More reviews!!! It's a wonderful world after all!
Final Fantasy VII
Hailed as one of the best games of all time, Final Fantasy VII marked the coming of an age. Though, now, the graphics look like crud, the characters created for this game are some of the best ever. This game deviated from the traditional "Ya got one spellcaster" approach and instead used a "materia" system, which are stones that fit into slots of armor and weapons which contain spells. AP is earned for the materia, which sort of "levels up" the materia and makes more powerful spells available. This is frustrating at first, but becomes quite manageable later on. The game also has good old limit break, which is a meter built up by getting hurt (sigh, it's a painful world). After the meter is full, that character can pull off a signature move, usually causing significant damage. However, it is hard to identify with the main character, Cloud, because he's quite a surly individual, with a lot of inner turmoil, which, in my opinion, was a mistake. The writing in Final Fantasy VII is superb. Music? Well, that's probably the game's least memorable point. Point is, if they ever remake this game it's gonna rock out loud.
Armed and Dangerous
Armed and Dangerous was published by Lucasarts, but was actually developed by Planet Moon Studios, which includes some of the development team for MDK, which included some of the development team for Earthworm Jim. So, maybe there's a Jimmy in there somewhere. This is a fun game. You play as Roman, the leader of a group of thieves known as the Lionhearts, and you are joined by a Scottish mole named Jonesy and a British, tea-drinking robot named Q. If you haven't gathered this yet, the game is meant to be humorous. There are two major problems with humorous games: They are either not funny, not fun to play, or both. A&D escapes both of these pitfalls with flying colors. The game is a third-person shooter that focuses on action more than anything else. Mostly, you'll be mowing down grunts with a machine gun, but there are some fun special weapons, too. The favorite seems to be the Land Shark gun, which fires a shark that swims through the ground and eats grunts. Also, your mates actually help in the game. The humor is superb, as well. The game's length impressed me, too. There are over a dozen large levels, and they don't get repetitive. One problem that needs to be addressed is the graphics. Most Lucasarts games seem to falter in this area. Though they aren't so bad that it affects gameplay, the movie scenes are very blurry, and the gameplay models clip themselves, especially Q. A truly humorous game with some seriously fun gameplay.
