Baoynetta 2: Not as Sexy Without Amnesia.

Happy Halloween folks. I'm here to bring you in the spirit of Halloween a review on a sexy witch. One who uses hair as her costume and dazzles us all.

Bayonetta, Cereza whichever you prefer to call her is back this Halloween season and she brings with her much of what made her fantastic in the first installment. Yet at the same time she's missing a few things that would send her into Climax.

Story:
As ludicrous as both the first and second story are they're a delight. It's purposely filled with odd one liners and cliches up the wazoo, yet it works. Both games delivered wonderfully on this over-the-topness. However, in this installment Enzo becomes more annoying and the addition of another character sort of takes away the dynamic she had with previous character from the last installment. Almost to the point where it gets a bit repetitive luckily the story is delivered in short chunks with good pacing such as it won't suffocate you with it.

If you're looking for some oddly deep meaning, I suppose it's there but this game doesn't have one of those take it to heart serious stories. It's more like a melodramatic comedy. 

For delivering a fantastically over the top experience Bayonetta 2 scores a solid 9/10 in this category.

Gameplay:
Unfortunately this part disappointed me the most being a diehard fan of the first I found this version lacking in a few of the gameplay categories. Her combos while they have been expanded don't flow nearly as well as they did last game. Most of the techniques and combos are back from the last game with a few additions here and there so the overall fight experience for someone starting fresh with Bayonetta 2 will be most enjoyable. However, for those that played the first game and loved how the combos flowed into each other some of that is lost with the new additions and more rigid combos.

Punish/Torture attacks are where it hurts most. Given that the game expanded to include demons this time, you'd think they'd animate some new more distinct torture attacks, nope. To make matters worse the lineup of tortures has been watered down in sexiness. It's more gruesome than it is hilarious. Joy's wooden horse is gone along with a number of more livid tortures. Which leaves me a bit upset.

The weapons category is a bit lacking. A lot of medium range weapons were removed from 1st to 2nd installment. The ones that exist have fantastic re-playability and diverseness however missing weapons like shotguns make me one really sad witch. I'm sure Bayonetta is crying too. The added Nintendo themed weapons don't do much to make it better either. So this time around the game just has a smaller weapon roster. I have yet to unlock Rodin's fight to gain the Rodin weapon but I imagine it's similar to what was in the original Bayonetta.

Costumes are back and well they're pretty much the same a few entries missing here and there and a few new Nintendo themed ones making an appearance, but, overall nothing much to talk about here. We all new they'd be back.

They added a more competitive multiplayer this time around. But, I feel like this is more a tacked on unnecessary experience. It's a well polished mode, but my expertise is not in games like Bayonetta and so I found myself losing more halos than I was winning which dulled and soured the experience for me. For enthusiasts of this genre then this might be a welcome break to the single player experience.

I think this game is easier compared to the original. I remember having trouble getting past the 1st stage on 2nd climax/normal mode in the first game. I had no problem running through the entire game on 2nd climax this time around. It could just be I've matured and am better at executing combos though. You should be the judge of whether it's the same difficulty. 

For a still solid experience Bayonetta 2 scores a solid 7/10 in this category.


Graphics:
 From the opening scene it's clearly last gen. We kind of expected it since it was on the Wii U console. So there isn't much to complain about the enemies are still wonderfully designed and an inspiration and pleasure to watch. Animation is smooth and runs at 60 frames solid even when in long complex boss fights. However, I think Bayo broke her spine this game or something she leans in a very unnatural almost forced fashion compared to the original. Maybe it's because I haven't played the first one in a long time or maybe it was the way the costume was designed, either way Bayo's strut looked painful to say the least.

Some of the Nintendo textures weren't nearly as good as the first, but, it wasn't too bad I was concentrating more on the fighting than the scenery this time around. All the locales that are visited are very appropriate thematically and still are a delight to take pleasure in. The most painful thing graphically I had to look at was at the very start of the game Bayonetta's wide brimmed Sunday hat was not even modeled like a hat, they literally cheaped out and just went ahead and performed a texture illusion to make it look hollowed out inside.

The color palette is noticeably different vs. the first game It's much brighter and I don't really care for it. It doesn't fit the Bayo theme but, it does add to the opposing contrast of the game.

Delivering adequate graphics Bayonetta 2 gets an above average score of 8/10.

Sound:
I'm a bigger fan of the first thematic song. Along with this sorta of old school feeling that it exuded. That's not to say the soundtrack of Bayonetta 2 is bad. However, this time around expect a different tune one that doesn't fit the Bayo sexiness as Fly Me to the Moon did. The 2 Songs that really made me happy this time around were in the first few scenes of the game. Moon River (Climax Edit) and Tomorrow is Mine. Everything else sort of paled in comparison.

The Sound FX are well done and varied enough to make it feel natural, there was a lack of clarity in some moments but I'll write it off as my audio tuning being off.

For delivering a spectacular audio experience albeit not to my taste Bayonetta 2 still gets a 8/10.

 

Overall the game scores a solid 8/10. It's a great game but thematically doesn't deliver as well as the first game in a couple of respects. Which for me hurt the score. I wanted Bayo back in all her glory after so many years and while most of her is here. She's not all here :(.

Samsung White vs. Star Horn Royal Club: David vs Goliath Matchup

Now that the last semifinal match has wrapped up I'd like to take a moment to evaluate the World Championship final match up. I'll be going over team strengths and weaknesses as well as contested picks and bans.


Samsung White:

PROS
- They showed a dominating performance vs. sister team Samsung Blue. How much of that is actually Samsung White playing well or Samsung Blue not showing up is up for debate.
- Executes rotations extremely well. However, there is a noticeable patterned dip in decision making in the mid to late game. Sometimes Imp goes too ham and it costs them the game or mistimed teamfights extend the game longer than originally intended. Other times his haminess finds him great success.
-Securing small early game leads almost guarantees them wins. Especially 3-buffing the enemy team.


CONS
-When they fall behind early there tends to be a discrepancy in how well they can play. This was showcased in that STOMP game they dropped to TSM.
-When they lack vision they can be out-rotated. Technically that flaw stands for every team. But, in Samsung White's case this is probably more of a problem as they rely on good vision control to catch one person out then out rotate their opponents after a pick.
-Predictable tendencies. Over the course of the World's games, Samsung White has shown a predictable pattern when gunning for neutral objectives like Dragon or Baron.


Star Horn Royal Club:

PROS
-Extremely good at capitilizing on picks and teamfights and has un-curtailed aggression.
-Extremely good at finding favorable Baron fights even when behind. This team capatilizes on mistaken Baron calls better than any other team.
-Uzi can carry the game.

CONS
-If Uzi falls behind the whole team's effectiveness becomes dwindled.
-Corn has been rather lackluster and against PawN whose champion pool is deep and mechanically adept. It'll be a toughlane to hold on to.
-If inSec fails to make an impact early the hyper aggression he's used to using often backfires on him seen in multiple games vs OMG and EDG.
-subpar rotations and likes to look for teamfights even when behind. This team's best asset is also its worst. Sure they can make plays from behind, but trying to consistently make play after play while behind is extremely difficult and often bites them in the butt.



Contested Picks

Ryze- This has been a generally solid pick all around. Both Cola and Looper have performed well on this champion over the course of World's and is an overall strong scaling pick. This will likely be a pick for contention

Janna/Thresh- I've lumped them together simply because if one of them is picked up the likeliness of the other is being picked jumps substantially. Yeah there were games where that wasn't case but they stand to be the fewer and farther between. Both of these picks bring great teamfight potential and are generally all around good supports.

Rengar- we haven't seen a lot of inSec on Rengar, but Dandy has been picking it up and the games we did see inSec on were impressive ones. This will likely be a contested pick for either jungler leaning more heavily in Dandy's favor. I predict SHRC banning Rengar at least once or twice.

Lee Sin- when you have a champion play named after you, you know it'll be a contested pick. Both junglers have shown proficiency on this champion. However, during most of World's inSec's Lee Sin play has been fairly lackluster. However, if they wanna shutdown mid lane synergy and scary ganks SHRC will likely ban this.

Jayce- I originally wasn't going to include Jayce in this since PawN has really been the only user of him. But, after Cool pulled out Jayce to great effectiveness against SHRC in the semifinals, this became a contested pick. SHRC has shown weakness to well played poke comps and out rotation. PawN is significantly better at playing Jayce than Cool. Expect to see Jayce banned at least one game.

Rumble- this top lane menace has shown himself once again and proven that midgame effectiveness outweighs late game scaling. Looper has shown proficiency on Rumble in one game which is technically hard to quantify as data. However, the impact he provided that game was second to none so. If SHRC chooses Maokai top this is a likely counter to it and vice versa.

Twitch- Both teams' ADCs have favored this champion heavily. Both Uzi and Imp have single-handily carried games with Twitch. The assassination and catch potential on this champion is extremely high and favors teams that use teamfight comps or can out rotate their opponents after a pick. Both teams can do this and therefore this will be a fought over champion.

Lucian- the power this champion brings to the table is amazing. There's a good scaling curve on him and he doesn't have any particularly weak phases in the game. He will fall off toward the end game vs say a Tristana. However, it's not nearly as bad as some other ADC picks.

Series Prediction:

Samsung White 3-1  70/30 in favor of SSW.

Honestly Samsung White just look much stronger and more stable. In my opinion if OMG hadn't dropped the ball in the last game in the Bo5, they would have stood a better chance since they rotate better and can curtail their aggression when need be. SHRC plays poorly when behind and SSW is extremely good at catching early game mistakes. SHRC does have a chance to take 1 or more games off of SSW, but, the only way that will happen is if SSW start to get overconfident and play sloppy.

Super Smash Review: If it Ain't Broke Don't Fix It

This needs to be Nintendo's slogan or something because that's been their attitude toward most of their main titles in the last few years. Super Smash Bros. for the 3DS certainly doesn't break Nintendo's latest streak.

Story: N/A this category isn't really available. I can't really judge what wasn't there from the very first installment. Nintendo never meant for this game to focus at all on story and I don't penalize them for it. The mish mash of characters wouldn't result in any cohesive, interesting story.  Sometimes less is better.

Story receives a 0/0

Gameplay:

Where the bulk of this review will focus. Super Smash Bros. 3DS is as fantastic as its wonky predecessors. The combat is silky smooth and while I suck at using circle pads, for most people this won't be a problem; especially for those gamers who are familiar with playing other fighting games on Playstation consoles.

Final smashes for the most part haven't changed and the game has been fine tuned from the last entry in the series. Most fighters have the same memorable move sets as in the previous title. The meta has shifted and certain fighters have received buffs and nerfs accordingly. I think changes have been made to the amount of damage taken before fighters can be knocked off. It certainly feels easier in this installment, making this version pace much faster. But, my judgement may be skewed since the last Super Smash game I owned was for the N64.

Modes: Surprisingly numerous and challenging. Target Blast, Home Run, 100 Man Smash all pretty classic stuff from the last title. Making the normal story grind less mind numbing. Labyrinth mode is pretty tough and I'm still confused about the intricacies of it.

Online: This mode is really for the hardcore or if you're a glutton for punishment. I have been emasculated several times already trying to compete in online mode. The competition is seriously tough as with all other arcade fighters. There's some noticeable lag in games I have played, with occasional network issues. I'm not sure if this is due to the processing power of the 3DS or just the severely outdated Nintendo network play.

Still the local 4 player smash is still very fun and in tune with the oldest title. I fondly remember all the neighborhood parties/play dates I'd host with friends to play "Smash." The fact that I'm now able to enjoy this local 4 player without having to lug around a console is seriously fantastic. Like the commercial slogan: "SETTLE IT IN SMASH"

Gameplay/Online receives a 9/10

Graphics: About what you'd expect from a Nintendo game. It's certainly not pure HD, but extremely well polished nevertheless. The battle FX are really crisp and well designed. The characters look good up close. I give credit to the design team for making really beautiful maps and giving us an innovative tool necessary for the handheld platform. That is character outlines. Given the screen size of even the largest, 3DS XL, it was absolutely brilliant to give us an easier way to track characters on the map. Especially with how chaotic 4 person smash can get.

I will say that this game definitely needs to be played on the XL handheld. I have the standard 3DS and not only is it uncomfortably small and difficult to wrap my hands around. But, the smaller screen size means when fighters are on opposite sides of the map they become incredibly small.

Graphics receive a 9/10.

Sound: Pretty fantastic. The soundtrack system is ingenious since it allows you to freely access the  beautiful, memorable scores from each of the separate titles the characters come from. Character voices and sound FX are on target and wonderfully done. Sound can get drowned out from the fighting due to the hardware limitations of the 3DS, but it is forgivable.

Sound receives a 9/10.

Is there a reason not to get Super Smash for 3DS? I can only think of a few, REALLY don't want a 3DS, have no money, suck at fighting games. Even if you're not hardcore this is just a fantastically fun game. Totally worth the 40$.

Final score: 9/10.