Ultimately, everything else is irrelevant. This game is priced at an affordable $30 and gives you plenty to do, but you simply won't want to bother. The most important part of a game is being able to play it, and forcing players to use constant arm-waggle controls with a questionable button layout makes it hard to recommend.
GDN would much sooner suggest you check out this game's Xbox 360 prequel, "Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad", as it's a proper example of the genre that started with Double Dragon and Final Fight, and has evolved into today's Dynasty Warriors.
DHGF: So that’s what “What’s Worth Keeping” will be all about. It’ll be about pairing down my collection with the help of you the readers. You’ll let me know what I should keep, what I should dump, and sometimes even suggest games I might find worthy of being part of my twenty games per console set. In taking this journey with me, you will not only get to know my tastes and preferences better, but hopefully your own as well. Every two weeks, we’ll look at a console and see if we can not only keep my number of games down, but also help you the readers decide if your collection needs pairing down as well. With that in mind it’s time to start this version of the column with the same system we started with two years ago – The Nintendo Wii.
The almost universally dreadful results of the 30 year history of game to movie adaptations, particularly where Hollywood is involved, are highlighted here by Japanese movie fans in this unsurprisingly abysmal ranking. Here are the top ten movies that Japanese gamers couldn't believe were made into movies.
(Warning: Source is NSFW)
Each of the games mentioned have the potential to make a great movie.
Unfortunately the film devs / script writers rarely seem to up to the job.
That's the most annoying thing about it, The franchise chosen for a movie iteration is usually pretty popular, that's why it's chosen in the 1st place. But instead of using the source material and sticking close to what actually made the games popular, the directors seem to have the need to change everything, and it just ends up a complete mess
Considering the millions and millions of dollars that went into making these movies, I'm surprised at least one of them didn't end up being a fantastic blockbuster.
I mean, statistically you'd think at least one would be good with the amount of cash that went into making them. :(
It was actually popular in Japan?
By the way, I'm still waiting for the Onechanbara Z Kagura game to come out next year. I need something pretty to fap to while cutting zombies in half.
Or Mortal Kombat, for that matter! haha :D
(Who would have thought MK would ever be made into a movie...let alone a good one!)
Fair enough! :)
(Though I'm now interested in knowing how popular the game-to-movie adaptations based off American games were in Japan)
DHGF: These days I limit myself to a total of twenty physical copies of games per system. Yet for the past two console generations, I’ve have a hard time finding enough games to reach my maximum of twenty per system. That’s where you, the reader come in. With each column, I’ll give you my list of games I’ve found worth keeping along with a list of games I’ve reviewed for the system. Then begins what I hope to be an in-depth dialogue with multiple readers. You can name games you think I’d like that might make my permanent collection. You might suggest losing Game A in my collection for Game B that I haven’t played as well. It gives you a chance to say what games you would keep if you had to pare down your collection. It lets you get a better look at my preferences and tastes. Most of all, lets you recommend things to me instead of the other way around. After nine years of me reviewing hundreds of games, this might be a bit of fresh air for all of us. Let’s see what happens.
The only game on Wii that worth anything to my family is Wii Sports Resort and that's because my wife and boys love frisbee golf. If it wasn't for that, I doubt we'd turn on the Wii, honestly.
How you can screw up:
- zombies
- cute girls in bikinis
Is beyond me.
LMAO... They actually try to tell people the 360 version is better.... Now I am pretty sure they've never played either game. AS bad as the Wii version is the 360 version is worse. Most reviews are actually scoring the Wii version higher. Metacritic score for 360 = 39. Metacritic for Wii version = 57...I'll pass this off as a fake. Which it is.
I do indeed think the 360 version is better. Yes, the Wii version updates the game engine some and fixes little things that annoyed me. But its controls can basically be thought of as "a non-stop drum solo" and your arms are going to get tired really quickly, even if you do pretty subdued motions. On top of that, the controls just aren't very intuitive. You can learn them, yes. But I expect that level of complexity and coordination from tank/giant robot 'simulators' like MechWarrior, not a 3rd Person Brawler. The 360 version had good controls once I figured out how to use them, so I enjoyed it more. Sadly, looking at the back of the box for the Wii version only showed the Wiimote + Nunchuk config, so there wasn't any way to use the Classic Controller... and that option would've 'saved' the game in my eyes.
Going against popular opinion doesn't mean someone is being fake. I'm sure I could point to several examples of someone being outside the mainstream yet being sincere. That's why a range of reviews is important. If fifty reviewers all give a 5.0 to something, and one gives a 7.5 and another gives a 2.5, you'd probably want to see why the 2.5 and 7.5 feel the way they did. Perhaps one just hates the genre, or another appreciated some overlooked part of the game's design. Maybe their tastes match those of your unusual friend who doesn't like Halo but enjoys Samurai Western. That friend probably appreciates the alternative opinion.
The 360 version was able to be controlled well once I learned how, but the Wii version required tons of concentration for little real payoff. Therefore, I felt the 360 prequel was the better game and scored it accordingly. That my opinion goes against how most people via the Metacritic aggregate scores rate them doesn't make me fake, just different.
At Metacritic, that 57 is partly because:
Gamespot 30 - Onechanbara makes zombie-slaying women boring.
Games Radar 30 - the motion controls utterly wreck what should just be mindless zombie-goring fun. (look they say the controls are bad!)
Gametrailers 46 - and gameplay that will literally leave you sore (also about the controls)
I think that I have sufficiently proven that you did not bother to read and are simply a rabid fan or perhaps a developer...whoever you are, you most certainly are not the voice of reason.
To reply to your points:
1 - The 360 and Wii versions hit the market at the same time, and are about the same price (the Wii version is $10 less expensive at MSRP, but that's not a huge difference). As I played both back to back, and they hit the market on the same day, comparisons between them were inevitable. They're basically the same game, and I felt the 360 one was better. Most of the readers I speak with own at least two systems, some own all but one or two of the current gen (i.e. having all but one of: DS, Wii, 360, PS3), so comparing the two games directly seemed appropriate. Going from a 1080p version with good controls, to a 480p version with bad controls, it seems like I should rightly point fans of the genre to the better take on the franchise... or at least the one I felt is the better game.
2 - I know people who actively enjoy the Onechanbara series, and felt I was wrong to be 'so harsh' on even the 360 version. These same people tell me Dynasty Warriors Gundam (basically a brawler in this genre, only with giant robots) is awesome, whereas I think it's an insult to the Gundam franchise. So I felt it was a valid game of its kind, and would draw the same polarizing opinions that the Dynasty Warriors series does.
3- Respawning enemies upon returning to a room is fine if they're quick to be killed. But each zombie takes anywhere from two to seven hits to kill, and sometimes the game will spring a mini-cage around you to force you to deal with dozens of them. This kind of layout basically begs you to start taking a Speedrunning approach to this; no unnecessary exploration, figure your route out well in advance, etc. That's bad game design, and I shouldn't have to put up with it just because 'other developers do it too.' When it means I have to do even more of that drum-solo garbage, I'm certainly going to complain.
It's kind of silly to tell me I have a lack of gaming knowledge, when several of my other articles discuss specialized info: Focus Cancels as a means of advancing against fireball spam in Street Fighter IV, ways to get out of the stage geometry in Operation: Anchorage (for Fallout 3) and what impact that has on your gameplay, and so on. Feel free to check out my other articles; I know what I'm talking about.