Nintendo Consoles

Mortal Kombat: Deception

Posted by binarymessiah on 05/16/2019
Posted in: Gamecube, Microsoft Consoles, Nintendo Consoles, PlayStation 2, Sony Consoles, Xbox. Leave a comment

37546-mortal-kombat-deception-premium-pack-xbox-front-coverPublisher: Midway8.5

Developer: Midway

Release Date: 10/04/2004

Rating: Mature

MSRP: $49.99

Also Available On

ps2

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The very first game I ever pre-ordered. I have never been more excited for a game in my life. Watching gameplay trailers on a PC from 1997 on a 19″ CRT monitor while I stash away allowance bit by bit to get the Premium Pack for PS2. 2004 was an exciting year for gaming and for Mortal Kombat. With Deadly Alliance receiving mostly positive reviews, but a lot of criticism from reviewers, Deception turned everything to 11 and added interactive arenas, more game modes, online fighting. Yes, the online part was the biggest selling point of Deception.

This is the direct sequel to Deadly Alliance. Quan Chi and Shang Tsung have failed to take over and Onaga The Dragon King has decided to rise from Outworld and claim everything as his. A man named Shujinko is now the game’s lead (the first of many to come in later games) who must stop the Dragon King and reverse the actions he made during the Konquest mode that helped give Onaga his power.

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Let’s talk about Konquest mode first as most people will dive into it right away. It’s awful and should never have existed. It’s an expansion on Konquest from Deadly Alliance in which Raiden just walks along a path and each “level” is a training tutorial for all the characters. This is an adventure mode where you get quests, find the treasure for the Krypt, hidden secrets, and find out the back story to Deception, as well as meet many MK fighters and surprises. Sounds great on paper right? Well, it’s horribly executed as one of the worst attempts at a free-roaming RPG/adventure hybrid I’ve ever seen. Shujinko runs around in supersonic fast forward motion, the realms are void of any life, they are terribly laid out, and the worlds rely on a grid system to figure out where every secret and item is. The problem is that the map is useless with no actual grid on the map so you run around for 10 minutes trying to find D2 or H8 only to realize it’s locked away and you can’t go there until you complete the Konquest.

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That’s the main downfall of Konquest. Quests aren’t logged and the entire game has to be played with a guide. It would take dozens and dozens of hours to figure everything out yourself as locations to solve quests and even chests are incredibly cryptic or specific. Some chests with Krypt keys only appear at certain days of the month and times and you would never know without a guide. You can meditate to make time move by faster, but this whole entire game mode is just frustrating, messy, and irritating. Doing the actual main quests are fine as there’s always a large green pillar of light pointing where to go, but talking to a random character and getting a one-sentence quest saying to find a gem is not how quests should be done.

On top of all this, the worlds are terribly laid out. They try to force a look onto each realm such as Chaosrealm having magic portals that project to you various little floating islands that are “chaotically” made up and don’t make sense. Orderrealm is just a giant circle floating in the sky with “order” to the layout and it looks nice and dystopian. It’s a little corny with the way the worlds are represented, but it’s kind of cool to finally explore these areas despite there being nothing to do in them. The visuals are also abysmal as this looks like an early PS2 game that launched, even a little worse than that. Horrendous textures and models, awful voice acting, and laughable animations. It looks like an amateur game developer made this in a weekend.

Outside of Konquest is when things are much better when you actually get to fighting. If any game were to use realistic martial arts it’s Mortal Kombat. This fighting system and this era of games aren’t most peoples’ favorite. The realism is nice with some good animations and each character having two martial arts and a weapon style. You can branch into these styles with long combo strings, but that’s where the issue lies. This realistic slower fighting style is in contrast to the fast-paced action of the 2D games. The characters look like stiff plastic dolls and the combat is all about memorized combos. It’s fun, and it works with Mortal Kombat, but it’s also not the best way to play these games. The slower fighting pace means more strategy is involved and a new Breaker system has been added to quickly get out of combos.

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The interactive environments are some of the coolest features of Deception as they are basically fatalities within a stage. There are yellow lines that indicate when a player can get knocked out and take damage to a new tier and red lines that will kill the player. The arenas are large enough to where a game of tug-of-war always ensues and it makes playing tenser, especially online. Do you just knock them into the trap or play with them so you can do a fatality? Speaking of fatalities, each character has two unique ones and some are great and some are lame. Li Mei, for example, has two fatalities that are just boring. Super punches to the chest and you explode? Yawn. Kick your head off? Seen it before. Some others are rather runny and unique, but there are also Hara Kiris that allow the loser to do a fatality on themselves taking the glory away from the opponent. Whoever inputs there code first gets to take the fun.

Outside of combat, you can play Puzzle Kombat which is just Street Fighter Puzzle with MK characters. At the end of each round there is a fatality unique to the player, but getting your power level up means you can perform a special move that each character has. It can be played online as well and is super addicting and can be a game on its own. The last mode is Chess Kombat which is one of the most unique modes to ever grace a fighting game. Just like a game of chess, you can pick which character is what piece and you play chess, but instead of just knocking a piece over you fight it out MK style. Each piece gets a certain amount of health so pawns of the least amount of health. It’s a great twist that adds more skill to the game and can also be played online. It’s a ton of fun and I hope this mode returns to future games.

Besides the Krypt where you can unlock various stuff for fans like promo videos, behind the scenes art, and various goodies, there’s not much else. Online play is incredibly smooth with a full lobby that you can talk to other players in, challenge players, and you have a win/loss ratio next to your name. I never had any connection drops and playing online extends the longevity of the game tenfold.

I also want to talk about the new characters. Since MK4, Midway has had trouble adding interesting new characters and that trend continues for the third time. Dairou and Havik are just boring awful characters that don’t have any personality or soul. They feel forced and I’d rather have a classic character put in than these two.

Overall, MK: Deception is a fantastic fighting game that is only hampered by slower combat, and a horrible Konquest mode that must be played to unlock half the game’s roster and extra costumes. Puzzle and Chess Kombat are excellent modes that add dozens of hours of fun, and online play is always welcome.

Note: As of May 31, 2014, you can no longer play Deception online due to GameSpy servers being shut down. Even then, not a single person played this online past 2006-2007. As Armageddon and other fighters came out Deception’s user base quickly fell after the first 18 months and never went back up. Get a buddy to play next to you instead.

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Resident Evil 3: Nemesis

Posted by binarymessiah on 05/07/2019
Posted in: Dreamcast, Gamecube, Nintendo Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation (PS1), Retro Consoles, Sony Consoles. Leave a comment

!!eD()2Q!2M_$(KGrHqZ,!g4E0eb5LOR4BNSyJd5bNw___62Publisher: Capcom8.0

Developer: Capcom

Release Date: 11/17/2000

Rating: Mature

MSRP: $49.99

Also Available On

ps1

windows

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Resident Evil has been more about tense action, inventory management, and puzzles more than horror. RE3 polishes up the already not so smooth gameplay of Resident Evil and ports it over to the Dreamcast to make another buck off of it. RE3 doesn’t really have much of a story, but the tense action, puzzle solving, and always looming Nemesis boss make this one of the tensest games of the era.

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You play as Jill Valentine (the star of the first game) and are back in Racoon City this time to try and find out what happened during the outbreak. Being a direct sequel to the second game, you visit a few familiar areas and some Easter Eggs are tossed in. Outside of running around collecting ammo, healing items, documents, and various things of that nature you solve puzzles and mow down armies of the undead and genetically modified. New enemies crop up that are freaky and challenging and the only boss in the game is Nemesis who is a tough monster and choices are thrown into the game on where the story goes. These choices impact where you start in locations and how you approach fighting the Nemesis. One choice kept the Nemesis from chasing me around town, but I was going to have to fight him early on. You can totally avoid fighting him in most cases, but he becomes stronger the less you fight him.

I honestly recommend playing this game on easy mode the first time as you get tons of healing items and weapons at the start as well as infinite save ribbons. This mode should be used first for another reason and that’s to learn the layout of the game. Resident Evil is a game where enemy location, map layout, and puzzle solving are a must before attempting harder modes. Now with all that said, I do find earlier Resident Evil games tough outside of just combat as without a guide you can get lost and frustrated quickly as puzzles are obtuse, there might be objects you saw hours ago that you have to go back and get such as the Downtown/Uptown maps in this game. It’s imperative to write things down if you don’t have a guide as you will run around for hours trying to find that one item that you can’t remember. 

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The story and characters are nothing special but the voice acting is surprisingly decent for its time. We don’t learn much about Umbrella outside of someone going in and trying to pop off the supervisors throughout the city and cover up the T-virus outbreak. There’s no character development or anything like that so you’re mostly playing for the action. The visuals are rather nice, but at this point, the pre-rendered backgrounds were getting tiring and the Dreamcast version is a slightly smoother PlayStation version, but there’s not much of a difference. I would have liked to have seen more modes, better visuals, and new content for a new $50 release, but what we get is mainly for newcomers.

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I highly recommend RE3 on the Dreamcast. At this point is the definitive version of the game and the best the series has to offer up until this point. Don’t expect a deep story, have a guide ready, and you’ll be in for a good 8-10 hours of intense action and fun.

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WarioWare: Smooth Moves

Posted by binarymessiah on 04/14/2019
Posted in: Nintendo Consoles, Wii. Leave a comment

81142-warioware-smooth-moves-wii-front-coverPublisher: Nintendo7.0

Developer: Intelligent Systems

Release Date: 01/15/2007

Rating: Everyone 10+

MSRP: $49.99

Available Exclusively On

wii

 

 

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WarioWare has always been about showing off the capabilities of Nintendo’s systems, usually in the controls department. Each iteration has been 100% unique to that system starting back on the GameBoy Advance. Smooth Moves uses the Wii Remote and Nunchuck in really unique and fun ways, but just like too much fun, it only lasts as long as a snack.

Just like every other WarioWare game you play small microgames that last 5 seconds each and are only given a single word clue on how to complete that mini-game. It goes by in a flash and requires quick reflexes to complete. The main map of the game consists of 8 different mini-game stories that are just little hand-drawn cut scenes to make some sense of the crazy sense of humor. Games range from opening a door to weird men, picking a nose, shaving a beard, and whacking people with bats. There are probably 30 some odd mini-games here, but sadly you can go through all of them in less than an hour.

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That’s about how long this game lasts fun wise as well. There are some side games like can shooter, stack the blocks, and a few others, but they get boring quick. Honestly, this is a good entry game for new Wii system owners as you have to hold the Wii Remote in certain ways such as on top of your head, on your nose, and like a steering wheel. There are various “positions” that flash before each microgame on how to hold the Wii Remote making this probably the most unique WarioWare game ever made. It’s super silly, incredibly funny, but also frustrating.

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Some mini-games take several tries to understand what you’re supposed to do and I got a game over many times because I just couldn’t figure out the microgame fast enough. It’s not a big deal because each “story” only lasts about 3 minutes and you quickly go through all 15 micro games to reach a “boss”. This boss fight lasts 10 seconds and is just an extended version of the microgames. This includes driving around corners without hitting anything, playing the original StarFox, and a dancing mini-game.

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I honestly would have been made to pay $50 for this game when it released as it’s easily a $20 game at best. It feels like a budget game, but it isn’t bad at all just incredibly short and more fun to play with people around. I would have liked a party mode where other players have to jump after each microgame to make things crazy or even some 2 person mini-games. There’s a lot of missed potential here, but what we get is a lot of fun.

Overall, Smooth Moves lasts about as long as a large bucket of popcorn and it’s all over leaving you wanting more. It shows you how unique the Wii controls are, but doesn’t offer anything meaty to satisfy this unique playset.

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The Last Story

Posted by binarymessiah on 04/14/2019
Posted in: Nintendo Consoles, Wii. Leave a comment

518uq9OjX4L._AC_SX215_Publisher: Nintendo8.5

Developer: Mistwalker

Release Date: 08/14/2012

Rating: Teen

MSRP: $49.99

Available Exclusively On

 

wii

 

 

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You’re a mercenary who wants to become a knight in a far off land with two races at war with each other. On top of that, you accidentally fall in love with the princess and end up in a political war and the savior of the world. Sounds like a typical JRPG doesn’t it? Well it kind of is, but the story is incredibly engaging and I can’t give more away without spoiling it. It takes a little while to pick up, but there were some unexpected plot twists and turns in the story that had me blow through this game in 3 days. That’s how engaging this game is. I wanted to play more and keep going further because I cared about the characters and what they were going to do next.

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The Last Story plays a lot different than any other JRPG out there, so much so, I have yet to play one that is like it. The combat system is both real-time and pause based with deeper strategies slowly unlocking as you progress through the game. What’s great is the game starts off super easy and simple, and I honestly didn’t really get a game over until two-thirds through the game, but then it got really tough and challenging, but just enough to make me think a little and really decide my next decision rather than hacking away blindly. The main mechanic around all of the combat is Zael’s Gathering ability which makes all enemies go towards him. This is needed for strategic reasons as you have magic party members that cast spells on a timer. If they get hit that timer resets, so you need to have all the enemies come towards you and your other melee fighters. This seems like instant death, but their movement slows down and the magic fighters’ cast speed increasing double so there are benefits to this. You can also use your gathering as a burst weapon if you get hit enough times.

You can also snap to walls and take cover as well as peak out and hit enemies with your crossbow. This also lets you see enemies weaknesses which are mandatory later on when trying to figure out how to kill enemies. Sadly, this isn’t as smooth as it sounds. The controls are really sticky so if you don’t face the wall exactly head-on you won’t get the prompt, and this includes using the wall-run move which is hindered by the camera that uncontrollable. I also had issues when attacking an enemy by just pressing forward on the C-stick I couldn’t quickly back out or dodge. I would snap the stick back and I would still be attacking and this was usually the main reason why I would die. Speaking of dying, you get 5 lives and then it’s game over. This sounds like it’s easy, but it works well with this combat system and there were plenty of times I ran out of all 5 lives pretty quickly. You can get more lives during combat with a Revive skill or an item.

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Outside of whacking enemies you can pause the battle by pressing up on the D-pad and choose your main skill, regular skill, retreat to a healing circle, or guard. Your main skill requires a meter to fill up before using it, and to command your party members your command bar must have all bars filled so you can’t abuse it. You can also use these bar segments to use your Gale move which lets you dash around the battlefield knocking enemies over. It’s a very interesting and intricate combat system that you end up mastering by the end of the game or you won’t pass the tough bosses in the last few chapters. They require all of your knowledge of the combat system and learning each party members moves and all their strengths.

Every so often the game does change things up by throwing an enemy at you that can only be killed on dry land and heals in water, there are throwables scattered some times, and destructible environments to make killing groups a little easier. Once a battle is over you level up and can collect items. These items randomize as you approach them with a slot machine-style spin and range from weapons, armor, and crafting items.

Weapons and armor work a little differently here as you won’t really buy weapons after the first 10 chapters and instead just upgrade the weapons you pick up, and same goes for armor. I always found a more powerful weapon from a boss or tough enemy and never had issues with that. Thankfully there’s an auto-equip feature, which I love in JRPGs, and does a good job making sure everyone gets what makes them the strongest. I never really had to manually equip anything.

Outside of combat there are some optional chapters you can complete, but honestly they’re a complete waste of time as the items you get aren’t much better from what you will get during the story and there are no extra plot paths or anything like that. It’s literally just to level up a little bit, but even grinding isn’t needed in this game as you level up so quickly during the story. Most of the story is progressed by entering rooms, talking to people, or leaving and coming back to the main castle, most NPCs give you clues as to where to go so that was never a huge problem. There really isn’t much to explore here as many areas repeat a few times and the castle area is rather small equaling to the size of a market center in most games. I wish I could have traveled around more, but the story explains why you don’t really go anywhere and it makes sense.

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Let’s talk about the production values a bit. The game looks fantastic for a Wii game with lots of detail, good lighting effects, and huge vistas, but it comes at a huge price. The game slows down to single digit frames constantly whenever the camera pans out too far or you get a vista shot. Even during combat when there are a lot of effects on screen the game crawls and makes things frustrating as the controls then don’t respond during these times. There’s tons of horrible aliasing and the textures are muddy because Mistwalker tried pushing the system way too far. It still looks great but also looks bad because you can see the Wii struggle so hard just to render a single face on the screen and it looks like a GameCube game at best. The voice acting is actually pretty decent for a localized JRPG and like I said earlier, the story is just amazing and memorable.

Overall, The Last Story is a must play for any Wii owner. It strays far enough away from JRPG tropes to be unique and has enough action gameplay to keep people from getting bored. The lack of grinding needed, engaging story, great characters, and interesting combat is enough to get you through the 20-25 hour story. You do have to forgive the visuals and some minor control issues.

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Cursed Mountain

Posted by binarymessiah on 04/11/2019
Posted in: Nintendo Consoles, PC Reviews, Wii. Leave a comment

220px-Cursed_MountainPublisher: Deep Silver6.0

Developer: Koch Media

Release Date: 08/25/2009

Rating: Mature

MSRP: $49.99

Also Available On

windows

 

 

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Climbing a mountain can be tough, but climbing one of the highest and most remote is even tougher. You play as a man named Eric who is destined to find his brother after he went missing during a mountain climb to find a secret Tibetan treasure. What he finds along his journey is a dark past and strange company, but mainly finding the strength within himself to complete his journey.

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The story is decent at best but has many plot holes, awful storyboard cut scenes, and terrible voice acting, but still enough to keep you trucking along. The game plays a lot with the supernatural and Tibetan history and lore which is nice, but it’s easily forgettable. You never know what the secret treasure is ultimately for, who the expedition company is that’s involved, and many other questions that are never answered.

Nevertheless, you basically walk around various buildings and ruins as you slowly climb this giant mountain. The game changes slowly as you reach the peak with different gameplay elements tossed in, and I have to give the game some credit for mixing things up, but it doesn’t do any of these things very well. Let’s start with simply moving. Eric moves like he’s constipated and the controls are pretty bad. Bump into a wall and he sticks to it, the camera will get stuck behind objects as you can’t control it, and combat is pretty bad as well.

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You have a pickaxe that has ancient items attached to it with powers that allows you to access your “third eye” and see ghosts so you can kill them. Each encounter is arena based so you’re stuck in a small room with these things. Holding down C allows you to enter this mode, but you can’t move and Eric’s shoulder blocks the entire left half of the screen as the FOV is too low and it’s hard to see. You can see the reticle through Eric, but not the enemies. The ghosts have various attacks and powers, but overall they mainly mob you and attack you the same. The goal is to shoot the projectiles from the pick to weaken the enemies enough to enter a quick-time event of aimlessly flailing the Wii Remote around to kill them. Miss the even and you have to attack them one more time to make the prompt appear. This is by far some of the worst Wii controls I’ve experienced as the prompts require a punching and swinging action, but no matter how well I did them – either fast or slow – It would only register half the time. To make matters worse, this is the reason why I died half the time. Then there’s the fact that you can’t move while aiming so these are 1997 tank controls in a modern game. There isn’t even a quick turn button so I can quickly run away and swing back around. I have to aim and fully turn all the way around and then the enemy is back on me again. It’s the worst.

Let’s also mention the two areas where you have to meditate and swing the Wii Remote around. I spent 10 minutes just trying to find the spot where the game wants me to be and then hold that position and keep swinging until the screen faded. I’ve never experienced such unresponsiveness and inaccuracy in the controls. Were these even tested? As you progress further into the game the enemies get harder and there are more of them. You fight probably 100 ghosts just in the second half of the game…that’s a lot of unresponsive Wii flinging.

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With all of that aside, the game is poorly paced with minutes of endless walking and climbing that is slow and tedious and the checkpoints are placed poorly. I would die during a boss fight just to fight the ghosts leading up to the boss again instead of the checkpoint is right before the boss. Dying isn’t really an issue if you’re quick as killing an enemy gives you health, but there are incense you can pick up to use at healing stations if you need it.

Outside of this, the visuals are pretty decent while pushing the Wii way too hard with slowdown that is frequent and runs in the single digits it still looks decent. The audio sounds like a PS2 game with the same footstep sound through the whole game and low-quality audio bites. I honestly feel like this was developed for the GameCube and was pushed to the Wii last minute.

Overall, is Cursed Mountain worth playing? Yes, and no for many reasons. If you are running out of games to play on your Wii then go for it, or if you’re just getting into the Wii then it’s a good pick-up, but what experience do you get out of it? Just to kill time really. The story isn’t memorable, it’s not scary, and the controls suck, so mainly get it just because you need another Wii game to play.

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Far Cry Games Ranked Worst to Best

Posted by binarymessiah on 11/17/2018
Posted in: Blogs, Microsoft Consoles, Nintendo Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Ranked Worst to Best, Sony Consoles, Wii, Xbox, Xbox One, Xbox360. Leave a comment

256px-Far_Cry_Vengeance_-_Box_Front9. Far Cry: Vengeance – 2006

Vengeance was a weird experiment for the series and was exclusive to the Wii. The game engine was downgraded and crammed into a weak console and just didn’t work. The controls were awful, and the game just felt like a PS2 game, to be honest. It was ugly, clunky, glitchy, and was just not fun to play. I can only recommend this game for people only curious and want to have something to laugh at.

220px-Far_Cry_2_cover_art8. Far Cry 2 – 2008

Far Cry 2 had some big shoes to fill, especially after 4 years since the first game was released. What we got was a generic game filled with not much to do and a boring world to play in. The shooting was good and there were some fun moments, but overall the game was so boring to me and didn’t quite change enough to make this game feel like an amazing sequel.

Best Version: PC

download7. Far Cry – 2004

The first game isn’t the best in the series, but it was mainly remembered as a technical marvel back in 2004 and crippled PCs like no other game before it. The insane draw distances, textures, and lighting effects were stunning for its time and the massive multiplayer maps were revolutionary. The game wasn’t remembered for its story or characters and was also bashed for its terrible stealth gameplay, but this is a fun game to go back to.

Best Version: PC

download (1)6. Far Cry: Instincts – 2005

Instincts was the first console outing for the series and it was well praised as both a technical achievement and well-rounded stealth gameplay and intuitive controls. Originally released for the Xbox and later upgrade to the Xbox 360, Instincts is just a solid game all around. While it still didn’t tread the story and characters path like later games did, the core gameplay is solid and is still one of the best shooters on Xbox.

Best Version: Xbox 360

220px-Far_Cry_4_box_art5. Far Cry 4 – 2014

Far Cry 4 was too little too late for the series and tried to be too much like Far Cry 3. The game looked fantastic on its updated engine for next-generation consoles, but it was mostly boring and had awful characters. The “Ubisofty” gameplay was ever prevalent here and held the game back with formulaic item hunting and boring fetch quests. Honestly, this game is probably my least favorite in the whole series and is incredibly forgettable.

Best Version: PC

220px-Far_Cry_Primal_cover_art4. Far Cry: Primal – 2016

Primal actually tried the change the entire game for the first time by going back to prehistoric times. It seems drastic and over exaggerated, but it helped the series break free of the typical formulaic “Ubisofty” gameplay and tone down the bullet heavy gameplay with spears and ancient weapons of the past. It is incredibly fun and different from the other games despite still not treading too much new territory.

Best Version: PC

220px-Far_Cry_3_PAL_box_art3. Far Cry 3 – 2012

This is by far the best game in terms of story and characters. The main villain is memorable and vicious and the overall premise of the game just keeps you hooked. This was the first time Ubisoft changed up their game engine and started using next-generation effects and expanded the gameplay to what we see in Far Cry today. It was a well-rounded game with good stealth implementation and tons of action and things to do.

Best Version: PC

B1IxW7FOSeS._SY445_2. Far Cry 5 – 2018

Far Cry 5 is the culmination of the entire franchise and perfects it and pushes it towards a new medium and that’s an FPSRPG. The missions are more organic and pop up as you explore rather than a map marker hunter type of experience. The story and characters are further advanced and this is the most story rich game since Far Cry 3. The game looks beautiful, plays well, and has so much to do and is just a great shooter.

Best Version: PC

220px-FC3_Blood_Dragon_Cover1. Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon – 2013

Blood Dragon is an interesting game as it was a side project and was made on a low budget. Using actors from the 80’s to voice the characters and having an 80’s action movie vibe the animations to the guns themselves just ooze personality, and I honestly wish we’d get a sequel. I never had so much fun in the series as I did with Blood Dragon and it shows that drastic experimentation can work in the series and in games in general. This remains most fans favorite in the series.

Best Version: PC

Medal of Honor Games Ranked Worst to Best

Posted by binarymessiah on 11/17/2018
Posted in: Blogs, GameBoy Advance, Gamecube, Mac, Microsoft Consoles, Nintendo Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation (PS1), PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PSP, Sony Consoles, Wii, Xbox, Xbox360. Leave a comment

220px-Medal_of_Honor_2010_Box_art13. Medal of Honor – 2010

Reboots are usually good for a game franchise as it allows new ideas and advances the series to new heights, but sometimes it’s not successful. Medal of Honor was a hyped up generic military shooter where you play as Tier 1 specialists in the Afghani war, and it was a bug-ridden mess. The game was also ugly, stale, and just felt like a total Call of Duty rip-off. This was easily the worst game in the entire series.

Best Version: PC

MOHRSbox12. Medal of Honor: Rising Sun – 2003

Rising Sun was riding on the success of Frontline and it’s new found glory with console gamers, but what we got was an ugly rushed mess of a game. Rising Sun tried to show us the frontline in Japan, but what we had was just some dated gameplay and some of the worst level design the series has ever seen. I don’t know what happened within a year, but the development rush is obvious here.

Best Version: Xbox

MV5BYjM3OTNkMzItMzRmMS00N2Y5LTk4MzUtYTU4OWUzYzlmNDJmXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNzg5OTk2OA@@._V1_11. Medal of Honor: Airborne – 2007

The first game in the series to try and reboot it with little success. Using next-generation hardware, the game looked impressive but used a weird multiplayer map style layout and open-ended objectives that just led to the generic level design and frustrating gameplay. The guns were highly inaccurate, and it was ridiculously difficult and plain boring. It’s clear that this series just can’t hit the reboot stride correctly.

Best Version: PC

220px-Warfighter10. Medal of Honor: Warfighter – 2012

Warfighter was a slightly more successful game with the new modern warfare formula with a much more entertaining campaign and better visuals, but overall it still felt generic and pointless in a bloated military shooter scene.

 

Best Version: PC

Medal_of_Honor_Vanguard9. Medal of Honor: Vanguard – 2007

Vanguard is a much-forgotten game in the series as by the time this came around Modern Warfare was already out and the next-generation of consoles was in full swing and no one cared. Using an old engine and gameplay, Vanguard was the last in the series to use the typical Medal of Honor WWII formula. The game wasn’t awful just super generic, boring, and just standard affair that we have seen before.

Best Version: Wii

220px-MOHFbox8. Medal of Honor: Frontline – 2002

Frontline was the first game in the series on consoles, and this game is one I have fond memories of. I remember the opening scene just blew my mind and was incredibly cinematic for the time. Sadly, there was no multiplayer, but at the time I didn’t care. It still wasn’t the best game in the series, and it was clear the less powerful consoles held the series back some, but it was a good start.

Best Version: Xbox

Medalofhonorsheroes7. Medal of Honor: Heroes – 2006

A strange game stuck in a weird time. The next-generation consoles were already here and Heroes stuck to a gameplay style designed for handhelds and the Wii. It was a decent game and felt good on each console it was on, but this was a generic as WWII shooters come. Even the production values were lacking on a dated engine and gameplay.

Best Version: Wii

220px-Medal_of_Honor_-_European_Assault_Coverart6. Medal of Honor: European Assault – 2005

European Assault was not so much overlooked but overstepped. Everyone was starting to wane with the WWII shooters and European Assault was a mildly generic form of the genre that played well but didn’t add anything terribly new to wow anyone.

 

Best Version: Xbox

220px-MoHH2BoxArt5. Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 – 2007

Heroes 2 was a rushed sequel, but somehow improved upon the first game and continued to use the dated engine and gameplay style of its predecessor. This and Vanguard were the last of its kind and were washed away with the new generation of consoles and graphics that just made everyone forget about these games.

Best Version: Wii

download4. Medal of Honor – 1999

The original isn’t always the best, but it was really impressive on the PS1 back in the day and helped pave the way for modern FPS games to this day. It was a little clunky and basic, but did its job well and is still fun to play to this day.

 

220px-Medal_of_Honor_-_Underground_Coverart3. Medal of Honor: Underground – 2000

A much-improved game over the first one, but was released right when the next-generation of consoles was out and was kind of overlooked by the PS2, Dreamcast, and GameCube. It looked amazing on the PS1 and added a totally new campaign, but everyone was mostly over this generation of consoles by now.

Best Version: PS1

Medal_of_Honor_-_Allied_Assault_Coverart2. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault – 2002

The game that made Medal of Honor was it was and released just before its console debut. It looked fantastic on the PC and was followed by two expansion packs. AA remains many players favorite game in the series for its PC specific greatness such as solid controls, visuals, and scope.

 

PacificAssaultBox1. Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault – 2004

My personal favorite game in the series due to the sheer cinematic quality and visual flair of the game. It was the last PC exclusive game in the series but felt and played amazingly well with a fantastic campaign and fun multiplayer. Medal of Honor, sadly, reached its peak early on, but it did it well and with a bang.