Category Archives: Game Reviews

Wolf of the Battlefield: MERCS Review

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This is definitely one of the more random games that I’ve gotten to play. I can tell you that I’ve definitely never even heard of this game before. It was a pretty fun one but definitely suffers from some arcade age. There’s one boss in particular that you have to play frame perfect or you get crushed. Even with rewind and perfectly dodging every hit it was super difficult to pull off the win.

You play as a GI Joe type of hero who needs to take down a whole army of opposing fighters and giant mech suits. You can bet that this is no easy task but he is up for it. You go through 8 levels of auto scrolling where more and more enemies keep showing up. When the auto scrolling stops, you get to keep on going and take your chances with the enemy gunfire or stay put and whittle them down first. Generally I found that it was best to keep on moving but of course that can also be super risky so you need to keep that in mind. The biggest factor to keep in mind though is the weapons that you pick up. These will change your experience quite a lot. When you pick up a gun, you drop your old one and can’t pick it back up so keep that in mind.

In my opinion the best weapon is the flame thrower and it’s not particularly close. A good blast from that weapon takes out most opponents and you can just hold down the attack button to keep it shooting forever. The catch is that it won’t have the same punch as some of the stronger weapons but honestly it’s a pretty decent trade off for me. Once I picked this one up I made sure not to pick any other weapons up. There was one boss that was nearly impossible to defeat with this weapon but in every other level it really served me well.

The game is also fairly generous with all of the health items that are dropped by enemies or found in boxes. More so than the average game in this genre so I definitely appreciated that. It helped prevent the game from getting too difficult to get through. It’s still very difficult obviously but it never feels quite impossible the way some of the old arcade shooters would. There are some shooters like that where you just feel like they were made to take all of your quarters.

The graphics have aged really well and I’d say that it is due to the art style. It’s very colorful and helps complement the sprites well. The action also works really well although there isn’t much of a soundtrack. You can’t win them all I suppose. In terms of replay value, there technically isn’t one since there are no collectibles or bonus levels to play through. I guess you could try to beat the game quicker or with less deaths as some self imposed challenges though. That would be a hard sell unless you really loved the game though. Otherwise this is clearly made as the kind of game that you play through all the way once and then call it a day.

Nothing wrong with that kind of game of course, that’s how a lot of them were back in the day. It’s definitely worth playing through this title on the Switch Online. The fact that they put a good amount of effort into this one instead of letting it become generic shooter 3000 was also a really good touch. Even with that we’ll see how long I remember this one though. In my defense, there really are a whole lot of army games with no real end in sight. It’s the kind of game that people just enjoy a whole lot so why wouldn’t they continue them right? One of these games in 3D without the first person camera work would really be awesome! Hopefully that ends up being the case at some point.

Overall, MERCS is a pretty fun game. I dare say that a lot of the enjoyment is because I am playing it through the Switch Online though. Without that I would probably be in a really tricky spot. I’d give it a few whirls but in general when you are sent back to the beginning of a game, I’m not too keen to keep on trying. You just lose too much progress even if you are having fun. At minimum, all games need to allow you to replay from the latest level when you have a game over. That is the way to go.

Overall 7/10

Vectorman Review

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Vectorman is definitely nostalgic because I played through it many years ago. I don’t remember if I beat the whole game and if I had to guess, I probably didn’t. It’s a very difficult title which helps to make up for its length. The concept for the game is really sound and I enjoy the gameplay. It really is like an alternate Mega Man of sorts and it’s too bad that this one didn’t spawn a lot of sequels and turn into a complete franchise or anything like that.

The general plot is that Vectorman is the only one to resist mind control and so it’s up to him to destroy all of the enemies. This may sound like a daunting task but Vectorman isn’t the kind of villain to go down so easily. He has his blasters and only gets stronger as the game goes on. The basic gameplay style is that of a 2D shooter. Your gun can spam bullets and along the way you can get temporary power ups that makes you gun even stronger. On the flip side, Vectorman is very flimsy and a few hits will put him out of commission for good.

Virtually all of the enemies have super armor which also makes them very difficult to defeat. You have to be extremely careful or you will end up soaking up a bunch of damage in the blink of an eye. Once that happens then you are really doomed. You always want to keep at least two health points on hand because you can lose 2 in back to back hits before you can really react. You don’t have many invincibility frames here.

There are a number of bosses in the game and they are all crafted well. The way you defeat each of them is unique so there are no re-used bosses or anything like that. Each one is a unique experience all the way through. The graphics are also really good. All of the worlds really stand out and are very colorful. I like the enemy designs and the energy blasts look good. It’s a very well balanced title all the way.

Then you have the soundtrack which is a very solid Sci-fi blend. It sounds like Mega Man but even more modern for its time. The soundtrack ages extremely well and works with the gameplay. The final boss is also really intense so the game gets to end with a real bang. It certainly succeeds on the technical aspects.

When it comes to the gameplay, my main tip would be to make sure and get every single health point. You will need them for the bosses which are all designed to absolutely obliterate you. They are not balanced in any way so don’t get that twisted. These guys are as overpowered as they get and will give you no quarter. You will be on the defensive the whole time and you can expect to die a whole lot. It has a case for being even harder than Mega Man to be honest but the Wily runs do tend to be crazy so that may be overdoing it just a tad.

This is another series that could really use a modern remake. Vectorman would be an absolutely stellar main character and he already has the deign for it. You’d probably need to focus on the supporting cast next since right now there isn’t much of one but that wouldn’t be too hard to do. You can also give him more attacks but perhaps that would make it feel too much like a Mega Man ripoff. That can be avoided for now but with how he’s made of a lot of balls for joints, using some kind of shape manipulation could be within reason.

Naturally I would also add more of a story. It certainly can’t hurt right? So you can have that at the ready as well and you’ve got all the makings of a fun title. That’s probably the most fun thing about playing all of these old games which is that you can sit down and think about the concepts outside of the old limitations of the ancient systems. Something like Vectorman is a perfect example of this.

Overall, Vectorman is a pretty good game. It holds up really well both in terms of gameplay and graphics. It’s the kind of game you can pop in at any time because of how extremely simple it is. It’s ultra difficult but very simple to understand. I would definitely appreciate more of a plot but for now I will be satisfied with just having some opening text at least. It’s more than some other games bother to deliver after all. If you haven’t played or even heard of the game before then you should change that right away. Don’t let your expectations get too crazy here but you can definitely be assured that you will have a positive experience. In the end that is the most important thing after all.

Overall 7/10

Donkey Kong Land III Review

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It’s time to end the trilogy. The Donkey Kong Land games have sure lasted a while and you have to give them major props for that. That being said, this one really doesn’t do much different from the others. Sure, it brings in new levels and good ole King K Rool to shake things up…actually he’s always been the villain. So you get the idea here. If you like platformers then you should have a good time with this.

This time we have 3 different characters to play as which is definitely fun. You basically get to switch places every time you get hit. You can only hang on to one extra life point at a time so the third character is technically never on the roster. No matter though, you will get hit plenty of times as you play through the game so I don’t see this being a really big issue. It is always fun to play as Dixie though since she still has the long glide. You can really cheese some levels with her if you can avoid getting hit for a while.

One thing you will notice very quickly though is that it’s very hard to keep track of what level you’re on. This is probably a casualty of the no color issue for the Game Boy. When you complete a level, there is no visual indicator that it is cleared. Then you have to go up, right, left, or sometimes down depending on the world and this means it ends up being very risky on if you may end up playing an old level by mistake. That happened to me twice and I had to back out. It’s definitely something I’ve never seen in the genre before so it could desperately use a quality of life enhancement there.

Meanwhile while the graphics were likely good originally, hey don’t look great here. It’s all very faded out and the sprites are the only saving grace here. The soundtrack is good though, I do tend to enjoy the DK tunes. Nintendo did a good job of giving them a lot of personality rather than it sound like generic jungle environments which would have been very uninspired. So I was quite content there.

As far as the length goes, I’d say it is a fair amount of content to get through. It may feel short compared to a modern game, but playing through a lot of these Game Boy titles you see how short they can be. The most important thing is that the game doesn’t only have one world or anything like that. There are also some bonus levels that you can optionally play which increases the replay value as well.

The game can be rather difficult so you need to tread through the stage carefully. Without the rewind feature at the ready the enemies would certainly be very overpowering. You just wouldn’t be able to get through them all so easily. I could run a lot but that was a privilege of the Nintendo Switch Online. You could probably add some hours to my playtime otherwise. You also still have the animals here which is good for spreading the gameplay out. There are quite a few ways to play the game and that was a nice bit of extra work by the devs.

You’d expect that it definitely costs more time and money to set up more than one playing style. The DK games have been consistent in this though so that’s a good thing. There isn’t a whole lot to say about the game though because it’s a very straight forward title and also because not much has changed from the first two. I suppose in that way it’s a sequel that should make the players feel very comfortable. It’s all things that they have seen before and so they can hit the ground running rather than worrying about learning the style or anything like that.

Naturally if we get a Land 4 one day I really hope it has more of a story. That’s what the DK games are lacking and it’s a critical component since that really gets you engaged in the series. Naturally it’s not something I would dock this one any points for due to the age and all that but for a new game I would definitely be a little more harsh. I need those cinematics!

Overall, Donkey Kong Land III is a good game that definitely ends rather quickly. It took a step back in terms of the hub world but in all other areas it manages to keep pace. It’s definitely a title to keep your eyes on the whole time. Hopefully we get some new DK games in the future. It may not be my favorite platforming series but I would still play it at some point. You can always count on Nintendo to deliver a fun experience no matter what year it is. It’s just what they do.

Overall 7/10

Donkey Kong Land 2 Review

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The next DK Land game has arrived and it’s a pretty good continuation from the first one. In general I miss DK and his strong way of fighting but Dixie is certainly the most powerful all around character with how she can fly anywhere. The game also doubles up on all the summon animals so on a purely gameplay sense it may beat the original. I would still have liked for DK to have been involved more though since this is supposed to be his series.

There’s still not much of an actual story to be had here though. The game is much more focused on just throwing you into the action so you’d probably have to read the booklet. Somehow or other King K Rool has kidnapped DK though and it is up to Diddy and Dixie to save him. They are ready for this though and prepare to use all of their skills to get past the waves of enemies and help him out. There are a wide variety of worlds to go through here so prepare for a lot of environments.

One thing that is evident from the stat is that the gameplay is quite hard though. A lot of these levels require split second reflexes and you always have to be moving or you will be left in the dust. One big example of this is the level where you play as a spider. You have to shoot out your webs and then keep on rising through the level as some boiling water follows you. The way you do this is by shooting out the web with B and then clicking select to stop it and turn this into a platform. You have to continue with this process at top speed or you will quickly be overwhelmed. It’s really hard because of how far apart the buttons are.

Then you have to consider that a lot of the enemies are impervious to your jumping. So you have to use your rolls which isn’t always easy to time. If you don’t time it well then you will end up taking damage instead. The bosses also attack rather quickly so you want to learn the timings real fast. The game is definitely unrelenting which is impressive. Since the levels aren’t overly long and there are checkpoints, I say bring it on! Of course with the Switch Online and rewinding it’s a non factor but even back in the day it would have been fun.

There are more worlds here than in the first game and of course you also have a bonus world for if you had gotten all of the collectibles. That is some good replay value here and it feels like the modern Nintendo platformers where there is a lot to do. You definitely do get the bang for your buck with this title. Then the graphics are hard to really praise since everything is so faded out but the sprites for the characters look good. It’s the kind of game that would probably look great if we did have full colors but sadly that was not in the cards here.

The soundtrack is good though. Probably not as good as the first one to be honest but it’s close and I would keep it as a positive either way. The game’s technical elements are on point and I also enjoyed the gameplay. It’s not the tightest Nintendo gameplay that I’ve experienced but it definitely does hold its own. The fact that they came up with different gameplay for all of the various animals and Kong members is also impressive. They didn’t just go the lazy route and establish a single mode for gameplay.

My main recommendation is to hold the run button at all times. Some of the jumps are really hard to handle but if you are running then you will be able to make them without any issue. The only weakness is that it can be easy to fall that way and of course if you are in a place with a lot of minions then you might bump into them. So you probably want to be patient but for any gap, immediately start running. One thing about the 2D platformers is they will punish you if you rush through the levels too much. It’s just hard not to since I love going full blast all the time.

The game has a fun cameo for Mario at the very end of the game so make sure you check that out. It’s Nintendo’s way of reminding you that he is always around. If we ever do get a modern plot based DK game, I really want them to include Mario somewhere. Have him show up as a secret boss battle or any ally who helps out at the end. Mario and DK are in the same universe after all so it’s about time that they start crossing over more.

Overall, Donkey Kong Land 2 is a pretty fun game. It ends up being over very quickly but such is always the fate for a platformer. That’s why it is important that you enjoy the gameplay. So it may be a short time, but that way it is a fun one. Additionally with the collectibles it can last a bit longer that way. Hopefully the Switch Online continues to deliver more DK games since there are definitely more that I need to play. We’ll see if any of them beat this one. At the end of the day this one’s a basic platformer so there isn’t a ton to talk about but it handles all of the fundamentals well so it’s a good game.

Overall 7/10

Mario & Luigi: Brothership Review

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Mario is one of those characters who has been around for a very long time. He has had games in many different genres and has two different RPG series. It’s definitely impressive and it was nice to get a new Mario & Luigi title after many years. The story is not particularly strong as this modern era of the plumber tries to steer away from getting too serious but the game itself is still fun. I have some quality of life issues here but all in all it is a fun game for you to have fun with.

The basic plot is that Mario and Luigi are transported to a whole new world all of a sudden. Their assistance is required as all of the islands here have been split apart. This is preventing friendship and harmony from being united across all of the land. It’s a sticky situation to be in but the bros are ready for this. The situation gets more complicated though when Peach and Bowser show up. Now the stakes are higher than ever and they will have to rely on their bonds of Brothership to get through this.

Like I said, the story isn’t going for a very hype kind of vibe so you shouldn’t take this too seriously. It’s not like the whole thing is played for laughs or anything but when things are getting too serious the game will try to throw a gag or two in there. Even the main villain not being able to remember names seems like a way to diffuse every cutscene that he is in. Ultimately I would say that you are playing this game for the gameplay and not for the story. I still like the cutscenes when they show up and every scene with Bowser is a winner but the story does move at a very slow pace.

This is by far the longest game in the series as well. Typically you can expect around 15-18 hours but this one is over 30. There is a lot of content here but the story didn’t really make the most of it. They tend to repeat the info quite a bit or drag out the conversations. Unfortunately the game uses the most annoying vocal sounds that I’ve ever heard. Think of the Banjo & Kazooie games but if two characters were talking at the same time for every cutscene. It ends up being quite brutal as a result and you end up having to hold that L.

The audio direction was really quite bad. We do have a few limited sound clips but as a result they have to be thrown in randomly a lot of the time instead of really making sense in the moment. The graphics are good at least. The game isn’t trying to be too bold with them so you’re not going to see anything on the level of Sonic Frontiers but the art style is fun. As for the soundtrack, there are some decent tunes but it’s not the strongest Mario soundtrack. It could have used one or two more really good tunes.

As for the gameplay, it’s your classic turn based system. You have your standard attacks as well as your Bros attacks. Along the way you also get equipment that amps up your abilities as well as badges that you equip which then expire after a few turns. This adds a lot to the strategy as you have to be careful when you turn these on. For example if you use your best ones against some minions then you will be in a really bad spot for the boss battle. There is no quick way to recharge then either as you just have to fight for a certain amount of turns before they are back to normal.

This is one of those games that prefers to go with a long approach to level ups. It takes a long time to get a level up because every combat animation is on the long side. Normal battles are much longer than they need to be. I know a lot of effort was put into the animations but they really should have an option to turn these off after a while. In particular the Bros attacks take a while since you have to do some command prompts. I suppose it wouldn’t be possible to turn those off but it’s definitely unfortunate.

I also think they should let you skip encounters when you are vastly over leveled compared to the enemy. For example when you go back to the first world to grab some collectibles, those level 1 enemies will still force an encounter. You can run away of course but now you’re already in the battle. These are fairly basic quality of life updates that would make the game a lot more fun. It’s why I would say the game is fun but it’s not going to touch almost any of the other big RPGs. They are in a completely different league.

One thing that was implemented rather well were the collectibles. Each world has some extra sparks which is how you unlock the new plugs (badges) and gives you a reason to explore every world twice. Most of the sparks don’t appear until after you have beaten the world after all. There is just enough where it doesn’t feel like a chore and additionally this is completely optional which I was glad about. So this is the right way to add a collectathon element.

Aside from the campaign itself being super long, there are also a number of side quests and optional items to grab. A lot of the side quests are time sensitive as well so you will want to take care of them quickly. There are also a lot of landmarks to find outside of the islands but the most disappointing thing was I bothered to find them all and there was no reward. Felt like a let down, I was expecting something. Ah well, it was still a fun thing to do on the side.

As for the new Luigi mechanic, it’s not bad but doesn’t really change much. This game tries to really show how Luigi is the smart one of the group and it’s one of those really unassuming twists. Like he’s scared of everything but when he focuses then he can do great things. The concept is sound, but the execution just feels a bit tacked on. I would have liked it to have effected gameplay a lot more or been presented in a way where it enhances the experience. Instead it’s just something that’s around.

Overall, Mario & Luigi Brothership may be a little underwhelming but to be honest I wasn’t expecting a ton out of it in the first place. That probably sounds bad, but at this point I play Mario for the fun gameplay experience as opposed to the story. The story does have its fun moments to be sure but just don’t expect anything too grand. The gameplay has a lot of strategy to it and I would even say that the game can be reasonably difficult at times. That’s something that I was impressed by. You really need to learn the enemy’s attack patterns or you will be buried in short order. Hopefully the next game brings in the Mushroom Kingdom more but either way I can recommend this game.

Overall 7/10

Donkey Kong Land Review

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DK is one of those franchises that has so many games that I start to lose track of them. I don’t even remember a Donkey Kong Land. Mario land? Yeah I know that one but I never would have guessed that DK had this title as well. It’s a fun enough DK game. It’s a little dated and all but at the same time, good platforming is supposed to be timeless. So I can still race through the levels now or 20 years from now and it’ll still be a good time. Such is the power of DK.

There are 4 worlds in this game or roughly so. Unlike most platformers where the worlds are clearly defined, you follow a map of stages here that intersect as you go through them. So sometimes you go back to an old area but it’s a new level. Still, they are labeled as worlds when the game is saved so that’s what I’ll go with. Technically speaking the game is fairly short. It’s only around 2 hours or so but the levels are fun. You can also add onto the time a little bit since without the Switch Online I would have had to use a more conservative play style. This way I was able to just charge through at all times which I do have to admit felt pretty good.

As is standard for platformers, you can jump and climb objects in order to get past the obstacles. Additionally, it’s worth noting that you have some animal assistants. Not as many as in future games but there is a Rhino you can jump on to barrel through opponents. That is certainly a satisfying move. Then you can turn into Diddy Kong when you lose a health point but I basically stuck to playing as DK the whole time. I’d say one of the most creative levels in the game is a level in the clouds. You ride a cloud that shifts directions whenever you jump and land back on it. So you have to time your jumps perfectly to escape a whole maze that is closing in around you. That’s certainly a good way to challenge yourself right?

It actually took me several tries, not because it was particularly difficult per say but because it wasn’t always obvious exactly where I was supposed to be going. It’s easy to not notice the clouds around you that you have to jump on and that made for a pretty good shift. Then we have the boss fights and that’s an area where Nintendo has always exceled in. The bosses each have their own unique mechanics which is nice and forces you to really put in some strategy. The King K. Rool boss at the end is fun for example as you have to time your jumps perfectly to stomp on him when he tosses his crown. The more hits you land, the faster that he starts to move so you really have to be careful.

There is some actual skill at play here and it keeps the boss fight from being repetitive so that was a good design choice. The other bosses are similarly fun. Meanwhile while the graphics don’t look good because of how the colors are loaded, the sprites are good otherwise. The characters all move and act the way that they should and it’s fun to recognize all of the moves from Super Smash. I do miss the vibrant colors though. Meanwhile the soundtrack is definitely good and another reminder of just how solid Nintendo is. In any era, you can always count on them to deliver with some really top tier tunes.

One thing that is different from a lot of the other titles is how you die to almost any attack. It’s definitely a little tricky in that sense. Also any pitfall that you fall into, directly drops you out of the level. You land back in the hub world immediately which is definitely interesting. It may seem a little harsh but the fact that there are no loading times is really impressive. It really lets you get right back to playing the game with no real interruptions which is nice.

Also in terms of the one hit death thing, it’s worth noting that this will turn you into Diddy right away so it’s not like you’re in the game over screen right off the bat. Playing as Diddy can also be fun since he has all of the same moves. It may take you a second to get used to his movement but I’m not sure if that is because he is faster or it just feels that way because of the design. It’s hard to tell either way.

I suppose if there’s anything I would have added here, it would have been more of a story. The plot is basically nonexistent here and while I was not properly expecting a big story or anything like that, I would not have turned it down either. That is definitely a good way to really take a platformer to the next level and the day Nintendo learns that may be the day that they completely end the console wars. It would be really tough to defeat them at that point.

Overall, Donkey Kong Land is a good game. It definitely feels more like a mini platformer compared to the newer titles but it has strong fundamentals all around. I don’t really have any negatives with the game and it is easy to recommend to basically anyone. As long as you enjoy gaming then you will probably enjoy this game. I look forward to checking out Donkey Kong Land 2 sooner than later and seeing how different it is. What changes and what remains the same. It’s a mystery that I will get to the bottom of sooner than later.

Overall 6/10

Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare Review

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I want you to imagine for a minute what it would be like to be alone in the dark. Not by yourself mind you, but surrounded by tons of giant man eating spiders. Sounds a little scary right? Well, the game is definitely trying to build up that atmosphere and I would say it does a reasonable job considering its limitations. That being said, I would not call the game an all star or anything like that. It’s reasonable but could have used a little more time in the kitchen to be baked to perfection.

The game starts with the main character’s friend being murdered so he flies out to the remote island along with his friend to find out what happened. Unfortunately she is eaten by the super spiders so the lead is on his own now. He is completely alone with no way to get off this island and must still contend with whatever happened to his friend. Do the spiders have a leader? Armed with only a few bullets and his normal gun, the main character must surpass the odds and try to survive.

The idea of a classic survival game on the game boy color is pretty interesting. It’s definitely not something that you see very often that’s for sure. I should say that this does lead into the game’s biggest flaw which is that there is a finite amount of bullets in the game. So if you run out of those, then you are dead. You automatically get a game over when you’re out of bullets. There are 2 more guns that you can unlock over the course of the game though. You need to make sure that you find these because the game is 100% impossible otherwise. I had to go backwards and unlock the final gun or I would have been completely stuck myself. I get the idea behind this as it makes the game scarier but much like an arbitrary time limit as in Pikmin, it only serves to hurt the game. It’s fun to explore around the house and find things but it becomes more annoying when you have to be stressed out about your bullet count.

Minion encounters only appear at certain points and you are unable to run away from them but that’s what makes it harder since you can’t just grind away at getting more ammo. The battles will have some ammo around so you want to grab it but you have to do this before you defeat all of the minions or what ends up happening is the ammo disappears. That means running from the spiders the whole time but of course they are faster than you so you will end up taking a lot of damage. Each bite takes out a whole chunk of health so you need to be careful. There are a lot of potions you get during the game but like everything else, these are limited.

The core of the gameplay is really a puzzle. Almost like a Metroidvania as you have to go back and forth across all the rooms as you obtain new items and abilities. It’s definitely not as linear as you might expect. Your I Spy skills will come in handy here too as almost every room has something to grab. So if you miss it, you will almost certainly need to make a long trek back which won’t be all that much fun. There are also a lot of exits and entrances in each room so it can be difficult to keep track of them.

This comes down to the console limitations. The graphics are very poor and stretched out the whole time so it can be very hard to tell where you are going or even where you are. There are full transitions between every room so the camera suddenly changing can be disorienting. Similarly every cutscene has a white flash between the dialogue which can be annoying. It’s definitely tough on the eyes. The game didn’t even try on the soundtrack as most of the game is completely silent. Music only plays during cutscenes and it’s usually the same track spammed over and over again.

The sad part is that the track is actually really good but you need it to appear during gameplay. It makes the cutscenes really jarring to go from silent to suddenly full of life. I will say though that the story itself is pretty good. I was fairly engaged and it felt like a proper narrative that you might see in a horror story. I definitely give the game full props there. They did good on this area even with the limited budget. I also generally think the concept of finding items through the house and gradually getting to the end is a fun one. With a bigger budget and quality of life updates then this could have really been a winner.

The campaign is fairly short but it is really easy to get lost so I would say to factor that in as you play the game. The videos online show people beating it in about an hour but that’s not really realistic for most players. I certainly ended up doubling or maybe even tripling that time. All it takes is to miss one item and then you are really in a tough spot. So make sure you really check everything out. Often times it is best to just keep spamming the B and A buttons as you move through each room. That way you can really be sure that you have inspected everything.

Overall, Alone in the Dark is a game that had its positives but the actual experience has too many rough patches for me to really call it good. It ends up staying right in the middle at best which still isn’t all that bad to be honest. If you have the Switch Online then you should check it out since it’s free at that point. There are better games to be sure but this is still a unique one and worth checking out in some capacity.

Overall 5/10

Blaster Master: Enemy Below Review

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Nothing like an old game to remind me just how lucky I am that I grew up in the modern age of gaming. I am reminded quite often how I probably wouldn’t have been a huge gamer if I grew up way back in the day. Or at the very least, I would have really stuck to a select few franchises and called it a day. Yeah, game boy color isn’t actually that old but I would have been so sad if I had spent any money to play this game. How are you going to make a Metroidvania style game without a functioning map? Why would you ever do this? I can see why people love Castlevania and Metroid because they slaughter the copycats. I really like the modern Blaster Master games but the old ones are clearly not ready for the gaming world.

There’s not much of a plot here but the intro says something about bashing up the monsters. So the core gameplay is about navigating through a massive maze in your tank. There are 8 massive areas, each one has 3-4 other areas inside it and then there are portals that lead you across the areas. They are not sequential so don’t even think about going from area 7 to 8. No sirrrrrrr! You have to go from 7 back to 5 back to 4 back to 2, to then go to 8. You are constantly back tracking and running across the screens but the worst part is that there is no quick travel. Yes, a staple that both Metroid and Castlevania had for years is not present here. They also had maps while this game does not.

I’ll be the first to tell you that I’m not the biggest fan of Metroidvania games but at least those knew what they were doing. This game? Yeah it has absolutely no clue what to do. There is no indicator of what you need to get either or what is in the area. If I wasn’t using an online guide, I wouldn’t know to go take down the boss or even which areas had one. Then some areas have 1-2 keys you have to find so if you don’t have that then you’re toast. Good luck finding it too. Some areas have close to 20-30 rooms and each room has multiple exits and is absolutely massive. Without a proper map you will end up spinning your wheels and going in circles constantly.

I ended up going backwards by mistake more than a few times. We haven’t even gotten into the weapons yet. You need certain upgrades in order to proceed so if you forgot that then you better find the room that has it. There is a ton of trial and error here which is not easy. It’s not always obvious that you are missing a power up either so hopefully your intuition is on point. Then we have the boss fights….oh boyyyyyy. Most games show you a health bar or at least have the villain flash when you attack so you know which attacks are working and which aren’t right? Yeah….there’s none of that here.

You just have to hope you are attacking the right point and you never know if you are making progress or not until the villain loses. That is absolutely insane! You can see how this makes no sense right? Every indie game has some kind of indicator and if they can do that without a budget then this game should absolutely be able to pull it off. It makes the boss fights extremely annoying because they just don’t end.

Also, the game is crazy hard. I don’t even know what counts as a save point but I assume that it would take you back to the start of the area or something. I’d have died hundreds of times in the levels because it is extremely hard to dodge any of the attacks and there are so many of them. One of the levels near the end is also like something out of Super Meat Boy as there are spikes everywhere. You have to jump absolutely perfectly or you will get hit by them. It’s an extremely tedious section which took me many tries because then you also have the enemies trying to attack you and they keep on respawning.

There really aren’t many positives to say about the game. I suppose the graphics aren’t terrible. Most of the areas look almost identical in order to intentionally mislead you so you do have to get around that. It’s not the worst thing though. The weapons aren’t always clear but I suppose I don’t have any other problems. The soundtrack is definitely forgettable though. You do have a lot of replay value here though because it’ll take you ages to beat the game. It’ll be so long that you will have forgotten the intro and can play it again. I mean I couldn’t picture picking it up again, but I’m sure the game has its fans. It is definitely a lot longer than you would expect.

Overall, Blaster Master is one of those games that makes you shake your head. I feel bad for any kid who started with this as their first title because that would be absolutely traumatizing. Would you even be ready to pick up another game after this one? It forgot the most important part of being a video game which is that it’s supposed to be fun. The most fun you will have with the game is the first 20 minutes and then it’s all downhill from there. It needed dozens of quality of life updates before this game would really be ready for the Metroidvania treatment and even then I would be super cautious. But remember, you shouldn’t ditch the franchise. Just dive into the modern Blaster Master Zero games because those are actually excellent and even have a real story mode. Now there is a game you will be playing all the way through because of how satisfying it is.

Overall 2/10

Metaphor: ReFantazio Review

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It’s time to look at one of the longer games that I’ve played recently. This one took me nearly 70 hours to complete and that’s considering that I didn’t do all of the side quests. I did complete each character’s bond story though, mainly because I really needed the power ups and job classes that came along with them. Without those then things would have definitely been a lot tougher. It’s a very complete game that doesn’t have many real weaknesses and turns out to be a top tier RPG.

The game starts off with the King being assassinated and then the Prince is cursed. He is presumed to be dead but his loyal followers hide him away. A battle for the throne begins among the Church and the leader of the military. Meanwhile the main character (Lets call him Terry) is instructed to find a way to break the curse for the prince. Seemingly the easiest way to do that will be to bump off the curse caster, Louis. Will it be that easy though? Also, there is no definitive proof that the killer is Louis so that could get a little dicey. With a game this long, you know it won’t be as straight forward as all that though. Additionally, until he can find an opening, Terry will enter the running to become the next King.

It works as a popularity contest of sorts. The characters have a few months to rally people to the cause and whoever has the most popularity on election day is the winner. The top 3-5 candidates are also protected by the King’s magic so they can’t be assassinated. That was a really clever ploy by the previous King because otherwise this would just become a big battle of strength right off the bat. He really prevented that. Sure, it doesn’t apply to all candidates but that makes sense too since you would just have a lot of people entering only so they could be protected.

The world building here is quite good and of course you have a fairly large party of characters who all get a significant amount of screen time. It’s one of those things that makes RPGs so engaging. What other form of media can give you 70 hours of content like this? For a movie series that would be at least 35 movies. For a TV show, we’re talking 200+ episodes, which happens but it’s still rare. A video game gives you all of this in one shot and so you can tell early on that this will be an elite game. The more you play, the more the plot really begins to expand more and more to include everything that is going on.

The graphics are naturally really good. The game has 3 different kind of cutscenes, the ones that are completely hand drawn, the pre rendered full cinematics that take place in game, and then the text box versions. Nearly the whole game has voice acting as well so it becomes a really cinematic experience. It’s always super impressive to see this because it takes a lot of budget and time to include all of this in one game. Then we have the soundtrack which may not be one of my favorites but it does have quite a lot of tunes. They definitely didn’t cheap out on the budget here or anything like that.

The gameplay is your classic turn based combat style. You can swap characters in and out as you land your attacks. There are multiple classes based on the robot you have chosen for your character and then each of those have their own special abilities. You can use your magic currency to swap them in and out so there is a ton of strategy involved. Even 70 hours in you won’t have enough energy to unlock every class for every character, at least not within 70 hours. The final area is an excellent grinding spot though so if I spent maybe 10 more hours there I could have probably done that.

I had to train for around 5 hours at the end to defeat the final boss. Make no mistake, the game goes really hard on that one. The jump in difficulty is considerable and you will be challenged way more than any other boss in the game. That’s how it should be though, you want to end with a bang and since there is a good place to train, I had no problems there. There is one point in the game where you are attacked by a powerful boss and auto save prevents you from fighting any minions to level up. That was the only rough patch in the game because it’s possible that you could have really been soft locked there.

It felt like a big oversight for such a polished game and all comes down to the day system. My only negative with the game is the fact that it grabbed the Pikmin styled clock. Every mission is related to days of the month. So lets say you have 10 days for chapter 2, you have to try and beat as many side quests and tournament battles as you can before the days are up. If you are not strong enough to beat the boss by then, you will have to replay the whole 10 days or find a good place to grind. This means that it is not possible to complete every side quest and bonus material that you want to accomplish.

Perhaps there is some kind of perfect planning that would make this all possible but it would definitely not be easy. I had to skip on quite a few quests as a result and it also did make training a bit harder at times. Removing the day system would be a net positive in every area because it doesn’t provide any benefits to the game. All it does is ultimately hold things back which is not a good idea.

Like I said, that was really my only main issue though. The gameplay is on point and I liked the UI. The hub world is easy to navigate and likewise the quests all make a lot of sense. The game was very well thought out in all the other areas and the sheer amount of content and gameplay mechanics are so vast that I can’t even go into them all. I don’t see myself ever attempting to get the Platinum in this game because there is so much content and it would take forever, but it is there for the extra replay value. When you consider everything, then this is definitely a full 100+ hour game and you don’t see a ton of those.

Overall, Metaphor is definitely an excellent game. I recommend it to anyone looking for a good title. It can definitely get rather dark so you should know what you’re getting into. The story is very captivating though and it’s never going for try hard edgy the whole time. The villains do sometimes get off rather easy considering the scope of their crimes though. Some might disagree with me on what it means to get off easy here but a last second redemption arc does little to redeem a character in my eyes after a certain point. I’d definitely be up for a sequel to this game someday. Just take away the calendar system and this will really be perfect.

Overall 9/10

Sword Art Online: Fractured Daydream Review

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It’s time to enter the world of Sword Art Online for the ultimate crossover hype! Lets just say this is one of those games that you can’t put down. It’s a really great experience that keeps you at the edge of your seats. The story may be shorter than the average game in the franchise but the crossover appeal more than makes up for that. It’s just such a good story and this is what I would have liked to have seen for Jump Force, the latest Super Smash, Marvel vs Capcom, etc. This game understands what people want to see in crossovers like this, which is a lot of unique character interactions.

The story begins with Kirito and his friends taking down some monsters and having fun in ALO. One thing that doesn’t make sense though is how Quinella is hanging out with the crew and Kirito doesn’t question this. Well, it turns out this is because the various worlds have all been warped and the characters have had their memories sealed. This didn’t work on Quinella since she is generally too powerful for any hax and she wakes Kirito up. The two of them must now wake everyone up and figure out exactly what is going on here. It’s also not just the heroes who have been awaken but the villains as well. Hopefully they are willing to play ball.

Now this is the one part of the story that will probably have you giving it the side glance just a bit. The odds of someone like Death Gun working with the heroes seems slim to none. Additionally some villains just deserve to get beat up the whole time like Oberon. Some villains make sense for the redemption arc like Heathcliff but that’s not the case for the majority. I suppose at best you could say this just works because the villains know they would be absolutely crushed if they try anything. It’s not the most convincing argument but it’s the best that I’ve got.

The graphics were really solid with this one. The character designs even felt a bit more light novel inspired which works well. It’s a very colorful game and they really nailed the feeling of seeing all of the different game environments mesh into one. Meanwhile the soundtrack is pretty fun as well. I will admit I was hoping for a lyrical song at the end though since the series is so well known for that. It was pretty surprising now to have that included in some fashion. The grand finale still felt really epic with all of the characters getting their hype dialogue but this could have really helped to push it over the edge.

Even with a fairly nice sized story mode, the game’s content is focused on the online. So that’s where most of the modes are and you will probably want to get the PS+ so you can really experience it. A large number of the trophies are connected to that as well so I’m not even going to get close to obtaining the platinum without it. Playing with friends and tackling the super bosses does sound like a good deal of fun though. It’s definitely an added bonus. There isn’t really any offline content outside of the story mode so you should keep that in mind in terms of replay value.

After you beat the game, you can aim to get a bunch of S ranks I suppose. The trophy related to that is for getting half of them so that doesn’t sound too bad to me. I got a few S ranks here and there and they would probably be even easier when replaying the levels since your characters are a lot stronger. Down the road that is the trophy I would aim for since it actually feels really achieveable. I won’t call it super easy or anything like that and it will take some time though.

While the gameplay can be a little slippery, I appreciate that each character plays in a way that is accurate to their game. The GGO characters have machine guns, zoom in, and all of the usual controls associated with a shooting game. the ALO players can fly and zip through the air which is really cool, etc. Then each character has their unique skills, a number of special attacks and more. The game absolutely put the effort in and I definitely appreciate that. This did feel like a fun anniversary treat for the fans and I hope we do get more Sword Art Online games. There are endless possibilities for a fun online environment like this so I don’t see why you would ever really need to stop. The days of adventuring with Kirito must go on!

Overall, This was an absolutely hype game all the way through. It’s probably my favorite of the Sword Art Onlines. Having this original story was a lot of fun and while the combat itself may not be the most advanced, I can see how they went with the more arcade style for online. This way anyone can just jump in and it’s easier to coordinate everybody. The large scale of this is fun and the story mode does work as a good intro to the online. Next time there is a free PS+ weekend I’ll definitely check it out even if just to get a few more trophies in there.

Overall 8/10