UltimaLink007
Hope Never Dies
I am re-doing most of my reviews to try and make them better.
Story - 5.5/10: An ok story, very original, but oh so boring and pointless! You are either Mario or Luigi, when one day, Toad comes a-knocking at your door. He says that the river has overflown, and that you must get the 'music keys' in order to restore peace and stop the river. Here is where you begin. You travel accross 5 'worlds' using the powers of music and dance to stop enemies, and unravel the mysteries and powers surrounding these 'Music Keys'. Joy...
Sound/Voice Acting - 8.5/10: There isn't much voice acting, as a great majority of Mario games. Only certain cries and such are available to listen to in terms of 'voice-acitng' If you can call it that, and most of them come accross as old, stupid, cheesy, or any combination of the three. As a DDR game, you expect it to have good music, which it covwers in most parts. Some songs are annoying, and not all are from mario, though it is a MARIO DDR. Otherwise, the songs are really well-dobne versions of old and new mario songs.
Graphics - 7.5/10: Not too great, but useable, and you can deal with them. Some parts are decent looking, while small parts of it looks really poorly done. It is a GCN game, and it is DDR, so it didn't focus mainly on graphics, and it did have the mario feel to them, so slack is cut in this case, though I would have liked to see a better job done for this game.
Gameplay - 8/10: This is DDR. You stand up, and move your feet to the arrows on the screen while listening to the different songs the game offers to you. This game is EXTRORDINARILY easy, and even on 'very hard' isn't really too hard. A little toughness would be nice. If you choose to play easy, there are NO ups or downs, and rarely are there jumps, so it gets boring quickly. The minigames aren't really fun either. The fact that it is DDR, and moving to the beat is a fun thing to do, it is also hard to do, since the mat is so small. Instead of a good-sized DDR mat like the Playstation 2 has, this mat is very small, and seems like it was made for 8 year olds...because it probably was...
Game Length - 3.5/10: This game is way too short. I beat it in less than two hours, and it truely dissapointed me. There are 5 worlds, each containing only 5 or 6 songs, sometimes less, which are so short and easy, you fly right by. It would be nice if they took the songs from the harder mode, stuffed them into the story, and actually made difficulty levels...
Replay Value - 8/10: Though the story is worth nothing, and this game has pretty much NO unlockables, it IS still DDR, which is fun to go back to the songs on free mode, to try to improve your rank...unless you are uber-awesome and can get all perfects on each song...
Overall - 6.5/10: This game is nothing special. If you want DDR, buy a PS2 for god's sake. It is way to short to be called a game, and the story is stupid, worthless, and annoying to say the least. The graphics are nothing special, and the gameplay is alright, but would be better if it had a much-needed mat size-up. This was limited edition, so that is the major reason I have it. Overall, a great game for the younger crowd, but too childish for anyone over the age of 10...unless you are Shigeru Miyamoto.
Story - 5.5/10: An ok story, very original, but oh so boring and pointless! You are either Mario or Luigi, when one day, Toad comes a-knocking at your door. He says that the river has overflown, and that you must get the 'music keys' in order to restore peace and stop the river. Here is where you begin. You travel accross 5 'worlds' using the powers of music and dance to stop enemies, and unravel the mysteries and powers surrounding these 'Music Keys'. Joy...
Sound/Voice Acting - 8.5/10: There isn't much voice acting, as a great majority of Mario games. Only certain cries and such are available to listen to in terms of 'voice-acitng' If you can call it that, and most of them come accross as old, stupid, cheesy, or any combination of the three. As a DDR game, you expect it to have good music, which it covwers in most parts. Some songs are annoying, and not all are from mario, though it is a MARIO DDR. Otherwise, the songs are really well-dobne versions of old and new mario songs.
Graphics - 7.5/10: Not too great, but useable, and you can deal with them. Some parts are decent looking, while small parts of it looks really poorly done. It is a GCN game, and it is DDR, so it didn't focus mainly on graphics, and it did have the mario feel to them, so slack is cut in this case, though I would have liked to see a better job done for this game.
Gameplay - 8/10: This is DDR. You stand up, and move your feet to the arrows on the screen while listening to the different songs the game offers to you. This game is EXTRORDINARILY easy, and even on 'very hard' isn't really too hard. A little toughness would be nice. If you choose to play easy, there are NO ups or downs, and rarely are there jumps, so it gets boring quickly. The minigames aren't really fun either. The fact that it is DDR, and moving to the beat is a fun thing to do, it is also hard to do, since the mat is so small. Instead of a good-sized DDR mat like the Playstation 2 has, this mat is very small, and seems like it was made for 8 year olds...because it probably was...
Game Length - 3.5/10: This game is way too short. I beat it in less than two hours, and it truely dissapointed me. There are 5 worlds, each containing only 5 or 6 songs, sometimes less, which are so short and easy, you fly right by. It would be nice if they took the songs from the harder mode, stuffed them into the story, and actually made difficulty levels...
Replay Value - 8/10: Though the story is worth nothing, and this game has pretty much NO unlockables, it IS still DDR, which is fun to go back to the songs on free mode, to try to improve your rank...unless you are uber-awesome and can get all perfects on each song...
Overall - 6.5/10: This game is nothing special. If you want DDR, buy a PS2 for god's sake. It is way to short to be called a game, and the story is stupid, worthless, and annoying to say the least. The graphics are nothing special, and the gameplay is alright, but would be better if it had a much-needed mat size-up. This was limited edition, so that is the major reason I have it. Overall, a great game for the younger crowd, but too childish for anyone over the age of 10...unless you are Shigeru Miyamoto.
