May 1st was such a tragic day. Found out me and my sisters' YT channel was terminated for so called repeated or severe violations of the TOS which was full of crap since we only posted video game content and nothing else outside of it. I left a little defaming message for the YT forum to show them for what they are and we shall see how much their PR is gonna be up in arms. If I had the time, I'd go to the headquarters and bust some heads.

OVERVIEW

The blue hedgehog known as Sonic returns to action to take on the evil Ivo Robotnik aka Eggman yet again. This time around he has brought a little buddy named Miles Prower aka Tails who is a young little two-tailed fox (hence his nickname) that Sonic took under his wing. You can play as them together or you can fly solo as either character as you go through 12 zones of platform action mayhem to stop Robotnik in his tracks once more.

STORY

After Sonic defeated his nemesis Robotnik in the final zone of Sonic 1, the latter made a getaway and decided to make some more sinister plans by capturing more of Sonic's animal buddies and turning them into robots. One of Sonic's friends Miles "Tails" Prower, a two-tailed fox about half his age, accompanies him to foil whatever Robotnik is cooking up this time around. There are twice as many zones as the first Sonic and twice as many gimmicks to navigate through. It's a tough ride but nothing can stop the fastest thing alive.

GRAPHICS - S

The game makes good use of scenery and level design such as the grass in Emerald Hill Zone which is more defined than it was in the first Sonic games as well as the structures underneath them. The water flows very well in the background and the foreground and there's a lot of corkscrew action. Chemical Plant Zone has a futuristic vibe that will take you all over the place and there is a purple liquid which spells out danger as there are no bubbles to obtain there. Aquatic Ruin Zone has a nice feel of Atlantis as you will see a lot of ancient ruins and some areas submerged in water with some lush foilage and compared to Sonic 1, the water is crystal clear. Casino Night Zone is what I would consider the best level design and background of the whole game itself with the feel being in a gigantic pinball machine and lots of lights everywhere. Hill Top Zone is an OK zone with Moss growing everywhere and underground caves with lava that looks unrealistic. Mystic Cave Zone looks eerily spooky and it is easy to get lost in the level if you are not careful. Oil Ocean Zone looks just like what you expect from an industrial zone. Robotnik's carelessness filled the water with oil thus the name and you only sink slowly through the oil since it is so thick. Metropolis Zone I'm a little on the fence since it can confuse even the greatest players. Sky Base and Wing Fortess take place in the sky. The skies in these stages have such nice clouds flowing through them. The Death Egg takes place in outer space inside the spaceship. The layout looks fine to me for a short level.

Bonus: There were going to be more levels and a time travel aspect that would later be used for Sonic CD but time restraints got in the way. 2 of the levels that did get a design were Wood Zone and Hidden Palace Zone. Wood Zone has nice use of trees and wooden logs throughout the stage. Hidden Palace Zone would have been a good zone to play as it places you inside a sparkling cave with shiny backgrounds.

The sprites also got a bit of an uplift from last game with the shield being more visual instead of shadowy. The spikes looking a little more condensed but the lava now looks more like a fire pit than actual lava. Sonic and Robotnik look a bit smoother.

MUSIC - S+

All the stage music fits their respective zones to a T. Casino Night Zone has that good ol' jazz vibe. Hill Top Zone uses a countryfied vibe with the use of a harmonica as the primary instrument. Aquatic Ruin Zone sounds like what you would expect in water ruins area. Mystic Cave Zone has spooky ambience like you going through a haunted house. Oil Ocean Zone has a middle eastern vibe like you would hear a snake charmer playing the song. Metropolis Zone is the best song with a good ol' hip-hop vibe. If you ever had the Toe Jam and Earl game for Genesis/Megadrive and remember the rap it had in the manual. You can actually sing the rap to Metropolis Zone's theme just sure to stop during the breakdown. The 2 player versions of certain zones are better renditions of the original songs.

Bonus: The songs in the 2 player mode were going to be used in the cut zones (Emerald for Wood, Casino Night was originally for Oil Ocean I think, and Mystic Cave was for Hidden Palace).

REPLAYABILITY - S

I am going to skip the gameplay section this go around and just say that there is a lot of replayabiliity to this game so I'll combine a little of the gameplay section elements here. In addition to beating the zones, you also try to collect all the Chaos Emeralds which you do so by going down a half pipe and collect a required number of rings. If you get all seven as Sonic then you will become Super Sonic by collecting 50 rings then jumping into the air. Later games will have you "double jump" to activate the power so you do not have to turn into Super Sonic prematurely. There are two other ways to play the game. You can play as Sonic or Tails solo. The only benefactor here is that getting the emeralds are easier as Tails will not cause you to lose rings. There is also a two player race format to check out.

OVERALL - S+

As usually, when you see me use S's in a grade system or AA and AAA for that matter, A+ is not to good enough a grade to rate that aspect and Sonic is none to shabby to receive such high praise from me. Have fun with this games and some of the better hacks that come along.

OVERVIEW

The blue hedgehog known as Sonic returns to action to take on the evil Ivo Robotnik aka Eggman yet again. This time around he has brought a little buddy named Miles Prower aka Tails who is a young little two-tailed fox (hence his nickname) that Sonic took under his wing. You can play as them together or you can fly solo as either character as you go through 12 zones of platform action mayhem to stop Robotnik in his tracks once more.

STORY

After Sonic defeated his nemesis Robotnik in the final zone of Sonic 1, the latter made a getaway and decided to make some more sinister plans by capturing more of Sonic's animal buddies and turning them into robots. One of Sonic's friends Miles "Tails" Prower, a two-tailed fox about half his age, accompanies him to foil whatever Robotnik is cooking up this time around. There are twice as many zones as the first Sonic and twice as many gimmicks to navigate through. It's a tough ride but nothing can stop the fastest thing alive.

GRAPHICS - S

The game makes good use of scenery and level design such as the grass in Emerald Hill Zone which is more defined than it was in the first Sonic games as well as the structures underneath them. The water flows very well in the background and the foreground and there's a lot of corkscrew action. Chemical Plant Zone has a futuristic vibe that will take you all over the place and there is a purple liquid which spells out danger as there are no bubbles to obtain there. Aquatic Ruin Zone has a nice feel of Atlantis as you will see a lot of ancient ruins and some areas submerged in water with some lush foilage and compared to Sonic 1, the water is crystal clear. Casino Night Zone is what I would consider the best level design and background of the whole game itself with the feel being in a gigantic pinball machine and lots of lights everywhere. Hill Top Zone is an OK zone with Moss growing everywhere and underground caves with lava that looks unrealistic. Mystic Cave Zone looks eerily spooky and it is easy to get lost in the level if you are not careful. Oil Ocean Zone looks just like what you expect from an industrial zone. Robotnik's carelessness filled the water with oil thus the name and you only sink slowly through the oil since it is so thick. Metropolis Zone I'm a little on the fence since it can confuse even the greatest players. Sky Base and Wing Fortess take place in the sky. The skies in these stages have such nice clouds flowing through them. The Death Egg takes place in outer space inside the spaceship. The layout looks fine to me for a short level.

Bonus: There were going to be more levels and a time travel aspect that would later be used for Sonic CD but time restraints got in the way. 2 of the levels that did get a design were Wood Zone and Hidden Palace Zone. Wood Zone has nice use of trees and wooden logs throughout the stage. Hidden Palace Zone would have been a good zone to play as it places you inside a sparkling cave with shiny backgrounds.

The sprites also got a bit of an uplift from last game with the shield being more visual instead of shadowy. The spikes looking a little more condensed but the lava now looks more like a fire pit than actual lava. Sonic and Robotnik look a bit smoother.

MUSIC - S+

All the stage music fits their respective zones to a T. Casino Night Zone has that good ol' jazz vibe. Hill Top Zone uses a countryfied vibe with the use of a harmonica as the primary instrument. Aquatic Ruin Zone sounds like what you would expect in water ruins area. Mystic Cave Zone has spooky ambience like you going through a haunted house. Oil Ocean Zone has a middle eastern vibe like you would hear a snake charmer playing the song. Metropolis Zone is the best song with a good ol' hip-hop vibe. If you ever had the Toe Jam and Earl game for Genesis/Megadrive and remember the rap it had in the manual. You can actually sing the rap to Metropolis Zone's theme just sure to stop during the breakdown. The 2 player versions of certain zones are better renditions of the original songs.

Bonus: The songs in the 2 player mode were going to be used in the cut zones (Emerald for Wood, Casino Night was originally for Oil Ocean I think, and Mystic Cave was for Hidden Palace).

REPLAYABILITY - S

I am going to skip the gameplay section this go around and just say that there is a lot of replayabiliity to this game so I'll combine a little of the gameplay section elements here. In addition to beating the zones, you also try to collect all the Chaos Emeralds which you do so by going down a half pipe and collect a required number of rings. If you get all seven as Sonic then you will become Super Sonic by collecting 50 rings then jumping into the air. Later games will have you "double jump" to activate the power so you do not have to turn into Super Sonic prematurely. There are two other ways to play the game. You can play as Sonic or Tails solo. The only benefactor here is that getting the emeralds are easier as Tails will not cause you to lose rings. There is also a two player race format to check out.

OVERALL - S+

As usually, when you see me use S's in a grade system or AA and AAA for that matter, A+ is not to good enough a grade to rate that aspect and Sonic is none to shabby to receive such high praise from me. Have fun with this games and some of the better hacks that come along.

OVERVIEW
 
The even Fat Cat is on the loose and he and his henchmen are out to cause some trouble. It is up to the dynamic duo of chipmunks, Chip and Dale to put an end to his dastardly plans and restore the piece. Along with their sidekicks, Monterey Jack, Gadget, and Zipper you go through a total of 11 levels of platforming action mayhem.
 
GRAPHICS - A+
 
The graphics are colorful and features a lot of identifiable things that stand out that tells you if they are harmful or not for the most part. A given example are the cacti and the nails that spell out danger just by looking at them. The pencils may look sharp but they do not hurt you if you touch the tip of them. Some other good use of graphics are the flowing water in Section B and the blowing fans in Section J.  The cutscenes are also well detailed but the very best graphic you will notice is how detailed they made Dale's shirt. They did a very good job on that. The big bosses have tons of great detail most notably the Fat Cat fight where they manage to capture all of his whiskers.
 
GAMEPLAY - A+
 
There are 11 levels total to play. Some of these levels are not even necessary to play. In fact the only ones that need to be played are all except Sections A, C, and E. Each level has its own set of gimmicks from having electrical wires in section 0, a toy store section in section D, a big upward climb in sections E, F, and J, and a boiling pot section of doom in section B. Not all sections have bosses. You merely beat the level by reaching a certain checkpoint. Each boss has a set pattern you can exploit in order to defeat them quicker although the section D boss is hard to dodge all of its falling ball attacks. In all, each boss will be defeated in five hits.
 
SOUND/MUSIC - A
 
I definitely enjoy the music in this one. Each of the tracks matches the level you are playing in. The best one I like the most is the Section B music where it has that 1940s swing music feel where you can do one of those jitterbug dances where you got your hand on your hip and wagging for finger and spinning around slowly. Other songs that are good to listen to is Section J and Section E (which shares its song with another section I can't remember). When it is all said and done, completing a level will play a tune that will make you feel all high and mighty. 

REPLAYABILITY - B
 
This is a good game to play with a 2nd player. When one player dies, they will come in on a balloon, and be invincible for a set amount of time. This allows the other player to advance the game a little further undaunted. You can also pick up the other player and carry them with you to get through sections faster if you are playing with someone less experience or going for speed run strats. There are also those other extra levels you can try out too that you may have skipped the first time around.
 
OVERALL - A
 
All and all, this game gets my seal of approval for a good game to try out. So much stuff to try out and it is not a easy walk in the park as the game will let on to be. Beware of section J (the last level) those hat throwing lizards and the plunger shooting wizards are tough to handle but do not let that discourage you. Once you get past them then Fat Cat is free if you are careful.

OVERVIEW
 
POWGI games may have been out for a while on other platforms but for the PS4 and PS Vita, this is the third game that has been released after Word Search and Word Sudoku. In this game, you are supposed to do something similar to Word Search to fill in the blank for a certain quote. The way it works is that there is one word and it is scrambled all over the puzzle. There are 120 puzzles to find and some of them will net you a trophy which by the way are two separates for each system instead of sharing the trophy set and the best part is that like the other games in the series, if you buy for one system you get it free for the other system making it two sets of trophies for the price of one. You can also buy it for another region and get another set of trophies for it.
 
GRAPHICS - C-
 
The graphics are a little OK but really nothing to right home about. It uses the same old graphics throughout the whole POWGI series and the only thing that changes besides the game concept is the color scheme which in One Word is brown. Whenever a word is found, the game will highlight the word and move onto the next scrambled word and that is basically pretty much it for graphics.
 
GAMEPLAY - B-
 
I will give it some credit, the game teaches you how to spell in a sense that you may have thought you found the right word but there is a chance it was another word you were looking for and that is why I noted the difficulty for the game as a 7 since it is not as easy as it looks. After a while you will sometimes be tempted to take the coward's way out and look up the actual quote online. There is no shame in doing so. If you want to get the platinum trophy then do it by any means necessary. Speaking of trophies, there are no bronze trophies which is good. You get 1 platinum, 1 gold, and the other 31 are silver and that will help boost your trophy points. There is no special ending for beating all puzzles nor do you have to beat all puzzles to get all the trophies. The main drawback is that there are no witty comments, quotes and puns by the POWGI dog when you complete the puzzle like he did in Word Search. They are just some bland random comments that don't mean anything. 
 
SOUND/MUSIC - A-
 
The music says the same the whole series but I do not mind that one bit since there are a lot of track that cycle throughout the puzzles in the game which the majority I enjoy listening to. Some of the songs are relaxing and some will get you hyped up. Some will even make you want to dance to it.
 
REPLAYABILITY - B
 
Like I said before, you do not need to complete all puzzles to get all the trophies but if you are a completionist, you can always go back to complete all the remaining puzzles to test your skills at deciphering words and quotes. Some of these quotes are from famous and infamous people from the past and the present.
 
OVERALL - B-
 
This game is another good game for farming above bronze trophies to add to your trophy points. It is kinda sad that Sony Rewards had discontinued its trophy pass program because between both PS4 and PS Vita trophies you earn 2 platinums (10 Plt worth 1000 points), 2 gold (25 is worth 250) and 66 silver (100 is worth 100 points). All in all, it is another game that is worth playing for fans of puzzle games.

It would be the rest of the golden panda meal I had started but I was very sleepy. So when I woke up I finished it.

Oops my bad. I meant My Vizzed Christmas 2 by Eniitan. I was too halfway sleep when I read it the first time around.

I could have sworn that I had voted for the Very Christmas theme but for some reason the post did not go through last time. Hopefully it goes through this time.

I got to check out some of the first UFC shows and it is hard to imagine how brutal and no holds barred the sport used to be that they had to add rules to sport when there were technically no rules at first. There would probably lots of deaths if not for that. 

OVERVIEW
 
The original Super Mario Bros 2 is what you may say is a hard-mode version of the first Super Mario Bros. In fact it is called Super Mario Bros 2 for Super Players and for some oddball reason it was deemed as too hard for western players which is a load of crock since everyone should be entitled to play a challenging game. In order to make up such travesty, Nintendo decided to use what you might say is a legal game hack of another game to release westward as Super Mario Bros 2. That game in question is known as Yume Koujou - Doki Doki Panic where the characters in that game were replaced with Mario characters and some other graphical changes. This review is about the original game.
 
STORY
 
Two children are in the bed fighting over a children's book to a point that the last page was ripped out of it and it had the part where the monster now known in the USA as Wart was defeated. Without the ending, the children are dragged into the book and the children's pet monkey runs to fetch the children's family: Mama, Papa, Imajin, and Imajin's girlfriend Lina. The four of them jump into the book in an effort to rescue the children.
 
GRAPHICS - A+
 
If you have played Super Mario Bros 2 US version then you are already aware of the excellent graphics this game has to offer. The enemy characters are all the exact same with a few exceptions such as the enemy that eventually became known as Phanto does not have such a scary menacing face it was given in the US. Instead, it only has a plain expression on its face. In the place of Hawkmouth is some sort of African (maybe Kenyan) mask. Clawgrip is not in this game, you will fight a white Mouser in its place. Anything related to the Mario franchise in the form of items are changes from this game. Those changes were: The blackface head became the shell, the magic lamp leading to subspace became the magic potion, the heart container became the mushroom. The star and clock were also held over as well. The level designs all remained the same with no changes as far as I can recall. Even the warp zones are intact but slightly more colorful than the US version. The only drawback I can recall is the bonus round where everything is rather plain against a green background as opposed to a more graphical bonus round in the US.
 
CONTROLS - A
 
The controls vary slightly depending on the character you control. You still jump on the enemies and toss them at enemies at other ones. Holding the jump button makes the character run faster with speeds varying by character but the big kicker with character differences is the jumping. Imajin is akin to Mario with average jump and speed. Mama is akin to Luigi with a long and high jump without the bicycling motion. Papa is akin to Toad with the fastest speed and quickest pickup speed. Lina is akin to Princess Toadstool aka Princess Peach with a floating horizontal jump. The squat charge jump is still intact too.
 
GAMEPLAY - A+
  
There are 20 levels of gameplay with 6 levels of 3 and the final level containing 2 sublevels. Unlike its US counterpart, where you can choose your character for a certain set of levels and complete the game once, you have to complete the game with each of the characters in order to see the games true ending where the children and the subcons are rescued.
 
MUSIC/SOUND - B
 
The music is all the same with the exception of the subcon and the invincibility music which both carry an Arabian feeling much like the game itself. With it being on the Famicom Disk System, the music and the sounds are more enhanced to give a high quality feel that is good to listen too just like it was with Metroid on the same system compared to its US counterpart.
 
REPLAYABILITY - A
 
As stated earlier, you must beat the game at least once with each of the characters in the game to see the true ending so replayability is a total must. There is no need to worry about doing everything in one shot as all the levels are saved onto the disk so you can go back to play it at any time of your leisure.
 
OVERALL - A
 
The final grade is an A. There was a few minor issues here are there but there was nothing to keep you from enjoying this game. It is always good to play the original as this was hacked into Super Mario Bros. 2 for the western audiences. However, the hacked version would eventually make its way to Japan under the name Super Mario Bros USA for the Nintendo Famicom as the Famicom Disk System stopped making new games as frequently around the time of its release and on a side note, the westerners did get to play the original Super Mario Bros 2 eventually under the name Super Mario Bros: Lost Levels as part of the Super Mario All-Stars (Super Mario Collection in Japan) lineup. It would have been cool if Yume Koujou Doki Doki Panic had been included in the collection. I am kind of curious of what face lifts Nintendo would have given this game.

OVERVIEW
 
You are just a nameless hero who just goes around slaying enemies that is all there is to it. No actually story is given for what the game is all about.
 
GRAPHICS - D-
 
Every single character which includes the player and all enemies look like they were drawn with some type of basic program. Same can be said for the different backgrounds but they are least a little bit decent but that not really saying much. There is one level that actually indicates that there is a danger from standing on it. The game contains no effects from dealing damage or taking damage. The enemy just disappears off the screen and only glows red when damaged. The player on the other hand shows no sign and keeps that goofy smile on his face after he falls over when he dies. The interface is also a freaking joke. When choosing a level, the game puts 13 in place of 11.
 
CONTROLS - F
 
The game's controls are super horrible. You can only use the analog stick to control the character when it is more convenient to use either D-pad or both. The jumping is total crap when it comes to trying leap over enemies. Only on rare occasions are you even able to do so as there is a big flaw that has you stand in midair above the enemy and stay there when running in place and only come down when you stop running. The battling is also retarded. He will swing his sword each time you press the attack button meaning that the player's animation will reset to take a swing after every button press.
 
GAMEPLAY - F
 
There are only 12 levels of play and you have to defeat the first 4 levels to move onto the next set of 4 stages, then defeat this set of 4 to move on to the final four. As stated before, it says level 13 instead of level 11. The goal in this game is to defeat all enemies in the level. Each set of level has only one type of enemy each with a different color determine who is weaker and who is stronger. I also mentioned that there is a major bug that prevents the player from jumping over the enemy. This bug is also helpful in preventing most enemies from attacking you as they will only attack you when you are standing flat on the ground and gives you a chance to attack them from above although some enemies in level 6 will still attack you while airborne. 

SOUND - F+
 
There are no sound effects at all. The only thing that makes this grade above the flat F is that it does include different music for each set of stages but they are not all that great.
 
REPLAYBILITY - F-
 
The only reason to play this piece of garbage is to get an easy Platinum with little to no effort. After that the game is a waste of space.
 
OVERALL - F-
 
Unless you are a trophy hunter, avoid this game like the plague, the trophy is only worth it if you are looking for a Platinum trophy to add to your Sony rewards count which 10 Platinums net you 1000 points. It is also available for the PS Vita but is not a cross buy unfortunately.

The Sega Mini Console is going to be crap since AtGames will be making it.

It was a collection of all the OSTs from the Atelier video game series. You can always watch the videos again in our profile.

Me and my sisters are looking for followers for our PurrfectTunes channel. We are trying to become an affiliate channel so we can monetize it in the long run.

Currently we are streaming music from the entire Atelier series and going to delve into the Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy series.

http://www.twitch.tv/PurrfectTunes

OVERVIREW

It has been so long since my last review with some real life endeavors I have been taking care of but that did not mean that there were not some game that did not catch my eye as being addictive. One of those games I will review now which is word search by Powgi for multiple systems. This review is for the PS4 but can easily apply for all the other ports but vary only by screen resolution and presentation.

GRAPHICS - C+

The graphics are OK and barely above average as they are very very basic with only the dog looking like anything original but it does look cute with its various costume changes depending on the stage and situation. Nothing else really changes as far as the stages are concerned thus no extra stage skins to choose from to fit one's taste. Some good parts are when you find a word, it will shuffle through the word.

SOUND/MUSIC - A-

I will not concentrate much on the sounds which are basic ones and thus I only take off a little points for that but the music I give a major thumps up. There are a lot of them throughout the game and they are all very catchy with a jazz feeling to them. Some of the tracks you can even dance to if you wanted to.

REPLAYABILITY - A

Up to 4 players can play this game so that is what makes replayability high because of the competition factor involved with playing the game. What also makes the game so replayable is if you have the patience to complete all the puzzles. In the case of the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation once all is said and done along with a couple easy miscellaneous trophies. The good part is that 30 of the trophies are silver and the gold trophy is super easy to obtain by beating one of your puzzles times so in the end that is 1 platinum, 1 gold, 30 silvers, and 2 bronzes. To top it off, they have their own trophy set giving you a good ol' double set of trophies. Isn't that fun, folks?

OVERALL - A-

You may have noticed that I did not a gameplay rating in this particular review. I pretty much included the majority of what I would have said in the replayability section. However, I will say this game has some of the most cheesiest puns I can think of such as after completing the golf puzzle, the dog will say "be sure to bring an extra pair of golf pants in case you get a hole in one." or the soda puzzle where it says "my main job at the soda factory is crushing cans. It's so depressing." XD I will never hear the end of those in my head for a while.

Not sure if I posted here before but I got 3 channels:

PurrfectTrio, PurrfectTunes, and PurrfectHD. All are on hiatus but me and my sisters are gonna revive them

Trio = video gameplay
Tunes = music
HD = HD versions of some videos

OVERVIEW
 
This game actually came out on PlayStation Vita 2 years prior to coming out on the PS4. It is an indie game involving a square named Mr. Robot whose main objective is to achieve certain goals in each stage such as surviving a certain amount of time, scoring a certain amount of points, etc under varying conditions. He likes to eat a lot of fruit and it comes in handy when dealing with a lot of enemies on the screen.
 
CONTROLS - C
 
Despite the categories I've rated high on above, Controls is one of the categories that hurts this game's grade because there are times when Mr. Robot will move too fast to control and get out of the way of danger and ends up biting the dust and ending the level and sometimes you cannot react fast enough if another enemy is heading you off at the past if you are escaping another enemy.

GRAPHICS - B-
 
I will give this a ton of credit on most of the game with the characters being used such as the robot itself, the fruit that appears on the screen, and the enemies that screen at random times. The background is made out of 4-Dish grid that vary in colors and the cool part about is that the color of the grid will match the color of the bar on the PS4 controller so if the grids is yellow, the bar is yellow.
 
GAMEPLAY - A
 
There are plenty of modes in the game such as Arcade Mode, Time Attack, Chill Out and Remix Mode. Arcade Mode consists of getting the highest score you can achieve before dying. Time Attack consists of getting the highest score possible before time runs out. However, dying will cost you some points. Chill Out is similar to Arcade Mode except everything moves in slower motion. The mode that truly makes this game is the Remix mode where you battle through 50 stages of varying conditions and you must obtain at least the Bronze Medal in order to pass that stage. Some stages include staying alive within a confined space, getting a certain amount of coins within 30 seconds, eating fruits to score enemies. You get 4 ranks of trophies depending on how well you do (Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum). If you manage to satisfy the conditions for a Platinum trophy then you will end this stage without dying as the robot that usually carries off your dead body will do so when you are alive and well. It will also carry you away alive during stages where you survive till time runs out.
 
REPLAYABILITY - B+
 
I didn't give this game much of a thought at first. I only had gotten it because it was a free game for PlayStation Plus during the month of May 2018. I played the gamed the game and it just grew on me from there. The different modes, the ranked trophies, and the thrill of trying to outwit the enemy is brilliant.
 
OVERALL - B
 
I give this game a grade of B because even though this is a great game there are a ton of flaws which I have covered in the earlier section but overall I am impressed with the game.

OVERVIEW
 
You are Samus Aran, an intergalactic bounty hunter on a mission to planet Zebes to hunt down a species known as Metroid* which are being used by space pirates to take over the universe. The lead enemy is Mother Brain and its minions are Kraid and Ridley and you must defeat them to gain entrance to Tourian where Mother Brain and the Metroid reside.

*Metroids are plural now but around the time of the game's release, Metroid was both used for singular and plural so I referenced it as such.
 
GRAPHICS - A+
 
In another review (Legend of Zelda), I said LoZ and Metroid set the tone for great videogame graphics but the latter did it better. When compared to games like Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong, Kung Fu, and other early games, this was the first platformer to go all out graphics and make good use of colors that changed wherever on the map you appear and the black backdrop adds to the very effect of being in an enclosed space. You start off in Brinstar within, a blue area which gives the feeling of creepiness and then you cross a little hallway, you end up in a golden section that looks to brighten up the mood a little bit. As you play, you will immediately see that there are secrets that lay abound in the game and tells you that you will need something in order to proceed into other areas of the game. Eventually, you will enter other areas such as Norfair which starts of in a purple bubbly area and Norfair as a whole gives you the feeling of being in hell but that will be taken up to 11 in Super Metroid and future Metroid games where a Varia Suit is need to survive standing in those areas. Since this is the FDS version, Suitless Samus does not appear in the game. That was added to the NES versions of the game.
 
CONTROLS - A-
 
The controls work fine for its time but I am actually taking off points because of the lack of convenience that was given in later games. My personal grade would be an A+ but I am grading this for those who played any of the later games first before playing the original Metroid first and think they can do the same thing here. The Morph Ball for example is done immediately as there was no ducking feature which would have made ground enemies easier to kill with your beam. Fortunately, some tricks do work that would be improved upon in later games like the Morph Ball bomb trick that take you to higher places but harder to pull off at the time. There is also the trick of letting a bomb explode underneath you then jumping up in midair.
 
GAMEPLAY - A+
 
You start off with nothing more that your short beam and you must go around collecting necessary items in order to get anywhere. The first item you will find is immediately to the left which is today called the Morph Ball but in those days it was called the Maru Mari. It allows her to roll into a ball to get underneath low passages. Funny thing about it is that there is a rumor that the feature was made because the programmer couldn't program the crawl feature into the game. Perhaps it was for the better because the numerous hentai situations that more than likely would ensue towards the end of the game. From there you must progress through Brinstar (where you start), Norfair, Ridley & Kraid's hideouts, and finally down to Tourian to take on Mother Brain and the Metroids. If you manage to defeat Mother Brain, it is not over yet. There is a self destruct sequence where you must escape to the top of the shaft before the whole place will explode and it is an instant game over if you fail to escape. This is where you find out that Samus is actually a female if you beat the game fast enough. It may have been a surprise outside of Japan but in Japan, it was given away via a piece of artwork. Unlike the NES versions, there is no password system. Instead, there is a 3 save system made more famous in the US with the Legend of Zelda. Kid Icarus will also receive the same such treatment.
 
SOUND/MUSIC - S

A+ is too low of a grade to judge for the music. Thanks to the extra sound capabilities of the Famicom Disk System, the music is so much better than its NES version and the sound effects are given an upgrade to give a case of realism.
 
REPLAYABILITY - A+
 
There is a lot to explore in this game whether you are playing to get the best time or find all the items you can. It is one huge world out there and so many secrets to uncover. Most of those secrets are not in plain sight. You are more than likely to find them by pure accident. This will go on to be a staple for the Metroid series as in those games, secret areas are the only way to proceed as those maps made them less obvious to their presence. There was no in-game map in the game itself so it was all on your wits there. Even Norfair gave no indication that you had to bomb through a certain portion of an area to find the rest of the level.
 
OVERALL - A+
 
In all, this was the best NES game I have ever played outside of the Mega Man series. It felt good trying to make good use of problem solving skills to find out what to do because even though this game was passed off as a platformer action game, it was pretty much a closet puzzle and strategy game which is what most of these platformer games are and people do not realize it. How else would you know you will need missiles to open a red door? Even at the start of the game, how else where you going to figure out you can't go to the next section when you are unable to duck? Logic will tell you to go left and pick up some conspicuous item, it must have some importance. Those are some examples of puzzle and strategy being put to good use and it would be good for creative thinking and learning.