Vortex

After the enormous success of Star Fox, other games wanted to make use of the Super Fx micro-chip. The advantage of a Super Fx-chip was not only that it created 3D images, but it also helped selling the game.

If you had to choose between two games, you would pick the one with the FX chip, just because it had some 'revolutionary' technology in it. It was like the snes-advertisements all saying that the Super Nintendo was 16-bit, and this made people buy the console although nobody knew what a 'bit' was.

This marketing-strategy sounded very attractive, so Electrobrain and Sony decided to make a game using the chip: Vortex. Without knowing what the game was, I bought it and I'm now going to explain why I don't like it.

The story is ok. Nothing too special but, eh, Super Mario World has a simple story and it's still a good game. You are a Battle Morphing system and your 'Core-segments' have been stolen. It's your job to retrieve them all, bring them to the resting place and so cross the evil plans of the Aki-Do warlords!

You are a kind of Transformer, you can morph into different battle systems.

The main battle system is the Walker. As the name suggests it walks. It can also shoot rockets and lasers and jump.

The second battle system is the Land Burner, it's a fast system and can shoot the same lasers as the walker.

The next battle system is the sonic jet. It can fly so you can now reach areas that you couldn't reach at first. It's the fastest system, it can shoot lasers and you can do a speed boost for a short time.

The last system is the Hard Shell and it's the slowest system. It can only go backward and forward. So don't use for long movement, but it comes in handy during boss fights as it has a strong bombing attack and it has a high defence.

The point of these different battle systems is that you must really think about when to use what system.

At the beginning of the game you can choose to do 3 trainings-missions or just the game. The trainings-missions introduce you to the controls and the way the game works. The main game has 7 levels.

The controls are not good. Everything has a delay of a second. The moving mechanics are ok for the land burner, the sonic jet and the hard shell the but really bad for the walker. Because with the walker you can only move in 16 directions and this makes the game reeaally stiff.The shooting works fine because it auto-focuses on the enemy, just like in Metroid Prime.

The music is great. It sounds like house-music with all the beeps beats and it totally suits the 'space'-atmosphere.

The graphics are ok. It's 3D and it makes the game very nice to look at! Also no level looks like the previous one, and I liked how the last level had all this sunlight coming through the clouds.

But I think that the enemies look virtually the same (again) as the ones from starfox and that's just a shame. There was obviously no imagination used creating the bad guys.

There are parts when you go into first-person perspective. In these occasions you don't know what you're doing and you just keep flying into walls and obstacles.

Another graphics-caused flaw is that obstacles appear out of nowhere and so the first second you will think that there is no obstacles in which you can clash and the next second you die because you hit an obstacle. It also makes the environment boring because most of the time you just see a plain field with nothing on it.

Those flaws combined with the slow controls make the game really unenjoyable. You never know what you're doing because you don't see anything, and when you do, you're too late because the controls don't let you react. It doesn't make the game any fun and way to hard! You could lower the difficulty, but that doesn't matter because it will only reduce the amount of enemies and you'll still walk into obstacles!

Another thing that bothers me is that there are times when there are almost no enemies and you're just flying to you goal. When you encounter an enemy it dies within 3 shots. It's just plain boring! Then all of a sudden you have to fight a boss and he is so hard that you die and have to do the whole stage all over again!

So really, when you see this game, don't get obsessed by its 'Super FX-sticker' on the box but just leave it on the shelves and go play StarFox!

Gameplay: 3/10 – It is boring, slow, hard (due to graphics and controls) and stiff.

Controls: 5/10 – Delayed and for the walker there are only 16 directions to go to. The rest is fine.

Graphics: 5/10 – Yes, it does look nice and it is in 3D, but the graphics appear too late and there are times when you don't know what you're doing.

Music: 8/10 – Perfectly suits the atmosphere of the game.

Overal: 4/10 – The gameplay is so bad that it just doesn't make the game worth buying…

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Super Mario World Princess Peach has been kidnapped by Bowser and for the fourth time Mario must save her. During his journey to Bowers castle, Mario must also defeat Bowser's siblings and rescue little Yoshi's. Nothing too special, but an excellent recipe for some good, ol' Mario platforming! As always the controls are really good. You can jump, run, spin jump and hold and throw items in all directions. With power-ups you can also shoot fire and float in the air. Super Mario world is the first Mario-game that lets you use Yoshi. He can run somewhat faster, eat enemies and, if you find the right yoshi, he can fly, create earthquakes and much more! The world is immense and it cost me hours to find and beat all the secrets of this game. In total there are 96 different levels (not counting Bowsers castle) and 8 worlds. Super Mario world might be a little easy at first but when you try to beat the secret world and find the secret levels, you might even get frustrated! They still didn't create the multiplayer option of playing together! You play the level until you die and then the other player plays until he dies and you do this over and over again… (If Mickey's Circus Mystery could do it, why can't super Mario world?!?!) There is no coop mode and that's just a shame! The graphics are very good (also taking into account that it's the first super Nintendo game), but not the best of the console. It is light and colorful, just what you expect from a Mario game. The environment and the enemies look really funny and cool (the hills have eyes) and you could just spent hours looking for cool details on them! The music is awesome! Catchy with nice sound-effects, but not too lame and repetitive. The Mario themes are upgraded from the last game. And that's what this game is. An upgraded version of super Mario bros 3 with different levels. The gameplay and the story haven't changed much, but the music and graphics are better! I believe it's the best of the Mario series and if you own a Wii or a Super Nintendo it's a must have, especially if you enjoyed super Mario bros 3! Gameplay: 10/10 – Fully completing this game will take days and you'll never get bored of it! Controls: 10/10 – It works perfectly! Graphics: 9,5/10 – One of the best, but not the best! Music: 10/10 – Catchy without being repetitive! Multiplayer: 6/10 – You can't play together… Overall: 9/10 – BUY IT!!! I also have a IGN account, become friends! http://people.ign.com/georgefrommel Watch my reviews on Youtube, subscribe or become friends! http://www.youtube.com/user/GeorgeFrommel

Super Mario World Princess Peach has been kidnapped by Bowser and for the fourth time Mario must save her. During his journey to Bowers castle, Mario must also defeat Bowser's siblings and rescue little Yoshi's. Nothing too special, but an excellent recipe for some good, ol' Mario platforming! As always the controls are basic but really good. Of course you move with the control pad. With B you jump, with A you spin jump, you can run faster by holding Y and this also makes you able to jump higher. With Y you can also hold a shell. With Start you can pause the screen and select, R and L do nothing. The controls somewhat change when having a power-up. There are, I believe five power-ups (but correct if I'm wrong). There is the Mushroom, Cape, the Fire-suit, the balloon and the star. You could say that the power-ups give you an extra live, because after being hit you become small and when you get hit again you die. Power-Ups also give you an extra power. With the cape you can do a spin-attack with Y , with the fire-suit you can throw fire, with the balloon you can float in the air and the star makes you invincible. Power-ups are very crucial to the game because you need them for accessing certain areas and secrets. Sometimes you find Yoshi and you can ride on him. This gives you an additional chance after you are hit, so actually you have 3 lives now. He can eat enemies, run faster and you can sometimes reach a platform by launching off him. You can find different Yoshi's. The normal green one, the yellow one (makes you able to do an earthquake), the blue one (makes you able to fly) and the red one (makes you able to breath fire). The controls are really well-functioning. Everything goes fluently. I have to say, there is no platformer on the Nes and the Snes with better controls. In total there are 8 worlds with 97 levels (including Bowser's castle). All the worlds have a certain theme and all themes are completely different. Two things that reappear in every world are the Ghost House, and the castle. For people who want to find all secrets: A red-dotted level has more than 1 ending and always check the ghost-houses for secret passages. Also don't forget to normally clear the star-level after finishing it with the key-passage. For more questions you can always ask me. I hear many people complaining about the low difficulty of the game. In the beginning the game is indeed very simple but if you really want to find all the secret levels and paths, you will really have to use your platforming skills. I got really frustrated at the secret world, because some levels were nearly impossible! Taking into account that it's the first super Nintendo game, the graphics are very good, but not the best of the console. I mean, look at Mario's rival Donkey Kong Country and compare it. That's why I mentioned it's the first game, because you can't expect the first game to graphically be the best of the system. So Super Mario World's graphics are the best for it's time, but not the best on it's console. But it's not bad, no, it's very good. It is light and colorful, just what you expect from a Mario game. The environment and the enemies look really funny and detailed (the clouds have eyes) and you could just spent hours looking for cool details on them! Also the overworld is really detailed, with a fish occasionally jumping out of the water. You can see how much time they took to design the world. These graphics really impressed us after the age of 8-bit sprites. The music is awesome! Catchy with nice sound-effects, but not too lame and repetitive. The Mario themes are upgraded from the last game. They are not entirely new, but that doesn't matter. Sometimes upgrading the wheel, is better than reinventing it! One thing I do have to mention is that they still didn't create the multiplayer option of playing together. You play the level until you die and then the other player plays until he/she dies… (If Mickey's Circus Mystery could do it, why can't super Mario world?!?!) There is no coop-mode and that's just a shame! Now the biggest question remains: Should I buy Super Mario World or Super Mario Bros. 3 on the Virtual Console? I must say Super Mario World. Gameplaywise they are not very different but Super Mario World looks better and has better music. I also thought that the controls of Super Mario World are more fluent and are better functioning and, don't forget, you can also play with Yoshi! Of course, I'm sure that there are some people who don't agree with me and I would like to hear why you think Super Mario Bros is better. I believe we've talked about every aspect of the game and I think it's time to conclude it: Gameplay: 9/10 – Fully completing this game will take days and you'll never get bored of it! But it's almost the same as it prequel and that might bore fans of 3 a little bit. Controls: 10/10 – It works perfectly! Graphics: 9,5/10 – One of the best, but not the best! Music: 10/10 – Catchy without being repetitive! Multiplayer: 6/10 – You can't play together! Overall: 9/10 – BUY IT!!! I also have a IGN account, become friends! http://people.ign.com/georgefrommel Watch my reviews on Youtube, subscribe or become friends! http://www.youtube.com/user/GeorgeFrommel