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Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart Review

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It’s crazy to think that there has only been one Ratchet & Clank game in the PS5 era. I remember the PS2 and PS3 getting so many games for the series! I forget on the PS4 so I guess it was starting to slow down, but still we definitely need more games with this duo. They were really on fire for a while there! This game is definitely great all around, there are some narrative things I would have done differently but on the whole I was satisfied.

The game starts off with Ratchet and Clank attending a big parade celebrating them once more. Ratchet doesn’t love all the attention but he’s ready to have a good time. Clank has worked out a way to help Ratchet finally see all of the other Lombaxes in another dimension but Ratchet isn’t too eager to do this for some reason. Things are cut short when an alien invasion occurs which disrupts the celebrations. This isn’t anything too new for Ratchet so I liked how he really took this in stride. Still, Clank ends up being kidnapped by a female lombax and they fall into a dimensional portal so Ratchet has to try and find them. Nobody messes with his friends!

So I’ll say right now that my only real problem with the game is how Ratchet and Rivet (The new lombax) barely get to interact at all. I was really looking forward to the banter and seeing what their dynamic is like. She’s basically the Ratchet of her dimension so there’s a lot you could play around with there. Instead, they don’t meet up until you’re deep into the game and unfortunately by that point they know a lot about each other so they already get along. I wanted a quick fight between the two but we never got that. Particularly with the extra tension of Ratchet thinking that Clank was kidnapped, I would have liked to see him cut loose. Maybe even make it a boss battle where you play as Rivet and have to survive against Ratchet for 2 minutes or something.

Facing off against the main character like that is a real blast ya know? Ah well, the story itself is still a lot of fun. We get to see a more serious version of Nefarious and also an alternate version of Captain Qwark who is more like his younger self. It’s a fun way to bring in alternate versions of the characters. Again I would have done a little more with the concept though. In the first world you jump through a bunch of dimensions and I did feel like one was based on the Jak games but you’re only there for around 30 seconds so it’s hard to say. This could have been treated like a crossover game of sorts and some easter eggs would have gone a long way.

The game instead chooses to survive on its own two feet which is fair enough but when a dimensional plot like this you just expect it to go the extra mile a little more. The game feels fairly short but it’s around the same length as the others. I guess I just played through it really fast because it was too hype to put down. As always Ratchet is a great main character. I may not be as big a fan of Clank but he’s always trying to help out. I liked Rivet as the new heroine and I’d be cool with seeing her return in the future. She’s a solid fighter and has definitely earned a spot on the main cast. Her partner Kit is a character I’m not as big a fan of.

Kit has a whole character arc and everything so I would say that the game tries plenty hard with her but I dunno I still need a little more there. With some more confidence she can go up so I wouldn’t be shocked if the sequel if her time to shine. It’s funny seeing Nefarious get wrecked for the whole game. I like that guy in an ironic sense as a comedic villain but the new Nefarious was actually really solid. I would definitely be up for seeing him return in another game as well but this is the kind of series that has a lot of villains to choose from so I’m definitely cool with a new villain again.

The graphics are really good here. It’s definitely got that first party PS5 budget behind it. There are a ton of great special effects in the background and everything looks really sharp. The soundtrack may not stand out a ton but it still looks really good overall. There is a lot of replay value here like in maxing out all of your weapons and getting the platinum. It looks a bit time consuming but not super difficult so I don’t think that you will have a really tough time here. I always liked the level system for the weapons that the series has because it really encourages you to keep switching weapons. I maxed out quite a number of them for this exact reason.

The 3D gameplay is extremely smooth and a ton of fun overall. The quality of life features make this super smooth as well like constant checkpoints and everything. There was one cheesy jump that was an instant death if you moved in time with the dialogue so you’d have to wait 2 seconds before moving on but that might have just been an oddly timed auto save on my end. You also have 2 alternate forms of gameplay. The Clank one is fairly weak so if the next game drops anything, this would be the one. It’s a puzzle as you guide clones to the goal. It’s not too bad, it just drags on a bit.

The other gameplay style is in the digital world as you control an AI named Glitch and that was a lot of fun. You basically blast away at any machine or opponent that gets in your way. That actually works out really well to the point where I’d love to see it come back or even as a spinoff game. It is the right balance of action and strategy. So bravo is what I would say to that! Absolutely the kind of gameplay I would come back to at any time.

Overall, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart is a great game. I would say it holds its own with the older titles in the series to be sure. It’s just a lot of fun to be able to see the old gang in a new adventure like this. They really didn’t miss a beat with the humor or level designs. It’s a fun game that you can jump right into even if you haven’t played through the other games but in a lot of ways it does work best as an anniversary title of sorts that you play at the end. One last adventure for the main duo. I would have liked a few more nods to the older games like maybe Ratchet mentioning how the last time they met a lombax it didn’t go so well but I can get why they would try to keep this one a bit more newcomer friendly. Either way I definitely recommend checking it out.

Overall 8/10

Animal Well Review

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It’s time to talk about the new game that Dunkey recently released. It’s a Metroidvania which isn’t really my thing but I figured I’d check it out since it’s for free with the PS+. (Which has to suck for Dunkey since that probably takes a huge chunk out of his profits) Well..unfortunately the game doesn’t really work too well for me. It’s missing a lot of the quality of life features that I would really want to see in a game like this. There’s also no real story to speak of which hits hard.

The game starts off with some spooky sound effects and then you start off in a dark room. It’s hard to say exactly why but you have to find a bunch of eggs and then put out the 4 flames. If you can pull this off then perhaps you will escape the animal well. It will take all of your skills to pull this off though so is it really possible or are you just living in a delusion? There is only one way to find out.

The basic gameplay is that of a 2D platformer. You run and jump as you try to get around the obstacles and make it to the end of the room. Each room leads into another room and then you will typically find an egg or a new power up. The new items allow you to reach new rooms that you couldn’t reach before. So keep on doing this and eventually you will beat the game. Of course the one problem is that this means you will probably need to replay the same rooms over and over again. Unless you take very precise notes you will also not remember which room had an exit that you were previously unable to navigate either. So that’s another thing to keep in perspective.

Now, travelling back and forth isn’t a bad thing in itself. Shantae actually does this to extremely good effect where you actually have a lot of fun backtracking. You feel stronger every time and you can typically make it across in record time. The problem with Animal Well is that most of the power ups don’t make you faster or anything like that so it can be a real chore to keep going through the same rooms. Additionally one of the things you have to keep in mind is that a lot of the passageways are super hidden.

So you might check off a room that you feel holds no more secrets and then it turns out that it does. So you can never be sure as you are approaching the game. Sometimes you will be super far into one of the paths and then you die to a one hit KO like a block falling on you. You then warp back to the last phone save point which is super far away. Your quick travel (Which takes a lot of eggs to unlock) only works through the save points too. There just aren’t enough save points and too many rooms. If you die you should be taken back to the room where you died in it. Still use the phones as save points for when you exit the game but while playing you should be able to restart where you are.

That will help a great deal in making the game more fun. The graphics are also very basic although I think this is an intentional move. It’s trying to look really old so I can respect that even if I don’t think that the game looks all that solid. The lack of a soundtrack is a big issue though. It’s way too silent and yes that could be seen as spooky but more importantly that can be seen as rather boring. I need something to listen too and so not having that is really a big deal. I mean you can put on a Youtube video or something but just make some spooky music.

In a way the problem is that the game is trying to be old school in every respect which isn’t a good idea. I’ve said before that the very old era of gaming was more of a hit or miss for me. I generally like just about every modern game but if we’re talking original Atari or something then there are many more that I wouldn’t have liked. It’s important not to throw away the quality of life features that we have at this point just to make the game’s older or something like that. Trust me it’s not the way to do it.

Also there should be some way to fight back. Every time you are shredded by an enemy you feel like you could have won if you had some kind of weapon. Your items just don’t interact with the enemies. At least the Yoyo should be able to hit them or the frisbee should knock one around. The only offensive weapon is the Firecracker and even then it works on most enemies but not all of them. Give me something for self defense or maybe make it so you get collectibles quicker to minimize the backtracking just a little. There are a lot of ways you could have made this game a lot more fun than the way that it is currently.

Overall, Animal Well is a game that has a lot of depth to it. There are secrets around every corner and lots of reasons to keep on playing. The problem is that the game missed something that is absolutely fundamental. It forgot to be fun. That’s the thing here, I just don’t feel like solving every puzzle. There are some games where I can keep on dying over and over while having fun like Super Smash or games where I need to keep backtracking like Has Been Heroes but in both of those cases you don’t feel like it’s a time grind. You’re just doing what you have to do and there is a straight forward reason why you are losing and backtracking. Animal Well doesn’t have that. Even just adding a #complete ticker to the screens would be nice or maybe color a room differently when there are no secrets left. Those would be great quality of life updates that would make the game more fun. Without those, then there’s just not much in the game to keep you addicted and having fun.

Overall 4/10

Asura’s Wrath Review

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It’s time to check out the classic known as Asura’s Wrath. I remember that this game always looked super hype when I would see the cover around or even any bits of the gameplay. The feats and characters were all very over the top which worked really well. Ultimately the game may not have done as well as it should have but I would definitely say that for me it did live up to the hype.

The game starts off by introducing us to the various gods who fight corrupted monsters that plague humanity. It appears to be a just cause and Asura does his best to make the world a safer place. Unfortunately he is framed for murdering the emperor one day and his wife is murdered while his daughter is kidnapped. The gods intend to use Asura’s daughter to power their army for eternity until the monsters have been vanquished and this is not an acceptable proposition for Asura. So he decides to take matters into his own hands and destroy all of them. Does he have the power to pull this off though?

While Asura is super powerful, the same is true for the rest of the fighters. In fact, Asura is put at a real disadvantage here because he is destroyed and doesn’t return for 12,000 years. So his skills have not improved while everyone else has ascended to a higher level. The game definitely has bigger time skips than you would expect for any title so it really uses their immortality to the story’s advantage. The gods also appear to be robotic in nature which you could make a lot of fun theories about to be sure. This doesn’t stop them from gaining new power through the energy system known as mantra though. The reason they need Asura’s daughter is that her prayers allow them to focus their powers. She basically improves their abilities on a continuous basis although obviously this isn’t a great setup for her which is why Asura wants to step in.

Some of these fighters try to at least act noble like they’re doing this for a good cause while other members just embrace that they’re being evil and do their best to be massive jerks. You are absolutely rooting for Asura the whole time because all of the other characters just seem crazy. They’re taking the concept of murdering a few to save many to a very huge extreme. For example we learn that they ended up murdering trillions to absorb their life forces to create a robot that can destroy the evil monsters once and for all. The idea is that if they do this then they can create a perfect utopia for eternity.

Fast forward long enough and even trillions of deaths will seem like a small number. Of course you can see how this is still rather insane and a few of the enemies show their true colors when they laugh about how humans exist to serve them anyway so this isn’t a big deal. Yeah Asura really needed to wipe the system clean. In a way he feels like the Hulk or Doomsday here. He is constantly unlocking new abilities and getting stronger as he gets angrier. When he is defeated he just regroups and comes on back. His anger is so high that even death cannot hold him for very long. It’s a really cool premise.

The game goes all in on the aesthetic here too which is what makes the whole game possible. You’re seeing the characters shatter ships the size of planets and moving at incredible speeds. The feats are all crazy here and the characters act like this is completely normal. That’s because it is normal in this context which is what’s so impressive. Then you’ve got the soundtrack which is really good. I liked just about all of the themes here. They’re all really epic and definitely get you hyped for the fights that come up.

It should come as no surprise that the graphics are also really good. The character models are really on point and the energy effects are all really good. This is a game that you can seamlessly play on the PS5 and admire just how solid it looks. Everything about the game was very carefully crafted with no issues at all. Now that’s not to say that the game is literally perfect. It is true that the game could definitely stand to be longer. There are 18 chapters in the game and each one is fairly short. More than a few only have around 5-7 minutes of gameplay while the rest are cutscenes. So you breeze through the game very quickly.

I enjoyed the gameplay a lot so it would have been fun to have gotten to play some more. I was really enjoying how the fights let you play around with the counter attack/quick time action features and of course there was a lot of fun to be had in just bashing the enemies with your standard attacks. The battles ending when you unlocked your rage mode was also a pretty cool approach. The game had a fun gimmick there that was original without being annoying or anything like that.

In the end a lot of the hype around this game is also thanks to the story being so good. It’s a really compelling story that just drags you in and you’re always at the edge of your seat. It’s a shame that some of the chapters are hidden behind DLC since that would help with the length issue but the ending is really intense. Definitely one of those cliffhangers that you are unlikely to forget. Having to replay the whole last level to see the extra cutscene you unlock is a bit much but like I said, the levels are short so it wasn’t all that bad.

Overall, Asura’s Wrath is an elite game to be sure. The gameplay is really out of this world and the quick time events are so much fun. They definitely take up most of the game so it ends up being like an interactive movie at times but when the story is this good you don’t need anything else. I highly recommend checking this game out. It really is a very unique experience and you aren’t likely to forget it anytime soon. Hopefully one day it is old enough to be nostalgic and we get a full blown sequel.

Overall 9/10

Untitled Goose Game Review

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This game was really making the rounds for a while there. I remember seeing the game be talked about a whole ton as the next big thing. A GOTY candidate and everything like that. Well, I finally got to play it and I can safely say that…the game’s okay. I mean it’s just not all that entertaining in long batches but I can see the novelty value here. With more of a story I would have really been on board.

The game starts off real quick as the goose you play as decides to have a walk around town. You go here and there, all the while activating objects and seeing things happen to everyone. You are given a tasks book where you have to try and do everything on the checklist. At times this can be easy and at times it can be hard. The tasks themselves can be like puzzles as you have to find out how to achieve them. The controls are deceptively simple so you would expect the puzzles themselves to also be simple but that is not the case. Some of these puzzles will really take you for a spin. If you’re not careful then you will be completely lost and not doing anything for a while there.

The main problem as I see it is that there isn’t a whole lot of motivation to go forward and accomplish. Why bother completing the checklist? You can do it for completionism’s sake and to unlock more terrain to run across but the lack of a plot really huts here. I guarantee you that if you added a cinematic plot it would be a lot more engaging. I would be racing to accomplish everything as quickly as possible to see what is going on. That’s the kind of incentive that you have to give me.

There’s nothing wrong with a free roam adventure that doesn’t have much of a story but I would argue you need something more than the goose to pull that off. The novelty factor alone just isn’t worth it here. You have to pull out all of the stops and everything. As a bird you can grab things and walk around. That’s basically it. I would want to see some combat and other gameplay additions to really get ahead here.

Lets also improve the graphics while we’re at it. They’re not bad or anything but they are going for a very simple look that doesn’t quite work on the PS5. I need more details and everything. There isn’t really a soundtrack either which is too bad. Some good tunes could really help out with this to be sure. I definitely recommend putting on some background music while you play through the game to add in some fun vibe to the game. Otherwise you might find yourself falling asleep. Okay that sounds like a big shot to the game but my main problem is that it can get a little boring at times. I really need more of a focus to keep my attention going. Otherwise I jut feel like I should have been doing something else. For sure I wouldn’t spend money on the game.

This feels more like a sandbox title that I would play on the mobile. It should be free to play. Now I don’t doubt that a lot of effort went into the game in order to get all of the right sounds and everything but me personally, I do think they could have gone a little harder with the content. You know, really gave us something to think about. It does feel like a true simulator so it does succeed in that way.

Overall, Untitled Goose Game is an interesting gimmick but it just wasn’t for me. It could have used some combat or some action to take it to the next stage. You know, something to really help it stand out and get my attention. Because as it stands, the game just did not have what it takes in that field. I could play it for a long time if I was trolling everyone or had a captive audience but on its own it just wouldn’t be fun enough. It needs more variety.

Overall 4/10

The Last Blade 2 Review

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This is a fighting game that I had definitely never heard of before but it sure is fun. You feel like they put some extra effort into this title relative to the average fighting game. For starters there are some fun illustrations here for the story aspect. There is a real ending when you beat the arcade mode. Not just a quick picture or something but a true story. The opening is good as well and I really liked the vibes here. The characters all have great designs and movesets.

I never played the original Last Blade but the fact that this one continues after the first title is a good thing. You can feel the continuity here all the way through. The lines and twists would hit harder if you had any kind of context for them but I’m still glad to see them around. The game has vs mode aside from arcade of course but there isn’t a ton of content here. So the story that we do get really goes a long way to making the game be more memorable. The genre has a lot of competition and even back in those days there were always a ton of games being churned out left and right. So what that means is that you needed to try hard in order to stay ahead of the curve and that’s not easy.

I’m surprised you don’t see this game series around more nowadays since I feel like the game would do well. It had that anime feel to it and the actual gameplay is fairly fast paced. It’s your classic 2D fighter all the way through and the characters deal a whole lot of damage. So if you take the wrong combo you will be knocked out almost instantly. Of course by the same token that means you just need to land a good hit and you will be the one claiming victory. So definitely don’t give up, if you strike hard and fast then you will always have the ticket for victory. The game is really about proper spacing so you definitely need to be careful when you throw a strike.

I approached the title with my usual button mashing style which I have to admit worked rather well here. Most opponents are just unable to stop my combos but some matches did take me a while. I will always stand by the fact that games were simply way more difficult back in the day than they are now. Games in the present could mostly be blasted through at any point but for the older ones you really had to work at it. Easy mode itself could be a little difficult at times.

The graphics are pretty good like I mentioned earlier with the illustrations. The soundtrack isn’t very memorable but you win some and you lose some. The writing is also where the game really stands out, there are a lot of great lines here. The characters really have no chill and will deliver some of the biggest verbal smackdowns that you have ever seen. Seriously I was impressed but also a bit nervous at just how hard these guy went. It’s the kind of dialogue you won’t see as often nowadays because it can tow the line but I think it works out since these guys are villains. It also gives you an incentive not to lose. If you lose then you’re just going to have to put up with that.

Overall, The Last Blade 2 is a pretty fun game. It’s always cool to find a hidden gem inside the PSN+ like this. It may not be a title that changes everything that I ever knew or anything like that but it’s fun which is the important part. I always enjoy fighting games quite a lot so this is another one that I can then add to the list. If there was to be a new game for the series on PS5 or something I would definitely check it out. This setting with full blown cutscenes and everything would be absolutely intense! I know that’s probably a longshot though but either way I would recommend checking this game out at least. It’s a real blast.

Overall 7/10

2XTreme Review

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It’s time for a title that lets you play different sports. So that part’s pretty fun since you get to really switch things up all the time. That said, none of the games will really wow you and there isn’t a ton of variety to be found here. For the most parts the games are just standard so you will have a good time but you won’t be sticking around for very long. Before you know it you will be gone and this game will vanish from your memories.

I decided to play a few levels in each gameplay style to really get the hang of it. My favorite mode was bike riding. I felt like the controls worked best for this setup. It is really hard to win though so I feel like I’m still doing something wrong. No matter how much I would accelerate, I would never catch up to my opponent. Simply put, he was just way too fast. Nobody was lapping me or anything like that but I would usually be sticking to last place. At least I still got some trophies by driving quickly and staying inside of the gates but I would have liked some more wins along with that.

The other gameplay modes like skating and blading were also pretty fun. It could be a little harder to turn in those modes but still nothing crazy. Your main objective in each mode is to go ahead and win the race. Along the way you can pull off some advanced tricks like going through each gate or keeping up a top speed. If you do that then you can earn some trophies. There isn’t much of a tournament mode here though or at least it isn’t unlocked yet. The way you select the match isn’t great though so the menus could use some work.

You have to one by one go down each setting to set them up for the match and then you can start. The problem with this? That means you can’t just jump into a match with ease. It’s probably something where you won’t even notice it once you are used to the setup for a while but it definitely could have been a lot better. Just let me have my settings straight and I can keep on switching levels with ease. This is the definition of a minor problem though and not something that actually hurts anything all that much.

As far as the graphics are concerned, the game looks good. It is definitely on the older side and of course you can tell that but it’s not sloppy or low budget. It holds up as well as I would expect. The soundtrack is more on the forgettable side though. I can’t recall any of the themes at all which is definitely a problem. So the technicals are okay but nothing to write home about which fits in with the rest of the game as well. This is a game that lets you play some sports and that’s exactly what you get. Nothing more and nothing less. So you will be satisfied if that is why you have selected this title.

There isn’t a whole lot to say about the game otherwise since it is very direct. There are no real gimmicks or items here either. It all comes down to your individual skills. How do you handle the turns and unexpected obstacles? You have to always react quickly or else that is it for you. You will be surpassed by all of the other racers and then it’s game over. Although I thought I reacted quickly and I still lost every time so it is what it is.

Overall, 2XTreme is a reasonable game. I wouldn’t call it all that good but it’s certainly not bad. There’s just not a whole lot of bang for your buck here. So you will play it a bit and get accustomed to what’s going on but that’s about it. Before long you will be ready for the next title. So if you have PS+ then you should definitely check this one out but otherwise you’re not missing much if you decide to just skip it outright. You just can’t really go wrong with the game being free.

Overall 5/10

Boruto: Naruto the Movie Update

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I now own the movie on Blu Ray! It definitely holds up really well with all of the hype action. We get to see the start to Boruto’s journey as the #1 ninja as well. Definitely a must watch for any Naruto fan or even anyone who just likes a good action story. You can’t miss out on this!

Pokemon Go Update

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I have finally maxed out all of the Sinnoh Pokemon to level 40!! Less gooooooo. In the meantime I also caught the two new legendaries and maxed out Bisharp so I’m getting closer to having powered up all of the Pokemon to level 40, next up is Unova where I’m missing about 4 of them so far. Will see how long it takes for the next update

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Review

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It’s time to talk about peak fiction and by that I mean Boruto of course. It’s no surprise that initially a lot of people were rather down on the series. Sequels can often be met with a lot of skepticism at first because you’re worried at how they’re going to humiliate the old characters in favor of the new ones. Well I can say not to worry because Boruto is actually a great series. Yes, the old protags are done extremely dirty and the power levels get kind of crazy but at the end of the day the series does a lot of things exceptionally well.

The series picks up after the first series ends with the world finally at peace. Unfortunately becoming Hokage has gone to Naruto’s head and he has started to shirk his family duties to do paperwork all day. Gone are the days of Naruto being the ultimate family man and this has caused his son Boruto to resent him. Boruto has no interest in becoming Hokage and just wants to be a cool ninja so Naruto can acknowledge him. Unfortunately it won’t be so simple as more aliens are arriving on the planet and seem to do battle. Can he surpass his father and put these guys in their place?

For me personally, I actually get really excited whenever there is a big sequel. I love to see all of my favorite characters in a new setting. Did they keep up with their training and how quickly will they be power creeped? As long as it isn’t overly disrespectful to the old characters I’m generally okay with them being crushed and anything like that. The old characters actually get a fairly big role at first and it starts to lessen as the series goes on but they’re always relevant which is nice. This is a true sequel in that sense and not some thing 100 years in the future when everyone is dead.

To address the elephant in the room, I don’t think the art is all that great. The images I chose here are some of the worst so don’t think that the whole series looks like this but my main problem is that it often ends up getting too cluttered the more the series goes on. In some ways I would say it actually looked clearer before. Take the image of Naruto that I attached in this review. Sure people may poke fun at it but it is easy to read and you know that’s Naruto right off the bat. I’ll take simple art like that which clearly shows who we’re supposed to be talking about over something that’s more on the vague side any time. That’s just the way to go. Still, it’s not bad but I would consider the art to be the weakest part of the series.

Now let me address the next biggest part, what about Naruto and Sasuke? These two were absolute beasts in combat before. They are the strongest Shinobi on the planet. Well, for some reason Naruto never gave Sasuke his arm back and I could see that being for emotional reasons but still it’s a slight nerf. You’d still expect them to absolutely dog walk any opponent in the series and that doesn’t really happen. Delta actually gives Naruto a good fight for a while there. Then later on, Naruto and Sasuke struggle rather hard against Momoshiki, they get absolutely clobbered by Jigen, and they get humiliated by Isshiki.

They are consistently shown to be old news at this point. They get just enough hype to be used as hype tools for the villain but they aren’t winning the fights. So why do I still love Boruto? Lets face it, there’s nothing wrong with a little power creep. I do think that the way it is written doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. You can’t tell me that Naruto would be fodder with Sage mode when Boruto was holding his own against Kawaki while still being really young. It seems to be that Naruto and Sasuke were heavily nerfed to give Boruto his chance in the sun. I completely get fans being upset about it but in general power levels are not the kind of thing that I deduct points for. It hurts yeah and I definitely will always bring power levels up but at the end of the day I’m more concerned with portrayal.

In that sense, Sasuke still looks really good. He may have calmed down a whole lot since the old days but he’s still the tough rival. With his Rinnegan abilities he actually serves as more of a threat than Naruto at times. I would like to see him use the sharingan more often to one shot opponents immediately but in general he gets a lot of hype for being a tactical mastermind. He’s absolutely one of the highlight characters of the series. He did a lot in making Boruto a better character by showing him the true way of the shinobi. He’s still not quite what I would call a family man but he’s someone you can depend on.

As for Naruto….uh oh. Now here’s something the series did drop the ball with. There is still no possible explanation for why Naruto would have ditched his family like this. He doesn’t even attend Himawari’s birthday in person which crushes her and infuriates Boruto. From the dialogue we see that he hasn’t had time for them for years at this point. I’ve heard every excuse in the book for this but none of them stick. You want to know why? Shadow Clones. For a guy who can make thousands and thousands of these, there is no actual reason why he can’t just have a shadow clone doing the Hokage paperwork. You see all the memes all the time of how the previous Hokage handled the business better.

Is Naruto just a bad Hokage? I mean that’s possible but kind of a depressing thought. So Naruto was character assassinated early on. This was all for a character arc where Boruto gets him back into his prime self but that sure took a while and didn’t make sense. After that though he is back to being the Naruto we grew up with. He has a lot of great moments and it’s just really nice to see him again. We rarely get to see the main character after he has achieved his dream so this is really an honor. It’s another reason why I love the series, just seeing Naruto and Sasuke again is a blast. It’s why I will always appreciate Dragon Ball Super as well for all its faults. We get to see Goku and Vegeta again. It’s a bit different since they’re more or less the same age but it is still a vehicle for getting way more moments than what we had before so it works out really well.

Okay…so this review’s been way more about Naruto than Boruto so far but that makes sense since that’s what happens in real life as well. There are so many people I’ve seen online who basically skipped to the moments involving the original characters and ignore the Boruto stuff. Hopefully they’ve changed their ways though because it is great. So lets talk about that now. To do that, we have to start with the main character Mr. Boruto Uzumaki himself! This is the kind of character who can easily hold his own series.

At first I was more indifferent about Boruto. He was a nice enough main character but there wasn’t much to him. He was a little whiny at times and also cheated on an exam. Well, here’s where the character development really starts to come into play. He goes from that to being one of the more mature leads who really talks a good game. He absolutely dishes out the disrespect against all of the villains and it was great. At one point he was smack talking in every single chapter for quite a long time. That’s the kind of energy I want to see. Boruto doesn’t put up with any nonsense from anyone. He also does feel like a bit of a mix of Naruto and Sasuke. Boruto can make some good speeches and knows what it means to be a hero but he’s also more aggressive like Sasuke and will just start fighting at times.

There was a whole lot of pressure on Boruto himself in order for this series to be good and he definitely pulled it off. He held his own really well and so the series was able to take off. The fact that we already have a new sequel series for the time skip is super impressive. I expected that Boruto would still keep going for many years but this one only ended because the sequel was coming out which barely counts as ending. So in a way I still feel like I was right, you know what I mean?

As the main heroine, Sarada is solid as well. She has a hard time keeping up with Boruto here so as the series goes on her role gets smaller and smaller but she fights hard and does her best. It’s always fun to have more Uchiha fighters in the mix and the fact that she wants to become Hokage is a nice change of pace here. You would have expected that it would be Boruto and instead he went in the opposite way. I wouldn’t be shocked if he eventually makes that his aim though. If that happens then it could be hard for her since he is the son of the Hokage after all. For now at least it’s nice to see that the modern version of Team 7 actually gets along really well.

The third member of the group is Mitsuki and he’s not bad but he really gets the shaft in this series. He just doesn’t get a chance to show off what he can do even though we know that he should be pretty strong. If there’s any main criticism for the Boruto series, it’s that the supporting cast rarely get anything to do. They’re around to be sure but for the most part this is purely the Boruto series. If you’re not directly related to him or crucial to his story then that’s it. Interestingly the anime sort of works as an extension of the series so it you really want the side characters then you have to watch the anime. As far as the manga goes, you’ll barely know who half of the new Genin 11 even are.

The first main arc is about the Chunin Exams. Team Boruto is entering to finally get their ranks up and in the meantime the next two aliens are here to cause some trouble. It’s a great way to kick things off. Yes, it keeps the old characters in the mix to start the ratings off on a high note and then in theory you stick around for the new characters. I actually think this is a fairly good idea as a transition. It’s also a pretty good arc in general if you take power levels out of the equation. Again you won’t really care about most of the kids introduced but the villains are solid.

Kinshiki and Momoshiki are sort of like Kaguya. They show up with crazy feats and start messing with everyone. Kinshiki sort of gets the short end of the stick here. He was a very loyal villain though and I rather liked him. He may not have lasted long but he did his best to fulfill his mission. Meanwhile Momoshiki would go on to be one of the most interesting villains. I actually liked him quite a lot. The guy had quite a lot of presence the whole time and would go on to have a lot of fun moments in the series. His role is like the Nine Tailed Fox’s but he’s not quite as nice as that beast was. Even by the end of the series you could argue that Boruto should not trust him at all.

After that we get the first main mission without the old characters so things are toned down quite a lot in terms of scale. The heroes have to deal with a cannibal villain and there’s a kid who needs protecting. The arc shows us more of Boruto’s character like how he plays video games and has a full card collection. This helps him bond with the kid somewhat. Boruto also gets to act a little more mature here. It’s a solid enough arc even if it is technically the weakest. The villain is rather forgettable though.

After that we have the introduction to the villain group Kara. They’re basically a poor man’s Akatsuki but they do have a rather big role in the series. We get to see how they’re such a big threat that even Naruto and friends have trouble. Ao even shows up so Konohamaru finally gets a good fight. The arc has a lot of good fights and in general this is always a soli thing about Boruto. Every arc has some big fights involved and so there are a ton of milestone moments. Again the power levels get dicey when Naruto and Sasuke show up but it’s still nice to see them having to give their all to fight these new threats. It does raise the stakes a whole lot.

Ao makes for a solid opponent. It’s interesting to see how far he has come during the Naruto days. You can easily see why he changed a whole lot. I don’t have much sympathy for the guy but his debut was undeniably cool and he left an impact. I was also glad to actually see Konohamaru show up and fight. The guy can actually hold his own now which is nice character development. his role is still really small overall but that’s just how it goes. There are a lot of characters to juggle.

Delta is one of my favorite members of the villain group. She has a lot of confidence and can fight really well. Her speed is impressive and her fight with Naruto still ranks up there as a highlight moment in the series. Then we have Koji who I found less interesting but there is a lot of mystery around his character. He looks a whole lot like Jiraiya so why is that? I just didn’t care much about Jiraiya back in the day which is why I found it hard to care about this guy. Koji is tough to be sure but he’s no Delta.

Then we have Jigen who is another true powerhouse here. The guy is crazy strong and that led to another hype fight. He would eventually be Isshiki so you could go by either term here. Regardless, the guy is one of the cooler villains here to be sure. It may be a valid complaint to say that he doesn’t have a ton of character and it’s more about his overall abilities but I’d argue that he still has enough to back him up. I was interested in what he was going to do at least.

Around this time we also got introduced to Boro who was one of the weaker Kara members. The guy was a power type so he mostly exists to get wrecked and show off everyone else’s hype. The role works well though as it still has Sarada’s best Chidori and I liked seeing everyone’s teamwork. I don’t really care about Boro but he had an intimidating character design. Then we met Amado, the scientist with a grand master plan. His whole thing is that he’s sort of like an evil version of Shikamaru. He’s always got a plan at the ready and has many different contingencies. You definitely don’t want to underestimate this guy.

I’m not really a fan at the moment though. He talks tough and gets a lot of hype but hasn’t done anything with it yet. Unless he has a super big reveal, I don’t really see him rising up the ranks. At least we do have Kawaki though, which finally gives us a rival for Boruto. The problem is that he’s no Sasuke though. When Kawaki first shows up you can see how he’s stronger than Boruto but that changes real quick. Kawaki gets crazier and crazier as the series goes on which ultimately does hurt him. I don’t care for his motivations or reasonings quite as much as Sasuke.

There is still a lot to like about his character though so don’t get me wrong. He’s solid enough as an antagonist and rival pre time skip. He gives Boruto a reason to keep on training hard and has a lot of clutch moments. At this point in time he’s a very interesting character and we needed Boruto to have a challenge. Most of the other figures here just can’t do that anymore.

Finally, we end the series with some more villains showing up. We now have androids at the ready. I do have some major problems here like in DBZ though. There’s no way you should be able to create new villains that can rival the gods. It’s just not happening and the power scaling goes absolutely crazy so you will want to avoid that. The main new villain here is Code and he wants to destroy Boruto to avenge Isshiki. He wants to take everyone down for that reason really since he basically worshipped the guy. To do this, he wakes up Eida and Daemon, two other figures to take down the heroes.

The series goes pretty hard in trying to set them up as powerful fighters but you can tell that the series is writing itself into a hole. First up is Daemon who cannot be injured. If you even so much as think about hurting him then the damage is reflected to you. He’s said to be stronger than Naruto and Sasuke combined. No worries, this technique gets nerfed in the sequel but for now that’s an absolutely crazy ability. I never cared for him as a character though. He may be strong but he’s not my kind of villain.

Then there is Eida whose ability makes it so that everyone falls in love with her. Additionally, she can see all events in the present and the past. It’s basically an omnipotence ability and it’s certainly handy. So nobody can really attack her and you can’t keep any secrets from her either. She isn’t really a physical fighter as far as we know but that means she doesn’t need to engage in physical combat anyway. Another character where I can’t say that I give her a real thumbs up though.

So that leaves Code and well the poor guy constantly gets clowned on. He got a ton of hype when he first showed up but it all went downhill from there. The main problem is that he gets surpassed too quickly which absolutely undermines his character arc. If he could have been allowed to slowly be surpassed that would have worked better. The guy just ends up whining a lot which doesn’t help his case at all. The guy had a promising future but he fell flat.

That’s roughly all of the characters. Shikamaru gets a big role on the heroes’ side but naturally he doesn’t look very good either. He’s mainly here to get wrecked or to hype up another character. His days of always being the smartest and being in the lead are absolutely over which is a shame. I’m still waiting for characters like Kakashi and Tsunade to show up as well. They should be able to help out a little bit after all and acknowledging them would be cool. Sometimes the series feels a bit too isolated which doesn’t work when everyone in the lead village should still be in peak shape. If they get to fight, it’s usually to get one shotted. So again, don’t get too attached to the old character.

At this point it’s a bit of a meme that we’ll never get to the quick moment that was teased at the very beginning of Boruto. It was a flash forward hinting at some epic things and it just never happened. So in a way people were right which is kind of crazy because you would have assumed that it had to appear. Still, it will likely show up in the sequel series which is what counts. I don’t think anyone could have guessed that this manga would end on a cliffhanger. Since there’s a sequel there’s nothing to worry about for folks who don’t like an unfinished story though. If anything this manga ends in an extremely hype way. The final page is awesome with another one of Boruto’s best moments. Like I said before, he really came a long way from the opening chapters and is just an awesome main character now. He can hold his head high next to Naruto.

Overall, Boruto was a great manga series. It really does a good job of continuing the legacy of the characters and showing us what happened next. This really is the next generation of Naruto and I can safely say that the legacy is in good hands. If you’re looking for great action and a solid plot then you have come to the right place. It can only adapt so much though so don’t expect this to answer your questions on where every old character is. Some have not yet gotten to appear and others probably won’t, even in the sequel series. For the most part you do get the picture of how things went down though. The sequel series is also off to a great start right now so it’ll probably be going for a long while. Once it has been completed then I will have a review up for it though.

Overall 8/10

Cursed to Golf Review

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Golf has never really been my thing. The game doesn’t move fast enough for me and the gameplay didn’t translate well onto the video game screen. The only exception to this has really been the Gamecube Mario Golf which was rather good. I figured this one could change things since it has the whole rogue genre going for it so I figured that would entail some fun gameplay. Unfortunately while there are a lot of gimmicks and items here, none of them really help to make Golf any more fun than it usually is. Instead I dare say that it may have been weaker than normal.

There is a general plot here which is that the main character was about to go and win the world championships when unfortunately he died and is now in the underworld. He will have to try and climb his way back to the surface but the only way to do that is to complete the 18 hole set in the underworld. If he can’t get the golf ball into the hole fast enough in any of the holes then he will be sent all the way back to the start. The stakes are high but hey the main character has his entire after life to figure this out. So he definitely has time on his side.

The general gameplay is your classic Golf of course. You have to use one of your 3 clubs in order to hit the ball into the hole before all of your turns are done. You may start with 10 balls for example, then that means you have 10 turns to sink it. Your clubs each have different specialties. One is good for ground balls, one to launch balls in the air, etc. Using them effectively will really determine just how far you get here. If you mess up then that will be it for you.

You will want to take a good look around the stage though or you may end up hitting your ball into the water or a ditch. If that happens then you will have really wasted a turn. You also have cards which work as special abilities. These cards can grant you extra turns, stop time, split your ball into multiple copies, etc. There are a whole lot of possibilities here so you will want to use them efficiently. As you progress through the stages you will bump into shops where you can buy more items or get other bonuses. Then there are the boss rooms which have a lot of holes and you have to figure out which one to use. This is the one I couldn’t figure out though. You have unlimited balls so running out isn’t a concern but I felt like I used every hole more than once and I still couldn’t win. There’s probably some kind of trick to it but I wasn’t a big fan.

You really need to like Golf to play through this game though because otherwise there isn’t much to keep you focused here. It’s really just golf with a bunch of items and special abilities but that makes things more chaotic without solving the main issue of making golf more fun. I would put a lot of the blame on how long each of the levels are though. It takes forever to actually get through each level and that’s a problem. I’d rather start off with half the balls but the levels are half length. That would be a much better balance. The length of the levels here make the whole game a lot more daunting than it really needs to be. It would take so many different attempts to win the whole thing and losing at the end would be absolutely demoralizing.

In general I’ve always been very pro check points though. Keep them coming fast and often. That is the best way to handle a game like this. It makes the whole experience better, maybe they could do that for a sequel. In the meantime to beat this one you will need a lot of training because the game is really difficult. Unless you get a lot of permanent upgrades which to be fair is standard for a rogue title, you are going to be in a lot of trouble here.

The graphics are really good though. It’s got that cute indie style which works well and all of the character models are sharp. The backgrounds all look sharp and I like all of the effects. The soundtrack is a bit more on the forgettable side though. It’s fairly calm and that works well with the golf gameplay but I’d definitely have preferred something with a lot more energy to it. That could have helped to energize the gameplay at least a little.

Overall, Cursed to Golf is a game with a really interesting premise but that’s enough to carry it to safety. The actual gameplay is just not very fun and the levels are way too long. Mix that in with the very heavy penalty of having to start from scratch when you lose and that’s it. The all time best rogue game has easily been TMNT Splintered Fate but I’ve heard good things about many other titles over the years. I just haven’t played many games in the genre but so far they’ve all been pretty solid except this one. This one I definitely do need to give a thumbs down to. Of course if you like Golf then you should definitely check it out.

Overall 4/10