Category Archives: 6 Star Games

Alisia Dragoon Review

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The Genesis games keep on coming! This one’s pretty fun but the gameplay is a bit weaker than some of the other titles. It’s missing features that I would consider to be fairly basic. Like they’re just not around at all which doesn’t make a ton of sense. With them in place this game could have gone a little farther, but as it is this is still a game that I would recommend checking out while you have the Switch Online.

You play as Alisia who can shoot lightning while also commanding different familiars to fight by her side. You get 4 of these before the game ends and you can switch them in/out as needed. They do help a tiny bit with their fire blasts but don’t expect them to be providing you backup for too long. In general they just like getting in one shot and then dipping out. You need to count on yourself at the end of the day to take the win.

There are only around 8 levels so the game isn’t too long. It is on the harder side for Genesis though. It feels like there is a different threat around every corner. Your health goes down very quickly and while the lightning is a great attack there is no indicator when it is doing damage. So you know that you are injuring the opponent but you don’t know how long you have to keep the blast up. This means you have to just keep running and dodging until he goes down but without some kind of timer, you sometimes have doubts that maybe this enemy is invincible to magic and you need a special way to injure him. It certainly felt that way during some of the later boss fights where their health is absolutely massive.

So I guess the best advice for me to give you is to just keep on blasting. Even if it doesn’t feel like i’ working, it is. There are no bosses in the game who are immune to the electricity so you can just keep that in mind. Beyond that, get used to jumping, ducking, and dodging because you have to do so much of that. Some bosses got me over and over again because it’s super hard to judge the trajectory of their attacks. I would wind up walking right into them several times which was pretty rough. Alisia is fairly big so she covers a lot of space on the screen.

Meanwhile the graphics are good here. Perhaps not quite as top tier as some of the last ones that I played but it definitely looks nice. The soundtrack is more on the unmemorable side so I can’t say that there are any tracks here that will really stick out for you. They’re not bad or anything like that but they are very forgettable which can be similar at times. The game will have to succeed without the music this time.

Really the weakest part is the actual platforming here. Your cool thunder laser will take care of the enemies as you go through but the levels are really tight so in many cases you bump into an enemy while you are trying to proceed. It’s often difficult to stop before you bump into the enemy because of close they are so taking a lot of damage feels inevitable. If the platforming were a bit smoother then I feel like you could have gone around this but instead the game is just a little bit too sluggish.

Also they definitely could have leveled up the familiars a little bit. They don’t shoot as often as they should and they go down so quickly when it counts. Half the time you really are on your own so this is like a complete aspect of the game that you miss out on as a result. Easy way to fix is to either make the enemies unable to hit the familiar or again just make him more of a tank. So he can endure a good amount of shots while backing you up. That’s the kind of dynamic that I would want to see. It would also reinforce the teamwork/friendship angles.

The game’s about an hour or so long so you will beat it fairly quick. As par for the course with Genesis titles, there isn’t really a post game here. You complete the game and then the day is saved. It lasts you long enough when you factor in the difficulty so it’s not a bad amount of value. It’ll also help teach you a lot about strategy as you monitor your lightning’s power. You’re incentivized to give the blasts a break every now and again to give it a further boost.

Overall, Alisia Dragoon is a good game. It would have been great if you could see the damage you were doing and maybe throwing in another kind of attack as well. The electricity is super handy and better than most standard guns in a game like this but at the same time you still need something a bit more than that. Maybe if the gameplay was a bit smoother or something but this one is such a difficult game to play that it does occasionally overwhelm the fun factor and you never want that to happen.

Overall 6/10

Comix Zone Review

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It’s time for a Genesis game that really had a pretty memorable style to it. This game looks like a comic book all the way through which was pretty cool. You get to run through the pages and take down a bunch of enemies. At times the concept can be a little better than the execution but at the same time I can’t really be too harsh on it because it’s a good game either way. It almost goes without saying at this point but the game is rather difficult.

So the author/artist gets sucked into his own comic and has to get out. He’ll need to play through the adventure now but the comic doesn’t fully go the way that he drew it. Fortunately this guy gets the hang of being an action hero rather quickly and starts taking names left and right. Nobody’s going to be keeping him down for very long here. The gameplay is that of a classic 2D beat em up. You go through waves and waves of enemies as you try to make it to the end. There is usually a boss somewhere along the way and you take him down with your fighting moves. Eventually you will have beaten the game.

The gameplay is super basic but it’s till difficult because your attack range is rather small so you have to get up real close to the enemies. That means it gets really easy for you to end up taking a stray hit and your health goes down very quickly. Realistically you can expect to get a ton of game overs before you complete the game unless you bust out the very trusty rewind feature. In some ways that may be your last and best hope.

The graphics are pretty solid here. Like I said it does really look like a comic so they did a great job there. The soundtrack is also really good. It’s got that 90s tough guy type of vibe to it. A lot of rock themes all the way through which helps to make the gameplay more exciting as well. There is a good amount of dialogue in the game and a real story the whole way through which I appreciated as well. So the game had a good budget all the way around.

On the negative side, the actual gameplay is just very uninspired. You’re not going to be super entertained while fighting the enemies. Not saying it’ll be a snooze or anything but even for a beat em up you need some better attacks. Something that stands out more than a simple punch you know? That would have done a world of good for the game. Also some of the aerial enemies would feel a bit cheesy with how quickly they would fly into you. Again, your attacks are short range so it’s really hard to deal with these enemies except to just eat the hit and then counter. The problem is that the hits add up very quickly and then you’re out.

The final boss is a really fun level though because you’ve got a time limit that has two different endings play out. Basically you have to try and beat the enemy before the main heroine dies. Unfortunately I wasn’t fast enough so I got the bad ending here. It’s really tough to defeat the enemy right away especially because I didn’t realize at first that I needed to have the machine hit him. I was just landing combos on my own but apparently that was not nearly enough.

In terms of replay value, there isn’t much here but that’s normal. The idea is to beat the game and then that’s the end of the road. The game’s length is fairly short at around an hour or so but still longer than other Genesis titles. It sort of comes with the territory of being an older game but if you have the Switch Online it shouldn’t be much of a factor anyway. I don’t think spending a lot of money on these games back in the day would have been a good investment but the game has definitely changed with how the online titles work.

Overall, Comix Zone is a game that I won’t forget. It absolutely is memorable but in terms of gameplay it’s not as strong as the average beat em up. So you’re playing this more for the novelty than the quality which can be tricky since the novelty can’t hold you up for the entire time. Still, it’s a good game and I would recommend checking it out if you have the Switch Online. You’re going to be experiencing lots of action all the way so it definitely delivers on the genre you’ve been promised here.

Overall 6/10

Virtua Fighter 2 Review

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Virtua Fighter always felt like the really bland knockoff version to the bigger fighting games like Street Fighter and Tekken. When you think of big fighting game titles, odds are that Virtua Fighter won’t be one of them right? No disrespect there but that’s just how it is. It’s pretty fun to play one of the originals in the series through Genesis but it does reinforce that thought to me. The game’s not super colorful and Street Fighter was already more polished.

There isn’t any kind of story here so just pick a random character and go through Arcade mode to get the full experience. Basically you are fighting 9-10 opponents who all have their own ways of fighting. You have to take them all down and show them why you are the strongest fighter on the planet. If you don’t win….who will? I went with a fairly generic guy to play as because he seemed to be rather cocky and fortunately that was the case. It was fun to see him smirking the whole time and he had some fun win quotes.

Still the actual moveset was basically what you would expect from some average joe. A few kicks and punches but nothing out of the ordinary. I’m not saying he needed energy blasts or something but some kind of unique combos would have gone a long way to really having him break out compared to the other characters you know? That would have just made the most sense. Maybe his hair turns into electricity or he has an ultra aggressive fighting style.

As it is every match is fairly quick because the characters hit like a tank. There attacks deal so much damage that 2-3 full combos can have you down for the count. I was pretty surprised when I saw that the default timer for a match was 30 seconds but then after that it all made sense. You would never really need to go for the 60 seconds because one player would be down by then. As it is, I was barely able to cheese a small handful of matches in the last seconds when I was winning.

The A.I.’s difficulty level is really high here. Keep in mind that I was playing the default settings and I was getting absolutely clobbered at times. The enemy always seemed to know what the right move was and would not hesitate in launching it. It was a little suspicious at times but at the same time I know I am a super casual at this game so I shouldn’t expect to be getting big wins anyway. I can accept this for now and in the end I was eventually able to pull it off with some well timed rewinds. You just have to keep on trying over and over until eventually you get the big win that you were gunning for.

The graphics aren’t particularly impressive here. The game is surprisingly blocky so at times it feels more like a PS1 title. Additionally the soundtrack is basically nonexistent and having only 8 characters feels rather small. Some of this is a bit harsh on an old Genesis game to fix of course so it won’t lose many stars from that. At the end of the day what I’m really looking for here is how fun was the game and I would say that it delivers on that. I had a good time going through the levels and the final boss that’s an android of sorts was pretty interesting. I feel like there is probably some good lore that the series still needs to explore and that could really help it stand out at some point.

Overall, Virtua Fighter 2 is a fun game. In a world with Street Fighter and other fighting game titles there isn’t really much room for it but I do think the attempt was made. The game is certainly not a cash-in or anything like that. It actually does have smooth gameplay and the series lasted long enough to be on the PS3 but I just think it has yet to find a true gimmick that would put it over the edge. Naturally I would have liked to have had a story here too but maybe next time. So check this one out, there’s no real downside but I don’t think you will stick around for very long.

Overall 6/10

Altered Beast Review

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It’s time for the next Genesis title. This one’s really short but it’s still a good amount of fun. I feel like they went all out here as the levels that we do get have a lot of detail to them. The combat is pretty fun and every animal form has its own special abilities which also helps them to stand out. You really feel like you’re super powerful once you’re in the beast mode. It also at least does have a real plot in game which is always nice.

The game starts with a god resurrecting you from your grave and ordering you to save someone from Hades’ clutches. You start out as an ordinary joe but when you grab power ups, you get more and more buff until you turn into a monster. Then once you are a monster you have really great special abilities and have to defeat the boss of that level. There aren’t many levels and each one is fairly short. The real trick is getting to your monster form because if you don’t, then you are absolutely doomed. Your human form isn’t strong enough to defeat any of the bosses and your health is low in any form so that’s not an option.

My favorite monster form was one that could shoot a bunch of energy blasts. I’m not too good on greek mythology so I couldn’t really tell you which form was which to be honest though. They all sort of blend together even though they’re different but the fact that each one has different special abilities is cool. Even in a lot of modern titles that would not have been the case. This one went above and beyond and I definitely gotta respect that. It’s also a bit surreal seeing this random dude just going around punching a bunch of giant monsters you know?

I already talked about how the graphics are pretty good, so we can jump to the soundtrack now. That part’s a little more on the generic side but I’ve come to expect that as not many older games had stellar soundtracks. That would come in later but it’s also why some titles like Mario, Mega Man, and Sonic stood out. They surpassed the norms and got really creative. Still since this game surpassed expectations on the visuals and the gameplay I can give that a good pass. It may not have replay value but the initial playthrough is fun enough to carry you through.

There’s not a whole lot more to say to be honest here because the game is really straightforward and short. So once you know what the gameplay is, which is effectively a 2D platformer then you’re all set. There’s not much more to get into and you will know right away if you like the game or not. Who doesn’t like a good platformer though right? It can be a little unforgiving like with most Genesis titles of course but that’s par for the course.

I guess if there’s one thing I would change here it would be to make the character models a bit smaller. I get that the game wanted to show off just how strong the main character was but it also means that there isn’t a ton of room to dodge or move around. You’re always confined to an extent and I like having my freedom to run around and do what has to be done. In that way this game almost becomes more of a beat em up than a platformer at times.

Overall, Altered Beast is a good game. It could have been even better if it was longer since the overall experience is so short but either way with the Switch Online I would recommend checking this one out. There’s absolutely no downside after all and because it’s so short it’s not like it’s going to take all that much time out of your day right? There’s a ton of potential if they ever wanted to make a modern remake out of this one. In the meantime we’ll have to stick to this though.

Overall 6/10

Space Harrier II Review

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It’s time for a pretty pleasant game. It’s basically like a 3D auto runner you could say. You are always moving at a high speed and the levels go by quickly. It almost feels like RNG with how quickly the enemies attack but technically it is all skill based and you are testing your reaction times. I bet people had to try again a bunch of times before the end.

There’s not really much of a plot until the end to be honest but you have to stop powerful aliens and monsters with your sci-fi gun. What’s more hype than that right? You only have one gun so unlike the last few games this one isn’t very customizable. It’s fully arcade style in that sense as you just have to strike at the opponent enough times for him to go down rather than playing the long game. As it’s a 3D auto runner like I said before, you can only move up, down, left, and right. There are no other dimensions to the game and since you don’t control your speed that does mean you can focus all of your brainpower on blasting at the enemy.

What I found to be the best strategy was to constantly be flying in circles. It always made it very difficult for the enemies to land hits but sometimes it also meant that I would sort of fly into an attack. So you probably shouldn’t start spinning with reckless abandon unless you want to be reusing that rewind feature a lot. Hey, there’s nothing wrong with that of course but it’s probably good to win as much as possible. Then there are also lots of buildings and other objects where if you bump into them then you lose as well. There is no health bar in this game, when you get hit you die. That’s all there is to it.

The graphics here definitely look really nice. You could tell that they want all out in this area and the color are striking. I was pretty impressed and in terms of pure visuals it is one of the better Genesis titles. The soundtrack is more on the standard side but it works well enough, I didn’t really have any issues there. In terms of length it’s around an hour or so which isn’t bad. Not one of the longest ones but it works well enough.

I also liked the various boss designs. The game was really creative with them. In a sense every boss does feel the same because the attacks are only different in terms of cosmetics. Either way you have to dodge them all so it doesn’t change much. It does go back to how this game in a sense is a very simple gameplay style because you move and blast. There are no other dimensions to this, no twists and turns. No new mechanics. And it works well for what it is but the one downside is the developers can’t really show off with the bosses.

The final level is crazy though as you have to fight every boss back to back and then the final boss. That’s a lot of time where you can’t afford to get hit and I don’t see how realistic it would be to complete that without taking a shot. Maybe there are extra lives you get or something else that I was missing. If not, my hat’s definitely off to whoever was able to beat this one back in the day. You really did have to be a complete pro gamer to tackle titles like this one.

Overall, Space Harrier II is a pretty fun title. It may not be the best sci-fi game but it will pass the time by. The length is fairly decent and the graphics are colorful. Considering that you can basically play it for free, you really can’t go wrong here. The sci-fi marathon has been a blast but now it’s going to be time to turn my attention to some of the other Genesis titles. We’ll see just how well they stack up next to these last few. If you have the Switch Online you should go ahead and play this one though. A fun way to turn your brain off and just have fun.

Overall 6/10

Alien Soldier Review

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Alien Soldier is another sci-fi game from the Genesis and this one is a complete boss rush game which is pretty different from the usual adventure. You’re fighting more than 25 bosses and the levels just keep going so once you are done with a boss, you fight a few minions and then the next boss shows up. You can recover some health while fighting the minions but most likely instead you will just lose more health so you end up having to play the boss very carefully. Throwing another element into the ring is the timer. If you don’t beat the boss quickly enough then it’s all over.

So this is a really hard game all the way through. I will say that the story was very intriguing in the opening cutscene. It’s really the only thing you are going to get though as it basically vanishes after that. It’s a shame because there is so much detail in the intro that you know the writers had a clear idea on what they wanted to do. So if this had been a newer game I have no doubts that they would have added more cutscenes and story beats throughout the adventure. This would be a good game to make a remake out of at some point.

The gameplay is very customizable. So you choose 4 guns at the start of the game and during the levels you can find others to switch to or you can choose to keep the same ones. You can even go with 4 of the same gun if you really prefer one to all of the others but of course I would recommend a mixture instead. Usually some guns will be better than others depending on the boss and you don’t want to be stuck. I would go with the mega buster, laser sword, fire attack, and homing attack. This is a good mixture that will serve you well against virtually every boss.

At least as well as can be considering that you will still be having a really tough time with most of them. The timer got me on a bunch of bosses and other times the boss would just shred me. Their health bars are really big and they’re always moving around. One attack you want to get really used to using a lot is your dash since it makes you intangible for a second. It’s a great way to get out of a bad spot and then start to counter attack. It’s a mechanic that is fairly unique to the game with how big of a focus it is so that works really well. I would definitely recommend trying to get used to it in the early levels.

One level in particular that is the toughest in the game is level 20. In this level you need to fight multiple bosses and you have 10 minutes to down them all. So in this case you can actually find yourself in a jam that even the rewind feature can’t get you out of. For example, if you start the last boss with only 2 minutes left, then it is not possible to defeat him. You had to defeat one of the earlier bosses a lot quicker so that was the one time I had to hold the L and just do a complete restart. For a bit there I thought I was not even going to be able to beat the game but the levels after it were a lot more manageable.

The graphics here are pretty solid. They’re very colorful and there are so many unique boss designs that I was impressed. The game doesn’t really go the lazy route of doing palette swaps and instead each boss makes sense as a unique figure to stop the main character. Throw in all of the minion designs as well and we’re talking about a game with a high level of effort and dedication. The soundtrack is also good even if it’s not the most memorable one out there.

In terms of length I’d say it’s a bit longer than some of the other Genesis games. In part that’s due to the difficulty but even outside of that you effectively have 25 full length levels here which is considerably more than the average Genesis title. You’ll be here a reasonably long time so even though there isn’t really any replay value, I had no problems with the length.

In the end this is a fun shooter and the fact that you have to watch out for your ammo the whole time is pretty interesting. I do have to admit that I prefer the more arcade style of unlimited ammo at all times and being able to save after each level but the latter wasn’t possible for many games at this point and the former is definitely a design choice. It’s always rough when a weapon runs out and you have to switch. Also the final boss has an interesting gimmick where you can only hurt him if you are out of ammo. That’s pretty weird and feels like a cheap way to stump a lot of players back in the day. I certainly would have had no clue what was going on because why would a weapon with no ammo do more damage than a weapon with ammo? Doesn’t really make sense.

Overall, Alien Soldier is a good game but one that’s too excessively hard. The time limit plus everything else just makes for too many variables and if you end up losing then you’re really sunk. You do have multiple lives of course but I can safely tell you that you will absolutely need the rewind feature a whole lot. There are some bosses where it feels like you would need hours upon hours to try and memorize their attack patterns. Then you have to remember those while going through all of the other bosses again which is no easy feat. It’s a fun title to try out on the Switch Online but I don’t think it’s one that I would have purchased back in the day.

Overall 6/10

MUSHA Review

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It’s time for another retro game courtesy of the Nintendo Switch Online. I can safely say that this is a fun title but it doesn’t really stand out all that much compared to the other sci-fi titles that I’ve played. It’s a good game of course but eh it definitely could have been better if you ask me. In the end it needed a little more of a plot or some kind of super unique gimmick.

The gameplay is more of a top down shooter style. You are blasting away at all of the enemies that try to stand in your way. It can be a bit hard to tell when you are dealing damage since the visual indicator isn’t very obvious but keep on blasting and you will take the enemies down in no time. You can keep on switching the way that your robot fires its shots as well so I recommend experimenting until you’ve found the perfect blend for you. There are certainly many different ways to tackle this and you can also alternate between manual and automatic fire.

I found that the best firing method was the 3 guns style. It works well on automatic and you get a lot of coverage while you are moving around. There are wider guns like the 5 way but I felt like they didn’t do as much damage so ironically it was a bit tougher to use that one. I would often find myself being a bit held back there. You lost your extra firepower the more you get hit so it is important to dodge every blow. Seriously one wrong shot can send you all the way back to the basic gun which is the worst possible gun to have. If you’re down to that weapon you can pretty much turn in the towel at that point.

You can of course get the power ups back by hitting the collectibles but surviving that long is the tricky part. The bosses have a ton of health as well and they will drain your HP quickly. Your reaction times are probably the most critical part of the journey since that is what will keep you alive. The graphics are pretty solid for this time frame. The characters look solid and the backgrounds had a good amount of detail to them. The levels are also fairly different so it’s not like the same background is used over and over again or anything like that. Now that would have definitely been pretty lazy.

There isn’t a lot of replay value here but that’s pretty normal for a retro game like this. The main idea is to just complete it as you normally would and then it goes back on the shelf. You can probably have fun creating your own strategies like maybe trying to complete it while only dying 5 times or something like that but for the most part this will just be around for 1 hour. At least it’s an hour of quality content though. The soundtrack isn’t bad, no home run hits but it’s not a weak selection. It works pretty well with the look and feel of the game.

I do think the developers had a fun idea with the gun customizing and it feels like an early concept of what Armored Core would turn into. Customizing your robot can be fun whether it is in game like this one or pre game like the Leynos title. That said, it would also need to be perfected more. Each gun should have some kind of benefit to it and in this case some just felt like downgrades. Why would you ever use 2 guns instead of 3? Maybe one way you could do this is that you sacrifice more armor as you add more guns. That would be pretty fun or you could scale down attack power the way it seemed to work for the 5 way gun. That would make a lot of sense.

Overall, MUSHA is a good game to check out while you have the Switch Online. If you had to pay for it then I wouldn’t be able to recommend it quite as highly but there’s really not much of a downside when it’s free like this. Just jump in and have a lot of fun right? That’s really the way to go about it and a modern remake of this game could have a lot of potential. Even if this may not be the flagship title of the genre, I like the genre enough where it still works out in the end. Blasting away at enemies while zooming around is always a good bit of fun. I’ll do my best to keep on remembering the game at least for the remainder of the year. A true challenge indeed!

Overall 6/10

Thunder Force II Review

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It’s time for the next Genesis title with another shooter game. Thunder Force’s gameplay style is a bit unique though as it actually switches from overhead to 2D every level. So this way it’s like you’re playing two different games and while it’s not super long, it’s a bit longer than you’d expect thanks to the overhead levels. Definitely not a game that you should underestimate.

There’s really not much of a plot here which is too bad but not super surprising. Go take down the invading aliens and you will be able to save the world! The 2D levels are my favorite ones as you just get right into the game and start shooting down all of the opposition. It’s a true bullet hell type game as you have to dodge numerous kinds of attacks as you fly through the stages. One hit and you lose a life so it is not very forgiving. A unique part of this is you can keep switching the way that you fire. Every power up you get unlocks a new mode up to around 7. So you can shoot in multiple directions with extra firepower or go with more of a low grade weapon. The possibilities are fairly endless here and so you have a lot of control.

I felt like the gun that shoots downwards and upwards at the same time was the best one since you could just stay on top of an enemy and spam that gun. Depending on the boss you would have to change weapons though so I would advise you to always be ready. Even with that, I died tons of times here. It’s just extremely hard to dodge at all times and then some levels will suddenly speed up like crazy and you will have a hard time keeping up. I still don’t know how you’re expected to just react to that without memorizing the board. It felt a litttttttle cheap I have to admit. Once again I think I would have had a hard time being a big gamer if I grew up on the Genesis.

The overhead levels are a bit weaker than the 2D ones though and that’s because there is no map. So you have to fly around looking for enemy installations to blow up. Once you have blown them up then you will have completed the level but you’ll end up flying in circles a lot of times. There are some mazes to watch out for as well in case this wasn’t already difficult enough. Basically what I’m saying here is that you really have to bring your A game or it’s all over. There will be no way to escape.

The graphics here really aren’t bad. They’re not exactly top tier or anything like that but you always know what is going on and won’t be confused at any point. The soundtrack is also okay. I definitely don’t have any real issues here. They complement the gameplay well. Also while I may have had my share of issues with the gameplay, it was still enjoyable the whole time which is the important part.

I really tend to enjoy these sci-fi shooters and how creative they are. The enemy ship designs are all pretty good and I enjoyed the boss battles as well. The final boss even incorporated some gravity into the gameplay as you had to really go max speed to keep up. So that was definitely fun. This is a game with no real replay value though so you should know that once you complete the game, it’s all over. There really isn’t anything left after that. The game felt like it was about an hour for me so not the shortest Genesis game but still pretty short when you think about it.

Overall, Thunder Force II is a fun game. I think it had a lot of room for improvement though and it all starts with the overhead levels. I can’t stress enough how even a basic map would have made a world of difference. I would always be waiting for a 2D level to come up as a result. It also goes without saying that more of a story would be nice but I consider that to be a bit more of a technical limitation so I won’t be too hard there. Either way if you have the Switch Online then it is worth checking out. It may not stand out compared to some of the other games but it’s fun and at the end of the day that’s what counts.

Overall 6/10

Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls Review

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It’s time for the last Apple Arcade review as I have now canceled my subscription with the service. It had a good run but that’s how things have to be. This one’s more of a real title than Mane Merge although it does suffer from a few issues with how the original game was designed. It was going to be a gatcha title after all but had to remove the freemium elements for the Apple Arcade. So what you have is a game that is not very well balanced and yet…it is fun. You just have to use some special methods to get around.

The basic plot is that Alucard becomes aware of another plot to revive Dracula. He has to make sure that this doesn’t happen and so he partners himself with an organization to stop this. Basically they have to go through the books of history and recruit all of the strongest vampire hunters. The villains are trying to change history at the same time to remove these heroes. Whoever moves fast will claim the edge but with Death itself trying to resurrect Dracula, is there any way to stop him? It definitely won’t be easy but Alucard is an old hand at this and ready to win.

The gameplay here is your classic 2D platformer. You use your sword, wand, or whip to mow through enemies and get to the end. Each level is fairly short so you can breeze through them but of course there are a lot of levels in each world. There are 10 worlds here and each one has 16 levels although you only need to complete 10 to move onto the next one. Beating the rest of the levels is often recommended to get progress towards new S class weapons and to get stronger. So you go through the levels and claim victory right? Well there is one thing stopping you from doing that and this is your power level.

So here’s where the gatcha type elements come in. Each of your characters has a level and then your account has a level. You raise character levels by beating enemies and getting EXP while your account level goes up by completing stages. Your weapon, sub weapon, weapon 2, weapon 3, and 5 armors all have individual levels as well. Those you level up with gems but every 5 levels it gets maxed out and then you have to limit break the equipment. You limit break it by getting memories of the weapons which you can try to find in a stage, search for through an auto complete, or summon. It will take a while to do each one so these are basically stopping points where you just have to wait until you get them.

Summoning is expensive and searches are limited to 60 times per day so the rest of the time you will need to actually go out there and just keep on completing the levels. That part is limitless at least but you can see how this would take a while right? The levels keep jumping up in terms of difficulty level so you have to try and stay close to compete. In the end I was able to complete the game with a power level of 88,000 and it took me 22 hours to accomplish this. The number is partially RNG based on what you summon so add or subtract from that amount if you aim to complete the game.

There is a trick that I mentioned earlier though so lets talk it through because without that I would not be anywhere close to beating the game. On the Arcade none of the shops work and it sounds like this is being worked on but I didn’t have time for that. So the trick is to turn off your mobile phone’s automatic date finder and manually put in an earlier date. I warped myself back to 2023 which activated all of the shops and I was able to grab what I needed. The one annoying thing about this is your phone’s other apps like your email will keep asking you what’s going on with the date so accomplish as much as you can in one shot before going back to normal.

I’m not sure if messing with the date could cause any problems with your phone but it’s best not to really take any chances with that right? Then you can keep warping days to collect the login bonuses and refresh the searches so you can progress through the game. So while I played the game for 22 hours, I lived through close to half a month by moving myself through time. Without that ability, it would take me about that long to complete which is pretty crazy. Apple Arcade really enjoys adding a grind to its games but since this one was left unfinished that worked in my favor since they didn’t bother setting an automatic date.

It’s still something worth considering in the review though which is what holds this game back from being higher. I enjoy the actual gameplay but you’re effectively locking all of the players out with the way the difficulty jumps up. You just wouldn’t be able to damage the boss until you got upgraded and that’s why gatcha elements can be a little annoying in gameplay. Particularly when getting stronger is such a time consuming project.

What helps compared to something like Mane Merge is that at least the story was a lot of fun all the way through. Again I do think we should have gotten more cutscenes and voice acting but the crossover effect was cool even as someone who doesn’t know a ton about Castlevania. I imagine there were probably a lot of easter eggs and such in the story. Everyone got their props and respect in the story which is what you always want to see and the ending was actually very satisfying.

The graphics in this game aren’t quite as impressive as the other Apple Arcade titles. This is the one aspect that the game really lacks in. It’s a bit surprising but maybe it’s just the art style that it was going for. Whatever it was, the game definitely doesn’t look very good. Meanwhile the soundtrack is fun though, there are actually a whole lot of tunes in the game so you don’t hear them repeat very often.

Overall, The length of the game is pretty impressive. As noted, it’s 20+ hours while playing through even with the enhancements Play it normally and you’re probably looking at 50+ hours. I didn’t even touch the special event stages which will add some replay value. I will note though that the replay value is limited in this case because after you play through those last levels, there is nothing else. No other mode to have fun with the gameplay or anything like that. You’ll just have ended the game and then it’s time to put it own. That’s actually a bit rare for a gacha title but I guess once a title is no longer supported it makes sense not to keep on adding stuff. If you enjoy Castlevania and have the Apple Arcade then I recommend checking it out but otherwise you can probably grab one of the classic Castlevania titles instead.

Overall 6/10

Ristar Review

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It’s time to jump right in to the big Ristar title. This one had a cool cover and a solid looking main character which are pretty massive factors when you’re looking into any platformer. If you want to be big then you need to be memorable and in the end this game pulls that off. My only main gripe is that the game is very short. Even for a platformer I would say this one is short as each world only has 2 levels rather than the standard 6-8. So that immediately makes the game fly by.

Still, the game starts off with a bang as the legendary hero is defeated and so his son steps in to put an end to the villain. Ristar may be new a this but he acts like a seasoned pro as he takes everyone down for the count. This guy is not going to be holding back. So you go through the 6 worlds and conquer the boss at the end of each before entering the final boss. The level structure is fairly straight forward here and the final boss has a classic 2 phases to him. For a second there I thought he was about to get a third with the way the game was shaping up with that last cutscene but ultimately it was really more of a cliffhanger setup for a sequel.

Now this is a franchise that we really need to come back. It’s just got a really fun gimmick. So the main difference here compared to another platformer is Ristar attacks with grabs. He grabs opponents who are far away and drags them up close. You also use the grabbing to latch onto objects and swing yourself to the other side. It’s pretty well executed with just about everything being grabbable.

The toughest obstacle was in one level where you have to keep bouncing across the walls in order to get high enough to grab onto the next object. There are spikes all around so one wrong jump and you end up getting taken out. You start each level with 4 life points but you’d be surprised at how quickly that gets taken down to 1. So the game’s difficulty level is the real deal without a doubt.

I’d say it’s probably tougher than the average platformer. It’s definitely fun and enjoyable all the way through though. The toughest habit for me to break was not jumping on the enemies all the time. In almost every other platformer you just keep on stomping them but here doing that actually causes you damage instead. So you have to remember to just grab everyone instead and completely forget about jumping as an option.

The bosses don’t always have much of an indication that they’ve been hit so if you’re unsure, just keep grabbing them. Ultimately that will always do the trick when the going gets tough. The boss designs are pretty fun. You could really tell that a whole lot of effort was put into this game which is why it’s hard to believe that it didn’t kickstart a big franchise. You get the feeling that this was always the goal here.

Again we do have to talk about the length though. I can’t imagine that word of mouth was terrific about how quickly you could beat this game. This isn’t an arcade title with tons of replay value. This is a platformer with a beginning and end so once you complete the game there isn’t much else to do. There aren’t any real collectibles or bonus levels to play through after all.

So it’s short enough where this has to be part of the conversation. I know back then games were shorter in general but 1 hour for a platformer? Eh that’s just a little too short. I imagine it was probably difficult coming up with a lot of levels using the grab mechanics especially since nobody else had been trying that before so I bet the sequel would have been longer.

I already talked about how good the game looks so the graphics are a definite win here. Meanwhile the soundtrack is on point here. Some pretty fun tunes all the way through. Also while the game didn’t have any flying gameplay, you can definitely see where that could have been a thing in the sequels because when Ristar gets enough momentum he becomes a shooting star. It doesn’t play much of a role here beyond cutscenes or ending a level but it’s pretty handy.

Overall, Ristar is a pretty fun game. I had no complaints with the gameplay itself and the overall presentation was handled very nicely. I would recommend picking it up while you have the Switch Online. If you had to spend money to purchase the game then definitely I would be very hesitant before saying anything but as it is, this is a good title to check out. It’s definitely got that nostalgia factor to it as well with the artstyle.

Overall 6/10