Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 (Playstation 3/XBox 360, 2011)

 

Here's the back half of MVC3. The finished version. Seriously though, two game releases in one year, with one being an incomplete version of the other? MVC2 was definitely the high point of this series. This here is probably the second highest point, and an effort to capitalize on the popularity surge of the MCU. Either way, MVC2 was the pinnacle, they let it languish a while, and then they brought it back to make some money. It is what it is.

All in all this was a really fun series to do, so I regret nothin'. Two left. Also, right now this game is $4.99 on PSN. Why the hell are things still .99? We got rid of pennies so retailers would stop inconveniencing people with the deceptive pricing of putting a .99 at the end of everything. Apparently none of them got the memo. Regardless, this game normally goes for five times as much as it's on sale for right now, so that's a steal.

Marvel Vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds (Playstation 3/XBox 360, 2011)

 

This game took some work to get ahold of and a lot more work to get shots of. Sony REALLY didn't want people recording any clips of the PS3 for the new sensation Youtube. That would let people promote their games by showing off the gameplay!

This is the top-selling game in the series (though to be precise, the ultimate edition is, with this version in second place...if you combine the two on sales, "3" is even further ahead of the rest) and the one that launched with a wave of hype: This was the era of Avengers mania, with the MCU in full swing. Plus there was a decade since the last game for the legend of MVC2 to grow. That second game pretty much never stopped being a thing; I remember playing it a lot with friends in the late 2000's, even.

This one finally adds Thor, after all this time. They kinda had to at this point with him being one of the big four MCU heroes. Psylocke is still missing though. I think she's gone...or maybe she's one of the many characters they add for the ultimate edition. That version is practically a new game so I'm going to look at that too. With both of them released in 2011 (February and November, I believe) it seems to me like this version was just an incomplete version that they put out early to meet deadlines - deadlines which were probably hot and heavy at the time with MCU's movie schedule triggering spikes in consumer interest. Far as I can tell, Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 is the real MVC3.

Mario Kart 7 (Nintendo 3DS, 2011)

 

I mentioned playing this back to back with Mario Kart DS in 2015 or so. Well, let's see if I form any new opinions playing them back to back for a second time. Originally I liked this one a lot more, but ever since I've heard about how great the DS one is, so now I get to compare them with that in mind.

Fun Fact: This was the first 3DS game I ever bought/played/finished, which shows how much I like this series.

Originally Posted June 2024

Mortal Kombat IX (Playstation 3, 2011)

 

Technically this game is just called "Mortal Kombat" but it's known by fans across the board as MK9. It reboots the series by retelling the story of the first three games, which was a great choice, and completely resets the MK timeline. The story reason for this is that Raiden was able to send some kind of telepathic message to his past self about Shao Kahn winning Armageddon, so now in a new timeline Raiden has the foresight to prevent that and put things right.

This is where I got back into the series back in the day after a many-year lapse, and I was just in time because this might be the series' best game. Whether it is or not, it being a retelling of the early parts of the saga is really what people like me had wanted to see more of for a while.

Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation (iOS/Android, 2015)

 

This is the only official U.S. version of the game, and it took until 2011 for it to get a Nintendo DS release. I'll be playing the phone version, which is the Nintendo DS version with nicer visuals. Looking forward to this one because it's got some great character designs and we get much better looks at them than we do in the SFC version. Though I will say the SFC version's visuals have their own appeal and charm and I don't think this version obsoletes it.

Kirby: Mass Attack (Nintendo DS, 2011)

 

This is the only main series Kirby game that I've never played. So I made it a bit of a personal mission to knock it off and "complete the series", which led to me noticing that we were on the 30th anniversary of me getting Kirby's Dream Land, and deciding to do a post about that, and then deciding to do more posts of some spinoffs, and why not this one too while I'm at it? DS games get very little time on here. Never played this before, don't know what to expect*, and I'm going to beat the game either way. Screenshots are gonna be in all kinds of weird proportions while I figure out what works best.

* - All I know is that it has stylus controls. Which is probably why I skipped it back in the day. DS games can't help themselves with stylus controls. Or as I call them, "Waggle Motion: The Wave of Tomorrow"

...I'm starting to doubt my commitment to Waggle Motion.

Touhou 13: Ten Desires (PC, 2011) - UPDATED

Time to check out a PC shooter from the Japan-only Touhou series. This is very much a "bullet hell" type shooter, where the emphasis is less about blasting the enemies and more about evading your way through swarms of projectiles with small movements.

UPDATE: I first played this in 2014 in Japanese, but recently I got ahold of an English translation and gave it another go. Updated shots are sprinkled throughout the original post here, with a bunch of new shots at the end. Did I beat the game this time? Tune in to find out.

Game Review: Final Fantasy III (iOS, Android, PSP, 2011/2012)

Final Fantasy III
System: iOS/Android/PSP
Time to Beat: 30-35 Hours

For a long time, American gamers had no way to play Final Fantasy III outside of emulation. We got the (admittedly far-superior) Final Fantasy VI as our version of FFIII, and that was that. As for the original FFIII... despite two decades passing since the original version hit Japanese store shelves, this Famicom classic never got a direct translation from Squaresoft until the mid-00s.

Final Fantasy III for the DS brought the game to the English-speaking audience with adjusted difficulty, semi-three-dimensional graphics, and dialogue/story that barely existed in the original game. Now, years later, we get the third iteration of the game. This is a port of the DS version, upgraded significantly for modern smartphones. These upgrades include modern hi-res graphics that are far superior to the DS version, remixed music, and new postgame content. However, it's relegated to being on cell phones - historically speaking, not exactly a good gaming platform. Does this limit it, or does the game manage to shine regardless? Read on, as I review a cell phone game for the first time on the site. The game also exists on the PSP, but for the purposes of this review I played the Android version.

Kirby's Return to Dream Land (Wii, 2011)

 Behold! That's one sweet title screen. The graphics are borderline high-def with their intense colorfulness. 

It's currently the 20th anniversary of the first video game I ever owned...Kirby's Dream Land. It's only fitting that for the next degenerate post, I'm looking at the latest Kirby game. People think that Kirby games are for babies, but if that were true, there would be more z's in the titles. This game, for instance, would be Kirbyz: Return to Dream Landz featuring Mary-Kate and Ashley.

The truth is, Kirby is tough as nails. A tatted-up Kirby once made BOTH of the Bad Dudes his bitch while in prison. He has been a bouncer at some of New York City's roughest clubs. He also temporarily worked as a breast implant for Stephanie McMahon, showing his versatility. But like an extreme/hardcore/"x-treme" indy wrestler joining WWE, Kirby had to tone down his in-your-face persona before becoming a Nintendo mascot.

Tactics Ogre, Part 1 - March of the Lune Knights

Change of pace today, as I'm looking at a PSP game. "Let Us Cling Together" is is a remake of Tactics Ogre for the Playstation, a game I have fond memories of from 1998 or so. What are my thoughts on this game so far? Read on to find out.

Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II (2011)

99th post, ladies and gentlemen

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II
2011
Directed by David Yates
Written by J.K. Rowling
Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert "Sexual Carrot Cake" Grint
Rated PG-13

The eighth and final installment of the storied Harry Potter movie series brings the storied franchise down to new levels of uninhibited sexual depravity of the kind normally only seen at college parties in Ancient Rome, obscene vulgarity that would make Quentin Tarantino's mouth blush, and graphic violence that would give pause to Eli Roth. Nothing that I just said is true, but this movie does feature the word "bitch"... and to some people, that's equal to all of the above in badness. If you aren't one of those people, you may already like this movie, so read on. Fortunately for us, the Republicans haven't found a way to ban Harry Potter for having "pot" in his name. Yet.

The 2011 Year In Review

2011. It was an alright year. Well, the last sixth of it was pretty interesting. Let's look at the year in media as I experienced it.

Movie Review: The Thing (2011)

The Thing
2011
Directed by Matthijs van Heijningen
Starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton
Rated R

For Halloween, I'm checking in with a movie review. The prequel - not sequel, not remake - to the 1982 John Carpenter movie of the same name, The Thing has some big shoes to fill. The Carpenter movie was easily one of the scariest movies ever made. It was (and by extension, this was) based on a 1938 short novel called "Who Goes There?" by John Campbell. Not the 50's movie The Thing From Another World, as is commonly believed. We get all that? Good.