Still, not since the days of full 2d Mario have I had this much fun playing a Mario game. I very much appreciate that Mario has gone back to a linear level design, and the goal is to make the jumps, stomp the enemies, and find the star at the end of the level, rather than exploring to find it hidden somewhere in the level. While there are some hidden stars, the majority of them are just at the end of some great, straightforward platforming.

Naturally, if the game were just jumping and avoiding enemies, there wouldn’t be much more to it than it’s predecessors. But the inclusion of power-ups, both new and old, really keeps the game fresh and allows it to vary challenges quite a bit. Some old favorites that are returning are the fire flower and Yoshi, and frankly, it’s about time. I’ve been waiting to see these appear in the new Mario games, and it’s a very welcome homecoming for these two. (Note: I’m aware the fire flower was in the original Super Mario Galaxy, but again, I haven’t played that yet.) Roasting enemies is great, as is the old standby of eating them then spitting them out as weapons against other enemies. My favorite of the new additions is easily the cloud suit, as the ability to make your own platforms is something I rarely see in platform games. Definitely a great addition. There are others, naturally, and they are all used to craft different challenges. This helps keep the game fresh and entertaining over the course of it’s many galaxies.

This game also makes many transitions between 2d and 3d platforming. While the majority of the game is 3d platforming, there is a good deal of 2d platforming as well. The switch is never jarring and feels quite natural and smooth. The 2d sections play just as smooth and fun as old school Mario. The 3d sections manage to keep this same feel while expanding gameplay options with the full freedom of 3d movement. Everything controls great, no matter how you’re playing.

Also keeping the game fresh is the occasional mini-game, such as navigating a bird through an obstacle laden sky and Whack-a-Mole style games where you have to rack up a big score in a short time (for a star, of course). Then, there are also the level redesigns for many of the alternative stars you’ll be chasing, making the level different enough so it doesn’t feel like you’re doing the same level over again.

In fact, my biggest complaint is about how the green stars are implemented. The green stars take everything great about the design of this game, and do away with it. This wouldn’t bother me, except for the fact that you must get all of the green stars to play the very last level of the game. The green stars are all exploring the levels for the little hints that, if you’re very observant, tell you one is nearby. This kills the linear platforming I loved while obtaining the majority of the gold stars. Then, as a nail in the coffin, these stars don’t change the levels up at all from what they were while looking for the gold stars. This does start to get repetitive after a time, especially when you miss the hints that point out the green stars.

I understand this exploration is something some people will enjoy, and for those in this boat, the green stars is where the game will really pick up for you. For those who enjoyed the original presentation, like me, this is where the game takes a serious nosedive in fun. Of course, going from one of the best 3d platformers available to still pretty fun isn’t exactly a scathing indictment, but I do wish Nintendo had stuck more closely to the gameplay the game began with, or allowed players to play the final level before going after the green stars. Either option would have been a good solution.

I will say that I like the addition of the Cosmic Guide. Basically, if you get very badly stuck, the Cosmic Guide appears and offers to play the level for you. This will result in a bronze star instead of the typical gold star, so you must play the level yourself for the good stuff. But, this also provides players a chance to play the rest of the game if they reach a part they find frustratingly difficult, and it also allows players to observe a technique that works for getting through the level. Both of these are great things for anyone having trouble, and add a lot to the game’s accessibility without taking away from it’s challenge to those who choose not to use these features.

Finally, there are plenty of creative boss fights that will pit you against giant monstrosities of different sorts. From towering robots you scale by making cloud platforms, newborn piranhas with a giant tether-ball tail, to Bowser himself, there’s a great variation of boss battles that all make use of different platforming skills. I do wish there was a bit more variation amongst the three Bowser battles, but that’s a very minor complaint when compared to the vast number of bosses through the game.

All in all, this is an excellent game, and definitely warrants a purchase. While the green stars drag it down a bit for me, if you’re any kind of platforming fan, you would still be doing yourself a great disservice if you avoided playing this because of them.

The game has three character classes, who fit the common archetypes of the Warrior, Rogue, and Mage, but with a bit of twist. They’ve been redubbed the Destroyer, Vanquisher, and Alchemist, respectively. And each class has some overlap with the others through their skills, which allows you to build characters that are hybrids of the traditional roles with a great level of ease. Add in spells that can be learned by anyone in addition to the class specific skills, and you end up with a game that, even though there are character classes, allows you to do a great deal of customizing when building your character.

The story is pretty cookie-cutter, but it does it’s job of motivating the game. In a nutshell, there’s an ancient evil below the town of Torchlight. As the hero, it’s up to you to investigate and stop it. Done.

Now, the click-fest fighting, on the other hand, is actually like nothing I’ve seen in an action rpg before. Yeah, Diablo and Diablo 2 had click-fest fighting. But not like this. You will be swarmed, charged, and ambushed. You will uses aoes, regardless of class, to decimate hordes of enemies and watch them go flying before you, only to be replaced with more than you just wiped out. In short, you will be awesome, but the hordes of monsters will keep up with you and drag you down if you aren’t careful.

On another, more mechanical note on the fighting, if you liked the way hotkeys worked in Diablo 2, you can assign hotkeys to F1-F12 and switch between them just as you did in that game. However, there is also the option to assign them to hotkeys 1-0, in which case pressing the button uses the skill. I much prefer the second way, but anyone who likes the other method is free to use it.

All characters also have a pet who fights with them, who can also be sent to town to sell junk you don’t want to keep lugging through the dungeon. They can also learn spells to cast in combat, which is very handy to have. The most useful bit is not needing to leave the dungeon until you want to go back to town to turn in quests or buy more swag.

Once you finish the game, there is also an infinite dungeon, the Shadow Vault, which is basically more of the same gameplay, at a level of difficulty appropriate to your character level. There are quests to do every floor, so those who like something to do will certainly have it. No bosses in the Shadow Vault though, so champion monsters will be the toughest you can hope for in the base game. There are plenty of champions, however.

You can also retire a character upon finishing the game, which gives you a chance to build a new character and gift them a single item from the retiring character. This item is called an heirloom, and it gains more power than it had before and has less stringent requirements for it’s use. Passing the same item down many times will make it very powerful and easy to use, though most of the benefits do cap at some point from what I’ve read.

The one thing I wasn’t impressed with was the load times. For such a small game (about 400 MB), it takes a long time to load. I’ve actually taken to browsing the internet while the game turns on and dungeons load. I usually make it 3/4 of the way through a moderate length article during a given load. Still, while annoying, it’s a minor gripe in an otherwise great game.

Finally, there’s the modding scene. Not enough content for you? Modders can make new classes, new pets, new items, new levels, new npcs, and completely new campaigns linked to the town of Torchlight. They can build standalone static levels or work them into the random level generator. They can tweak xp, fame, and gold, boost the level cap, change what you get on level up, and anything else they want. The GUI can be changed, and there are even texture packs to increase graphics quality, or in the event your computer doesn’t meet the already very low system requirements, texture packs to reduce graphic quality to boost your framerate. Absolutely everything can be changed or added to, and you can probably find a mod to bring the game closer to what you would like.

So, as you can tell, I think Torchlight is a game that’s definitely worth playing for anyone who likes action rpgs, and it might even convert a few new players to the genre. When I’m looking for some action rpg fun, I’ll be coming back to this for quite awhile.

And yes, there are a number of faults, which I’m going to get out of the way first because I’ve been wanting to vent about some of them for awhile. First, the camera is awful. The worst I’ve seen in any 3d Sonic game I’ve played, though I haven’t played the 360/PS3 Sonic the Hedgehog.  Anytime I tried to backtrack, usually on ring collecting missions, the camera would get all wonky and not turn the way I wanted it to, even when I started going in the right direction again. This also impacted gameplay, since when using a boost Sonic would run in the direction of the camera, not the way he was facing. Luckily, this came up infrequently, and didn’t seriously impact play, but it came up often enough to be irritating.

Next, there are the training missions. Seriously Sonic Team or Dimps, whoever had the idea that each separate ability needed it’s own 10-30 second tutorial stage really needs to rethink that idea. While the tutorials were helpful since the game has some non-standard moves for a Sonic game, one training level to show how to do everything would have been a lot more efficient. This wouldn’t be as big a deal as I’m making it, except for the fact that in between each training stage there were long loading times that got to be irritating as they were coming up every 10-30 seconds of intro play. Luckily, this was only for a short time, but it doesn’t make a good first impression and could have been avoided by having one tutorial level.

Finally, my last two gripes. The werehog combat was lackluster, and the missions in some of the stages seemed designed solely to get more life out of some of the stages rather than actually to be fun. Ring collecting missions in beginning stages lasted no more than 30 seconds, and werehog combat could be done with one button for most of the game, with the combo options being superfluous. Towards the end of the game, combat got a little better, and the missions had some staying power and actually represented a decent and rewarding challenge though.

In fact, I would say that Sonic Team held back for too long, making the beginning bland and mediocre at best, and the end was exactly what a Sonic game should be in the hedgehog levels, while in the werehog levels the end was what I would expect from another form of platformer with some decent combat thrown into the mix.

Which brings me to the good stuff. In the Sonic stages, using boosts and homing attacks at the right time could find some excellent shortcuts, there’s an excellent sense of speed, and crashing into fixtures redirects you rather than bringing you to a screeching halt unless you collide directly with the wall. Drifting around corners, once you get used to it, helps you maintain speed around turns while avoiding walls as well. This keeps the action fast and furious, and there are a lot of twitch moments where you need to be right on your game to avoid a less optimal path or death at the hands of a violent drop. The game is very forgiving of mistakes most of the time, allowing you to fall a level or two below to another part of the stage before a fall spells certain doom for our blue, spiny hero. The exception to this is the final zone, in which the slightest mistake will have you restarting the stage, but honestly, this was par for the course on the harder zones in the Genesis Sonic games, so bring your old school gaming reflexes and patience for the final zone and you’ll be fine.

In the werehog stages, the platforming is generally excellent, and is only marred by uninspired combat. Towards the end of the game though, even the combat picks  up and is quite fun, forcing you to think about how to approach it and divide the enemies in order to prevail. It won’t win any awards, but it’s a cut above mindless hack and slash once Sonic Team gets the kinks out. The platforming is what really shines though. Sonic Team gave the werehog stretchy limbs, and these can be used to grab airborne enemies, as well as specific ledges and poles marked as being grabbable. The stretchyness prevents unnescessary death if the animation doesn’t start when it should, since the limbs keep stretching until they grab the ledge you’re aiming for. As long as the cursor is on the screen when you press the grab button, you’ll safely get the ledge you want. I’m not sure about the rationale for having some ledges not be grabbable, as I think it would have added a little more of a second chance to the platforming, but it’s not a huge deal and the platforming still shines regardless.

In the end, I feel that if Sonic Team and Dimps had a chance to play around with the engine before making the game, we could have had a much better title than we do now. It feels as though they were learning how to make the game in the beginning, and towards the end they really hit their stride. If we see a game based on this engine in the future from this team, I’m willing to bet it will be truly excellent. As long as you can get past the irritating beginning levels, there’s a very good game buried in here.

If you care about a plot, this game has a minimal one, told with little scenes of things happening between the levels. Really though, it boils down to you, an opossum Rocket Knight, needing to rescue the princess and save the kingdom from the evil pigmen. It’s an old school platformer, so you’re lucky you get that much, to be honest.

As an old school platformer, this game does a lot right. The basic gameplay consists of hitting enemies with your sword which can shoot little missiles (or beams if you’re thinking about Zelda) a short distance and jumping or rocketing away to avoid enemies and obstacles. Since you can’t attack while you’re storing power to use your rockets to attack or fly and jump long distances, you have to be careful in choosing when to charge and when to just make the jumps, particularly in boss battles.

There are portions of levels in which you will actually fly continuously, and one entire level for which this is the case, and these are some of the most fun parts of the game. Here you simply can move all over the screen, letting enemies have it with your beam sword. Stage 6 is particularly fun with this due to the very high number of enemies and an amazing boss fight against a small space ship.

Speaking of bosses, almost all of them were incredibly well done. They’re usually fairly standard find and hit the weak point affairs, but they are all very unique in look and usually require very different strategies to get to a given weak point. The fights against Axle Gear were my favorite, as he’s basically your evil doppelganger, and I’m a sucker for doppelganger battles. The only one that was a little dissapointing was the very last battle, which feels a little anticlimactic, but since it’s a phased boss fight, I’ll forgive them as the other phases of the boss were very well done.

The music is quite strong, usually serious and getting you in the mood to take out some pigmen. At times, most noticibly during the forth stage, it’s a bit more lighthearted. All around, it’s quite good though. Especiallly of note is the music in stage six, which helps keep the feeling of flying through space as an awesome adventure in crushing evil.

The controls are done well, as all you need are jump and attack buttons. It’s possible it might have been more convenient if you didn’t need to charge the rocket to use it, and this could have been done by using the extra button normally used as a second attack button for rockets instead. However, I think it was intended that you choose whether you want your attacks or your rockets ready, and it works well as it is.

One last note is this game has a difficulty for everyone. If you’re awful at video games, feel free to play the children mode, which will give you lots of lives and continues, and allow you to take very little damage from enemies. Easy is for people who like to learn the game before jumping in, but are comfortable with games. Normal is for people who think Super Mario Bros. and Sonic the Hedgehog are a quality challenge. And hard is for people who like there difficulty somewhere in the area of Ninja Gaiden or Contra. Yes, seriously. In hard mode, one hit will kill you, and you start the game with one life and no continues. As the game goes on, you can earn extra lives, so starting with one life isn’t as bad as it sounds, but hard mode is still not for the meek. It is a lot of fun if you’re looking for a challenge though.

So, for those of you looking for a high quality, old school game of just about any difficulty, this game has your ticket. Pick it up if you can find it, or borrow it from a friend. You’ll be happy you did.

To begin, this is a fun game, but it’s not on the level of games like Soul Calibur or the Super Smash Bros. series. For me, some of the appeal comes from the use of the Naruto license, as I’m a diehard fan of the series. However, ignoring that, the game is still pretty solid, if a bit on the simple side. However, playing it more shows there is some strategy and thinking to be done, it’s just a little difficult to find it at first. If you don’t find the strategy, you will lose to better players, which is a little frustrating until you pick up some of the nuance of the game.

Like previous games in the series, each player chooses a fighter, and then you go to fight on a variety of maps that have a foreground and background that can be moved between at will. Other than that, it’s straight 2d fighting goodness. Thankfully, they’ve seen fit to remove the analog stick twirling and button mashing from supers, keeping the ordered button presses as the default method of using them effectively. For those who liked the other methods, you can still choose to use them by selecting them while customizing your character. In addition, by doing significantly better than the attacker during the supers, a defender can actually stop a super from landing now. This is a nice touch, as I think supers are way too easy to land without this. They’re still moderately easy to land, as they should be, but now the defender at least has some chance of stopping it.

I really liked what they did with the story mode Hero’s History, in which they go over some of the highlights of the story from the show rather than every little bit of it. This is, of course, not ideal for people unfamiliar with the show or manga, but for fans of the series, it means we don’t have to sit through the slow parts again. Your mileage may vary on this point. It’s also nice that the Japanese voices are available in this installment. I much prefer the subbed version, though I don’t doubt there are many who still want English voiceovers. For those people, I also have good news. You will not hear one utterance of the phrase “Believe It!” In fact, before I thought to check if I could switch the voices, I played in English for awhile, and it was surprisingly good compared to the other games.

Also, for the most part, missions are way better than in previous installments. The requirements are much more skill based, rather than things like just hoping to see the ability to perform a screen switch come up. This movement towards skill over luck is much needed. Also, kawarimi’s are much easier to perform when you want to, making the missions that require them less of a pain.

However, I do have a complaint about Ultimate Contest, the game’s non-canon story mode. If you want to do everything, you’re going to have to play some truly irritating mini-games multiple times in order to do so. The worst offenders are by far the push-ups and squats that Guy and Lee challenge you to. Unfortunately, they’re also the games you’ll play the most. Luckily, they’re easier than the push-up game of last installment, but they’re still just as lackluster. Mini-games where you just repeatedly mash one button are not fun. Please, any developers out there, get this through your heads.

On a better note, the poses you’ll also go through with Guy and Lee are better. It’s a rhythm game in which you press buttons at the right time to mimic the ridiculous poses of Guy and Lee. Moderately amusing. Also, the tree climbing mini-game is decent, though some of the short branches seem to jump out at you without warning. These branches really need to be made more clear, as running into something because I can’t see it is irritating.

Finally, we have Tenten’s Target practice, by far the best of all the mini-games. It’s actually legitimately fun. Basically, targets pop up with a button on them. Pressing that button launches a shuriken at it. Then, there are targets dressed like allies, and hitting them lowers your score. You compete with Tenten for a high score, which is easy enough to do, but still quite fun.

Now, I’ve gone into these mini-games because, as I said before, to fully complete the game, you will play them multiple times. This detracts from the game a little for me, because only one of the mini-games is actually really fun to play. If they were completely optional, I wouldn’t mind so much.

Finally, let’s talk about the roster of fighters. This game has 42, and only two of them are filler. Basically, every major character before the three year jump is here, and there are even a few not so major and even truly minor characters as well. Also, characters’ ultimate forms have finally been integrated into the main character selection, so there’s no more clone characters cluttering character selection, such as having Nine-Tailed Naruto alongside Naruto. You can still select ultimate forms once you’ve unlocked all the characters if you wish, but at least they don’t register as separate characters anymore. One gripe I have about the ultimate forms is the unnecessary splash screens that come up after you’ve done your super to do the transformation though. There’s no need to see Curse Mark Mode II and similar names with a static picture on the screen. I just watched him transform in the cutscene, and it really kills the action to have the still screen come up before returning to play.

So, with all of that said, if you’re a fan of Naruto, pick this game up. If you aren’t, but you haven’t played the other games in the series, this one is the superior of the three, and isn’t a bad choice if you’re looking for a fighting game different from the norm.