Luigi's Mansion 2 Review - New Moon or Blue Moon?

Luigi's Mansion 2 came out on Thursday in the UK and, after playing it over the weekend, I am here to offer a review. So let's get on with it shall we?

On Trial Today:

Name: Luigi's Mansion 2
Platform: 3DS
Developer: Nintendo
Game Type: Puzzle/Adventure
Audience: 7+
Gaming Style: Casual
Franchise: Luigi's mansion


The game begins with a short overview of Evershade Valley, the spooky setting for the game, being engulfed in a mysterious purple smoke, after the Dark Moon fell from the sky. The absence of the dark moon has caused all of the ghosts to go hostile, kick the professor out of the valley and rampage around all of the mansions. After the opening we join our hero once again being, reluctantly, enlisted by professor E.Gadd to vacuum up those spooks using his trusty Poultergust 5000 equip with new Strobulb and Dark Light.

Gameplay

Overall the entire game is fun to play and the in game puzzles really spice up the endless ghost hunting. Once you have found a ghost you must stun it with the Strobulb before using your Poultergust to clean the floor (get it... floor...vacuum...oh never mind) with their spectral butts. The controlls can be a tad sticky when trying to stun the ghosts as while your bulb is on you can not turn and all movements see you facing one direction. During you ghost capturing you can fill the A Pull bar and use the A button to give the poultergust an extra whack which is a huge help for some of the bigger ghosts that are reluctant to yield.

The Dark Light is another useful feature enabling you to reveal hidden objects that can aid you in your missions, weather it be a door to a hidden room or flower pot containing coins. All you must do is shine the Dark Light around the room and reveal the spectral balls that are hiding the object from you, simply hoover up the little blighters to bring the object back into existence.

The way the levels are designed is very intuitive and is one of the best aspects of the game. Each mansion has its own theme that is superbly designed and gives each of it's levels a different character. The way that the puzzles are worked seamlessly into each room makes the game seem even more like a real world, as the puzzles use the natural environment to solve them, such as collecting water in a bucket, from a leaky tap, to put out a fire, to climb into the fireplace and drop into a locked room. The way to solve each puzzle requires some lateral thinking and will be familiar to anyone who has played a LEGO game. I will admit that a little guide or hint feature would have been helpful as some times if I looked away during a cut-scene or couldn't figure it out I spent ages roaming the house in desperation.

Each of the Ghosts has a humorous design that really makes you believe they could be part of the fun bubbly Mario universe. Your common ghosts are called greenies (nice and original Nintendo!) they are small, green mischievous little fellas that enjoy messing with objects they shouldn't! and protecting themselves from your Strobulb with sunglasses and shovels. Other types of ghost include hiders, that hide in the furniture, boffins, big brained ghosts that can posses objects and gluttons, fat ghosts that spit at you while your hoovering the up (lovely!).

Other little details make each level engaging even if your not looking for them, moving staircases, self playing pianos and spooky shadows all add to the atmosphere. I will say my favourite little hidden gem is leaving the game idle for a few seconds and hearing Luigi hum along to the background music.

Graphics

The graphics for this game are stunning especially for Nintendo, who are not known for realistic CG. Nintendo's fun cartoony style really brings the world to life, making it feel like a real place, without it looking childish and young. Little details such as the torch glow when you face the screen and the movement of background scenery make the world less static and alive. The design of the ghosts is superb as well; the glows they give off and the way they move truly create the illusion of real characters, still keeping in with the "Mushroom Kingdom" art style that Nintendo have created, to make them feel like another character not supporting cast.

Soundtrack

I love the soundtrack to this game! It creates a spooky atmosphere without making the game seem creepy or scary. The old creeks of the door and spider scuttles again add to the realism of the game, and the alternating music between ghost captures keep the soundtrack fresh and un-repetitive, unlike other games with repeating soundtracks. Each action you perform has a different sound effect which fits perfectly with the control. The suck and blow of the poultergust both are differ as does the strobulb flash and dark light giving the game added depth. Each ghost also has a slightly different voice, adding to the character, and to help identify what you are dealing with if the ghost happens to remain invisible.

Closing Comments

On the whole I have really enjoyed playing the game and will continue on my quest to re-unite all of the dark moon pieces and save evershade valley! This game is perfect for it's intended audience and creates a realistic, charming world that isn't terrifying to children. it's the kind of a casual, puzzle adventure wrapped up in one and, for those of you who know I'm an avid Professor Layton fan, it really appeals to my gaming style. The puzzles are challenging enough to satisfy the more daring of you lot but can get a bit tough at times and if the ghost circle around you well.... best not press your strobulb too early!

The best price I found for the game was £32.99 on Amazon which is where I ordered my copy


Overall I give Luigi's Mansion 2 (Dark Moon) a score of:

4.5 out of 5 clicks!

I love the charm that the game has to offer and think the character and level design is absolutely superb! It would have gotten the full five if it wasn't for the few control errors and the parts that left me with not even an incling of what to do next. I would defiantly recommend this game even to players who never played the original, like me, as I feel this game is less a sequel and more a revival and it certainly has come back with a bang!

That's all for now

Happy Clixing
Josh

Somithing new in every Nook's Cranny

OMG ANIMAL CROSSING: NEW LEAF HAS BEEN PUSHED BACK TO THE SECOND QUARTER OF 2013 AS IF WE HAVEN'T WAITED LONG ENOUGH, THE PRICE BETTER BE AFFORDABLE OR NINTENDO WILL FIND ONE ANGRY FAN ON THEIR DOORSTEP AND THAT'LL BE ME. phew... and breathe

My personal rants aside, I feel nintendo has gone all out for Animal Crossing New leaf (set for UK and US release between april and june) and I think that the game will be worth the wait. From the various Japanese playthroughs I have seen, I have been quite impressed with the overall gamplay and look of the game; the graphics are stunning and the new mechanics look like they will be fantastic to play.

For those of you who don't know here is a rundown of the improvements made to ACNL

• Bigger village
• More shops: garden centre, shoe shiners. club 44, thrift store, post office and more
• New Characters with new animal types too
• New character personalities
• Ability to paste patterns onto furniture
• You can hang items on the wall
• Improvements to items you can buy (as mayor) for the town (clocks, benches, bridges etc)
• Town types (late night, early bird etc)
• New fruit
• An island for multilayer games
• Swimming
• Trousers
• Bushes
• New Flowers
• Can build your house anywhere
• New tools (MEGAPHONE!!)
• Masseur who can make you "dream" about another players town enabling you to visit it while they're offline
• Model homes
• Ability to customise your home completely
• Town tree that grows as you play and acts as the Town Square

an maybe a few more that I have forgotten

Overall I think that is a very impressive bucket load of new features that can be added to a game. Animal Crossing: New Leaf was the main reason I bought the 3DS and, while I'm sad to admit it, my 3DS is becoming rather underused and is begginging to collect dust in my gaming draw (what do you mean gaming draw? its a draw for games...duh!) so I realy could do with that boost to my game play. Personally I can't wait for this game to come out and I will be straight down the nearest game store the moment it does, and straight on here to review its wonderful bouncy content

Thanks for reading guys, see ya

Clix on Facebook

Keep up to date with Clix by liking Clix On Facebook

X+Y= Pokemon

Well after all the excitement of the Nintendo direct a few days ago I thought it was time to talk a bit about Pokemon X and Pokemon Y.

 

Well after a surprise announcement by the president of Nintendo, Mr Iwata no less, the Pokemon community was shocked to see new generation of Pokemon games; Pokemon X and Pokemon Y. I was surprised to see these games being announced so soon as it only seems like 5 minuets since Black and White 2. Anyways...

The whole game seems to be set in a new region that includes Pokemon from all other generations and as we all know new regions need new starters.

 

Being a trainer that nearly always goes for the water Pokemon I was anxious to see this generations water starter. I was greeted by Froakie, a little blue frog who seems up for anything and rearing to go. We also saw Fennekin the fire starter, a feisty little fox strutting proudly onto our screens. and the grass starter Dewatt, what thats not a Dewatt? oh sorry its Chespin a cute little (Ive said little like 3 times now) otter? rabbit? squirrel? with a big smile and an awesome taste in headgear.

I'm not gonna lie I was not overwhelmed by this generations starters but after care full consideration I think I might venture into the realms of the Grass types to start this adventure off for me.

 

By far the biggest addition to the game will be the enhanced graphics and the new 3D layout of the world. The whole game is no longer made up of a 2d scrolling world with some 3D enhancements oh no! we are blessed with the entire world in glorious 3D with characters to match (Lets face it our little, 4 times now, trainer sprites didn't look quite right in the fully 3D Castelia City). The battle modes have been upgraded too with full camera sweeping and animations for each Pokemon.

 

We don't know much about the game right now but we have been introduced to the legendary Pokemon. The X mascot is a stag with huge multi coloured antlers that when face from the front looks like an X (how creative!), and the Y mascot is a kind of sky dragon that resembles a Y when its wings are fully straited. presumably the 3rd game in this gen will be Z as XYZ make up the three dimensions distance height and depth (quite cool how the X stag can run across distances and the Y dragon can fly, what will the Z mascot do I wonder?)

 

On the whole I think I will get this game but Nintendo are going to have to whip out some more original Pokemon to get me really exited, and what happened to the talk of Sapphire and ruby remakes? Oh well I'm still looking forward to what Nintendo will do with the new 3D layout and how they will utilise the 3DS' features to enhance the game.

For the first time the game is set for release in Japan, Europe, America and Australia in October 2013 so the whole world will be able to get their hands on the game at once!

for those of you who haven't seen the trailer take a look:

Leave your thoughts and comments below and thanks for reading!

 

Nintendo Direct 23rd January 2013

Well today's Nintendo Direct Certainly left us with some food for thought so here's the all the Clixing info that you need

New Capabilities for the MiiVerse were suggested and it seems that Nintendo are planning to release an Internet and mobile app version of the MiiVerse allowing us to update and explore while were away from our Wii U's. There will also be some updates to the MiiVerse that allow filtering, as some "interesting posts" seem to get buried amongst the wave of other junk, Plus a way for us to create our own communities on the MiiVerse where we can invite our friends was also revealed for Wii Fit U allowing us . No release information on this yet but they are still ongoing ideas. Iwata also announced a feature where, in Pikmin 3, you will be able to use the game pad as a camera to upload to MiiVerse.

Next Iwata revealed the Two System Updates that will be released in Spring and Summer this year. The updates are both part of a dual update that will reduce the time it takes for the Wii U to return to the menu screen and for the Wii U to load games (Hoorah!). After the Spring system update the new Wii U Virtual Console service will be released allowing you to play NES, SES and Game Boy Advanced titles on the Wii U Game Pad. The entire line up will not be available at first release but there will be a steady flow of updates as the year progresses, also the new service allows you to save a back-up of the game and allows you to access the MiiVerse (I'm presuming that means the Virtual Console Games will have their own MiiVerse community pages).

As part of the 30th Anniversary of the Nintendo FAMICOM (NES in America and Europe) New TRIAL titles for the Virtual Console are being released for 30 cents (They didn't give a Europe currency) for 30 days. The Trials available will be:

• January - Balloon Fight
• February - F-Zero
• March - Punch out! Featuring Mr. Dream
• April - Kirby's Adventure
• May - Super Metroid
• June - Yoshi
• July - Donkey Kong

The Prices will return to regular e-shop prizes after each 30 day period

Iwata gave us a full hearted apology for the lack of new titles in the last few months and that there will be no new titles this January or February but he did give us a glimpse at Nintendo's 2013 schedule! (As long as they are not £49.99 like the last few, I'll be happy). Coming out from march till summer will be:

• Game & Wario
• Wii Fit U
• Pikmin 3
• Lego City Undercover
• The Wonderful 101

There was also a new feature of the Iwata Asks series where Iwata talks to the whole of Platinum games (Bayonetta 2) instead of his usal focus on 1 gaming title. He also said he would like to perform an Iwata Asks when the Wonderful 101 is released later this year.

Anyway if you think thats a lot to take in from one Nintendo Direct hold on to socks because they are in danger of being thoroughly knocked off. That's right New Wii U Titles are on the conveyor belt and being programmed as we speak, well type... or in your case read...Lets not dwell on it.

A New 3D Mario Title from the makers of Super Mario galaxy and Super Mario 3D land (socks trembling!). A new Mariokart for Wii U is in the works too (Socks shaking!). Along with a New Smash Bros Brawl title to boot (Socks Fully Blown off my feet, out of the window and into the street!)
the former of the three will be in playable form at this Junes E3 screenshots of the latter will be shown there as well.

The Creators of Wii Party are also in the midst of Developing a Party game for the Wii U, but they wouldn't give us a release name just yet (hmmm...Wii U Party perhaps?). I am very exited for this game and from the video I can gather there will be a new Party Island mode with a brand new island to explore, All new Mini Games with features such as rolling a dice as many times as you like within the time limit to get the highest score, a twister like game using the game pad and Wiimote buttons as dots to get you and your friends fingers all knotted up with, plus an all Game Pad 2vs Pinball game, and a similar Foosball game.

Wait There's More! From the Kirby's Epic Yarn team and with the director from Yoshi's Island and Yoshi's story comes a fully woollen Yoshi Game with a yarn made Yoshi as the main character. The character can eat enemies to become a fully knitted 3D Yoshi and interact with what seems to be 3D side scrolling levels.

A New Collaboration game between the Shin Megami Tenei and Fire Emblem games was shown only with the notice "Development In Process". Iwata told us that this was on in a long line of Nintendo Collaboration games between various games and developers that will come in the future.

Lastly (as if your not high enough on excitement already)We hopped on over to the Legend Of Zelda Series for Wii U! New Screen shots of the game were released including a Wii U makeover of Windfall Island from Wind Waker in order to announce the release of The Legend of Zelda : Wind Waker for Wii U while the New Zelda Title is still In development! The Wind Waker remake is due this Fall. The Remake will Feature Upgraded Graphics (to HD no less), a "tune up" of the overall game, a chance to play the game off-TV on the Wii U game pad and a chance for MiiVerse Compatibility

After a brief look at a new Xenoblade title (and I mean brief) Iwata Wished us well and annouced a Nintendo Direct for the 3DS and 3rd Party Developers respectively coming soon.

If you want to take a look at the video for yourself check out Today's Nintendo Direct on the Nintendo Website.

Thanks for reading guys leave you comments below about what you are looking forward to from Nintendo This Year.

A student life

Its here!!
your sims can now go to university with Sims 3 University Life, coming to our games this March 8th (March 5th US).

The game promises to provide us with all that we love from the previous University expansion and more! I personally can't wait to get this pack and I will be getting my hands on it on release date.

The main campus

Now for the finer points. Sims aged Young Adult, Adult or Elder can all go to University so send the whole family if you like, The Sim University is based off of England style architecture (nice to see a little nod to my country there) and is an entirely new world that offers as much as you can think of. Sims can either rent a house or dorm up with some other sims if they wish. Sims renting can advertise for room mates to live with  to help play for rent. If you choose to put your sims in a dorm they can stay in a dorm they will stay with a bunch of other sims on campus. There is a new social group mechanic that allow sims to become popular and network with friends to get a step up in a career.
The Majors that each sim can take are:

• Business
• Technology
• Science and medicine
• Free Arts
• Physical Education

You can enrol in these diplomas via the phone or computer and choose you amount of terms and credits. Before hand a University mascot will show up on your home lot and drop off a welcome kit, from this you can find out about the university, grab some free gifts and take an aptitude test that will determine your sim's funding and recommended diploma (by using current skills, relationships, job and traits of your sims). Each diploma will give your sims a leg up in their desired carers allowing them to enter at a highler level and get a pay rise. While your sims are at university your home life will slow down so by the time your sims return nothing, or at least not much, will have changed.

Coffee shop YAY! 

Each diploma provides the sims with their own study equipment allowing them to study away from class. Classes are (as far as I know) rabbit holes. In your sims free time they can study, hang out at the new coffee shop, comic book store, burger bar and student union or they can throw wild parties with their friends and utilise the new items like juice kegger and bonfire.

University Life looks like a great expansion and more will be revealed soon
fo now check out this video for a look at a playthrough of University Life: http://www.livestream.com/electronicarts/video?clipId=pla_0c085188-34e7-4f0c-b839-3c4b819ff650

Great games for U

Hi guys ive been away for a bit lately, starting a new school and doing my A levels has been quite time consuming so ive hardly had time to review, research or blog! but im back!

Ive had the Wii U for nearly 2 weeks now and I think its AMAZING! the ability to play separate roles in one game is so much fun when you're playing in a group.

Anyways I decided to buy a Wii U basic pack (Recommended by Mii if you already own a Wii and you don't plan to be downloading full games from the store as it's cheaper as it does not include a sensor bar, Wiimotes (as you already have these) or game pad charging stand or the large internal memory which are nice add ons but unnecessary)
 I decided on Nintendo Land for my first game because I thought it would be a great way to get acquainted with all of the features the Wii U has to offer and it would be a great game for me and my friends to mess around with as we are big Party gamers!

From the get go I noticed the one thing about the Wii U that slightly put me off, and that was loading time. The initial set up of the console required a 45 minuet update (*yawns*) and a hefty amount of set up text, this I was okay with but then I noticed the time it took to get between applications (especially between the home menu and the main menu). Once a game has been chosen or a channel has been selected you will be greeted by a friendly loading screen displaying the title of the application, this screen is displayed for at least 15 seconds longer than on Wii. This is due to the HD graphics the Wii U provides so its more for the console to configure but hey im happy to wait a few seconds of my life for the  stunning graphics!

But ive found after the system has been used a few times the loading speeds up so Moan Over!

The Game Pad controller itself offers really detailed graphics and the effect is stunning compared to the Wii's. The pad has its own speakers and volume control so you can achieve the "surround sound" feel by having the two systems blaring out at you.
 At first I was surprised at how large the game pad was yet how light it is to hold, your hands fit snugly (yes its a word) under your hand and the controls are set to fall right beneath your fingers, eliminating any awkward thumb stretching. The touch screen provides a much easier to use interface than the Wii allowing you to effectively navigate the Wii u and have fun with the games. The controller comes with its own stylus hidden in a neat little pocket (much like on a DS) situated to the left of the R shoulder button, the stylus is more accurate than a finger and keeps the screen a little less smudged.

The Applications included within the Wii U console are as follows. The Internet Browser allows you to freely view the Internet (shock horror) on your game pad or on the TV or both, you can search for pretty much anything using your proffered search engine and you can use the pre-set favourites to navigate between search engines and the Nintendo website (you can add any website to these favourites as you browse). The MiiVerse is a cool social network fro Wii U users. It uses your consoles registered Mii (you can change accounts by clicking the mii in the top left of the game pad on the menu) and you can send posts and comments to the MiiVerse much like Facebook or twitter. The site is split into communities, one for each title, and you can invite players to become friends, post screenshots, doodle and show your liking for a post by giving it a YEAH! along with Nintendo eshop (featuring dowloadable content including, for the first time ever, downloadable game titles), Nintendo TVii (yet to be released), Friends list and Download management these can all be accessed via the menu or by bringing up the Home menu, pausing gameplay and allowing you to find game hints or ask friends to play without quitting your game.

Another cool feature is the Wii U allows you to transfer over you Wii save data allowing you to play all of your wii games on your new console. just click the Wii icon on the menu to be taken to the Wii menu (where you can access all of your downloaded channels from Wii and access your Wii save games) and click "system transfer" to get started. WARNING: the transfer will WIPE the Wii saved data but all of the items will be safely stored on your Wii U. An SD card of at least 512MB is required for the transfer.

Well thats about it, ill be reviewing the games as I get them and I don't want to tell you everything about Wii U so that way you can find out for yourself. I highly recommend the Wii U it adds so much to the game play that i am willing to put up with a few extra seconds loading time, the console gets a full 5 out of 5 Clix points from me.

See you soon :)