Minecraft

  Minecraft is an adventure/survival indie game with its main focus being a sandbox title, a place where you can build, or do, anything.  Minecraft is currently on PC, Mac, Android, iOS, and Xbox 360 as a physical and downloadable title.  It will be coming to the the Xbox One in the future.  The game was created by Marcus "Notch" Persson, and later further developed by Mojang, the company that Notch made.  The Xbox 360 version was ported by 4J Studios.

  There is no story and the game can go on indefinitely, this isn't to say it's boring by any means.  You can explore the world and discover many different things.  There are several different biomes you can find, Jungle, Desert, Plains, Forest, Tundra (or winter), Mushroom, and my favorite is the Extreme Hills.  You can find villages with villagers running around in a few biomes.  Best thing is that you can build anything, as long as you have the materials.

  There are three different game modes that can be used: Survival, Creative, and Adventure.  Survival is how you would play the game normally, collect resources to keep surviving and fight off monsters in the night and in caves.  If you die, it's not the end, you can respawn where you last slept in a bed and continue but you will lose everything you had with you.  Creative is self-explanatory, you have access to all the items and blocks and create anything from some mechanisms to a entire world full of quests and treasure.  Adventure is way different than the other two game modes, you cannot break most blocks and mainly just admire the scenery.  Adventure is the main game mode that is used on custom built maps, or worlds.  People have made mods, maps, and custom textures for Minecraft.  They are able to share them online through downloads.

  Now everything I have talked about up to this point is available on the PC/Mac versions.  The Xbox 360 version does not have an Adventure mode, and no way to share worlds unless by invite.  Oh, you have to have Xbox Gold as well.  The iOS and Android versions are farthest behind, but that's to be expected.  The Xbox 360 and mobile versions do not support mods, maps, or custom textures.  They do, however, have a unique crafting menu where you just have to have the items required and find the recipe to make another item.  The PC/Mac version is slightly different in which you have to guess at what the recipe is.

  All versions can have multiple players on the same world, with some exceptions.  The PC/Mac version requires you to set up a server, unlimited players can join one server.  The mobile versions require you to have local connections, I am not sure how many people can be on one world.  Lastly, the Xbox 360 version requires an internet connection, Xbox Gold, and someone on your friend list who also has the game.  It also only supports up to eight people.

  Minecraft constantly has bugs that can exploit the game.  While Mojang fixes them, every major update creates new bugs which can do the same thing.  There are a few more issues when multiple people are on a server, a lot actually.  With more people, more lag becomes apparent, especially when redstone is involved.  Regardless, most bugs/issues are a result of lots of people on a single server.

Everyone has their own opinion on Minecraft, I think it's pretty good.  However, ^.  I, personally, give Minecraft a 4/5.  So Minecraft gets a Silver Star.

Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock

  Doctor Who is a BBC television show that features a Time Lord from Gallifrey who calls himself The Doctor and is accompanied by his companions through time.  If you didn't know this already, shame on you.  The video game adaptations of the Doctor's adventures are not that great, unfortunately.  Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock is the best example of what not to do with a critically acclaimed television series and must be exterminated.  The game is available on PS3, PSVita, and PC.

  The story is okay at best with the dialogue making it only a little bit better.  The game features the 11th Doctor (Matt Smith) and River Song as playable characters.  The game is about saving the world from the destructive force of the Eternity Clock which is able to erase and rewrite history.  You don't learn this until you're half way done with the game.  There are so many flaws with this game, it's unbelievable.  Delete, delete, delete!

  The game is visually appalling at almost every single point in the game.  The AI for the uncontrolled companion is awful.  The other character can be played by a second person, so that's good.  The actual story is unknown for half the game.  The so called puzzles are either terrible, too easy, or a combination.  The controls are clunky, and the animations are terrible.  Yet somehow I'm still drawn to this abomination!  I wish I could somehow forget this game ever happened.

  There really isn't anything else to say about this game, it's just horrible.  I guess I'll end with a quote that sums up this game.  "Three-quarters of the sicknesses of intelligent people come from their intelligence. They need at least a doctor who can understand this sickness." Guess what race this quote is from, as well as guessing what earlier jokes are from to know who the main enemies are!

  I give Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock a Red Star, or a 2/5.

If you couldn't figure it out, the main enemies are, in order: Daleks, Cybermen, the Silence, and the Silurians.

I'm sorry for the short review, but there just isn't anything to talk about on this game.

Double Feature Friday! Luigi's Mansion & Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon

  Luigi's first debut in an adventure of his own was in Luigi's Mansion.  Luigi's Mansion was a launch title for the Nintendo Gamecube back in 2001 along with Wave Race: Blue Storm, Super Monkey Ball, Star Wars Rouge Squadron 2, and Crazy Taxi to name a few.  Luigi's Mansion has a deeper story than the main Mario series, although it's still considered to be a part of it.  Luigi wins a mansion in a contest he didn't enter and he tells Mario to meet him at the mansion, and that is where the game starts.  Not a great story but it is definitely better then 'Bowser kidnaps Peach, go save her'.

  The game goes against everything a traditional 3D Mario game would be, aside from a first person view, you can't jump, you have one life, 100 coins does not give you a 1-up, etc.  The game takes place in a haunted mansion and you have to save Mario.  Yes, you are saving Mario, not the princess.  I'm getting a bit ahead of myself here, so let me explain what's going on with the haunted mansion and Mario.

  When you arrive at the mansion, Mario isn't there to greet you, or anywhere for that manner.  After getting a key that was dropped, you go upstairs and enter the room to find a old man fighting a ghost, with a vacuum?  You escape the mansion with the person and he tells you that his name is Professor Elvin Gadd.  He then says that the mansion is haunted and some Boos more than likely captured Mario.  He then explains how you're the only one to save Mario with his gear, a heavily modified vacuum, the Poltergust 3000 and the Game Boy Horror, a modified Game Boy Color for communication.  Professor E. Gadd got his first appearance here and has since had cameos in other Mario games.

  The developers at Nintendo knew what they were doing when they made this game, it's hard to describe what they did and how they did it well.  The controls are brilliant, the atmosphere is perfect, it's paced very well, and there are small puzzles to figure out (I love puzzles!).  When you acquire your gear from Professor E. Gadd, you can use the GameBoy Horror to use first person mode and see Luigi's thoughts on things around the mansion when you press A. It's a small detail that the developers put in and I love it.  If you decide to collect money that is scattered throughout the mansion, it will increase your ranking at the end of the game, from H (a tent) to A (a grand mansion).  The money is essentially your points.

  There are some small downsides, such as a few places where you can get stuck, or break the game (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEmLSmoGL4s), however these are pretty hard to pull off.  With the specific glitch shown, known as Floor 1.5, it is possible to beat the game super early, but super hard to pull off.  For a long time, no one figured out what the main theme for the game was, so that's a small downside.  People figured it out though.  A minor annoyance later on in the game is a room full of dust, every time you go through the room you have to vacuum the dust.  So it's some small things like this that could ruin the experience.  The game is fairly straight forward and linear, not a big issue though.  It is kinda short, it can be beaten in roughly three hours, two if you know what you're doing, four or more if you don't know what to do.

  Even though this is my favorite game of all time, it is short and sometimes difficult to deal with.  With that, I give Luigi's Mansion a Green Star, or a 4/5.

A bit of trivia: Despite the title and being an educational game, Luigi actually had his first game back in 1993 in Mario is Missing! for DOS, NES, and the SNES.  He had to save Mario back then too!

Another bit of trivia:  The Nintendo Gamecube was suppose to support stereoscopic 3D, but at the time only one game used it, Luigi's Mansion.  I wonder how that turned out... 

  After 12 years of cameos and inactivity, Luigi gets back into ghost-busting action in Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon for the Nintendo 3DS.  The game was developed by Next Level Games who developed titles like Super Mario Strikers, Punch Out!!, and other various titles spanning the XBox 360, PS3, and WiiWare.  The game picks up after the first one and even mentions that it's been a while since then.  E. Gadd moved his lab to Evershade Valley, where the ghosts are calm thanks to the Dark Moon that hangs overhead.  He continues his research on ghosts when the Dark Moon is shattered and the ghosts go haywire!  E. Gadd contacts Luigi and with his new invention, the Pixelator, and teleports him to his bunker for a debrief of what has happened.

  The game is very similar to how it worked in the original game, just with less buttons.  E. Gadd gives you a modified Nintendo DS that is used for communication as well as a map of the mansion, he later names it the Dual Scream.  At the same time, he shows you one of the pieces of the Dark Moon that he picked up on his way to the bunker from the mansion.  This reveals the goal of the game, collect the five remaining Dark Moon pieces.

  E. Gadd mentions that he left the new and improved Poltergust 5000 in the mansions garage, it's dangerous to go alone, go and grab it!  It has some new features that are imperative to moving forward, the Strobulb and the Dark Light Device.  You can no longer just shine your light on the ghosts, you have to charge the light with the Strobulb and flash 'em!  The Dark Light Device is used to uncover invisible objects and sometimes those pesky Boos!  The Poltergust is used not only for ghost capturing, but for more puzzles as well (have I mentioned I love puzzles?).  Most importantly, when you finish a mission Luigi makes confetti fly out of the vacuum, followed by a short dance!  If you want to upgrade the Poltergusts features, aside from the confetti, you got to collect that money!

  Next Level Games did a great job with this game, even the 3D looks great and that has been difficult to pull off.  The music is great and memorable, they did a good job porting the controls as best they could, and the pacing is pretty good as well.  You can unlock an additional, optional mission in each mansion if you capture all the Boos in their respective mansions.  It's definitely worth a try if you like a challenge!  Speaking of challenges...

  There is an online mode, called Scarescraper, after you acquire the Dark Light Device in A-4, it's really fun but a bit buggy.  There are four modes to try, Hunter, Polterpup, Rush, and Surprise, which is a combination of the other three chosen at complete random.  You can choose how long you want to play a mode, if you create one, indicated by 'floors', they range from 5 to 25 floors.  You can also set the difficulty from normal to expert.  The more floors and the higher the difficulty make it more and more difficult, obviously.  There is an unlockable variable called Endless and it's just as it sounds, endless.  They are all very fun and challenging, but words are just words if you don't try it yourself!

  There are a few bad things about this game, sadly.  The frame rate is mainly steady but it does get pretty low sometimes, even at some points it seems like it's too high!  There are no checkpoints through out the missions, minor but big enough to be an annoyance.  There is a known bug pretty late in the game where you're forced to reset the mission.  While the frame rate never goes down, the online portion of the game is very unsteady with the connections, meaning you or someone else can disconnect at any time.  Ending with a disappointment, I thought the final boss was a bit underwhelming considering I have played the original and throughout this game it felt hyped up.

  Even with all of it's flaws, I give Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon a Grand Green Star, or a 5/5.

A bit of trivia: Satoru Iwata said in a Nintendo Direct in January that 2013 is the Year of Luigi. This is because this is the 30th year since Luigi's debut. Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon was the first game to come from Nintendo this year. Later releases this year are New Super Luigi U and Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, both feature Luigi as a main character or a dominant role in the game.

Ratings, How Do They Work?

Instead of reviewing another game, I thought of talking about my rating system this time.  Thinking back to when I started this, I had wanted to do a rating system that was unique, but simple.  "Well," I thought, "maybe I'll use stars.  It is called Green Star Gaming after all."  Well, maybe it wasn't such a great idea.  While I am posting a actual rating along side the star rating, I am thinking that people are still getting confused with it.  So here we go.

First we have the Grand Green Star.

It represents a 5 out of 5, and that means it's pretty much the pinnacle of what a game should be, in my own opinion of course.









Second we have the Green Star.

It represents a 4 out of 5, and that means it's a really good game and I recommend it.

Third we have the Yellow Star.

It represents a 3 out of 5, and that means that there isn't anything really good or really bad about the game, it's just kind of in the middle of the road.

Now we get to the disappointing stuff.

Fourth, the Red Star.

It represents a 2 out of 5, that means there's little to nothing that is good about the game and I wouldn't recommend it.

Fifth and final is the Grand Red Star.

It represents a 1 out of 5, that means it's at the bottom of the barrel, nothing good whatsoever, stay away from it.

Now that I have clarified what my ratings are, there is one last Star that I should mention, the Silver Star.

The Silver Star basically states that my thoughts on the game are not finalized or my personal opinion doesn't really count towards much.  I may go back and re-review it at some point.

I feel as if I have now clarified and justified my rating system and it should be more clear now of what they mean.  I do hope that I don't come across a game that gets a Grand Red Star or the Silver Star.

On another note, whenever I can I will try to get a video of the game of which I am reviewing.  Otherwise, the blog would be more boring than usual, and I don't want that!  On Friday I will be doing something that I've been thinking about doing.  I'm calling it Double Feature Friday, basically what it is is that when a review is supposed to come out on a Friday, I will review two games instead of one.  If I can, I will try to make the two games be related, either from the same series or something that ties them together.  So expect something fun!

Plants Vs. Zombies

  I thought that since Plants vs. Zombies 2 will be coming out fairly soon, I thought it would be a good idea to review the original.  Plants vs. Zombies is a super popular game created by PopCap.  The game is available on PC, Nintendo DS, PSN, Xbox 360, XBLA, App Store, Windows Phone 7, Android, Blackberry Playbook, Kindle Fire, and something called a Nook.  The play style is the same across all platforms while the controls varies.  PvZ is a strategy game based around protecting yourself against hordes of zombies big and small, fast and slow, and even tricksy buggers.  Yes, tricksy is a word, look it up.

  The game is super fun to play even though it does not have a multiplayer option on some versions.  The art style fits the game perfectly and doesn't make it scary, but more light-hearted.  The music is absolutely amazing and will get stuck in your head for hours on end.  There are a few different modes to try, and you unlock them as you go throughout the story mode.  The modes differ (to my knowledge) from platform to platform, I'll be focusing on the PC version.

  There are five modes in the game: Adventure, Mini-Games, Puzzle, Survival, and Zen Garden.  The Adventure mode is essentially story mode and the story is this - Zombies are invading and you need to protect yourself with plants.  Mini-games are self explanatory, some of them make fun of other games like Bejeweled and Insaniquarium, both were also made by PopCap.  Puzzle mode has two types of puzzles made from mini-games from the adventure mode: Vasebreaker and I, Zombie.  Survival is similar to adventure mode but you can use any plants, beat all four and you can play an endless version.  Zen Garden is drastically different from the rest of the game in that it is meant for you to take a break from all the zombie smashing action from all the other modes.

  I cannot find any one bad thing about this game, it's just too fun and addicting!  This is why I gave a basic overview of the modes, otherwise this review would have been over one and half paragraphs ago.  There is only one thing I am upset about, and it's not about the game, it's about the company Electronic Arts.  Around two years ago EA bought PopCap for around $750 million.  The reason I'm upset about this is that PvZ 2 will only be on the App Store, or iPhones and iPads.  I bet everything that it was EA's decision.  I also feel as if EA is milking PopCap by making a PvZ Facebook game and a PvZ third person shooter called Garden Warfare that will be on the great failure that is Xbox One.

  Disregarding EA, I give Plants vs. Zombies a Grand Green Star, or a 5/5.

A bit of trivia:  The original PvZ game that came out in 2009 had a dancing Micheal Jackson zombie, but they eventually replaced it in 2010 when complaints were coming in about his image after his death.  PopCap had changed it to a disco zombie.