Category Archives: Game Reviews

The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap Review

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It’s time to play a Legend of Zelda game that has been on my wishlist for a super long time. I’ve wanted this game for years and so when they finally added it to the Nintendo Switch Online, I was pumped! Long had I waited for this one and I can tell you now that it absolutely lived up to the hype. It’s easily one of the best Legend of Zelda games that I have played. There are no annoying puzzles here and you really feel stronger as you get more items and power ups which is the way that it should go.

The story starts off with a mysterious sorcerer showing up and turning Princes Zelda and her subjects into stone. Only Link is able to escape but to defeat this new villain he will have to awaken the Master Sword! That won’t be easy but he is joined by a magician who has been trapped inside the form of a hat. Well, not the most impressive debut but he promises to be helpful and at least Link will not be alone now. Do the two of them have what it takes to claim victory here?

I do miss Ganondorf as that guy still has a lot more aura than the new villain here but Vaati is not bad. He has a cool design and can fight, I just didn’t find him nearly as impressive as good ole Ganon. Now there was a threat! Vaati could maybe get up there if he could just get a few more games I suppose. Zelda looks good here though. While she was taken by surprise and overwhelmed, she seemed like a capable leader and one of the Zelda versions that had a lot of personality.

So lets dive into the gameplay here. It’s an overhead platformer where you go through a lot of dungeons and lands in order to find the Master Sword elements and then save the world. There’s a lot of exploration going on here and while the main events tend to be linear, you have a lot of freedom in what you do on the way there. There are little pieces of rock that are scattered everywhere. Under bushes, dropped from enemies, etc. When you get those you can then try to find the civilian who has the matching piece. Almost every civilian has a rock but there are so many shapes that it can take a while to find the one that the villager has. Every time you make a match it unlocks either a new dungeon or a cool minion encounter that gets you a ton of rupees. A lot of the dungeons lead to useful items like extra heart pieces so I recommend doing as much matching as possible.

It’s a gameplay thing that I didn’t even realize was there until the very end of the game so the benefit at least was that I had a ton of pieces. I was handing them out for around an hour at least and it was cool to see the world opening up so much. In a lot of ways that is why this game succeeds, the world has such a high amount of replay value around every corner. You’re really incentivized to go out there and explore especially as you unlock more abilities. It feels a bit like Shantae where you have a noticeable power boost by the end. That series still does it best but Minish Cap is the best example that I have seen from the Legend of Zelda.

It also helps that the map is really good so you won’t get lost and of course there are a lot of quick travel points. So you don’t have to go everywhere by foot or anything like that. The benefits just keep on coming right? The hub world is really pleasant and the map is just small enough where the parts that you do have to walk through never feel intimidating. It’s really well crafted on every level. Then you have the actual dungeons where the puzzles are handled really well here. There’s nothing abstract like staring at a painting and trying to figure things out or anything like that. Yeah the puzzles can still be rather difficult but it’s in a very fair way. It all feels very legitimate which I appreciate.

The boss battles are also nice and creative here. Definitely no recycled bosses or anything like that. The dungeons are all unique and every weapon tends to be fairly useful. The only exception is probably the boomerang. I was pretty excited to find that one but in the end I never had any reason to use it. The arrows were simply better and the ammo for those was super jealous so I never ran out anyway. In general the game was very generous around the board. I would max out on the gems real quick for example and the same would go for all of the weapons.

I guess what I’m saying is that this game had a ton of great quality of life features. It was always a lot of fun every step of the way and I definitely appreciated that. After all you want to be having a lot of fun at all times and that’s what happens here. It sets a really high bar for the other Legend of Zelda games like Spirit Tracks to try and follow so we’ll see if they have what it takes there. Lets just say that I have some really big doubts there. Minish Cap is one of those titles that is just a bit too ahead of its time.

The graphics were definitely really good here. The character designs were on point and the backgrounds were nice and bright. Meanwhile the soundtrack was on point as well. The tunes were all fairly iconic and it’s another example of how this game got the big budget. They definitely spared no expense on this one and even the gimmick of turning small for some of the puzzles was fun instead of being annoying. That takes effort!

Overall, The Minish Cap is a great game. I really felt like the developers gave it everything that they had here and held nothing back. There are so many unlockables that I didn’t even get to explore a lot of them because the game ended. 100% completing the game would probably be a real trial with how many extra caves there are and such but it’s very satisfying to see the new areas. The gameplay is smooth and the graphics are solid. What more could you ask for right? You absolutely need to check this one out as soon as possible!

Overall 8/10

Ghost Rider Review

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It’s time for an old school superhero game. This one’s not trying anything fancy and is really just focused on letting you smash as many demons as possible. This works out well though and while the game could maybe use some polish in some areas, it always keeps up a fast pace so you are bound to have a great time here.

The game starts off with Ghost Rider being told by Mephisto to destroy a bunch of demons or the main heroine is going to be taken out of the picture. So Ghost Rider will reluctantly be helping Mephisto to stop Blackheart but if the demon lord lets his guard down for even a moment then it’ll be all over. Ghost Rider is a being of vengeance after all, he will never relent and he will never stop. His abilities are simply too powerful.

The story’s really just a cover to start on the beat em up gameplay. It’s technically about as thin as they come, particularly for a newer console like the PS2. The cutscene are still a lot of fun but the sound gets real low for those which is a really odd decision. I would have the volume in the 20s for the gameplay, then I’d quickly have to shoot it up to the 30s for the cutscenes. It was a lot of back and forth there and there’s no subtitles option.

Now the gameplay is where this one really excels. You have your standard attacks, power moves, jumping attacks, shotgun, super attack, and super mode. You have to carefully decide which moves you want to use when taking the enemies down. Shotgun, and Supermode use the same energy. Personally I would say to stick with the mode since it lasts a while so it’s way more useful than the gun. The shotgun is only good to use if you ae fighting one of the enemies who is protected by a barrier that won’t break until your combo level is high enough. Those guys can be annoying but the shotgun does help with that. See your combo meter goes up by switching up your attacks rather than a total number of blows.

A good tip for that though is to use your super move. If you have it properly leveled up then it automatically raises your combo level enough to destroy any barrier. The game is also extremely generous with the EXP. Trust me you’ll be blasting through the levels like it’s nobody’s business so you’ll have maxed out all of the abilities early on. From there it’s really a breeze. I would say the game is on the easier side. I died like 2-3 times total and they were all because I fell off of the stage. There was one tricky elevator ride where the edges always got real close real fast. Beyond that I didn’t have a problem with the enemies.

Mainly just make sure you jump a lot since the jumping combo is super handy and don’t worry about saving energy. You earn it so fast that you should just focus on blasting away at any enemy that stands before you. Then you keep it moving. Your super attack is also so good that it can take out a clean 1/3 of even the final boss’s health bar. Not bad right? It’s why you want to level these attacks up real fast.

If you let your guard down or get too sloppy then you can still lost some lives here. When I say that the game is easy, I’m certainly not saying that it’s a cakewalk or anything like that. It will still take some effort here and good planning but as long as you fight carefully then you should be okay. The game has 30 levels but the overall length is fairly short at around 4 hours or so. The longest levels can go up to 12 minutes but the shortest ones are under 2 so it really depends on the stage. Around half of them are the racing levels which tend to always be on the short side. I did enjoy the gameplay a lot with those though. The motorcycle controlled really well the whole time and the shotgun did work wonders while here.

Of course I always like beat em up gameplay so the combat levels were also really solid. You had takedown throws and everything. The way you recover health is to stand next to fire which I thought was a pretty interesting way to go about it. Meanwhile one of the highlights here is the rock music. There is nonstop rock music in just about every level in the game. When you’re fighting just about any kind of demon it shows up and really gets the blood pumping. The game properly understood that when you’re playing as Ghost Rider you want to feel that special intensity since you’re such a powerful force. It’s safe to say that this really helped elevate the game up further. It was so good.

The visuals were more on the standard side. They were good and all but definitely could have popped out a little more. I like all of the fire everywhere and the character designs are on point so that’s what counts. Blackheart even gets to show his true demonic side this time which was really nice to see. Ghost Rider really needs to get another game at some point, there’s a lot you can do with him.

Overall, Ghost Rider was a pretty good game. You can tell that it is a movie cash-in in some ways but on the other hand I don’t think it was totally phoned in. You do get to use Ghost Rider’s chain a lot and the moveset really does a good job of working out the way you would expect it to for this fighter. There’s enough content to keep me entertained all the while here so I really have no complaints there. You can get it for a really good nowadays too. So if you haven’t played this game yet then you should definitely change that!

Overall 7/10

Golden Axe Review

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Golden Axe is one of those retro games that just about everyone has heard of and for good reason too. It’s a very classic beat em up that got several sequels and the gameplay is very smooth. It’s also got a bit of a story to it so there is more of a budget than some of the other titles. The difficulty level is super high but what else is new right? At this point that’s really just par for the course.

The gameplay is fairly straight forward here. You can swing your sword, hit opponents at close quarters, and you can throw them. I found the most effective attack was to jump and swing your sword. This is because most enemies can’t reach you in the air which is already a super big advantage and then another good bonus is that it knocks the opponent over. So if you were getting trapped in the corner or something like that then this will give you a whole lot of space. Trust me, it’s a really good way to reset your positioning.

The only downside is that the attack isn’t particularly strong so you will have to use it a lot. Still beats getting hit constantly while trying to use the normal attacks though right? I would say to never use the standard hits unless it’s a one to one because almost inevitably the opponent will land a counter attack on you somehow. For some reason your hits just don’t really have much of a stun effect on them so the opponent is able to squeeze in a hit sometimes. Let me tell you, your health bar goes down really quick so those hits tend to add up before you know it.

That’s the part of the game that I would definitely like to have tightened up a bit. The beat em up style works better with large hit boxes where I can really be sure that my attacks are landing. You need at least some hit stun on the opponents and that’s really not much of a thing here. It makes it so you have to go with some cheesy strategies like the jumping hit that I mentioned. I really don’t think that’s the intended way to always launch an attack but it worked the best so why wouldn’t I use it right?

The graphics here are really good and I would say that’s one of the more impressive parts of the game. The colors really stand out and the stages are well designed. The soundtrack is also good with a lot of energy and life built into it. They didn’t hold back on the technical elements. As for the game’s length, I’d say it’s around an hour or so. The difficulty should definitely add on a few hours to that though as you will not be beating most of these levels on your first shot.

Maybe if you find the best place to use the bombs that will help. I never really figured out how to be more efficient with those. I sort of just used them as I got more because otherwise I’d be filled up a few times and the extra bombs would go to waste. Only unfortunate thing is you use them all up at once, I couldn’t figure out how to make it so I would only use 1-2. There has to be a way to do that though.

That’s about it for my gameplay tips here. It’s fairly straight forward so it’s really just about executing the attacks with perfect timing as opposed to learning anything fancy. You can always try to wait for the opponent to lunge at you. That way you step out of the way and then launch a counter attack. That’s actually a pretty effective way to handle things but not all enemies will do that. You can also cause an enemy to fall off the stage. Some minions like skeletons will literally just walk off the map if you bait them, while others require a quick jumping hit to take them over the edge. Either way it’s not super hard to do and it is really efficient since you are skipping a fight so I would say to keep that in mind. I feel like most beat em ups don’t really do that so it’s a nice little touch there.

The toughest enemies in the game are definitely the knights with a shield. I’m still not sure what the best way to deal with them is. Their blades are so long that they can hit you while you are jumping and they don’t let you get up close to hit them. I mostly just kept moving up and down to try and hit them as soon as they appeared in front of me but that’s hardly foolproof and I definitely took a lot of hard hits in the process.

Overall, Golden Axe is a pretty good game. It may not be the longest one out there and I had a few suggestions to improve the gameplay but on the whole I think it did pretty well for itself. I’m certainly ready to go and check out that sequel. It’s yet another game that would work really well in a modern setting. I can picture this becoming a 3D beat em up like Dynasty Warriors on the PS5 and just enjoying the process of taking all of the opponents down a few pegs. That would be a lot of fun. In the meantime if you have the Switch Online I would definitely recommend checking this one out.

Overall 7/10

Alisia Dragoon Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall 6/10

Contra: Hard Corps Review

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All right now this was a really fun shooter game. It definitely went all out with the premise. We got a lot of action, high end graphics and a good story. The game even had decisions you would be forced to make which would decide what stage you played next. The fact that the decisions actually matter is impressive since some games really mess that up. For this one you actually have to think about what route you want to take. For example in one level you have to choose between heading back to base to save a hostage or finally taking out the main villain. I opted for the latter because the sooner he is knocked off of the board, the sooner everyone will be at peace and safe anyway.

So Contra plays like a super intense 2D shooter. You have your machine gun with unlimited ammo and have to shoot at tons of enemies who are attacking you from all sides. As you defeat them you can gradually inch your way further and eventually you reach the end of the level. The bosses are definitely intense so you gotta keep on blasting until you win. In some ways the bosses can be a bit easier than the normal enemies sometimes since you only have to dodge from one direction but it’s super relative. Either way you will be dying a whole lot in this one.

However, it’s one of the most enjoyable Genesis games that I’ve played either way. It’s all so fast paced the whole time so even when you lose you can just jump right back on the saddle. Beating it normally would be an incredibly difficult endeavor though. It’ to be expected with Contra and since most Genesis games tend to be very tough anyway, just multiply that by 2. The graphics here are really good and it’s another Genesis game that is definitely on point with the amount of effort they put into it. The soundtrack is good as well and of course the gameplay is really smooth.

Aside from your main weapon, you also have a ton of side weapons that you can get during the levels. Enjoy them while you can because you lose them just as quick as you got them. That is, unless you can be really careful to never get hit but realistically you are definitely going to take some hits. There are too many enemies to dodge them all. Fortunately the main machine gun is super good either way. I never found myself needing another weapon because this one would do the job just fine. It’s a simple point and shoot and the unlimited ammo is really what takes it to the next level.

I love it when games have unlimited ammo so that earned another star in my book. I think this is a game that would absolutely be high tier with a AAA remake at some point. There’s a ton you can do with it. It’s sort of like GI Joe meets Halo. The high tech aliens going up against the government fighters with modern graphics would be real intense. They need to make sure they keep up this same level of intensity though. I want tons of bullets whizzing by at all times.

Overall, Contra: Hard Corps was definitely a pretty solid game. It balances the difficulty with the fun factor extremely well. At no point do you feel like just putting the game away. You are always ready to try another level and give it another go. The story is very compelling as well so there are a lot of reasons to play this game. Just keep an eye out for your reaction times because you’re going to need them to be at peak performance to handle this title. This game feels like it was ahead of its time with how polished it is. It could have easily been a title in the next generation and I wouldn’t have even flinched.

Overall 7/10

Comix Zone Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall 6/10

Super Fantasy Zone Review

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It’s time to jump into one of the better Genesis games on the Switch Online. This one’s a fun platformer that feels a bit like a Kirby game but manages to have a good identity of its own. It’s a really fun 2D shooter and while the game does feel rather difficult in the sense that you will be dying a lot, it’s a really pleasant experience. Also by this point you’re used to all of the Genesis games just being really tough to be honest.

So you’re playing as a cool sentient ship trying to stop the dark master. Interestingly there are no cutscenes until the ending but the ending actually recaps the entire game for you. So in retrospect it’s like we did get a really complete game and I appreciate that. It’s just a super odd design choice. Maybe for some reason it was easier to put everything at the end? With the way each screen ends, it feels like maybe the original intent was to put one page after each world but they just gave up on the idea.

There are 8 main levels in the game and each one involves you having to shoot around 12 specific objects while dodging a ton of enemy fighters. Once you do that, then you fight the big boss at the end and I can tell you that he is absolutely not holding back. You have to usually hit 12 different weak points before the machine goes down and typically each point doubles as an energy gun as well which doesn’t make things any easier. So a lot of the battles are about patience, wait for your opening and then strike. If you go too fast you will absolutely be hit and crushed each time.

Now one aspect of the game that I didn’t realize until way later on is that there’s a shop. An occasional balloon shows up with the word shop on it but due to a misunderstanding with a bullet hitting me at the wrong time, I thought that touching the shop would cause me to lose a life. So I ended up avoiding it each time when I should have been going in there for my power ups. You can level up your main gun, bomb, and the speed at which you move. I highly recommend getting the laser gun no matter what.

The level of damage it does is absolutely insane. The only downside is that the ammo doesn’t last long but it can crush any boss and make short work out of each objective. You earn a lot of money every time you complete a chapter so just go ahead and buy this whenever the shop appears. I’m not exactly sure what causes it to appear though, whether it’s time, losing a life, or something else. It seemed pretty random to me but it was a real lifesaver for the climax.

The final boss is one of those classic gauntlets where you have to re-fight every previous boss in the game. Let me tell you, that’s definitely not easy. It’s a whole lot of action but in a way I do think the bosses tend to be easier than the minion parts of each level because of how many guys are shooting at you. This way it’s really just one opponent to deal with so it could be worse. Just be patient since there’s no time limit and blast away whenever you can.

Like I mentioned before the graphics are really solid here. It’s all very bright and colorful. Meanwhile the soundtrack is also above average. It has a lot of energy all the way through and makes you feel like you’re at a party. The whole game is super vibrant and this also makes the experience very memorable. It may not be the longest game out there but you’ll have a good deal of fun. Some modern titles could even take notes on just how smooth the gameplay is. You’re always in control of what is going on and turning is very seamless. I would go left-right-left-right real fast to blast away at both sides and it would work.

There are a few cheesy opponents who will suddenly teleport into the area you’re at which causes you to immediately lose. I thought that was really not all that legit since I don’t see how you can react to that the first time. It is a bit RNG also because after rewinding they would teleport somewhere else next time. So watch out for those guys and try to clear the board as soon as possible so you go to the boss level and then the minions are all gone which is super handy.

Overall, Super Fantasy Zone is a pretty good game. The gameplay itself is a lot of fun and so is the soundtrack and graphics. I felt like the whole game is built around just having a good time which if you ask me is the way to go about it. It’s short but fulfilling all the way through and that difficulty will have you do a double take. There are times where it just feels like there is no way for you to dodge everything. That is when you really have to re-evaluate your place on the board and go back even further so that you can try different steps this time. If you have the Switch Online you should definitely give this one a download.

Overall 7/10

Strider Review

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It’s time to take a look at Strider which is a fairly fast paced title with a lot going on but unfortunately doesn’t manage to turn the corner and be a great title. I mainly blame this on the gameplay which I found to be rather slippery at times so it was hard to land blows without falling. Ultimately you’re going to be replaying the levels a lot because some of these attacks are crazy.

As the Strider you have to stop a bunch of villains from succeeding in their objective. If anyone can do it…you can. So you have a cool sword and have to get to work on crushing the opponents. There are only 5 levels in the game but each level is fairly long so this actually ends up being a bit of a sizable Genesis title. I’m not saying it’s going to be 5 hours or so but it definitely does last a bit longer than you may have expected. If the game was easy then it probably would be like 30-60 minutes but don’t expect to be flying through this title.

The first difficult part is that your blade gets shorter the more you use it. So if you spam it too much then it becomes tiny and it’s hard to hit an enemy’s weak point. This really got me in the final level because the enemy is placed in a way where your short blade just can’t reach it. So I was fighting that guy for ages wondering why he wouldn’t go down and then eventually it made sense. Good game design or a mean trick? I’ll leave that up to you to decide. The main thing I will say is that I’d rather have a consistent weapon. Then there are a few gravity bosses where once you start flying in a circle you end up dying. I couldn’t figure out how to get out of that loop.

I assume there has to be a way to do it since no boss is invincible like that but it was definitely a crazy journey. I had to retry that boss so many times. Then the final boss has telekinetic abilities that serve as one hit KO moves once they are close enough and I wasn’t ready for that either. He was just throwing me around and I can’t imagine beating that guy in a normal way. The blasts are just so fast and there’s no way to outrun them.

I guess what I’m getting at here is that the game is unrelentingly difficult but not always in the best ways. You want a game that really challenges you and makes you have to wonder what you’re going to do but this one takes that a step further. It makes it so that it’s nearly impossible for you to beat it normally and I think it would have been nice to have given Strider more abilities. Maybe some kind of a blaster which would solve the issue of always rushing in only to find that you have a short blade.

The enemies all have blasters, rockets, and other projectiles so I don’t think this would be a crazy ask. It would just help to balance things if anything and you know how much I like to have some good balance. At least I can say that the graphics are really good. There are some excellent shots throughout the game and the final landscape is really good. The game was ahead of its time in that regard. The soundtrack also isn’t bad. It’s not quite Mega-Man but it’s more advanced than the average title.

There may not be much replay value but this is mainly a single player title where that’s not really the point anyway. The idea here is to beat the game and then you’re done. Since the game is fairly long for a Genesis title that’s not really a problem. You’ve got a good amount of value here so long as you enjoy the gameplay. Hey I may not have been the biggest fan of it but it’s still possible you may enjoy it. Just beware that your jump has so many animation frames in it that it makes you a complete sitting duck for a while so you probably shouldn’t jump too much.

Overall, Strider had some potential but ultimately I didn’t think it was a very good game. Its biggest offense is really that the game just wasn’t very fun. In a lot of ways that is the worst offense for any game though because that’s the whole reason that you’re playing right? I’d be interested in a more modern Strider game with a lot of quality of life improvements because there is potential here. In the meantime you can do a lot better with the other Genesis titles that are on the Switch Online. I recommend sticking to those titles and only check this one out if you are super curious.

Overall 4/10

Granblue Fantasy: Relink Review

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It’s time for a pretty top tier RPG that came out a little while ago. It’s a pretty long game so there is plenty of time to squeeze in a bunch of storylines, hype characters, and lots of action. The levels also get rather difficult so you definitely have to make sure you level up and beat a bunch of enemies or it’ll catch up to you at the worst possible time. You can’t let that happen or it’s all over. This game definitely surpassed my expectations and really ended up being a standout hit.

The general plot has the main character sailing the skies with his friend Lyria and the rest of the crew. They are still trying to get to the final island at the edge of the skies similar to what Luffy is doing on the waters but along the way they always end up helping people in different villages. Lyria is linked to the lead with their souls so if one dies then the other will too. So they both have to do their best to stay strong and throughout their adventures they have learned how to tame giant monsters and really fight as a team. Well their biggest threat is here now as a mysterious group wants to kidnap Lyria for nefarious purposes. This group is incredibly powerful…can they be stopped?

The game sort of starts you off right in the middle of the journey but even if you haven’t played the other games or watched the anime I would argue that it’s fairly new player friendly. You quickly get an understanding of the team dynamics and personalities and their goal is simple enough. Meanwhile you have the villains jumping in and getting in everyone’s way which makes enough sense. The game is stand alone enough for this to all be easy while still connecting to the overall plot by the end. So yeah there’s really a good story here all the way and Gran really has to work on getting stronger if he wants to keep on protecting Lyria.

You have a good amount of twists, betrayals, and hype moments scattered throughout the game. Another reason why I really enjoy RPGs is because in general they are long enough to get all of that content in. If a game is short then there’s only so much that you can do with the story after all. The character designs are on point and things even get rather high tier by the end. These characters are definitely not messing around.

The gameplay is a 3D action title where you go in and smash away at your enemies. You have 4 different special moves per character and you choose which ones you want to use from the menu. You learn so many different ones that it can be hard to decide on just 4. Additionally as you level up you can keep on adding to your character tree. There’s no way to power everything up and all of the characters share points so you can choose to put everything into one character and make him a beast in combat or you can keep it fairly equal and distribute the whole time. It’s really up to you. I went ahead and gave it all to Gran since I played as him the whole time. I figured I should give myself the best possible chance to win and I’d rather trust myself than the A.I.

I suppose you could make that same case in favor of powering up your partners since they’ll need the stats more than I might but in general I like being strong enough to take on the boss as needed. The gameplay mechanics aren’t all explained very well so there’s some stuff I learned rather late in the game. One is that you die for good when your team’s danger meter goes all the way up. I thought I just had to revive people before the meter went out but every death adds onto the total which is why sometimes it would seem like my team died for no reason. Also you can speed up your revival by smashing the control stick in each direction. So I highly recommend doing that because every minute seriously counts.

For what to power up on the tree, I just did that randomly. It’s probably better to have a plan but you get so many power ups that it just felt more efficient to be throwing them all around. I’d be pretty strong either way. There’s even more to the gameplay after all of this but have fun exploring it as you play. There’s so many different ways to tackle a level and you can keep on switching characters in your party which is cool. The game has some very occasional platforming which feels a bit out of place but it’s pleasant enough. Just know that you will be mainly focusing on the battles either way.

The sheer amount of content in the game is super impressive though. Aside from the story which is already really long, you have a ton of side quests, missions, post game content, character stories for every character, etc. Getting the platinum trophy for this game and clearing everything probably will take you at least 60 hours if not longer. They really went all out on this game and I appreciate it. No corners were cut and it’s clear that the developers put a lot of care into this one. The boss battles are spectacular and the whole thing is really a lot of fun.

The graphics are super good as you would expect. There are even a few battles mid cutscene which are always a lot of fun. Then you have the soundtrack which is pretty good as well. On the technical side the game definitely does not disappoint. When you are solid all across the board like that then there is really nothing that can stop you. This is a game that I won’t be forgetting anytime soon and definitely deserves a lot of praise. I’m really going to have to keep my eye out for more Granblue games when they come out now.

Overall, Granblue Fantasy: Relink is definitely an excellent game. It’s really got everything you could want here from great gameplay to a compelling story. It’s no small potatoes either how there is so much voice acting in the game. It always helps to make a game feel newer and this one feels like it’s got a bit of everything. Even 20 years from now, this game will still look and feel really good which is why it excels. The quality of life features are all intact and there are no real pain points here.

Overall 9/10

X2: Wolverine’s Revenge Review

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All right it’s time to jump in for some Wolverine adventures. This game plays out a lot differently than what I would have expected though. The focus isn’t really on the action and slashing the foes in front of you. Instead it is mainly a stealth game where you have to be nimble and hide in the shadows like Carmen Sandiego. When you find an opening, then you strike but otherwise you are taken out of the game real quick. The shots just do too much damage.

The basic plot though is that Wolverine has been poisoned and is slowly dying. He needs to find a cure and fast or it’s all over for him. The X-Men would help but they’re all rather busy which isn’t a great excuse but hey it’s something. So Wolverine will have to travel around the globe to find the cure and that means tangling with old enemies like Sabertooth and the whole Weapon X group. If anyone could handle this though, it would be Wolverine. He’s been through a lot over the year and isn’t about to throw in the towel just yet. No way!

So the stealth is my main issue with the game though mainly because of how it’s executed. You could absolutely pull off a stealth Wolverine game where it’s like he’s going back to his wild side and you’re picking everyone off one by one. Yes it may be a bit of an odd decision but not necessarily a bad one. No, the real problem here is how the levels are really long so if you make one mistake then you have to go all the way back to the beginning. That part is absolutely brutal because some of these levels are 15-20 minutes long. You’re losing so much every time and of course it makes you a bit impatient so then you end up losing again and now you’re in a rather rough cycle.

The easiest fix here would have absolutely been to add more checkpoints. That’s all you have to do. Add in those checkpoints and you are really set for anything. Then you can stomach the stealth a lot better and losing isn’t as bad since you can quickly get back to where you were at. I guess the game was really intentionally trying to be difficult but this was the wrong way to do it. Give me a challenge but don’t make me keep on replaying large parts of a game. I’m trying to progress as much as possible.

Then the few times we do get a boss fight with actual combat, there is always a gimmick around. For Magneto you have to chase him a lot while getting hit by objects and then if he runs over to his generator for a few seconds you lose by default. The final boss has unlimited health so you actually can’t beat her in hand to hand combat and are forced to go use some background objects. Likewise when you fight Sabertooth you have to throw him into a train. He can’t be beaten normally.

See a pattern here? Again that doesn’t have to be a bad thing but it felt like the game absolutely did not want to let you fight any of the opponents straight up. Even fighting the minions would usually get a little dicey because their guns deal so much damage. So what you have to do with those is hide behind a wall for a while as your health very slowly starts to recover. Have a book or your phone handy because the game is not kidding for this part. They actually want you to just slowly get the health back. Cmonnnnnnnnn

The actual combat gameplay isn’t too bad but it’s a bit sloppy. The hitboxes don’t always match the character models so a lot of times you are hitting the opponent but he doesn’t feel it and then he misses and so the two of you keep on taking shot at each other but neither one is making much headway. Eventually you connect and he goes down but it doesn’t feel very polished at all. The budget for this game was not nearly as high as it should have been and the game knows it.

As you get deeper into the game you will learn how to work around this and get a win. It takes time but you won’t be stuck. Some parts are just really hard to guess like the final phase of the final boss. For reasons unknown that boss is completely invincible so you have to go to the edge and wait for her to be in position to fall off. Why is this so bad? Because it’s the 4th phase of the fight so most likely you’re going to try and attack her since that makes sense and then you die. I don’t see how you could possibly guess on the first go around and so that means the game is dooming you to lose at least one life there. Not cool if you ask me.

It’s like an invisible block that makes you die in Mario Maker. It’s just not a fair way to go out and so you end up blaming the devs. This game has quite a few moments like that and each time it makes you shake your head. You know that you did not deserve to lose like that and so you’re wondering why the game had to mess with you. Okay so I had a lot of issues with the game design but on the positive side I’d say the graphics are fairly good. All of the characters and their costumes stand out pretty well. They look very classic all the way and the level designs are also good. A map would have been really nice but there’s only a few that are big enough to get lost in.

Then we have the soundtrack which is actually pretty good. There are some tense themes here and in general there is a wide variety. The sound clips at the start of a mission can get old as you keep on hearing them over and over again though when you lose. “Stay quiet, Stay low, Stay Alive!” is something I had to hear Wolverine say dozens and dozens of times. It’s why every game should allow you to skip cutscenes and should not replay the same dialogue option every time although I now that’s a bit harder to work around.

In terms of length I’d say the game is fairly satisfying. That’s in part due to the difficulty of course but still this is not a game that you will be conquering in one day and that’s important to note. It’s going to be sticking around for the longhaul and really making sure that you bring your A game because without it you really will get stuck on the levels. There’s not really any replay value unless there is a bonus ending of sorts but there is a challenge mode where you can have some fun in.

Overall, X2: Wolverine’s Revenge is a game where the gameplay sacrificed the story’s effort. I actually thought the story was really good with a lot of characters running around everywhere. It managed to stay exciting the whole time and the ending leaves a ton of cliffhangers for a possible sequel. The game was having quite a bit of fun here even if you knew the odds were not great that they would be able to complete this plot. Well, if you’re looking for an old superhero game that you haven’t played yet, this one is just obscure enough where it could fit the bill. It’s not going to touch most of the big ones or even come close to those but you definitely can’t call it a rehash or anything like that. It was trying its own thing from the start.

Overall 5/10