Spawn: Armageddon
The Hero from Hell has come back to try and save his humanity, and this time the world itself is on his shoulders. Spawn: Armageddon is a good action game for the PlayStation2 and is much needed after Spawn's previous game for the PlayStation, Spawn: The
Eternal. While I never played The Eternal, I heard from other gamers that it
was one of the worst titles ever created. However, the Arcade to Dreamcast game Spawn: In the Demon's Hands, was a great game to play with a friend.
The game begins with Spawn contemplating his fate on a rooftop when a green blast suddenly blows him backwards. He must go and find out what caused this, and his search leads him to places around his city, into hell and even where the angels work.
The game's graphics are decent, but I did come across glitch in the game when I got stuck behind a fence when trying to get a bonus item.
The game play is similar to the Spider-Man platform games. You go around and fight enemies to reach the end of the stage. Since Spawn's feature in SoulCalibur 2, the designers thought it would be good if Spawn kept his ax, Agony, for his performance in Armageddon.
Virtual On: Marz
Spawn: Armageddon is a good game with a good storyline and the gameplay isn't hard to understand, but it really doesn't have much replay value. It says that to get the complete story you must beat it on all difficulties, but I found it hard to play through it again.
Virtual On: Marz is a solid game filled with high-speed, mech-battling action. The combat style keeps it with the tradition of the Virtual On predecessors. The ability to change the control formats to the classic arcade version is a great plus for advance players of the series.
One of the great pluses to Virtual On: Marz is the actual storyline that is presented to the Virtualoid world. You are part of a military unit assigned to assist with an ongoing struggle in space. You undertake missions such as protecting military bases, destroying enemy cargo trains or just simply destroying enemy Virtualoids. In one mission it's up to you to save a military sergeant while fighting off a giant Virtualoid.
The missions get more difficult as you go along, but the premise is the same for each level. When you find an enemy, it's up to you or you and your partner Virtualoid to destroy them. The briefing for each mission is a great feature to the game because it makes you feel like you have a purpose for completing the mission. As you progress, the missions have higher levels of conspiracy.
Virtual On: Marz is another great game from the Virtual On world. As the series ages, it does nothing but get better by adding features to an already great series.
Playin' Around
Grade: A
By: Chris Moore
DragonBall Z Budoukai 2
DragonBall Z returns to the PlayStation2 for another round of fighting saving the world. Yet, DragonBall Z Budoukai 2 lacks a few things from it's original.
In this installment, you assume the role of Goku and work your way to defeat the maniacal Majin Buu. However, the story mode gameplay doesn't have the same strengths it did in the first Budoukai. In the first one, you went through the entire DragonBall Z series up to the end of the Cell Saga. In Budoukai 2, you play a storyline that is somewhat similar to the series but with a lot of modifications. The absence of in-game movies takes away from some of it as well.
One great feature presented in the game is the inclusion of characters not really seen the in the DragonBall Z world. The people of Funimation decided to add more Fusion characters into the line up to make it a more interesting game. The use of button combinations makes it more difficult to putting in devastating moves. One example is using the Fusion Technique, where one wrong button will cause an improper fusion, which weakens your character.
DragonBall Z Budoukai 2 is a good game. The graphics are better than the first one, yet the gameplay of the story mode to a heavy hit and fell off a little. It is a good fighting game to play with friends.
Grade: B
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26 Joapley BM2.04