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The Lowdown
Pros: Innovative and fast paced Marvel vs. Capcom 2 meets Naruto:
Narutimett Hero fighting action
Cons: With a combo system similar to smash brothers there isn't the same
level of fighting depth.
 Purchase
at Play-Asia
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With the announcement of Full Metal Alchemist coming over to the US in
Fall 2004 more and more people are getting interested in the anime
series. As it's fan base is growing in America it is reaching its peak
in Japan as the series comes to a close. Even though the popular series
may be ending Bandai has managed to sneak in one more Full Metal
Alchemist game for the PS2 before the series' popularity declines.
Learning from the commercial success and critical acclaim of Naruto:
Narutimett Hero, Bandai already knows how to make a winning game.
Instead of making the game exactly the same game, Bandai improves on
their winning formula.If you've played Naruto: Narutimett Hero you
should have a good idea of what to expect from Full Metal Alchemist:
Dream Carnival. You have cel shaded characters and multi tired stages to
fight on. Each level has a couple of areas you can move in and out of by
pressing jump and holding up or down. This allows players to select
which plane they want to move on. Being on a different plane allows you
to nimbly dodge attacks. All characters have basic punch and kick combos
that can be done by pressing the X and Square buttons. Standard combos
allow you to launch opponents in mid air to perform aerial raves or even
slam an enemy into another screen (aka Dead or Alive). However, you
won't need to spend hours to master combos shown in the move list. New
gamers will opt to button mash with results of damaging combos while
experienced players will use the most effective combo over and over
again. The game gets much more interesting when you mix in the alchemy
system. Most of the characters in the game are alchemists, which gives
them the ability to transmute objects. One of the show's themes, the
"you can't get something for nothing theme" plays a role in how you can
use alchemy in the game. Spread out the level are transmutable objects
like a giant rock, a metal crate, a bunch of bricks or a shiny piece of
quartz. If you go over to the item and press circle you'll use the power
of alchemy to change a metal crate to something more useful like a cage
to trap an enemy for a few seconds. Each character that can use alchemy
has different results. For instance if Edward uses his alchemy ability
on a wood block he'll gain use of his traditional staff to attack with
for a few seconds. If Armstrong uses his alchemy ability on the same
item he'll call upon a wooden trap to freeze a player in place. To
balance characters like the sharp-shooting and appropriately named
Hawkeye who has no alchemy ability Bandai gives them unique abilities.
Hawkeye has full use of her guns so she can blast away at players far
from where their attacking radius. Each character also has the ability
to summon two ultra alchemy attacks by holding R1 or R2 while pressing
circle. You can only do this move when your green meter is filled from
giving out enemy hits. When you call upon this ability the battle screen
moves to the top right hand corner like a picture in picture TV. The
main screen flashes to a quick and dramatic animation of the extremely
powerful move. The picture in picture is a brilliant idea because while
Armstrong is preparing his gold statue attack Alphonse can ready a
counter move to prevent damage.
Renderware's innovations continue on how they execute the 2 on 2
fighting system. They cleverly designed the game to allow players of
mixed levels enjoy the game together. At the start of each round all
players are given a full bar of life. Both teams are also given three
stars and each star will completely recover life for an injured
character. If a team loses all three stars its game over. The brilliance
in the system is that the three stars are shared between players. So if
you're a new player and you lose a star early on the match isn't over
there is still a good chance for the team to win. The three star system
also always has every player controlling a character instead of just
waiting around if they die. The game also supports all the possible
combinations a 2 on 2 fighting game can handle. You can play with a
partner against two computers or try your luck with each of you having a
computer partner. If you have a multitap you can play with three players
or go all out and play with four players.
If you're going solo there are a number of gameplay modes to choose
from. There is the ever popular and basic battle mode that teams you up
with a computer against two other artificial intelligence loops. Playing
through the battle mode allows you to collect different items, some of
which unlocks new characters. Probably more interesting to gamers is the
scenario mode. The scenario mode automatically teams you up with a
computer partner and goes though the series' story. Playing through the
different scenarios eventually unlocks more and more characters, which
gives the game further replay value. With only a handful of characters
at the start of the game including Edward, Alphonse, Mustang, Hawkeye
and Hughes you'll want to unlock characters as quickly as possible. Some
of the unlockable characters include Greed and Bradley.
Full Metal Alchemist: Dream Carnival makes good use of cel shaded
graphics. Edward and crew look great on the PS2. The animation is fluid
with little to no slowdown even when all the players on the screen are
using super moves at once. You can notice the polish in the characters
when you see them execute their super moves. Characters are fully
designed even with facial expressions and minor movements that look well
done. For having so many different planes the static backgrounds look
fairly good even if they are a little bland.
Full Metal Alchemist: Dream Carnival is the Full Metal Alchemist game
that fans of the series have been waiting for. It's pick up and play
potential and long list of collectables makes the game easy to jump
into. The fast pace of gameplay, loads of action and innovative twists
makes Dream Carnival stand out on top of other fighting games out there.
With an all Japanese story line and Japanese menus it may be
difficult to get everything out of the game without understanding the
language. On the other hand the concept of gameplay is easy enough for
anyone to learn with or without knowing Japanese.
US Bound?
You can bet on Full Metal Alchemist: Dream Carnival to get a US
release date sometime in 2005 after the series gets popularity.
Overall
Full Metal Alchemist: Dream Carnival is one of the best party
fighting games out there.
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