Category Archives: 7 Star Games

The Misadventures of Tron Bonne Review

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My Mega Man Legends marathon continues with the spinoff. Tron Bonne is a pretty unique game as it’s essentially a collection of minigames that you play until you unlock the final showdown. It definitely makes for a good adventure though even if the game can be a bit more complex than needed. You should expect the difficulty to really ramp up by the end.

The game starts with Tron’s brother being kidnapped by some debt collectors. They explain that he owes them 1 million Zenny and so Tron will have to gather that amount in order to free him. It won’t be easy to earn that much money the right way and so Tron begins to rob banks and steal livestock from various farms. She will have to contend with the interest on the money as well but Tron is ready for this. She has been trying to prove herself for a while now and this is really perfect timing for that.

Right away I can tell you that these minigames actually have some decent levels of challenge to them. Fortunately you don’t need to beat every minigame in order to complete the game. You need to earn 3 million Zenny to unlock the final boss. How you do that is up to you. Clearing the minigames is advised because they can get you bonuses from 150,000 all the way to 800,000. Of course the higher the prize, the more difficult the minigame. I was never able to clear the 800K one.

So what do you do if you get stuck at the minigames? Well there is a free roam dungeon that you can challenge an infinite amount of times. You make 80,000 per run and each run only takes 3-4 minutes. So it’s a bit on the tedious side but in theory you can beat the whole game that way. I’d recommend trying to complete as many minigames as you can though because that variety will make the game more fun. Each minigame has 3 levels to it before they shut down.

The first one is about moving boxes around so that you can get the right ones onto a boat. It’s almost like navigating a Tetris run or something like that. I was able to handle the 3 puzzles for manual running but got stuck on the first puzzle with the tractor. Definitely not a minigame that is for the faint of heart.

Then you have the RPG levels which replicate the gameplay of Legends 1. You basically run through a bunch of caves and have to open chests and hit switches. It’s a bit more detailed than you may expect. These levels weren’t super hard but do take up more time than all of the other games to the point where you just aren’t sure if they are super worth it or not. I’d still say to go ahead and do it though, they add more story to the game.

You also have the robbing the bank levels. Those are the most fun because these levels are fully action packed. You have to destroy all of the robots in your way and break into the buildings. It definitely reminds you that you are playing as a villain which is something that you may end up forgetting after a while. There is a recurring character who is a cop that you have to stop. Trust me, you’ll feel bad for her after a while.

Then there are the farm levels. These got really tough and I got stuck on the third one that was worth the 800K. You have to corral animals which is easy enough but the final part has to trying to defeat a robot before it destroys your car. No matter how many times I tried that level, I just couldn’t do it. It seems like you need a better gun for that but I was stuck with my starter buster for the whole game.

To get power ups you need to play with your Servbots and that part of the game is pretty complicated. Basically there are 40 Servbots and each one has something that they like. You have to give them their favorite object to unlock other objects to give to other bots. You also need to improve their stats through missions and the gym. Finally there is a torture room where you have to take them whenever their sloth ranking gets too high.

It feels like the game really wanted you to spend a lot of time on this but that wasn’t really my gameplan. I would have done more of this if it was more intuitive but it’s all a bit too vague for me. Particularly when I was already close to the end of the game, I didn’t see the point in devoting too much time to this. If I had lost to the final boss then I would have had to consider it though.

The final boss was stressful because I had to defeat several segments with just my basic gun. It meant that the final boss was pretty long and a few hits would take me down for the count. Fortunately dodging actually wasn’t that difficult in this one. I was expecting the attack patterns to really change as the game went on but that wasn’t really the case. So just keep running in circles and the boss will not be able to keep up with you.

You should also buy a bunch of potions. This is one of those games where potions are absolutely broken because they are dirt cheap and yet you can stock up on a ton of them. I had only bought 2 potions but if I had bought more then the final boss would have been child’s play. In short, the game gives you a lot of decent options and that is the hallmark of a solid title. If you were required to complete all of the minigames and train up the Servbots then the game could have become annoying.

The graphics are definitely solid here. The artstyle has aged pretty well and definitely reminds me of the PS1 glory days. The soundtrack is also pretty good so you have a very well balanced title right here. At most you can just say that the game may be a little too short. It felt shorter than the first Legends even though they are technically about the same length. There is more replay value here because of the Servbots though. I imagine it would take a really long time to 100% this game.

Overall, The Misadventures of Tron Bonne is definitely a fun story. The characters are charismatic and the gameplay is solid. While action may be less of a focus than in the Legends series, the gameplay holds true when you do get the occasional boss fight. I also like the idea of minigames being the way you progress the story. It’s pretty original and just works well as long as you have enough variety. This one probably could have used a few more minigames so you didn’t have to rely on the free roam grind but had enough. If you don’t have this game yet then I definitely recommend picking it up asap!

Overall 7/10

Mega Man Legends Review

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It feels great to finally play Mega Man Legends because that game has been around for so many years. I had hoped Capcom would go ahead and start a remake but they really dragged their feet on that. So it was time to play through all of the games thanks to PSN. The game is retro in all of the right ways with a fun artstyle and even full voice acting. No excuse for newer Mega Man games to not follow suit if you ask me. The game is a bit short but does have plenty of extra content.

The game follows Mega Man and his friends who crash land near a small town one day. They figure it won’t take long to get a power source and leave but it turns out that a crew of treasure hunters is around. They are not going to make things easy and then Mega Man finds himself knee deep in a big conspiracy. He will need to see this through to the end now and must make sure that the town is safe. This won’t be easy, but it is absolutely a job for Mega Man.

Right away you will be impressed by the 3D environments. The town is extremely large to the point where it takes up almost 7 areas. There are plenty of people to talk to and shops to visit. The amount of replay value in here is really impressive because of the side quests. I didn’t really touch those when playing through the game but can see how they would be useful. This game is fairly difficult and so a big part of the game is about earning money. You want enough cash to get a lot of upgrades and power ups.

I spent a full 90 minutes on just grinding money and I’m glad it did. I got my missiles leveled up a whole lot and this came in handy for a 3 phase boss fight in the sky. It worked for the whole game with the exception of the final boss who is actually a bad match up for the missiles. I had to finish the game with the basic mega buster but it does the job. Just make sure you open up every chest because the parts in there are incredibly useful. Without them it is safe to say that I would have been on the back foot.

The best tip I can give you is to constantly be moving side to side. You can fire the buster as long as you do that, but note that you can’t shoot while moving backwards. So keep making a circle around the boss and jump when an attack is about to land. With a little practice you’ll be able to dodge just about everything that gets thrown at you. The missiles are incredible for damage but do add a second of end lag to the beginning and ending of your attacks so you should keep that in mind.

You are always given the choice to choose between attack, range, ammo, and speed. Choose wisely since it isn’t possible to max everything out. Fortunately you can change your allocations at any point so you really should experiment. Range and attack are the most important if you ask me. Some enemies literally cannot be hit if you don’t have enough range after all. Ammo is the least critical since it’s rare to run out of weapons but I guess that may depend on your gameplay style.

The graphics are definitely really good and have held up throughout the years. The soundtrack can be a little less memorable but still sounds good on the whole. I don’t really have any issue with the technicals here although it’s worth noting that the voice acting can be really hard to hear at times. It felt like the audio was going up and down throughout. I was still impressed to have had full voice acting here though. The game probably just needed some subs or text boxes.

You’re going to be spending a lot of time in the dungeons throughout the game so keep in mind that you don’t have to beat them in one shot. If you want to just farm money you can go through a few rooms and then leave. I did that a lot while trying to get money for the various power ups. It’s a really good strategy so I would say to just keep that in mind. The game will be a lot easier if you even just buy a few power ups so you shouldn’t try to go it alone.

As for if you want to focus on your weapons or Mega Man himself, that’s up to you. You won’t have enough money to do everything and that’s why for the weapons I would recommend just sticking to one of them. If you mix and match too much then you’re going to not see as much progress. By sticking to the missiles, I was able to get it very overpowered before long.

We’ll see if the next game can beat this one. There are a few quality of life things that could be improved like your running speed. I know I said the town was large before but part of that is also because Mega Man can’t run very fast. So it takes him longer than you would like to get places. Especially if you get lost which can happen once or twice. Near the end of the game you’re told to go to the old city but turns out you were supposed to go to the re right outside of Old City. That threw me off for a while there.

Overall, Mega Man Legends is definitely a game that I would recommend. The most important thing to consider here is just how fun the game is. It’s really a blast and a half throughout which is really important. Additionally the story gets a little more intricate than I may have guessed by the end of it. The voice acting helps a lot but same with the characters just being a lot of fun. This is certainly not your average Mega Man adventure that’s for sure. There is a lot of room left over for the next game to pick up on some story elements and I’ll be playing that before long. The city environment is also just such a great backdrop because you don’t get to experience that very often.

Overall 7/10

Donkey Kong 64 Review

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It’s time to play a very infamous DK game from a long while back. This is one of those games that you either love for how ambitious it is or it quickly begins to feel overwhelming. I’m not often a big fan of these old Rare titles but this one was actually pretty good. I definitely get how switching between characters so often feels unnecessary, but the character points are close together. Ultimately the fun gameplay and smooth controls helped to make up for some quality of life features that were not present.

The game starts with he DK crew being kidnapped by the powerful King K. Rool. DK will now have to save his friends and put a stop to all of the madness. He will need to gather 100 Golden Bananas along with a host of other items. It won’t be easy but DK is not the kind of guy to back down from a fight. King K. also has many minions at his disposal so fighting through all of them won’t be easy.

The gameplay is that of your classic 3D platformer. You will run through various worlds looking for collectibles. Each world has a set formula. There are 25 Golden Bananas in a world, each Kong can get up to 5 of them. Each Kong can also get up to 100 normal bananas, reaching 75 of them gets you a medal. You need 15 medals to unlock a sci-fi game that you have to beat in order to get a coin that lets you complete the game. So this title is definitely not shying away from its genre of being a true collectathon. Of course that was never really in doubt.

What this game does well is not force you to come anywhere close to 100% in order to beat the game. That should always be reserved for people who really want to do that and you can reward them with a secret ending or something. For example you only need 100/200 Golden Bananas and 15/35 Gold Medals in order to clear the game. I like those odds pretty well so I never felt like I had to be really exhaustive when playing through the game.

That said, I did manage to beat most of the opening worlds because in a way you save some time there. You are already familiar with the layouts after all so you may as well just finish them off right? Then for the final worlds I could go a lot faster and ignore most of the Golden Bananas as I raced to the boss. It’s just a really good balance and it’s clear that a lot of time and effort was put into these level designs.

Naturally I liked some worlds more than others but that will probably vary based on the player. For example my least favorite world was easily the underwater one. Swimming just takes too long and it’s really hard to tell where you are going. Then my favorite world was either the forest or the haunted house. There was a lot going on there but it never felt too overwhelming. In short it was the perfect balance for what the game was trying to do here.

One quality of life feature I would switch is how the power ups worked. So basically each Kong gets a power up or two in every level. You have to find the huts and get stronger. Then when you recruit a new Kong, you have to go back to the old worlds and get the power ups. Once you are in the final worlds then you can do this at one time but this did require a lot of back tracking throughout the game.

In some ways I guess you could call it a Metroidvania in that sense. Again, the game was pretty good about this. Backtracking doesn’t feel as bad as it could have since there are a lot of quick travel points. The game also does a good job of pointing out where you haven’t been yet. It’s not perfect as some mechanics are really not explained well but you can’t win them all. On the whole the game does a lot more things right than wrong.

The difficulty is fairly high though. Without rewind you can actually expect to lose quite a few times. Specifically the minigames are really unforgiving. You have to complete several tasks under a strict time limit and I dare say that I would have lost at least half of them on my first try. The final level is also intense with another strict time limit. The more blue prints you unlock ahead of time, the easier this will be. Each one unlocks another minute which is handy. You’ll likely get a ton of them just from playing the game normally though.

On the technical aspects the game holds up really well too. The graphics are colorful and really pop out at you. These were the Kongs in their ultimate designs. The levels are really colorful and this title must have pushed the Nintendo 64 to its limits back in the day. The soundtrack is also far better than I expected. I have to be honest and say that I was not expecting much. The DK games tend to sound okay but usually don’t have too many stand out themes. This one actually sounds really good throughout. Additionally even the jingles are really catchy. So yeh I was definitely very impressed with this one all the way through.

Naturally there is a lot of replay value here. I beat the main game in under 20 hours but getting the rest of the collectibles will likely double the playtime. This is the kind of game that gives you a lot of bang for your buck so you definitely wouldn’t want to miss out on it. If you’re worried about the backtracking and all, just know that it is considerably less time consuming than the Bano-Kazooie game. It’s also just really lenient with how low the game completion requirements are.

Overall, Donkey Kong 64 is a reminder that some of these older games have really withstood the test of time. It may be no Bananza, but it can hold its own with most of the other DK games. It was also nice to see a full fledged story with some actual voice acting. It’s not like the story is ultra deep or anything but honestly it’s just something that I can’t help but appreciate because it’s really not a guarantee in the present day. I look forward to seeing what other gams Nintendo adds to the online service.

Overall 7/10

Greak Memories of Azur Review

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I have to say this is a game that I didn’t know about before it came out. It’s got a fun teamwork mechanic like the Trine games and makes for a pretty good adventure. After playing it, I’d definitely be hyped for a sequel. There were a lot of quality of life features contained within the map and gameplay as well. The only strike against the game is really just how short it is.

The title begins with the main character needing to find his brother and sister so they can all get off of a doomed country. The people of the kingdom are building a giant airship in order to escape but they will need some special artifacts before going. The three main characters will grab these before leaving but it won’t be easy. There are enemies around every corner after all and they are definitely not here to make friends.

Each character has a different gameplay style. The main character plays the way you would as if you were someone like Link from the Legend of Zelda. You have your sword and you slash away at the enemies. Then your sister has the ability to float and shoot energy blasts. Definitely a really handy power and in some ways she feels like the most powerful as a result. Finally the older brother can use a grapple hook to cross large distances and has a shield that can block any energy attack.

There are puzzles that you have to solve by using each character’s unique abilities. Digging, Grappling, Floating. The puzzles are handled pretty well and have a solid amount of variety to them. The game was never too overbearing in this way so I appreciated that. The combat is also good although it does get pretty easy once you figure out one simple thing. Touching enemies actually doesn’t damage you. I was trying to be super careful not to bump into any of the enemies while attacking and so I thought the game was very difficult for a minute there. There was just no way to time everything perfectly but since enemies don’t hurt, it quickly became a full 180.

The game becomes super easy by this point because you can run into enemies with reckless abandon. There is really no downside to doing so after all. So that was definitely surprising. This game is more about having fun than being a challenge which can be a nice change of pace. You get to just embrace your power here and the final dungeon is the only one that actually forces you to use a lot of teamwork among the 3 characters.

Part of the reason for this is that the final member of the trio doesn’t even show up until near the end of the game. The adventure is nearly over by the time that he joins so you would really need to pick up a sequel to get to play as him more. It is also worth noting that a lot of the trophies in the game are missable so you should be very careful before you embark on the last journey. There is no stage select or anything like that.

The trophies will definitely help for the replay value though. Getting them all will take some serious time since you will also have to beat the game in 3 hours. It’s definitely doable but will take some trial and error. There is also another one about beating the game while only saving 5 times or less. You could maybe do both of those trophies at the same time since not saving would definitely save you some time.

The graphics are definitely pretty good. The art style is certainly charming and everything is very bright and colorful. The soundtrack isn’t particularly memorable but it’s not bad either. So on the whole there are a lot of positives to be had here. The technical aspects hold up well. As for the quality of life features I mentioned, the maps are very clear. Each character with an important conversation will have a yellow exclamation point above them. The item menus are good and the save points are spread across the world very well. There aren’t large gaps where you cannot save or anything like that.

The story may not be the most interesting but I was glad to have one in general. There are also little cutscenes at different points in the game. There is plenty of room for a sequel as well so maybe we will see Greak return some day. This time the characters would probably be together from the start so you could have the teamwork levels start right away. I can easily see that making the game more difficult.

Switching between the characters is seamless and all in real time so you could make for some really fun battles that way. The A.I. helps out a little bit when you’re not playing as a character but they tend to be lackluster. The damage that the other characters take also sticks around so if you don’t switch back right away then you’ll get a game over. Each of the characters have their own health bars after all as opposed to a big shared one. You have to eat different fruits and use items to get the health back.

Overall, Greak is a pretty good game. It’s what I would call a basic Metroidvania. There is a little backtracking but for a 4 hour game there isn’t a lot of time to be going back and forth like that. As you can imagine, the game is really over before you even know it. That said, the game is not all that expensive. So you should check it out and think of it as a fun proof of concept game. Hopefully it gets a full length sequel at some point. In the meantime this works as a perfect example of a game that is pretty fun and isn’t trying to be super ambitious. It’s meant to pass a few hours by with tight gameplay and succeeds in that mission.

Overall 7/10

Pac-Man Review

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Pac-Man is one of those games that is truly timeless. It’s been around forever and has been ported many times. The appeal is really easy to see. Who doesn’t want to be running around the mazes and chomping up ghosts right? There will always be a case to just play Ms. Pac-Man instead because the game is just better but it doesn’t make this game any worse. Objectively speaking this is still a very fun game all the way around. It may take you a little time to get used to it since the speed is slightly different than some other versions though.

The basic concept is that you need to eat all of the pellets in a level in order to keep going on. You cannot touch any of the ghosts or you will lose a life. You can eat power pellets though which temporarily make you invincible and allow you to plunge right through them. You want to use this strategically in order to complete the levels. Assuming you are playing for a high score, you also want to eat as many ghosts as possible with each power pellet because the points are super high.

For that reason you will sometimes not want to use a power pellet right away because only one ghost is in range. The amount of time you have to eat a ghost after using the power pellet will gradually get lower as you go through the levels. Occasionally there will be a throwback level where the pellets work perfectly again but on the other side you will go to levels where the power pellet doesn’t do anything. You want to really watch out for those stages.

The game is just a lot of fun to play and you really feel good when you are able to outsmart the ghosts and get to the goal. There is a bit of RNG here but for the most part if you lose, that was really on you. You want to be careful about taking too many chances here because that just won’t end well for you. You get one extra life at 10,000 points. I want to say you get another one at 100,000 points but I’m not positive on that. So from that point on you need to be careful because you won’t be getting extra lives.

The fact that the level stays the same forever can be a bit misleading because it will make you overconfident. Just keep in mind that the ghosts will act differently. They also get gradually faster as the levels go on to the point where they will easily out speed you. During those times you definitely do not want to get in their way. A straight dash to the pellet will suddenly become a matter of life and death.

The soundtrack is fun. It’s not the type that will really stand out but it works out well as good background noise as you’re going through the game. The various sound effects are all pretty good. Then you have the bright graphics which work out well for the game. It makes the title seem very inviting all throughout the experience which is definitely a nice touch. It’s all the little things that add up together and make the game so much fun. It also goes without saying that the game basically has infinite replay value. As long as you are still alive, you have infinite chances to increase your score!

There is also a multiplayer mode in the game. That’s obvious enough where I almost forgot to mention it. Naturally that is a really fun addition as you compete for the score but ironically the multiplayer gets less fun the better that each player gets because you have to wait a long time for your turn. For that reason I always thought that it should alternate every level and then you keep going until the last person either runs out of lives or has passed the score of the eliminated player. It just makes a lot of sense to me. I suppose the counter would be that you are destroying the momentum of the first player but I don’t actually see a problem with that since it will be the case for both players.

Overall, Pac-Man is a game I’ve played in many different variations over the years. I can safely say that it always ages well and this one is no exception. If you have the Switch online then you definitely want to check this one out. It’s just a fun retro experience. Hopefully soon we will get a brand new Pac-Man game since the company is really slow about continuing the franchise. In the meantime, playing through the original adventure is going to have to do.

Overall 7/10

Hollow Knight Review

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Hollow Knight is one of those games that I have been waiting to play for quite a long while now. It has been waiting and waiting for its chance to shine and that time is finally now. The gameplay and style are both well known for being distinctive and I’d agree with that. It’s a lot of fun to play through the game and there is plenty to explore. I have no real complaints on the gameplay front with the only weak aspect being the lack of a real thorough story. There is enough lore for you to build something out of it though.

The game follows the little Hollow Knight as he seeks to destroy all the monsters in his way. He must wake up the souls of three sleeping guardians from around the world and then face his final trial. Along the way he meets Hornet, the heroine from the legendary game known as Silksong. She tests his might on several occasions before letting him go on to the next challenge. Hollow Knight will have to gain more and more strength if he wants to end this quest in victory.

You start out with your basic jumping ability and a short sword. As is the case with most Metroidvanias you will gain more abilities as you play through the game. For example you will get energy blasts, double jumps, wall jumps, etc. You will feel quite powerful by the end of it all and that sense of power progression is absolutely important in a game like this. That’s because you will be doing a lot of backtracking and going across the same areas 50 times. So by getting stronger, you can go through the rooms a lot quicker than you could before. You will also gradually create shortcuts.

The game is very well done on the quality of life front. Whether it be checkpoints or maps, you will consistently be able to make things easier on yourself. There is also a very in depth customization system which lets you choose what you want to power up. Sometimes you may want to amp up strength while other times you want to amp up your speed instead. You have to choose carefully because you don’t have many slots. You can buy more slots as you go through the game but will always have to settle for just a few badges.

My lineup was to use the shield, expanded map, and orb gatherer. I found those to be the most helpful and for the very end of the game I got to use my longer sword. The game will be difficult regardless, in many ways you could even say that’s the whole point of the game. It’s not meant to be the kind of title that you breeze through. I certainly lost to some bosses over and over again.

I’d say the best thing to do is take it slow and learn the attack patterns. Eventually you will be able to dodge pretty well. You could even go for parrying but I found the timing to be tight, even for me. So personally I would say to not bother with that unless you are feeling incredibly confident. Jumping and dodging is the best way to go. You can also heal health by staying in one place but the bosses are all programmed to attack even more intensely when you stop moving so you want to be careful about that.

The minions can also be tough at times due to the sheer numbers. Make sure you don’t let them surround you and skipping a minion is a bad idea if you aren’t by an exit because it will eventually catch up to you. Dispatch the enemies as soon as possible when going forward and only skip the ones that you are sure you can outrun. As long as you keep on doing that then you should be good. This also may be obvious but I highly recommend prioritizing buying the maps as soon as possible every time they appear. This will save you an incredible amount of time.

Like I mentioned the only weak point here is the story. It’s really complete lore with very few cutscenes. The dialogue we get from characters like Hornet is pretty good but these scenes are rare. It is possible to just have a game be so atmospheric that it works without a story but I dare say that it is nearly an impossible task. The atmosphere here was good for example and I liked the surroundings but I still missed my in depth plot. Ultimately I just really wanted to see that. The sound effects for the various characters you walk past could be a little extra loud too.

The soundtrack is good though. Several good boss themes in there and the music always helps to enhance the scene. The graphics are also really good. Everything is polished and so the game feels modern all the way through. There is also a ton of content crammed within the game. I was able to clear it after about 15 hours but my completion% was only in the 70s. There is plenty more content to be played through beyond that including a ton of boss fights and extra rooms. One day it would definitely be worth going through more of the game to get some trophies. The price point for Hollow Knight is incredibly considering how much content you get.

Overall, Hollow Knight is a game that I would definitely recommend. The content and replay value really speaks for itself. The gameplay style is also a lot of fun as it tests your abilities greatly. There is no RNG here at all. Whether you win or lose is completely based on your own merits. There are plenty of checkpoints everywhere so you don’t feel bad when you lose. It doesn’t take long to return to where you fell in battle. I personally would enjoy an instant rematch button but I understand how that might make things a bit too easy. The exploring is part of the fun after all and if you’re seriously stuck then you can always double back and try another route. I definitely look forward to trying out Silksong at some point and seeing how it stacks up to Hollow Knight. By playing the first game so late I got to avoid a whole lot of the wait that fans had to put up with.

Overall 7/10

Mirror’s Edge Review

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I remember playing the reboot for this game a long time ago and it was pretty good. Generally people seemed to prefer the original though so I was interested in seeing just how it would stack up. Ultimately they play in pretty similar ways but this one is definitely going for a more stylistic approach. In a way it ends up feeling nostalgic as a result though and I definitely had a good time here. The game breezes by pretty quickly but you will have been having fun throughout.

The game starts with Faith’s sister being framed for a murder. Unfortunately, the circumstantial evidence looks bad so a guilty death verdict is imminent. Faith will have to find a way to figure out who the real crook is but it won’t be easy in a world where basically everyone is super corrupt. She also doesn’t have a lot of time here and will have to move quickly.

This game is all about parkour and so you’ll be jumping from building to building as you try to keep your speed up. You gotta be real quick with your reaction times as well. At times you will be able to grab a gun from one of your opponents and put that to use but it is never required. The game even rewards you with an extra silver trophy if you can go the whole game without shooting anybody. Without a doubt the game is easier if you do decide to just start shooting but that’s why it is satisfying not to do that.

Pay a lot of attention to the various movement options in the first level because you have to use them all by the time you complete the game. The gameplay mechanics themselves can be rather intricate so this isn’t your average title. It can be really rough to mess up a jump and have to reload to the last save point. It’s also not always obvious where you need to go. As you play through the game you will be better at recognizing your surroundings and moving to where you need to go.

The best technique you can probably learn for yourself is how to disarm your opponent. The exact timing will differ depending on the type of enemy you encounter so you should really keep that in mind. One wrong miss and you’ll probably be shot to death. You can also go at them with hand to hand combat. It takes around 5 hits to defeat an enemy so you want to hit them with 3 blows, then wait to avoid the instant counter and land another 2. In some ways it is a lot easier than the disarm but takes longer so it’s risky if you are up against a lot of enemies.

There are also shielded enemies that take many hits to defeat. You will want to be extremely careful about taking any of those guys on. I had to beat one in the parking lot level and it felt like at least 20 hits to beat him. Meanwhile if you slip or miss a dodge then you will be going down in a second. Very different levels of defense for Faith compared to these guys.

Outside of the main campaign you have the speed run versions of every level where you have to beat them without dying. There are also time trial missions where you play a portion of each level and have to try and clear it. This isn’t easy so be warned. It does add a ton of replay value though and you can get a good amount of trophies out of it. The Platinum looks particularly hard so I can’t say that I’m aiming for it but that would be a pretty good feather in your cap.

The graphics are definitively pretty good. I love how bright the game looks, particularly for the outdoor levels. Everything is incredibly shiny, it almost makes the game feel a lot newer than it actually is. The cutscenes between levels also have a very stylized look to them that works well. The soundtrack even has a lot of action/rock to it so on a technical level the game absolutely holds up. The whole atmosphere around the game is something that I enjoy.

Meanwhile I enjoyed the story as well with its full voice acting. The cast is small but they all get something to do here. The body count is rather impressive by the end of the game and there are a decent amount of twists and turns. I’m surprised they never did much more with Mirror’s Edge because this absolutely had all the tracings of being the next big thing. There’s just so much you can do with this franchise. At the very least I’d like more Parkour type games where you are on the run at all times.

Reminds me a bit of a Sonic game in that sense just with less action. I wouldn’t complain if there was a Sonic game that was all about the pursuit itself. That would be pretty interesting. There are a good amount of checkpoints here so you don’t have to replay large sections too often. Occasionally the checkpoint feels a bit far away but that’s not going to be your normal experience at least. Now that would have made things feel a bit rough. In general you don’t have to worry about any qualify of life issues like that though. The levels are well designed and often times there is more than one way to clear an obstacle. Particularly in the combat levels where you can totally choose how you want to complete them.

Overall, Mirror’s Edge is a pretty good game. I enjoyed the story and the gameplay is definitely very smooth. All of the level designs are on point and so while you will breeze through the game, it always feels like a full adventure. The game also has its difficulty so this is no walk in the park. If you’re looking for a retro game experience with a whole lot of running, then you should definitely be checking this one out.

Overall 7/10

Spider-Man 3 (Playstation 3) Review

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It’s finally time to play Spider-Man 3 on the big console. A long time ago I played it on the game boy advance and naturally that’s a very different kind of experience. Still a lot of fun of course but I need my 3D environment to be swinging around in. The game surprisingly changes the gameplay quite a bit from the first two games. Or at least from the first since I have a vivid recollection of that one even if the second game is a bit more murky for me.

The game follows an extremely loose version of the movie’s plot as it adds on a ton of new villains and different scenarios to play with. I actually thought that was pretty cool because it keeps the experience fresh. Spider-Man will have to take down powerful threats like Venom and Sandman while also fending off the Lizard, Rhino, Kingpin, and more. Fortunately he has his trusty spider sense so it shouldn’t be hard to stay alive. Coming up with a way to counter these guys will prove to be the far bigger challenge.

The biggest challenge will be to the player though as this game is significantly more difficult than the first two games. It is seriously not even close. First off you have the fact that some of these enemies have state of the art a.i. with how they dodge and block your attacks. It often feels like you are fighting a total wall. One random henchmen blocked over 20 of my blows before I finally landed a hit in. Then the bosses can tank over 100 blows in order to defeat them. The toughest was either Kingpin or the Rhino, both of them will definitely have you fighting over and over again in order to conquer them.

Part of what makes the combat difficult is that you learn a new move after every level. There re 42 levels in the game and you need to complete at least 40 of them in order to beat the game. Why not just make it mandatory to beat all 42 at that point? I dunno. When you learn a move, it flashes on the screen briefly but otherwise you have to go into the pause menu and look at your upgrades to find it again. It’s really difficult to memorize all of your moves and most of them use extremely similar button combinations. As a result this became the first Spider-Man game where I was just button mashing for most of it. You just need to keep on throwing hits until they land.

Your spider sense is a meter that you can turn on to automatically dodge all attacks except for a rare few unblockable ones. Pretty handy right? Well, the catch is that the meter gets drained at different speeds depending on the attack used. So you might think you have enough meter to dodge one more attack when suddenly you don’t and take maximum damage. Most of the levels have no real way to restore health so if you lose some, it’s going to cost you. There are a good amount of checkpoints so you won’t lose too much progress but a lot of the cutscenes are unskippable so they do tend to add up a little bit.

You have some super attacks but the only one that seemed to be worth anything was the ground slam with R1+Triangle. It can one shot most minions and does serious damage to bosses. I recommend leading with that. You can meter by attacking and countering your opponents. Finally you also have a lot of quick time events and these are incredibly difficult. The buttons stay the same so you can eventually just memorize the combinations but it will be through a lot of trial and error. My own reaction times were just not enough to be able to keep up with this and so I would die to every boss at least once.

Actually, it’s probably more accurate to say that I died at least once in just about every level. This was essentially my Elden Ring moment. There are no difficulty settings within the game so what you see is what you get. I can definitely respect that and it makes the game a little longer than it would be otherwise. I see online that some people beat it in around 5 hours while it took the full 7 for me. Even the web swinging is harder than in other games as you really have to watch your momentum. You’re using 3 different buttons while most of the other games just use one.

I prefer the first Spider-Man’s gameplay but it’s hard to say how much of that is nostalgia. Either way this one works pretty well and is definitely a smooth experience. It may be hard but the checkpoints helps to take the sting out of it. The game crashed during one boss fight which wasn’t the game’s fault but it was rough as I had just beaten him. I guess the Kingpin managed to get the last laugh there.

The graphics are pretty good. I really like how expressive everyone is. The game is really a product of its time in that way as you won’t usually see this level of movement among the NPCs otherwise. They just feel so animated and always keep you in the thick of things. The voice acting is also a lot of fun and of course the soundtrack is on point. It’s actually quite a bit better than I would have guessed. The hub world music is very ominous like a Batman Beyond track and there are a good amount of action tunes. They certainly put more budget into this than you would have normally expected.

I also think the UI is very user friendly. I like how you can pause the game and immediately see everything from your play time to your completion% and how many missions are left. It’s just all very direct and clear which is something a lot of other games can learn a lesson from. While the game is fairly short, there are a decent amount of crimes to stop before you reach 100%. So that adds a bit of replay value even if admittedly there isn’t a ton of it. I imagine this may buy you like an hour or two and then you have the various trainings/activities which might buy you another 2. There are no PS3 trophies for this game but all of that combined is still pretty decent.

Overall, This is definitely a game I’d recommend trying out. The game is well rounded with a solid story and a really big hub world. It’s also fun to see just how difficult games could be back then. The default difficulty level is rarely this challenging on a modern game after all. I have heard that Web of Shadows could also be difficult on the PS3 so I look forward to seeing how that plays out some day. In the meantime I am one step closer to owning all of the Spider-Man games. That will definitely be a real milestone I’d say.

Overall 7/10

Soul Calibur IV Review

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It’s been a while since I played a Soul Calibur game and it was time to take this one out from the backlog. It’s always interesting to play an older fighting game after playing the sequels. Maybe even more so in a fighting game compared to other genres, you can see what mechanics stuck around and which ones were removed. In this case the gameplay feels so similar that I wouldn’t say it was that different. The main change is how the story mode plays out compared to other titles. In the newer installments, the games had a focused story mode while this one is more of the classic arcade mode. Interestingly there is an arcade mode which seems almost identical to the story mode which feels a bit redundant.

So I went through the story mode with a bunch of characters until I unlocked all of the characters and stages that could be unlocked through this mode. There is an extra character and stage through arcade mode but I didn’t go to that level of detail. So I had fun playing as guys like Darth Vader, Nightmare, Siegfried, Astaroth, and more. They each have their own signature control schemes, and the game does a good job of making everyone feel unique.

Story mode has 5 levels within it, typically 2 of those will have you defeat 4 enemies and then the other 3 levels are your classic 1 vs 1 fights. Each character has a unique encounter in the 3rd and 5th rounds with a few exceptions where you just get the generic dialogue. The character roster is actually rather impressive with around 30 characters in there, but I do feel like it shouldn’t have been impossible to have unique dialogue for all of them. It’s the small things like that which can really make a difference.

Still, you’re here for the gameplay and it’s really excellent. For a lot of titles, I may be skeptical of a ring out mechanic but in this one it just works really well. It feels satisfying to throw someone off the ring and make an ultra comeback that way. Each character also has a whole lot of different attack moves to the point where it’s actually a bit hard to keep track of them all. Half the time I would use a move and then be unable to use it again. It seems to be based not just on direction but also on momentum which would take some getting used to for me.

Blocking is a button rather than holding back so you want to be real careful about that as well. The levels where you fight 4 opponents back to back can actually be tough as well since they all have a full health bar. Make sure you don’t take them too lightly or you’re really going to be in trouble. Ultimately there is near limitless replay value here because of the vs mode. I also like how the unlockables are rapidly unlocked just by playing through all of the story modes. I’ve always found that is the best way to have the unlockables set up. There are no PS3 trophies for this game which is unfortunate, but you can still have fun on a local level.

The graphics are definitely really good. The art style has aged well and the characters look sharp. The colors are striking and I really don’t have any issues here. Meanwhile the soundtrack is also good. There are quite a lot of different stage tunes here and of course Darth Vader brings in his own remix from Star Wars.

Outside of the story and arcade modes, you also have a tower climbing mode. I did not try this mode out as of yet but it seems to be a fairly long one. You have to continue defeating opponents as you ascend the tower. This will get tougher and tougher as you go through and of course some unlockables are tied to this mode as well. I appreciate that the game has a lot of full fledged single player options since you don’t always see that nowadays. Sure, fighting games are going to spend the majority of effort on multiplayer but no reason why you can’t put a little budget into single player.

Technically speaking the existence of the sequels means there is less reason to buy this one specifically but it’s worth entering the time bubble here. It’s cool to just see the series evolve and this one still stands out on its own. My nostalgia goggles are strong for Soul Calibur II and V so they won’t be surpassed but this is a very good game and I wouldn’t hesitate to play it at any time. I also appreciate that this game still has the announcer who sets up the confrontation before every fight. He really does a good job of making each fight feel really thematic and epic.

Overall, I would definitely recommend picking this game up. It’s one of those fighting games that is easy to pick up and play while being hard to master. You will want to really hit the lab here in order to be one of the best. If you do put in that time, then I don’t think you will be losing many fights because it is hard to overcome that skill gap. I hope we get a new Soul Calibur game soon, it feels like the series has not been expanding as quickly as it should be. If you don’t have the game yet, then you can get it for a great price right now.

Overall 7/10

.Hack//Quarantine Part 4 Review

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After 8 years since part 3, it was time to dive into the final part. This one is incredibly difficult to get a hold of because it is completely out of print. Usually it goes for hundreds and hundreds of dollars so you’re really expecting a grand climax here. It was definitely fun to see the ending and everything about the game was nostalgic. That said, it is fairly short next to the other games and you’ll breeze through it. The longest part here was definitely just grinding normal enemies for the virus cores.

The story begins with the heroes preparing for their final battle. The Wave is approaching and intends to end everyone once and for all. The World is in danger and if this attempt to stop the Wave fail, then it will be too late to save anyone who is already in a coma. To prepare for this, the heroes have to defeat phases 7 and 8 of the virus. Get ready for some long dungeons.

So the game makes up for a lack of new dungeons by having absolutely massive ones in the area that remain. One of them is close to 20 floors and that dungeon took me around 2 hours to complete. Imagine losing at the end of that right? The boss had 6 phases and he wasn’t even the final boss. Granted, the final boss technically had less phases with 5 but was still really difficult to defeat. These are styled as raid bosses so they are meant to take a long while. Of course that means it would be rough to die when you’re deep into a boss. Fortunately I never lost in a phase after the first one. The first phase of one boss did manage to take me for a spin several times but then I got used to him.

I recommend having 100 revives, restoratives, and potions with you at all time. A single boss can have you using close to 80% of that. Also make sure to stock your allies with these as well for when the boss hits you with an unblockable/undodgeable one hit KO move. That may sound cheesy but every boss in the final game has this ability. It’s probably one of the only games I can think of where you can be taken down in one hit at level 99. That is super crazy but does reinforce how big teamwork is here.

You will need to set up your teammates with their orders and then dynamically continue to issue new ones the whole time. You really have to stay sharp because if you stop for even an instant then you might lose. Make sure you keep several different equipment’s ready for every part so that you can shift elements as needed. The bosses are constantly switching after all and so you have to do that as well. You can only hold around 30 types of items at a time though so you will always be running on full.

Another thing to keep in mind here is that the final dungeon has a ton of data enemies. These cannot be defeated until you have hit them with Data Drain. The problem? That increases your corruption levels. The more you do it, the more “glitches” affect your character. The effects are drastic like casting negative spells on your teammates or even losing entire level ups. I lost 2-3 levels during the final dungeon. There is even a chance that you can jump right into a game over screen. Fortunately that didn’t happen to me but I can tell you that I was definitely feeling the pressure here. My corruption level was deep in the red at the time so I knew that I was right on the border here. One wrong hit and that would be it.

The most annoying part of the game is definitely about obtaining virus cores though. Basically you have to hit enemies with your data drain ability and sometimes they will drop a core or an item. You then have to run back to an older world and best enemies to lower your corruption level and then try again. There is a lot of repetition here. Also you won’t get more than 1 EXP per enemy when you data drain them so this slows down your progress. You need a ton of cores for the final dungeons. I spent over half of my time in this game getting cores. There may be a faster way to do it but this was the best way that I knew.

I will say that the game does have a lot of replay value in terms of other dungeons. There are almost an unlimited amount of dungeons you could play through for fun. Additionally there are a lot of side quest dungeons to play through and even little games like tag against a demon. Those all help to add up to the play through if you want to have fun there. The game even has a post game with some more crazy dungeons. Getting trough that will definitely not be easy.

The graphics have aged pretty well. It definitely feels a whole lot like you are inside of an MMORPG. You get full on cutscenes and of course the text ones. The full voice acting also feels ahead of its time here. Finally the soundtrack is also pretty good. A lot of great tunes all the way around and at this point they feel pretty iconic. The 4 .Hack games really lasted a long while and it feels great to have made it to the end.

Overall, This was a fun way to end the saga. It was fun to be able to keep my levels from the first 3 games. Starting this one around the 70s after all was pretty impressive. I also like the way the level up system has a consistent 1000XP for each level and how much you get is just based on your level. I could do without the virus core mechanics though. It really feels like that doesn’t add a whole lot to anything. It’s more of a needless grind than anything. I suppose a lot of games ill have something like this to extend the play time but I’d prefer to have more main dungeons or something instead. Now I can finally go ahead and play the .Hack GU games and I can safely say that I have really high hopes for those. They always looked like a ton of fun. This next installment of 4 games shouldn’t take me as long as the first 4.

Overall 7/10