Regular Show: Mordecai and Rigby In 8-bit Land Review

Regular Show is an American animated television series created following the lines of Adventure Time. Created by J. G. Quintel for Cartoon Network which premiered September 6, 2010, the series revolves around the lives of two friends, a blue jay named Mordecai and a raccoon named Rigby who are introduced at the beginning of the game.

You have 16 levels of  head banging 2D platforming to look forward to in Regular Show: Mordecai and Rigby In 8-bit Land, it is that frustrating. With the famous Super Mario Bros. platforming games you enjoy a simple story line, not forgetting the goombas. Regular Show: Mordecai and Rigby In 8-bit Land on the over hand is seriously, frustratingly hair pulling difficult with no quirky commentary which was lacking from this game.

To go into detail about how hard the game is, there were multiple instances where I was killed by an off-screen enemy (glitch?) or narrowly missed a jump that looked reachable. You are then left feeling deceived and having to plan different strategies then to make the jump rather than jumping. There’s a difference between a good challenge, and difficulty for difficulty’s sake. Regular Show: Mordecai and Rigby In 8-bit Land feels like a troll game with everything put in to enrage you. Great to motivate you to take up the sport of boxing.

Regular Show: Mordecai and Rigby In 8-bit Land follows typical gameboy retro platform games. However, following the times, this isn’t nostalgic, it is almost a copy of Mario Bros. You jump on snails to continue and collect dollar bills with the addition of switching characters. If you switch characters you then have increased skills. For example, Mordecai is taller so has better jumping ability and reach, whereas Rigby is small but fast, so more likely to dodge enemies and crawls through tight spaces.

Both are needed to fully explore each area of 8-Bit Land. Levels themselves are all fairly large, so there’s a decent amount of exploration involved. The backgrounds are nicely drawn with great colours and graphics for a 2D game.

Three gold VHS tapes are hidden about in each stage, giving you the momentum to look around as you can back track on levels. There’s a timer too, and finishing levels in a speedy manner gets you bonuses. The timer is a catch 22 as you try to speed through the game which means instant death, you have to time your jumps and take a slow pace to survive and keep your sanity.

However, avid Regular Show fans will find plenty to like here. They have incorporated some of the amusing characters from the show as big bosses. Two notable ones are the Flock of Geese and the Destroyer of Worlds.

The story though is not apparent, they literally get sent a game, flip a coin to see who plays first. The story fits in with the lazy character personas from the show. A narrative and voice over-style game from the great star cast from the show would have been better fitting, coupled with this an RPG-style game would work much better with the original series. These points won’t deter loyal fans and anyone who likes to torture themselves with exceedingly hard games.

Review: Disgaea D2

Disgaea is celebrating it's 10th anniversary and company Nippon Ichi Software's 20th anniversary this year with the release of it's new game Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness. Following the story of much loved Demon overlord Laharl from the first game. He carries on forcing his supremacy on all the demons of the underworld who frankly don't take him seriously.

Based several years after the first set of games, the demon crew have grown older and outfits are skimpier, but Laharl remains power hungry. Little does he know he will not win the favour of his subjects with brute force only. He is determined not to live in the shadow of his father's legacy. We begin with Flonne ranting as Laharl and Etna crash in her flowerbed, a celestial Yuie flower blooms despite not supposing to in the netherworld. The main plot revolves around this flower.

Now the rebellion gets involved, Grosso pointing the finger at Laharl for having relations with Celestia after the flowers op up at an alarming rate around the netherworld. We have new villains and with that a new demon type; Sea Angel - cute but deadly at the same time. Of course you have to fulfil certain requirements to obtain certain classes which is part of the fun.

Gameplay in Disgaea D2 remains loyal to the original Disgaea mechanics. There is however a new Monster Mounting feature that replaces Magichange from Disgaea 3 and 4. This allows humanoid characters to ride on top of a Monster allowing the humanoid character to attack on top of the monster while the monster takes damage from opponents, acting like a shield. Characters can also build relationships with each other and their compatibility is determined by a heart scale of one to five. It also affects the strength of collaboration attacks used when Monster Mounting depending of the relationship established between a humanoid character and a monster character.

The graphics are still 2D animation but you can change the camera angle now in the newly renovated Overlord castle. Instead of being confined to three rooms you have a labyrinth of place you can explore and talk to the amusing demon vassels under Laharl's command. The soundtrack is fresh but with original tracks following the original characters bringing nostalgia.

Cameo in the game include past favourites Asagi, returning from previous games. The game's trophy list also revealed that most of the Disgaea 4 cast (Valvatorez, Fenrich, Emizel and 'Vulcanus') will return, along with Axel and Petta (who actually uses Zetta from Makai Kingdom in his Book form as a weapon).

You are also given a new weapon type - a book which seems to act as a second magic based weapon and allows users to summon spirits to damage their targets. The game also features a new Demon Dojo that allows players to train the individual stats of their characters; this is great if you want to train your healer as she fights with a book, which makes her attack better.

Disgaea D2 is a beautiful sequel to the original Disgaea series with lots of great dialogues, cameos and improved graphics. Essentially the same dynamics but with new game mechanics, seamless blending of character movement on the map not just animated sprites. A great addition to the Disgaea series - it would make any JRPG fan or demon happy.

Interesting facts

• This is the first Disgaea game to be a direct sequel in terms of plot.


• You can change the colour of the main characters.


• It is the second game that does not use the series' signature logo.


• It is also the first Disgaea game without an "Ultimate Class" for reasons unknown


• It is also the first game in the series where it solely uses HD sprites so the graphics have developed but kept to the original style


• The same skull and chair have switches behind and open a hidden door.


• American’s got DLC when pre ordering ie. Fuka, Desco: Two main characters from Disgaea 4, Overlord Zetta: The main protagonist of Makai Kingdom, Adell: The main male protagonist from Disgaea 2 and many more.

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^_^ Aisha Anime

If My Heart Had Wings Review

If My Heart Had Wings is a tale of youth, and a tale of boys and girls who loved the sky. We follow Aoi Minase the hero, returning with shattered dreams to his wind-swept hometown of Kazegaura. There, atop a hill lined with windmills, he encounters a wheelchair-bound girl Kotori Habane, and a beautiful white glider soaring through the sky. She is a slender girl with long, black hair  but is strong willed and speaks with confidence. Also, a cry baby. Because she transferred to Keifuu Academy for the simple reason that she is unable to move her legs and Keifuu Academy is completely barrier free, she has no interests in classes which teach sspecialityfields. Because of this, she is completely cut off  from those around her. She is also followed by her pet duck, Hat.

Together, they decide to revive their school's defunct Soaring Club in order to ride the 'Morning Glory', a phantom cloud carried on the wind that blows across Kazegaura.

Playing this visual novel is almost like watching a beautiful anime, you get to enjoy relaxing music, semi animations and it is very colourful, you even get glimpses of the hero you played. Another great feature is the Japanese vocals for the other characters which isn't always included in visual novel games.

Its menus are easy to use and easy on the eye, you have the option to straight away to save, load and log off and that is always the first thing to look forward to, as visual novels have a lot of story and you wouldn't want to read through it all again, so saving at apt moments is handy. Another great feature is the 'auto' facility to automatically scroll text like your watching an anime with out continuously pressing the next button.

Unlike other visual novels which have been localised in the past, this is a brand, moe novel, which provides a way for people throughout the world to enjoy themselves. As this brand uses high quality visuals and cinematic, this is what should truly be called 'Visual Novel HD'. All works provided will be released as official localised titles.

Strangely upon looking for information about getting certain girls, I came across restorative patches to get the original Japanese version of the novel with nudity. Perverts, please back away from the game and go indulge in some hardcore hentai. This game can be therefore enjoyed by male and females without the embarrassments of looming CG's to come.

You get to know all the girls attending the Keifuu Academy and they encompass all the different stereotypes ie. large breasted, lolicon (freshman), eccentric genius, tom boy turn popular girl and so forth.

You also get to pick up a few tips on basic aerodynamics, to glider flight and building a glider. Which is crucial to the plot and emotional bond of the characters. That is something you should value, there is no random slice of life, it revolved around a hobby. The only con about the gliders were the 3D models used in the VN, they looked out of place and grotesque in comparison to the beautiful 2D animation.

If My Heart Had Wings is about romance and the sky, appreciating beautiful up to date animation, an engaging story and great voice acting and soundtrack. It is a more luxurious visual novel giving a vibrant feel.

Review: Mario & Luigi: Dream Team

Mario & Luigi: Dream Team is the fourth sequel to 2003's Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, the blend of action and RPG is different but abused heavily in this game. The art style is charming, the script is funny even if the story line has gotten a little silly over the years and poor Luigi is still the butt of all the jokes. In light of the 'Year of Luigi' trend, Nintendo have really highlighted his purpose in this game, to sleep - and he does so aptly.

The game opens at the Mushroom Kingdom when Princess Peach, Mario, Luigi, Toad and Toadsworth are flown to Pi'illo Island. There, they meet Broque Monsieur and Starlow. You also meet Antasma and the bat king, who has teamed up with Bowser. They seek to acquire the Dream Stone, a powerful artefact that grants its user endless wishes. Traveling through Luigi's dreams along the way, you enter the Dream World. Here Mario meets 'Dreamy Luigi', Luigi's Dream World counterpart, who helps Mario navigate and battle the Dream World. They also encounter Prince Dreambert, the leader of the Pi'llos, who helps the heroes in their quest.

As usual with lots of backstabbing and bickering between Bowser and bat king the Dream Stone is soon destroyed by Peach and Starlow, only for its fragments to be inhaled by Bowser, who transforms into a empowered living nightmare of himself called 'Dreamy Bowser'. So yet gain Mario and Luigi must save Princess Peach and resume there holiday with the Pi'illo people.

If you had never played  Superstar Saga games, you could play this and be blown away by how unique it is. But having played everything else in the series over the past decade, it's the same as Bower's inside world but with no awareness of the past games, hence probably the lack of any point. It has the same characters, with a different background and the same story - simply with nicer graphics. We would have hoped by now you could use more complex attacks apart from jumping. Sadly this makes the fighting even more tedious, as it's long and drawn out.

The worst possible thing is to do the tutorial as it is drawn out and makes you lose all interest in the game and that is the problem. There is too much focus on 'what is an RPG?'. Players will most likely have played one so all the long explanations and sometimes pointless conversation is not needed.

It was fun using the touchscreen to manipulate Luigi, and any game that lets you flip the DS sideways and interact with just the touchscreen in fun ways, scores points as it gives your hand a chance to recover from all the button bashing to make the game go quicker.

This game holds something new for precisely NEW gamers, if your a fan of the Mario RPG series then this is just a rehash but may have been more popular if released on the Wii U. Lots of soul destroying explanations a few fun mini games and all at the expense of Luigi. Oh and Peach gets kidnapped again.

My Advice

• Equip Wellington boots to make enemies drop beans instead of coins for easy grinding


• Change your birthday on the DS to match the DOB items and you have some powerful equipment


• Don't buy anything, enemies drop better items