List of all Demo Reviews + Announcement

Hello there, dear readers! Just decided I'd write a post today. Yeah, that's an odd choice of a day, but remember that in normal circumstances I'd be posting a Demo Review. Anyway, talking about those... Many of you noticed that I posted about ten Demo Reviews in the past two weeks and a half. And I thought it would be a good idea to put links to all of them in a same post. That way you can access them more easily. I'm mostly doing that because listing them all in the Archive section would take too much space. Okay, maybe not "right now", because there's only ten of those. But next time I have a break away from work or university, I will re-do those and it'll start piling up again.

So, here goes!

Demo Review 1: Lead The Meerkats
Demo Review 2: Furry Legends
Demo Review 3: BIT.TRIP CORE
Demo Review 4: 3D Pixel Racing
Demo Review 5: Soccer Bashi
Demo Review 6: Frobot
Demo Review 7: BIT.TRIP BEAT
Demo Review 8: FAST Racing League
Demo Review 9: Rage Of The Gladiator
Demo Review 10: Mix Superstar

There, all done!

Oh, but this wasn't the only reason I wanted to write a message today.

You see, the day has come for me to begin my internship. Tomorrow, actually. I'll be working 35 hours a week, employed to my university's blog, and I won't have a much time for this blog, Planned All Along. Therefore, I officially announce the new schedule on this blog!

Fridays: A review, or a part of a review.
Monday Either an Editorial, a Cool Stuff Article. Mondays will no longer be used to post the next part of a review posted on Friday.
Wednesday: Nothing anymore.

This schedule might change again in a few months, depending on how busy I am once the internship is over. However, for now that's the way I'll work.

Read you soon!

Demo Review 10: Mix Superstar

A game to make your own music? This would be fun, if it isn't needlessly complicated. Well, at least the demo offers a tutorial. During the tutorial, the game will take control of the cursor and show you everything you can do. You get access to a large selection of “musical loops” with which you'll build your mix. To help you in your search, you can select a genre and a category of instrument (bass, drums, etc.). Each musical track has a length and you can arrange all the pieces until you get something that sounds good.

And that's it. No really, that's pretty much everything this game is about. I wouldn't complain. I mean, I've tried it, and the result you can get sounds very nice. Yes, it will sound repetitive. If you keep using the same musical tracks to build your song, that is. We've seen stuff like this on Internet, it's very common. Which is why I really wonder if it's that important of a game.

Okay, no worries. Instead of just repeating the same things over and over again, let's instead take a look at what the demo offers and doesn't offer. The tutorial shows you every single aspect of the game, or at least those you can access in the demo. It's pretty long, but ultimately it's better to watch it entirely in order to know what you can do and how to do it. And I bet the full version gives you access to this tutorial at any moment, so I guess that's a nice touch.

Like I said, the music sounds great, and even with your limited demo time you can get a nice-sounding tune to dance on with your friends. There's not much in terms of graphics, or in terms of difficulty, as it's more a tool than a real game.

HOWEVER! That said, it's not perfect. The demo only gives you TEN minutes of play time. If you use it to watch the tutorial, you lose at least half the minutes you had to try the demo. That's kind of bad. Even with the ten minutes, you never quite get to test out the demo well enough to have an idea of how fun it is. Also, as you probably guessed, a few features are absent. Okay, that's normal for a demo. Among the missing features, there's the possibility of recording your own voice tracks for the game, using the Wiimote.

It isn't for me. I don't have the patience to build whole tracks, and besides, those songs wouldn't be of much use for me. I prefer when good lyrics go with good music. Oh well, whatever. If you always wanted to make your own dance tracks, Try this demo. And if you really like it (despite the 10 minutes of test time only), you know what to do.

Reel Fishing Ocean Challenge

Just in case I haven't said it enough, Happy New Year! I hope you've celebrated the last moments of 2013 and the first moments of 2014. As for me, it was one gigantic family reunion at my house. My mother's side of the family is enormous, we had about twenty guests. It was epic. And it was really fun. Of course, it takes a lot of organization, what with thinking of the meals, the number of guests, the drinks, the activities, the desserts, the chairs and tables, the snacks, the decorations, space to park all the cars outside... did I mention the food?

Yeah, now we can really relax. I mean, I've relaxed pretty often during the two or three weeks I had away from university; I watched at least one film per day, I played a lot of games (as I can prove with my Demo Reviews; by the way, the last Demo Review for this one will be up tomorrow, and Sunday will be a post with links to all the Demo Reviews I posted), I had a lot of fun. I also met my friend, the Pokémon fan, to trade some Pokémon. And of course, I bought a couple games during that time.

Now that I think of it, there is one way to relax I have never really done: Fishing. I never had the chance to attach a worm on the hook, throw the line, and pull back when the line shakes. I never did that... In real life. In the gaming world, however, I had one major opportunity to do so, and it's called Reel Fishing: Ocean Challenge.

This is as simple as a game like this can be, and it's not a problem. The game is found on the WiiWare with a couple more fishing games, all of these also under the Reel Fishing franchise. I think I can start the year with an easy review like this. I ended last year so powerfully, I really need something simple to start 2014. Are you ready? Forget the cold weather outside, put on your fisher hat, and get ready, we're going to catch some fish!

Demo Review 9: Rage of the Gladiator

Gracius, prince of a great land, was betrayed and is now forced to fight along with other gladiators, in the arena. This antique world, reminiscent of Rome A.D., is also home for many mythical creatures, such as minotaurs and dragons. Needless to say, those monsters pose a threat. As a result, our prince protagonist has to learn how to fight like a gladiator, show his talent, and then go up against the monsters.

First of all, this game makes you pick three different ways to play. That's a good start. Once the opening cutscene is over, you are now in the arena, and a little Chinese sensei comes to you. Oh, God... The character's design is insensitive, the voice is annoying, and his face is scary. I'd have a field day just mocking this one character, but I have to write about this demo as a whole. And it's kind of sad, because the game seemed at first to promise to us some excellent modeling, what with that grand cutscene and those beautiful images we hoped to see soon in 3D. Better luck next time, I guess. You're now following a tutorial during which you can bash on the little Chinese man as much as you want. Take that, insulting stereotype!

Fast enough, the little guy starts attacking as well, and continue teaching you the basis (blocking, dodging, jumping away from the attack). More is explained to you, such as counterattacks. Your first true enemy is an armor-wearing goblin. Use everything you've learned against him and beat him. Once he's beaten, he... summons power to him so he can beat you. Beat him again, and he'll do it once more. The third time? He grows to be a god damn giant. After he's beaten, you face an even greater challenge; A minotaur! He's really hard to defeat, but use all you've learned and you should be able to win. And then a sea witch.

The demo probably stops there. You got the tutorial, and then three battles... That's a LOT for a demo. What can I say about it? Well, while the modeling is great for the monsters, the only human we see in the game is... creepy. The controls? I'm glad we get to choose between three different control schemes, because this game is damn difficult. No matter which one you'll pick. Each opponent has different attacks, and you really have to learn what these attacks are, how to avoid them, and how and when to hit back. If you like your games hard, you'll like this. The voice acting for the cutscenes is fine, although you'll probably be saddened – or glad – that they're not animated. I do find this kind of awful that the game makes the enemies get stronger twice while you stay at the same “level”. Oh well.

Just download the demo, and if you love it, then spend your dear money to buy the full version. I know I won't, but really, it all comes down to your personal opinion.

Planned All Along: 2013 Retrospective

Planned All Along : The 2013 Retrospective

Happy New Year, everyone! Yes, this is January 1st, and if it still isn't, then maybe you need to repair your clocks. Ah, 2013. This was a pretty cool year. I guess. Nothing can beat the frenzy around the Mayan calendar, but eh. Why should I care about that hoax. I knew it wasn't possible.

But let's start talking about my blog. Even if it's only half a year old, Heck, barely five months and a half old, it's still become very great. I never thought it would become this popular. I guess all my PR and self-advertisements helped a great deal. So, before I continue this article, I would like to give you a few stats about the blog.

Number of visitors: Approximately 4950. Getting close to 5000!

Number of posts: Including this one? 99.

Month with the most page views: December, with 1416! (Just for the fact, it's 550 more than the second month with the most views, August, with 850).

Most viewed additional page: Archive, with nearly 100, with About Me a close second, at 90. (I really should update that page.)

Number of games reviewed: Not counting the demos, 20. Demo Reviews included, 28.

Number of review articles: Again, not counting the demos, 31. Demo Reviews included, 39.

Number of Editorial-Style articles: 18.

Number of Cool Stuff articles: 20.

Number of Top 12s: 3. (Those still count as review articles, BTW.)

Now, a few Top 5s and Top 10s about the blog's statistics. I'm mostly unveiling some important information about the blog's visitors here, so this information isn't really THAT useful. But as a look back at this blog's existence so far, I think it's really good. And it makes good trivia.