Insidious Review:

Daniel Foster
Chronicle
March 24, 2011

Insidious

     Horror movies have become little more than two hours of gore or laughter of how bad the film was executed. Films such as Saw which began with promise soon become the yearly film that audiences dreaded. Horror is by far the most complicated and difficult film to make, due to the amount of potential failures in the execution. Insidious is a near perfect horror movie, that uses its low budget to great effects along with going outside of the standard clichés.
     Two years ago Paranormal Activity saw box office success, along with being considered the scariest movie of modern day horror. Insidious also uses it low budget to great use, and encourages the audience to not only think outside of the box, but also pay close attention to the screen for the hidden scares. The films story focuses on a family who endure constant encounters with the supernatural. As it turns out, demons and ghost are drawn to one of the sons with the hopes of possessing him. The plot may give off the been their done that feel, but as the film goes on you are introduced to different characters who bring more variety to the story, along with a twist ending that most won’t see coming. The plot is solid, but it is the films execution that stole the show.
      The visual style for the films gives a gritty and dark look, adding to the emotion conveyed in the plot. The scares don’t come until the middle of the movie, but throughout the film you have a sense of suspense and dread, as each encounter grows more and more violent. The makeup is fantastic, making the many entities memorable and respectably haunting. However the film isn’t perfect, I found myself almost laughing at the final act and how less scary and poorly executed it was, even though the beginning was excellent. The final act almost played out like an old slasher film with people screaming and running from the killer.
     In the end Insidious is a haunting, creepy, and downright scary film which is exactly what this genre needed. In a year full of superhero’s and sequels it is nice to see that low budget films can be just as enduring as those with mega million budgets. Insidious will haunt you and don’t be surprised if you’re afraid to go to sleep.

Paranormal Activity 2 Review:

 

     Paranormal activity was one of the most significant sleeper hits (a movie that makes more money than expected)  of the decade, having been demanded by audience, and climbing the charts at the box office. The film alone grossed over 190 million dollars worldwide, with only a budget of $15,000 making the film one of the most successful movies of all time, along with “Blair Witch Project” and “Mad Max”. Only a year later Paranormal Activity 2 has now hit theaters hoping to have the same success as its predecessor, but with a new director and much bigger budget, will this sequel be a hit? Paranormal Activity 2 is a prequel, taking place before the events of the first film, with the last five minutes acting as the sequel for the film. The story follows relatives of the predecessor’s protagonist as they encounter numerous paranormal events, and the same entity that haunts the main characters in the last film. The movie offers more scares than its predecessor, but at points gives off a been there done that feel, as many of the paranormal events are replicas of the first films.  The film still has the slow build up of the mockumentary genre, but always has you feeling like something scary is just around the corner. Although the film has a much bigger budget, much of the originality remains in tack and never feels too special effect oriented, rather than past mockumentary films such as “The Last Exorcism”. The acting is solid and helps make you believe that the characters are reacting to real events. The film is well made and has a much more structured and professional feel which is what the predecessor lacked. Although the film does drag in the beginning with numerous cheap scares, it makes up for it in a finale that most movie goers wont see coming.  It is disappointing that the film doesn’t have much innovation, but is definitely  more entertaining and engaging than its predecessor was. This is a rare sequel that takes what the original had and improves it on nearly ever level, the scares get better as the film goes along, and the story isn’t as unbelievable as the last film, with the box office success that the film has had so far, hopefully Paranormal activity 3 will bring something new to the table, rather than repeating the same story over and over…………..Saw would be a great example of that.

3 out of 4

The Town Review:

The Town is an excellent film that helps show the directorial skills of Ben Affleck, along with engaging the audience in a heist thriller like no other. The movie tells the tale of Doug MacRay whom is leader of a group of ruthless bank robbers, who have been perform professional heist in the district of Charlestown. After a bank heist goes wrong, Doug must than deal with the repercussions of his actions, while preparing his crew for one last heist. The films story is well told and executed perfectly, the acting is well tuned, along with immersing the audience into the troubles and conflicts that the characters are facing. The supporting cast gives great performances all around, especially last year’s Oscar nominee Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker), whom gives the story a lot more tension and emotion as you uncover the origins of his character. Ben Affleck does a fantastic job of executing the various action sequences, and building a lot of tension around each of the firefights, at some points it hard not to root for the main characters, although they are the bad guys. The performances are phenomenal, the execution perfect, and the overall experience is one of the best this year. The Town is a triumph with its great use of its low budget, and cast. Although this year has shown its fair share of innovative films, the town shows that creativity and worthwhile movie going experience aren’t in short supply.

4 out of 4



Halo Reach:

     After 10 years of deliver solid experiences, Bungie is sending off one of the most beloved series with Halo Reach, which proves to be the series best installment. Halo Reach is the prequel to the whole series, or in other words this is how the war began. The campaign tells the tale of Noble team, in which you play as your own custom made character, which you make from the start of the game. Although Master Chief is gone, your noble six is far more engaging because its you who made him or her. Throughout the campaign you are seeing the fall of Reach, which adds a lot of emotion to the story since no matter what you do, you cant stop it. Reach has a excellent and interesting cast of characters, that each give more emotion to the campaign and help keep the player immersed into the world.
     The most fascinating thing about Reach is how much of a impact it has on the other games, along with how much of a role your spartan plays in the overall game. Although this is a prequel bungie has added plenty of weapons, along with the new armor abilites, which range from using a jet pack, to camouflaging yourself from enemies. The campaign is vastly improved over the past Halo games, thanks to added variety in the characters and levels, but also the emotion that was lacked in other Halo games. The enemy AI is excellent and help make this installment in the series the hardest, but it would have been nice if the ally AI had the same treatment. Although Microsoft is taking over the IP, I highly doubt that any other company can match the originality of the game, and how well executed it is compared to other installments. 
     The campaign is excellent delivering on plenty of satisfying battles, along with expert level design, but when you finally finish the fight your left with one of the most engaging multilayer experiences around. In Halo Reach the character you make carries over to all the modes, as you play each mode you gain credits that allow you to purchase new upgrades and make your spartan truly unique. The game even offers a new and improved map editor, that makes it easy for anyone to make their their own game modes or map variants. The game offers plenty of modes and maps that can all be edited in forge, in the Halo Reach delivers on the content which is hard to say for other games in the market. This installment has everything from each of the games, adding plenty of replay value, along with justifying its price.  The fact that Reach has so many ideas and modes within it, you could easily spend months if not years on the game, messing with the map editor or ranking up in the multiplayer.
     Halo Reach is a monster of a game that adds plenty if replay value with all of its modes along with delivering a solid campaign, that only gets harder when players are added. The game is the hardest of the Halos which can and will lead to some frustrating moments, along with some hiccups with the AI, but these complaints are minimal to a masterpiece in gaming that really was worth the the price.
10/10

Resident Evil:Afterlife Review

There are very few game adaptions that can entertain and satisfy fans, along with connect with audiences that aren't familiar with the source material, Resident Evil Afterlife does none of the above. Imagine a movie full of slow motion, and does very little to keep the viewer intrigued and immersed into the characters and story. Everything about the story just feels like they were trying to add in as many elements from the game as possible, although they don't justify it with the plot, nor give them the emotion or fear that they showed in the game. The movies action is nothing but slow motion fight scenes, and numerous fade to blacks after each short strip of dialogue. The movie plays out in a very pathetic way giving the viewer no insight into whats going on and why the characters are the way they are. The plot has plenty of references to the game but many of the plot twist, and many appearances by key characters fall short. To call afterlife a good movie is hard, but to say that it is entertaining can be justified, due to the numerous action sequences, and after years of watching the characters develop, you actually want to see what will happen to them. The opening to the film was excellent and unexpected, but unfortunately from that point of the film becomes repetitive with its action sequences, and many of the characters feel like their just there to be killed off. I was disappointed in the 3-D effects in afterlife and feel the the film, was far from worth the $13 for admission. If you want a entertaining gore-fest than Afterlife is for, but if you want a great story and phenomenal action sequences, than plenty of the other films out will deliver on just that.

Devil Review:

  

     Its hard to believe that m.night.Shyamalan is even allowed to have anything to do with cinema lately, thanks to his past projects such as "The Last Airbender". Yet M.Night's latest thriller does deliver on the thrills, but falls short as far as plot, and begins to drag on due to repetition. Devil tells the story of a group of people who are are trapped on a elevator with the devil, luckily the plot deepens as you discover more about each characters past, ultimately leading to a emotional confrontation with the devil him or herself.
     Throughout the movie you begin to learn more about the characters backgrounds, and ultimately what connects them, the only issue with the characters is that most of them get killed off before any attachment can be made. The cast does a great job of making their reactions believable, unlike many other horror films where the acting is only secondary. The script has plenty of twist and turns and thanks to the distinct personalities of the characters, at points its hard to decipher who the devil is.
      The movie has enough detail to the story that it doesn't feel like a live action "Guess Who", but at the same time becomes overly repetitive midway through the film. The film also does a great job of building up tension, but unfortunately the plot is hard to take seriously, mostly due to its premise. The film fell short as far as its plot, and felt overlong and generic in the middle, but the movie was original and had a great finale. All in all M.Night made a interesting tale that provided a great twist in the ending, but the events leading up to the finale fell short, but this movie isn't as bad as "The Happening", but not as good as "The Sixth Sense".

E3!

Hey, that melon guy here, just to tell you how new updates will be coming soon, both because of the E3 convention and our "out of school" status! Look forward for all the new games coming this summer and great movies as well!

This update was sponsored by Daniel-O's The best thing to come to Cereal since the Joystick to the Arcade!

Stay cool gamers!

-Melonman

Iron Man 2 Review:

   “Iron Man 2” is an action-packed entertaining superhero movie that delivered on the characters and action, but the plot lacked the intensity and intelligence that could be found in the previous installment. “Iron Man 2” continues the story of Tony Stark as we see the addition of new characters and plot tie-ins that build up for the highly anticipated “Avengers”. Robert Downey seals the show, along with the rest of the cast pulling their weight, except for actors such as Samuel L. Jackson. In all honesty Samuel L. Jackson didn’t fit the criteria of character which made many of his scenes fall short. Sam seemed to be trying to pull a “Pulp Fiction” rather than keeping to the source material. The plot begins with promise, but begins to become more over the top towards the end. The action feels over too soon, and the plot began to drag on in the middle. John Favreau has shown talent in making films, and although Iron Man 2 did fall short, in his defense it was build-up for “The Avengers”. All in all “Iron Man 2” had promise, but because of the plot was more circled around build up for “The Avengers”, their was little to be found in the film.

2 ½ out of 4

Lets start anew!

Hello, back from the den i call my room (the sounds of red dead in the forground) to tell you about a great podcast that will be coming out soon. they were previously called Animated Gamer, but due to some things it broke up. My good freinds who work in the game buisness have let me in the loop on whats to come on their podcast. As soon as they come out with some a link will be put up. The podcast comes from three guys who love games and love to argue over them. I will update you with any further information.

Stay frosty gamers!

-Melonman

Most Anticipated Movies of 2010

5. Avatar The Last Airbender

The Last Airbender Trailer 

     Avatar seems like it has a lot going for it as far as special effects and the newly announced 3-D, but M.Night.Shamalayn hasn't been on a good streak with his films. M.Night has made some truly memorable ones such as "The Sixth Sense" and "Signs", but with those critical and financial success's their has also been a few failures, such as "The Happening" and "The Village". Hopefully Avatar cast will help make up for the story if its a stinker, but then again hopefully M.Night.Shamalayn will redeem himself.

  4.The A-Team and Predators

A Team Trailer

     Now we all know "The A Team" isnt going to be the type of movie that you see for the story, but rather is the definition of a summer movie, mindless fun. The cast seems solid and just from the trailers seems like it'll be enjoyable, but the real reason why "The A Team" is anticipated is because of the outrageous action scenes that the directer seems to be going for, hopefully a falling tank, taking out helicopters wont be too outrageous.  

  Predators trailer
Predators seems like it could reinvent the series and may actually be better than the past predator entry's, the film is taking place on the predator planet and the action seems intense and not nearly as corny as them "AVP" movies. I am more excited to see how the cast will do in this film, rather than how the action will be.

3. The Expendables

The Expendables Trailer 

     "The Expendables" looks awesome not only for its mindless action, but also because of the cast which consist of some of the most badass individuals in film. Sylvester Stallone knows how to stage a action sequences, but as far as story has fell short, but all in all his last films were well made, if not too much over the top. I'm excited for "The Expendables" because of the action and to see some of the most badass action heroes fight side by side.

2.The Karate Kid

Karate Kid Trailer

     The Karate kid is definitely more anticipated than any of these films, because of the changes that have been made to the story and layout, mostly the Karate Kid not being Italian, but Jaden Smith instead. Jackie Chan seems to be going for a much more mature performance and the visual style seems to fit perfectly. Jaden Smith has always given a enjoyable funny performance, and it will be interesting to see how he does taking the helm, along with seeing how Jackie Chan does without Chris Tucker.

1.Inception

Inception Trailer 

Leonardo Dicaprio seems to be on a good streak as far as films, this year alone he gave a fantastic performance in "Shutter Island". Inception seems like its going to have a great story, chararacters, and action scenes, mostly due to the talented directer Christopher Nolan. Chris has yet to make a bad movie, and Leo has yet to star in a terrible one, so the match seem to have alot going for them, hopefully the movie makes sense.

Call of Duty Black Ops trailer impressions.

Call of duty trailer
Call of Duty has come along way in the past decade, giving some truly memorable setpieces and battles, along with some very entertaining multiplayer. Lately Call of Duty has been talked about, due to the disbanding of Infinity Ward and the fact that Treyarch is taking the helm on this COD. The trailer looks impresive as far as visuals and the guns, along with combat look impressive, but throughout the whole trailer I couldn't help but feel that these weapons seem a bit ahead of the time period and that the game seems like been there done that. All the set piece and intense moments seen in the trailer didn't impress a hardcore fan like me mostly cause, what else could Treyarch do to the game that hsnt been done before. Modern Warfares multiplayer is destroyed and honestly no big change was added to that multiplayer over Call of Duty 4. The trailer looked interesting but thisc all of duty needs to reinvent the genre before I spend more money on the same game.

Red Dead Redemptions Review on the way.

Red Dead Redemption is a long game full of enough content to last for weeks, I and most of the other staff members are hard at work trying to rid the world of Red Dead of bandits, or srike terror into its townsfolk. So far the multiplayer has endless replay value and the single player has enough content to last for weeks. Although its been about a week since Red Dead's release I am hardly half way through this masterpiece of a game, if I dont finish by the middle of this week I am sure someone else here at TZU should have a review or impression up by then. If I do end up writing the review I can say its in the range of 9 or 10.

3D Dot Game Heroes

3D Dot Game Heroes came out on the 11th as a PS3 exclusive, and having finished it, I thought it was worth discussing my opinion on it.

-What It Takes-

3DDGH is a Legend of Zelda clone. I want to get that out of the way. It's obvious just by looking at it. It plays like a Zelda game. The weapons/items you get are from Zelda games. The map is reminiscent of a Zelda game. The dungeons have puzzles that are like those of a Zelda game. Though it's not the default, if you change the camera options, you can view the game from the same view as a 2D Zelda game. Even the overworld music sounds a lot like the LoZ theme (and the load music sounds like music from a Pokemon Center, oddly enough).

-What It Gives-

Yet it's much different than a Zelda game. The borrowed items don't play exactly the same: arrows arc instead of flying straight, bombs aren't set off when you hit them with something, and the swords... well, the swords are a lot different.

The sword, like in a Zelda game, is more powerful when you have full health. However, instead of simply shooting out a small beam, it grows in both size and strength (though your sword is also longer than the average Zelda sword when you have less than perfect health as well). There are about 20 swords in the game, and all of them have different options for upgrading. It completely changes how you play the game, because you will need that extra power, especially if your sword has the ability to bypass obstacles and is big enough to hit the entire room in a single swipe. And speaking of swiping, that's another difference: one of the other qualities a sword can have (by default or only when at full health) is the ability to turn while your sword is out. It actually helps with strategic attacking, because you can hit around corners if you're careful.

The one thing I regret the most in playing this game is that I don't have time to enjoy the many, many sidequests within the game. There are literally tons. Some are more complicated than others (such as having to be done before a certain point in the story), but others are simply "talk to his person and then come back". They do add quite a bit to the length of the game, and people who want an extra challenge might want to go for the Trophies... Which will require you to do just about everything in the game, including playing it on all 3 difficulties, one of which has you playing through the entire game with one hit equaling death. I'm certainly going to come back to this game at some point to try out the New Game + feature, but I don't think I'll ever be trying that mode... This game is hard enough as is!

3D Dot Game Heroes also provides something that's sure to please just about everyone: an easy to use character editor. If you can make something out of legos, you can use this character editor. Although I only peeked into it myself before starting the game with the default character, I ended up playing the final portions of the game as various characters, since it was just that fun to play around as some as my favorite characters from other series (see if you can name the ones you see in the pictures). The characters don't provide any truly significant statistical benefit based on appearance, but they do change your life and magic balance based on what class they are: Hero (more health and strength), Royal (balanced), or Scholar (magic). You can also change your character whenever you reload, although you stay the same class as the character you picked at the beginning of the game.

-What It Should Have Taken-

Unfortunately, the game also does away with some aspects from Zelda that it really could have used. Puzzles in Zelda games often provide arrows/bombs in pots within the room if they're needed for a puzzle, and that doesn't happen here- I had to grind enemies for a good five to ten minutes to find arrows for a puzzle. Additionally, the bosses and dungeons do not fit the standard Zelda pattern- that is, they don't depend on the item found in the dungeon. Boss fights depend on using your sword, and sometimes the item you found can't even hurt them (and, especially since having full health makes it much easier to fight, the fact that there are not pots to hold apples (the game's version of Zelda's pots) is also an annoying loss). The dungeons do, to a point, rely on the item that contain, but much less so than a Zelda game would. The wire rod (which is basically the hook shot), for example, is actually used much more in later dungeons than the one it's found in. These aspects don't ruin the game, but they're annoying. It's odd to say that the game should be even more of a clone, but it would certainly help in this case.

And... While we're talking about dungeons and their related items... The Flame Temple doesn't rely on the item inside it all, and many people have complained about missing it- and even though they don't need it in the dungeon, it's important to overworld travel. I found it while lost in the dungeon, but if I had actually paid more attention to the Flame Temple map, I probably wouldn't have found it. And while we're talking about the Flame Temple's reception... People have pointed out (and although I somehow survived through most of the dungeon and didn't experience myself, judging by what I saw, this is true) that the design of the dungeon almost intentionally forces unneeded backtracking to hit switches to allow you to proceed- there's two colors of blocks, and you need to switch them to move on... but the switches are set out in such a way that you need to loop back several times in multiple parts of the dungeon to get anywhere. And then the Flame Temple results in an utterly impossible boss. It's not even that hard; it just has a huge amount of HP (and you can't see how much is remaining). I got so mad at it that, after having wasted about an hour on it, I went all the way back to the nearest village, bought the two potions I could hold (and had used during the dungeon itself), and walked back to the dungeon, where I beat the boss... after failing once more. Thankfully, when I had to face a more powerful version in the final area, I knew to bring potions and beat him on my first try. The Flame Temple is, by far, the most annoying area in the entire game.

-How It Adds Up-

Despite its flaws, 3D Dot Game Heroes is an excellent game. Sure, it could be more updated and forgiving, but it doesn't want to be. If you're a fan of Legend of Zelda, or indeed, any older RPG series in general (such as Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, etc.), you'll love all the references, but if you're not, you may miss what really makes the game great. It's certainly worth the $40 it cost, and while it's probably not worth buying a PS3 for (like I would say for LittleBigPlanet and Valkyria Chronicles, which now have a PSP port and sequel, respectively), it's something every PS3 owner should look into.

GOOGLE PAC-MAN

It seems that the programmers at Google have outdone themselves this time, creating a free Pacman game on their homepage logo in honor of the 30 year anniversary of the classic arcade game, that holds a special place in every gamers heart.

Now, I consider myself quite the expert on the classic game, and always love to see how it is ported to different consoles, phones, or websites, and seeing as this Google game tries to be less than a gimmick, I might as well give my 2 cents.

I always say that nothing can beat the joystick on the original machine, and that still holds true, but come on, Google isn't THAT good. As for the map, it is VERY different. Instead of being a wide, long field of play, it had been reduced to the size of the Google logo, making it very frustrating for people who are so used to the old map. This map also has many dead ends, and some walls are made to look like they are aligned, but when you try to go past them, your just end up running into them. This brings up another issue, which is the AI. Any fan of the original will know the secret of success, which is the fact that Pacman goes slower than the ghosts when on a long stretch (or when he's not turning). But the new map is very small, and has many long stretches that make it nearly impossible to get those ghosts off of your tail. Another complaint is the inconsistency of the AI. You will find that the ghosts have no idea how to use a warp tunnel, yet they will often change direction within seconds before you pass them, requiring lightning fat reflexes, which take you out of the experiance.

Overall, this game is fun, and the miltiplayer option loosens th difficulty, but while it may provide a few seconds of entertainment, it isn't nearly as addicting or nostalgic as the original. I just can't wait for them to do space invaders.

Red Dead Redemptions Out?

:( Lost Planet 2's Critical Reception:

     One of the most anticipated games of the year is now one of the first games to meet a poor critical reception. Lost Planet 2 seemed like it was going to be a masterpiece, combining four player co-op and impressive boss battles, along with a laundry list of customization options for your character. The mulitplayer was a bit of a dissapointment, but the campaign was going to surely be where most of my time was going to be spent, but instead reviews have said that the story is lackluster, gameplay and AI get repetitive, and that many of the levels are poorly designed. Reviews even went as far to say that the game is impossible to play single-player. I expected Lost Planet 2 to get solid feedback, but instead its getting a very poor reception and bad write ups. I had high hopes for Lost Planet 2, but it would seem this is a game that I will have to wait until its in the bargain bin.

Its me, im back from the Den.

Hello my people i havent seen because im addicted to WoW again! I have been playing on the DS for quite a time now, and have chosen a game worthy of telling. It is known as Meteos! This fun puzzle game came out years ago, but no one has ever heard of it. Why? Because this is a rare game, that comes out every so often. This game along with Glory Days 2 are rare because only about 100,000 copys were made. I have been looking for this game for some time now, and im excited to share what i know.

Meteos is a Puzzle game, where you try to match blocks, to shoot them into space, and you can do this by putting 3 blocks of the same color together both Horizontally, or Verdically. As you play, blocks are falling from the sky, and the more tyou have on the shooting platform, the harder it is to lift off, so you have to combine them together! I wish i could be more discriptive, but it is hard to explain it. The game features planets, that are under attack by the evil Meteo, who is sucking the life out of the planets by crushing them, you have to save the universe from this after your planet discovers how to get rid of them. There are different modes, like War, Star Trip, Time Attack, and Deluge (Or free play). I see this game as the modern Tetris, with its puzzler like aditude. The game Also lets you pick a planet to play as, and each planet has different ways to play.

On one, the blocks shoot right up to space if they were horizontal, but vertical dident move, another was Fast paced but you could get a easyer pair. This game would have been big if more copys were made, but sadly, only a few were. I think this game gets 5 Happy Dan Stars out of 5!

Community Event:

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      The most anticipated movie of the year is coming to theaters this friday, join us here at TZU as we celebrate the arrival of another entry in the legendary heroes franchise.

Halo Reach Beta Impressions:

Halo Reach is here and playable on xbox live, if you have a copy of Halo ODST. The Beta will offer all the modes that will be found in the full game along with a small doze of some maps and armor abilites. This time around Reach has a much mroe rebust ranking system and much improved matchmaking. The weapons feel more balanced and the gameplay is alot more fast paced. Although the servers are suffereing due to the millions of people trying to play at once, the beta is still loads of fun when you get into a match. Each weapon has a distinct feel to them, along with more details to your character and weapons. After each match  you gain expereince points along with credits that can than be used to buy new armor, which helps make your spartan feel like yours. So far their arent any real issues with Reach the weapons are balanced and the ranking and customization options are plentyful, overall Reach is sure to be a hit this Fall.

Chaos Rings

     Chaos Rings is an iPhone RPG. That, by itself, is not particularly amazing. What is amazing, though, is that it's an iPhone RPG made by Square Enix. After playing an hour or two of it, I thought I'd share my thoughts on it so far.

-Graphics-

     Right off the bat, you can see that Chaos Rings has some very nice graphics. I'd go as far as saying that they're close to that of a DS game. It's clear that a lot of effor was put into them. Though, like a DS game, the graphics do have some issues with the edges of objects looking bad, which is probably due to graphical limitations.

-Battle System-

     The battle system is fairly normal for an RPG. You can choose to attack, use an ability or item, or defend. There's an option to escape as well, though I've only used it once so far and I'm not sure exactly how it rates your chance of success (I ran away without a problem). HP is restored at the end of the battle, though MP is not, and you are not told your enemy's HP except for a small HP bar that is shown when choosing your target. There are some interesting deviations to this, though.

     The first is the option that you're presented before you begin each turn: Solo or Pair. Your party is always made up of 2 people, and each turn you either have the choice of attacking individually, giving you two moves as usual, or attack as a pair, which gives you only one move that's boosted in strength. However, choosing Pair also allows enemies to hit both of you when they attack. It's actually an interesting system when you combine it with some other aspects of the combat, and I'll give an example later on.

     The second deviation is the use of Genes. Basically, to get abilities, you can equip up to 3 Gene Plates. Each plate gives you the abilities of the enemy it represents as long as it's equipped. The abilities are unlocked one by one through chance as you defeat those enemies, though I'm not sure if you only get the plate once you've unlocked all the abilities. Because I'm only an hour or two in, I don't have many plates and most of the ones I have overlap abilities, but I can definitely see how choosing plates will become important later on, especially since you have access to both character's abilities while using the Pair option. All abilities use up MP, as you'd usually expect.
     There's also a fairly simple element system. By simple, I mean there's only three elements: Blaze, which beats Gale, which beats Aqua, which in turn beats Blaze. Your characters, as well as most of the enemies I've seen so far, are neutral to begin with. However, there are abilities that are basically "Assign _", which allows you to give any enemy/character an element. Apparently, using an ability with an element sets you to that element as well, though I'm not certain if that lasts for the rest of the battle like the Assign skills do.
In addition, there's a system in place to keep track of who has the advantage in the battle, as shown in a small ring in the top left corner. I haven't actually seen it filled yet, though, so I'm not sure exactly what would happen.
     To give an idea of how this ties together, I'll just give a summary of how my battle with the first dungeon's boss went. On my first turn, I chose Single, and made on character use Analyze, and the other to use a basic attack. Analyze is an ability that gives me information on a single enemy- in this case, I learn that the boss is already assigned to Blaze and has a little over 3000 HP remaining (and no one has attacked at this point). I then select Solo the next turn, using Assign Aqua on both of my characters. Then I go on the offensive, using Pair along with Cocytus, an Aqua magic spell. Because the boss is weak to Aqua, he gets hit for a good 1000+ damage each time I use it. For the last turn, I have to switch due to the characters' HP dipping too low, because the boss has been attacking the entire time. One character heals, the other attacks (and because he's still tied to the Aqua element, does more damage), and the boss falls.
The only other odd thing I've noticed in relation to the battle system was that after a certain point, I noticed I could turn off random encounters. I'm not sure if it was because I hit a certain level or got to a certain area, though. I was only level 6 at the time, and the Dungeon is apparently for levels 1-10, but the boss was only level 7, so it could be anything.

-Music-

     The music is actually pretty good for an iPhone game. It's not amazing when compared to the soundtracks of many other RPGs, but it gets the job done, and there's even been a latin chant or two in the tracks I've heard so far.
     Surprisingly enough, if you go into a game with a music track already playing, it will allow you to listen to that instead, and it will continue through the rest of the playlist/album as normal. I didn't expect that, because although this is a common feature for an iPhone game, I didn't expect it in a game like this.
Additionally, there is an option to change the game into Japanese, but as I haven't actually heard any voice acting so far, it seems to only change the text back into Japanese.

-Story-

     The story, as far as I've seen, has been rather simple. 10 people are transported somewhere to do battle for eternal life, and then are split into pairs. The only other pair that's told me who they actually are has said that they know each other, and the pair I'm playing as, Escher and Musica, have met before as well. And by met, I mean Escher killed all the adults, save for her, at the orphanage she lived at. I was surprised to find out that the character I was playing was a villain, though it's certainly made me more interested in finding out more about him.
     You are expected to play through the story as four of the pairs (with the reason for one of the pairs being unplayable shown within the first few minutes of gameplay), but only two are available at the start. I assume that the other two will be unlocked as I beat these two, either with one more being made available after I beat each pair, or both being made available after I beat the initial two.

-Final Thoughts-

     Is Chaos Rings worth the $13 it costs? Considering that it's a very good iPhone game that could easily be ported and sold as a decent $30 (or more, considering the usual "Square Enix tax") DS game, I'd say yes, it's probably worth it. Though, again, I'm only an hour or two in, so my opinion could very well change as I play more. Right now, I'm definitely pleased with it.