Assorted Shorts

I’ve been attempting to catch in on some good deals with my newly-acquired PS2 (and hopefully soon some SEGA Ages titles…). With no particular criteria, here are some rankings.

Guitar Hero III – 9.5/10. Does it feel like playing a guitar? Well, not really, but that’s alright, that’s what a real guitar is for. It’s fun – and that’s all that matters.

Lego Star Wars – 8.5/10. I played this one a few years ago on the X-Box and a had a good time, but there were a couple of frustrating parts, such as the Pod racer level. Improved upon in the second game.

Lego Stars II – 9/10. Yes that’s right, I thought it was a pretty damn good game. It’s easy to get into, fun to play with a friend, and you can play for 10 minutes or an hour.

Outrun2006: Coast2Coast – 8.5/10. Outrun2006 feels like a 1980s arcade game with beefed-up graphics, and essentially that’s what it is. Drifting and sliding is good fun in itself, but all of the additional features make this game worthy of owning at home.

Pride FC – 7/10. The game does a good job incorporating the various moves and positions of MMA into a fighting system. The problem is that there is no career mode, unlockables, or rewards of any sort for playing the game.

Resident Evil 4 – 8/10. I don’t have a good history with RE games. In fact, this is the only one I’ve managed to finish. Ultimately, the game feels like a good chase scene in a movie – lots of action and excitement, but not much else. With the Pro Logic on, this surround is pretty killer.

Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution 10/10. Balance and depth have always been associated with the VF series and it’s no different here. The big addition is the training mode. Since VF4:Evo has been around and many of the strategies and techniques have been figured out, they’re presented here to get you up to speed in some of the finer points of Virtua Fighting.

Virtual On Marz – 5.5/10. It’s not the worst game in the world, but after playing the other games in the series, it doesn’t compare. The speed has been slowed and the areas opened up to more like Armored Core. It doesn’t work too well with the VO play mechanics, though.