SuperPhillip RPG: The Crystal Quest Logo

An excellent user on the board formerly known as Wii General on GameFAQs, MARI0, constructed a mock-up logo for my RPG. As you can see by the logo, he's incredibly talented and skilled. That was made in the span of a few hours, and it's amazing how professional it looks. The only thing missing is the "RPG" part of the title. Otherwise, it's really fantastic.

SuperPhillip's Top 100 Favorite Games of All Time

Welcome back to another edition of the Top 100-- a special Fourth of July edition! What makes this edition Fourth of July-ish? Well, actually, nothing. Regardless, the Top 100 rolls on! From this week forward, I'll be slimming down the amount of games to five per week. Why rush a good thing, right?

As always:

The first ninety games are in NO particular order. For someone with OCD, compiling a list of 100 games in order would drive me absolutely crazy. There's a good mix of titles from multiple consoles, developers, and genres. Hope you leave this list with some fuzzy memories and good times.

- Super Mario Bros. (NES)

Do the Mario!

This seems fitting to follow up the newest 2-D Mario platformer with the one that started it all-- if not elementary. Super Mario Bros. is a game that single-handedly revived the video game market, not only in Japan but where Atari helped kill it in America. This game was simple in design, but the concepts from it are still used to this very day.

You play as the portly plumber Mario on his adventure to save Princess Peach from the nefarious King Koopa. What follows are eight worlds of four levels each all concluding with an epic showdown with the King of the Koopas himself There were just so many secrets to find, hidden 1-up blocks, secret bonus areas via warp pipe or beanstalk, and special warp zones allowing players to skip worlds. There was even a minus world for those with initiative! Super Mario Bros. may not be my favorite Mario, but it certainly is the one that got me into gaming. I salute you, Mario. Keep ruling gaming.

- Super Smash Bros. Melee (GCN)

Nintendo's All-Stars Battle It Out

Finishing up the trifecta of Bros. titles in a row, Super Smash Bros. Melee made every Nintendo fan drool with anticipation when it was revealed at Nintendo's press conference in 2001. Battles were more complex, the amount of characters was staggering, the number of arenas was wide and diverse, and just the amount of content in Melee is staggering. Not only could you unlock new stages and characters (some of them made you go "what the %#$"), but you could earn trophies categorizing the history of Nintendo's greatest mascots.

This title was released during my early years of high school (sophomore year to be exact), and that was a time where the internet wasn't readily available to me. So seeing the "WARNING NEW CHALLENGER APPROACHING" signal was always such a treat. Which character would I battle next? Oh my, Ganondorf?!! Young Link?! MEWTWO?! It was just a cooler time without being spoiled by the internet, I think.

- The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (GB, GBC)

The Legend's In Your Pocket

Goodness. It's yet another Legend of Zelda title on the top 100. Well, it's by no accident or error on my part. It's no secret to anybody that Zelda is one of, if not my favorite video game franchise ever. Each game brings something new to the table, and while the formula may remain the same, the experience definitely doesn't. Regardless, don't be surprised to see more Zelda titles in my top 100.

Narrowing down our focus to Link's Awakening, it was the first handheld Zelda. Its smaller size did not mean a smaller adventure. It was packed with content, items to acquire, dungeons to pillage through, and bosses to battle. The game took place outside of Hyrule, and even though it was entirely a dream the fun I had was very real. Link's Awakening would be the one and only handheld Zelda title developed by Nintendo-- well, unless you count the Game Boy Color remake, Link's Awakening DX, which featured color as well as a new dungeon. I need to try that one out while I'm thinking about it...

- Sonic Advance (GBA)

Rolling Around At the Speed of Sound

After countless years of a 2-D Sonic drought, the gods of gaming rained down upon the world with Sonic Advance for the Game Boy Advance. It had everything you loved from the Genesis titles gameplay-wise and created seven zones of pure delight. Instead of collecting a certain amount of rings to access the special zone, you just had to find a cleverly placed spring within a given zone to plunge into the special stage. There you'd guide Sonic on a skyboard of some form or another, collecting rings and dodging mines to grab a Chaos Emerald. The bosses were also stellar-- some of which even familiar to some of the bosses of Sonic 1 and 2-- even with the same music! All in all, Sonic Advance was one of my favorite 2-D Sonics of all time. But could one of its sequels top it?

- Sonic Advance 2 (GBA)

Got Places To Go, Gotta Follow My Rainbow

The first two Sonic Advance titles are 2-D Sonic nirvana. This game allowed you to play as not one, not two, not three-- but five characters-- each of which played differently. Sonic could speed through levels, Tails could fly, Knuckles could scale up walls, Cream was a new character to the Sonic universe, and Amy could attack enemies with her hammer. Boss battles mostly consisted of Sonic or whoever chasing after one of Eggman's robotic creations while on the run, collecting rings, and dodging attacks. Fast-paced battles and some nail-biters made this title's boss battles stand out from the others in my opinion. And that was the theme of Sonic Advance 2, it was a much faster game compared to the original. The level design was also much more open and able to be explored.

To reach the special stages, you'd need to acquire 7 gold rings in an act, and then try your luck at the special stage for one of seven Chaos Emeralds. To unlock the final chapter of the story, you'd need to collect all seven emeralds for all four characters (Amy didn't count). Phew. That was a workout! Seriously, if you have a GBA, you have to pick up the first two Sonic Advance games-- heck, pick up all three! You can nab 'em for cheap now.

Until next week, the Top 100 will be on a nice and well-deserved vacation! See ya!

Mega Man 9 Exclusive Reveal

Mega Man 9 has already become one of my most desired games of the year. I love both the Classic and X series with a feverish passion. I've yearned for the ability to blast bots in new levels and beat new robot masters, and finally my dream has come true. GamesRadar has an exclusive reveal with some snazzy new screens and detailed information about the story, robot masters, and the method behind Mega Man 9's madness.

Click Here

(And Click An Image For A Larger Display)

Wario Land: Shake It! First Gameplay Vid

Due out September 29th for retail on the Wii, Wario Land: Shake It! is a 2-D platformer with animation done by the fantastic Production I.G. The game looks wonderful. Chock up another purchase for the fall.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl Review

Brawl was just released in Europe a week or two ago, so here's the North American review which still holds up well all the same. Enjoy.

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The Brawl to End Them All

It feels like an eternity of waiting, countless "official" character rosters, numerous weekday updates on the Smash Bros. Dojo website, and three kick-to-the-stomach delays, but finally Super Smash Bros. Brawl has arrived to North American shores. All your favorite Nintendo all-stars enter the fray for one epic brawl to end them all, but has the wait been worth it? Is it at all possible for this game to live up to its immense hype?

Fighting games often sport many modes of play, and while some spread themselves too thin (I'm looking at you, Soul Calibur III) Super Smash Bros. Brawl does a commendable job of offering quality in each of its myriad modes. While Smash is meant to be multiplayer mayhem first and foremost, lone players will still have plenty to do. Mainstays return to the Smash series and in top form. Classic mode has you playing through 12 rounds. Each round is either a one-on-one affair with varying elements such a gigantic or metallic opponent or team-based. Event mode makes another appearance offering thirty plus themed challenges such as defeating the cast of the original Smash Bros. in one go or taking on two kings, Bowser and King Dedede, as Mario. Rounding out the homecoming of modes is Stadium where Multi-man Brawl calls its kingdom as well as Home-Run Contest where you try to hit a bag of sand as far as possible. Finally, Break the Targets is here though there's unfortunately only five different levels. Characters no longer have their own levels to smash targets through.

The graphical improvement to Melee is anything but marginal.

What is new and may raise some eyebrows is the Subspace Emissary making up the adventure mode of Brawl for either one or two players. The world of Nintendo's mascots is under attack by dark fiends. To combat this, players go through mascot-themed 2-D levels, taking out baddies along the way with boss battles sprinkled here and there throughout the entire mode filled with gorgeous and oftentimes humorous cutscenes. It's a good concept which borrows from director Masahiro Sakurai's past Kirby titles, but overall the Subspace Emissary is a pretty clunky, humdrum experience. The controls serve well for fighting in the main modes, but platforming with them is a bit floaty and imprecise for my tastes. The mode clocks in at just over six hours, but honestly it feels like it should have been shorter. I had to press myself just to complete it as it can get quite repetitive.

And even if you're tired of playing the single-player modes and lack any buddies nearby to brawl, there's online to play. You get two options of play: With Anyone searches randomly for players from around your area, or you have With Friends which draws on those damned Nintendo friend codes to play with your friends. Lamentably, With Anyone is bare-bones. There's no communication or options to select from whatsoever so you might as well be playing against the AI. Just pick a character, pummel a punching bag in the waiting room standing by for your opponents, and bash the hell out of each other for two minutes. With Friends is cheerfully better as you can select what items will be in play, the time limit, damage ratio, and other quirks. While communication is a non-issue, you can create phrases that can pop up in battle with the push of a button to taunt opponents or express your need to say "lol wut" from across the globe. Online is pretty much lag-free with friends, but with Anyone and with folks further away from you, latency is a huge problem at the time of this review (a month after SSBB's release).

It's on like Donkey Kong.

While Wi-Fi is a welcomed addition to the Smash Bros. series, local multiplayer is still far more gratifying, and all of the options are available to you to choose from. You can set up match types, create tournaments, and select from special rules like all metal, giant, small, or flaming characters (no not that type of flaming character!). Rotation grants the chance for everyone in the room to play.

The cast of characters and stages in Brawl is astounding. There's enough heroes, villains, and beauties to choose from. Newcomers like Wario and Diddy Kong bring with them their own charm and playing styles while old favorites like Mario and Link are changed just enough to feel fresh. Clones were a big problem with Melee, and thankfully many of the clones returning to Brawl have been changed slightly to seem unique. The stages are some of the best to have ever hit a Smash Bros. game. One will have you traveling around the sunny sites of Delfino Plaza which made this reviewer want to pop in Super Mario Sunshine all over again. Then another takes you to Smashville where Animal Crossing onlookers like Brewster and Gracie spectate your battles. Of course, if you're feeling nostalgic or longing for some old favorites, there's ten stages from Melee which mark their return. In total, there's 41 incredible stages to play through, and honestly I only detest two of those 41.

A rumble in the jungle. One of my favorite stages.

Brawl will last you a long time as there's a lot of items to collect as well as unlock. Get ready to spend a lot of hours inside the Vault menu. Trophies return from Melee which are quite entertaining for the Nintendo aficionado or random collection junkie to gather. There's over 500 individual trophies, and each trophy is based off a character or item from Nintendo lore. Want to read up about Star Fox's General Pepper? Just select the trophy to read up as well as see his first and last appearance in a game. Some items like stickers have a more beneficial purpose as they can actually boost the stats of your characters in the Subspace Emissary mode. Then there's coins-- the currency of Brawl. Use these in the addicting Coin Launcher minigame to score new trophies and stickers. However, certain trophies, stickers, and other unlockables can't be received so easily. This is where the Challenges menu comes in. Think Xbox 360 achievements that actually give you something for completing a certain task in-game other than a larger e-penor. There's over 100 of these challenges to complete giving players new trophies, stickers, demos, and music, and while some are easy to nail such as beating Classic mode as a given character, some are quite time-consuming. There's nothing more satisfying than seeing an almost complete board of all your completed challenges and prizes.

There's even more inside the Vault. You can arrange trophies to your liking, peruse your sticker collection, flip through your photo album of all taken screenshots in-game (a feature that I can't get enough of), or if you're feeling a little too big for your britches, create your own stages. You can create some pretty cool creations to brawl others on, but it's also very limiting. There's only three backgrounds to choose from, some pieces have too big restriction areas to do anything with, and you can only send levels to other players but you can't play them online with one another. Those gripes aside, this is another mode that I can't seem to get enough of.

Oh, yes. Someone named Solid Snake and Sonic the Hedgehog is in this game.

So if you haven't guessed it by now, Super Smash Bros. Brawl is brimming with content. I couldn't stop playing for weeks trying to unlock that next trophy, character, song, or stage. But how's the gameplay? Pretty much unchanged formulaic-wise. The basics of hitting your opponent out of or off of a stage still apply. The more you damage your opponent, the further they'll fly when you hit them with a smash. Normal attacks, tilts, smash attacks, and special attacks have all returned with a bang. The biggest change I would surmise is how air dodges are performed. No longer can you dodge in a direction meaning those hoping for the wavedashing meta-game are out of luck. No worries though, you can still school newbies with chain-grabs and spikes. Now while there are four control types to choose from, you'll most likely want to grab your old Gamecube or Wavebird controller to brawl. The button configurations are completely customizable giving you the ability to select a control style that fits you and your playing style.

Great games are easy to learn and hard to master. There's a thick layer of depth buried under the casual-friendly exterior. Super Smash Bros. Brawl succeeds in varying the gameplay while keeping the core foundation intact. New strategies arise from the Final Smashes and change the tactics of battle recognizably.

Items are the meat of the Smash Bros. sandwich (God, did I just write that?). While some players are set in their ways about leaving them off (no items, no lip, no sex ever, Fox only, Final Destination), most will opt to leave them on. It's what makes Smash Bros different from any other fighter sans the Nintendo facade. The newest and most prevalent item is the Smash Ball. When it appears it's a mad dash to bust it open, and when a character does they can unleash upon their unsuspecting foes their Final Smash attack. For example, Kirby's FS sucks his opponents into a pot of stew, dealing damage and possibly propelling them off the stage. On the other hand, Fox calls in his landmaster to blast foes to submission. If Final Smashes aren't your thing, try out the Assist Trophy. Think Poke Ball but instead of summoning a Pokemon, you're calling upon a character from Nintendo past like Samurai Goroh who slices and dices anyone who gets in his way or Little Mac who pummels any nearby opponent.

Top: Mario unleashed his Mario Finale!
Bottom: Samus drains what is left of her suit for this attack!

Brawl sits pretty as one of the Wii's most graphically impressive games. The amount of detail everywhere is just staggering, and it all runs in 480p and 60 fps-- never showing a slight thought of slowing down. What's even more staggering is the amount of music in Brawl-- over 250 individual tracks. Original songs used in games like Star Fox Assault and F-Zero X, but also remixed versions of old favorites from the likes of Yasunori Mitsuda, Motoi Sakuraba, Yoko Shimomura, and Koji Kondo-- themes you've probably forgotten but when it's played you'll go, "Man, I totally forgot about that song!". Using the My Music feature you can choose the probability of what songs will play in a given stage.

It's on like Donkey Kong. Did I use that one already?

Ever wanted to see who was the strongest-- Mario vs. Sonic, Snake vs. Samus, Link vs. Zelda? Now you can. As a single-player experience you won't get as many miles out of the multiplayer bliss that is Super Smash Bros. Brawl. It nears perfect, and while extras like the Subspace Emissary drag it down a bit, it's still one of the best games Nintendo has created in a long time. There's an exuberant amount of content that you can just tell Sakurai and his cohorts poured their hearts into this title. I have not been this addicted to a video game for a long time. It's a feeling that I've missed as a gamer, but Brawl seems to have rekindled that raw gaming emotion in me. Perhaps it will do the same for you.

[SuperPhillip Says]

Graphics: Some of the Wii's best. There's plenty of detail to be had. 480p and 60 fps.

Gameplay: The formula remains the same, but new twists like Final Smashes add more to the pot.

Sound: The soundtrack is just incredible. So many familiar tunes by an all-star cast of composers.

Replay Value: This game will last you ages if you want to try to unlock everything normally.

Overall: 9.75/10 - Incredible. The wait was worth it.