EA releases their latest installment in the Godfather franchise to PS3, Xbox 360, and Microsoft Windows. The first installment in the series was a decent open-world game that many found amusing. Naturally, EA promises bigger and better things for this title. Did EA deliver in this title?

You play the game as Dominique, an up and coming member of the Corleone Family. It is your job to build a family of your own, recruit members with special abilities to assist you, take over businesses, and deal out death to your rival families.

The game takes you to three different cities: New York, Miami, and a town in Cuba. Every town has its own types of businesses, rather it be gambling, gun running, drug rings, etc. Each town also is home to different enemies you must contend with.

While the game does offer some new items that are interesting (Don’s View, customizable team combos, and specialized fatalities), the game does have some downfalls. Missions get repetitive, your empire is under constant attack and you will be babysitting your earned perks and money flow, and the game will keep you undermanned as you try to reach the top.

There are some good ways to kill your enemies, but in order to earn victory, you will have to take them out in certain ways. In order to do this, you must earn keys to find out how to kill them. You will fail at this more than once, either by you accidentally taking them down which only sends them to the hospital, or your NPC family members will shoot at them, resulting in hospital time for your target. Then you will have to wait for that enemy to recover only to try it again.

With repetitive gameplay, strange choices in character modeling (hair and clothes do not pull off that 70s feel too well), tedious controls in Don’s View, and tedious progression methods, Godfather II is an okay game.

This game is best if rented or wait until the game hits the bargain bin for under $20.

Nevertheless, here are the two entries for the week of Mar 9th.

WiiWare

Gradius ReBirth (Konami, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone-Mild Fantasy Violence, 1,000 Wii Points): Blast your way through levels filled with alien spaceships and otherworldly creatures in this retro side-scrolling shooter. Pick your weapons carefully and upgrade them to create a devastating arsenal of space-aged weapons that will aid you in your challenging mission. Players can post their high scores to worldwide leader boards via Nintendo® Wi-Fi Connection and see where they rank against all the other Gradius ReBirth players. Test your skills with Gradius ReBirth and see if you have what it takes to beat this action-packed arcade shooter.

Virtual Console

Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars™ (SEGA MASTER SYSTEM, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone-Comic Mischief, Crude Humor, 500 Wii Points): In this platformer from the 1980s, help Alex Kidd in a race against time to find the 12 missing zodiac signs hidden in six challenging levels-including toyland, the robot factory and an outer-space level-all complete with crazy enemies.

WiiWare™

Family & Friends Party (Gammick Entertainment, 1-8 players, Rated E for Everyone, 1,000 Wii Points): Have fun with all your friends and family as you take on some very exciting challenges. This is an interactive board game for as many as eight players of all ages. The goal is to be the first to complete a series of challenges. During each turn, a challenge will be played by one or two players per team depending on the type of challenge you’ve been given. (Other players on your team can still help and support you). There are six different “Single” challenges that must be played cooperatively by members of the same team. Family & Friends Party can also suggest “Versus” challenges, which must be played competitively by all teams at the same time.

Virtual Console™

Ogre Battle™: The March of the Black Queen™ (Super NES™, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone, 800 Wii Points): It’s up to you to defeat the Empire. It’s been nearly a quarter of a century since the Zetegenian Empire first conquered the Kingdoms of Zenobia with a wrath of fear and bloodshed. You are the leader of a band of rebels who’ve fought to preserve the last shred of honor in this desperate time of treachery. Manage the ranks of a full-blown rebel army, complete with hundreds of characters, magic items, weapons and mystical Tarot cards. You must succeed in ousting the evil usurpers-your fate, and that of the entire population, depends on it.

I think this time I will look into the past and devise a small wish list of games to what one would want to be on “Sonic’s Ultimate Saturn Collection”.

Although the disc size of the current era may not be able to hold 49 Saturn titles, hopefully it could hold a good 20-25. I will break down 10 they could give us. Most you may recognize–then there are a couple that might be known to less people, more so ones that I want for myself.

1) NIGHTS into Dreams

2) Panzer Dragoon Saga

3) Shining Force 3

4) Guardian Heroes

5) X-Men vs Street Fighter

6) Magic Knight Rayearth

7) Policenauts

8 ) Radiant Silvergun

9) Dragon Force

10) Shining the Holy Ark

Maybe SEGA will see there is still a market for retro games and keep the “Ultimate Collection” train rolling. Slap on the 720p HD graphics to these classic Saturn games, sell it to us for $30-$40 and call it a day.

Game Review: Nancy Drew: The White Wolf of Icicle Creek
Release: December 2, 2008
Genre: Mystery
Developer: Sega of America
Available Platforms: Nintendo Wii
Players: 1
MSRP: $29.99
ESRB Rating: E

The Wii received its first title from the Nancy Drew catalog a couple of months ago. This time around, the teenage detective sets out for the Icicle Creek lodge in the Canadian Rockies to investigate a string of strange accidents. Upon arrival, Nancy is hired as the new maid and chef, thus giving her a wide range of access to the guests’ rooms and other facilities of the lodge.

There is a interesting set of characters you must talk to and investigate to get to the bottom of the strange goings on. Time in the game will be used to investigate the rooms as you pick up the laundry, make beds, cook the meals, and warn the patrolling officers about thin ice and avalanches. You must stick to a schedule given by the owner of the lodge for these events, giving you the sense you are actually apart of the daily running of the lodge.

Some of the events are mini games you will play with the Wii Remote. One example is the cooking, where you must gather all of the ingredients and prepare the food in the style of Cooking Mama. There are other interesting puzzles in the game as you progress, these coming later on in the game.

The style of this game is like that of its PC counterpart, a point and click style adventure being guided by on screen prompts of arrows, a magnifying glass, etc. The graphics are decent, reminding me of an old PC game, The 7th Guest. Though the environments are pre-rendered, the detail of the lodge is spot on with every corner having its own feel. The areas of the lodge have their own style and do not feel copied and pasted from one area to the next. There are also lots of little areas to explore for clues to get to the bottom of Nancy’s investigation.

The story feels like a classic mystery novel and the voice acting of the game is good, though not award-winning.

There are a couple of items that bugged me about the game. While traveling around through the lodge gathering clues and doing the daily rounds, I found that the game requires loading in the middle of rooms or hallways. Though the loads are not long in duration, it is just the frequency that had me waiting. Another thing that I found a little off was the controls of the Wii Remote. These were usually only when trying to move around in a guest’s room or common areas of the lodge. Sometimes the game did not recognize quickly when you placed the cursor at the edge of the screen to turn the environment.  I found you will have to move the cursor away from the edge and then move it back to have the prompt for your next move appear. However, the controls work well for the puzzles and mini games.

Nancy Drew: The White Wolf of Icicle Creek is worth a rent, if not a buy. If you are a fan of mystery books, movies, or games, then this is a game you want to pick up. Though there may be some extra loading screens and some clunky controls, the element of a good mystery story is there. The puzzles and mini games are enjoyable. At $29.99, the price is just right for this title.

So what is Marble Saga?

The game revolves around the adventure of Anthony the Ant on his quest for the Golden Sunflower.  Help guide Anthony’s marble around the Ant World to gather essential items along the way in the ultimate goal to reach the Golden Sunflower and save his colony.  Face treacherous mazes, use awesome gadgets and balance the world (literally) with fun and intuitive controls only available on Wii.

There are 150 levels with 3 difficulties and no level is the same. Marble Saga also supports the Balance Board, Miis, wi-fi, and displays intuitive controls. You can also design your ball. Use upgrades to help you navigate through stages, place your Mii inside of the marble and watch him or her roll, or select preset fun avatars including rolling aliens, cats, dogs, and other interesting designs.

If playing through the developer levels was not enough, you can also customize your own levels and have them uploaded for others to play. Roll through the levels by yourself or have three of your friends join you.

The game also has the mechanics of 40 different widgets to help guide your marble including magnets, cannon vaults, shrinking machines, acceleration tubes, movable bridges, and much more.

So how is the demo?

The demo gave me the chance to play the first 5 levels. The controls are very simple with the Wii Remote, needing only to tilt it on its side, front, or back. You do not control the marble, but the map your marble moves around on. Depending on how much you tilt the controller makes the map move. The goal of each level is to collect the needed amount of gems in order to release the goal to cross. Race against your personal best times as each level has its own set of time trials to beat. These can also be uploaded to Leaderboards.

The first couple of stages were simple. The controls were responsive and the degree of tilt I applied to the controller seemed accurate. The only thing I wished I could have done was move the camera to look to where I needed to go next. At this point, the camera stays at one view and if you need to move your marble to the left or right to continue, you cannot turn the camera to the desired direction.

The three remaining levels offered more of a challenge and i fell off the map more than a couple times. Luckily there aren’t a specific amount of lives to pass the level. You only have to worry about damaging your time for level completion.

I didn’t get to see any of the widgets in the game in the first five levels, but the challenges were fun while traversing through an ice world and moving wood carts with the controller to advance to the next platform.

I got the feeling it had a bit of Mario Galaxy in its style of graphics and mechanics.

If Marble Saga: Kororinpa has a nice price when it comes out, this could be a must-have title for the Wii in 2009.

WiiWare

Evasive Space™ (Yukes Company of America, 1-4 players, Rated E for Everyone – Mild Fantasy Violence, 1,000 Wii Points): Launch a one-of-a-kind mission to rescue the stars. The universe is going dark, and it’s up to you, Konki the Stellar Guardian, to set things right. Dr. Dark Matter and his roving band of space thieves have stolen many of the Constellation Stones that make up the heavens. It’s time to suit up, power up, recover the Stones and once again bring light to the night sky. Using the Wii Remote™ controller’s unique pointer capabilities, simply point and thrust Konki through 20 dangerous time- and collection-based missions in the harshest of environments. Navigate through narrow, mazelike astral caves riddled with space worms, steam pipes and mining drills. Explore vast space stations while avoiding turret fire, mines and huge crushing gears. Weave through cluttered asteroid fields and gaseous planetary rings. Evade the hazards, pick up precious items and ship upgrades, and save the Constellation Stones before the night sky is lost forever.

Virtual Console

Life Force (NES, 1-2 players, Rated E for Everyone – Mild Fantasy Violence, 500 Wii Points): This classic shooter, originally ported to the NES in August 1988, is a spin-off of the seminal Gradius series. Pilot the Vic Viper through six stages of intense action, alternating between horizontally and vertically scrolling environments, and take on wave after wave of enemies. Destroy particular enemies throughout the game (which takes place within the body of an enormous alien) to release power-up capsules and equip your ship with your choice of more powerful weapons, extra speed and shields. Utilize the power-ups carefully, though, as a fearsome guardian lurks at the end of each stage and won’t be easily defeated. You can go it alone or bring along a friend to take on the challenge simultaneously. Do you have what it takes to save your planet?

Game Review: Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection
Release: February 11th, 2009
Genre: Compilation
Developer: Backbone Entertainment
Available Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Players: 1-2 (offline)
MSRP: $29.99
ESRB Rating: E 10+

Website: http://www.sega.com/games/sonics-ultimate-genesis-collection

The time has come for you to put away your emulators. Backbone Entertainment and SEGA have released the ‘ultimate collection’ for the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Many of us as children remember playing hours of Genesis games, even though others were strictly Nintendo players. Either way you look at it now, this compilation offers something for everyone. This title gives you 49 games to chose from. When it is broken down, that’s 40 SEGA Genesis titles and 9 unlockable SEGA arcade titles.

The games included cover a nice variety of genres. You have the classic Sonic games such as Sonic the Hedgehog 1, 2, and 3, Sonic Spinball, Sonic 3D, and other of the blue-spiked variety. There is also a good representation of the Genesis RPG games like Phantasy Star 1, 2, 3, and 4, Shining Force 1 and 2, and Beyond Oasis. Not forgotten, you also get plenty of beat-em-up games. Streets of Rage 1, 2, and 3 are here. You also can magic your way through Golden Axe 1, 2, and 3. Of course, there are other games on the disc that I did not mention here.

Though the games come with a somewhat upgraded HD quality, the games will not wow you as other games of today’s era will. But this game is not meant to impress you with graphics, though colorful. This game is about gameplay and a brief look to where we came from as a video game culture.

There is an option to put games in a 16:9 ratio for your widescreen television and when this is turned on, the games look like they belong in this format, not looking stretched or out of place. The controls are responsive and accurate, supporting both the analog stick and the d-pad. The games play as the originals and the translation to the newer consoles did not sacrifice the controls or gameplay.

Though not all of the titles will be your favorites, the great games on the disc will outweigh those you might find odd to be included. There are some notable games not on Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection, but I can only hope they are holding out these titles for a sequel to this compilation.

Also, not included with Ultimate Collection is the lack of online gameplay and leaderboards. Games like Streets of Rage or Golden Axe would be perfect with a friend on the PSN or Xbox Live.

The bottom line for this game is: this is a must-buy for any gamer, hardcore or casual. The price is only $30 and you get 49 games. With this many titles on the disc, you will be entertained for hours, days, and months on end. If you weren’t into SEGA as a child, or these games were before your time, go and pick up this game.

WiiWare

LIT (WayForward Technologies, 1 player, Rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and Older—Violence, 800 Wii Points): Dark creatures have taken over Jake’s high school, and it’s up to you to guide him through each classroom in order to be reunited with his girlfriend Rachael. Existing light sources must be used smartly to create bridges of light for Jake to cross. One false step and Jake gets pulled into the darkness. Along the way he’ll encounter twisted versions of his school’s faculty, which must be battled in order to advance. LIT is a horror/puzzle game that requires the Wii Remote™ and Nunchuk™ controllers. It contains 30 levels, five boss battles, replay modes and several unlockables, including multiple endings, Dark Mode timed challenges and an unlockable character.

Virtual Console

Wolf of the Battlefield™: MERCS (SEGA GENESIS, 1 player, Rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and Older—Mild Violence, 800 Wii Points): Following a rash of terrorism outbreaks and increasing opposition from guerilla fighters, the U.S. government has decided to hire a group of professional mercenaries to undergo secret missions, battling through enemy lines to go where no ordinary soldier would dare to go. Based on the popular arcade game, the SEGA GENESIS version of MERCS lets you play as a MERC and also adds an original mode, allowing players to choose from five different characters. Take no prisoners as you shoot, drive jeeps and tanks, and clash against huge bosses to accomplish your mission.

Some of the topics of this interview include:
* What Godfather II is all about
* What the gameplay is like
* What it feels like to be “The Don” and what powers it possesses
* New features coming to Godfather II that vary from the first title
* Specs of Godfather II
* Getting to know Joel Wade
* Plus much more

You also get to hear what Edie sounds like after being up for thirty straight hours.

I wish to thank Joel Wade and everyone else over at EA who made this interview happen. We here at Platform Nation thank you for this opportunity. I hope everyone enjoys this original interview.