This series is based on the theories of renowned researcher Dr. Makoto Shichida, Professor of Education at the School of Education, Newport University in Japan and a published leader in the field of right brain studies.

BassAceGold has released a new version of his Brickfall game.

BassAceGold Wrote:

Well, I was one day later than i thought I would be but now It’s released. This version mainly includes bug fixes and improvements. I hope to focus more on levels and backgrounds in the other releases. Heres a list of all thats been fixed/updated.
BrickFall LP-5 Tuesday December 4th 2007

• New background rendering method: allows more detailed/better looking platforms!
• slight volume increase for mp3’s
• volume fix for .mod files
• some code cleanup and a lot of tweaks and fixes
• added text based pause menu
• can now go back to main menu from pause menu
• smoothed out transitions between menus
• 2 new items
• tweaked collisions
• fixed a few platforms
• works on g6 real now and probably any other card it didn’t work before
• new mp3 system (allows any sized mp3 files, stereo and up to 128 kbps mp3’s)
• added Lick’s Locator, brickfall folder can be placed any where on your card now

If you have the game previously installed, please delete the folders and recopy this version on. The game tends to load way longer than it should if you copy over the files.

Download

"Oh my..."

THQ has garnered quite a reputation for bringing out large quantities of average-quality licensed games lately, but their intentions have always seemed honorable. Bratz: Forever Diamondz, however, is an insult to the intelligence of young girls everywhere. Granted, little girls have changed since I was young, but if this game is an accurate representation of today's youth and where we are going, I can say without hesitance that there is little to no hope for our race.

Bratz: Forever Diamondz is not a fun game. It begins with a nonsensical driving mini game that gives Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing a run for its money. First you design your transport truck's paint job (what's it for, anyway?), and then you hit the road. There are no twists or turns and you cannot go off the road. There are no obstacles, and only a loosely defined goal: get to the end of the road. While you could simply hold down A and not even look at the screen, you're encouraged to pick up “blingz” (pink tokens) as you drive. While there are other cars on the road, you can essentially drive right over them with no serious repercussions, though regrettably losing some blingz in the process.

As the game progresses you shift between meaningless interludes in town, where you explore poorly designed cities in an RPG-esque fashion, completing various objectives, such as purchasing CDs or clothing. Certain mini-games will also be presented, though mostly optional. Virtually all of them are essentially as challenging and mentally stimulating as the first fun with trucks game, however. Even for a game whose primary audience consists of ten year old girls, Bratz: Forever Diamondz contains no challenge, no amusement and no substance.

The game's story makes little sense to me, but is probably the single redeeming factor Bratz: Forever Diamondz has to offer, if only for the absurdity that it is actually marketed towards children. Our heroes, as the founding members of Bratz Magazine, Cloe, Yasmin, Sasha and Jade are out to win some kind of contest by finding a number of girls to compete in the “America Rocks Fashion Show” in New York. The winning team gets a contract with fashion designer “Mucci Fiari”, and a pair of custom diamond go-go boots. It's almost a little offensive, the idea of such values being instilled in little kids these days. Our heroes are competing against Burdine Maxwell, the self-proclaimed queen of fashion, who I understand is a previous antagonist from another game. Despite much of the story being insulting, some of the dialogue is well-written and fairly witty, though probably over the head of its target audience. One of the antagonists in the game, one of Burdine's minions, seems to be suffering from a perpetual rhinoplasty recovery, her nose bandaged from the get-go. Pretty racy for a kid's game.

Bratz: Forever Diamondz sports fairly standard graphics for a THQ game. Adequate essentially sums it up well. The game is colorful and cheery as it should be. The girls are all animated well, with large detailed sprites. Backgrounds are fairly bland, however, sometimes looking more like something out of a NES title. Cut scenes are much better, using still frames of the characters in a well-done manner, looking much like what you would see on television or wherever the Bratz girls are featured outside of the game.

Musically, it's a bit of a standoff. Much of the fanfare rabble played before mini-games and while being given instructions is brutal, little more than a collection of beeps and buzzes. Outside of that it can be fairly catchy, usually composed of thumping disco beats with a voiceover “Yeah!!” thrown in for good measure. Unfortunately, there's only a small amount of differing tunes, and many of them are used far too often.

There's little play time to expect with this game. Most people will probably complete in a little over an hour, maybe less. While you can unlock mini games to play at the title screen as you go along, I didn't find any of them to be particularly engaging. I don't think this game is really worth picking up, especially if you have a kid sister. It'll probably do more harm than good. It might be worth a rent, I suppose.

"Rock on!"

Biker Mice From Mars is a great cartoon that came on back in late 1993. I used to watch this every Sunday on my local UPN station and I was hooked the first day watching it. It had moral values and it had great characters and villains (something that today's cartoons lack) A year later, Konami released this game and it's one of the best (and underrated) SNES games I ever played. Let's review shall we?

Sound/Music: I absolutely loved the music. It 's rock music, Biker Mice style but it's done in a good way (unlike Last Action Hero). Even though it can get a little repetitive, it's good to jam to. The sound effects are pretty good too. The characters (Modo, Throttle, Vinnie etc) voices match the ones on the show and you will be hearing quotes like "Rock On" and "Alright" quite a bit. Sound/Music gets a 10/10

Graphics: I have never seen a game with such great graphics, it's an SNES game, but it almost looks like an early Playstation game. The backgrounds and settings match the mood of the level and they are very detailed and well put together. The Biker Mice and the Villains look just like their cartoon counterparts and the motorcycles look exactly like motorcycles. Graphics gets a 10/10

Control: They can be hard to learn at first but as you play they get better and better. Yes, it took me a while to learn how to move the Biker Mice the correct way. But other than that, the controls are easy to learn. Control gets a 9/10.

Game Play:This is where the game shines. It's pretty self explanatory. You choose the Biker Mice/Villain you want to play and you race around 25 race tracks and buy new engines and weapons for your bike. It's like Rock n Roll Racing (another Konami game) but it's with Biker Mice From Mars characters. Unlike Super Mario Kart (my favorite racing game) you get paid to race. The game play was so great so it gets a 10/10.

Fun Factor: This game will provide you hours of fun. It's fun by yourself or with a friend.

Challenge: This game is pretty easy, it just takes practice learning the controls.

Replay Value: This is one of those games where you can come back to every time. This game definitely has some replay value.

Buy/Rent/Burn: BUY! This game is worth a buy and make sure you hold on to the gem.

The Grand Total (Give me numbers!)
Sound/Music:10/10
Graphics:10/10
Control:9/10
Game Play:10/10

The Total:9.75 rounded to a 10 for Game FAQS.

Conclusion: Biker Mice From Mars is a great game and cartoon. I wish they would release this cartoon on DVD because it's a great show and I hate it when they release the good shows later and the bad shows are already released. Anyways, this game is a great game and it's fun to enjoy. Happy gaming!

"A fun, grea--*crashes*"

An evil witch princess accidentally sends the Harvest Goddess away through misuse of a spell. The Harvest Sprites then go to help her. By farming and living your life, you have to bring them back! That is the story of the game. It's strange, but it's not very bad. It works well with how open ended Harvest Moon DS is.

In the Harvest Moon games, the basic idea is to farm. You plant crops. You raise animals. You can get married and have a kid. It may not seem too exciting, but it's very fun. This game is so extraordinarily addicting.

There are a wide variety of activities to do in Harvest Moon DS that make it both fun and interesting. You, as I have previously stated, can plant crops, raise animals, and get married. Socializing with other characters is necessary, but often dull. The villagers say the same things over and over! In fact, this game would be a bit better if it was not so repetitive. You do the same thing every in game day. It's fun, but more festivals would have been nice.

Controlling the game is smooth and easy through the use of the DS's touch screen. You can whiz through menus on the bottom screen and farm on the top screen, making the game control remarkably easy.

The graphics are nice. They are fully 2-D and look just like Harvest Moon Friends of Mineral Town for Gameboy Advance, but are much noticeably better. I really liked the graphics. The sound on the other hand, gets annoying. The music is not great. The same boring tunes play over. And over. Luckily, they only play in certain parts of the town. Unlike the music, the sound effects were actually pretty good. I liked them, for the most part.

You can play this game for a very long time. It goes on forever! There are many wives for you to marry and many things to discover. If you like to unlock everything, this game will last you for a very, very long time. However, as previously stated, this game is too repetitive, so it may get boring ..

Also, this game is extraordinarily glitchy. Glitches range from the game crashing (which is quite common), to corrupted save files, to people looking like pixelly blobs, to the town being empty. The glitches are very annoying, especially the common game crashing. If you do decide to get Harvest Moon DS, be sure to save often!

I really like this game, but the glitches make it only a 7/10.

Story: 8/10
Gameplay: 8.5/10
Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 7/10
Control: 10/10
Replay Value: 8.5/10
Overall: 7/10, for the amount of glitches.