SkullGirls Review

Amazing Visuals and Animations|Superb Soundtrack|Best in game tutorial I have ever seen in a fighting game|Astounding gameplay and mechanics|balanced roster|Story is interesting|Each character plays completely differently|Amazing netcode|Fantastic voice overs|Just 15 Dollars

No in game move lists as of april 14 2012| Loading times| Single player modes lack depth

Skull Girls

Skull Girls seems to be a true and sad rarity in the world of fighting games, what it promised! SkullGirls is a 2D fighting game, the first title from Reverge Labs and has quite the pedigree despite being the first game from the studio. Skullgirls started out as a game made to be a wakeup call to all of those fighting games being released that strike at your wallet with over priced games and Downloadable content, no reason to play single player and game mechanics so bad, they make the Mario party series look competitively viable.

Skull Girls was made by a tournament level Fighting game veteran Mike “Mike Z” Ziamont in regards to gameplay. This shows as every single issue plaguing the fighting game genre since the return to form that Street Fighter 4 brought forth. Easy button config, great character balance, GGPO netcode to make the game run amazingly online and many other great ideas.

Skull Girls is a 1-3 character fighter, you select one, two or three characters to be on your team.

One Character teams receive a major power boost.
Two Character teams are average in strength and have access to assist moves from the resting partner as well as the ability to chain the blockbuster attack (hyper combo) of one character, into a blockbuster of their partner.
Three character teams are overall weaker, have access to two assists, can chain up to three blockbuster attacks as well as gain more meter overall for use of additional blockbuster attacks.

Each team format have strengths and weaknesses, not to mention each member of the roster has a skill set that is aimed toward a certain team size, not to say playing them on something else will break the character into uselessness.

The game’s presentation is beyond top notch, the game play of skullgirls is all hand drawn and animated by Alex Ahad who also created every character in the fairly populated universe of the game. While the over the top visuals and relatively fan service filled animations may not be for everyone, they are a great treat to the eye, very active, very alive and incredibly fluid. This game is pretty much a controllable cartoon. While this is something impressive in a game, it is made greater by Michiko Naruke, The composer of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night has created a beautiful, jazzy score for this game on top of it.

Skull Girls was made for everyone with an interest for fighting games, or even those who just like the cast of characters. The fighting engine even includes an infinite detection program. If the game detects a loop, you can press a button and burst from the combo and reset the situation. This game also includes the best in game Tutorial in fighting game history. While most trial and tutorial modes in fighting games teach you a bit about characters and the game engine, Skull Girls is different. The tutorial mode in Skull Girls teaches you how to play fighting games in general. Basic offense like what your six buttons do and how to link them. Basic defense like blocking attacks and how to break throws. Advanced offense on how to use your special and blockbuster attacks, and how to mix them up. Advanced defense like how to block high/low mixups, throw mix ups and dealing with cross ups. There is more as well, but just let it be known, this tutorial is undoubtedly the best I have ever seen in a fighting game.

Of course, no game is perfect, and some of the things this game has going for it does backfire in some senses. The Advanced AI of computer opponents mixed with the stunning animation make single player Loading times a little bit excessive at times, especially when facing 3 opponents. The story mode, while much better than expected for fighting games in general is still not as good as it can be. While every character gets a plot behind them, for the player to learn about them and their goals. Sadly, gameplay wise, this is essentially arcade mode, which is also in this game. Regardless, it is fun to see what makes these characters tick.

The biggest issue I have seen people bringing up is that there is a roster of 8 characters. This is set to be remedied soon with DLC of the first two additional characters, however I bring up this point, is an 8 character roster really a let down when the game has nothing immediately broken? 8 characters on launch is perfectly fine for a game that has promised more, and when they are so even in terms of power I would say.

I will note however, this game does not as of April 14 2012 have in game move lists, however the first thing you see when you load this game is a url leading to free downloadable movelists in the form of pdf’s from the Skullgirls site. This is an issue for sure, but will be fixed in a future patch already confirmed.

This game is a complete steal, on PSN for 15 dollars and XBLA for 1400 points with a PC release down the line this game is available to a lot of people. This game is also appealing to a lot of people, fighting game fan? Cartoon fan? Fan of some over the top, lovable characters? Well this game has you covered with only more content forthcoming this game will hopefully be getting content for a long time.

This game has completely refreshed my opinion of fighters, This game could be double the price and still be a steal. With roster, art, stage and music updates forthcoming I can not recommend this game enough, especially if you’re jaded by the genre.

10Overall Score

Gameplay:10/10

Presentation:10/10

Replayability:10/10

Sauvie Reviews Vanilla Marvel vs Capcom 3

Fun Roster consisting of huge fan favourites|Flashy combo's and even flashier hyper combo's|Tons of Trials per character, teaching the in's and outs of the roster|Very good sound track|tons of replayability

Unbalanced game|X-Factor is a very questionable game play choice|Single player modes are extremely lacking|Dark Phoenix

Marvel vs Capcom 3 is the third and absolutely insanely anticipated title in the crossover fighting series. The hype for this game, both in the fan base and from Capcom were absolutely constant, but  does it live up to that hype? does it live up to the very popular MvC2? Well...the long answer is no it does not, but the short answer is yes it does. If you are the kind of person who is willing to spend hours creating a team, practicing combo's and honing your defenses you will get a lot more out of this game than if you want to casually beat the crap out of a friend every now and then but more on that. Much like the release of Vanilla Street Fighter 4 back in 2008 this game is extremely bare bones. The modes in this game are confined to a 7 match arcade mode (6 fights then boss) offline 2P versus, Trials mode and training mode. Add in the gallery full of Japanese/English voices, musical tracks and loads of art to round off the offline modes which leaves anyone who cares for fighting game single player modes very disappointed. Even though Capcom promised a robust story mode, all that they gave us was 2 frame endings for every character and a continuity smashing comic for those who bought the collectors edition. Meanwhile on the online side of things...well there isn't much here either. Ranked matches with very poor match finding, player matches and that is about it. Made all the more underwhelming when you find out that player match lobbies can have up to 8 people playing in the same room! this would be fantastic if not for the fact that only 2 people can play at any given time with absolutely no spectate mode for the other 1-6 players. With each match with loading times and syncing taken into account winding up at about 2.5 to 3 minutes, it can get extremely boring for masses of waiting players. Not to harp any more than I need to, but the lack of current Fighting game convention replay saving is another thing that really takes away from this game. Though Wanting a replay feature is a good thing, it means that the matches are insane right? well, thankfully this is where the game shines. With 38 different characters and thus far fairly good balance, the varying amount of effective 3 character teams is immense. Admittedly it is early on into the games life, but the fact that so many teams are used, really take away from the drag of fighting the same characters every single match, and makes the game even better for hardcore fans due to the fact you essentially have to know strategies around 38 characters, which is a blast. The most controversial aspect of the game is however simply the new mechanic of X-factor. A three stage temporary power up that grants character specific stat boosts, negates block damage and allows some healing...this would all be fine at level 1 at all times. However, this game is completely dictated by this feature. Depending on how many characters you have left, your X-factor gets stronger, not slightly, but significantly! By the time you have one character and activate X-factor you boost in power, speed and god only knows what else so much, that touch of death combo's aren't impressive, but expected! This new feature gets so ridiculous that level 3 X-factor can and will save matches left and right, with some characters, skill goes out the window and mashing will win the day. In a game that is so competitively backed is absurd. Yes, both players have it, but it does not make it the best feature in the world, it is almost universally dispised, and with Rumors of an update title coming out similar to Super Street Fighter 4 the one constant hope is that X-factor is balanced. Aside from that, the game looks fantastic, the game sounds fantastic and if this game was an arcade game, it would be a much better rated by me. Though seeing as it is a home console game the lack of any interesting single player modes really sadden me, especially since Capcom promised to knock it out of the park in terms of story. I think this is a fantastic fighter only bare bones as they come. I Rate this game a 6 out of 10. Fun gameplay can be a huge thing for a game, but technical issues in every aspect can make things hard to over look. That, and the 9 month later release of Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 makes this game now obsolete.

Sauvie Reviews Pokemon Black and White

Same addictive gameplay | Top notch multiplayer features | Great presentation | Campaign is very lengthy | surprisingly deep battle engine | Potentially infinite replay factor

The Increased Random battle Rate is painful | Pokemon designs seem to be losing creativity | removed some fan favourite items | Some dungeon missteps

The Primer:

Pokemon Black and White are the two primary titles in the Fifth Generation of the Pokemon series of role playing games made by Nintendo. The basic premise is actually often referred to as a pokemon style RPG by many gamers and reviewers alike.

You travel through the world you are in finding monsters in grass, caves, on water and pretty much anywhere you can imagine. There are a ton of different pokemon, who level up individually when they level up they get stronger, when they hit a certain level or requirement, they can even evolve into stronger forms. Each pokemon can be one or two of seventeen different types, each type has the advantage against others, as well as the disadvantage against some as well. Water beats fire, fire beats grass and grass beats water. Simple in concept, but with the staggering number of pokemon in existence, some with two types or special abilities, the knowledge of a weakness, and potential for a counter is very deep and highly addictive.

Pokemon has always been a love or hate series of RPG titles. From the first game on the Nintendo Gameboy to the more modern titles on the Nintendo DS they have always elicited a reaction, whether it be positive or negative. However, as time has gone on, people have become more and more critical of the series. Generation three, of Pokemon Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald were received very poorly from long time fans to the point of being nearly abandoned my the fans as a whole. Generation four consisting of Pokemon Diamond, Pearl and Platinum were widely considered a step up, but still garnered some minor disdain for game play decisions such as battle animations taking longer than before as well as the new graphics engine for the over world but they could not deny, the battle engine which was a primary target for improvement was a huge success. While the base game play stood at a rock, paper, scissors style Role playing game, the mechanics for battle were greatly improved. Moves, which were once decided Physical or Special depending on type (Fire, Water, Fighting ect.) had been changed that each move has it’s own attribute. While this may sound minor, in practice the games new engine allowed for many, formerly obsolete pokemon to become usable, and many formerly over powered pokemon to become balanced, making the playing field a lot more variable.

The Review:

Pokemon black and white are the Fifth Generation of titles in the now controversial series of RPG’s Nintendo hit a home run gameplay wise when it came to mechanics in the prequel generation of titles so what could they fix this time around? Actually, Nintendo did an absolute ton to this game, from every different angle imaginable. The series signature setup and mechanics return seemingly at first. You are asked for your characters info, you choose which of the three starting pokemon you would like to have to begin your adventure and that is where the similarities really end. The team went crazy with upgrading the presentation of these titles and it is immediately noticeable as soon as you get onto the over world for the first time. The world feels more alive than ever before, with animations everywhere, more people in this world than any other Pokemon title predating it. What were once, static Sprites for the pokemon all now have animation loops that move fairly smoothly. The almost unnoticeable music of the generation four over world has been abolished with catchy, well made tunes nearly the entire way through the game. Lastly, this is by far the pokemon title with the largest, most impressive cities and towns to date! They all feel alive and all have their own quirks. Whoever was in charge of the presentation of these games have done a truly stellar job.

Story wise, this is the best pokemon game by far….For what that is worth really. These games are openly mocked for the lack of a plot, and with Black and White, the team seemed to care about story more than ever before. It will not win awards, by any means, but it is a much healthier attempt than the previous games in the series. The main villain is interesting and is so, throughout the entire game much to my surprise. The series main stay mechanic of Gym battles return, but again are greatly amplified in effort, in terms of presentation, challenge and fun.

You’re not playing a pokemon title for the story however, you are likely playing it for the familiar and exceedingly addictive game play. This is here, and there is a ton of it. However there are some missteps in the fun. Random encounters in unsafe zones have seemingly doubled, bogging the game down a bit and some of the new Pokemon in this title are…less than amazing. That being said, if you’re playing a pokemon game on the DS, odds are you know what you’re getting into. With tons of after game as well, this game will last most players easily more than 50-100 hours, and if they have wifi, countless hours of fun can be had.

Speaking of which, the last point in this review will be about the multiplayer functionality of these games. My goodness did they go overboard with the multiplayer functions in these, so let’s quickly list them off.

Online trades
wireless trades
Online battles 1v1
Online battles 2v2
Online Battles 3v3
Online battles Rotation
Wireless battles 1v1
Wireless battles 2v2
Wireless Battles 3v3
Wireless battles Rotation
Mystery gift to receive event items from Nintendo
Infared connectivity with other DS’s and Pokemon B/W carts in the area.

I am still missing a few, but there are tons of ways to play this game with friends.

Final thought:

Pokemon Black and Pokemon White are both fantastic and refreshing entries in a series that has grown relatively stagnant flaws exist but this is clearly the most effort Nintendo has poured into this series and it certainly shows. The game play is addictive, the music is catchy, the visuals are very strong and the new twist on the story is oddly intriguing. If you enjoyed previous titles in the past, I recommend these games a go, if you’re new to the series, they are still very solid, potentially even better for the newcomers. If you own a Nintendo DS of any variety I would suggest this game as a must play. You may love it, you may hate it but I think this is a game that must be tried.

8Overall Score

Presentation:8/10

Gameplay:7/10

Replayability :10/10

Sauvie Reviews Street Fighter 3 Third Strike: Online Edition.

Deep combat engine|Extremely rewarding|Nice set of unlockables|Very diverse Cast|Netplay is awesome

Learning curve of the gods|Fairly unbalanced overall|1P modes are lacklustre

Street Fighter 3: Third Strike Online editions is just what it sounds like… Street Fighter 3 with online play. For 1200 Microsoft points or roughly 15 dollars on the PSN you get an arcade  perfect version of Third Strike. Anything else? yes, there is. 3SO is a massive gift to the fighting game community. Nearly everything this game holds is tailored to make things more intuitive, but a bit more on that in a moment. Third Strike, is an incredibly polarizing game among Fighting game fans. It changed things up from Street Fighter 2 a lot, The roster holds nearly no veterans, and the ones that do are changed enough to feel really different. Plus, the newcomers are bizarre…very, very bizarre. From the Electric stretch Armstrong known as Necro, to the hyper-active Andre the Giant homage Hugo (and his infamous manager Poison) This roster is strange in character. Not only that, many of the newcomers are strange in a move set sense as well.

Many characters have a combination of slide motions, Charge motions and circle motions, while this does not mean much to no fighting game fans, SF2 had move sets comprised of mainly one style, as did the subsequent Street Fighter 4 and countless spin-offs. This is one of a number of challenges in terms of the stiff learning curve this game holds. Complex move sets, Very tight frame window’s for combo’s and the biggest issue for newcomers to SF3 the extremely challenging defensive game. Where the Capcom fighting games are concerned defense is usually predicting where to block, up/down or left/right and grapple breaks with finding windows to punish. Third Strike brings an entire new element to the table, and that element is parries. Parries are a prediction based defensive option, by pressing forward to parry a high attack and down to parry a low attack with precise timing you ignore all damage and have a frame advantage to punish your opponent. Parries, coupled with faster attacks make things incredibly difficult. 3SO has you defensively predicting blocking high, low, left, right, Parry high, parry low, parry in the air, parry left, parry right AND potential grapple breaks for normal grabs. It is absolutely mind boggling for a rookie to get past. This…game…is…DIFFICULT!

Rewarding, but difficult, good god has this game frustrated me. You mess up against a good player once and you are easily in trouble of losing a round, even more so than the typical fighting game. You will be very discouraged as a new player in this game, it is daunting, however when Ryu throw’s a Shinkuu Hadouken at you and you full parry it you feel like a champ. Of course, then you get smacked by a flying kick because you are in awe of your awesomeness and get KO’ed. Much has been hyped up about this game’s online net coding, using the fan favourite, fan made GGPO net code for near lagless online. It works within reason, if you fight somebody from Japan as a Canadian…there will be some snap back, but it will be much better than essentially every online fighter on the market. The many, many features this game holds for convenience character select screen button config, many dipswitches to customize the game play, many little options. A bunch of display options and a gallery full of music and art. and a bunch of trials, created by a professional SF player…this package is stacked, for sure. This game is a tough sell for newbies, but it is amazing once you get into it, very rewarding and incredibly fun. Now for 15 dollars is it worth it? I would say yes, yes it is. Not a game of the year candidate by any means, but a fantastic throwback to an often forgotten, often disliked fighting game classic.


Playstation Network : 15 dollars
Xbox Live Arcade: 1200 points

9Overall Score

Gameplay:9/10

Presentation:8/10

replay value:10/10