The Games We Played: A smashing good time with Smash Bros.

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The Games We Played is a year end round up of thoughts about games we spent time with.

By Paul @MrHarkinian) and Omar(@siegarettes)

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Paul
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There’s never a dull moment in a Smash Bros games, and that is especially the case with Smash Bros on Wii U and 3DS. Since the launch date, I could not put down my 3DS for a moment. Be it in Smash Run or in For Glory Online mode, the game provides fun and fresh content 100% of the time.

The best part about Smash Bros is that both games are virtually identical, with the Wii U version having a few more features. This is a great thing for two reasons; 1. For those of us who cannot afford a Wii U, the 3DS version is the next best thing. 2. Any sort of combos you learned in the 3DS version can be replicated on the Wii U version. Also, you have the ability to use your 3DS as a controller with Wi-Fi connectivity on the Wii U, so having your 3DS and the game with you just might come in handy.

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Final Fantasy XIII-2 Review

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By: RJ (@rga_02)

  • Final Fantasy XIII-2
  • Developer - Square Enix
  • Publisher - Square Enix
  • PS3, PC & Xbox 360
  • Rating - T

This review of Final Fantasy XIII-2 is from my experiences with the game through the PS3 and the PC port. I have played through the English & Japanese version of FFXIII-2 on the PS3 and the initial version of the Steam port.

I recently had a conversation about Final Fantasy in a cafe recently. He noticed I was playing Final Fantasy IV and struck up a small little talk about the franchise we both loved. We talked about the highs and the lows, and what we’d like to see in the future. Then he made a comment on how Final Fantasy XIII-2 is the poor man’s Chrono Trigger but with a better battle system. Now, I was inclined to agree about the battle system, but Final Fantasy XIII-2 is nowhere near the fabled SNES classic.

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The Games We Played: Fantasia is a symphony for remix culture

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The Games We Played is a year end round up of thoughts about games we spent time with.

By Omar (@siegarettes)

When Harmonix makes something, I pay attention. Their contributions to the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises creates a veneer of commercialization, especially after the former franchise over saturated the market, but look closely and you’ll find a constantly refined craft and passion for both music and games. (A bit perfect for our focus here at clickbliss). These are the people who brought both a new Dance Central title and the beat influenced shoot-em-up A City Sleeps to us this year.

In that context, who else would be better to bring us a 2014 update to Disney's Fantasia? Despite my reservations about how successful a Kinect based Disney game could be, I found it worth at least worth paying attention to with Harmonix at the helm. Besides, I needed something to justify my Kinect purchase aside from Child of Eden and yelling at my squadmates in Mass Effect. 

Of course, what really drew me in was the tracklist. Leading with pop hits like Lady Gaga’s “Applause” and Lorde’s “Royals”, moving to well known classical pieces from the Fantasia movies, it then spin offs to Queen, Depeche Mode, Kimbra, and…Jimi Hendrix?

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The Games We Played: Nostalgia got me. Pokémon Omega Ruby

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By: RJ (@rga_02) ) and Omar (@siegarettes)

The Games We Played is a year end round up of thoughts about games we spent time with.

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RJ
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I swore to myself I would never touch a Pokémon game ever again since my experiences with Pokémon Y. It wasn’t a bad jRPG per say, but for once I felt that I was simply fatigued with the series that I hold dear to my heart. Then came Pokémon Omega Ruby.

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The Sounds of 2014: St. Vincent’s St. Vincent

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By Kevin (@Prufesuroak)

The Sounds of 2014 is a year end round up of the albums that stuck with us this.

Annie Clark once said “I wanted to make a party record you could play at a funeral.“ in a press release, and this pretty much is the perfect description for her fourth solo album simple titled St. Vincent, released on February 24, 2014.

Upon first listening to it earlier this year I never made anything of it, I just saw it as just another St. Vincent album but looking at my most played songs from this year, I realized that a few songs from the album ranked pretty high on that list. It was always played but I never realized it. It was played enough to a point that I was oblivious to it being on. And then I realized that in a way the more I love a song the less I notice it.

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The Games We Played: Grand Theft Auto V as a beautiful failure

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By Omar (@siegarettes)

All screenshots taken using the in-game camera on the PS3 version.

There’s something hollow about Grand Theft Auto V. Upon reaching the story’s conclusion, I found myself left with a sense of dissatisfaction. Even before that I found myself dropping it out of my rotation due to its inane story plotting and thinly justified set pieces. It continually frustrated with prescriptive mission design that led you through interesting moments in uninteresting ways.

The core mechanics have been polished to their finest: the driving dropped the heavy handling of GTA IV for an appropriately Hollywood presentation. The cover system was tightened, with elements from the excellent Max Payne 3 added into the shooting. All of that only served to highlight how staid the moment to moment play of Grand Theft Auto has been. Rockstar provided a world whose structure and mechanics fell apart by themselves. It’s also undoubtedly provided one of the best realized digital worlds ever made.

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Polyology Review

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By: RJ (@rga_02)

  • Polyology
  • Developer - Ben Parbury
  • Publisher - Ben Parbury
  • PC
  • Rating - N/A

To be honest, I’m not too fond of puzzle games. Sure I’ll play some Bejeweled here and there when I’m standing in line waiting to pay for my coffee, but I don’t go out of my way to play a puzzle game unlike other genres. Puzzle games just don’t click with me.

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