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NBA BALLERS: CHOSEN ONE
Like the previous games in the series, NBA Ballers: Chosen One, is a fast–and–loose basketball game with one–on–one games played on a half court instead of the usual five–on–five game on a full court. Midway also removes a lot of the rules and threw in some of their own to spice up the game. Chosen One follows the story of an unknown, up–and–coming street baller as he works to make a name for himself by participating in a fictional, off–season basketball tournament full of the sport’s biggest names. The tournament is broken up into six episodes, each with five chapters, starting with the newbie’s introduction to the high–profile event and ending with his eventual supremacy. Before you hit the court though, players are tasked with first creating their custom basketball player. The create–a–player system, while not as good as what you’d find in the Tiger Woods Golf series, still works nicely for the most part. You pick a nickname, assign an allotment of attribute points to get your career rolling, and then hit the court for the very first time. Attribute progression is handled a bit differently in Chosen One, as the game auto–assigns these points based on how you played the game, rather than let you perform your own point allocation. I am not great at sports games and found the auto assign feature perfect to even out my player’s skills, but hardcore basketball fans may not agree with me. Each episode is broken up into chapters, each of which has a fighting game–like ladder of matches you must win to proceed. Most of these are pretty standard, though the game starts throwing in special rules later on, like games where you have to pull off a bunch of combo moves before you win, or games that can only be won by performing a certain move right at the end the game. While the rules keep the game interesting, your AI opponent doesn’t even trying to pull off these game ending moves, which tends to make these challenges less than, well, challenging. My other problem with special rules games was that if I couldn’t figure out how to complete a move and the manual didn’t tell me how to either, I was stuck button mashing for hours just trying to figure out a move or in one example, trying to get a crowd member to pass you a ball, just so you can make a basket to finish a game. Stuff like this frustrates me and made the game more work than fun. One cool addition to the series is baller introductions where you get to see each basketball superstar arrive in style to each match. This really adds to the fun of facing these boss ballers in the game, but unfortunately, the intros are limited to just a few players, and you only find them in story mode. Now, give every player his own intro like wrestling games do and that would be cool. Online play is available and playing some real people actual provides more of a challenge for anyone finding the single player modes to easy, however if your opponent doesn’t know how to block level three super dunks then you might find this mode boring for you too. I know I lost to a lot pros online because I failed to block this move in time. As far as basketball games go, NBA Ballers may not be the best game for true fans of the b–ball, but if you’re looking for some b–ball that goes a little more off the beaten path, then NBA Ballers is that game. Its multiplayer experience is perfect for a night of beers with the boys and the intro videos are worth a rental alone. (Midway) 6 out of 10 stars Rent It! Available for the PS3 and Xbox 360 P [CHRISTINA WINTERBURN]

RIVER KING: MYSTIC VALLEY
Natsume brings the magic of the River King franchise to the Nintendo DS with River King: Mystic Valley, a tale of a young boy who searches for the legendary River King fish, so he can save his sister from a never–ending sleep. Now if you’ve never heard of the River King series before, don’t worry because you’re one of many. Natsume has managed to keep this little brother series to the Harvest Moon franchise pretty much exclusive to the Japanese market, except for one Gameboy and Gameboy Colour release which didn’t catch a lot of fans. If you have been lucky enough to play a previous River King game, you may not recognize your beloved series in its latest addition. Developers chose to remodel the series for a more casual gaming market and in doing so, have really ripped away lot of the things that made the original game series so great. No longer does the game have random enemies battle throughout its forests, the virtual aquarium is gone and even the fishing portion of the game has gotten way too easy compared to past games. Mystic Valley has players spending 75 per cent of the game fishing over and over again and with only eight areas to fish in, there’s not a lot of variety in environments. There are a few side quests like collecting bugs and plants, which along with your fish can be traded in for cards. Cards can then be sold for points and then used to buy new fishing equipment or food. Pets found in the game can be grown into friends that will help heal you or clear road blocks. Feeding your pet some fish will help them grow, but each pet will react differently to each fish type. Villagers in the game will ask you to perform tasks for them in exchange for items or favours and some will even offer mini games like Wash the Beans or Weed the Garden, in which you will get to use your stylus. Controls are pretty simple once you get the hang of them. Button controls are used to walk, talk and search, while the shoulder buttons allow you to fish or interact with your pet. To fish, you have to take your fishing pole out, cast the line into the water near a fish and wait for it to pull the float under. Hits are measured based on when you push the button to hook the fish and will determine how well the fish is caught on the line. Once the fish is hooked, you have to use the stylus to rotate around the fish to reel it in, but if the fish fights on the line, you’ll have to tap on each side of screen to wear it out, before you start reeling it in again. The line tension meter determines how much the fish is fighting and if it goes too high, the fish can escape. The graphics were very simple and cute, much like the Harvest Moon DS games. Colourful cartoon characters and environments were appropriate, but the fish, insects and plants were portrayed as more lifelike and they seemed creepy and out of place. I was disappointed in the lack of music and sound effects. The sound effects were very basic nature sounds and there was no real variety to the music. I consider myself a huge sucker when it comes to the games like River King: Mystic Valley or Harvest Moon, because these games always lack any real goals or depth in game play, but somehow I still manage to keep buying them, even though I know they’re going to end up collecting dust. I think I buy them for when I want a game where I can just mindlessly play without worrying about dying or losing. Plus they are just so darn cute! I wish I could recommend this game to Natsume fans, but I can’t even say that it is at least Harvest Moon good, so maybe just to River King fans, if they just have to have it. So unless you’re like me and can’t say no to cute face, then I would throw River King: Mystic Valley back in the water. (Natsume, Marvelous) 5 out of 10 stars. Forget It! Available for the Nintendo DS [CHRISTINA WINTERBURN]

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