Category Archives: 7 Star Games

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan Review

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It’s been a while since I played a Ninja Turtles game. Platinum has been doing a good job with their titles and they are well known for their combat mechanics so this definitely looked like a fun adventure. Reviews have not been kind to it, but this is definitely a solid game. It may not be quite as polished as their Transformers title or Bayonetta, but it’s definitely still a solid game. Platinum leaves their signature combat mechanics and level of difficulty on this title so don’t expect it to be a walk in the park.

The Turtles are called back into action when their old villains start to make some moves. Alien Invasions, Bank Robberies, and more things occur as the villains continue their onslaught of attacks. What is their goal and are these just distractions? The turtles will have to stay on their toes if they don’t want to be caught off guard, but can they really hope to defeat the Shredder? The plot is fairly standard for the TMNT and it doesn’t go for anything grand, but it’s possible that it’s meant to feel like a normal episode. To an extent, that’s what Platinum seems to do for their retro games.

While the gameplay is fairly intricate, I don’t think it’s all that good. The way that the buttons are configured does take quite a bit of time to get used to. You may have beaten the game by then so I suppose it could be useful for the second run through. R2 is to block and evade while attacking is with the SQ button. You can also throw shruiken with L1 although that is really never necessary. It is good for getting some trophies like blowing up cameras though. It’s just very difficult to utilize the blocking button on instinct with how quick the villains strike and how odd of a button it is. I’d prefer for blocking to be R1, but you can possibly switch that somewhere.

You do have quite a few options for attacking though and a lot of ninjutsu can be purchased. I personally liked Stealth Mode, Combo Attack, Super Shruiken, and Healing Circle for my set. You can have 4 at a time. Charms can also be equipped, but they didn’t make much of a noticeable difference. I may just need to buy better ones. You can switch between turtles at any time and you only lose a level if all 4 of them are defeated at once. In that case, you are taken back to the lair to eat some pizza and recharge your strength before going back to the level. For most levels, you are taken back to the exact point of time in which you died, but some bosses regain their full health. It seems to depend on the level.

There are a lot of collectibles and trophies so obtain so there is a solid amount of replay value here. That’s definitely a good thing because the campaign isn’t all that long. It’s around 4 hours, which is quickly becoming the average for games nowadays. That, or maybe games were always that short and I never noticed. Maybe that’s why people love RPGs so much. If nothing else, they’re always long, but I gotta admit that turn based gameplay can also be a real blast as well. Seriously, I love grinding those level ups. There are over 50 trophies so it should take you a while to collect them all. I only got 11 of them while beating the game. Most of them aren’t hard though, but simply rely on repetition. Play the levels again and again enough times and you’ll earn most of them. For example, one of them is saving 10 pizza trucks. I maybe saved one during the whole game. It’s partially chance that you end up getting that mission which is what makes it a little tricky. I’m not a huge fan of that and some trophies are tricky and may require online help from other players. It’s a doable Platinum, but not an easy one by any means.

As per usual, Platinum hits us with a great soundtrack. The rock themes are always a blast to have even if it seemed like the game started to reuse them a little after a while. It’s fine, I’ll still take this over 70% of boss fights in the average games. A good theme can go a long way. That being said, the actual boss fights could be a little annoying at times. I feel like the bosses had too much health and our attacks didn’t deal enough damage. It could take quite a while to take some bosses down and I can only imagine what it’s like on Hard Mode since they gain even more health on that difficulty. Each level isn’t all that long with the boss taking the most time, but it does hurt the replay value of the level a little. Especially with the annoying bosses like Wingnut.

Graphically the game looks good. There is only 1-2 day-time levels though so the graphics usually have it a little easy in the dark. It’s not as impressive as Transformers Devastation by any means, but it certainly doesn’t look bad. The graphics will suffice. Whether it was a glitch or not, a funny thing occurred during the final level though. The game actually replayed an old cutscene in its entirety. For a second there I thought I had clicked on the wrong level, but nope, it still ended up being in the right place. So…what’s up with that? It wasn’t a particularly good cutscene either which was unfortunate.

They reuse a lot of gags in the story mode even though it’s fairly short. For example, Michelangelo always wanting pizza. The turtles should be used to it, but they still act a little surprised and reprimand him each time. I mean, the Turtles are known for this and it’s supposed to be nostalgic I suppose, but this definitely wasn’t my favorite portrayal of them. Leonardo definitely looked the best as he was down to business and had a plan each time. Splinter isn’t quite as good as he seems rather nervous the whole time and subtly recommends retreating for a little while. Seeing Shredder actually be a lackey for once was also rather interesting. Krang’s the boss this time eh? He’s certainly moving up the ranks and if he also calls the shots in the new live action film, maybe he will eventually replace Shredder in that role completely.

I tried going to the online mode, but nobody was online. That’s not a good sign considering how new the game is, but I may have just missed everyone. The online mode is basically a way to play the game co-op, so I imagine there is not a whole lot of incentive for people to do that besides the trophies. Local Co-Op should have been a thing. This isn’t bad if you have a friend who is far away, but it’s definitely not optimal. I suppose TMNT fans will still be thrilled that the series finally has a new game. Granted, it wasn’t amazing, but this game is still a big improvement from games like De Blob and maybe it’ll get a sequel at some point. Platinum doesn’t really do sequels very often, but you never know.

Honestly, I’d probably say that this game does lose to the rest of the TMNT games that I’ve played except for the PSP title. They’re all fairly close, but the Gamecube game was just a little more fun and the plot was certainly a lot more intense. Being related to the 2003 show helped quite a bit as well. It just shows that the series sets the bar rather high though. Transformers is also held at a high level, but each game tends to be roughly equivalent to the rest. Likewise with TMNT, but in the end its weak plot and less likable characters hurt it a bit.

Overall, This is a solid TMNT game, but not one that I’d really recommend for 60 dollars. There’s not enough content here to justify the price, but once it goes down then I’d definitely recommend snagging it. It’s essentially a beat em up with today’s graphics and that’s always fun. In the end, the plot may not have been great, but the most important part is still the gameplay and that’s solid. There are a lot of attacks to mess around with and for those who like difficult games, you’ll get a kick out of this. I lost quite a few times, but luckily the other turtles would revive me. I only had my full team lose twice, but if you don’t adapt and block a lot, prepare for that total to go up quite a bit.

Overall 7/10

AquaPazza Review

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AquaPazza is a game that I really decided to buy on a whim. It is a 2D fighting game with random anime characters, how could this not be epic? Well, the story mode is unfortunately very bland and the gameplay is rather lackluster which makes this one a bit of a miss. It is still a good game purely thanks to multiplayer, but there is so much lost potential here that it is quite scary. Seriously, the series that the characters are coming from are either the most bland ones ever or the writers just didn’t understand them. I can say with confidence that even if I did not know who the characters from Dengeki Bunko were, I would have still enjoyed the story quite a bit more.

As for the gameplay, it is your average 2D fighter, but it is simply not as smooth. The gameplay can be very choppy. This seems to be due to how slow the gameplay can be at times. After working on some trophies for a while in vs. mode and score attack, I grew a little more fond of the game. Not enough to say that it beats any other big anime fighting game, but I suppose it will still be a positive in the end. It is cool to see that every character has a fully animated super attack. That is a solid amount of dedication and work from the game.

Unfortunately, this game is also a prime example of cheating A.I. programs. The semi final boss/ final boss both have incredibly high attack power. This means that you can be winning the whole match only for you to die in one super attack. The opponent also gets to rewind time and get a full health bar back. It took me many tries to beat the semi final boss and I didn’t want to burn another hour or two on the next one so I just left by that point. The trophy was all that I needed, but I do think that the attack power was too high. If I had been playing the mode for fun, I would have definitely been more upset.

The story is as bland as you can imagine. A comic relief witch unleashed a spell that merged all of the worlds somehow. As a result, the heroes have to join forces and stop her. Unfortunately, the characters are not interesting. For some reason, none of them are intense characters. None of them are overconfident, tough talking heroes like I would have wanted. It is possible that a different story would be more interesting, but after the first one I knew that I was done with it. I even tried out the second story for the initial character, but it was not any better. Story isn’t too crucial in a fighting game but every pebble ends up hurting the final product a little more.

There is a decent amount of replay value to be found here. You can probably forget about getting the Platinum since nobody really plays online anymore, but you can still get a lot of the other trophies in the game by learning how to pull off some rather advanced combos. I grabbed quite a lot of them and someday I’ll go back to get a few more. It is definitely rewarding to pull them off. You can also work on clearing score attack and both stories with each character. That should definitely take quite a while and vs. Mode itself should add quite a bit of time to the overall length.

I didn’t really go into the specifics of the gameplay earlier, but each character has around 5 super attacks and one ultimate move. They all take up meter so you can choose to wait for the ultimate or go for a lot of supers. You also have an assist character at the ready who will jump in to help when you summon him/her. Some are better than others since they are vulnerable to attack so you probably want long ranged assist. As mentioned earlier, it is a little slower than most other fighting games. Getting close to the opponent can be tricky as a result since neither side will really want to approach as a result.

At the end of the day, I am still surprised that the character models are so bland. Most anime games are hype because the characters look really cool. Only a few of the characters have interesting designs in this game and most of the movesets could use some work as well. It is a PS3 game, but it is not even close to being as polished as Dengeki. I don’t see this one getting a sequel, but I’m sure that it would be able to improve most of the complaints that I had with this one.

Graphically the game holds up rather well. The animated attacks look sharp. The character models aren’t bad either and the stages are all right, although they can be a bit bland. The soundtrack is also on the generic side. I believe that I only particularly liked one theme and it was for the final boss or the semi final boss. The rest of them weren’t bad, but I certainly forgot them. I could use the time to compare this to Dengeki again, but by now you can the general idea. Anything AquaPazza can do, Dengeki can do better.

Overall, AquaPazza is a decently good fighting game, but that is where the buck stops. The story and characters aren’t all that great. Some of the designs aren’t bad, but the personalities just aren’t there. That being said, it is not all that strange for this to be the case in a fighting game. To an extent, this was the situation in Virtua Fighter and King of Fighters. That being said, Virtua Fighter had the clearly superior graphics and gameplay on its side. It was also more interesting due to how you would rise in rank as you fought stronger and stronger opponents. I’m very early in the King of Fighters series so that title still has time to improve as well. If you’re looking for a solid action title to last over the weekend and play with some friends, this could be a good purchase. Otherwise, you are better off….just buying Dengeki Bunko.

Overall 7/10

Knack Review

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It’s time to review one of the big PS4 launch titles. Knack was meant to be the next Mario, Crash, or Spyro. He was going to change the gaming world and become a whole franchise. Unfortunately, just like PS All Stars Battle Royale, it was not meant to be. People were not overly thrilled with Knack and a lot of them said that it was repetitive and simply not as engaging as it could have been. Both are complaints that I can agree with to an extent, but Knack’s a fun enough game. I’d buy a sequel at some point although I admit that it wouldn’t be the most interesting series out there.

The Professor builds Knack (Mostly anyway. He doesn’t seem to fully comprehend Knack’s abilities and sentience so maybe he had some help and that’ll be a plot twist. I forgot if he ever gets a name either, but the Professor works just fine. Human cities have been attacked by Goblins and the army has started to get overwhelmed. The Professor decides to step in along with Knack. Together they crush the Goblins easily and decide to go to their home base to put an end to this. The situation gets more complicated than that when Vicktor and his army of robots decide that they want Knack. They need Knack to open up a tomb that leads to powerful Relics (Source of energy and power in this world) that could last them a life time. They also may have The Professor’s wife held hostage and if that’s the case….The Professor’s agenda may have just changed!

After playing a game like De Blob 2, I really can’t call Knack boring in the slightest. For the most part, it is a fun adventure. However, there are times where the plot will slow to a stand still as you rummage through a forest to grab relics or just walk around for a while. There are 13 chapters and each chapter has 3-5 levels in it. The game’s is of decent length. It isn’t too short, but I wouldn’t call it a long game either. If you play it for 2-3 hours a day then you’ll have it beat in about 3 shots. The plot does start right away so that’s good, but it keeps on changing direction because the Professor’s a little confused about what to do. He has to stop the Goblins, but he also has to stop the Robot army and he needs to free his wife as well. Plus, he wants the Relics for himself. As a result, the characters are constantly running from area to area without actually accomplishing their missions for a while. As an example, we decided to go stop the goblins in Chapter 3, but don’t get around to doing so until around Chapter 11.

I almost forgot to mention the Gameplay! It’s a 3D beat em up although it plays more like an action platformer. You can use standard punches to attack enemies or a jumping homing attack/dashing attack. Those are your only options so prepare to see the same punches thrown for the whole game. Once you’ve built up enough sun meter, you can also turn into a whirlwind or make a mini earthquake to startle the villains. Gaining relics in a level will fill up your health and Sunstone Crystals will fill up your energy. The minions can be a little tricky at times so just make sure that you wait and weigh your options before deciding to fight them.

The levels will have treasure chests scattered throughout them. They are always behind a fake wall so if you see something with cracks in it, give it a good punch. These chests have rare stones or parts in them. Once you collect them all (And there are quite a lot) you can unlock new forms for Knack and gadgets that will help you play through the game like a combo meter that increases your power and a secret radar. This is where the Knack’s Quest app will come in handy as it can at least earn you a few parts to save some time. Unfortunately, I don’t like how the Treasure Chests system is handled. For starters, you cannot find them through Chapter Select. The only way to grab the chests is to play the game over again and unfortunately, it seems like you can get old jewels after a while. This means that you may have to play the game several times until you finally get all of the pieces. Not a very appealing thought is it?

Despite that, the trophies seem fairly reasonable. There are a few speed challenges in there, but mostly it is about collecting everything and completing the game on all difficulties. It’s nothing that should be too difficult so much as it is just a little tedious. This does help the replay value though as it wouldn’t otherwise have any. There’s no multiplayer so the replay value is still a little sub-standard, but trophy hunters will still have their money’s worth. Not to mention that the price has gone down quite a bit since it first came out and that makes a big difference.

The soundtrack is not all that noticeable. It doesn’t really stick out I’m afraid and comes across as generic. As for the graphics, I don’t think that they did a great job of showing off the PS4’s power. The character designs are comically bad to the point where the cutscenes are more humorous than anything else. The characters keep walking towards each other only for the tables to turn so they all keep walking in circles. The character proportions are really off for some and for others the designs are just really cartoony. The in game graphics are solid though. It may have just been the artistic style that didn’t work very well for Knack.

The Professor was an okay lead and I actually agreed with his decision to go grab the relics. Sure it would be dangerous for the rest of the world, but unlimited energy is also a great positive. I typically sided with him over Lucas in their various debates. Lucas was very annoying from start to finish. He was always blowing up at the Professor and just being an ingrate in general. Seriously, the Professor could do no right as far as Lucas was concerned. Everything had to be done his way or the highway. Lucas always feels like he is right even when he isn’t. He never develops into a good character. As the main villain Vicktor is all right, but you have to like the more political villains. He does seem a little more emotional as he actually gets visibly upset when Katrina is seemingly destroyed. The way that he goes out was pretty great even if it is a little anti climactic for his fans. Katrina was a good rival for Knack although I still have to question how they were rivals in the first place. It’s seriously a mismatch no matter how you look at it. It was impressive to see her dodging his blows though and getting a robot suit towards the end was a good idea.

Ryder is an Indiana Jones parody and easily the best character in the game. He makes the hero call and never leaves a man or woman behind even when the stakes are high. The Professor and Lucas couldn’t care less about saving the villains, but Ryder makes the right calls. I’d definitely want him to be in the sequel. Gundahar is the leader of the goblins so you’d think that he has a big role, but he actually doesn’t do all that much in the game. I also can’t take him seriously thanks to his design. Charlotte’s The Professor’s wife and she is a very bad character. She is nursing a grudge with the Professor for not finding her soon enough and she builds the weapons for the goblins, yet doesn’t show a lot of remorse for it. Her character arc is incredibly rushed and aside from the Professor, nobody should be thrilled about having her back at this point.

As for Knack himself, he’s an okay character, but he’s not that engaging or charismatic like most leads. He even admits that he doesn’t do the thinking, just the execution. Main characters don’t have to be smart, but the classic “Strong, but not smart” character is typically the side character for a reason. It’ll get old if the character is in the lead since you can expect the same jokes time after time. Knack doesn’t really make jokes, but the game constantly goes in slow motion to dramatically show how hard he hits the ground every time he jumps. We get it..Knack’s strong! His design also isn’t all that great. He reminds me of Hellboy if Hellboy was made of rock and had an evil looking grin. Knack shows signs of potential like when he gets overconfident or brags, but the sequel will have to give him a lot of development to say the least.

Overall, Knack’s a fun enough game, but it does start to be affected by repetition towards the end of its run. After all, you’ll be using the same attacks on the same enemies for quite a while by the end. Luckily, I did enjoy the gameplay quite a bit, but that’s why it is important to have a lot of different attacks so you can defeat enemies in various ways. The story is decent and it was funny at least so that’s good. The heroes did make a lot of questionable calls throughout though so hopefully they’ll be better in a possible sequel. I recommend this game. Even if you’re not a huge fan of it by the end, it’ll be fun for you to compare it to other titles like Crash and Mario. I haven’t played Crash yet so I can’t really comment on whether or not it beats that title at the moment.

Overall 7/10

King of Fighters Maximum Impact Review

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King of Fighters has always lagged way behind Tekken and Street Fighter for me. None of the characters are particularly interesting and it has always felt like a Street Fighter game, but with all of the iconic characters replaced with randoms. I’m sure that later games have helped to give all of them some personality and backstory, but this game definitely doesn’t help their case. I still have a lot of catching up to do with this series though so hopefully the price goes down on some of the originals soon. I went on my big fighting game kick for Christmas, but there will probably be a different theme this year so it could be a while. Well, let’s dive into this title.

First off, one disappointing thing here is the fact that the Arcade Mode is even more bare bones than usual. Characters don’t even get an opening or an ending anymore. That’s essentially the definition of lazy if you ask me. You are only incentivized to play through the game once since every character has the same opening and ending. There is as slight plot at least, but it is still lazy to now give each character something unique. They are all invited to a tournament that is being held by some gangsters. Once you defeat everyone who stands in your way, you defeat the main villain in front of a large crowd and he says that you’ll both meet again…in hell! It’s a pretty hardcore line even if we completely wrecked this guy.

In a way it is good that the characters don’t get a real story though. That’s because your game option settings don’t apply to Arcade Mode so you have to do a best of 3 the entire time. The final level is also very difficult to the point where button mashing simply won’t be effective anymore. You’ll have to end up actually learning the game a bit and even then it should take several tries to finally beat the final boss unless you’re already a pro. I’d rather not imagine myself doing it with every character and I only ended up completing the game with the first two.

The gameplay is your average 2D fighter like with Street Fighter and the other similar games. It does seem like it is very hard to get up in this game though because attacks seem to have very high priority. In the final level of Arcade Mode, forget about even trying to rise. Your opponent will simply slam you back into the turf every single time and his combos can take out half of your life bar or more with a single combo. Something seems off with this and I could see the competitive scene dying instantly for this game. It reminds me of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game for Gamecube. Of course, that game was a blast and had excellent graphics and a solid soundtrack to back it up. It clobbers this game, but that’s another story.

This is still a solid fighting game. It’s why fighters are so much fun. Even if the characters are not all that likable and there is no real story mode to speak of, the vs mode is what really counts here. A good multiplayer mode means instant replay value and this is the kind of game that is perfect for playing at any random time. You can just turn on the PS2 and prepare yourself for some fun games. Of course, it has less replay value if you’re on your own of course. Still, I guess you could have fun fighting the computers for a while.

I’ll give the game some more props for the fact that it actually has a big opening. Back in the day a lot of games skipped this step or barely did anything with it so that was pretty neat. It unfortunately could not get past the trap of including a little fanservice though so that was pretty regrettable. The dialogue and writing is still as clunky as ever, but at this point King of Fighters is known for that so maybe it was partially intentional at the time. Beyond that, the graphics are pretty good. I’d say that they’re certainly above average for this time period and actually look better than the Street Fighter Alpha games. Granted, that may not be saying a whole lot since those games were quite a bit older.

The soundtrack is very solid as well. There is a solid opera esque theme for one of the stages and there are quite a few tunes. The game did a good job of adding in a lot of variety and this really puts Capcom Fighting Evolution to shame surprisingly. This is definitely one of the highlights for King of Fighters so hopefully the future installments will follow suit in this regard. Just give me some more hype music and we’re good.

Overall, Maximum Impact is a worthy spinoff to the main series. I still think that the games could do a better job of making the character likable and motivated. There’s no real reason to pick someone over another character aside from the all important tiers because none of them have any real personality yet. They all seem like tough guys and gals. Everyone seems to share that trait, but they don’t really have anything else to show for it. Terry’s my favorite character, but that’s really because of the name so I’m not totally sure if that counts. There’s not a whole lot to do here besides multiplayer mode, but that should be enough to tide you over. After all, if you’re buying the game, I assume that multiplayer is the reason for your purchase. Hopefully the series will have more of a real arcade mode in the main titles.

Overall 7/10

Capcom Fighting Evolution Review

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Capcom Fighting Evolution is definitely an obscure Capcom crossover. I may have seen the cover once or twice back in the day, but only briefly and I instantly forgot about it. Some of the roster decisions for this game were very odd, but I’m still surprised that it is not more popular. It’s a fun enough game although there is nothing really unique about this title. It just fills the bill as a fighting game and doesn’t try to do anything more with itself.

There is no story mode of course although every character does have an ending which is great. That’s something I used to take for granted in a fighting game, but with some titles not bothering with it anymore, it is fun to see. There are no openings for the characters, but I’ll settle for the endings. This game uses a tag team system so the beauty of this is that you unlock both endings for every time you do Arcade Mode. It allows you to see all of the endings a lot quicker than you would have otherwise.

Normally this is the part where I’d say that there is pretty much no replay value, but Arcade Mode is typically the only thing you expect from a fighting game. That’s still not a great excuse, but multiplayer mode is where you’ll find the replay value at. Find someone to play this with and you’ll have a blast picking from the various characters. The series that are represented here are Street Fighter Alpha, Street Fighter II, Street Fighter III, Red Earth, and Darkstalkers. I have to say that it is a little iffy to have Street Fighter represented three times. Especially when there is one big Capcom franchise left out here. Need I mention which one? The Mega Man franchise!

Capcom has a very bad track record of leaving this franchise out to dry whenever they come out with a big crossover. Mega Man’s absence in Marvel vs Capcom 3 speaks volumes and the fact that Mega Man Volnutt/Trigger made it into Tatsunoko vs Capcom over the other Megamen is also odd. It’s a shame because a Mega Man rep being in the game would have guaranteed 3 more since each franchise got a full block of fighters. Yes, this is definitely a pretty big missed opportunity if you ask me. Another odd character exclusion is Morrigan from Darkstalkers. She’s the face of the franchise and yet she was skipped over. It’s very strange to say the least. I can’t say that I’m a fan of hers at all, but she still beats Felicia, who somehow got to be playable in this one. Also, what about Ken from Street Fighter? Surely he deserved a spot here given his iconic status.

There is also an original character for this game. The mysterious Ingrid, whose abilities are quite lethal. She seems to be a cosmic being who may be above all of these street level fighters, but we’ll need some more appearances to prove that she’s not just all talk. This character does have a lot of potential though and her powers are a lot of fun. We can always use more magical fighters even if they can be a little hard to control at times.

This is a retro fighting game that uses sprites so it is hard to really say how the graphics are. The character models are essentially ripped straight from the respective titles. The models all look pretty good, but they aren’t exactly new either. You won’t really be looking at the sprites much while you’re fighting either since you’ll need your full concentration. Regardless, the graphics definitely aren’t bad. I’d say that they’re totally standard and are up to snuff for this fighting game.

As for the soundtrack, it is good. It’s always fun to hear the Street Fighter themes although the Darktalker/Red Earth ones were very forgettable. In a way, it’s probably good that Street Fighter counted as three different series since it meant that we got more themes from those series although, once again…Mega Man themes would have been beyond hype. Those are the themes that we deserved. Still, the music works for the fighting.

I totally skipped over the actual gameplay angle, but I assume that everyone knows how this plays when I mention the words “Street Fighter” This is a 2D fighting game that is very bread and butter. You can kick, punch, and mix those attacks for various combos and super attacks. Yeah, that’s really all there is too it. This game uses the 2 vs 2 system, which is a blast since I always liked that way to play. My personal favorite is when you don’t die until both of your fighters are gone like Marvel vs Capcom, but any kind of tag team play is still pretty neat. I’m waiting for Super Smash Bros to implement something like that. Now that would be really awesome! Seriously, Super Smash needs to get on that!

Overall, Capcom Fighting Evolution is a fun fighting game. If I was a more dedicated Street Fighter fan then I may be upset at the wasted potential that is here. The character roster is very small and there wasn’t a whole lot of effort put behind the gameplay. The American cover is also pretty sketchy, but that’s more of a nitpick than anything else. It’s really just your standard Street Fighter game with a few broken guest stars. The big dinosaur feels so out of place, but I suppose that’s part of the appeal. It’s like having Sentinel in Marvel vs Capcom 3. It’s hilarious just how big he is. If you like Capcom then I definitely recommend getting it. It may not be fancy, but this is still a crossover. You’re bound to have some fun with it.

Overall 7/10

Tornado Outbreak Review

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Before Star Fox Zero arrives in the mail later I decided to go through one more game. This one had trophies, was on the backburner for a while, and it was a short title. That made it super qualified for this role. It’s a fun game although they definitely could have done more with the overall concept. The game really is over before you know it. The actual campaign only lasted a few hours and was certainly less than I had heard. Ironically it is about as long as Star Fox Zero. This review was originally going to come out before Zero’s, but when the game arrived, it naturally took top priority. No worries though, this game is short, but it is definitely fun.

The story revolves around a guy named Zephyr. He is a living tornado and he is the prince/leader of the Wind Warriors. His mentor is one of the wisest guys ever and reminds Zephyr that they must defeat all of the fire spirits before the Earth is destroyed. Zephyr is glad to help even if he has no real regard for the safety of Earth’s citizens. Still, he is going to have to move fast since the villains are everywhere and the tornadoes are really starting to weaken the Earth’s defenses. Also, Zephyr isn’t being lied too right? That would be too sinister even for the villains…uh oh!

There are 8 worlds like your average Mario game and each one has 3 zones. The first two revolve around the Tornado gimmick that I actually liked quite a bit. You start out as a really weak wind that can only hurl away small objects. The more objects that you absorb, the stronger you become. Eventually you become a rank 10-11 Tornado that can whip away everything in sight. You can then find the Fire Spirits and return to your portal before the time limit is up. Rinse and repeat for Zone 2. In Zone 3, you have to quickly win a Ring Race and then destroy the evil Totem Poles that have been placed in the center. You have to avoid the spotlights as you do this.

I like the concept of gradually getting stronger in a level until you accomplish everything within that level. The only game that I’ve played with a very similar concept would be De Blob, which I also enjoyed quite a bit. There’s something about this style that is simply a blast to play through. Both titles are fairly short so maybe there is some reason why that is the case. Perhaps it is tough to program a lot of levels for this style of the developers thought it could potentially get repetitive. I suppose that would happen if it was too long.

The plot isn’t all that engaging, but I did like the style of the cinematic. It felt very similar to the Sly games to the point where I would consider this a homage. Even the main character’s voice was like Sly’s. The plot may have even been a bit better than Sly’s since plot was never Sly’s strong suit when compared to his two rivals. (Ratchet and Jak) I think they could have done a lot more with Tornado Outbreak’s story though. It is very short, but aside from that the character cast is very small so there isn’t a whole lot of banter. In fact, you end up feeling a little bad for Zephyr’s men.

Sure, they doubt him a lot, but Sly’s always rather short with them. They constantly try to make one liners only to have Zephyr quickly take them back to the mission or tactfully insult them. The mentor tries to talk tough, but he can be a bit annoying and cryptic as well. The main villain was decently cool although he could barely talk and by the end he became your average giant villain who could no longer fight. The Rock and Water allies were all right. Basically, what I’m getting at is that the gameplay should be the selling point of this game rather than the plot even if the actual premise is fairly good.

One issue that is never really brought up in the game is how the Wind Warriors, the heroes of the story, seem to do just as much harm as good. The villains are rocking the planet to its core and will destroy it if they are not stopped, but the heroes should still be careful of how they save the planet. Zephyr and his men essentially raze the countries to the ground as they destroy whole neighborhoods and landmarks. They also destroy all of the animals and humans on board depending on how you look at it. I guess you could say that they are just flinging them away and that they’re all okay thanks to Toon Force, but is that what really happened here? Zephyr mentions in one cutscene that they should all try to help rebuild at some points, but then he’s distracted by the villains and it is never mentioned again. I dunno, it is hard to see Zephyr as an actual hero here and he is more of a lone vigilante than anything else. If not for how “Toon Force” everything is, the whole animal thing would have decimated the score. For the sake of the game and my experience, I’ll say that the tornado did gently throw them all away. Zephyr claims to be a hero so it is the least that he could do.

There is a decent amount of replay value to be found here. I wouldn’t call it a super large amount, but enough to make this game a decently long experience. Once you beat the game, you can go and replay all of the older levels with your new power ups so you can free the Rock Golems and the Water Spirits. There are currently no real collectible guides out there so you’ll have to use trial and error as you explore the levels for that shiny Platinum trophy. I can’t say that this game is high on my list to Platinum since it seems rather tricky, but I got a decent amount of trophies so I’m pretty satisfied.

I can’t say that I was very impressed with the soundtrack. It was a little lackluster, but not outright bad either. It was just pretty nonexistent the whole time and typically got drowned out by the actual gameplay. It is satisfying to just swallow up everything on the stage though. The graphics look nice. The cutscenes seemed to be hand drawn and the character models in the levels were good. Nothing awe inspiring, but certainly good enough.

Overall, Tornado Outbreak is a solid game. It’s a little shorter than you would expect, but unlike Star Fox Zero, the game is only about 10 dollars or less. It is certainly worth the price and this is a good game to add to your collection. The gameplay is quite unique in a world where many games are very similar at this point. It is hard to come up with new gameplay styles that work, but Outbreak pulls it off. A sequel to this game would be fun, but if not, maybe he’ll be in PS All Stars 2..heh heh.

Overall 7/10

Star Fox Guard Review

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After the interesting Star Fox Zero experience, I walked into this game with slightly leveled expectations. Luckily, Guard accomplishes what it set out to do and plays out like a fun little minigame adventure. It is similar to the Captain Toad game in the way that it doesn’t feel like a full title, but is still fun. It even has a little plot which is always fun to have and there are actually some online features which add to the replay value. Need I also mention that the game’s main story is longer than Zero’s campaign? Zero took 2 hours and 52 minutes while this one took 3 hours and 9 minutes. Close of course, but Guard took the win here.

You play as an original character who has been hired to help defend some mines. Slippy and Grippy offer some “helpful” advice once in a while, but in the end your skills are the only thing keeping the alien robots from conquering your precious metals. Are you up to the task? There are 50 Story Mode missions with there being 10 per world. Each world has a cutscene for the very first level and for the last one, which is typically a big boss fight. There are actually one or two cinematic cutscenes as we see Team Star Fox arrive to lend a hand. It is always pretty hype to see the main characters. “Fox here” never gets old as Fox’s opening line to the other characters. I still don’t understand why he was so quiet in Zero for most of the game though. In most titles you would expect some banter, but Fox likes to just tune out the villains I suppose.

The gameplay is fairly original. You have the Gamepad for the aerial display of your cameras and the TV lets you actually see what is happening. Your 12 cameras all have laser guns inside of them and you have to blast away all of the enemy robots before they can reach your generator. If they hit it even once, then it is all over for you. Each stage is similar to a Pac Man maze and the generator is always in the center. You can choose to start the level with the default camera layout or move them around to your own preferences. Typically I recommend moving them a little since the A.I. intentionally leaves a blind spot or two, but you should be fine either way. The game isn’t all that hard, but does require a good amount of concentration.

As you progress through the game, you’ll get level ups, which unlock new cameras. For example, you’ll have a camera that can stop time and one that can lock onto a few opponents at once. These really come in handy and especially the time slow one. That one is almost overpowered against bosses if you ask me. The time slow lasts for so long and recharges so quickly! Level ups also allow you to access more bonus levels. There are 50 levels total and I made it to 20 by the end of the game. You’ll definitely need to grind a little to make it to 50, but it should be a fairly painless endeavor.

Surprisingly, the Gamepad is actually utilized rather well in this game. The rest of Nintendo’s titles should take some notes here. The Gamepad screen shows you the cameras as mentioned earlier, but you still need the TV screen to accurately shoot at the enemies. It’s not tedious and it doesn’t feel forced. This gimmick is something that the Gamepad can naturally make use of and while you can theoretically complete the levels with only one screen, using both of them helps a great deal.

I like the look of the graphics. They are at the same level as Star Fox Zero so even though Guard is really a minigame, it looks and feels like a big budget title. There aren’t a whole lot of character models and levels so the ones that are there can have quite a lot of detail. It’s all very flashy and the cinematics that show up from time to time look quite good as well. As far as the music goes, it is all decently catchy I guess. None of the themes will be all that memorable, but we have some good heroic themes and some tense ones as well. It helps complete the experience.

As for the villains, I enjoyed the boss designs. The first boss was a King and he fit into the lore pretty well as Mario 64 had quite a few of those as well. There was a giant bird that was intense and the final boss was a blast to fight as well. It is tough to design a boss like this, but there is nothing more thrilling than facing off against a boss and just barely managing to take the win. That’s how the final boss of Guard was as I just barely beat him, only to find that he had another form. I kept on clutching the win through his 4 forms and it always felt satisfying. The bosses weren’t “cheap” or artificially difficult. They were just right.

Guard also has a good amount of replay value at its disposal. Aside from the 50 main levels, there are an additional 50 bonus missions which are harder than the story based ones. They will test your mastery over the game. There is a level system as well with the highest level being 50. It’s always fun to get some level ups and I could see that being a good incentive to replay levels until you max out. There is even some online capabilities which always helps out a little. That’s because there is one aspect of the game that I haven’t even touched on yet.

You can build your own levels sort of like Mario Maker. You don’t touch the actual design or layout as far as I know…although it is certainly possible. I sorta skipped the tutorial for building a level and haven’t gotten around to making one yet. I uploaded a tutorial level which is actually doing well online, but I need to sit down and really try to make something glorious one of these days. You can also go online and play other people’s levels which is always fun and competitive. You even have a global rank sort of like Street Fighter which is awesome. The downside is that when someone defeats your level you end up losing points. I’m not crazy about that and would prefer if each side (Building and Playing) had different ranks. I suppose you could just decide to not make a stage if you’re worried about that, but it’s not really a big deal. Just a slight suggestion for Nintendo.

Overall, Star Fox Guard is a blast. It remembered the most important quality that all games have to possess in order to be successful. Guard has the fun factor. It’s the kind of game that you can easily just boot up and start playing at any time. There is a lot of replay value here so I would actually say that it’s worth more than Star Fox Zero although neither are worth the 60. Even with Zero as a combo pack, I don’t think this is all that worth your money for 60, but 40 would be another story. It is certainly a blast though so you don’t have to worry about completely regretting your purchase. If you get the game look up Terry20 and prepare yourself for a dangerous level!

Overall 7/10

Rocky Review

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You guys playing Star Fox Zero right now? Well, I’m afraid that you’re missing out on an underrated gem! The Rocky films were all a blast back in the day. They still have the best montage scenes in a live action film and it is not even close. The movies just knew how to get you excited for a fight and the soundtrack was superb. So, when I found out that they made a Rocky game for the Gamecube, I knew that I had to go pick it up. If handled right, this could be a winner. The gameplay is actually a lot of fun and the story mode actually adapts all of the films, which is really impressive. It is not a perfect title by any means, but it is definitely worth the purchase.

If you aren’t familiar with the movies, it is about a guy named Rocky. He goes from being a local underdog to the world champ. He avenges his best friend who was destroyed by a Russian boxer and then he also wins in a street fight. Your job in the game is to crush all challengers. There are 20 levels total so roughly 4 per film. Each film gets one Big fight, which gets its own cutscene and everything. That was always pretty fun and actually in a humorous way at times with the voice acting. Giving a cutscene to some of the other fights would have helped to break the monotony that the rest of the story had. After all, let’s face it, it isn’t all that exciting to fight yet another random challenger after a while.

I will give the game some props for fully embracing the repetition though. Each fight plays out in exactly the same way. First we get to hear each fighter’s theme. Then they are introduced and the fight begins. Afterwards, you get to relisten to the victor’s theme one more time. It is very entertaining. You can also beat most of the levels while only using two attacks, but don’t let your guard down. The difficulty will randomly jump up at some points before heading back down. I ended up losing 2-3 fights, but then I would proceed to teach my opponent a lesson.

The gameplay is what you would expect from a classic boxing game. You have an array of punches and moves that you can use here. High, Low, and Medium blows. You can faint and move around to dodge. I never figured out how to block, but I’m sure that there is a button for it. There must be right? Once you take out the opponent’s health bar, they have 10 seconds to try and get back up. Usually the CPU will get up twice in a set at the most. Maybe a third time if the fighter is tough. If you knock an opponent down three times in a single round, then it is an auto win for you. Getting up on your own is a lot tougher though, so good luck trying to rise 3 times.

As hinted at earlier, you will hear a lot of victory themes and various popular songs throughout the game. It gives the title a certain amount of hype. In the actual matches you are unlikely to notice the music. Thus, I’d say that the soundtrack is good, but not great. Graphically, it is a similar story. This certainly cannot be called great, nor can it be called bad. The game did a fine job of recreating the characters from the films. Each attack was designed well and I didn’t really notice any attack cloning here. Of course, the attacks are all very similar as it is. Character wise there are definitely some clones, but they make sense. Having a version of Rocky for each film was certainly genius and paves the way for crossover fights that we could only dream of back in the day. I think the graphics definitely could have been a little brighter, but I still give them a passing grade.

The campaign is fairly short so you may be wondering what replay value is available. Well, there is essentially nothing extra in the campaign so multiplayer is your only option. If you find someone who enjoys the game as well, then you will have quite a lot of replay value here. On your own you may have fun with it for a few hours, but ultimately it won’t last. I suggest buying this game for a good price. Of course, quality does defy quantity right? Not every title can pull a Super Smash Bros and accomplish both.

Overall, Rocky is a fun game. It is best to think of this one as your average popcorn fun rental. It is the kind of game I could picture someone renting for the weekend to play for a little while. That probably isn’t an option anymore though, so you gotta buy it or forget the title. Faced with those options, I’d recommend grabbing this title. It is a good game even if it won’t last you all that long. It is definitely a special treat for Rocky fans with how accurate the whole thing is. The final boss even feels a little special since it is a real battle as opposed to an official boxing match. Train your skills and then go on to become the world champ in this title. Embrace the experience because we may never get another Rocky game ever again. A truly somber thought.

Overall 7/10

Madden Mobile Review

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I don’t play mobile games all that often, but when I do you can bet that I take the experience as far as it can go. Pokemon Shuffle was a FTP game that was a lot of fun for a while and I probably did around 50 levels before deciding to go away from it. It’s hard to say how long I played Madden Mobile, but it was for quite a while. It’s very fun and well done for the most part, but eventually its limitations wil start to show. That is the fate of all mobile games at some point I’d say unless they start to actually have endings or are some kind of multiplayer experience like Super Smash Flash. I’m not positive, but I believe that I read somewhere about the data being deleted at some point so you’d start the next season fresh. Hopefully that’s not the case and the data is still here at the moment so I won’t deduct any points there. Just keep in mind that if this is true, it really does hurt the overall score.

I found out about Madden Mobile through a commercial and quickly figured that it would be a fun game. The gameplay as you would expect is a replica of the normal Madden games, but drastically simplified. You can choose from a variety of kicks and passes as well as go for the occasional field goal. You can also play defense, which really makes this feel like a complete game. There are 2 different control types to be found here. I choose the control stick type to further the realism of the simulation compared to the real Madden. It was fairly smooth and as this is apparently a new feature, it was handled very well. Once in a while your stride would go past the stick, which would lead to an unfortunate play, but that was rare once you got the hang of it.

There are several modes to be found here. The main one is Season mode, which pits you against 16 opponents and then the Playoffs start. It’s very easy, but a good way to learn the controls, earn money/exp and knock out some achievements. I had fun clearing a season. There is also the daily challenges, which will give you all of the rewards as Season mode, but in smaller chunks. They also cost more energy points to use so they are less efficient. Of course, The card rewards may be worth it at times since a lot of the daily challenges are special events towards the end of the series. You will want to grab as many level ups as possible before that happens to have more energy at your disposal.

Each energy replenishes itself in half an hour. Each activity will likely cost 3-4 points with super special ones costing 10. I got over level 20 so energy wasn’t a huge factor by the end, but this is where the FTP part comes in. If you want to just keep on playing the game instead of constantly stopping to let the energy come back, you will have to cave in and just pay out some money. Obviously, I’d personally recommend just waiting it out. As it stands, I did form a very impressive team by the end and made it quite far.

I also did well in the Head to Head mode where you battle other users. I moved up a few ranks and gradually just stopped when I stopped playing the game. The ranks are easy to climb through so you can easily get to the final rank if you want that achievent. Especially considering that I didn’t start the game until around half of the season was already over. It’s too bad that you can’t actually fight someone in real time though. Instead you alternate drives and whoever scored the most by the end wins.

The graphics are fairly good. It’s a mobile game, not a AAA title so don’t expect Madden console graphics here, but the animations are clear. The soundtrack can be a little sad though. There are barely any tunes to be found and more effort certainly could have been placed here. Sport games aren’t known for their great soundtracks, but Mario Strikers pulled it off.

Unfortunately, the servers are not all that great. You will find yourself being disconnectes from the game many times and the servers will refuse to operate at other points as well. It happened a lot more than I would have expected so that was a disappointment. Part of the point about having a game like Madden Mobile is that you can play it on the go or when you have a few minutes of empty time. If the servers aren’t working once again, then it makes the situation a little less ideal.

Overall, Madden Mobile was a fun mobile game. Apparently it continues to improve year after year so I look forward to seeing where it goes from here. I still hope that the data isn’t deleted for the next season though. The exp and level ups should just be a sign of dedication from the hardcore Madden fans who have been sticking around with the series for quite a while. The hours will go by very quickly as you play the title, although eventually the nature of this FTP game will start to be a little taxing. You’ll be less willing to wait until your energy replenishes and you will want to just play a console Madden. I got burned out towards the end although it’s been long enough that I could easily get back into it. It’s easy to see how these mobile games can get to addicting. You’re technically doing the same tasks over and over, yet the game never stops making it feel fresh. It’s hard to describe exactly what makes it so appealing, but either way my Madden Mobile experience has come to an end, but yours may just be starting!

Overall 7/10

Shovel Knight Review

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I haven’t played a whole lot of indie games over the years. Typically, most of them don’t get a physical release, which essentially means Game Over as I don’t step into the digital realm very often. Shovel Knight certainly got very popular though so it’s not too surprising that it got such a wide release. For a while there, people were completely convinced that he was going to be playable in Super Smash Bros. That may not have ultimately happened, but it did help his popularity soar to even greater heights. The game is fun and it’s a call back to the classic Mega Man games from the good ole days. Those were always a lot of fun and ditto for Shovel Knight. There’s quite a lot of replay value contained within to back up the short story.

You play as a Knight who wields a shovel and whose teammate was seemingly destroyed. He decided to retire to a land of peace for a while, but eventually realizes that it’s time to avenge Shield Knight. Shovel Knight sets out, but the rest of the Knights from the round table intend to stop him along with the mysterious Black Knight. Will Shovel Knight’s determination be enough for him to vanquish all of his foes or will he ultimately have to use a tactical retreat?

Shovel Knight is a hero through and through so he doesn’t destroy the opponents that he defeats. On the contrary, he simply lets them think about their follies while on the ground and he moves onto the next area. Towards the end, he’s had just about enough of his “friends” and leaves them hanging from a castle. They eventually get up, but Shovel Knight couldn’t be bothered to stop and help. These guys are rather ungrateful and not reasonable so you can understand why Shovel Knight decided to use the extra minutes to stop the villain. The Knights can take care of themselves.

Let’s talk more about the gameplay. Instead of a Mega Buster, you’ve got a Shovel that you can whack opponents with. As you progress through the game, you’ll get magic spells like a fire blast or a super punch. You can also upgrade the shovel so that it can fire mini shockwaves and power slashes by holding the slash button. Watch out for enemy attacks though because like the old Mega Man games they will put you in hit stun for a while and during that time you are certainly very vurlable to pits. I died quite a few times that way. You can also obtain different armors and each one has strengths and weaknesses so you have to decide which one to ultimately use. I decided to use the economically friendly one to save on gold. When you die, you drop gold and that gold can really come in handy.

It should be noted that you can’t really die here. When you die, you’re taken to the last check point and you can seemingly keep trying until you eventually succeed. That did come in handy at the end of the game since I lost to the final form of the final boss and beating the first form again would have been a little iffy. It’s not a super long boss like some of the other games that I’ve played over the years, but saving some time and just throwing me back into the final form is definitely great. Not being able to really die can be an issue for some, but you do lose gold so there are still some consequences and the game isn’t super easy or anything like that. I expect you to definitely die a few times during your initial play through. Probably more than just “a few” times as well.

The graphics are solid. The game did a fine job of emulating the retro games as you can see above. The character designs are solid and the models look clear in the game. Black Knight is definitely the most interesting character visually although the final boss looks epic as well. I’d also give a nice thumbs up to the soundtrack for going the extra mile here. There were many themes present in the game and each one was suitable for the stages and the combat. Each theme was quick and you know how I don’t care for soft/quiet songs quite as much.

The ending would definitely have been super tragic if not for the after credits scene so make sure that you stick around for it. I’d say that it’s definitely a good thing that they added it since the first ending was unexpected, but also just a little sad for both of the Knights. That would have been a pretty big failure for them. Still, it didn’t happen so they did good. I would have liked to have seen some more of the “wanderers” though. The characters seemed pretty neat. They were all fairly mysterious and we only have a vague sense of their ambitions and goals. At the very least, we know that they are all good fighters.

There’s certainly already quite a bit of lore in the game. I don’t mind if they don’t end up exploring a lot of this, but those mystery characters need to return. After that, I guess we’ll need some new villains so I’m wondering who will show up. I’m assuming that we will probably get a sequel at some point and if the series is still going strong in a few years, Shovel Knight really could make his debut into the Super Smash universe.

This is one of those games that is very easy to quickly plug and play. You can get into the gameplay very easily and earning Gold is always a lot of fun since you have good things to spend it on. Of course, that won’t be a factor soon since I only have one armor left, but it was always a blast going for the jewels. As I mentioned earlier, there is a lot of replay value here. You’ll want to go back and get all of the music notes, which should take quite a long while. Talking to everyone in all of the villages will help you get trophies and naturally the Platinum in and of itself will take quite a long time. Some trophies are incredibly difficult like beating the game in under 90 minutes or beating it without dying. The company went all out for this Platinum and it’s definitely all but unachieveable for me. Eventually you could get all of the trophies, but it would take many hours.

Meanwhile, the game also brings the DLC pack along with it where you play as another Knight and do Story Mode again, but it’s decently changed from the first time around. The level designs have been altered and seeing everything from another perspective is interesting, but I would have liked something a bit more like adding in more items or something. I haven’t embarked on this DLC yet and will probably do it someday, but not in the near future. I beat the game in one nice long batch, but I imagine that doing it a second time would be a lot harder depending on how good or bad Plague Knight is.

Overall, I’d recommend giving Shovel Knight a purchase. If you enjoyed those old Nintendo classics or the Mega Man games, then this is right up your ally. The developers even went the extra mile and provided an actual plot through the word bubbles. You certainly didn’t see that in the oldest games from back in the day and it’s a good way of quickly using some modern elements without messing up the vibe of the title. With good graphics and a solid soundtrack as well, there are no real negatives to be found here. A mild issue could be that the game is a little on the short side, but as always, that does typically work out well for me. The game certainly doesn’t drag this way and most of the old games were very short like this one. Shield Knight still got a big team up with Shovel Knight to end it all and that was pretty climactic. The dream fights were also pretty intense. You better make that catch!

Overall 7/10