Category Archives: Game Reviews

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: Mutant Nightmare Review

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This game has been one of those titles that I’ve had my eye on for decades now. I owned the first two after all so I would need to play the third one too. Unfortunately the gameplay’s been overhauled quite a bit for this one so it’s not quite as solid as the first two, but it’s still a good addition. I like the way they use clips from the show and then new cutscenes to really build the narrative here. The game is longer and even a bit harder than you might have expected as well. So you really have to go in with both eyes open and then hope for the best.

The game has 4 episodes here. The first one deals with the dinosaur war, the second has you taking on Bishop and is goonsquad, and the third one pits you against the Shredder! The final episode brings you up against a monster mutant and you’re in actual nightmares so it makes sense within the title. The final episode really amps up the difficulty although it has less chapters than the other episodes and over half of them have no cutscenes so it’s a lot emptier to compensate for that. There are also a lot of side levels you can do to grind for energy points and buy upgrades.

The upgrades are rather important here because they’re how you learn how to extend your combos as well as hold more scrolls. Scrolls can increase your base state like health and attack power as well as give you other kind of benefits. The health/damage increases are your best bets though. They can make you a real monster out there. I didn’t bother collecting a whole lot of scrolls on my way to the top so I really had to change that as I went through.

A pretty cool thing about the game is that all 4 turtles are fighting at once here. It’s not like the other games where you maybe have 2. The computer also controls them well so they aren’t just there to make you look bad or anything like that. Now, don’t expect them to be amazing. You’ll still have to do most of the work but they actively contribute which is all that I can really ask for here. Usually it feels like the A.I. just stands around in these kinds of games.

I would recommend maxing out your standard attack combo as soon as possible. The combos are level gated so it will take a little while but it’s the best way to go in. Until you have maxed out a combo, your attacks will just stop midway which makes it easy to hit you. So you are going to need to watch out for that. Damage adds up fast in this game so even the foot soldiers will take you out if you’re not careful. Never be afraid to turn back and regroup for a while.

You can use commands to help instruct the other 3 turtles during combat and you can also use super attacks. I never really understood how to do the inputs for the energy ball but the other attacks went easily enough. I ended up choosing Raphael as my character but I didn’t realize he would end up being one of the weakest. Technically I would recommend you pick Leonardo if you ever buy this game. His special attack and general moveset are just so much better than Raphael’s.

The graphics for the game have aged pretty well. The levels look sharp and there are quite a lot of character models. You can feel that the game got a pretty good budget here. Additionally the soundtrack is also classic so I have no issues here. This is a game that is just a lot of fun to play through all the way. Even when you run into a setback, it doesn’t take long to go and train to come back for the rematch. It’s the beauty of shorter levels since it is only when they are very long that you dread having to redo things.

There is some replay value here although I wouldn’t say a ton. You can search for the CDs and Scrolls in each level so that you can say you’ve beaten the game with 100% clear rate. That’s certainly not easy but it is doable. If you pay attention during your initial run, you can probably get over half of them naturally, maybe even 80%. They will help you for the final bosses (The scrolls at least) so that is something to keep in mind.

There are also some bonus modes like time attack and score attack. They each only have one level but every bit of extra content was nice to see. The game definitely went above and beyond when it needed to. So why did I not like the gameplay as much? Well, it’s more about minigames and less time was spent on the combat. You have levels on the hoverboards, first person levels with the shuriken, and also hangglider levels.

For the beat em up sections, often times you can skip all the enemies and just run to the goal. Sometimes you have to fight though and when fighting you’ll quickly notice that it’s very slippery. You end up just running past your enemy when trying to combo him or you will land the blows and they don’t have a lot of oomph to them. It feels more arcade style than the last two and just a bit watered down. Not terrible or anything but the combat just used to be noticeably better which means this is naturally going to lag behind the other two by a bit.

Overall, Mutant Nightmare is still a good game. I’m glad to have finally gotten a chance to play it after all these years. It’s definitely been waiting, that’s for sure. The difficulty will probably survive folks who were expecting a walk in the park and so I would definitely recommend checking this one out. It has aged pretty well and it’s also so nostalgic to go back to the Gamecube days. You do not want to miss out on this one!

Overall 6/10

Mario & Wario Review

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It is always a shame when you have a pretty solid game that is really ruined by a single aspect of it. Unfortunately that is exactly what happened here. The game has solid graphics and an interesting level system but alas the controls are just dreadful. They actually make the Wii Remote look good in comparison! Trust me, you’re going to be feeling rather down about the whole thing by the time you’re done. Still, this was the first new Mario game I’ve played in quite a while so that was pretty cool.

The game lets you choose between Mario, Yoshi, and Peach. Naturally I had to go with Peach because she doesn’t get many chances to shine, but also because her walking speed is slower. That is actually very important in this game because the character is always moving. How it works is that Wario has thrown a bucket over the hero’s head and so you play as a fairy who has to keep the road clear. You will tap on blocks to summon them in front of the player or attack enemies who would have been in the way otherwise. This takes a lot of precision timing and you have to react quickly. So when the player is slower, it ends up helping out a lot.

There isn’t really a plot beyond that unfortunately. There are 10 worlds here and each world has around 10 levels in it So that’s a lot of levels but they tend to be very quick. Most levels you can beat in around 2 minutes or so. The levels start to become more like puzzles once you get deeper into them though. In World 10 there were several times where I just didn’t know where to go. That’s rather impressive in a game like this where there are only a limited amount of actions you can take.

You really have to memorize how high the springs will send you here for example. Otherwise you won’t reach the target or you will go way past it. So it’s definitely something to chew on a bit there. You can use the fairy to reverse Peach’s direction as well which will be key in the final levels. You have to do this a whole lot and with quick timing to avoid the various traps. I can tell you this, without the rewind feature this would have really been a very difficult game to complete.

The artstyle is pretty fun and has definitely aged well. It’s something that Nintendo in particular has done really well over the years. The soundtrack also isn’t bad. It’s not extremely good or anything like that but the main tune doesn’t get too tiring even after hearing it for a large chunk of the game. It’s clear that some real thought was put into the game and that’s why it is a shame that the controls are no good. The gameplay itself is fine. It’s all about pointing and clicking but I have no problems with that.

No, where the problem lies is in the controller itself. To play this game on the Switch Online you need to use the Joypad and then convert it into mouse mode. Nobody wants to use mouse mode. I don’t even know why this is a thing in the first place. Sometimes Nintendo just develops new gimmicks for no real reason. It has really hurt this game and it will hurt others if it continues to be a mandatory style of playing.

There is some replay value here as you don’t have to clear every level to get to the final one. If you go back and do them all, you unlock a final boss level. So you may want to do that to see how the story really ends. Ultimately I just couldn’t get past the controls to do that though. They are really draining the whole time and so you don’t get a whole lot of enjoyment out of them. You’ll die quite a few times even when you know exactly what to do because the controller just isn’t listening to you. Those are always the worst ways to go out and you’ll be left just shaking your head.

Overall, Mario & Wario may have finally arrived on modern consoles but unfortunately it should have been left to history rather than return in this form. It tarnishes the Mario brand and ends up being a waste even with Wario being the big villain. This is the kind of game that could desperately use some kind of high budget remake. I think there are many ways they could improve upon the source material without drastically changing things. It could be a worthy puzzle rival to Mario vs DK. In the meantime though, this is the kind of game you’ll want to skip. If you have the Switch Online then you may as well check it out for free but otherwise I certainly wouldn’t spend any money on it.

Overall 3/10

Fire Emblem Shadows Review

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I finally got around to trying out the new Fire Emblem game that Nintendo launched for mobile. On one hand I applaud them for finally bringing a new mobile title into the fray. It feels like it has certainly been a while. On the other hand….did they really have to force in more gimmicks? This would have been such a fun title if it was traditional Fire Emblem and instead they try to make it like Among Us and it doesn’t really work with this style. Ultimately this one won’t be a keeper for me.

The general story is pretty par for the course when it comes to Fire Emblem. A kingdom is overthrown and so the prince has to escape along with his trusty bodyguard. He meets up with two girls who seem nice enough, but then they find out that one of the 4 of them is an imposter. Who can it be? Well, the first time it’s the chipper girl with red hair, the next time it’s the other girl with black hair, and then it’s the main character! The last one ends up being a dream though and now you’re back to a full party. The prince needs to gather a lot of powerful allies and then bring his kingdom back to power. Can he pull this off?

To be clear, while the plot is rather straight forward, I still enjoyed it. Mainly due to the character designs being nice and colorful and the game having good presentation. The audio is good, the soundtrack is solid, and the writing is on point. So the story isn’t the problem here, its the gameplay. Think of this as a semi auto tactical game. The characters move on their own and attack on their own. You control the special abilities like healing and energy blasts. In any matchup there are 3 heroes, only one of those 3 is actually a villain.

If you’re playing as the hero, you want to hurry up and beat the enemies and then afterwards there is a guessing round to see who the villain is. So you’ve got a 50/50 shot no matter what. If you guess right, you gain 1 auto revive for when the battle with the traitor starts. Then if you win that battle, you win. The immediate problem here is that the deck is stacked in favor of the traitor. The traitor can destroy you with around 2 moves as soon as the battle begins.

All attacks are anonymous but you can probably guess who the traitor is based on who isn’t hit right? Wrong! The main strategy is for the traitor to knock everyone out, then there is no way to tell who it was. Then in the second round, you can get a revive but it won’t stack since you just died. So you will die to the traitor anyway. I’m told that as you progress through the game you will get power ups and armor that prevent the game from being so one sided but the gameplay design itself feels flawed to me.

On one hand, I like how quick the rounds are. You can play a few rounds very quickly. On the other hand, it’s just too automated for me. I’d rather move the character myself and then set up the traps as I go. Having the system do the movement for me just takes away the fun out of a whole chunk here. It’s just barely Fire Emblem at that point. Nintendo really can’t resist going along with gimmicks here and unfortunately it did not land. I feel like Nintendo has been missing a whole lot more than usual lately.

Outside of the gameplay, the title is really strong in the other areas. It just doesn’t matter enough because at the end of the day, you’re here for the gameplay right? That will always be the most important part of a gaming experience after all because without that, you won’t be able to continue. In very extreme circumstances the story might be so good you can force your way through bad gameplay but that is exceptionally rare. The flip side of that is certainly way more common.

Overall, Fire Emblem Shadows is certainly a fresh experiment by Nintendo and I wish it the best but this game is just not for me. Sometimes you can tell right away if the game fits your style and the opposite is true as well. I feel like the series is big enough where I can see this one being really successful so maybe they can use some of the revenue to make a movie r something. It’s long past due for Fire Emblem to really get more kinds of media. The game is free on the app store so you should probably give it a shot. It certainly can’t hurt and maybe you’ll like it more than I did.

Overall 4/10

Shining Force II Review

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You may remember my review for Shining Force I a while back, well I’ve been playing this one ever since and finally completed it. The game is definitely a long one so you get a lot of bang for your buck. I also appreciate that it really followed the template of what a sequel should be. It improved upon all of the weaknesses of the first game like long loading times and making it difficult to swap out party members. Everything has been streamlined quite a lot here which I really appreciate.

The general plot involves a group of devils trying to resurrect the ultimate evil once more. These beings can possess people which makes them rather difficult to stop. The main character’s kingdom is blown up so they are forced to relocate but now they are surrounded by enemies. The King dispatches him to make some alliances and take down the villains along the way but time is not on their side. With every step, he gets closer to danger.

The gameplay is a tactical RPG like the first one. You will have a squad of around 11 fighters and your opponent gets around 30. You have to maneuver around the map in a turn based system to wipe them all out or wipe out the captain of their forces. That means your strategy will often either be about winning slow and methodically or be rushing their king right off the gate. The latter will rarely work to be honest but there are usually a few minions you can skip if you play your cards right. Stay far enough away and you won’t activate their attention.

As you play through the game you will quickly get a feel for which units are strong and which ones are basically just meat shields. Sometimes you will even want to opt for launching into battle with a smaller group as a result. I would just bench the ones who weren’t contributing at all because then there are less turns to go through and that makes the battles go by a lot faster. Sure you could eventually get them strong enough with enough level ups but their growth rate was so bad that it didn’t seem worth it.

Meanwhile like I mentioned before, the game did a great job of really speeding everything up. The turns go by wayyyy faster than in the first game. The menus have also been simplified. You can also revive people with one click when at the priest’s house since it is the default option rather than having to select another option each time. So these were all pretty good quality of life features.

It goes without saying that the graphics here are definitely pretty good. The colors have aged really well and I like all of the various attack animations. It’s clear that the game spared no expense here and that’s really what you like to see as a player. The game did not hold back at all. The soundtrack is also good, although I would say it’s less memorable than some other titles I’ve played. They probably could have had a little more fun with that.

Outside of the battles, the game also has a pretty big hub world with a lot of towns to explore. You’re really rewarded for checking these places out as you can recruit more folks to your army and find rare weapons. The only downside is that the game added random encounters for some reason and these can be annoying since each battle in this game is rather long. You have to try and walk around the encounter zones but there is no way to tell which area will trigger a battle. This felt pretty unnecessary since the game already has a built in exp grinding mechanic with the main character’s teleport ability.

Maybe they just felt it would be easier to level up this way. It’s the only reason I can think of at least. It’s still a rather small detail though. The game’s story will hit you with a lot of different twists and turns as you go through the journey which is also fun. You will really have a hard time guessing exactly how things will turn out. Also if you stay on the credits long enough, you’re rewarded with a boss rush. I’m assuming this is still around on the Switch Online version but after waiting for a while I eventually exited. It’s a cool easter egg for those who wait though.

My main advice here is to make sure to always have the Phoenix in your party. He is by far the best party member and has absolute crazy range. Anytime he would die to a critical hit, I’d have to back up and try again. He is absolutely necessary for winning. Also, you will need to keep in mind that the RNG in the game can really change the flow of battle in an instant. Enemies will randomly hit you twice or paralyze you sometimes or you’ll flat out miss. That means no fight is really a sure thing. I wouldn’t mind if they dialed that down a bit, although of course it’s a lot of fun when it’s your side getting the lucky blows.

Overall, Shining Force II is a pretty fun sequel. I had a good time with it and the game is definitely very well balanced. The wild spawn mechanic may have been unnecessary but at least with rewind you can dodge that most of the time. Without that it would have absolutely been 10x as annoying. I can see why this game has such a strong reputation, it was really well made and I look forward to getting to play the third game someday. What other quality of life updates will they be able to add in there?

Overall 7/10

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) Review

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This is one of those games that is so obscure I hadn’t even heard of it before. They really should have added some kind of a subtitle to this one so it wouldn’t just blend in with every other game. Shouldn’t that be lesson 1 for any form of media? If you ask me it feels like a pretty obvious thing to do at least. Ah well….it is what it is.

The game starts off with Splinter being kidnapped so the Turtles have to grab their gear and find him. It won’t be easy though as the Shredder and his henchmen may be involved. The Turtles are used to being able to rely on their sensei and now that isn’t going to be an option. They haven’t had to deal with a crisis like this before but fortunately all 4 of them are really big talkers. You can expect a whole lot of smack talk throughout the game as the Turtles make their voices known.

This title very clearly does not have a high budget. Each character has 2-3 lines that they continue to spam at every point. The lines don’t usually make sense within the context of the scene but the game isn’t really worried about that. I guess I’ll take this over not having voice acting. The actual plot is fairly barebones but the bigger issue is the length. This is an extremely short game. You can knock out the main story out as well as most of the side missions in under 4 hours. You unlock a few more side missions after completing the game but that won’t buy you much time. So you better hope the game is fun at least.

Fortunately, I actually did enjoy the gameplay. It’s very unpolished but there was a good amount of combat here. Basically it’s styled as an overhead beat em up. You use your main attacks to take down the enemies and as you level up, you can buy new moves and passive power ups. Essentially you will continue to grow stronger and stronger as you play through the game. You may wonder what the point of these power ups are for most of the game but then the final level hits you like an absolute truck! The difficulty spike there is absolutely insane.

You have to defeat 8 bosses in a row with no save points or check points of any nature. Ultimately I did have to go back and grind exp for about 2 hours so I guess that did inflate the playtime quite a bit. I also used all of the money to buy a bunch of food packs and invincibility items. In a sense you could say I cheesed things a bit since each invincibility item protects you for 3 seconds and I bought 100 of those. I also bought 100 potions and I unlocked Raphael’s ability which gives him another 3 seconds of invincibility. You will need all of this to win.

While you can seamlessly switch between all 4 turtles and they all have their own health bars, if one of them dies then all 4 do. So that’s something to really keep in mind here. You could easily get a game over just because you got a little too overconfident. That happened to me a few times. Fortunately the game is pretty good about having constant save points at regular intervals. If I had to back track a lot then that would have been rough.

I wonder if the game was originally planned to be longer though. There are still new mechanics being introduced when you are in the final 5 levels after all. They’re also rather pointless with how unnecessary they were, like being able to break a store or climbing a ladder. Why even have those features in the game when they are only going to be used once or twice? I dunno, I guess that’s a little over my head.

The graphics are fine. Nothing noteworthy but you can always tell what is happening and fortunately the game isn’t laggy. The soundtrack is virtually nonexistent though, I would have liked some kind of a catchy song to listen to instead. That would have been pretty cool. So the gameplay is really on its own here. I like the style and of course having an EXP system is always cool since you actually have a reason to fight against the enemies. So the game did something right there. The power up system also means there are many different ways for you to fight as you try and figure out what the best combinations are.

By the end of the game, Michelangelo felt like the strongest since he was the only one with long range options that were spammable and dealt a whole lot of damage. You could beat anyone with him even if the battles would take longer. I definitely took advantage of that for the EXP grinding. Raphael also got really strong by the end and I think the final two would have followed suit. I’m sure if the game was popular you would see a lot of debates on who has the best build since the game did a good job of making them all very different but still powerful.

If this were a game boy title I’d be a bit more lenient with the length but on the 3DS? I think they definitely could have done better there so I really can’t hold its hand here. Ultimately the Ninja Turtles still have many more games for me to try out so eventually I’ll get to see how the others stack up. In the meantime, it’s difficult to take down the classic Gamecube titles. That was really the eras of TMNT.

Overall, This is one of those games that is fun but I probably would have felt differently if I had bought it day 1 for full price. Since I got it for around $10, it makes sense that I didn’t feel too bad about it. It’s a whole different situation at this point. With a little more polish and content I even think it could have been pretty good. Alas, this just was not in the cards. If you do see this game in stores I would pick it up but it is far from being the best Ninja Turtles game.

Overall 6/10

Yu-Gi-Oh GX Tag Force Review

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Yugioh has always been a great franchise for games. That said, the World Championship series has always been a whole lot better than the Tag Force titles and I would say that this one is no exception. Tag Force spends a little to much time on developing bonds and such instead of just jumping into the duel. Around this time period we had World Championship 2006 which I still consider to be the absolute definitive Yugioh game. This one isn’t nearly as optimized but is still fun in the end.

The game is divided into 3 parts which you load up almost as separate games. The first part gives you around 100 days to become best friends with at least one of the characters. If you don’t pull that off, then you’ll keep repeating the final week until you do. Every movement into a new area causes one hour to go past and you can end a day by going to sleep. You become friends with a character by dueling, talking (Which is 50/50 odds on increasing your friendship), and giving them sandwiches. The sandwiches are the most important factor to speeding this up but if t’s a flavor that they don’t like, then it won’t help.

Along the way you will want to get into standard duels as well to level up your character and give yourself money to buy new cards. Your initial deck is very weak after all so you want to change it as soon as possible. Personally I would recommend figuring out who you want to partner with and then creating the same kind of deck. I ended up teaming with Jaden so I built an elemental heroes deck since otherwise he would just keep on eating my cards to summon his weaker ones.

As you would guess thnaks to the name, this is really focused on tag duels. As a resut I would say it makes for a rather tough game because there are so many times when your partner will mess up your strategy. The A.I. isn’t terrible or anything like that but it is very stubborn and will absolutely do whatever it wants to do, regardless of whether or not it helps you. Yeah, that’s the kind of duel partner you have to worry about here.

Part 2 is a lot quicker as the two of you have to win the oturnament together. The length will just depend on how often you win. The main thing to remember is to talk to both partners before you accept a challenge since one will offer more tokens than the other. Since you need 90 tokens, you want to always go for the higher number to make this as quick as possible. I recommend knocking out all the Slifers first, then the Ra Yellows, and the final cleanup can be with one or two named characters or some Obelisk ones.

Finally Part 3 is about beating the Shadow Riders but by now your deck should be about as good as it’s going to get so this may not take quite as long. Most of the enemies will be using some broken cards but not a ton of them. Just keep on fighting and eventually you’ll win. The final boss of the game has an ultra cheesy deck where he basically relies on preventing you from attacking at all. It’s important to hit him as hard as possible early on to beat him before he can set up his traps. I actually got a bit lucky on this one as he got an awful hand to start on our second attempt and then that was a wrap for him.

I suppose you know what you’re getting into with Tag Force but I would have liked more single duels. In the 5Ds game there was absolutely a heavier emphasis on that so it is definitely possible. I would also say the gameplay is a lot choppier here than it would be later on. The game constantly asks you or confirmations on card effects even when it’s not your turn and there’s nothing you can do about it. It makes the game a lot longer than it needs to be. The sequels clean this up but it’s a bit rough for this one.

The graphics are solid enough though. I definitely enjoyed seeing the little animations for when you would summon a particularly powerful creature. The levels are good as well and so I have no issues here. The soundtrack is okay but not one of the sharper ones. That’s another area where the series would end up improving in the future. It’s good enough I suppose, you’ll be so focused on the game that you probably won’t really notice the music too much.

The parts system is a bit clunky as well but hey there is a ton of content here and the day system becomes a non factor after the first part which I appreciate. I never tend to be a fan of that and so the sooner it was gone the better. There is a ton of replay value here and a lot of different card packs so you could have fun here for a while. The price can be kind of high for this one but ultimately it does a good job of living up to it.

Overall, Yugioh GX Tag Force is a pretty good game. It has been rendered obsolete by most of the newer installments both in quality of life and in cards but on its own the game is still solid. It’s the kind of Yugioh game that still did its best to make sure you could have plenty of duels, even if everything else was put on the backburner like the story mode. There are a lot of ways that this could be better but at the same time, Yugioh is always easy to enjoy in any format. I still need to get the final Tag Force titles although their prices can get a little crazy.

Overall 7/10

GI Joe: Operation Blackout Review

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The GI Joes have returned and you could say that his game is definitely a lot more intense than the previous one. I wouldn’t call it super high budget or anything but I appreciated that it was trying to be a full adventure. The third person shooter action works really well as you’d guess because that genre is one of the best. It’s a game that is reasonably short but not super short and since you can get the game for a good price, it doesn’t feel bad. I would definitely be recommending this one.

The main story sees the GI Joes going up against Cobra once more. Cobra had been quiet for a while but it turns out that they were just biding their time and they launch an all out offensive against the heroes. This results in most of the Joes being captured so the last remaining ones have to find a way to launch a counter attack. Meanwhile everything is not well within the Cobra household as 4 different members are all betraying the commander and working on their own plans. He will have to try and deal with them before it’s too late.

I’m not the biggest expert on GI Joe so based on the vibes in this game, it definitely looks like the Commander could use some more loyal allies. If he has to be constantly watching his back all while fighting with the Joes, then that’s not going to be a good combination for him. To be sure, he doesn’t end up looking good in this game and that’s impressive since part of the whole premise is that his side won for once. That’s why you can’t get overconfident.

The game was definitely made with a multiplayer mode in mind. Easch level has two playable characters, the second will be controlled by the AI when playing single player mode. You typically have to defeat all enemies in an area, proceed to a checkpoint, or stay inside of a circle to conquer it like in Overwatch. There are 17 missions in the game and each one tends to range from around 8-10 minutes. The default difficulty also gives you a mild challenge in some areas.

I died quite a few times but it never feels bad because the game has a really excellent checkpoint system. You will see respawn points constantly so you never lose more than a few minutes of progress. Some characters have better weapons than others so you really want to be careful who you pick on the character selection screen. That said, just try enough times and you’ll be fine. It’s one of those games where you just have to brute force it. Also sometimes when the mission is about getting to a checkpoint, the best thing to do is just run through the enemies without fighting.

Sometimes their aim isn’t that great and you will make it without any real issues. Other times you will end up dying and then you have to play it the traditional way. The different kinds of weapons vary between standard guns, explosives, and lasers. Generally lasers are the best. Yes, they deal the least amount of damage but the ammo and nonstop firing makes it worth it. They are on a completely different level. The enemies are always moving around so quickly that it’s just easier to follow them with an endless stream as opposed to trying to time the bullets perfectly.

Meanwhile the graphics are pretty good. The cutscenes don’t have a lot of movement to them but I’m just glad for the fact that we have cutscenes in general. That’s something you wouldn’t have expected too much of for a cheaper game. It would have been dialogue based or something. The voice acting is fun and the graphics within the gameplay as also on point. You definitely won’t see any complaints from me in that area. Unfortunately there isn’t much of a soundtrack so I guess you can’t win them all. I would have liked some fun rock themes or something there.

There are also a few vehicle levels. These tend to be pretty easy and seem to just be around as a change of pace. You have to try and dodge land mines and defeat opponents while racing to the goal. It’s essentially a straight road as you get to the end of the game. You just have to keep on driving and driving until you get there. There are a lot of health containers in these levels that are hard to miss which is why the levels feel so much easier.

One last gameplay tip for the standard levels, your close quarters attack is really good against most bosses. Don’t try it on Storm Shadow since his sword will slice your health bar apart but on the other bosses it is the best way to whittle down their health. I was able to complete the final boss way quicker than most of the others in the game because of that. I just went in swinging and they went down extremely quickly. This is because your close quarters attack cuts through the shield and straight to their health bar but of course the same is true of theirs so watch out for the counter attack.

Overall, Operation Blackout is a pretty fun game. It’s nothing fancy, you’re not going to find a lot of fancy gameplay mechanics or anything like that. At the same time, the fundamentals are sound enough to where this is the kind of game you could really recommend. It takes you back to a simpler time of gaming where you only needed a few buttons to play through a game. You can pick this one up and play it at any point without worrying about what the advanced combos were or how you’re supposed to be playing it. Not bad eh? Hopefully more GI Joe games come out in the future.

Overall 7/10

Shining Force Review

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Shining Force is a game that I was never really familiar with back in the day. In fact, it was so unknown that I didn’t even realize it was a tactics game until I played it. I can definitely say that this is a long adventure though so it’s the kind where you really get your money’s worth. The game also gets quite difficult towards the end. There are a number of areas where the game has not aged particularly well but all in all you will have a fun time here.

The game starts with a lot of turmoil between the kingdoms as always, but this is all spurned on by a group of villains who seek to resurrect an ancient evil. Once this evil is let loose, the world will be in great peril. The main character has to band a lot of allies together in order to save the day. They will be known as the Shining Force and will be travelling across the planet in order to take on all challengers. Will they be enough?

The game’s story is pretty solid. It seamlessly mixes in some humor at good points but is otherwise a pretty serious story. There is a body count here to be sure and the villains tend to always be one step ahead. It’s really not until the very end that the heroes really seem to even stand a small chance. The ending is pretty fun and so you have a real complete journey here.

Now when it comes to the gameplay, tactics style will always take a while. It’s almost self explanatory since you need to come up with plans to win and then manipulate all of your fighters into the right spots. That won’t be an easy task because you will often be outnumbered and have to keep track of a lot of fighters. Your team caps out at 12 active fighters at once while the enemy forces can have around 30 or so. Next up is the RNG to account for. Each enemy has a standard attack which does almost no damage, and then a power attack which can wipe the health bar of even an experienced fighter.

The final boss even has an instant KO attack which feels incredibly cheesy. While the A.I. is dangerous, at least I won’t say that it is completely unstoppable. I was able to exploit it a few times like attacking from an area where the boss would refuse to move. The final boss and his lack of speed also make him easier to exploit which might be why the developers gave him a one hit KO move. Still a bit cheesy if you ask me but that’s how it goes.

Where the game’s age shows is in how the menus work. Each character can only hold 3 items in addition to their weapon. There are a lot of chests everywhere with items but when your main character is full, he can’t pick it up. So you have to go through 4 menus to remove one item and give to someone else. Rinse and repeat every single time you come up to a treasure chest. Trust me when I say that this absolutely gets old quicker than you might expect.

Additionally, there is no way to easily gauge where your units are and their stats. You have to look them up one by one as you navigate the field. You also can’t skip animations so all of the turns tend to take forever. I also think they went a bit too far when increasing the dodge rate for the enemies later on. It gets to the point where they are really dodging everything and that just feels like a really cheap way to lose. I want to lose because their units are more powerful, not because I missed at a critical juncture.

The length also makes field effects feel tricky. For example, there are a few levels where you are in a forest. In those levels, each character’s mobility is cut in half so that immediately doubles the amount of turns to win. It can be seen as a difficulty thing but I’d prefer adding more enemies to just making everything slower. So there are a few times in the game where things can drag a little bit because of that. I generally enjoy tactics gameplay but a smooth interface is absolutely necessary. It’s part of why Fire Emblem is so popular nowadays, they have really done a great job of optimizing the gameplay.

I do like how the game handles EXP grinding though. In some games like Fire Emblem you can effectively get permanently stuck because there is no area to grind. In this game, you can grind forever. The main character has a magic spell that works as a guaranteed escape from battle. You keep all EXP when doing this so all you have to do is keep on defeating enemies without ending the level and you will watch the EXP really rack up in no time. Trust me, it feels really satisfying to pile that up.

One thing to keep in mind is that you can promote a unit to its evolved form as soon as they hit level 10 but you get much better stat boosts if you wait until 20. Personally I decided to wait for my heavy hitters and then the others I did around level 13-15. It’s just hard to wait for some of these fighters who take a while to level up. It’s almost inevitable in a tactics game that you will have some favorite units who will soak up the EXP and that definitely happened here. At the end of the game I had a swordfighter, archer, and a mage. That was about all that I needed, I just left the other units for dead and marched through to the end. Probably not the recommended way to fight but it worked for me.

The graphics are pretty good and definitely benefit from a colorful artstyle. The game has really aged well and I also liked the combat effects like the energy moves and such. The soundtrack is good but a little limited. You’ll probably be tired of the combat theme by the end because you will have heard it hundreds of times. There’s probably no way around that except to set up multiple battle themes that play randomly for encounters.

Overall, Shining Force is a pretty good game. I definitely had fun with it and am looking forward to seeing how the sequel stacks up. If you like a good tactics game then I think you’ll enjoy this one as well. While there are quality of life features that keep me from calling this a great game, it still holds its own when it counts. At the end of the day that’s the important part and all first games in a series will end up having some lessons to learn.

Overall 7/10

Puzzle & Dragons Z + Super Mario Bros. Edition Review

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This game is one that I’ve been playing for a long time. Both games in this collection are quite long and the game is also no walk in the park. You’d better be prepared to train and grind for a long while to get your fighters to a level that is needed to clear the game. By the end of its run, I had put more play time in this title than any 3DS game except for Super Smash Bros. That is not an easy feat so this is a game with a ton of bang for your buck.

For the Mario game, you’ve got a classic story with Bowser causing some trouble. You will go through a bunch of worlds and have to go through the Koopa Kids and Jr. The story is pretty barebones and you will go for large chunks of time with no cutscenes. The appeal here is clearly just about having fun with the gameplay and seeing the Mario characters. I can’t really complain, you’re never going to be playing Mario for the plot. I’m just glad there was some kind of a story here.

The other game has you starting off as a junior monster tamer. You are part of the defense force stopping dragon from running wild. Unfortunately there is a villain group on the rise which have decided to awaken the dragon gods and bring the world to ruin. You will have to stop them along with a mysterious little dragon that popped up. It won’t be easy but you can never count out basic friendship. You also have some allies at the ready, but the burden of saving the world is squarely on the main character’s shoulders. The story is definitely a lot better than the Mario one although a very questionable choice for a villain’s musical theme does take the edge off.

The gameplay is about matching orbs of different colors to create combos. In a lot of ways it’s like Candy Crush and I have to admit that I always wanted them to come out with a story based game using this gameplay style. I got my wish so that was really satisfying. The game could definitely use some solid quality of life updates though. Gathering minerals to evolve monsters is incredibly tedious and everything takes way too much energy. Getting energy back is difficult since it seemed like back when the game had online access you could farm it better. Apparently the mobile version fixes all of these issues but on the 3DS you’re stuck.

When you’re allowed to just play the game it’s a bunch of fun. That said, the level up system does mean this will be impossible eventually. You will need to evolve your fighters in order to raise their level caps to level 99. The final boss has absolutely deadly attacks and can regenerate all of the health bars his parts have in a single turn. If you have your initial fighters who cap out at level 30, you are simply not winning. I ultimately had to complete every side quest and 100% the initial game in order to win. It still took me a lot of tries to actually get through.

I can only imagine how difficult the post game is. Each game has a post game that literally doubles the amount of levels in it. So that would make this a 100+ hour game which is extremely impressive. I tip my hat off to the developer because delivering that much content without paid dlc is always welcome. I’m tempted to bump the score up for that but to me the tedious parts of grinding so ultimately hurt the gameplay just enough for me to drag it down a star. It’s still a pretty good game but quality of life is always a big factor for me.

The graphics are definitely solid. I like the monster designs and the energy effects in combat. The Mario side is especially striking with the way the artstyle works in the game. Then for the soundtrack, well it’s pretty good. I just don’t like the bad guy theme in the Z story. It’s way too happy for the tone that the game was trying to go with. I don’t need to go into replay value here since I already mentioned the 100+ hour runtime. If you like this gameplay style, you should absolutely pick the game up because it is worth the price.

I would say as a gameplay tip, be careful not to hatch or power up anyone when you start the Z story. Save the resources for when you’re really stuck and then figure out who you want to use. Make sure to keep track of their new abilities because sometimes one evolution path will lock you onto truly terrible special moves which will make it way harder to win the game. There are just so many factors to keep track of and of course RNG does play a role here. Sometimes you just don’t get a good role on the colors and have to play again. Just try, try again each time. Eventually you’ll win and since you know ahead of time that it will be 50+ hours, that may help you be patient with the game. It’s not the kind of game you can beat while on auto pilot. When you feel burnt out, just put the game down for a bit and do something else. Getting combos requires a lot of concentration so if you aren’t feeling it, then you’re not going to do as well as you’d like.

Overall, Puzzles & Dragons is a pretty fun game. I really do like the gameplay style and I’d be down to play more games in the style. Amp up the story a bit while cutting down on the grinding for materials and we’ll really be in business. There are a few cheesy bosses near the end like the guy with the one hit KO and pure RNG but at least they’re rare. I didn’t know much about the game series back in the day and really just got it for Mario. It’s impressive that Mario got a game with this style in the first place. Maybe one day we’ll get another Nintendo title like it. In the meantime, this one is usually cheaply priced online.

Overall 7/10

GI Joe: Wrath of Cobra Review

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It’s been a while since I played a GI Joe game so it was time to change that. Wrath of Cobra is one of those games that never got a physical release so it was time to finally grab it on the PSN. It’s definitely a short game so I would feel bad for anyone who might have gotten it on opening day. The gameplay is fun enough and all but you really feel like they could have put way more effort into this. At least make it a few hours longer right? I don’t think that would have been so unreasonable.

The game starts with Cobra Commander deciding to take over the world but there is also a clone of him and both think that they are the real deal. So they attack the Joes and along the way will have to watch their backs or they will be absolutely dominated. One wrong step and that is game over. So Duke and friends prepare to fight them. There isn’t much more of a story than that but I do appreciate that the game will actually throw in the occasional cutscene. It helped to liven things up and we even get to see a glimpse of the outside world as Cobra Commander tries to get some kids to support his cause. It helps to flesh the world out a tiny bit.

Of course, the whole game is still only around 2 hours so it really goes by in a flash. There are 12 levels and each level tends to be around 7-9 minutes. You have your basic attacks as well as a super move. You have to use these attacks to try and claim total victory. You have 4 lives to play the game with although if you lose them all, you get infinite continues. So that’s pretty handy. There are trophies for beating levels without getting hit or dying which sounds insane to me. I just don’t know how anyone would really be pulling that off.

I suppose with enough practice but this is not a game that I think most people would end up sticking with. I definitely wouldn’t be playing the game more than once. The reason does come down to how basic it is. I prefer 3D beat em ups but the 2D ones can be good too. There just isn’t much to it because the moveset is too low. You only have two main attacks to combo with. Then the enemies don’t have a whole lot of variety to them either. I suppose you could have fun switching characters since you have several options here but even then that is not going to buy you a ton of time.

It was always fun to exploit the occasional glitch though. A few times there would be a boss or an enemy who would not realize that you were standing slightly beneath him so he would keep striking out at empty air. Was a good way to cheese some of these guys who had really large health bars. For my playthrough I decided to play as Snake Eyes because he has incredibly high attack power. I think I made the right choice there. His super attack is that he summons a dog to come in and deal a lot of damage. A bit random but a fun super since even the bosses would take a lot of damage from that.

As far as the graphics go, they look good enough. I liked how colorful everyone is in order to match the old show. The cutscenes we get definitely aren’t very high quality but at least we had cutscenes which was cool. The soundtrack is okay but also not something that I would call really memorable. You’ll have forgotten the tunes real quickly once the game ends.

My main advice when playing is to jump a lot. It’s a great way to clear the distance over to your opponents and of course you get to dodge attacks along the way. Then once you have the enemies in one spot, you can really combo them all to death. Keep on swinging even once they are in the air and usually you can finish each opponent before they had a chance to hit the ground. Pretty sneaky eh? It’s a pretty good way to whittle down the odds.

The game would be really difficult without the infinite continues but since you have them, this one is a true cake walk. While the length is extremely short, the trophies do add a lot of replay value since I think it would be incredibly difficult to get them all. Getting the Platinum for a game like this would really feel like a pipe dream. Not totally impossible or anything like that but not really worth the amount of time it would take. To me at least, maybe you could see it as a badge of honor.

Overall, Wrath of Cobra feels very much like the kind of game you would find on the app store. It’s not particularly high quality and is a very short experience. The gameplay is simple and while it’s not bad, you get the feeling that there wasn’t a ton of time spent on it. This game was just churned out quickly to take advantage of the retro beat em up feeling that everyone has been enjoying. This one loses to most of the other games I’ve played in this genre. If you really like GI Joe though, perhaps the nostalgia alone will make it worth it for you.

Overall 6/10