The fine line between spin-off and stand-alone

With games nowadays reaching their third & fourth installments or so in their respective series, it’s safe to say most have had their own spin-offs. Some are good and essential to the series and others are better left alone. Sometimes these games, whether good or bad, get mixed in together and because of that some people would rather not deal with them and just wait for the numbered games in the franchise to come out. That's not good and I believe that the lines between pin-off and stand-alone game should be made clear.

To me, a spin-off is when the gameplay itself has been reworked to make a brand new game which offers a different experience than what the franchise is used to. An example of this is “Super Mario”. Mario's done everything from sports, racing to partying. He's a regular jack-of-all-trades. His regular forte is either a side-scroller or an adventure game, but being pushed into these other games have left some pretty distasteful titles in his name. Then again some of the spin-offs have gone to make their own franchises like “Mario Kart” & “Mario Party” reaching the 7th & 8th installment already. Other famous properties have gone on to try and do this as well and a majority of flak from a game being dubbed a Spin -off comes from it. Games like “Sonic All-Stars Racing” and “Donkey Kong Konga Beat”. All of these have no relation to the main games but bring the series down in fans eyes.

Crisis Core was a necessary game but was received as just a spin-off

Now there are some games that really shouldn't be classified as a spin-off. Take the “Kingdom Hearts” series. There are six games in the franchise but only two of them hold a number. The others are spread out among various handhelds. While some would call them unnecessary spin-offs, these games are a very integral part of franchise. For example, if players hadn't played “Chain of Memories” on the GameBoy Advanced then players would be lost on what happened between “Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2” and not understand how a majority of the plot points came about in the sequel. In short, they'd be lost as all hell and the same can be said about the recently released “Dream Drop Distance.” If fans don't play that then they're lost on what will happen in the next game.

Spin-offs can also serve as a way to tell part of the story that couldn't be put into the game due to time issues or development issues. “Final Fantasy VII” was a great game with a great story but one big plot-hole was who Cloud's mentor Zack was. He was only brought up in the game for a small portion but he was the person that Cloud had molded his life around. Several years after the original game had come out, Zack's story was finally revealed in the PSP's “Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core”. The game was labled as a spin-off but both the gameplay and the story made the game a stand-up title to be heard in the franchise. From the beginning, you knew what Zack's fate was but the story made you forget that and focus on what was happening at the moment. It’s these kinds of games that the title "Spin-Off" should not be applied to. These surpass that title and should not be brought down by it.

Games in which the story of the series are kept and added to should not be considered spin-offs. These need to be acknowledged as games that should be played and loved. Not as optional, random whims. Hopefully by now people will see the difference between the kart racing gaming and the heart wrenching story of a character.

Despite rumor, Final Fantasy Versus XIII still in development

A couple of days ago, Kotaku had reported that the long-in-development "Final Fantasy Versus XIII" had been cancelled and that Square Enix had not made it public so it would not make their stock prices drop.

Well, all the fanboys and fangirls can breathe a sigh of relief because t turns out that the rumor is just that - a rumor.

"Theres someone making a false rumor that Versus was cancelled, Haha....Just a minute ago the regular Versus meeting had ended. If you saw the presentation of the city, it'd knock you off your feet," Yoichi Wada, president of Sqare Enix, said on Twitter.

All this was based on a rumor from an anonymous tip. It was reported that Square Enix wanted the game to die out in a whisper and just fade away.

This sent an uproar in "FF" community because a lot of people wanted this game to come out, myself included. The trailers were amazing and the gameplay shown made it seem like this game could be an instant hit whenever it came out.

"Final Fantasy Versus XIII" was first announced at E3 in 2006, but after that it was rarely heard of. We're being kept in the dark about specifics of the story, but it from what we've seen and what Wada had said, it looks to be a good one.

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy Review

Gather, humans, moogles, & chocobos alike, for I have a review for you! It's been 25 years since "Final Fantasy" was introduced to the gaming masses, and what a glorious 25 years it's been. The "Final Fantasy" series has so much to love from the characters to the story - and even the music. That music is what Square Enix has based their newest 3DS game on.

"Theatrhythm Final Fantasy" is a rhythm-based game using the wonderful music tracks from the past 13 main "Final Fantasy" games. Each game is represented with five songs each adding up to a total of 65 tracks, not including the available downloadable content.

The visuals are very cutesy. The characters and monsters themselves look like little plush dolls with colored dots for eyes and blushing cheeks. It all looks very reminiscent of a mannequin or puppet show.

You can clearly tell that it was intended for a Nintendo audience, which is not a bad thing because its visual style alone lets the game stand out on its own from the franchise.

The game does a great job of making you feel like an orchestra conductor. You pick a party of four characters from the different iterations of the franchise, and then can pick a game in the "Final Fantasy" series (I-XIII) one by one and play it's music.

Playing is as easy as tapping, swiping or dragging your stylus across the screen.

The actual gameplay is simple: follow the command prompt, then scroll and tap,swipe or drag when it gets into the appropriate area. Its very simplistic, but can be very challenging when you up the difficulty.

The songs are split up into three different stages.

Field music stages, which pull their songs from instances in the series in which the characters are traveling in an open-world map, have the challenge of keeping the character running to the rhythm of the song while trying progress on the map. There are sections of the songs devoted to summoning a chocobo to help speed players along the map which add for a fun challenge.

Battle music stages are set to the battle music of the franchise (such as "One Winged Angel") and pit your party against monsters and bosses while trying to keep the party's health points up and attempting to perform a summon.

Event music stages treat players to cutscenes from a particular game in the "Final Fantasy" series spliced together to songs from that game. These do great justice in showing the series' growth from 8-bit to the high-definition games we have today. The only letdowns here are that the text in the cutscenes are not in English, and unlocking songs along with new characters takes a small eternity. Overall the gameplay is fun enough to keep people playing it.

"Theatrythm Final Fantasy" is great as fan service and as a piece of nostalgia for the "FF" veterans, but is also a great invitation to the series for newcomers.

I give "Theatrythm Final Fantasy" a 9.5/10.