Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box Review

        Continuing my journey of playing through the original Layton trilogy,  I played the second game in the series, Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box.

        The story follows Professor Layton and his assistant Luke on a journey the find the Elysian Box, after Layton's mentor is found dead and the box gone. They board a train and become wrapped up in the mystery of the box. They eventually arrive in a city where the true story and events begin Even though I'm a sucker for train stories, I found the story to be incredible, with satisfying twists and turns and a great ending that tugged on my heart-strings.

        The game-play is mostly the same from the previous entry with the player pointing and tapping on the screen to travel and interact with objects along with solving puzzles. The puzzle variety is much better around this time, with there being less number puzzles and more using the capabilities of the DS, especially the last puzzle.

       The art style continues to be gorgeous. The hand drawn backgrounds shine and the animated cutscenes continue to be a high point.

       I loved Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box. The story was a deep and satisfying tale, beautifully told by the cutscenes. the puzzles were satisfying and felt more fair this time.  Hearing about how Professor Layton and the Unwound Future is the best game in the series, I am super excited to experience it.   

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Review

After the critically and commercial return of the Star Wars saga with The Force Awakens, and another year for Episode VIII, Rogue One has been made to fill the gap between the years. The movie takes place between Episode III and Episode IV, a time period that hasn't been told in the Star Wars films.

As stated the film takes place between Episode III and IV and follows Jyn Erso and a group of rebels as they discover the plans and flaw of the Death Star leading to Episode IV. The story is a bit hard to keep track at first, as many new characters and unknown locations are introduced. Once many of the characters are introduced, the story starts truly rolling. Each of the characters are great in the film with all of them being deep-layered characters. There are also some cameos from the classic Star Wars trilogy including Darth Vader and General Tarkin.

The visuals in the film are fantastic. One, of the best visuals, is the character K-2SO, a robot expertly voiced and motion captured by Alan Tudyk. All the other visuals are great including the planets and the sci-fi weaponry.  

The acting in the film is also well done. Felicity Jones played the role of Jyn Erso well, but doesn't truly show much emotion except in a few scenes. Other actors who played their roles well were Diego Luna as Cassian Andor, Donnie Yen as Chirrut Îmwe, and Mads Mikkelsen as Galen Erso. A special mention can be made to just how diverse the cast is featuring characters of many ethnicities.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story presents an interesting direction for the future of the Star Wars franchise. It is able to tell its own story and do it fairly well. Based on what was seen, I am looking forward to the in-between stories the franchise will bring in the future.

Rating 4/5

Super Mario Run Review

In the mobile gaming sphere, Nintendo is a relatively new player. They had previously released an app, Miitomo, but it was more of a social app than a game. With the release of Super Mario Run, Nintendo has hit the mobile market with the thing they are best at making, a game. But in the transition has it lost some of the Nintendo shine or is it a bright star showing Nintendo’s mobile future?

The game-play of Super Mario Run is divided into three sections. The first section is World Tour. This section is the most like other mainline Mario games. Princess Peach had been kidnapped (once again) and it is up to Mario to rescue her. He must travel through twenty-four levels to rescue the princess. In these levels you can also collect pink coins, that after collecting them all will allow you to collect purple coins, then black coins. The coins add a bit of replay value to the levels, and some are quite difficult to obtain. This section is great, although it lacks the typical eight worlds of many Mario games. This also brings up the game's biggest point against it. To unlock World 1-4 and the rest of the levels, it is required to pay $9.99. This price is simply way too expensive for a mobile game, especially when it is just a simple runner game and there are many other cheaper alternatives.

The second section is Toad Rally. In this mode, players race against other players to gain coins and Toads. The players run an infinite loop on a course, many inspired by levels in World Tour, using flashy moves to gain the favor of toads and collect coins. At the end of the time limit the two players are compared by the amount of coins gained and by the amount of toads impressed. If the player wins they gain Toads and if they lose, Toads are lost. Out of the three modes, this one is the most engaging.

The last section is Kingdom Builder. After the Mushroom Kingdom is destroyed at the beginning of World Tour, it is up to you to build it back to its former glory. You do this buy using coins earned in World Tour and Toads gained in Toad Rally, to buy buildings and bridges to expand the kingdom. In this mode other characters, such as Yoshi and Luigi can also be gained by buying their houses.

The music and sounds are familiar Mario melodies. Many of the musical tracks are similar to the music of the New Super Mario Bros. series. This is either a point against or a point for it, depending on how you feel about the reused tracks. Some of the different level music, such as the underground/cave theme, are wonderful and are able to bring new life to the repeated tracks. Many of the sound effects are also the typical Mario series sound effects.

Super Mario Run is a good experiment for Nintendo. As their second iOS app, they have expanded to games using their most famous property. They have a great idea on the app, but it is limited by having to pay $9.99.