Category Archives: 8 Star Games

Batman: Arkham Origins Review

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The Batman Arkham games have definitely been a blast and so now it’s time to get back in there with another one! Arkham Origins is a great addition to the series and easily has some of the longest cinematic battles within the series. The fights with Deathstroke and Joker were good examples of QTEs mixed in with live combat. It’s all aged incredibly well so this is a game that is very strong on all sides.

The general plot involves Black Mask putting a bounty on Batman’s head. It’s a rather large sum and so now Gotham’s most dangerous villains are all after him. Batman is fairly early in his career and yet he will have to deal with a wide assortment of crazy villains. Finding Black Mask will not be easy, particularly since GCPD is also after him at full speeds. Commissioner Gordan is not exactly impressed with Batman’s approach after all.

Right away the gameplay will feel familiar to Arkham fans. The action is heavily centered around parrying. You want to be dishing out damage but also keeping an eye out for nearby attacks. If you time your parry right, you will block the hit and land a counter. You can also finish off an opponent but it will leave you vulnerable to attack. The benefit is that they will stay down and otherwise they will get up several times during the fight. So there is a lot of strategy here right out of the gate.

You also have an array of gadgets to help you out like smoke bombs and such but honestly they are sometimes more work than they’re worth. I preferred to just jump in each time and start the combos. I did die quite a few times though so perhaps this wasn’t always the right move. The game has a kind of old school level of difficulty. It’s tough enough where you will be dying quite a few times but the checkpoints are fairly close by so you never feel like you have lost a ton of progress. I would say it is really balanced. When you die, it’s always to a very avoidable mistake on your part.

What will really test your creativity are the stealth sections of the game. You often have to find ways to isolate a bunch of the villains and take them down one at a time. At the same time, the game does allow you to go and fight them if you want but the bullets deal massive damage. So this way you have some freedom to challenge the villains in whatever your preferred option is. I like that it’s not the kind of game where you instantly die as soon as the villains see you.

The graphics are really great and have definitely aged well. The art style nails a realistic look without making the mistake of trying to simulate a live action movie. As a result it is still stylistic enough to get the job done. The soundtrack is a bit more on the forgettable side though. I would have liked some kind of fast paced battle theme for some of the battles but that wasn’t really going to be the case in this one.

If I have any slight issue with the game, it’s that the loading times can be a bit long. When you boot up the game, there is no way to skip all of the company announcements. Then when you die, you have to watch a fairly extensive cinematic of the villain making fun of you. It’s not ultra long or anything but when you die a lot, it certainly begins to feel that way. It’s a nice touch that the villain mocking you will change based on the level but I’d prefer a quicker restart.

There is a lot of replay value here in getting the PS3 trophies to aim for a Platinum. It seems like a rather difficult set of trophies to get, or at least a very time intensive endeavor. One day I may go for it but this doesn’t seem like the highest one on my list for that reason. You are definitely getting a lot of bang for your buck here though. You can also unlock different costumes for after you beat the game, although low key I would have liked to have had those sooner.

There is also a progression system where you can use your level ups to unlock moves and such. The EXP system is maybe a little too generous though because you will have all of your moves maxed out before the end of the game. There are gadget upgrades you can do next but not without doing some kind of side mission so I never actually got around to that part.

Each of the boss fights have their own unique mechanics so you will be glad to hear that there are no recycled fights. Each one also incorporates some level of QTE into it. It’s not exactly surprising, the games have always been really good at that. Like I said before, this is a very high quality title that clearly had a lot of effort put into it. The main campaign may be fairly short but that is true for most of the games in this series. The replay value helps to counter balance that with how much more content is available.

Overall, Arkham Origins is a great title that really avoided making any big mistakes. You could tell that some of the platforming could be a bit clunky next to Arkham City but just on a relative level. If you look at the game on its own then it is as smooth as it needs to be. If you don’t own this game yet then you definitely ought to change that. This would also make for a pretty good movie one day. Now there is only one Arkham game left in my marathon adventures so we’ll see how that one ends up playing out.

Overall 8/10

Immortals Fenyx Rising Review

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This is one of those games that I passed by in the store 100 times. It’s clear that Ubisoft made a whole lot of copies for this one and unfortunately it doesn’t look like it panned out. You can usually get the game for about $5 which isn’t what you want to see for a big budget title. The writing definitely tends to be a big miss but the gameplay itself is really stellar. So this is a game with a lot of ups and downs but ultimately the gameplay is able to keep this one at a high level.

The game starts with Poseidon begging Zeus to free him from his endless torment. Zeus basically laughs at the idea and he’s busy because all of the gods have been taken down by a villain known as Typhos. Zeus is the last one ready to fight but Poseidon tells him the story of a mortal who may be able to tip the scales of battle. Her name is Fenyx and she is on a quest to save all of the gods. Perhaps if Zeus is amused by this story, he will free Poseidon. Maybe…he tends to shift with his moods at random points. Poseidon will have to risk it all here though and Fenyx is his only chance. She will have to harness all of her abilities to win this one.

So when it comes to the writing, this is definitely a game that isn’t taking itself very seriously. There are jokes in every other line and aside from Fenyx, all the other characters are total jerks. By the time the game does transition into being a more serious title, it’s just a little too late. There are definitely some lines that will get a chuckle out of you but also a lot that will have you rolling your eyes. Your best bet to enjoy the story is if you just really like that kind of annoying character. A character who complains nonstop but has absolute power so everyone just has to roll with it.

The game doesn’t shy away from all the darker parts of the old gods either. Zeus and the others are all basically evil with how many crimes they did so it’s hard to root for them. Typhos may be less sinister as he’s just evil in a basic destroy the world kind of way. Zeus and the others are busy torturing people for life so it’s a little hard to be worse than that.

Like I said, the gameplay is why you are really here though. It has a large hub world like Breath of the Wild, but you can glide at high speeds and have a more generous stamina bar. It lets you navigate the world a little smoother than Link. There is also a ton of content here with the main game being around 20 hours long and the bonus content will probably take you another 10 hours or so on top of that. Not a bad deal for your buck right?

The gameplay is intuitive enough where I had a lot of fun exploring and completing side missions. Not purely for the fun of it but because each power up makes a solid difference. The collectibles expand your health bar, potion inventory, stamina, and attack power. Even with all of those power ups, I still lost my initial attempt against the final boss which shows just how powerful he was. The game never gets absurdly difficult but it will give you a fair challenge. It’s not the kind of game you can just beat with your eyes closed.

The combat is all in 3D so picture any 3D action title. You have your sword, an axe, and a bow to shoot arrows with. I used axes for 90% of the game as they hit harder than swords and can also stun enemies. They are a bit slower but that’s fine. You can roll to dodge enemy attacks or parry them. I never tried parrying in this game because dodging felt a whole lot more natural but it’s worth noting that it is an option. So you want to keep it all in mind.

The game has enough customization where you can really have a very different gameplay style than the next player. Do you go aggressive or focus on parrying? The choice is really yours here. Then the puzzles come in a wide range of different options. They can sometimes be a bit too unclear on what you’re supposed to do but for the most part they aren’t bad. This game is probably the first time I’ve seen a puzzle rush as opposed to a boss rush. I was definitely not expecting that.

The graphics are pretty solid here. The artstyle isn’t my favorite but on the whole the game is clear. I only encountered two glitches and both were purely artistic ones so it’s not like losing save data or something. The soundtrack is more on the generic side though. None of the tracks were particularly impressive and you will forget them as soon as you put the game down.

That’s why the game is fully dependent on the gameplay here. There are a bunch of quality of life features here as well like quick saving anywhere, fast travel, and a super detailed map. I would like it if you could refine the map a bit more in terms of limiting what you want to appear but that’s me being a little greedy. This is still more than what most other games have. The clear progression and really fun action gameplay makes for a dynamite combo. I think you could pull off just about any kind of story with this gameplay because I’m just going to be addicted to the combat. This game was a good example of that as it is a very weak story compared to pretty much any game I’ve played in a long time and yet the experience was still a lot of fun. Not fun enough for me to buy the dlc though.

Overall, This is definitely a pretty unique game. I can definitely say that for better or worse I will certainly remember every bit of it for a very long time. The goo and the bad. I wouldn’t be running to grab a sequel but I certainly wouldn’t avoid it either. If you’re looking for a solid action game with a ton of content to play through, then this is a good one to check out. It will really test all of your abilities.

Overall 8/10

Pokemon Legends: Z-A Review

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It’s time for the latest big Pokemon adventure. I was definitely hyped to get this one as soon as they announced it. At this point Pokemon is just one of those games that you have to get right away. It may not always have the life or death stakes that you will see from other big games but the pure gameplay and quality of life features are always on point. This game is incredibly smooth and while you may run into the occasional issue, I can recommend it without any reservations. It’s really just a lot of fun all the way through.

The game starts off with the main character getting off the train into a new town. His luggage is stolen but a girl helps him get it back and asks if he wants to join her team. She helps keep the city safe while working at a struggling hotel. The manager, AZ is a guy who is said to be 3000 years old and is rather mysterious. Still, this means the main character has a place to live and immediately has 3 friends so it’s a pretty good deal. He agrees to help and gradually rises up the ranks. Still, there is something mysterious about the tower in the middle of the city. Terry may be uncovering a mystery that leads to disaster!

Now to be clear, around 90% of the game is just happy slice of life adventures. If you’re looking for a super epic game, this isn’t really it. Although the climax does end up being pretty intense so I have to give it some credit there. The game also has a good amount of callbacks to the original XY games and the continuity is pretty strong. I wasn’t expecting much in that area so it was a pretty nice bonus. Also while the game isn’t particularly difficult, the climax did raise the level for the opponents quite a bit. I ended the game around level 80 and that felt right for an adventure like this.

The main campaign took me around 20 hours and there is a short post game that would probably add a few more. You’ve got a good amount of content for your dollar here. Completing the Pokedex and all of the challenges will probably take a little time as well although probably not a ton. The game keeps the recent addition to the games where every member of the party gets EXP at the same time which helps a lot. You can also earn screws to permanently increase the exp boost and other passive effects.

I ended up getting enough screws for most of the passive effects. There are also about 140 side missions, I beat maybe 20 of those. They’re mostly all really fast and easy so you can have fun going through those. The most important thing here is that the game is just a lot of fun to play. It’s why you can even go out of your way to play the bonus content because it’s very easy to access. I didn’t come close to 100% or anything like that but I certainly had more fun exploring and doing bonus content than in other games. It just ended up feeling natural.

Now when it comes to the gameplay, this is a full real time adventure. So when you call the Pokemon out, you can have it use any of the 4 moves. There is no PP or energy meter this time so you can spam the attacks after the cooldown is over. This is fun but it does mean that the game is way less strategic than usual. Just spam your attacks until you win. Potions and revives are dirt cheap so you can keep on healing your Pokemon until you win. It’s why you should rarely lose here. The only time you may lose is if you let your guard down and let the Pokemon attack you directly. You have a health bar of your own but you can’t see the progress of it so sometimes you will die when you thought you had more health.

Occasionally your Pokemon will attack a wall by mistake or something like that but otherwise I didn’t really encounter many glitches. At times if there are too many Pokemon, the game can’t load them all so they teleport out of nowhere but these instances are few and far between. While the game may not be the most strategic, I still had a lot of fun battling. That’s a good thing since you will have to defeat well over 200-300 opponents over the course of the story. Many fights are over in less than a minute though so I have to underscore how quick they are.

Meanwhile the graphics are pretty solid. The game looks good even if it’s not quite at 2025 level. It looks like a game you may have played on the PS3 at some point. Nintendo isn’t worried about graphics though, they’re here to hit you with intense gameplay and they succeed on that front. The soundtrack is also way better than you may have expected. The songs have a lot of pop to them and there is a large amount of variety. Various bosses have their own theme which is really nice since lately you are stuck with just a general boss theme.

As you play through the game, you will have more and more areas where you can engage in a little platforming. It’s pretty fun and a good way to get more items. The world has an abundance of rare candies and screws to trade for more power ups. They even seem to be unlimited but I could be wrong about that. Either way the game is set up so that it’s very easy to level up. This allows you to switch up your party if you want to. For the most part I didn’t do much switching as I get attached to my main fighters but it wouldn’t set you back much if you did. Of course I recommend saving your rare candies as long as possible since each one is a guaranteed level up so you get the best bang for your buck if you wait until near the end in order to snag it.

Overall, This was a great game. I do get the concerns about the company phoning in the effort to an extent. It’s clear that this wasn’t a super high budget game and the lack of voice acting is still disturbing. That being said, it’s a lot of fun to play and at the end of the day that is the most important part for any video game. It never felt like the story was dragging on for me and there was no point where I just wanted to put it down. I could easily keep on marathoning it for a long time and I have to give the company a lot of credit there. The gameplay itself is really tight and that makes up for having a smaller world/cheaping out on different areas. I’ll still be eagerly awaiting the next Pokemon game as soon as it comes out!

Overall 8/10

Donkey Kong Bananza Review

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It’s time to look at the new DK game that came out recently. I knew that I needed to get this one as soon as possible because it was really going to put the Switch 2 on the map. There aren’t too many destruction games that come out either so that was another reason to pick it up. I can safely say that this was a really good game as well. Playing through it just feels like a lot of fun and it’s really something that Nintendo is super good at doing. They always bring in that fun factor which is super important to any title.

The game follows a character named DK who works in the mines for bananas. One day a sentient rock shows up and it turns out that her true identity is Pauline. A mysterious group led by a villain named Void Kong are after her. She has some kind of special ability that makes her a big target for these guys and DK agrees to help her get to the planet’s core. There is something there that can grant wishes and her wish is to go home. DK also has a wish, he wants lots of bananas. Together the two of them will dive through the planet and pass a great many number of countries. Will they be able to pull this off?

The game is playing it fast and loose on what exactly is happening here. Why is Pauline a kid and how does this work in the timeline? The answer I like is that this is a hard reboot and is serving as essentially a DK origin story as well as a prequel to Mario Odyssey. It works really well when you look at it that way even if the timeline will still have various questions for you. Ah well, we’re playing more for the gameplay than the story as this is a Nintendo title. DK is not quite as serious as Mario so you can expect DK to be goofing off a lot and getting distracted by bananas. Fortunately Pauline is here to mainly keep him on task.

None of the new villains are all that good but we still get a super good climax regardless. Also while the game is a cakewalk for a good chunk of the adventure, the final boss is legitimately difficult. Not in a cheesy way either but in a very well developed boss battle that forces you to use your various abilities to their full potential. The boss battle certainly took me several tries to defeat and even now I feel like there has to be a better way of dealing damage than what I was doing the whole time. Make sure you don’t slack on your damage upgrades, that’s all I gotta say there.

I do appreciate the skill tree and how many different areas there are to power up. It ensures that you can really be getting a whole lot stronger as you play the game and also makes you prioritize what you are doing. If you really can’t get past a level, you can always go back and earn some more bananas. You should naturally get a whole lot of bananas by beating the game but there are over 700 throughout the game so there are tons of bonus levels and challenges to play to get them all. There are several other kinds of collectibles as well like different buttons and amulets that you can use towards clothes and other items.

The game has an incredible amount of replay value thanks to all of the content. The main campaign is less than 10 hours but the collectibles will likely triple or even 4X that amount by the time you’re done with it. Fortunately the game has a good amount of quality of life features on this, like letting you see the secrets on the map by paying a fee and also giving you a wide range scanner. It ensures that the game won’t feel tedious or anything as you are going through it. Instead, it will remain as a super fun experience the whole time as you go through the game.

The gameplay also lets you feel really powerful since almost anything can be destroyed. You can punch your way through any object and then you unlock various forms with abilities of their own. One of the big ones is the time slow with the snake and you get this near the very end of the game. It really comes in handy and of course flying is really good for skipping some of the puzzles near the end of the game. Use each transformation strategically and you will be just fine.

It’s always fun to run into an old face like Grumpy or Diddy in the game. Look out for the characters when they appear and make sure to say hi. It’ll definitely be worth your while. Meanwhile the graphics are definitely super good. The level designs look really solid and each level is so large. The colors are striking throughout and you’re never confused on what is going on. Then you have the soundtrack which is a lot better than I would have dared hope. The first Bonanza theme is the highlight of the game. I’ve heard it a ton of times and it’s really super great. It’s a catchy theme that gets you right into the action. Pauline definitely had real talent here.

So in the end there are really a lot of things to be happy about within the game and I don’t really have any big negatives. I do think it would have been nice for DK to have been a little more serious when it counted. So as a small issue I would say he was super underwhelming the whole time. Still….it is DK we’re talking about so it’s not like I should be all that surprised. Pauline is one of the few kids I’ve seen in a game like this that was not annoying though so I give her full props here. That can be a tough challenge.

Overall, DK Bonanza is a great game. Nintendo really did a good job with this one and it feels so creative. I would definitely be down for more destruction type games like this one. It is surely a genre that has a ton of potential within it. I’m sure other companies could mess it up but Nintendo just laid out the blueprint. There are no tedious moments, no times where the game gets randomly unbalanced, etc. Every minute you are playing the game is a minute that you are having fun. The controls are super smooth after all and you always feel like you are fully in control. If you don’t have this game yet then you should definitely change that. Nintendo has set the bar rather high here but they’re always a company that continues to climb higher and higher. The game should keep you plenty busy working towards that true ending as well so it won’t be going anywhere.

Overall 8/10

Gotham Knights Review

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Batman has definitely had quite a few top tier titles over the years. When you think of Batman you tend to think of the best level of comic book games. This one didn’t quite get the same acclaim as the big Arkham titles but at the same time I’d say it does hold up. There is a whole lot to do within the game even outside of the story and so the replay value really hits hard. I would say it sacrifices a bit of polish for overall content and of course that won’t always be seen as a positive so I suppose it’s a bit of a case by case kind of thing.

The game starts with Batman taking some heavy injuries against Ra’s and is forced to settle for a draw as he blows up the Batcave. With Batman dead, the rest of Gotham’s heroes have to suit up and defend the city. Batgirl, Nightwing, Robin, and Red Hood will have to team up for this one. They find out that Batman was looking into a crazy conspiracy involving an organization that controls Gotham from the shadows. This was such a big secret that it cost the Dark Knight his life, so his successors must solve it or die trying. This won’t be easy, but they understand the risks.

The gameplay is your classic 3D brawler. You have a lot of different attacks up your sleeve and will also be dodging a whole lot in order to counter blows. One thing I was surprised about was the lack of a block button. Dodging is your complete form of counter attacking here which is different from what you’d normally expect. Still, it works pretty well and after not being allowed to dodge like that in God Eater, I was glad to go back to my spamming ways. Most of your super attacks are locked behind side quests so I had to make do with the default ones. They are good enough though. The main story is fairly long even if you are only focused on doing them and not touching the side quests.

Counting the side quests, it feels like there is a very impressive amount of content here. It certainly feels longer than the main Arkham titles at the very least. The fact that the side quests also have a lot of cinematics is also pretty fun. At one point I had skipped so many side quests and such that there were no random mobsters to interrogate which held me back during chapter 6. I had to randomly defeat a few Clayface minions which let me go forward. It’s a pretty decent mechanic though because the heroes should be penalized for not defending enough civilians.

I will say that navigating the city isn’t quite as fun as in Spider-Man since you can’t just leap through the city. Arkham City was much easier in that respect. The motorcycle is cool though, it just does take much longer. Locking the fast travel points behind side quests is diabolical but it does encourage you to at least do a few of them. I ended up doing at least a few of them because it would save time in the long run.

Then you have different forms of currency and materials which you use to get new suits, weapons, and projectiles. You can also get mod chips to put inside of them, although I never had gear good enough to equip any so I had to go with the defaults. The equipment was a nice touch though because it adds further incentive to go exploring. The more you do that, the stronger you get. I always like when a game rewards you for these kinds of things. Yeah there is definitely a whole lot of replay value here so you can bet that you will be adventuring around for a long while. Getting the Platinum looks like it could be rather difficult though.

The graphics are pretty solid. I’m not a huge fan of the art direction at times as a lot of the humans look rather generic but the costumed fighters are good. The game does a good job of making all of the dozens of suits and equipment match the art style as well. It may not be the most colorful game but it still does look good. The soundtrack is definitely more on the dull side though. Not many memorable tunes here so you will end up forgetting them rather quickly.

While the game is definitely centered around having multiplayer, I think they should have added AI allies for when you’re playing solo. It would have been nice to have seen the other characters fighting too since otherwise it doesn’t feel as much like an ensemble game. I mainly played Nightwing the whole time so to me this was basically a Nightwing solo title. Of course I could have switched and such but I already had Nightwing leveled up really well so at that point I didn’t want to switch. The fact that all 4 characters have their own unique fighting styles is cool though.

The game’s only real weakness for me could be that the mechanics are really not explained very well at all. Installing mods is really confusing and likewise the map has way too many icons that look similar. White triangles are mobsters, white upside down triangles are for the freaks, yellow triangles are corrupt cops, etc. Your world map gets real cluttered real fast. There had to be a better way to display all of that information. Again I would point to Spider-Man where the map never feels as imposing. Additionally it’s just easier to do a ton of side missions because of how quick they all are there. This game doesn’t move at quite the same high speed because while the combat gameplay is very smooth, the hub world navigation can be a little rough at times. Get ready to run past buttons when you just meant to walk past them.

Overall, Gotham Knights is a great game, it was better than I expected it to be. The game is definitely very combat heavy so you really need to like the style though. Ultimately I found it to be very rewarding as you actually feel it when you level up and get stronger. It’s a great template for a title and the story is also good. There’s really not much else to say about this one. As long as you enjoy really good action titles then you should have a good time and while you may feel overwhelmed at first, just take it one mission at a time and gradually the main map will become a lot emptier.

Overall 8/10

Heavenly Sword Review

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It’s time for a game with a really iconic cover but I admit that I completely forgot it existed for a while there. Heavenly Sword is one of those rare 3D beat em ups that isn’t a warriors title. I love the beat em up genre so this was definitely fun although the game is very short. So keep that in mind because you will have this game done in under 6 hours easy and there are no PS3 trophies in terms of replay value. The initial playthrough needs to be enough for you to get all your enjoyment in.

The game starts off in the climax with Nariko fighting off legions of warriors but the cursed blade is draining her life force. Her battle is at an end but then we cut back to 5 days earlier. Nariko always grew up as someone that everybody disliked and she wasn’t treated particularly well. People wanted a boy, not a girl. Well Nariko did her best to get strong either way and it turns out that she is the one destined to use the Heaven’s Sword. Now she will have to fight off the enemies for a people who don’t even respect her. She only has one friend in the world, a girl named Kai. Perhaps that will be all the inspiration that Nariko needs.

Honestly if Kai wasn’t around I would not blame Nariko if she just up and left. Even up through the end when she’s saving lives you still have the NPCs being rude for no reason. Nariko is basically a one woman army and without her the main fighters would have died out ages ago. The whole thing is just so absurd that you get annoyed when thinking about it. Her own father was tempted to murder her several times and just doesn’t seem like a good guy. I know the game tries to redeem him to an extent but it’s all just too late and he nearly convinces Kai not to help Nariko near the climax.

Kai is the only solid heroine here to help out. She may not be nearly as strong as Nariko but her bow and arrow skills are really good. While most of the gameplay is your classic 3D slasher, her levels are more motion based. You shoot arrows and then control them by tilting your controller to hit the soldiers from the opposing side. While I am not a fan of motion controls and this was the weakest point of the game, I did really like the concept they were going for here. An archer or any kind of sniper is always a huge asset on the battlefield because of how many people they can take out.

Due to the game’s war setting it’s fun to see her taking people out even while the main fights are occurring elsewhere. So that was pretty cool but of course the best part is playing as Nariko. You have light, normal, and heavy attacks. You switch them up to cancel the opponent’s moves and then keep attacking to land damage. It is like a game of rock paper scissors with the 3 elements and it can be tough to memorize them. The game has a lot more depth than the average beat em up. I was actually button mashing for a good chunk of time towards the end of the game because it was hard to land the hits perfectly.

My biggest piece of advice is to roll a lot because that allows you to get out of the line of fire and start some counter attacks. Especially with the final boss who has a huge health bar you need to do this. Any time he lands a hit on you, that’s going to set you back big time. So keep that in mind here. There is some motion control elements with the platforming but not too many. You also have a lot of quick time events which are fun but the timing is incredibly fast. I wasn’t able to react to almost any of those and just had to memorize them for the second run through. Fortunately there are constant check points in this game.

The graphics are definitely pretty solid. It’s going for a big of a realistic vibe but the effects have aged well. The characters do tend to look rather ugly though and while that is the point, I wouldn’t mind a more stylized version for a sequel. The soundtrack is also pretty solid. Nothing out of this world but it works well within what the game is trying to do. You can easily picture this being a movie so I’ll be curious to check that out at some point.

The story ends with some interesting directions they could go in although I would need them to undo one decision near the end of the game. You need certain characters to make this a success. I’m cool with a whole new cast of villains though as none of the bosses you fight in the game are particularly impressive. I enjoy them more for the banter than for their actual characters. I also give Nariko a lot of credit here for her own tough lines of dialogue which bring out the best in her opponents. The shadow bird is really our best hope of a big villain for a new game.

Overall, Heavenly Sword is a short game but it is a hype experience. So how much you enjoy the game will really come down to how well that balance works for you. If you don’t think that’s good enough then you may end up skipping it but at the same time the going price for it isn’t all that bad nowadays. So to me there isn’t really a downside anymore. I would also say the high quality of the hours that we do get is more than enough to keep you going here. The levels will even give you a reasonable challenge. So I’d definitely be hyped for a sequel.

Overall 8/10

Castlevania Dominus Collection Review

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It’s time to look at the next Castlevania title. This collection brings 3 more main games as well as a revisited version of one of the classics. So you’ve got quite a lot of content in here, especially considering that the main games all allow you to play through them a second time with another character. Effectively a whole second story mode so that’s pretty crazy. It’s definitely one of the fun things about collections because you really get your money’s worth with them.

First up lets talk about the Order of Ecclesia. In this game you don’t play as one of the Belmonts and instead you are a spellcaster who is charged with absorbing 3 legendary spells inside her. If she can do this then she will prevent Dracula from coming back to murder everyone but she is betrayed by her good friend and gets amnesia. Now she has to regain all of her skills and get the spells but can she really stand a chance? It’s a very different kind of Castlevania game when it comes to the gameplay. You have to use a ton of spells and continually switch between them.

It’s a pretty interesting idea but one immediate drawback here is that because of how you actively need to switch abilities to use the new ones, you probably won’t even touch about half of them. Once you get the good abilities that you want then there is really no need to try out any of the others. They can be fun to switch around with but for the most part you just don’t need them. Still it does mean everyone’s playthrough will probably be a little different as you pick the play style that suits your needs the best.

The layout of the map is pretty smooth as you would expect and I also like the fact that they have little sub quests in the hub world. The missions are never anything that really puts you out of your way so it’s easy to complete a lot of them while exploring. It gives you extra incentive to look around thoroughly and the quests give you little rewards. I ended up completing a whole lot of them on my way to beating the game. As always I got the bad ending first but that also helps you appreciate the level of detail they put into the game. Putting in more than one ending definitely has to be difficult considering most titles don’t do that.

This is a very fun game and the story is engaging. Castlevania has really come a long way from the 2D platformer titles into the very iconic vania styled ones. As always I can also give the games a whole lot of credit for making this part fun as well. You really feel stronger as you absorb more abilities and level up. There are a few rooms that don’t appear on the map which feels like cheating to me but most of it makes a lot of sense as you just play through the game normally. The layouts are food and there are enough quick travel rooms to keep anything from being tedious.

Then we have Portrait of Ruin which is a little more traditional. You play as a guy who is distantly related to the Belmonts but has never been able to use the iconic whip. He’s still been able to defeat every vampire that he needed to though. Now he faces one of the most powerful vampires alive and may need some help. Will he be able to face up to his destiny and use the whip or will he fall? I also hadn’t been using the whip very often so this game definitely encourages you to do so. By the end of the game it ends up being one of the most powerful weapons even if you will probably be using the sword for most of the early game.

The game’s main difference from the last one is that there are a lot of little worlds instead of one big one. You jump into paintings which become their own worlds like Super Mario 64. It’s a fun idea and if anything it probably makes the game easier since all of the individual worlds are a lot smaller. The game also becomes a lot more linear this way since you very rarely have to go back to an old world. It is technically still a vania as there are optional power ups and such but don’t expect to get lost or anything.

It definitely makes things really calm the whole time. The bosses are all fun and getting good enough to beat them all is a real feat. This time you actually fight Dracula and Death as a combined tag team which made for a cool boss fight. I thought that was a really nice way to spice things up since that had never happened before. It’s a really smooth experience and it can hold its own as one of the stronger titles in the franchise. At this point it’s safe to say that the modern games all hold their own on a high level.

After that is Dawn of Sorrow which is a direct sequel to one of the prior games. Dracula is surprisingly still gone but a lady named Cecil has decided to work on destroying Soma so one of her proteges can become the new Dracula. Soma decides to stop her before she can hurt anyone but will he be able to resist the powers of darkness? The Belmont of this generation thinks this is definitely a bad idea and Alucard agrees but nobody is going to stop Soma. He figures this threat is too big to be ignored and must be dealt with effective immediately.

In this game you absorb the souls of enemies when you defeat them although it is part RNG. You have to defeat some enemies numerous times in order to absorb their soul while other ones will drop it on the first try. I didn’t really care about the souls initially but for the rue ending you have to absorb a specific three and this led to me having to enter and exit a room over and over and over as I farmed the same enemy until he dropped the soul. It actually took quite a bit longer than I expected so that surprised me. The actual final boss for the true ending is also quite difficult. I believe I went in rather under leveed which did not help. Still, those attacks were completely crazy. Dodging them is hard.

See, the final boss spams an infinite amount of minions at you while walking around the place. You have to destroy him in two different areas to win while not getting hit by anything else. Your best bet is to beat the minions as they come while also landing his on the weak points. Of course that’s way easier said than done. I recommend using Death’s scythe as your ongoing support attack since all of the weapons that it summons are enough to keep all of the foes busy at times. It doesn’t always work though, it’s a bit of give and take.

Finally you also have the arcade style remake. It’s a fairly short game with only 5-6 levels but this time you can’t rewind or use access points. The game does save what level you are on at least until you exit the game. So basically you gotta make sure you have a lot of time to invest and then do everything at once. If you can’t do that then it’s basically about time for you to throw in the towel. This is the one game I could not conquer.

The Castlevania games are really no walk in the park and beating it all without true save points would just be asking for a tad too much. With no way to grind EXP or anything, it forces you to try and just get really good. An admirable goal to be sure but one that would probably take too much time without much reward. For example there are no PS5 trophies for beating this one. I do aim to get the Platinum though as there are only 3 trophies left and apparently none of them are particularly long.

Of course the soundtrack is really good across the whole collection. All of the games sound really good and the graphics are also solid for all of the titles. These are all clearly well made games with solid fundamentals, stories, and gameplay. Now all we need is a big budget modern day PS5 title for the series and we would really be off to the races. There is just a lot of potential here and you have to assume that all of these collections are to build up hype for a new game. Hopefully that is the case at least.

Overall, This is a collection that was really fun to play through. I think that’s probably even the best word I would use for the collection. You really have a blast going through each title and exploring the maze. If every vania styled game was like this then I would be a huge fan of the genre. The level up system was handled very well and there is a whole lot of replay value to be found here. Whether you are a fan of the franchise or not you will definitely enjoy your stay here.

Overall 8/10

NFL Rivals Review

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It was finally time to check out another sports mobile title. NFL Rivals looked pretty fun and I gotta say that my hunch was spot on this time. The gameplay is really smooth and it’s a lot like playing Madden itself. The game has an impressive amount of modes to play through as well so it is definitely not lacking in content. It can take a while to get to the challenging parts though as the whole intro is about giving you more and more stuff every minute. It feels like you will have to play for many hours before you get out of the new player phase and really get to have a blast out there.

You first have to set up your team with the free cards that you get. Then you go through a bit of a tutorial as you play through a lot of game moments and eventually you start with the online battles and season mode. You will get tons of rewards as you play and you use those to supercharge your team all the way through. Keep that going and you’ll have a superstar team in no time. You fully play offense in this game as defense is totally simulated. I’m definitely cool with that, I think defense is a lot harder to code and generally speaking it’s not as fun anyway. Why play defense when you can play offense right?

It’s all touchpad controlled of course so the main plays you can call will be passing ones. When you hike the ball, you watch where the players are going and then hold down on the screen. This will slow down time for a few moments while you make a decision. Hold the screen for too long and time will resume though so keep that in mind. You also can run the ball but often times it just doesn’t seem to be as worth it. It will work sometimes and not other times. You just have less control over what is going on when running vs passing. When you pass, 9/10 times if it doesn’t go right it’s because you made a mistake.

You can also punt although I didn’t do that at all during the game. There is also the field goals and those are fun while also being reasonably difficult. The meter can really speed up on you and then you’re absolutely left in a rough spot. In most cases you should go for it unless you’re really close to the goal and are confident in your field goal skills. I’d recommend practicing on them during blowout wins where it doesn’t matter if you make the shot or not. That’s how I would practice at least.

Each game is pretty fun as you receive your rewards and the matches are also pretty fast since you’re only playing offense. You can easily fit in a bunch during a small play session and that’s the right approach for any mobile game. Ideally these are games you will be playing when you have little chunks of available time so you definitely don’t have the freedom for long battles. After all at that point you would probably just be playing the console version of Madden right?

This game gives you near infinite replay value and a lot of fun along the way. I don’t see what more they could really add to a Football game to make it even better so this one definitely stands near the top. Additionally there is even a way to make a little money on it but I stress the “Little” in this so don’t download the game in hopes of making money. It’s more like you might make a few dollars after playing through the game a whole lot. So it’s a fun bonus but not something that you should have as an actual incentive.

The graphics are pretty good here. I’m not particularly surprised though, mobile games often look really good. The amount of polish that goes into them is always really impressive. They definitely make an investment on games like this and the big ones really pay off. This would definitely be an example of a winning title. They even have guilds and such to support your teammates. I could see myself sticking with this game long term if I had found out about it much sooner. At this point my main mobile spot is really taken up by Pokemon Go but otherwise this one would be a contender. It’s just that Pokemon Go is simply too good. Maybe Madden will one day find a way to catch up to Pokemon but I’m not sure if that would even be possible.

Overall, NFL Rivals is a game that I would highly recommend. The gameplay is well thought out and while the sheer amount of content can be a little overwhelming at times, I would say that game’s menus are handled in a very logical manner. It helps to mitigate how vast the game feels and let you take it one mode at a time. Yes, definitely no issues there. If you don’t play this game then you will really be missing out. Don’t let that happen to you and download the game asap!

Overall 8/10

Metroid Dread Review

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It’s time to finally check out Metroid Dread. That game was definitely out for quite a while and got good reviews so I knew it was about time that I took the plunge. I can tell you this, the game definitely lives up to the hype. In fact I would say it is the best Metroid game in the franchise. The climax is super cinematic and the combat is also a lot of fun. You really get to use a larger variety of abilities than in other Metroid titles and it doesn’t hold back on graphics or soundtrack. Prepare yourself for a difficult but very satisfying game.

The game starts with a brief recap to Metroid Fusion and then Samus has to head to a planet that is having some trouble. Unfortunately this was a trap. She is quickly defeated by a powerful being known as Raven Beak and she wakes up at the bottom of the planet with most of her abilities being sealed away. She is suffering from something called physical amnesia. She needs to find a way off the planet and then blow it up because if Raven Claw and his X viruses get off the planet then the whole universe will be in trouble. Will she be able to escape?

Right away the game lives up to its title as the main theme is really dark and foreboding. I’ve been listening to it a lot on Youtube after completing the game and it really holds up. It’s a super memorable track and it’s going to be hard for any Samus theme to beat this one. The various boss/level themes are also really solid so I was quite impressed with the soundtrack. Then we have the graphics which are looking real sharp as well. The colors are on point and the cinematics keep up the good work. There are no weak points in the visuals.

The game’s length is a bit on the short side as I beat it in under 7 hours but there are definitely more areas to explore through. All though not as much as in other games as most of the maps quickly get locked as you proceed through the game. So for the most part you can’t do any backtracking until you’re really near the end of the game. It’s hard to time this as well because then you quickly enter the land of no return for the climax so you could very well find yourself at a point where you don’t get to explore much at all.

The game is designed in a way where you can certainly still win even without all the extra energy tanks, it’ll just be more difficult. You have less room for error here so you better work on memorizing the enemy attack patterns. It took me some time for a few of the bosses but just keep going at it and you’ll be okay. This is a very appropriate measure of difficulty where nobody can accuse the game of being too easy but at the same time it’s not insanely difficult. You have the tools at your disposal to win the matches when it counts.

The key gameplay mechanic here is the parry system. You have to use that in order to block the stronger moves that the enemies use and then counter with some free shots from your end. If you nail every counter then you will definitely win but the window of time can be short so it does come down to your overall reaction times. There are also unblockable attacks so you have to be able to quickly notice when they’re coming and dodge instead. If you are too slow then you will be in trouble.

A lot of the boss battles are in fairly open environments which is fun because your movement is not limited. It also means that when you lose, you know that you could have done something different. There are 7 hunters after you as well so you have to constantly be running around them and evading until you get your super laser to finish them off. These chases are really intense and some of the best parts of the title. Probably the best aside from the final boss himself.

Raven Claw will also go down as one of the all time greatest Metroid villains. That guy was really solid. As always Samus is a great heroine as well. Someone who can make snap decisions without hesitating like when she blasts one of the villains near the end. She never gives up. As a whole the gameplay is definitely a lot of fun and in terms of gameplay design, the Metroidvania aspects weren’t bad.

The map could have been better though. It’s a little too cluttered and you can’t really filter it. For example I think you should not see collectibles that you’ve already obtained on the map. It just takes up space and looks misleading. At least make it a different color right? If the map were easier to read then that would make things easier instead of having to check it over and over again. It could be a lot worse though as the game at least usually makes it pretty clear where you should be going. So I give it a lot of props there.

Aside from trying to beat the game even quicker to get special endings, there is also a hard mode and a boss rush mode that you unlock. I’m sure those are fun modes to check out and hopefully you would get some kind of a special reward for completing them. Hard mode must be absolutely unforgiving too so I wonder how the bosses would go there. Maybe the reaction times for the parry are even more narrow which would really put you in a tough spot. As it is I could only parry the hunters once in a while because they are so unpredictable. Having reaction times that good is definitely a rarity.

Overall, Metroid Dread is definitely a great game. One of those titles that reminds you Nintendo can still churn out an intense title when they feel like it. It may be a little more rare than you would like but that’s just how it goes sometimes. I eagerly look forward to seeing if Prime 4 will be able to maintain this intensity. I still have yet to play Prime 2 and Prime 3 so you can bet that I will work on correcting that sooner than later. In the meantime, this is a good title to tide you over.

Overall 8/10

DC Heroes United Review

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Having fun yet? That’s what you’re always supposed to think about when playing a mobile game. A console game can get away with being boring for a few hours but a mobile game needs to click immediately or you’re just gonna uninstall it. There are too many alternatives to find yourself settling for anything. At least if you ask me that would not be worth it. Fortunately this one is really good and easily one of the best mobile games that I’ve played.

DC Heroes United uses the same gameplay style as Vampire Survivor. You have to try and survive for 10 minutes while the field is completely overrun by monsters. Mini bosses show up every 3 minutes while one big boss shows up at the halfway point and at 10 minutes. You have to defeat them in order to clear the stage. Each stage has 3 difficulty levels and 3 missions per level. In order to unlock the next stage you need to beat all 3 missions on the first difficulty level and then just survive 10 minutes on the second level. It’s definitely nothing too crazy in terms of requirements. I would recommend completing as many missions as possible though because the rewards are worth it.

The game feels like a bit of a mystery though because it feels like nobody is playing it. I’ve tried checking online to see any activity and people mainly just talk about the episodes. One guy started writing a guide but then his phone stopped being supported and he vanished. The company itself doesn’t really try to help either in terms of getting the word out. I’m sure they’re busy but showing the game off would help with improving the playerbase. The whole thing just feels like a black box the whole time. There isn’t even any kind of leaderboard system to know how many people are keeping up with you. It just becomes a large scale mystery or if the other players are robots or not. There are technically a lot of people voting on the episode choices since I spend a few hundred picks and still get beaten badly but how legit are those votes? With 0 transparency it’s hard to say.

The ability to watch all of the episodes on the app is pretty cool. I’ve seen all the episodes so far but I’ll go into that on a TV show review once it’s done. For the game, I naturally like the gameplay since I love this style. That said, it does have a bit of a balancing issue. I’ve completed all of the previous levels and almost all of the missions but I die almost instantly on the latest level. This doesn’t make sense because I’m level 90 out of a possible 100. That just seems like a crazy amount of power creep to me. I’ve been wondering how the game will deal with that and it’s finally reached this point. It will be interesting to see what the devs do because they have put themselves into a bit of a hole here.

I think maybe they need more customization and methods of attack to spice things up. Give us more to use our resources on and more stages or modes to play in. The game is seriously lacking in content right now. The fact that I’m already in “Endgame” definitely says a whole lot. I know the show is the main priority which is why the mobile game doesn’t have any kind of a story mode but in theory the money would be made through the game so you need to make it worth your while. The game has some absolutely insane prices for the item packs and gems in the game. I would never even consider it but even the whales will need some reason to buy it.

At the time of writing this review I have already cleared well over half of the game’s entire accomplishments. So not only am I done with all of the stages except the last one, unlocked all the characters, own legendary armor for all types, but even the career accomplishments are nearly done. The game needs to add some things in quick or I might literally 100% the game at some point the way I did with Miraculous Ladybug. It’s fun to complete a game but for mobile titles the point is to usually not have an ending. You’re not supposed to give the player a reason to ever put the game down.

The soundtrack is pretty nonexistent. Definitely not a strength for the title. The graphics are pretty decent. The game isn’t trying to do anything fancy though so the character models are small but I’ll take what I can get. This is really a game about having fun surviving and so you don’t need a whole lot of processing power for that. This title still doesn’t match Vampire Survivor on pretty much anything but I am glad that the genre is getting more games because it really has a whole lot of potential.

Overall, This game is still relatively new. You can bet that they will be adding more characters and stages but I’m hoping they add them sooner than later. A mobile game needs to avoid having large droughts and the fact that this game has already done the same event 3 times is concerning. I don’t think they thought things through here. The two biggest things the game could do would be to start adding content fast and to add some kind of leaderboard system. We need an interactive part to the game to get everyone’s competitive spirits going. Once we all can see who is ahead of us, it’ll be a whole lot more exciting.

Overall 8/10