Game Review #3 : JUMP Ultimate Stars (Nintendo DS)

JUMP Ultimate Stars, a 2D Fighting game only for the Nintendo DS and it's only available in japanese. Would the language barrier spoil the fun this game has ?


First, I would like to explain the game battle mechanics. Battles take place in a variety of arenas with up to four Battle Characters to duke it out. There are basically 3 game modes, Point, Deathmatch, Capture the Stars. In Point Matches, KO-ing an enemy gives you points, at the end of the time limit, the points are used as the deciding factor of who wins the match. In Deathmatch, the goal is to eliminate all the battle characters in everyone's decks. Capture the Star, is kinda like king of the hill where players have to steal stars by KO-ing each other and at the end of the match, the player with the most stars win.



In this game the characters you choose to use in battle are based on 'Decks'. Decks are formed of comic book style inserts called 'Koma's. There are 3 types of Komas, Battle, Support, Help. Battle Characters are the Characters you control in the game to fight. Support Characters are characters that do specific actions that can directly affect the battle. Help Characters only provide stat boost or passive abilities (Eg, Health increase, Auto-Block). Battle and Support characters have a type assigned to them, these types are known as 'Strength', 'Intelligence', and 'Laughter'. This is kind of a scissors paper stone kind of system whereby a type has a damage bonus over the other. During battle, there are also status effects that affect your battle character(eg. Poison, Paralysis).



The main catch is that is ALOT of Komas to unlock in the game, making deck customization extremely deep and very rewarding to experimenting players.

In Single Player mode, the player can play through the story mode or a tournament mode fight AI controlled characters. In story mode, players will travel through the JUMP Universe and do battle in a multitude of planets that belong to the a specific manga (Eg. a Dragonball world, One Piece world). Unfortunately, I can't read Japanese so I can't understand the main plot though it seems like theres this mad scientist wanting to take over the universe. In each world, there will be multiple stages, each with its own special missions. These missions are basically generic tasks like "Ring Out 2 enemies" and "Do now use special attacks". Clearing these missions will unlock more stages and more planets to explore until you reach the end and fight the final boss.


In tournament mode, It's just a series of battles with the AI till you reach the top and you get points to be used for unlocking more Komas.

Jump Ultimate Stars as a single player game is a boring game. The main reason behind this is the AI, Its Gorilla proof. It did not provide a challenge to me. The only reason for me to finish the story mode is to unlock all the available Koma in the game.

However, Jump Ultimate Stars is a natural born multiplayer game. It comes with Nintendo Wifi support so you can play online though this game is best enjoyed with friends. With the addition of human players, this game becomes super chaotic and there is always new experiences when anyone makes a new deck. This experience is backed up by the myriad of famous manga characters that we love. Fanboy wars are common in this game and we battle to prove our points.


In conclusion, Jump Ultimate Stars is really an awesome epic multiplayer game for the Nintendo DS. The multiplayer experience overshadows its flawed single player experience. I understand that I did not explain much on the multiplayer part, its something to be experienced. Think unlimited customization + 4 players + epic manga charater moves = serious chaotic fun.

The Verdict : Cher Shen Approves :D:D:D:D (Don't play this alone .... ever)

Game Review #2 : Ultimate Crab Battle (PC/Flash)

Games can come in all shapes and sizes. last time I reviewed a high production value full fledged console game. Today I would like to review a casual and short flash game by the name of, Ultimate Crab Battle. The game can be played here @ http://www.crazymonkeygames.com/Ultimate-Crab-Battle.html . It's a very short game that can be completed in just about 10 minutes.

So what is Ultimate Crab Battle ? Well, it's basically a 2D shooter game where you, the player, take control of a shark rider loaded with weapons to destroy the Evil King Crab. There is only one level, just you and one Evil King Crab to duke it out. The goal of the game is to defeat the Evil King Crab, get a highscore, and you are done. This game aesthetics focuses primarily on sensation and challenge.

The setting and of the game is introduced in the beginning of the game. It is about a magical shark,with the help of a human boy, to settle the conflict between the Sharks and Crabs once and for all. All of it takes place in the ocean which is the level itself.


In this game, you control your shark rider with the Arrow keys and fire your weapon load with the 'A' key. The key to beating the game is to avoid the myriad of attacks that the Evil King Crab throws at you to conserve your health meter as displayed on the top left. These chaotic attacks consists of the Evil King Crab summoning killer spearfishes,spewing spinning lasers, shooting reflecting machine gun projectiles, sucking up water to restrict your movement space, unleashing killer snakes from its pincers, brings down an electrocuting cage, and many more. This attacks forces you to utilize the entire screen space. Your weapon load consists of rapid fire laser beams, guided laser beam, homing rockets and torpedoes. Of which, the rockets and torpedoes can be depleted. Shooting down the little fishes that spawn randomly during the game will reward you with either ammunition or extra points.



After defeating the Evil King Crab, there will be a final cut scene whereby the Evil King Crab gives his amusing last words and the game ends with a transition to the score screen for players to upload their high score to internet or on facebook for competitive/social reasons.

Competitive players can look forward to playing the game in 3 difficulties, Easy, Medium, and Hard. How these difficulties differ is the bonus score awarded at the end of the game and the health of the Evil King Crab which basically increases the gameplay time required, though surviving longer is not as easy as it sounds.


What I like about the game is how they piece everything together, the hand drawn looking art style, the epic final boss like medieval themed background music, and the rich amount of chaos present during the gameplay. The whole experience really felt like an epic last boss battle right from the start of the game, there is no level or character progression.

In conclusion, Ultimate crab battle is a great game to fill up your short breaks and need for lightweight amusements. The only thing that I would dislike about the game would have to be the short amount of content(I want more epic battles you see).

The Verdict : Cher Shen Approves. Just don't expect me to play this for hours and hours though :P

Game Review #1 : Mass Effect (Xbox 360)

This is the first review I shall be doing in this blog (for education purposes ^_^") , and somehow the first game I had in mind is "Mass Effect" .

A brief introduction, Mass Effect is a mature themed science fiction based third person shooter role playing game for both the Xbox 360 and PC. The game is highly rated among game reviewers (90.71 % , based on 96 reviews, source : http://www.gamerankings.com/xbox360/930279-mass-effect/index.html)

I shall start with the setting of the game, the highly story driven plot takes place in a very distant future, when humans already started colonizing outer space and made contact, befriended, as well as coexist with the extraterrestrials. There is some serious reading material accessible in the game menu that is like an encyclopedia for hardcore fans who wish to know the foundation.

The plot of the story puts you in the shoes of Commander Shepard, a human male or female as to your preferences with a tragic past, again you can choose the character background story (eg. Sole survivor of a tragic war).
Commander Shepard was chosen as a candidate to be a SPECTER, agent of the Council to preserve the peace of the universe, and has to undergo a secret mission under the observation of an actual SPECTER, Nihlus. Shepard's first task is to recover an artifact called the Prothean Beacon, which is believed to hold the secrets of the highly advanced Prothean technology. However things go awry when Nihlus was killed by a fellow SPECTER, Saren, and the destruction of the Protean Beacon. Due to the low influence the Humans have in the council, Shepard was unable to prove that Saren had become a traitor and is leading the annialation of all life of the universe. And thus, Shepard sets out across the vast outer space with his crewmates to find evidence to convict Saren and stop his plans.


The beauty of Mass effect is that the story is highly interactive, players can engage in the conversations in real time and make morally engaging choices which will ultimately affect the ending of the game.
To me, it felt like I was the director of a movie. The Cinematography is top-notch accompanied by excellent voice acting. However in some of the cutscenes, the character animations felt stiff which probably is not motion captured.


The Gameplay in mass involves transversing around 3D environments with in a third person view, combat can take place practically anywhere and your characters will ready their weapons to signal you that there is a conflict going on. On first impression, It plays like a typical third person shooter. However players will soon realise that the combat mechanics are much deeper. The Combat mechanics revolve around three components, Assault, Biotics, and Tech . Assault is the specialization of weapon usage and skills(etc, Shoot without recoil), Biotics is the specialization of psychic powers(etc, lift enemies in the air) and lastly, Tech is the specialization of well ... technology(etc, Hack security systems, disable the enemies' shields) .Each Character posses their specialty in a mixture of these components as well as their racial specialty.



These skills are highly accessible during the action packed combat with simple controls, and of course you can set the AI to use the skills of your party members automatically. In conclusion, combat is practically shooting enemies, using skills to gain a upperhand, and exploiting the enviroment(eg, exploding barrels).

Outside combat, you would be engaging in conversations, getting quests from the people you talk to, managing your party(assigning skill points, changing equipment etc), and exploring the vast universe.



Most of the time, I would be doing the main quest, mainly because I feel that most of the side quests kinda make you become an errand boy, doing alot of backtracking and exploration though they are usually highly rewarding.

The graphics of this game is very impressive, character models are detailed and are usually animated well, the environments are immersive and vast, the special effects are just alright.
The game by default uses the film grain image filter that gives it a kinda 'retro' look like in science fiction movies. Therefore in my opinion, the visuals blend together really well.

The Audio experience is satisfying enough, as mentioned above, the voice acting is really good but what disappoints me is the lack of variety for the background music and combat sound effects even though they are of high quality, hearing similar sounds and tunes over and over can get boring.

With this I would like to conclude that Mass effect is an awesome game even with some of it's minor flaws. What I found ironic is that the setting is very deep and vast yet the game play last for roughly 10 - 15 hrs (without sidequests) which to me is very short as the game leaves you wanting more.

The verdict : Cher Shen Approves :D

Hello world again ^^

Lots more to come, look forward to it.