Monthly Archives: May 2020

Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 Review

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It’s time to look at the Pac-Man Championship Edition title now that it’s free on the PS4 for a little while. I’ve always been a fan of the Pac-Man style gameplay. It’s simple yet effective. You could play it for hours as you try to get a higher and higher score. After a while though when your score is super high you have to play for very long periods of time before you even think about smashing the record. Well, this one’s a remixed style of the game. It’s not quite as fun as the original, but it still works out well and it’s nice to see Pac-Man experimenting.

When you boot up the game you’re forced to run through a bunch of tutorials. These shouldn’t take you long though and there is a second wave that is optional. I’d recommend playing through them as well. Then you jump into the mission mode where you take on a bunch of levels and try to get good ranks. Eventually this unlocks the Adventure Mode where you blast through worlds with a bunch of levels and a boss at the end. It’s pretty fun although fairly similar to the Mission Mode. I think you could have put them in the same category but the more content the better right? I played through a bunch of the levels although there are quite a lot so I didn’t beat them all.

The levels tend to all be about the same in the end with some slight differences in between them. For the Score Attack levels you have 5 minutes to get as many points as you can. You get infinite lives in the meantime I believe or at least it never seemed like you were in danger of losing them all. I got a few A ranks but it seems like it would be incredibly hard to get an S rank. Perhaps there is some kind of trick to moving faster or getting more points. It was pretty fun though and I do like how high-tech the gameplay feels. Even the fact that you can bump into ghosts intentionally to get them out of the way is definitely something new.

One area where the game missed out on though was not having the original game as an option here. I would have very quickly jumped on that. Pac-Man is just so much fun to play and I suppose the developers would be sad to see you playing that instead of their game but at least it would push sales a little more too right? It’s a win-win in my book. My main issue is that the variety of content seems very low. You’ve got a lot of levels to play through here but they’re all effectively the same level in the first mode and in the Adventure Mode they’re all super short. There isn’t really a mode here where you can just free play until you’re defeated and match scores with everyone. At least you can match scores on the 5 minute levels but in those you know you could have lived longer if they didn’t cut you off.

The graphics here are definitely pretty solid. I like the colors and the backdrops. It all works out pretty nicely if you ask me. It’s not like it’s AAA level but it’s all very clear and I like the art direction. As for the soundtrack, it was nice enough. It’s very fast paced which is important for a game like this. I dare say that you need fast music since slow tunes would throw you out of your rhythm very quickly.

It’s hard to say quite how long a game like this is. If it’s about how long it’ll take for you to beat all of the levels then I’d say around 7-8 most likely. Of course you’ve also got the replay value of trying to increase your score or getting the Platinum Trophy. It seems to me like that would be incredibly hard and even a lot of the individual trophies are tagged as Ultra Rare on the site which is not something you see every day. The game doesn’t have a lot of trophies so if you’re really good at Pac-Man then this could be one to go for.

Overall, Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 is a pretty solid game. I never got the first but this seems like it would be a solid sequel. At the very least it does hold up on its own which is always the important thing. I don’t know how long it”ll be free or even if it still is so I’d advise dashing if you want to play it. Who wants to turn down a free game right? This is the perfect opportunity to make a move for it so you should definitely do that. In the meantime I’ll keep on waiting for a new Pac-Man game to show up. I feel like it’s been ages since we got a big title.

Overall 7/10

Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King Review

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It’s time to take a look at a classic sprite game. The actual release is pretty new but the game is trying to capture that retro Legend of Zelda feel. It’s always nice to have a game for nostalgia and this one holds up pretty well. It’s got all of the gameplay elements you would want to see and solid level designs. It’s a good way to spend the weekend.

The game starts with an old man telling his grand kids a story. So unfortunately, that does mean the game’s story probably didn’t happen. He even changes details at times. So in this story there is a girl named Lily who has just become a knight. She’s pretty thrilled about this, but then finds out of a plot that involves the army deciding to take over the Kingdom. She reports this to the knights, but they din’t believe her until it’s too late. Now the King has been put into a deep slumber of which he will never wake again. The only way to cure him is to find 3 special ingredients guarded by various elemental monsters. The Knights are powerless to do anything so Lily must take up her blade and save the world.

As the game progresses you get more power ups and skills to use. At first you have a sword but as soon as you get your next weapons you probably won’t use it again until the final world. The gameplay style is that of an overhead look as you solve puzzles and slay enemies. Each dungeon has a wide assortment of rooms and each room usually has either a puzzle or enemies to defeat. Each dungeon you conquer unlocks either a new skill or another weapon and so by the end of the game you can easily shred through previous dungeons if you ever feel like going back. In the final world they finally buff your sword so it’ll then be your best weapon. For a little while there I was getting nervous that the sword was always going to be a terrible option. I do happen to like using swords typically after all.

The puzzles were all solid and felt fair. They weren’t trying to hide the outcomes after all and I always liked logic based puzzles. Give me a maze to run through while only touching each tile once for example. That’s a quality puzzle and one you can definitely figure out. The bosses are all pretty different which is nice. I definitely prefer when games don’t try to just re-use the bosses. This way feels a lot more genuine because you know that time and dedication went into getting everything right.

The game’s very simple and it works well here. You can master the controls easily and just dive into the levels. It’s one of those games where you can just “plug and play” at any given time. There are a good amount of collectibles to obtain as well and earning money seems like it’ll take a little while, but it won’t drag on since taking down enemies is pretty fun. Lily’s also a pretty fun lead. The King I’m a bit more mixed on because the guy sure sleeps a lot. Also, just by waving his hand he can fire off powerful energy blasts so you’d think that he would go fight off the main villain instead of sending Lily. Perhaps he was still sleepy I suppose.

The graphics are pretty solid. Everything is pretty colorful and it’s easy to tell the levels apart. The soundtrack isn’t very memorable but it’s all good stuff. One quality of life feature I liked here is the teleportation system. In a large map like this it can be a bit of a drag to have to run everywhere so fortunately you unlock the teleport path once you clear the area. Not every square has one, but most do so you never have to run for very long. By the time you clear the game you should have most of the map cleared out so with a little post game adventures you should be able to clear it all. I imagine that’s the main replay value here. The actual game campaign is a little on the short side at 3.5 hours but with the replay value you should be able to stretch that to 5-6 hours.

Overall, Blossom Tales is a pretty fun game. I wonder if we’ll get more in the series. The title may not be that long but in a way that helps it fit even more in with the other retro games it is trying to be like. Eventually I’ll be working on the original Legend of Zelda so it’ll be fun to see it in action. This game was definitely going for a similar feel although I imagine it’s a lot smoother than LoZ in almost all aspects thanks in part to how modern it is. In comparison that one’s probably going to feel pretty dated. If you haven’t picked this game up then I’d recommend checking it out.

Overall 7/10

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers Review

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It’s time to take a look at a classic Noir film. It’s a tale of deception and blackmail with the villains thinking a little too highly of the lead which gets them into trouble. It’s a pretty engaging film for most of its run but by the end the drama ramps up a bit too much at the expense of Sam’s character. The ending may play out as a happy one but Sam made far too many mistakes. The plot still gives you enough twists and turns to stay engaging though.

The film starts off with Martha and Sam running from home yet again. Sam is a pretty down to Earth guy who likes being a rebel while Martha is getting ready to inherit a ton of money but doesn’t like her aunt. Unfortunately for Martha the aunt has a lot of power so these attempts never work out. Well, one day Martha murders the aunt and is finally out of the woods. The thing is, Walter and his father saw this so they help her cover it up, but this does lead to Walter becoming the district attorney and the two characters get married. Martha still doesn’t like Walter all these years later but that’s just how it is.

Meanwhile Sam passes through town and figures he’ll look his old friends up. He was friends with Martha at least, he never got along with Walter as much. He meets up with a girl named Toni though and the two of them become good friends. The problem is that Toni is breaking parole by hanging out with Sam and not going home. Ultimately she is picked up and so Sam decides to ask Walter to help him get her off the charge. Walter thinks Sam is here to blackmail him for the murder all those years ago but Sam doesn’t actually know about it. If Walter keeps hinting at it though, he ultimately may help Sam find out.

It’s always interesting when the villains actually overestimate the heroes because it’s so rare. One other case is in RWBY as Salem tells Cinder and the others to be very careful since Ruby has Silver Eyes, but little did they know that Oz had never shown her how to master it yet. That’s a similar case to how it’s all playing out here. Sam really had no way to suspect any of this since he had put the town on high alert. Honestly he probably wouldn’t have had a whole lot of swing with Walter otherwise though.

This does lead to Sam getting beat up at one point though and a lot of back and forth with the characters. Sam can fight pretty well so he doesn’t get intimidated easily. He trades a lot of barbs with Walter. Despite Sam calling him scared all the time Walter does hold his ground. Perhaps being constantly drunk and working for the government helped him get a little braver. It’s definitely a pretty interesting dynamic. Sam was a solid character for most of the film, but where he ultimately faltered was in how he handled the second half.

He definitely did like Martha once upon a time but she is married now and he likes Toni. That should absolutely be the end of it right? Unfortunately that is not the case and he falls for the grass is always greener approach. He betrays Toni pretty late in the game for what amounts to a pretty meaningless affair with Martha. It really takes away from his character because that’s absolutely the last thing he should be doing right now. He’s already been in so much trouble in this town as it is you’d think he would just get out quick. Unfortunately he got a bit greedy by the end. Once he actually did have the blackmail he quickly used it just like Walter thought he would. In a way Walter was right from the start, he was just too early.

So I couldn’t come to like Sam. Martha isn’t really any better. She seemed pretty spoiled right from the start of the film. The intro was brief but it didn’t really set up Martha as a sympathetic character. Then we have Walter who is at the very least still complicit in everything that went on. He clearly knew Martha didn’t like him but got married anyway so it’s hard to sympathize with him either. The only good character here was Toni and she definitely shouldn’t have stuck with Sam. After being betrayed like that I would have split town and then that would be it. If Sam can fall away so easily once then it will happen again.

Finally, the film also fumbled the ball early on with some animal violence. Why did we need the aunt to murder the cat at the beginning of the film? All that does it give the film a bit of a mean edge from the start. You can’t really recover from that. I suppose an amazing film could try to make a comeback I suppose, but it’s very difficult and you are starting from a disadvantage. I’m guessing the film couldn’t find any other way to make the Aunt look bad because otherwise she hadn’t been nearly as sinister as Martha would suggest. It’s an easy out, but one that did not do the film any favors.

Overall, This was a pretty interesting film. It unfortunately just lasted too long by watering down Sam’s character at the end and I definitely could have done without the animal violence. Those are the two elements that really drag the film down. The writing is on point as with most classic Noir films and otherwise the pacing is good. As I said at the beginning of the review, this is a pretty engaging film. Usually that goes hand in hand with being a good film but unfortunately that was not true in this case. As far as the recent Noir films I’ve seen go this would have to be one of the weaker ones.

Overall 3/10

Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced Review

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Looks like it’s time for another Crash adventure. The last two games were both pretty short and the same is true of this one. You can beat it in under 90 minutes so I wonder how you would be feeling about that if you bought it on launch day. Granted, if you paid full price then perhaps you would go ahead and grab all of the collectibles to get the true ending. As it stands, this one is very similar to the last Crash game. It’s a pretty fun adventure that may be brief, but the gameplay is quite sound. It also has more of a plot than the last one so I was all for that.

The game starts with the Mask finally deciding that Cortex has failed him for the last time. He turns to one of the other members of the Cabal, a Time Master. The Master is pretty confident that he can stop Crash so he hires a mind control villain to kidnap everyone. The guy succeeds except for Crash who gets lucky thanks to his own Mask protecting him. The villains now have all of Crash’s friends + an evil version of Crash. Can Crash really save all of his friends and defeat someone who manipulates time with such ease? One thing’s for sure, this is not going to be an easy win for our young Bandicoot. Crash is going to need some kind of plan here.

It’s a pretty epic plot and unlike the last one we do get more cutscenes throughout each world. You get that sense of danger after clearing each world and I do like the idea of fighting all of Crash’s allies. I was a little surprised to see Crash among them though. I guess he was actually a good guy? Based on his dialogue it seems like he was mind controlled the whole time so he’s always been a hero. You can certainly color me surprised on that twist but it was good to see him again. As with last time the bosses are pretty well varied. The final boss even has two phases this time which makes him a true threat. You’ll want to really memorize his movement patterns or you’re in for a tough time. I would recommend sliding under him after every two jumps and then in phase two if he starts shooting the fast energy blasts go directly under him. He can’t shoot at that angle so you’ll be safe and then you can just hope he doesn’t fire off the homing energy blast instead. At that point you’re pretty much just plain ole doomed.

As for the levels, they’re mainly your usual Crash 2D Platforming levels. The actual levels feel a little shorter than the last game’s, but it’s pretty close so that could just be placebo. Either way the controls are smooth and one thing that I liked was how you have all of the power ups from the start this time. It does make the game as a whole considerably easier than the last one, but I really enjoy the double jump. It’s just hard not to play with it so I’m fine with the game being a little easier if that’s what it takes. Just go through the level cautiously and you should be fine. If you’ve made it this far in the series you’ll definitely be okay and if not the game actually has a pretty helpful tutorial at the beginning.

One of the alternate gameplay styles that made a return here is the Monkey Ball style. It’s my least favorite style in this game though. The levels have too many obstacles so you end up having to go really slow the whole time. As a result you don’t get to really capture that fun Monkey Ball spirit. Another gameplay style is the space missions where you have to boost through the levels and blast alien ships. I don’t think the boost mechanic was necessary here but I’m always up for some space blasting. There are only 2-3 of these levels in the game so make them count. Finally you also have the boat levels where you have to try and escape Jaws. These levels are a bit random but pretty fun. I consider them to be an upgrade over the running towards the screen levels from the earlier games.

So I don’t really have any complaints with this game except for one. Naturally that’s the length. 1 hour is pretty short for any console, but especially for one as modern as the GBA. Clearly the goal is to get you to replay it a few times until you collect everything, but I think the main campaign still could have been longer. If it was between the game being short or padding it out though then they made the right move. Collectibles should always be optional so I’m glad that the game made them that way. Forcing you to grab everything has always been a risky gamble and not one that I was a fan of.

As for the soundtrack, I’m finally starting to recognize the tunes after hearing them so much. The music in the game is pretty fun. It may not be the most dynamic, but the tunes are easy to listen to and help capture that Adventure spirit. You feel like you’re on a fun quest with Crash and the gang. Who can ask for more than that right? The graphics are also pretty good. They’re about the same as the last installment, but if it isn’t broken don’t fix it right? The character models are still on point and the whole thing looks pretty good.

Overall, Crash Bandicoot strikes again with another quality game that is just held back by the length. At around an hour to an hour and 20 minutes this game won’t really last you for very long. You could go and grab the collectibles to extend the game though. The levels are quick so playing them all 2-3 times isn’t a big deal if you’re interested in seeing how it ends. It’s always a tempting offer once I have less games on my backlog but at the moment I mainly just play the games to their original completion and just go from there. If you’re a big platforming fan or just want to relive the good ole days of the GBA then this is a solid adventure to check out. The fundamentals are all here so you should have a good time.

Overall 6/10

Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex Review

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It’s time to take a look at another Crash game. I actually completed this one before the GBA one but that one was so much shorter that it made sense to just churn the review out real quick. The HD Collection for Crash was pretty fun so I figured it was about time I got the next installment. The Wrath of Cortex does hold up pretty well to the others although I don’t think it beats any of the first 3 one on one. While the gameplay styles are quite varied as Crash is known for, some of them are definitely weaker than others. This results in weakening the overall package a bit in the end.

The game starts with the mask reprimanding Corte and the other villains once again. They have failed him for the last time so he gives them yet another shot to win back his good graces. Cortex is pressured into admitting that he has built the ultimate weapon to beat Crash. It’s a dark prototype known as Crunch and he basically is Crash except a whole lot more powerful. Cortex has also awakened the immensely powerful Elementals who once brought the planet to its knees. Can Crash really stop such a powerful alliance?

I always like starting the game off with a good villain meeting. This way they all hype each other up and it works out quite well. That being said, most of them don’t actually get to fight in this one which is a bit iffy. What’s the point of a big villain meeting if they aren’t actually going to fight right? They all returned for the GBA game and some of them got to fight there, but I was expecting everyone prepped and ready for this fight. No matter, it was still a pretty fun opening cinematic and I’m always going to give a game a thumbs up for including them. Cutscenes are something a game should always have if you ask me.

The main gameplay here are the 3D platforming levels. You run and jump over obstacles. Additionally you can use your spin move to defeat most enemies or a power slide to go right underneath them. It’s definitely a very useful technique and I recommend it against all of the human agents. It’s more trouble than it’s worth to spin on them. A lot of the time you can just breeze past them though. In this game there is no real benefit to fighting them all off so I would say don’t bother. What’s the point of attacking an enemy when you could just walk right past them? That’s the way I see it at least. These levels can definitely be tricky. A lot of time the best thing to do is just stop and survey the level instead of continuing to run forward.

As I mentioned there are other kinds of levels here though. Another one is when you are in a plane flying across the world sinking ships and space stations. These levels are a lot of fun for sure. Just keep on blasting and you’ll be through it with ease. A lot of the time you don’t even need to worry about the ships behind you. Try to tune out the super loud sound of motors behind you though. It can get extremely loud next to the other sounds and music for some reason to the point where you may want to lower the volume a bit. Another kind of gameplay is when Crash puts on the mech suit and starts blasting. It’s a bit clunky so I feel like the game added it near the end. It’s not terrible but I do think it could have been a lot better. The levels don’t show up often though so I wouldn’t really worry about it.

Then we have the underwater levels where you’re in a ship or swimming free reign. These were my least favorite levels in part because it is very hard to turn. That means if an enemy suddenly appears out of nowhere then you are basically out of luck. Struggle as you may, but in the end you won’t be able to dodge. I remember losing quite a few lives in this battle. There are also the Monkey Ball levels. This felt the most random to see, but it was nostalgic. These levels were pretty decent although there was one where the final maze was a bit much. It wasn’t even hard, just time consuming to check every path until you found the right one. If you picked a bad path, well you wouldn’t know it til you got to the end of it.

The graphics are pretty solid here. The final levels get really dark but I think that’s more on my TV than the game. I did prefer the earlier worlds to the final one though. The final world felt like it dragged on a bit next to the others. One thing about levels is you never want to have a section where you have to wait a lot. Sections with waiting means that the second time around won’t be nearly as exciting and if you die a lot then it keeps lowering and lowering the hype. This was mainly an issue when climbing as Crash climbs very slowly. The souundtrack is pretty decent though. There weren’t any memorable tunes, but I had no issues when playing the game. It all felt pretty appropriate.

The game’s length is pretty short. I’d say that I cleared the game in about 2 hours. The game wasn’t very clear on how to save so I did have to beat the first 3 worlds twice. If you count that then the game lasted about 3 hours. To save you have to walk over to a big TV in the hub world and click on it. Definitely make sure you do that before turning the game off because otherwise you definitely won’t be thrilled to have to redo all of your work. At least I was able to see how quickly I could adapt because the second time I didn’t die nearly as much. It felt like I had really improved on those levels.

There is also a good amount of replay value here as you can try to get all of the collectibles. There are a ton of them to get on every level so if you do that then expect this game to last quite a bit longer. That’s really it, but I’m assuming you would unlock something pretty good for doing that. It would be a shame to do all that work and not really have anything to show for it. Surely the game wouldn’t even dream of doing that…right? If it did then you are definitely free to feel a little disappointed.

My only real complaint with the game aside from how the saving works is that in some levels it can be a bit of trial and error at the beginning. There are some obstacles you couldn’t possibly know are there until they suddenly appear and squash you. In particular this happens quite a bit in the underwater levels. You know where they are the second time but it’ll cost you a stock each time you find out. That’s a lot of stocks in the balance.

While this complaint doesn’t affect the score quite as much, the sound settings in this game as pretty odd. The cutscenes are all extremely low so you can’t hear anything til you raise the volume. Then the actual music and sound effects in the levels are decently loud. Finally you have the aerial levels where the sound effects are incredibly loud. Same for the electricity in ground levels. You can never have your TV at the right volume because the game keeps changing things up on you. I can’t think of another game that had this issue to such a large degree so that was definitely interesting.

Overall, The Wrath of Cortex is a pretty fun game. It’s a nice sequel to the series even if it doesn’t really do a whole lot that the first 3 didn’t. I’m always glad to see another Platformer and especially on the Gamecube. I’d recommend getting the game. The price is pretty good right now and who doesn’t want to revisit the world of Crash right? Sometimes you gotta just take the plunge and see where it takes you. I’ve got one more Crash game to play but then after that there might be a bit of a delay before I get more. I’ll definitely round them up at some point though.

Overall 7/10

Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure Review

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It’s time to look at another Crash title. This one is the first portable Crash title I’ve played so I was ready to see what it was like. I did see him briefly in the Spyro crossover but I bought the Spyro version so I don’t recall if you actually played as Crash at all. Well, this game is solid and keeps in most of the gameplay from the console games. You can’t help but feel like it’s a pale imitation though. The Gamecube version was already short and this one’s even shorter which is a bit tricky to get around. I beat the game in a little over an hour which is pretty crazy. I guess there is a bit of replay value to work with here, but that’s still pretty crazy.

So the plot is that Cortex has come up with his latest invention to defeat Crash. It’s a device that shrinks the planet to the size of a grapefruit which sounds like a pretty sophisticated piece of equipment. I was certainly impressed at any rate. There’s a lot of pressure on Cortex because the Mask has warned him that he isn’t allowed any more failures. Cortex does tend to fail the guy a lot so you can understand where he’s coming from, but I personally think it’s a bluff to get Cortex working. Crash doesn’t have time to worry about that though. His goal now is to find a way to restore the planet back to its original size and save the entire planet. Can he do it?

The main gameplay here is that of a 2D platformer. You jump over obstacles and smash enemies as you head to the end of the level. At first you only have a few abilities like rolling, slide, jump, and spin. After each world you unlock new abilities though including the really handy double jump. The game becomes infinitely easier once you obtain this skill. That’s because almost the whole game is built around trying to get through it with 1 jump even to the final world so you’re in a pretty good position as a result. Just be warned that the second jump destroys your momentum in the air so be prepared to not cover as much distance as you might think with the jump.

The gameplay is definitely pretty fun. I think the Crash style is good at bringing in some difficult levels that will test your fundamentals without going overboard. Even the toughest of sections will be cleared before long. The game also has some other gameplay styles here like swimming. The underwater levels are greatly improved here from the Gamecube game so I’ll give the title some props there. It’s still not quite as fun as the traditional levels though. Then you’ve got the running to the screen levels. Those still seem to be a bit luck based if you ask me since you can’t see where you’re going. They’re fun enough though.

Finally you have the aerial levels which are definitely a lot of fun. You fly through the air and blast away at all of the objects that stand in your way. It can be hard to dodge the obstacles while still landing hits on the opponents. To that my best advice is to just stay in place while blasting. You can actually deal far more damage than they can so this works in all levels until the final aerial one. There you need to move a bit. So keep in mind that you still dodge minions but for the checkpoint bosses just stand still and blast away at them. It works pretty well. There is one world boss which is in this style and that one’s pretty fun. I recommend knocking out the machine gun on the bottom first since that makes the boss a whole lot more manageable.

When it comes to the graphics Crash looks pretty good. The character models are solid and the illustrations look nice as well. They make Cortex look even sadder than usual but that’s pretty much in character so I can’t really say that there are any issues there. The level designs don’t have a lot of variety though and it feels like the game re-uses the backgrounds quite a bit. Unlike the other Crash games where each world has a theme, pretty much every world in this game is either a forest or a science lab. I think more levels would have been nice.

When it comes to the soundtrack, it’s pretty fun. I wouldn’t say that any of the themes are all that memorable though. If anything the sound effects are really the memorable part of this game and you probably won’t be forgetting those anytime soon. As I mentioned, the length of the game is under 2 hours though so keep that in mind when buying this game. You can extend your playtime a bit though by going back to all of the levels and getting all of the collectibles. It sounds like that would trigger a bonus level or some kind of extra cutscene I suppose. Hopefully it’s something good because collecting everything seems like it would be pretty difficult and take a while.

There isn’t a whole lot of plot here outside of the opening although that isn’t really unheard of on the GBA. You’re in it purely for the gameplay after all. Hopefully the next game will have a bit more story though. As for the boss fights, they were all different so that was one of the best parts of the game. The most enjoyable boss fight would have to be taking on the giant fox as he jumped from platform to platform. It was a fun idea for a boss fight and I don’t believe I’ve fought one quite like it before. I always like seeing a creative new approach to a battle.

Overall, Crash The Huge Adventure is a pretty solid Crash game. It definitely could have benefited from a few more hours of runtime but what we do get is solid. It really just holds the game back a star, but that’s all. At the end of the day if a game is fun then it’ll still earn itself more of a decent star. Maybe if it was something even more excessive like 10 minutes that’d be another story like some of the NES games, but at around 1 hour it could be worse. I look forward to seeing how N’Tranced fares. It’s listed as being a little longer than the Huge Adventure so we’ll see if that is true as my Crash marathon continues.

Overall 6/10

Kyoka Jiro vs Kaiba

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Jiro is a fun character from My Hero. I’m still hoping she gets a real power up at some point since right now the problem for her is that she isn’t very powerful. That means no matter how much screen time she gets it’s hard for her to be the focus in a battle arc. At the moment she could try to keep Kaiba and his team off balance, but that’s about it. She really has no answer for aerial threats like the Blue Eyes White Dragon and no way to protect herself from their energy blasts. As a result I don’t see her winning this round. Kaiba wins.

Red (Megaman X) vs Grimmjow

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Grimmjow has returned and this is another quick win for him. Grimmjow was one of the strongest Espada in Bleach and I dare say that you could make a case for him being the strongest aside from Ulquiorra thanks to the latter’s second resurrection. his speed and power are absolutely uncanny so Red is really going to have to watch himself here. A single slip and it’s game over, but ultimately he will lose regardless because he has no way to land a hit on Grimmjow. Grimmjow wins.

Birdy Cephon Altera vs Kaiba

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Birdy is a character I wasn’t familiar with prior to her fighting on the blog. She seems pretty fun and has a very versatile power set. She can augment her abilities with solid hits and blasts and has a lot of durability. It’s going to take all of Kaiba’s cards to keep her at bay. Fortunately he is prepared and he certainly has a ton of cards at his disposal in order to mount a comeback. Birdy will tire herself out trying to get past his spells and traps. Ultimately that will leave her wide open against his monsters. Kaiba wins.