A Disappointingly Average Animal Crossing Excursion
594327
I've been a fan of Animal Crossing for a very large majority of my life (10 years to be exact). It's my all-time favorite game series, and I own multiple copies of every game released in the US minus City Folk. When this game was announced, I was confused. Why would Nintendo take the best things out of Animal Crossing and release Decor Simulator 2015? The more I saw of the game though, the more I liked, and I proceeded to buy the game on release date.

Unlike a normal Animal Crossing game, you can't freely run around town doing whatever you want. You have a job at Nook's Homes, and much like real life, you don't do anything besides that job.

The point of this spin-off is to help animals design a house/interior. You do this by getting items they give you that match the theme they want. Do they want a house made of cardboard? I hope they like being rained on because BAM they've got it. A Haunted Hospital? Sure, the game has that too. Just dump dead bodies all over the floor, add an EKG machine, and you're good to go.

But there's a problem with this way of playing. You get bored. It doesn't matter how interesting the house they may want sounds, if you don't have an imagination you WILL lose interest. Actually, even if you do have one, the game still gets repetitive fast. Happy Home Designer does try to spice things up though, with the ability to build facilities.

After you get to a certain point in the game, Isabelle shows up at Nook's Homes requesting you to build things like: A School, Stores, A Music Hall, A Hospital, or A Hotel. These add some much needed variety to the game, but when you finish them all you go back to the monotony of doing nothing but obeying the wishes of animal. In return you get an emotion, and if I got paid in emotions I wouldn't be able to freaking eat.

You also get clothes for your hard labor, but for the life of me I can't figure out how to change my shirt, if that's even possible.

PROS:
+Animals do absurdly cute things
+Animals sing along to K.K. Dirge
+Furniture Moving System is improved
+amiibo Cards are awesome
+Didn't have to wait 2 Years and 3 Months for Tangy to show up in my town

CONS:
-Lottie looks like a demon
-Game gets boring in a very short amount of time
-Can't change my hideous shirt
-Ugly animals always want a house blech

Overall I'd give the game a very un-Amazon review of 3.5/5, average at best, and boring at it's worst
2008302
Huge fan of the Animal Crossing New Leaf. This is nothing like New Leaf. I would expect many people who liked NL to be wondering where the game aspect of this game is. There isn't much of a game here so if as a gamer you require positive or negative feedback or points or rewards to feel an accomplishment in a 3Ds release - this aint a program for you. If you can find your own reward for liking your designs then you'll get into it. There are many areas where HHD (Happy Home Designer) could be better: more interaction with towns people; be able to walk around town; some sort of rating or review of designs; or even some design theory if it's supposed to teach something. There is none of that here. You will basically get to jump in and out of character's homes and that's it. I have decided to accept that this is not at all as interesting as previous AC titles. It isn't relaxing, the music isn't as interesting, the dialog is just not so great either. But if you like moving furniture and decor items around then this will satisfy you as a bit of a play set. If you are the kind of person who doesn't like working in an office being told what to do - then you might want to avoid HHD as you are either in an office being told what to do or in a client's home moving around furniture.

The Amiibo cards that you can get to add characters to the game seem to be a complete money grab. I don't see how they are even that interesting to collect as they contain basically no real info on them. They do pull the character into the game, but since there is so little interaction with all characters there isn't much of a reason to care.

If this were a completely new game with new characters (no AC), I'd rate it as 2 stars and expect it to be about twenty dollars. At the current price it's a bit too much for too little. Only for those who are completely into moving furniture items around virtual rooms.
1370676
I've been playing fire emblem games since the first GBA game came to the United States. That includes 4 games for me, all played to completion.

Awakening is easily at the bottom of that list. The characters are mostly one dimensional and completely forgettable, the support conversations are almost all incredibly bland. The combat has gotten some new additions, like team-ups. Depending on which difficulty you play, team ups will either be completely overpowered or an absolute necessity.

The leveling system has been changed somewhat, as well. Giving every unit access to what amounts to infinite levels, and allowing the player to grind for experience as much as they want has made generating strong characters trivial

All of that would be forgivable if there was a good plot, but sadly, plot is the place where Awakening falls the hardest. There's some convoluted time travel junk, but mostly it consists of the same kingdom being attacked three different times, each time for reasons that either make no sense, or are completely vacant.
4046314
Perhaps I had different expectations than the other reviewers. In a nutshell it is a "resource" collection and management game like many others from Age of Empires to Railroad tycoon (original).Unfortunately there is no thinking or adventure or quest involved.
So, this island has a bounty of natural resources like various fruits, timber, fish, game etc. The entire game consists of you needing to collect  copious amounts of these materials to build various food items and some other products. These items are demanded by other "characters" in the game and all you do is run around the entire island like a slave, collect these items and serve them up to the other people who don't do anything much. You don't even have to do much of planning or judicious allotment of resources involved. The plot is very linear just going sequentially with no branches or alternatives. There is no thinking required but just a bunch of running around. After a while it became monotonous to me.
If you are like me, expecting a quest where you have to use your brain to break a riddle then you will be disappointed.
32500
While I wanted to like and support this game due to it being a niche product and something different from the norm, in the end it all comes down to how fun and well-crafted it is. And in the end, it isn't very much of either.

This game seemed to have a lot of potential, taking something from the Tycoon type games, where you have to create and sell a product, manage your funds, and so on, plus taking something from Harvest Moon type games where you add a more human element, talking to neighbors and trying to befriend people.

Where it falls down is how well these are implemented - in this case, poorly. While it's a bit interesting at the start to try to learn the ropes and manage your funds to keep from going bankrupt, and also a bit fun to find and unlock the various toy types, soon enough the game devolves into a boring grindfest of pressing the four directions on the D-Pad of the DS to try to make toys as quickly as possible, and pretty much nothing else. You can occasionally go out into the town to talk to people, but barring a very few, fairly obvious interactions where you get specific new toy blueprints, the people say the very same things day in, day out, and none of them are really interesting. The number of individual NPCs is very limited, and there's not really much to do in the end besides... make toys, in a very boring badly implemented mini-game.

So while I really wanted to enjoy this game a lot, and I think it had some potential and some grains of fun buried underneath, I wouldn't suggest it for everyone, or even most people. Maybe if they try to *really* polish it hard and release a sequel there can be something there worth playing, but for now, I'd give it a pass.
3330719
This game is ok and can be entertaining - but hardly a classic deserving more than 4 stars. Its just an average game and that's why I went with 3 stars.  I'm surprised at the number of great reviews, and perhaps the reviews pumped up my expectations, but I'm left disappointed by the overall game's experience.
PROS: The graphics are great and the plot is historically interesting - especially if you like WWII type games
CONS:  Boring weapons (that hardly ever change), no gore, parts of the game oftentimes seem way to hard or way to easy.
If you like the realistic things this game brings to the table historically with the plot, weapons, etc you'll enjoy it.  Otherwise I would suggest you skip it.  The game has left me very disappointed.  There are so many FPS out there and I don't see how this one deserves a medal outside of the graphics. As examples - I thought Soldier of Fortune II and Return to Castle Wolf were all around better experiences.  Both of these games were constantly absorbing me and scaring the heck out of me.  With Media of Honor I feel like I am playing a lame Quake 3 WWII mod with limited weapons and linear action.
452722
I'm a huge fan of the Soul Calibur franchise. I haven't always had a console to play them, but when I heard the fifth one was coming out (and I had an Xbox to play it on!) I was super excited. However, this game lacks a lot of the elements I've come to expect and love of this franchise.

1. Story Mode:
As a fighting game, I don't expect some sort of masterful story here (although the newest Mortal Kombat certainly has raised the bar for fighting story lines). The story was about as you'd expect. I was disappointed that the majority of it was told via really crudely drawn storyboards with character voice overs. The story was predictable and less than fantastic. It focuses on the orphan Patrokalos in search of his sister. I was really disappointed in the lack of characters featured/playable within the story mode. I kind of expect story modes to introduce new players to the mechanics of the game, and give them a feel for a couple of different characters, as large player rosters can be intimidating when trying to find the "right" character for you. This story mode doesn't do that. There is a brief moment where you get to have a whole round as someone besides Patrokalos, but that's it. If you're not into how Patrokalos plays, tough luck. The whole experience takes maybe 2 hours, tops. It's a linear story with only one outcome. No replay value here.

2. Graphics:
These are stunning, nothing to complain about.

3. Mechanics:
Everything feels good in this department too. I've read some stuff about a few features more "hardcore" players aren't a huge fan of, but nothing that really bothered me.

4. Single player content:
Here's where the game really falls on it's face, where it SHOULD have excelled. We are given a 6 level arcade mode (really? 6 stages?), versus, "quick battle", where you fight a variety of characters to unlock vanity titles for online play. Then there's "Legendary Souls", which is basically arcade mode, but with the difficulty ramped up. Why they couldn't have just given us a "legendary" difficulty setting on the regular arcade is beyond me. That's it. No survival, no challenge mode, nothing. But really, the greatest sin this game commits, the deal breaker for me, is the removal of character endings at the end of beating arcade mode. This removal KILLS me. Reading those little blurbs was one of my favorite parts of the game. It gave me incentive to try out new characters and learn about their stories. It is beyond me why you would want to remove them. It's not like they're terribly complex bits that take years to program.

5. Characters:
This is another area the game severely lacks in. The cast feels boring and old. Out of the "new characters" we're getting, three of them are essentially clones of old characters they took out (Taki, Xinhua, Killik). Three more characters are "random character" fighters. That's right, there are THREE characters that are randoms. That's just lazy. To further limit the variety, Patrokalos, his sister, and his sister's Omega form all play extremely similar to one another. Oh, did I mention there's no Talim? Still bitter about that. I will say that Ezio is a great addition to the game and plays wonderfully though. Too bad I have no idea what his purpose is in this game since they took out the character endings.

6. Online content:
I can't comment on this, as I do not have Live. I hear it's pretty slick though. Sadly, I'm a "casual" gamer, and I probably wouldn't get much joy getting my tookus kicked up and down the ring by strangers. When I play fighting games, I like to do it with my buddies in the same room, where I can trash talk them.

7. Character Creator:
Voice selection is still pretty disappointing, especially the females. Other than that, it's fine. Probably the most fun part of this sorry excuse for a game.

Conclusion: Rent this game, play it with a buddy for a few hours, and return it. It's worth about $6.
417784
I was eager to play ABBA Dance for the Wii.  Love, love LOVE ABBA, but found this game disappointing.  Perhaps my expectations were too high?  I don't think so, but I'm willing to say 'maybe'. Each player will have their issues with different games.  These are mine with this one.

Did I want more songs? Yes. There is a limited offering on this Wii game.  Far less than the usual 'Dance' themed Wii games like:&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Just-Dance-3/dp/B0053BG26C/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Just Dance 3</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Just-Dance/dp/B002MWSY3O/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Just Dance</a>.  I paid almost forty dollars, and really should have considered the offerings more closely before purchasing.  I probably would have still purchased the game, but at a lower price point.

Did I hope for better graphics?  Yes. The game that comes to mind is&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Wii-The-Beatles-Rock-Band-Software-Only/dp/B001TOQ8LG/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Wii The Beatles: Rock Band - Software Only</a>&nbsp;in which the graphics resemble the boys in the band. I love that! I was hoping for that with this one, where you'd actually see characterizations of the members of ABBA, but instead you see faceless dancers.

Like most 'Dance' games you choose your character and follow along.  This one has the words of the songs played below the dancers so you can sing along if you don't already know the words. Some of the songs are rather slow, making dancing along easier, but scoring gets a bit tougher.

Overall, the feel of the game is less 'ABBA' and less Wii Dance, and more like a quickly thrown together production to pull-in ABBA lovers. It worked - I bought it, but if given the chance again, knowing what I know, I'd pass until it went to half-off or more.
3964742
ATLUS has had a somewhat mixed history of releases. They've released a lot of gems for sure that manage to come over to the US, particularly the Shin Megami Tensei series - and we've gone crazy for Persona. Odin Sphere was very unique and fun, as well. Some of their games are much more of a miss.

Tsugunai Atonement feels like a big miss. This is really too bad, because the characters are interesting, the story seems pretty cool, and I really wanted to enjoy playing it.

Atonement is about a Raven, which is a kind of mercenary, who steals one of the Goddess' orbs. In punishment, his soul is removed from his body until he can right the karmic imbalance his deed has caused. So far so good. The possession technique is fun, and while it's a repetitive animation, it's short.

The first problem comes with meeting the fairy. The fairy is just an annoying little beast who you get to name when you meet him. The default name is Navi. That's not a good sign.

The game centers around possessing people, solving their problems, and helping this little town, and that goes great for about six missions.

The real problem is when you start doing combat. You will notice very quickly that you can't sleep at the inn, so the only way to heal up your MP and HP is to either buy expensive items or finish your possession. That's fine as that goes, but the items are really expensive. And if you play this game like any other RPG you will find the enemy to Gold ratio is much to high for you to grind characters.

Their is a way out of this, however. You can use the Strage system. Strage is kind of like a limit break from Final Fantasy VII, where when enemies hit you or you attack, you build up Strage and when you fill the limit break, you can unleash a powerful attack. The way to fill the Strage bar is to time your guards of enemy attacks (there are four guards, one that prevents the most damage, one that escapes an unblockable attack, one that builds up Strage, and the one that does a counter attack, but nobody can time that damn thing). That's great, except the Strage requires ANOTHER precise timing to use. Now a timing mechanic is fine if it gets you into a game. It's terrible when it pulls you out of the game and reminds you you're just playing a game.

In playing the game for a total of five hours, I only got the Strage break to work twice. The game's balance assumes you are getting about half and half. The most annoying thing is if you miss, no matter how slight, you only pull of a regular attack. It's extremely annoying to fill up a gauge, and then because of being a second off, you just do another wimpy attack.

If you're better at timing then I am, you might find a real gem in this game - everyone who doesn't have the hours to spend figuring that out, avoid this game like it's Magna Carta.
1976031
I really wanted to like this game. Mo Willems is my favorite children's author, and I even bought all of the books in his Pigeon series so far. When I heard that there was a board game based on said books, I exploded with glee, as I too, was an avid board gamer. So I bought this, and took it for a spin with the children at my library.

How does it fare?

Well, in the box, you receive a nicely illustrated board, drawn in the style of the books themselves, with a spinner and some adorable bus tokens. Each player takes a colour, and they spin the spinner to move their bus, OR move the pigeon, who will take a player's bus and send it back to start if he catches it. Your objective is to grab a hot dog, a key, a stuffed rabbit and a driver's license (with the pigeon's face on it, oddly enough) and go back to the Bus Depot to win the game.

Unfortunately, this game, while it has an interesting premise, is flawed. Because of the precise placements of each of the corner stores, it will take you FOREVER to get the piece you need. If you are right next to the store that has, say, a hot dog, you have a 1 in 8 chance each turn to actually get it. More often than not, you will wind up overshooting where you need to be, putting you further away from your goal. Worse yet, if the Pigeon gets you, it will send you right back at the start, which can be a lot more aggravating than fun.

I'm sorry, I cannot recommend this game. The artwork and components are charming, I will give it that, but this is a bad game. This is probably the only instance where I'd recommend something like Candyland or Sorry over this, because in the case of the former, it's friendly and does not have a snag in the gameplay, and the latter, dare I say, actually has progressive movement, despite having its own moments of gameplay screeching to a halt.

Mo, much respect to you, but the game really doesn't do your books justice.
2910847
Perhaps I was expecting too much from the series, but it is nowhere near the levels of greatness in other Souls games. Wonky hit detection, overpowered spells, a less imaginative setting and a online system tending towards extreme lag are major faults in what would have been a worthy sequel to Dark Souls. The whole thing feels like it was constructed by a B-team, and it shows. That isn't to say this is a bad game by any stretch of the imagination, but merely not as good as its predecessors.
2744183
As an admitted Zelda fanboy, I'm saddened to have to say I don't recommend this game - Unless! - you have intelligent gaming friends to play this with on a regular basis.  The game itself is cute and fun, and puzzles are not hard but well designed.  The problem is that the single-player mode makes you feel handicapped and frustrated trying to pull off multi-player puzzles by yourself.

And multiplayer thus far has been plagued with children or idiots (or both?) that make multiplayer with random internet strangers frustrating and unenjoyable.  People disconnect, "afk", lag out, or just grief you by throwing you off ledges.  Without having two friends to play the game with, go replay through a copy of an older zelda game instead, or perhaps stab yourself with a fork - either might be more enjoyable.
2891526
I would like to start this with saying that Two Worlds 2 is far superior to the first Two Worlds, which I found unplayable after the first 10 minutes. The voice acting is better, the sound effects are better, and the gameplay is better.

However, that being said, let's be honest. The first Two Worlds was a horrible mess, so saying it's better than that isn't saying very much.

Voice Acting: Though far superior to the prequel, the voice acting in this is still C rating and leaves something to be desired. Most of the dialogue is monotone and even when characters get excited, it is quite obvious there is a person in a sound recording studio trying far too hard to be convincing. The dialogue comes off as unnatural and awkward in almost every situation.

Sound Effects: The sound effects in Two Worlds 2 is probably its best point, yet still they do not go far beyond average. From sound of the environment, to weapons clashing against arms, armor, and flesh, they are certainly believable, but nothing at all spectacular.

Graphics: The graphics in Two Worlds 2 are lower than average when compared to other games of the same timeline. Though I wouldn't say they are horrible, they are only slightly appealing if seen from a distance. Blocky textures and stiff animations make up the world of Two Worlds.

Gameplay: The controls are run-of-the-mill, nothing at all new or very interesting. The spell creation system is pretty cool, but it's far too easy to break the game with this system. Spells you create make you easily able to scythe through any amount, and I do mean ANY amount, of the hardest baddies with considerable ease. When compared against such spells, the melee system just seems incredibly underpowered and inefficient, though I will say I had some fun with the polearms, which are, sadly, not included in very many games these days. The crafting system is somewhat interesting, but unimaginative. I found it more worth my time to search the shops for better gear than trying to craft anything worthwhile. The coolest aspect of the game, in my opinion, is the online village system. It was a very cool and original idea, but once you learn how to maximize the efficiency of your village production you quickly learn most everyone's village is built the same.

Conclusion: Two Worlds 2 is a game worth the 10$ you can give for it now, but don't expect anything even closely able to compare to bigger titles such as The Elder Scrolls, Dragon Age, or Mass Effect. Two Worlds 2 is a slightly amusing distraction for something different to full around with while waiting for your next triple A rpg, but the amusement and distraction will be short lived.
386330
I purchased this game just to give it a fair go.
Unfortunately, the issues that plague this game are, as expected, enough to drag down my opinion of the game.

The largest annoyances for me are the voice acting (I have to listen to this?!) and the camera (I am perfectly capable of wielding the camera on my own).

The voice acting for this game is nerve-grating at best. One thing I noticed is that I couldn't find an option to switch to the Japanese voice acting, which would have made it a little more bearable at least for a couple of minutes.

The camera is agitating -- it likes to snap around and change on its own after you finally get it into a comfortable position to run along and do things. Even better are scenes that LOCK the camera after moving it to the worst angle possible.

I finished a couple of stages, and just found the game too aggravating to continue.

Pass on this one. Not even for a rental.
3273107
I bought this game for my son's 11th birthday. He and I are both fans of the series and have read both books. The game was disappointing in several regards.  First, the graphics. The animation sequences used when exploring the world are fine, and even attractive. The cutscenes, however, are done in a choppy and poorly defined style that does not match the game sequences and detracts from the overall quality of the game. Second, the narration. As my son pointed out, there is too much narration and not enough action.  Rather than telling us that Eragon is a simple farmboy, that could have been done by allowing us to preview a bit of his life as a farmboy, and then we would have been able to meet his cousin and uncle and the rest of the villagers. Those people play a large role in the next book and so it would have had a point to it.  Last, the game is too short. By glossing over the full story line through the use of narrated cutscenes to cover outrageously large chunks of the book, you end up with game play which takes my son a total of perhaps 8 hours to complete. My advice to anyone looking to purchase the game is to rent it instead and put the rest of your money toward something with a higher replay value. This game just isn't it. It is fun while it lasts, despite the annoying cut scenes and the glossing over of the story, but it doesn't last long enough to be worth the money.
897004
I was a huge fan of the first Puzzle Quest, but didn't like Puzzle Guest Galactrix - so I was really excited for a proper sequel to one of my favorite games.  If you haven't played any of the previous games, imagine a cross between Bejeweled and Final Fantasy.

I'm going to focus this review on how this new games compares to the previous entries in the series.  Here's a rundown of my experience:

The Good:

- The game moved back to the original Puzzle Quest icon-matching formula, without any of the multi-directional weirdness of Galactrix.
- They did a better job of making the different classes play out in different ways.
- Quick load times.  Galactrix had long long times that were really annoying for a game of this style.
- You actually go into towns, instead of just staying up on the world map like in the first Puzzle Quest.  This makes the game and world feel much more intimate.
- The actual battles are faster and more streamlined than in the original.

The Bad:

- Many things are much simpler than the original Puzzle Quest.  The equipment is simpler, they removed things like mounts, castle sieges, and item creation.  Lots of people will not even notice they are gone, but for the truly involved there's something missing.
- When it comes down to it, this game is just more Puzzle Quest.  This isn't _necessarily_ a bad thing, but the gameplay experience is just not significantly different, and I can see many people being happy by just sticking with the first game in the series.
- It's a bummer that the only way to control the game is with the stylus.  There's no reason why I shouldn't be able to use the d-pad as an alternate control method.
- The music is pretty uninspired.  Low quality and fairly boring.
- Puzzle Quest 2 is easy.  I had a much easier time with it than Puzzle Quest 1.
545275
I was really disappointed in this Nintendo DS game.  The graphics are very poor and Julie's movements are really awkward.  You are perpetually standing behind her looking at the back of her head and it is just not very intuitive to try to move her around that way.  I suppose it is to make you feel like you are "in" the game, but it is really just lame.  My daughter seems to like the game ok, but it is not one she plays a lot.  She got stuck on a mini game (making Christmas decorations) and I had to help her past it.  While I was playing the game myself, I was frustrated that there was no way to escape the min games if you couldn't figure out the solutions or didn't want to play them.  I also didn't like the fact that you are forced to move through a specific story line instead of being able to explore and progress through the story on your own.  So, I have to give this game a low score for poor graphics, awkward character movement and inability to escape the mini games. I really expected a better product from American Girl.  They maybe need to stick with dolls and books and not bother with video games!

There was one plus - that you can have several games saved, which is nice when daughter shares her games with mom and little sister.