Category Archives: 4 Star Games

The Bionic Commando Review

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Whenever you make a video game where your main character doesn’t have the ability to jump, it should raise some red flags. How do you actually plan your game around that? Surely it can’t be easy and that’s why I would usually recommend not even taking the risk. Well, this game decided to do it anyway and unfortunately it did not go very well. The game goes too far in being as non-linear as possible to the point where you have no idea where to go after a while.

The game starts out with the world’s greatest agent being taken out of the picture. So the world’s second best agent is forced to get in on the action. He has to find the first guy and save him as well as stopping the villains from taking over the world. It will be difficult but this guy has a whole lot of training up his sleeve so it’s nothing that he hasn’t seen before.

The gameplay is your standard 2D platformer at first glance. You can move and jump as well as firing your blaster at folks. As I mentioned before, there is no jumping though. Instead you have an extendable claw that you can use to grab onto walls and mount your comeback. You will have to time the claw throws very carefully because your momentum only lasts for a quick instance. Once it is gone, then you are back to normal and often times you will be in a worse position than when you started.

Each level has a computer room that you must access before you can complete the level. This is a place where you can swap out your current equipment as well as learn some information about the villains and their movements. So this still sounds straight forward right? Well, where the wheels come off is you have to move through the hub world to the last level but you have multiple paths to get there. There are around 19 levels and the numbers are on them but it can be difficult to follow them in order.

You have to endure extra battles based on the enemies who are patrolling those areas. That’s not the only problem, you then have to factor in that you need the right items equipped for different levels to get through. You have up to 3 walkie talkies for example and no clear indicator on which one you need to use in order to proceed. You also have obstacles that can only be broken by specific guns. So there’s a lot of things to consider and none of them are all that fun. I would say that’s the main problem here.

I want to just get to the levels already. The combat is fairly decent and I enjoyed the boss battles. The shine starts to leave as you have to complete those same levels and bosses over and over again though. They keep on respawning and it just feels like that goes against the whole point of the adventure. This should be a fast paced battle to save your friends, not an ever lasting war against foes who refuse to go down. It just doesn’t add up.

The graphics aren’t bad. I do appreciate that we have actual cutscenes of sorts here as well. There is a real story and so this game put in the effort, it was just unfortunately overwhelmed by the fact that the gameplay mechanics were no good. Unfortunately I don’t believe there are a whole lot of ways to get around that. This game was not able to accomplish such a feat after all and that’s why I didn’t really want to rush back to it. The way I see it, this game just failed on a basic level in terms of being really fun to play.

The game’s length is fairly good for such an old game so I can give it some credit in terms of lasting value at least. The soundtrack was okay too so it had some fundamentals here. I think this would make for a good film and I would definitely play a remake of it someday. In the meantime though, this is going to be remembered as one of the weaker Game Boy games. The title just got a little bit too clever for its own good and so the whole thing backfired.

Overall, The Bionic Commando is not a game that I would recommend. It’s not like it’s bad or anything like that but to me it wasn’t that much fun and that’s the biggest thing you need in a game. Actually, I guess I could call it bad in that case as anything under a 5 can earn that title. If you ask me this game should have either kept in the ability to jump or it should have made the levels linear. Either option would have made this better but the whole guessing game doesn’t really work in a game like this. I wanted to be right there in the action, not left to guess on what was going on. Props to folks who figured out how to complete this game back in the day. If you have the Switch Online, I’d recommend playing Kirby instead.

Overall 4/10

Landstalker Review

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Landstalker is a game that is definitely a lot longer than you would have figured. The game is filled with lots of puzzles and platforming challenges that will really keep you guessing. Completing them is no easy feat and I tip my cap to the gamers who managed to complete this one back in the day. It is incredibly difficult and any time you choose the wrong passageway you have to fight a bunch of enemies once again. That was a really rough mechanic.

The game follows a treasure hunter named Nigel who is searching for the ultimate treasure. Unfortunately it won’t be an easy journey and along the way he meets many people who are having issues and dealing with corrupt leaders. Nigel didn’t exactly sign up to be a hero but he won’t let these people fall without a fight. His trusty spirit companion is also around to make sure he doesn’t get distracted by matters of the heart. She wants Nigel all to herself but he doesn’t seem to truly notice her.

While the game’s story isn’t super detailed, there is more dialogue and plot than you may have normally assumed from such an old game. So I can definitely appreciate that. The world is also quite large and that contributes to how long the game’s story ended up being. It is not a game that will end too soon, it’s going to take you a little while. Part of the reason for this is that there is no quick travel system until you reach the final dungeon. So you have to be running back and forth a whole lot. You better hope you have the routes more or less memorized too or that will also add onto the extra time. There were several times where I had no idea how to get back to an old town.

The game has no good map system after all. There is a general world map but it doesn’t give many details. There are a few guideposts but they are rarely around when you need them. So that is a quality of life feature that could be addressed in a remake without a doubt. The game’s combat system is pretty basic. You have a single sword strike…and that’s it. So keep on spamming it as much as you need to until you win. Often times the best thing to do is just spam the attack and wait for the minions to walk into it.

Towards the end there are a few minions this doesn’t work on so for those cases I recommend doing a lot of jump slashes. Keep on pulling those off and eventually you will win. Some of the bosses are incredibly durable to t point where you might wonder if you are attacking them correctly. No worries, if they flash then you are doing it right. This is why I do like to have health bars though, so there is no guessing game.

The puzzles come in many variations but the penalties are too large. Like I mentioned, the enemies all respawn when you exit a room and most of these puzzles revolve around going through a bunch of different locations. So that means backtracking and re-defeating the enemies to activate switches and the like. I had to do this so many times and it’s not like the enemies are ultra easy. They will deal you a ton of damage and then you’re sunk.

I died dozens and dozens of times throughout the game. So like I said it’s no picnic and it’s really rough to be dying thanks to a puzzle. Those puzzles absolutely needed a whole lot of work and they just aren’t fun to solve. Why are the villains using so many puzzles? Lets just jump into the combat. If the system focused on the combat more then this could have absolutely been something great.

Meanwhile the graphics aren’t bad. I will admit that the game looks really solid for its age. The colors are striking and the character designs stand out. That’s certainly never a guarantee for a game like this. Meanwhile the soundtrack isn’t anything amazing but works well enough. You won’t be remembering the tunes though. None of them stick in your head and I will ultimately have to blame the game there as you should have a ton of great themes at the ready. The best theme would probably be the background music for the final labyrinth. It felt suitably final at least.

There isn’t really any replay value here as the game ends when you defeat the final boss. At least the campaign is long enough though so if you have the Switch Online it might be worth playing through. I just warn you that you have to love the puzzle aspect or you really won’t be having fun here. It’s absolutely the focus of the game but since that involves a lot of combat then you are stuck playing through a lot of battles which was clearly not a development focus.

Overall, Landstalker is a game that has not aged particularly well. It’s a game that feels old and the gameplay elements just aren’t as good as they could have been. The puzzles tend to be super annoying the whole time and the game overstays its welcome by the end. The lack of attack options makes the combat become repetitive as well. So those are quite a lot of reasons why you will want to stay away from this one. I’m afraid that it just did not manage to succeed in spite of these instances.

Overall 4/10

Fire Emblem Shadows Review

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I finally got around to trying out the new Fire Emblem game that Nintendo launched for mobile. On one hand I applaud them for finally bringing a new mobile title into the fray. It feels like it has certainly been a while. On the other hand….did they really have to force in more gimmicks? This would have been such a fun title if it was traditional Fire Emblem and instead they try to make it like Among Us and it doesn’t really work with this style. Ultimately this one won’t be a keeper for me.

The general story is pretty par for the course when it comes to Fire Emblem. A kingdom is overthrown and so the prince has to escape along with his trusty bodyguard. He meets up with two girls who seem nice enough, but then they find out that one of the 4 of them is an imposter. Who can it be? Well, the first time it’s the chipper girl with red hair, the next time it’s the other girl with black hair, and then it’s the main character! The last one ends up being a dream though and now you’re back to a full party. The prince needs to gather a lot of powerful allies and then bring his kingdom back to power. Can he pull this off?

To be clear, while the plot is rather straight forward, I still enjoyed it. Mainly due to the character designs being nice and colorful and the game having good presentation. The audio is good, the soundtrack is solid, and the writing is on point. So the story isn’t the problem here, its the gameplay. Think of this as a semi auto tactical game. The characters move on their own and attack on their own. You control the special abilities like healing and energy blasts. In any matchup there are 3 heroes, only one of those 3 is actually a villain.

If you’re playing as the hero, you want to hurry up and beat the enemies and then afterwards there is a guessing round to see who the villain is. So you’ve got a 50/50 shot no matter what. If you guess right, you gain 1 auto revive for when the battle with the traitor starts. Then if you win that battle, you win. The immediate problem here is that the deck is stacked in favor of the traitor. The traitor can destroy you with around 2 moves as soon as the battle begins.

All attacks are anonymous but you can probably guess who the traitor is based on who isn’t hit right? Wrong! The main strategy is for the traitor to knock everyone out, then there is no way to tell who it was. Then in the second round, you can get a revive but it won’t stack since you just died. So you will die to the traitor anyway. I’m told that as you progress through the game you will get power ups and armor that prevent the game from being so one sided but the gameplay design itself feels flawed to me.

On one hand, I like how quick the rounds are. You can play a few rounds very quickly. On the other hand, it’s just too automated for me. I’d rather move the character myself and then set up the traps as I go. Having the system do the movement for me just takes away the fun out of a whole chunk here. It’s just barely Fire Emblem at that point. Nintendo really can’t resist going along with gimmicks here and unfortunately it did not land. I feel like Nintendo has been missing a whole lot more than usual lately.

Outside of the gameplay, the title is really strong in the other areas. It just doesn’t matter enough because at the end of the day, you’re here for the gameplay right? That will always be the most important part of a gaming experience after all because without that, you won’t be able to continue. In very extreme circumstances the story might be so good you can force your way through bad gameplay but that is exceptionally rare. The flip side of that is certainly way more common.

Overall, Fire Emblem Shadows is certainly a fresh experiment by Nintendo and I wish it the best but this game is just not for me. Sometimes you can tell right away if the game fits your style and the opposite is true as well. I feel like the series is big enough where I can see this one being really successful so maybe they can use some of the revenue to make a movie r something. It’s long past due for Fire Emblem to really get more kinds of media. The game is free on the app store so you should probably give it a shot. It certainly can’t hurt and maybe you’ll like it more than I did.

Overall 4/10

Pokémon Friends Review

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Some of the game design decisions here are so bad you would swear it was a mainline Nintendo title. From limiting content to relying on a real life time system, this game has it all. It’s the kind of game that makes you feel sad because it could have been really amazing and instead they completely messed up here. Hopefully the next Pokemon mobile game ends up being better but at least in the meantime I still have Pokemon Go to get me through.

The game is basically a puzzle anthology. You get to play through a series of extremely easy puzzles in order to unravel yarns and collect fun images. Unfortunately, you can only do a few of them a day and then you have to wait for new puzzles to show up the next day. So even if you really like the game, you probably won’t be playing more than 30 minutes a day. I believe you can shell out some cash to get around that but it would defeat the purpose of the free experience.

Now this is Pokemon so of course the game is aimed at kids but the puzzles are almost insultingly easy. You could beat them with your eyes closed so there isn’t a whole lot to be entertained by here. Instead you’re just going through the motions and trying to convince yourself that this was a good idea. Sometimes you have to hold your phone at different angles to navigate a maze, or clicking on the right object out of a set.

The puzzle concepts themselves are pretty good. They’re sort of like what you would see in a Professor Layton game. That said, they are just way too easy. I did see posts online that think they will eventually get harder, to age up with those who bought the game but I don’t have high hopes on that. I think if that was the plan, there would have been a way to increase the difficulty right from the start. That would have made a lot more sense right? Instead you just have to accept that this will be easy

Even then I don’t think this would be a problem if there was no time limit. The limit is the problem, I want to be able to play the game for hours on end, not only playing it on occasion when there are new puzzles. It’s rare to see a video game that actively makes it difficult for you to keep on playing. It’s just a super questionable approach and I wonder which company made that final decision. On a much more minor note, I also think the name isn’t great because it can be hard to google that. A proper name should really stick out.

I can at least say that the graphics are pretty good. They do make you want to smile because of how cheerful the game looks. It’s a fun art style and I would be cool with other Pokemon games using it. The soundtrack is less remarkable unfortunately so you will probably forget about that part really quickly. Definitely a shame, even if some may argue that a battle theme wouldn’t fit the gameplay. I’d argue that a battle theme fits everything.

Overall, Pokemon Friends doesn’t make me feel a whole lot of friendship. Instead I just feel like I’m on my own, trying to fight against the odds of dropping the game. I ultimately lost that fight and uninstalled the game shortly after this review. I just didn’t see the point in continuing on any longer. The game did not have a good run and I won’t be forgetting that. It’s just an empty experience and that’s why there isn’t much to say about it. If you want to play a Pokemon mobile game, I recommend one of the many other alternatives instead. Pokemon Masters, Unite, and Go all have hundreds of times more content than this one has. Honestly, this may be a hot take, but I would recommend Magikarp Splash over this one. That game could at least get addicting with gradually learning how to farm better and better catches.

Overall 4/10

Tomb Raider I-III Remastered Review

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Tomb Raider is one of those franchises that is super well known but I actually have not played most of them. Crazy right? Well it was time to play 3 of the original ones via this collection but unfortunately the games have not aged well. The level designs can be rather brutal and the whole game seems focused on trying to defeat you in the most obnoxious and sudden ways possible. You’ll need to strap yourself in because you’re definitely going to be here for a very long time. The total collection took me over 50 hours to complete it and that’s without playing the 3 separate post/tie-in games that have their own sets of trophies.

Lara Croft is often thrown right into the action in each of the games. Sometimes she doesn’t really have much context on what is happening and other times she is following a lead. Each game has a full story and cinematics but the third game definitely has the largest amount of them which I appreciated. More cutscenes is always a good thing to really get you hyped on what is going on. Each of the games have their strengths as well. The first game has the best main villain and the best final level, the second game has the best combat gameplay, and the third one has the most cutscenes. That said they all do tend to share the same issues which is what really holds the title back.

The first thing I would say is to make sure that you have changed the controls to modern. Immediately you will feel a huge difference here as everything is a lot smoother across the board. You can actually turn without falling and everything. It’s not perfect mind you as Lara runs quickly and you’ll still fall a ton. it’s one of the many reasons why you need to quick save constantly to avoid deaths that set you back a great deal of time. that said, you also have to be careful that you don’t save yourself in an unwinnable position. That happened to me twice which meant I had to restart the whole level. I lost about an hour that way so yeah be careful.

The game keeps track of how many times you’ve saved which is pretty near. The first game I needed around 300 quick saves but in both games 2 and 3 I needed over 600. Shows you just how hard the games were and why it took me 50+ hours. It’s extremely easy to get lost in the games even with modern lighting. I should note now that al of my complaints with the modern version would be 10X worse without modern mode. There are many stages and areas that are extremely dark. You have flares to light things up but I would be going through those really quickly. The game would be virtually unplayable between that and not having quick saves.

Almost every level will have some kind of super unreasonable puzzle that takes you ages and ages to figure out. Then there is also the occasional glitch like bullets not dealing any damage or falling through a wall. They’re very rare but each instance is definitely annoying. If you missed a key anywhere you sometimes have to backtrack a very great distance. The levels are al made to be like mazes that intertwine as well so you can lose your sense of direction right away. Not the spot you want to find yourself in.

All of the instant deaths are rough but the worst is probably fire. If you even touch any fire then you get lit up and the only way to save yourself is to find water. Often times there is no water around so you just have to reset and go back to the previous save state. Also make sure you find all of the big guns because if you don’t have them then you’re in trouble. Particularly in the second game where every enemy hits like a tank. The third game is much easier in that regard as the enemies never appear to be that crazy. You get the legendary desert eagle in the final game which can wipe out virtually any foe right away. Even the final boss was absolutely shredded against this gun.

So in the end the biggest problem that the Tomb Raider game has is that they’re just not fun. Often times you are forcing yourself to get through the level but you just want to put the game down. Too many unrefined parts of the title exist like the gameplay, jumping, level designs, etc. Every time you start to have a little fun you are quickly brought to another annoying section of the level that will have you stumped for at least an hour. Rough stuff all around. Every game has to try and balance the difficulty and puzzle mechanics along with the fun factor and this one did not do the math right. The fun must always heavily outweigh everything else and that was not what happened here. Not even close and that’s why the game gets the rare distinction of being put in the under average category. Being fun is the biggest objective for any game after all.

Despite that, the cutscenes are fun though. The graphics look good for them and I do like all of the witty banter from Lara herself. She is definitely a really fun heroine and it’s fun to see all of the action going on. The first game in particular has the best climax as the enemies invade her home and she has to fight them all off. Now that was really cool. The next two games couldn’t quite top that but it would be difficult to do that for any title.

The soundtrack is okay when it appears but the sound mixing is not great. Often times the music is way lower than the soundtracks and then it vanishes for large parts of the stages as well. The game could have really benefited from having a real soundtrack there the whole time. Music can always enhance and improve different scenes by flaring up the emotions and this one needed that instead of the heavy silence that would often appear. Then you’d need to raise the volume for cutscenes since the dialogue would be low and then lower it again because of how strong the gunshots were.

Well, it goes without saying that there is a ton of replay value here. Over 50 hours of content is absolutely crazy and that will go to around 70+ if you play the expansions for each game. If you end up liking the titles then this would be a complete bargain. It’s rare to be getting any game with that sheer amount of playtime and it’s why people do like collections quite a bit. Just be ready to have to deal with a whole lot of puzzles.

Overall, Tomb Raider is a series that I like the concept of way more than the execution. By all accounts this should be a terrific series with an excellent lead and stories that know how to have a little fun. Lara literally takes on gods, dinosaurs, monsters, and magical beings. All just armed with some guns and her intuition. It’s a great kind of premise here. Unfortunately puzzles are often the Achilles heel of any good game and since the titles are built around not just puzzles but the levels working as interactive ones…there really wasn’t any way to get around that. If you like puzzles then you should check these games out but if not then you should probably skip this title and stay far away.

Overall 4/10

Sutte Hakkun Review

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It’s time for a puzzle title but unfortunately this is not one of the top tier ones. The mechanics are interesting to be sure but I wouldn’t say that they are all that good. They get old pretty fast and so you are unlikely to go through all of the puzzles in the game. Kudos to whoever pulls it off though. The puzzles are really difficult too so it’s not like you can just dive through them either. This is not a game for the faint of heart as you will have to keep on thinking hard all the way through.

The main goal of the game is to reach a rainbow gem in each level. In order to get to this gem you have to use your blood sucking skills to alter blocks. Each block in front of you can be made to move in different directions based on the kind of energy that you give it. Yellow goes diagonally while blue goes up for example. You can jump on top of blocks but can’t inject colors while in mid air. A lot of the puzzles involve timing so you want to be careful on the order of when you do things. That is absolutely important here.

If you make a mistake and get stuck you can always reset the level. Each level is a one room puzzle so at least you don’t have to back track a lot if you lose. Each world has 10-15 levels within it. Once you complete the levels in a world then you move on to the next one. You also don’t have to play through the levels fully chronologically either. You can mix and match as some puzzles might be easier for you to solve than others. Due to the way puzzles work in general, you may find that later ones are easier than the one you’re stuck at.

Although I don’t imagine that will be the case forever. As the worlds go on, even the weakest puzzle will probably still beat the strongest from a previous world. The setup really allows for a ton of difficulty jumps with how many blocks are in play at once. I very quickly got conquered myself. These puzzles were more than I was prepared for and I can say that with absolute confidence here.

The sheer amount of levels is super impressive. The game has at least 60-70 but it is probably over 100. Thinking of that many puzzles in general is already impressive. I always thought that had to be one of the most difficult things about game design because you have to come up with a puzzle that works without there being a way to break it and solve without following the right steps. Of course some games may allow that but in general the devs don’t want you to cheese the solutions. They want you to actually solve the puzzles which is the entire point of the game right?

The graphics aren’t bad although they are nothing to write home about. It’s a very basic kind of art style that works well for a minimalist kind of game like this. The screen is always clear and only basic colors are used. You’re ether into that kind of thing or you’re not. If you’re not then this could be a very long experience for you. The soundtrack is not really going to be popping off either. So you’re really here for the gameplay all the way through. If you don’t enjoy the gameplay then I don’t see how you will be able to enjoy any other part of the title.

Overall, Sutte Hakkun is a very unique game. I have to give it full points on creativity here. You are unlikely to see another game that is quite the same as this one. Unfortunately it is an example of a game not being able to get by on creativity alone. It’s just not all that fun by the end of it and that’s considering that I didn’t play through all of the levels. This is a game that has a massive amount of content so you can give the devs credit there. To someone who finds the gameplay to be very fun, they will have an excellent time all around. As for me, I’ll wait for the next Mario title.

Overall 4/10

Sword Art Online Alicization: Lycoris Review

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It’s time for the next big Sword Art Online game. I’m still behind by a few other titles but this was one of the big story driven ones and the second last title in its continuity. It’s definitely a long one as the average game length for this is over 60 hours. That’s pretty crazy but they really do go in depth on everything. It was well on its way to a great score for most of the run but unfortunately Sword Art Online has certain pitfalls that it tends to be trapped in and it ended up stepping into it here multiple times in fact.

The game roughly covers the first half of the Alicization saga and then also jumps into its own thing. The first chapter covers the whole anime part before the war arc so as you can guess it’s a very long saga. The story is mainly a bunch of cutscenes with a little gameplay in the middle. For that reason you can say this one leans the hardest into being a full on visual novel. Outside of a big difficulty spike near the end, the gameplay is fairly easy. So you tend to beat enemies in seconds and then go to another 30 minutes in cutscenes. That’s why the story plays a big role in how much you will like the game. More so than even the gameplay to be honest because that is the focus.

The story is not good though. My main complaint with it would be how repetitive it could be. The big new heroine for the game is Medina and her character history revolves around how everyone dislikes her family. They call her a defect and everyone is always rushing to gang up on her. It’s really not an easy life that she has at all. The problem is that they effectively repeat the same insults and plot points. Pretty much every 20 minutes you could expect someone to start scolding her while everyone just watches. It gets worse and worse as the game goes on because then you have the whole cast just watching and shaking their heads instead of actually doing something about it. You’d think they would know to just jump in and actually save the day and instead they watch. Yeah you can’t really get much worse than that. It’s absolutely something to be disappointed about.

Medina also takes a lot more than she really needs to. The whole engagement thing was an obvious farce from the start but she still went through with it. Then she gets manipulated by the main villain with ease and it’s all just rough for her. Also we learn the dark history of her family and it ends up getting wayyyyy too grim dark. We didn’t need to know all of that. So between the original edgy parts of Alicization and the new parts added for the game, it’s just way too dark and dreary the whole time. I’d definitely give it a thumbs down all the way as far as the story is concerned. There are cool parts to be sure but whoever was in charge of doing the writing for the game did not properly understand it and as a result they made a whole lot of mistakes.

Outside of the story, the gameplay was good but the menus are not always very clear. It is really hard to navigate and nothing is particularly well explained. You do have quick travel which is good but at the same time you can’t see any quests or locations until you use the quick travel. So that would mean memorizing all of the 20+ locations in your head because otherwise the only way to know what is there is to travel. Then when you pause you see the locations but it’s really odd that they couldn’t pre load this.

You can’t really see your equipment without going through a bunch of menus and your skills are all locked behind hidden side quests that do not even appear on the map. The hub world is huge so I’ll give the game credit there but of course that makes it even harder to find the places that you want to go. Not a very good idea if you ask me. It’s a world of difference from the other games I’ve been playing which have really clear menus at all times. The game feels way too hard to use on all of the technical aspects which is unfortunate.

The core gameplay itself is good at least. It feels good wielding the sword and you can play as over 20 characters here so there is a lot of variety in combat. I basically stuck to Kirito unless I was knocked out though. You are always in a party of 4 so you don’t lose unless they are all knocked out. It’s important to note that your party is disbanded after every chapter so if you forget to reform them then you will go into battle alone and be crushed. This happened to me a few times which was definitely rough. Hopefully you saved your progress.

The final chapter is close to 4 hours long and has a lot of different boss battles in it. Make sure you save when possible, but there aren’t many opportunities to leave the tower. So definitely don’t click past the dialogue too quickly or you will miss out on your big chance and that would be rough. At least you can skip the cutscenes the second time around so it won’t feel quite as long but that’s still something you should probably avoid if you can help it.

As far as the graphics go, I would say they have aged pretty well. The game is colorful and has a lot of detail all the way through. I am glad to see so many cutscenes even if the story was not really able to do them justice. The fact that the game is this long is definitely a testament to the developers’ skills the whole way through. The soundtrack is also pretty good. Not as amazing as you would expect for a Sword Art Online game to be honest but still good enough in the end. We did get a lyrical song for the final boss which was pretty fun.

I can also say there is a ton of replay value. If you want to get all of the trophies and clear every quest then I expect you will be here for at least another 30-40 hours. There are an insanely high number of quests to explore and the trophies look really long. Not particularly difficult mind you, but just a huge time investment. So if you’re a Sword Art Online mega fan then this should help you.

Overall, Alicization has got to take the title of worst Sword Art Online title. It’s extremely rare for me to dock points from a game for the story being no good but ultimately that’s what happened here. The story was bad enough that it actually dragged the whole thing down which is pretty crazy. It just goes for way too many edgy themes the whole time and it always feels no unnecessary. If you’re going to go for the visual novel format I would also say that you definitely need a more complete story at the ready. What we got was clearly not ready for this kind of length and so it had to be extremely stretched out over and over again in order to make the distance. As the player it is very noticeable the whole time. I have much higher hopes for the new game that just came out.

Overall 4/10

Cosmo Gang The Puzzle Review

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All right, it’s time for the Cosmo Gang! I tend to like puzzle type games like this where you match objects. Although personally I much prefer rearranging vs the style where the blocks are falling from the ceiling but it all comes down to execution in the end. Ultimately I didn’t think the execution here was all that good and the gimmick of needing arrow orbs to destroy the enemies fell flat for me. It should have been basic matching like match 3-4 of the aliens to destroy them. Then for the blocks you need to match 6 which I found to be super excessive. So in pretty much every way you could say that this game really did not meet my expectations.

There is a story mode of sorts with dialogue but it’s untranslated so that’s just how it goes. The main mode is about seeing how long you can survive as the blocks come down. Every minute or so you move up a level. You can start from level 0, 10, 50, and 100. Naturally the level 0 will be a lot easier than level 100 so that’s one thing to keep in mind. The main annoying thing though is that the score jumps up with you so there’s no point to choosing anything other than level 100. For example, if you start with level 0 you have a score of 0. If you manage to survive for a while, maybe you can get to 20,000 or so.

If you start at level 100, you begin with a score of 2 million so by default I shattered all the records. Even if you lose immediately you end up having a higher score which doesn’t really make sense. I suspect the developers didn’t think that through or perhaps originally this was something you had to unlock and the Switch Online just sped up the process. It’s hard to say for sure but either way it means the score is something you shouldn’t take very seriously. You’re going to have an extremely hard time beating that legitimately as you would need to be a real expert at this style of gameplay.

Even the gameplay feels a bit dated here. You can only move objects in a single direction so there is no going backwards or anything like that. You have to keep spinning until you get the right shape/formation that you want. I imagine you will eventually get really used to how the shapes interact but I would keep on getting confused and shift things to the wrong way. In a game like this that is naturally fatal though. A single misstep will set you back a great deal and there’s no real coming back from that. As it is, sometimes I felt like I was playing perfectly and I was still getting demolished.

I do consider these types of games to be among the harder ones out there though so that definitely tracks. You really need to have a long term plan at the ready in addition to just making matches as soon as possible. Because of how the arrow orb works, you even want to line up the enemies in a way where they can all be hit in a row. Of course, that also lowers the chance of getting a 6 way match so now you have conflicting goals. Good luck on survival, I will say while there is a good amount of RNG, there is also a lot of skill here as well. I don’t want to sell the big players short, it clearly does take talent to win here.

As far as the graphics go, the game looks pretty decent. I wouldn’t say it’s amazing or anything like that but it definitely gets the job done. Then for the soundtrack it’s more on the subdued side. Not exactly something that you will be humming in the shower but it doesn’t distract from the game either. So it won’t hold the gameplay back but it won’t take things to the next level either. In terms of replay value, I suppose it is endless here as you can keep on playing for as long as you find the gameplay fun. Due to the way the game operates, no two matches will be exactly the same anyway so that’s why it never ends. I just don’t find it quite so fun and since that’s the only real gameplay that the title has to offer, this ultimately dooms it in the end.

Overall, Cosmo Gang really wasn’t my cup of tea. I think the main problem is that there are just way better puzzle games of this style out there. Why play this when you can play the original Dr. Mario or Eggman’s Mean Bean Machine? Cosmo Gang just doesn’t beat those in any tangible way and when you have a game that is super basic like this, it helps to at least have some franchise appeal. Without a legendary character like Mario or Sonic around to help out, it meant that the game was really doomed from the jump. Great gameplay could have helped to bridge the divide but we didn’t get that. I would say to skip this one personally.

Overall 4/10

Big Run: The Supreme 4WD Challenge Review

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This one had some really long sub titles in there so I wasn’t sure how deep to in with this one. Either way I have to say that it is a very sub par racing game and one of the worst that I’ve played. This may sound harsh but they went way too far with the realism aspects that come at the expense of the actual fun. When I step into the car I want to feel the wind behind me as I go all out on the speed. I don’t want to be changing tires and things like that. This isn’t supposed to be a real world simulation!

The game starts off with you having to choose a sponsor which was the first red flag. Each sponsor has different amounts of money and starter equipment. For example the cheapest sponsor starts you off with the most spare tires while the most expensive one leaves you to your own devices. After that you can select who you want to hire to be on your crew for pit stops and emergency repairs. You can also go to the shop to buy engines and wheels. You have to balance out all of your cash here and be very economical because you don’t get any more money for the remainder of the game. The game is 9 levels long by the way and a single loss sends you back to the first level.

Another trope I don’t like. Never send me back to the first level. If I lose then I want you to send me back to the start of the level that I lost at, but sending me back to the first level is really overdoing it here. It’s a game that is so difficult, even the access points may not help you much because you will be absolutely stuck once you are out of inventory. I’m also not exactly sure how the pressure system works. It seems like the faster you go, the more you really burn out the tires but at the same time if you go slow then you’re not going to beat out the aggressive timer. The right speed is somewhere in the middle and it’s a very difficult tight rope to walk.

I suppose at the end of the day you really just have to try your best and keep on fighting. I do like the actual gameplay of driving through the roads, but it’s just overwhelmed by these other aspects. Even when I tune that out and just drive, I’m reminded of the system because my car’s engine suddenly gives out and I’m stranded on the road. No matter how quick you send the emergency crew out, you can bet that you will have just lost the race. So you have to make sure to repair really well after each race but I couldn’t figure out how to have enough money left over. The farthest I made it to was level 6 out of 9 and even that took me a lot of tries.

I imagine truly big fans of the inner workings of a car will get a kick out of this but it definitely didn’t do anything for me. I will say that the graphics are pretty good though. Everything is very bright and colorful which is always a positive. The levels may not have a whole lot to them in terms of details but at least while driving the car I can focus on that. There’s not much of a soundtrack but I’ll give it a bit of a pass there. I wasn’t really expecting one. I suppose there is a lot of replay value in trying to beat the game because that will take a long time. Don’t expect that you will be able to just turn this game on and win because that’s not happening.

I also think it would have been better if you could have seen other drivers to add some more competitiveness to this. For the most part it feels more like a time trial game as you try to beat the clock rather than fighting other drivers. So that also starts to miss the mark on why you’re playing a racing game. Sure, there are obstacles like signs and trucks that you can bump into but there are no scores or anything like that. In a way it’s like you’re all isolated here or you’re an illegal driver messing around on the highways.

Overall, Big Run falls into the trap of trying to be too realistic the whole time. The more realistic you get, often times the more you will just end up biting off more than you can chew. Games are fun because you get the end product without having to worry about the stuff in the middle. It’s very rare that I like a game that goes as far into the weeds as this one does. It just feels like a misplaced goal to me, at least that’s the way that I see it. Perhaps I am just missing the appeal here but the driving takes a back seat and in a racing game that is never the way to go. Go and play Need for Speed instead, you won’t miss out by skipping this game.

Overall 4/10

Alleyway Review

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Alleyway is one of those games with a very simple premise but if it is executed well enough then there won’t be a problem. The issue is that this didn’t happen so the game isn’t nearly as fun as it should have been. I really feel like this game could and should have been a lot better. All it would have needed was one change too…increasing the gameplay speed. Seriously that’s it.

So the general gameplay here is the kind where a ball is launched up and down and you slide your paddle around to keep it from falling below the screen. This naturally takes a lot of skills and split second timing. If you can pull it off though, you will have saved the world! It’s cool that Mario is the one piloting the ship but otherwise it just isn’t very plot heavy as a game. There are no other cutscenes to be honest and the whole game is really just bouncing the ball around. The level designs can’t really change that much either due to the nature of the gameplay.

They do create some nice shapes in the background though. For example I liked seeing Mario’s head floating around and it shows how creative you can be with the different blocks. As someone who is not very artistic, it would take me ages and ages to actually pull that off. So the visuals are fun, the sprites are used well. The soundtrack is a little more forgettable but I want to say that it’s not bad. It still gets the job done at the end of the day.

The technicals are really not holding this one back at all. It’s just the gameplay which is really not that cool. It’s too easy and you don’t hear me saying that very often. So you just get bored at how slowly the ball is moving around. Don’t get me wrong, you’ll definitely die eventually when you don’t time things right but it’s all so slow paced. There should either be obstacles trying to get in your way or the ball should be zooming around. The game doesn’t capture your attention this way and I tend to like a lot of the block titles like Tetris. Alleyway though? Ehhhh it just wasn’t fun the way that it should have been.

There’s really not much else to say about it either because the gameplay is as simple as possible and there are no other modes. This is the definition of a one trick pony. That’s not a bad thing per say as some of the most iconic games of all time were basic. Take Pac-Man, you can describe that game to anyone very quickly but it’s still a lot of fun that you can play through for hours. Why? Well, it may be simple but it is still really challenging and rewarding. You know that you have to bring out your best if you want to win it all. It’s always very tense as the ghosts speed up.

There is a clear progression of difficulty in the game and that is something that Alleyway lacks. I played a bunch of levels in the game and the speed in level 11 is the same as level 1. Yes, there are slightly more difficult level layouts now since some blocks are blocked by different objects but all that means is that the level will take longer to complete. It doesn’t actually solve the issue of the game being way too easy the whole time. That’s the real problem here.

Overall, Alleyway is one of those games that is just not too much fun to play for long batches. You might have some fun for say 10-15 minutes but not even that. I was over the game very quickly and in large part it’s because of how slow it is. Make the speed 2X and it would be a lot easier to get through. I still need some kind of story to make this one really stand out though. I know you have to cut the older games some slack since stories weren’t always such a huge thing but they really do enhance a game. If you have the Switch Online then you may as well check this one out for free but otherwise you can give it a hearty skip.

Overall 4/10