world of criminal law. You (as Phoenix) follow all the steps in a murder trial from gathering evidence, to questioning witness on the field. Then entering the court room to face off ageist the Prosecution to defend your client. The main game play is basically puzzle solving. You have to use witness statements and find contradictions in their statement by the use of evidence.

This game series is known for it's colorful characters, and creative story plots. The women I want to talk about are Mia Fey, and Dahlia Hawthorn.

Lets talk about Mia first, she is a recurring character in the Phoenix games. She was Phoenix's mentor, and in the first game she is there to get Phoenix out of trouble in his first case. Also in that game, she dies. Then Phoenix is on his own to find and convict her murder, because both he and Mia's sister Maya (confusing I know) are suspects in Mia's murder.
Both Mia and Maya's come from a family of powerful spiritual mediums, aka they can channel the dead. When Pheonix is in trouble Maya (and later her cousin Perl) channel Mia's spirit to help him in chases.
You only really get to know Mia through these small interactions where she gives Phoenix advice, and from what Maya tells you about her. Mia became a defense attorney to clear her family's name. In a trial, Mia's mother was used as a witness for the first time, and was told to channel the spirit of the victim so they could discover his killer. Her mother was unable to channel the spirit and the Fey family was soon became known as a mockery and that spirit channeling was totally fake. Phoenix knew this to not be true because he experienced it first hand when Maya summons' Mia for the first time. Phoenix ends up clearing the Fey sisters mother when he discovered that she was unable to summon the spirit because the victim of the case wasn't actually dead.
This all comes to a head in the third game, "Phoenix Wright Trials and Tribulations" where you play two episodes as Mia Fey when she is first starting out as a rookie defense attorney. She is nervous, and does make some mistakes, but she proves that she believe in her client. She is also shown to feel jealousy and anger as she faces off with the witness that has the court in the palm of her hands. In the episodes of this game you play as Mia who is defending a younger Phoenix Wright who has been framed for murder. Phoenix is a big cry baby, who is obsessed with his girlfriend Dollie, and very naive towards the situation. It is revealed that Mia hadn't been on the stand in eight months since her first case. She took this case because she had a personal vendetta agesnt the most evil woman I believe was ever created for the Phoenix Wright games, and I'll even say for games in general. Dahlia Hawthorn.

Her history was revealed a little out of order for the player, but here is Dahlia Hawthorn.
At the age of 14, she convinced her 20 year old tutor, Terry Flawless to steal her father's diamond and run away with her. They were going to use Dahlia's step sister Valerie, to get away, by staging a kidnapping, and then split the money form the diamond. Valerie and Dahlia though framed Terry for the theft and kidnapping, when Valerie confronted Dahlia and Terry on a bridge in the mountains Dahlia faked her own death by throwing herself off the side of the bridge into the river. Terry was accused of throwing her in and sent to prison for murder.
Five years later, Terry broke out of prison to confront Valerie, but she too turned up dead, and Terry was blamed for her murder as well. Maya defended Terry in her first case, with Dahlia as a witness under a different name. Dahlia has the court under her thumb, acting like an innocent witness to the murder. Even her theme music tries to trick the audience into believing that she is an innocent, sweet girl. During this case you know that Dahlia is a cold blooded killer, but this is Mia's first time facing Dahlia, but she isn't fooled by her tricks. Neither is her adviser/boyfriend Diego Armando. He acts as the emotional support for Mia during her first trial, calling her a little kitten because she is still a rookie. Mia ends up taking town Dahlia for the fake kidnapping, and also the murder of her step sister. Right when the verdict is about to be announced, Terry rushes to the stand, and proclaims his love and devotion to Dahlia even though she fully admitted to using him.
I REALLY want to say what happens, but at the same time I really want you to play this game...

Ok Spoilers A Head, If you want to check this game out move past the next section.










There is no verdict given because after Terry comes to the stand, he admits that he cannot see Dahlia go to jail. He even admits to the murder himself even after he was proven to be innocent. He then commits suicide on the stand by ingesting poison that Dahlia said the two of them would take together in a couples suicide. They had matching necklaces of little hearts that had a bottle in them.
Dahlia gets off completely free. Mia very upset, not only because Dahlia got away but because she felt like she let her client down. She looks to Armando, who only smiles and says, "Mia, don't you get it? You can't cry yet. A lawyer can only cry when it's over."
Eight months later is when it was over. Mia went back to court to take Dahlia down, not only for Terry Flawless. Dahlia had also killed Armando.
Armando had asked Dahlia to lunch in the court house to try and get some explanation or evidence agents her. In panic, she put poison into Armando's coffee. She held the poison in a bottle around her neck, just like the one she had given Terry Flawless. In order to hide the bottle, she ran off and gave it to the first person she could find. That happened to be, Phoenix Wright. She wasn't taken into coustuty for the murder of Armando. Yet she still needed to get that necklace away from Phoenix. For the next eight months she continued to ask for the bottle back, until once day she lost her patience.
She soon framed Phoenix for the murder of her ex-boyfriend Doug, she used him in order to steal the poison to kill Armando.
Mia, was determined to have her revenge and take Dahlia down.
Dahlia also had Phoenix under her thumb. He couldn't believe that she would have been able to kill someone, because she was so soft and innocent. He continued to beg Mia over and over to prove or say that Dahlia didn't do anything. It wasn't until it was proven that she wasn't planing on killing Doug, she was planing on killing Phoenix in order to get the bottle back. Doug just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Realizing that Dahlia had stolen the poison, Dahlia knew she couldn't keep him alive.
Once Mia proves that Dahlia was the killer. Dahlia, just smiles at her, and calmly walks off. Only saying to Mia, "I have a long memory, we will meet again".
It wasn't over there, Mia still didn't cry for Armando or Terry Flawless.
In this series Dahlia was sent to death row, but her sentence wasn't fulfilled for a long time.







Spoilers over

There is a lot more to Dahlia Hawthorn. A lot more than I can go into here. This vengeful woman, was able to find a way to have her revenge from a cold grave.
Mia, after her Rookie trails became one of the best Defense Attorneys in her city.
What I really enjoy about Phoenix Wright as a game series is how much it feel like real life. There are funny characters that seem very over exaggerated, but some of the cases are very short and we don't have a lot of time to spend with some people so a layered character isn't possible. The characters we do get to know aren't just one dimension, and we have the time to learn about them. Mia is the Obi Won of the game. The mentor that was taken away for the hero to be able to succeed. She knows when she is needed, and even know when to hold back because she believes in what she taught Phoenix.



So that was my first Evil Woman and the Awesome Women to take them down. I hope you enjoyed it because it really means a lot to me, and I hope to continue with more women in video games that need to be recognized. I find it funny actually that I started this blog around the time where the gaming sexism idea was brought up. This was never not a thing though...Maybe it was Laura Croft who made people understand that woman characters in games aren't just T and A. I might talk about her one day, if I get around to actually playing any of the Tomb Raider games.

May the Stars Guide You
Hoshi

Women Belong in the Kitchen

Toys for girls and games for girls seem to have similar ideas. There are a lot of baby dolls, plastic kitchen sets princesses and even adult women are the target audience for infomercials about cooking or cleaning products.

This is where Cooking Mama comes in. There are 4 cooking Mama games for the DS, 2 for the Wii and one for the iPod/iPad. There is also, Crafting Mama, Gardening Mama, Camping Mama, and Baby Sitting Mama.
How can there be so many different games about the same thing? I own Cooking Mama (1 and 2) for the DS and for the Wii, and besides one being easier because you have a stylus and not a controller there isn't a difference between the games at all. It's really addicting too. There was a time in my life where I would just continue playing the same recipe over and over again because I wanted to get a gold coin and here mama say "Great! Even Better than Mama" in broken English.

Mama herself isn't really a character, she is just a place holder. You know nothing about her besides the fact that she cooks, gardens, crafts, camps (which is weird) and takes care of children.
She sounds like a girl scout. I was a scout when I was a little girl, and really was in it for the cookies, but I remember doing all these things in girl scouts.
I went on One camping trip, made gods eyes, and learned about babies.
If Mama isn't a replacement scout she is a replacement of your own mother, who is working now and doesn't have the time to teach you how to cook and garden.

So the game play, the DS version is a lot easier like I said before because you have a stylus. This is another one of the games where you do a specific task over and over again.This game isn't bad...Per say..It's just repetitive. Because I cannot show you the crazy arm movements you have do to while playing the Wii version, I will talk about the DS version.
It's not too hard to screw up in this game. Like I said before it's repetitive, the cooking involves a lot of tracing lines with your stylus and tapping the screen. Sometimes, you can feel like your doing a movement correctly and the game penalizes you for it, but it doesn't make you repeat the same thing over and over again if you keep failing. For example, I messed up on separating the yoke from an egg, and instead of starting that section of cooking over mama stops me and says "Don't worry Mama will fix it". This is both good and bad. It's good because your going to be able to try again, if you redo the recipe or preform it in another, but it's bad because you have to restart everything in the recipe to get a perfect score.
It fixes this also by adding a practice mode for every recipe, so you can practice without being penalized, and you can even skip over the easy steps like chopping.
For a game about cooking (and baking, which should be it's own separate game) I wish these recipes were real. There are no measurements or timing for cooking in this game. It's just "Add Eggs" "Chop Onions" and then presto you have an Omelet. If this game's purpose is to teach me how to cook, then give me some concrete instructions.
In Cooking Mama 2, they step a few things up from the original cooking Mama. For one, you can now change Mama's outfit, and get upgrades for you cooking utensils, that don't mean anything but they are gold. Also, you cook with other "friends" when you link up with real player and try to finish faster than the other player, but also trying to not screw up the cooking. There is also a "lets cook" option in the game where you cook for your other family members, in this part of the game you are not given instruction between each section of cooking and have to complete the recipe in one swoop without messing up. If you mess up Mama will not fix it. I guess this is the best way to test your knowledge of how to play the game, because all of this dishes in the "lets cook" section you have completed in the normal cooking mama mode.
This game is another casual one, because it's just a pick up and play. There is no real skill and anyone can get the hang of it with practice. It's also not a short game, there are 80 different things to make in the main cooking game that rage from ridiculously easy (making Ramen: add hot water) to hard (Escargot: Snails..Yuck). You get to feel like a real Cook without having any skill at all.

So, because it's cooking this game is for girls. So then a game like Hell's Kitchen is for boys because it's back by a real life Chef? Why can't Mama be a Chef? Why is she basically a house wife? She has children (I think) and there is a character named Papa, who is in casual business attire. If this game was backed by a female chef like Rachel Ray, or Giada De Lurentiis and actually helped you learn to cook. Maybe girls would be wants to actually go to school to be a chef or a baker.
What's next for Mama? Cleaning Mama or Pleasing Your Husband Mama? Probably not the latter, but this game is totally harmless. I don't hate it, I just wish I wouldn't get bored of it after a play through.

Before I end this I do want to talk about Peta's response to Cooking Mama. It's a flash game entitles Mama Kills Animals. OMG this is the most overblown thing EVER!!! It was released around Thanksgiving and it turns a harmless character into a blood thirsty lady holding a butchers knife as she defeathers a turkey and rips out its insides, with her bare hands.
Then when you finish the game, you get to play Mama Loves Animals where you make a turkey out of Tofu!
Play it yourself...http://features.peta.org/CookingMama/
That was painful. Only because I find Peta to extreme. I'm all for Animal rights and such, but please don't turn my beloved characters into animals hating murders.

With that!
May the Stars Guide You*
Hoshi

Princess Debut

Happy Valentines Day Everyone!!
Even if you don't have a special someone, enjoy the half priced chocolate tomorrow.


Anyway, games directed at females, and because it's Valentines day what better than a game about Romance?

From the title of the blog, you can guess I am talking about Princess Debut for the Nintendo DS. This game comes to us from Natsume, the creator of my favorite game series Harvest Moon. This game thoughg doesn't have anything to do with farming, it's about ball room dancing.

Hot anime style boys and ball room dancing, two things girl love. Plus add repetitive and easy gameplay  that I couldn't put down and HAD to finish every single story plot.

Before I continue, I would never had played this game if it wasn't for my life twin! (You know who you are) and this is dedicated to her! <3


So with this game, I think I got rapped up in my own fantasies of falling in love with a prince. Is is beccause this game mostly playes like a dating game. There is a different boy for any type of guy your into.


Vince- The blond innocent boyish type.

Cesar-The romantic womanizer type.

Luciano- The mysterious type, or the bad boy of ball room dancing.
Keifer-The "cool" guy
Klaus- The popular boy that all the girls want to get with
Liam- The quiet, romantic type that loves his sister and flowers.

See a guy for every type. So, there is a replay value so you can play it multipal times to get all the endings. There are even guys that you cannot get until you play through once.

So the story,
You are an average teenage girl who is bored with her life and wishes for a prince to come and take her away. You know every girls fantasy. Well low and behold a princess comes flying out of your closet, Ironically you look exactly alike. Through more dialogue you discover that she has to prepare to dance at the ball for her kingdom, but she doesn't have the skill to dance. So she sends you in her place.
Also, the princess has an adviser named Kip that knows your secret, and acts as a guide for the game.

So the a story of mistaken identity and switching places. We all know how this story is going to end!

So this part of the story you discover the game play. The only thing you do in this game besides talk to people, is dance. Your first lesson is with a magical rabbit, named Tony who acts as your dance partner if you don't have one. You can also have an ending with him if you decided to not have a partner with any of the princes.
Speaking of endings, it would take FOREVER for me to go threw each of the partners endings. If you want to discover all of the endings, okay the game yourself or check out a Lets Play on Youtube.

So gameplay! If you want to call tracing a line to the beat of public domain music. That's it. You keep replaying the same songs over and over, to gain experience and new songs or dresses.

If you wanted to make this a dating game, make a dating game. Why the same dancing game plays over and over? If you wanted the dancing aspect then that's fine, but make it like DDR or something? I enjoyed the game for the fantasy dating game aspect, I just felt forced to do the same things over and over.
There are basic rpg elements, you improve your dance by playing more difficult of songs. That really doesn't matter in the long run though. It's all about your accuracy. You can have high stats, but if you screw up on making your little frowny face, you get a bad score. There are rhythm games for the DS that are fun. Elite Beat Agents is one of the more, if not most, popular games for the DS. It's described as having great and entertaining graphics and fun gameplay. There is verity, and a feeling of more accomplished other than getting gifts from your potential man.

That's really all there is to this game. Find a prince you like, befriend him. Win the dance competition and get married.
The whole liar reveled plot comes about at the ending competition, and depending if you win or not is the factor on if the prince marries you or you go back home.
The whole gameplay is seeing the story unfold with the different boys and picking the right dialogue to woo him.

My favorite story was Luciano. His story is the hardest to finish, and I felt like I had achieved the most. He besides being the "bad boy" is the childhood friend who is also the best at dancing. He even leaves during the story plot, and if you didn't know that he comes back for the finale, you would lose all your hard work by picking another partner.

So what does this say for female games. That we don't need to have engaging game play to keep us interested? We just need pretty boys and dresses and true love! I shouldn't say anything though because I myself did play this game. I don't think so. I played this game because I like dating games, and that's what this game feels like to me, a dating game.
I wish for a hybrid of a dating game with a good rhythm game. I don't think my wish will be answered, but I am hopeful!
 If Natsume can do anything well, it's create characters that girls can find attractive.That is what brings people back to their games, they create simple characters that anyone can get attached too.
 This was something new that they were experimenting with. I guess if failed, because I haven't seen something similar from them.

Well that's post number two down! Just in time for Valentines Day! Have a great day!
And May the Stars Guide You! *Hoshi


PS. Any name ideas? Please?

The Little Mermaid NES

Princesses have become the punchline to a bad joke once you grow up and get past the little girls fantasy. Just look at our princess Peaches, just the prize at the end of a game. Princess Zelda kind of dodges that stereotype because without her you cannot achieve your goal, but she gets kidnapped in the end just like Peach. Then there are the first princesses that every little girl knew, The Disney verity.

Oh boy. Well there have been countless blogs and video reviews about them. Now a days, there are only a few video games about the princesses. They are so bad, like holy shit very short and crappy games. That's another blog though. I want to start at the NES, my very first gaming system, and my first princess game. The Little Mermaid. 

  This game was inspired by the popular Disney movie of the same title, I'll get to that eventually, but like most video game movie tittles this game has almost nothing to do with the movie.  

  It's also really short, I found a play threw on YouTube that was 20 min long for the entire game. 

  You start off turning the game on and there is a narrative about Ariel living on land with Eric while this is going on Ursula takes over the ocean. So Sebastian and Flounder find her and say they need her help, if she isn't stopped Ursula will probably take over the rest of the ocean.   I love that she will only probably take over. Like they are not sure the evil sea witch would want to take over the rest of the ocean, just like the Atlantic is okay for her. That probably is enough to make Ariel go and save her friends and the whole game is the journey to her castle. Then Ariel TELLS ERIC THAT SHE IS A MERMAID and changes back to try and save her friends.

  Well I don't now about you guys but I can find something wrong with this narrative....

If Ariel can talk how did she get legs if she didn't trade them for her voice? Even in the original story written by Hans Christian Anderson she didn't speak to the prince at all. So this game cannot take place during the movie. It cannot be after either because she has to explain to Eric that she is a mermaid and save her people. 

Also it's not certain that she will actually take over, they are only assuming because she cast a spell to control the fish. Also where the hell are the rest of the mermaids? Like her father King Triton? 

  When I was little I didn't really care about this, or even notice because this was one of the first games I ever played, and I don't think I could read very well at that time. I just wanted to play a game based off of my very favorite movie.

But still, how could these people not even create a simple narrative that went along with the movie? I mean its not like it was hard to see it, or even read the book because they weren't that far off from the original source. Okay, maybe it was...But the almost same basic story line is there, just I don't think Disney would be able to market a movie where the main character commits suicide. Disney does have it's dark moments, but not for 1989. 

We are not talking about the book or movie here. This game came out in 1991, so the VHS must have been available by then. Sorry it's my first review and I have already started harping. I would just like to know why this game got the half ass end of the stick? Aladdin on the SNES is very fun and changing. It also had something to do with the movie. To give them a little leeway this is the first Video Game for the NES that was based off a movie. All previous Disney games have been about Mickey, so maybe this was just the beginning. Yet, I still feel that the Princesses are miss treated, there is no need for them to suck. Lets just show you why it is very disappointing, and maybe (in my opinion) how it could be better. Maybe this is just where it all began. 

Lets start with...

level 1, Sea of Coral 

  I have to say even though there is no music in this game that sounds anything like the music from the movie. besides the main title theme, you could get Under The Sea for that and nothing else. Why not use it during the game? the tune for this level still gets stuck in my head. I find it the most memorable thing about the game. I even enjoyed the narrative music that shows up at the beginning and between levels. 

  I guess this was kinda, sorta, not really supposed to sound like "Under the Sea" because of the Caribbean theme to the sound, but I could just put on the soundtrack to the movie as I play. 

  Well the first thing you notice as you play is that you hit the A button to flip your tail and shoot bubbles, and you kill the first fish on the screen by making tilt float to the surface or picking it up and flinging it into other fish. Cool! 

I think these fish are piranha, but I don't think that piranha can survive in salt water...google check...Well I was wrong according to the Internet. Yay for fact checking! 

  Any who also on the first screen of the game there is a green shell that you can pick up, and you can also fling it at the fishes, but it would be better to use on the chests to get upgrades for your bubbles. The reddish ones make your bubble stronger, it helps in other levels where the enemies cannot be bubblized by the first bubble. The green ones I had no idea what they did as a kids , but apparently they add to the range of the bubble. So it goes farther? I guess that helps so u don't have ego get close to an enemy? 

  So this level is really short, so it should take too long to get threw. If you dig in the sand you can sometimes find a dingle hopper (fork) or a snorfblatt (pipe) they add to your overall score. It doesn't really matter because there is no high score board, or even a save feature, but get enough points you get a free life, so not entirely pointless.  Ya, so like Super Mario Brothers you have to beat the game in one sitting.  (Can't remember about the game over). When you die you lose all your power ups and start back at the beginning of the level you died on, which sucks in later level when you need those power ups for to kill the bosses quicker. 

  Speaking of bosses! The fist one you meat is the Great White Shark! I remember him from the movie! It would be really cool if there was like a chase sequence here where you have to dodge things and stop the shark by going through the end of an anchor. Instead you throw four fish at it and move up or down to move out of its way. It was only the first level boss. 

  Has anyone ever noticed that games that involve swimming really suck now a days? You think a 3D environment would made it better but everything that has been done with games underwater kinda sucks. Take The Legend of Zelda Majora's  mask, swimming around and fighting underwater really stunk. I always spammed the magic move and electrocuted the enemies. Also, Kingdom Hearts everyone I know hated The Little Mermaid level because he mechanics were hard to use. Sorry, mini rant over.

Level Two: The Sunken Ship 

In between the levels Flounder or Sebastian tells Ariel whats going on. "Ursula is headed to the sunken ship watch out Ariel" The only thing I don't understand is that Ariel already knows where Ursula lives, because in the narrative she was already tuned into a human by Ursula. Also, Ursula already took over the ocean so why is she swimming around? 

So once again no music from the movie. I didn't talk about the background in the last level, it has some nice depth to it. I mean your in a 2d plan but the shadows in the background aren't flat. So you feel like three is more depth to the water than just side scrolling. 

Also your power level and range transfer over so there is good consistency. I'm just thinking a head about the level boss, in the movie Ariel met the shark at the sunken ship...so I think they are going to be making up stuff. Like a lot of stuff. 

Also you get your first power upgrade, of three shooting bubbles instead of two. Now you can put the octopuses in the bubbles, if you want to open all the chests you find the other power up as well and it is like a fast shootings bubble thingie. 

But for some reason the range doesn't change over from power up. Also if you die, you go back to the beginning of the level and need to get your upgrades again. If you die at the boss, you respond at the screen next to the boss and end up with nothing.  

Also, you don't start the game off with full health, and you don't get any health by killing enemies. You have to shoot the enemies into little crevasses along the floor or in this case the ship. Sometimes you get another fork or pipe.

Also...Ghost? Or a fish with a sheet. I don't get it.

This level is a bit longer than the other, and is a little cluttered with enemies and projectiles. The game is a little unforgiving with the whole looking for health thing, and it comes down to memorization like a lot of older games. 

The boss of this level is Flotsam and Jetsam, you know Ursala's creepy eels. This is a good level design boss because they pop in and out of the port holes and you shoot crabs at them this time. 

Crabs he he, dirty. 

 When they do die, they fly off in another direction, no "My babies! My poor little poopsies." 

It's shitty because the crabs land on the ground and move left and right, so you have to dodge them and the eels at the same time. Also they can only be put in the bubbles while they are walking,

So like I said before, cluttered is a good way to describe a lot of theses levels. Just be on your, fins.    

I wonder if Ariel had to go over all this stuff the last time she went to go see Ursala. 

Level 3: Sea of Ice 

Sebastian announces, "That fiendish Ursula froze the sea. Be careful. The ice is very slippery"

This level is slippery, like Sebastian warned us. It takes place closer to the surface, so you can jump and skid on top of the ice. It's a little annoying like all ice levels. 

It's really easy though. Like easier than the last level easy. The fish are easy to dodge, there are two new enemies, a Sea horse that moves up and down, and frozen fish that fall from the air. Things are feeling a little repetitive, now. They don't add anything new to each level besides holes and ice. It would be nice for something new. There is nothing memorable about going through a level of ice and the rest of the the weird landscapes. 

Yea, the boss level is a walrus that flings the freeze dried fish a you. Or shells, that you hit him with and beet the level. I can under stand the "freezing of a section of the ocean" but a walrus? Don't they live on the polls? Or did they just migrate to this part of the ocean. I know this movie was a love story, and not totally action packed but there are things they could have done with it. Besides the Shark chasing seen, when the boat sinks, escaping Ursala's after Ariel loses her voice, driving the cart down. You see where I am going with this? There is a way to follow the movie without making it dull. 

I started to ramble a bit, which was nice because I didn't have much to say about this level.

Level 4: Undersea Volcano 

 "There is something strange going on around the sea volcanoes. Be careful!! Something bad may be waiting for you" oh Founder your always looking out for me aren't you!

Today, this level still gives me problems. I don't know if it because I still sucks like I did when I was six, or its just a level with an unfair difficulty.  Remember when I said this game was cluttered? I think this level is the prime example.  There are so many things coming at you from all angles. There is lava...I'm guessing shooting out from the ground, and then it falls from the top of the ocean. It is almost impossible to dodge them so you just have to speed to the next screen. 

Where you find another new enemy, the flounder (Not your friend). These guys are wicked annoying because they pop out at random, and they cannot be killed, just frozen when you hit them so just stay above them so they can be avoided. Also, the FUCKING SHRIMP!!! OMG these annoying little thing go around the screen chasing you around and they move fast so are hard to hit. Be careful.  

Yes, in this level your going to be screwed if you die here. I don't know how many times I have just restarted the game because I lost my power up.  There is a way to find your power ups again threw the normal game play, but it raises the level of difficulty only because there are so many enemies that come flying at you. 

It won't take you too long to rush threw the other levels now that they have been played. If you do decide to go on with a continue, just be prepared for some frustration. 
There is a strait screen that has volcano's erupting from the top of the screen, so you have to time your swimming between the bursts, and avoid the enemies at the bottom of the screen. It's a real pain, but take your time.

The boss is an under water pirate ship that shoots sea urchins and fish at you. The pattern of the projectiles does not change, but they fall in different ways. Even the fish so the only way you can screw up is to get hit or shoot the sea urchins. I'm not sure why, I know that it shouldn't, but my suspension of disbelief kicks in. Only because I cannot figure out how those cannons are going of. 

Level 5: Ursula's Castle 

"Ursula's Castle is like a magical maze. Sometimes you will walk through a door into a room and when you walk back out the same door, you will be in a different place."

This level is just what the crab say, minus the walking, your swimming actually. This level isn't too hard to figure out, thankfully your not timed so you have the time to find out what door goes where. The key is to go into the doors that have the opened eyes. Other than that, it is not to hard of a level. If you don't have any power ups the chests are trial and error. Some of them take a bit of thinking to get to because there are a lot of fake chests.
I haven't talked about this before, but starting in level 3, there are some chests that contain nothing. So it can just come down to trial and error between two chests. By this time I just ignored the chests because I still had my power ups. If you want the extra points for some lives you can try to figure out what ones are which. Or go on GameFaqs. The enemy that might give you some issues are these big fish that spit out tiny ones.
The "maze" aspects just kind of stops after a few screens and it is linear again with only two enemies per screen. Until you get to Ursula.
You know you are going into her layer when you have to swim through those creepy plant things, like from the movie. Those mermaids she couldn't pay her so she "had to rake'em cross the coals".

Ursula herself isn't hard. She stays in one place, and shoots enemies from her cauldron  they are little sparkles till they land and then could be fish, urchins or seahorses. Just avoid the projectiles by hanging out under her and shooting her in the face from below.

Next Level is the last! And its just the final boss fight

Final Level: Giant Ursula

This time both Flounder and Sebastian come and talk to you. Did they just follow you around the whole time? "Ariel, it looks like Ursula is back. But this time she is gigantic  What should we do, Ariel? Ursula has become much more powerful."  

Now its time for the final show down. Ursula is a lot bigger than before, and has the crown and the trident. Almost like the final battle from the movie, but she is still underwater. The big thing is that she can control the tides, so sometimes your forced left or right. When this happens the speed of the enemies you have to hit her with changes so you need to just pay attention. Once you get the hang of it, aim for her head and she dies in five hits. Then you win!!!

Under the Sea time!!
The last seen is basically like the movie, Ariel spends day after day looking at the land. Her father realizes she is in love and gives her legs. "Ariel returned to the land and went to see Eric. He was very happy when he saw her and he swept her into his arms. They got married and lived happily ever after. The End."
Under the Sea repeats forever until you turn the game off. 

Wow that grammar. I felt like I was listing to a little kid tell me about the story they saw. I was just waiting for, "and then the prince saw her, and then he smiled." 

But YAY you beet the first Princess Game to be released on the NES!
Man it wasn't that great. Challenging at some points, but there was just so much more they could have done with it. Ursula was a joke, actually all of the bosses were. The most difficult one was probably Flotsam and Jetsam, but that is because of the limited space at the bottom of the screen, so it's not really hard just cluttered. 

I'm not going to say that this game wasn't fun though. I can still pick it up and play it today. Maybe because it was a Disney game it was directed at little kids. At that age all videogames are hard. The thing is Ariel I believe gave birth to the new active princess. Before her, the Princess didn't do much. Snow White: runs in the woods, cleans, apple, sleep, kiss, happily ever after. Cinderella: cleans, ball, locked in tower, shoe, happily ever after. Sleeping Beauty: walks in woods, cleans, pricks finger, sleeps, kiss, happily ever after. 

Now with Ariel, she was chased by a shark, SAVES the prince from drowning, losses her voice and doesn't speak for almost 20% of the movie, but after she gets her voice back she faces off with the giant Ursala's. after Ariel the princesses did more stuff, Belle had a personality, she used her mind and fought back for the beast, and even got the courage to run away from him. So just because she didn't learn a lesson from everything that happens, who said it was her that needed to? It was everyone around her that changed because she broke out of the normal. 
Then the crappy squeal happened. We will get to game eventually. I just have to buy it first and I REALLY don't want to. 


So that's it for my first review ever. I would really like to know what you guys think! If this is a good idea I defiantly want to do more. I haven't picked the next game I want to talk about, but I have a lot to choose from.
The Princess game for the Wii.
Cooking Mama
Harvest Moon
The Sims

I'm planing on so much. I just need your feedback.

Also, I need help with picking out a name, and would appreciate your ideas. 

May The Stars Always Guide you Home
Hoshi

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