FanBoy's Favorite Tunes: Metroid Prime(Wii)

Really sets the tone of mystery, wonder and a bit of dread! Perfect for a Metroid game! :D Always worth listening to in the credits!

Video Game Review: Metroid Prime(Wii)

*I will be reviewing the version that was released on the Nintendo Wii as part of the Metroid Prime Trilogy.
***SPOILERS AHEAD***

Metroid Prime holds legendary status among the video game community for very good reason. It is fucking amazing! Originally released in 2002 for the Nintendo GameCube, Metroid Prime shattered expectations, showing a worried fanbase that the new direction for the series was in fact the right way to go for the Metroid saga! The game went on to become a best-seller for the system and a favorite among fans of the franchise and set a new standard for the series moving forward, not to mention being declared one of the greatest video games of all time! Now this modern masterpiece is out for the Nintendo Wii and the game is better than ever! One of my favorite games of all time just got even better! :D

The story of Metroid Prime takes place three years after the original Metroid. While searching the galaxy for more work, intergalactic bounty hunter Samus Aran receives a distress signal from a space Space Pirate frigate above the planet Tallon IV. Upon investigation, Samus discovers the Space Pirates have been conducting scientific experiments on the wildlife of Tallon IV including Metroids as well as working to revive her arch-nemesis, Ridley, now Meta Ridley. Samus also discovers the Space Pirates' use of a mysterious and highly radioactive substance called Phazon. Samus must travel across the surface of Tallon IV in an attempt to stop the Space Pirates from creating powerful biological weapons from Phazon before they can become a threat to the entire galaxy! The story for Metroid Prime is minimally told with most of the major plot points told by scanning computers and other objects in the game. But the story that is there is pretty good and fits very well into the rest of the Metroid lore. Not to mention there is a lot of detail in the few story elements you are given! Not the most groundbreaking tale ever told but a fun one none the less! :)

Samus Aran

Meta Ridley

Metroid Prime(creepy)

Gameplay in Metroid Prime differs greatly from all the past games in the series. Prime trades in the iconic 2D style of older games for new 3D first-person gameplay. Back when it first released Prime took a lot of flak because of the new style. Many stated that Metroid would never work as a first-person adventure game. Oh how wrong they all were! Metroid Prime works wonderfully as a first-person action adventure game! If you have ever played a game with a first-person viewpoint before you will be all set with Prime. You traverse the game's world looking through Samus' eyes. Exploration, combat, almost everything you do uses this viewpoint. The game feels very fluid in this perspective letting you see all the detail a Metroid game can offer up close and personal! Luckily looking and aiming feel much better now making use of the Nintendo Wii's motion controls. Using the Wii Remote you can aim and move around using the pointer on the remote. It takes a little getting used to but once you get the hang of it, movement and fighting feel so smooth and natural. It is a much better control scheme than the GameCubes use of a single analog stick. 

First-person controls are much better on the Wii!

Being a Metroid game, exploration plays a HUGE part of the game. It is just as important as the fun combat! Tallon IV is a massive world filled with all sorts of secrets and goodies are tucked away in little corners waiting to be found. Tallon IV just begs to be explored to its fullest and Prime does an excellent job of making you WANT to explore every nook and cranny for all the obtainable items and equipment! Like in past games, lots of areas in the game's world will be locked, inaccessible to you until you find the right tools to proceed. A lot of the franchises most iconic weapons and equipment make there way into 3D with huge success! Everything is fun to use and everything serves a purpose from opening specific doors to defeating certain types of enemies and bosses. Finding Samus' different suits allow you to use different abilities or afford you greater protection from certain types of attacks and hazards. The Varia Suit provides greater protection from extreme heat while the Gravity Suit lets Samus move around more freely underwater. Special Additions to Samus' suits enhance her abilities even further. The Space Jump Boots for example let Samus jump higher and farther, letting her traverse wide gaps or jump to high areas. The iconic Morph Ball lets you transform into a small ball in order to reach travel through very small spaces and to travel using specific equipment. Several weapons and weapon upgrades are also littered across the world such as the Ice Beam(opens white colored doors and useful in beating fire-based enemies), The Plasma Beam(opens red doors and causes high damage to ice based enemies), and the mighty Wave Beam(opens purple doors and can follow enemies using charged shots). Iconic Morph Ball Bombs are used to destroy certain types of obstacles in your way as well as being effective on certain enemy types(not to mention using the ever nifty Morph Ball Jump). Missiles are also added to your arsenal and can be combined with your Beam weapons to make devastating combo attacks! Visors are also a very useful tool to help you in defeating the Space Pirate menace! The standard Scan Visor is used to scan enemies and creatures for detailed info for your Log Book as well as scanning items, equipment or other objects in the game world to help clarify objectives or add more context to the world of Metorid. Other Visor enhancements like the Thermal Visor(lets you target enemies with high heat, as well as tracking enemies in dark areas) and the X-Ray Visor(lets you see through objects and some walls and lets you track invisible and sonic based enemies) help you to even the odds against ever changing enemy threats! In addition to all this awesome gear, you can also look for additional enhancements to Samus. Missile Expansions let you increase the number of missiles in your inventory making it easier to handle enemies that are better defeated with missiles. Energy Tanks increase Samus' Energy(health) making it easier to survive the challenging enemies the game throws at you. Finding all these and MORE upgrades and items are a great challenge in there own right and finding them all also lets you view the secret ending after the credits roll!

Find those upgrades to kick even MORE Space Pirate ass! :D

Just like the exploration part of the game, the combat is also amazing fun! Having a first-person perspective adds a new dimension to the series that has always had side-scrolling combat. Locking onto targets, aiming and shooting feel much better using the Wii Remote. Fighting basic enemies is fun but can get a tad easy until you get to the later portions of the game where a lot of the enemies require strategic use of many of your weapons and gear in order to defeat them. The REAL fun from combat comes from battling the games numerous and challenging bosses! Boss battles are often tense and challenging affairs. You will often have to make use of almost all of the gear you have on hand in order to defeat a boss. Using your wits and strategy and the right equipment is key to obtaining victory over these powerful foes. The last two bosses in the game however will truly test your mettle unlike anything else in the game! Part of the appeal of the Metroid series has always been epic and challenging boss fights and Metroid Prime delivers! :D

Combat is as fun as ever in Metroid Prime!

Despite being over a decade old, the visuals of Metroid Prime hold up really well! The graphics are remarkably detailed from ancient, crumbling Chozo ruins to high tech labs and bases for Space Pirates there is so much detail to take in! Creatures and enemies also sport very realistic and natural looks and awesome designs! The game uses its amazing graphics to add a great sense of atmosphere(key to any great Metroid game). Lighting and environmental effects are put to great use in the game. Steam from heat vents and lava flows fog up your visor, dust whips across your in ancient ruins, and raindrops dot your screen as you travel across rain drenched forests. Explosions and flashes of light will occasionally light up your view letting catch a glimpse of Samus' face in the visor. All these amazing effects add great depth and realism to the world and really builds a great sense of atmosphere in exploring a mysterious and dangerous alien world! This game is a visual marvel!

The audio for Prime also holds up really well today! Creatures and Space Pirates sound great and very natural. Sound effects such as explosions and beam blasts also sound great, packing a nice punch! The best part of the audio however is the soundtrack! the music for the game perfectly sets the mood for each area. The music also ramps up nicely for the many tense boss battles or special enemy encounters! From moody, sweeping tunes establishing a sense of mystery to epic battle themes, Prime has it all!

About the only flaws I can level against Prime is the constant backtracking. You will be going through all the areas MANY times as you gain new equipment and items in order to access areas that you previously couldn't  as well as to search for all the itmes in order to get the secret ending. Another flaw is the fact that using the Wii Remote to play can take some getting used to.

Those nitpicks aside, Metroid Prime is an unquestionable masterpiece! Sporting tight and fluid controls, an amazing sense of mystery and wonder, amazing visuals and sound, a great soundtrack and some great action and intense boss battles, and one of the lengthiest and most satisfying metroid adventures of all time, Matroid Prime is a game that should be played by everyone! Do whatever it takes to experience this game! :D

Metroid Prime(Wii) score: 10/10

Yuri Visual Novel Review: Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke wo

***NSFW Images Ahead!***

Released way back in 2006, the Sono Hanabira franchise has gained legendary status among the yuri fan community and for good reason! While yuri existed in hentai visual novels before most of the time they were mixed in with materials that more often than not, yuri fans wish weren't mixed in with there yuri, myself included. Then along came the very first game in the ground-breaking Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke wo franchise and it ushered in a new era of pure yuri visual novels, with Sono Hanabira at the head of the pack! :D

The first game in the franchise follows young first year, Nanami Oda, as she enters the prestigious St. Michael's School for Girls(despite her meh school scores :P). On her first day she meets the extremely beautiful and popular second year, Yuna Matsubara. After the fateful meeting, Nanami makes every attempt to be near Yuna, even going so far as to join Yuna on the schools Environmental Protection Committee to be near her. But after an odd turn of events, Nanami and Yuna are swept into a fun, loving and awesomely perverted whirlwind romance! :D Part of the appeal of Sono Hana are the characters who are cute, beutiful, funny, interesting and awesomely weird often at the same time! Nanami and Yuna fit all those descriptions and the love they have for each other is one of the franchise's best! Nanami fits well into the cute average first year category who's sense of right and wrong and common sence are a perfect balance to Yuna's random perverted nature. Yuna however steals the show with her very weird and very perverted tendencies in regards to Nanami. Her antics(ranging from trying to get sex from Nanami during school to tricking Nanami into becoming the aggressor) provide good laughs throughout! The passionate romance between these two opposites is just what the yuri doctor ordered! :D

Nanami Oda(fucking CUTE!)

Yuna Matsubara(fucking HOT!)

Being a visual novel on the PC, one may think there is some sort of gameplay element to Sono Hana. Well....there isn't really. Visual Novels are more like slightly interactive manga but with color images and voice acting. The most interaction you have is setting the sound, graphics and music volumes to your liking, saving your progress, as well as simply clicking to see the next part of the conversations and progressing through the story. There are instances where you can make some very basic choices. These choice moments won't have any impact on the outcome of the story whatsoever but by picking the right thing you can extend the story a bit by leading to more yuri romance scenes. Nothing fancy or deep at all but for what it is it gets the job done. 

The art and sound direction to Sono Hana is simply amazing! The art is very soft and beautifully detailed and is a true joy to look at! There is a reason why the game has a gallery for several of the images seen in the story! Background images are highly detailed and fit really well with the characters. The girls themselves look simply beautiful! The soft look of the girls and the tenderness into the love scenes really sells the romance between these two cuties! Often times you may find yourself just sitting there and looking at the art(though you will most likely be looking at the sex scenes more :P)!Likewise the sound does a really good job of helping to bring the world of Sono Hana to life! The music is very catchy and fun to listen to, even if it does tend to repeat way too often. Maybe more tunes could have been added for greater diversity. The voice acting for the girls is simply amazing! The voice actresses did an amazing job bringing there characters to life, and the voices fit the personality of the girls very well! The writing of the game is also pretty good but at times there can be some cheesy lines. The important moments are well written and the lines fit the personalities of the girls well. A lot of the cute and random moments also have some good lines of dialogue to them but sometimes the things that are said in other parts may make you chuckle with the cheesiness of it all! Though for me that chesse adds some charm to the game and the series overall! :P

Simply put, Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke wo is one of the greatest things to ever happen to yuri and the first game in the franchise really helped to establish that popularity! Great yuri romance, fun and cute girls, amazing art and sound all combine to make Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke wo a truly MUST own for fans of yuri the world over! The fan translations that have been done for this game are very well done and you shouldnt wait to download the game and English patch for it! If you even consider yourself a lover of yuri in the slightest, stop wasting time and go buy/download this game! :)

 Damn, Nanami has some perverted thoughts too! :D

Fuuuuuck...the cuteness is too much! 

Yuna has no self control....awesome!

Guess Nanami can't control herself either! *drools

*drools and bleeds from nose

Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke wo score: 10/10

 

BIG News Flash: Strike Witches and New Yuri Anime Info Released

Sorry for the late news flash but here they are! New information has been released on the upcoming Strike Witches OVA. The short mini series is known as Operation Victory Arrow and is set between the second season of the TV anime and the 2012 movie. OVA will be 3 episodes long and the show will depict the lives of the main characters as they return to there homes after the events of the second season. Strike Witches OVA is set to release in Fall 2014! :D

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-03-14/strike-witches-ova-release-and-story-outlined

The first preview for the upcoming adaptation of the 4-panel yuri gag comedy, Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san, has been released! The preview states that the anime will release sometime in April 2014! XD

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-03-17/inugami-san-to-nekoyama-san-yuri-anime-promo-streamed

Both pieces of news are amazing! Strike Witches is one of my favorite series of all time and more time spent with the ladies of the 501st is just plain awesome in my book! :D The preview for Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san was also VERY welcome! From what I have read of the manga and from what I have seen in the preview, I can tell this will be one funny and sweet yuri series! It is also a plus that the art of the anime is much cleaner and nicer than that of the manga! The very short wait for the anime(April is right around the fucking corner! :D) makes the news all the sweeter! On a different bit of Strike Witches news, the first volume of Strike Witches: Maidens in the Sky is out for purchase in North America! If you want more Strike Witches and yuri to come over to our part of the world you know how you gotta show your support! :)

So much yuri...in such a short amount of time....2014 is truly the Year of the Yuri! :D

News Flash: Yuri manga Citrus Licensed for North America

It has just come to my attention that North American manga publisher, Seven Seas Entertainment, has licensed Saburouta's yuri manga Citrus! XD Seven Seas says they will release the first volume on December 16, 2014. This is fantastic! 2014 has so far turned out to be a tremendous year for yuri and things just keep getting better and better! :D While it is a bummer we have to wait till December for the first volume, it will be very much worth the wait! Citrus is proving to be a great series to read on Dynasty Reader! This will surely be on my wish list this Christmas! :D As always I will post more info as it becomes available.

http://dynasty-scans.com/series/citrus

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-01-31/seven-seas-licenses-saburouta-yuri-manga-citrus

News Flash: Sakura Trick Anime licensed for North America

North American anime licensing company, Sentai Filmworks has just announced that they have licensed the anime adaptation of Sakura Trick! XD Sentai will first stream the series then will release it on DVD and/or Blu-Ray shortly after that. Just when I thought things couldnt get any better for Yuri this year THIS happens! Hearing a Yuri anime getting licensed is always amazing news and Sakura Trick is a great show to be able to own! I will post more info as it becomes available!

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-01-23/sentai-filmworks-adds-sakura-trick-yuri-anime

News Flash: Yuri Manga, Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san, to get Anime adaptation

Sorry for the late news flash but here it is! Yuri manga, Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san, is set to get an anime adaptation! XD The anime is set to release sometime in April. A website for the anime will open sometime later. This is GREAT news for Yuri fans! First Sakura Trick and now this! 2014 is shaping up to be the Year of Yuri that's for sure! :D While I have only been able to read a few chapters on Dynasty Reader I can tell it will be an interesting series! I will post more info as it becomes available.

A link to the official announcement with an image of the animation style:

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-01-17/inugami-san-to-nekoyama-san-yuri-manga-gets-anime