Category Archives: Game Reviews

Nickelodeon Kart Racers Review

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I got this game almost for free thanks to some Gamestop points and a gift card so now I finally get to see what Nick is up to in the racing circuit. Unfortunately I can confirm that they weren’t up to a whole lot because the game is really not as impressive as you would expect. There just isn’t a whole lot to this game so it ends up feeling rather barren the whole time. There isn’t any real personality and it’s lacking in proper sound effects and replay value. Ultimately it doesn’t seem like it was quite ready for the challenge of trying to be the next Mario Kart but there is potential for sequel games.

When you jump in you’ve really just got two main options, free racing and the grand prixs. The gameplay is your classic 3D racing environment and it’s very much like Mario. You can drift with the R2 and L2 buttons and you pick up items along the track. Use them to smash up the competition and get to the goal. Of course the objective is to finish the race first and then you get the maximum amount of points. There are 4 races per cup but the final ones go up to 8. Each race is fairly quick though so you should blast through them. The difficulty level is also fairly basic. There is a lot of rubberbanding here though so when you’re ahead of the opponents be prepared for them to suddenly make a historic comeback to reach you.

I recommend keeping a boosting item on hand but don’t actually use it until you are close to the goal. That’s the best way to make sure that everything works out. It will work against any sudden surprises. The items have a decent amount of variety so I’ll give the game credit for having a ton of different items at the ready. It would have been real easy to have just had a few items so I appreciate their going the extra mile. I will also say that there are a reasonable amount of different stages here although they do tend to blend together a whole lot. I think it’s because of the slime that hits you in every level, it’s easy for the stages to start all looking the same once they’re covered in slime like that.

In terms of replay value I would say there is a good amount here because aside from the cups you also have unlockables in the form of each car part. You can get engines, wheels, tires, etc. There are a whole lot to buy and it takes a while to earn any money. The easiest way is to level up by winning a lot of races and I imagine that this will get more difficult the more you do it as well. So I expect this would be a fairly long grind by the end of it but it is nice to equip the parts and really feel the boost by the end. Each speed part definitely makes a difference when going up against the computers.

What this game is really lacking though are character voices, more cars, and more content in general. Customizing parts is nice but how about just giving us brand new cars each time instead? I think that would end up feeling a lot more fulfilling. Additionally I would also be on board with some kind of minigame mode similar to Mario Kart where you have another objective besides just the race. That could be do a lot to just make the game feel a little more expansive. Of course another big one is having more than 12 characters. That’s just not a big roster, particularly for a PS4 game. You feel like they could have done a whole lot more with this. I’d say Spongebob and TMNT individually could easily have way more than 12 characters when you think about it.

I think that would really be enough. At its core a racing game doesn’t have to be super fancy after all. Just put some wheels on the car and get us moving. That’ll be enough to do the trick in the end and everything else is about making it stand out. As a developer you want to be able to answer the question of: “Why should I play this instead of another racing game?” with some kind of definitive mechanic. It can be characters, fun levels, etc but you have to have something and right now I don’t think this one does have much of anything. I’ve played car games on the computer that felt like they had more depth but of course that could be my nostalgia goggles.

Overall, This was a good racing game but a bit more basic than I expected. It’s closer to the level of M&M Racing than Mario Kart which is a bit odd since you would expect this to be a big AAA title. That being said, I still did have fun. It’s just the kind of game that you would be having a lot of fun in short term rather than long term. If I bought this one day 1 then I’d probably have been far less pleased with the end result. For a few bucks though you can race as your favorite characters and earn a few trophies. I know there are 1-2 sequels out there so at some point I’ll grab them to see how they go. Who knows, if one of those adds a story mode it could really end up being the next big thing and that would be a lot of fun. Give me a quality story!

Overall 6/10

Ruinverse Review

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Kemco always delivers on the top tier RPG gameplay mechanics. They have so many solid quality of life features that other titles would do well to adopt. This one is no exception and the gameplay is definitely at a high level. The only thing holding it back is that the story is definitely the weakest one yet. Mainly this is due to the script as the banter between the main characters can be rather painful. It’s the first time you will be enjoying the game in spite of the main cast.

The game starts with Kit and Allie investigating a cave. They come across a rather odd plaque and making contact with it knocks Allie out. When she wakes up she now has two souls. A mysterious guy is now trapped in her body as well and both souls can only switch when making physical contact with Kit. Naturally this is a bit of a weird scenario for the heroes but Kit figures they can find a way to split the two souls away again. In the meantime they will just have to live with this odd situation. Along the way they come into contact with a rather crazy scientist named Lexor, a talking cat/dog (Not sure exactly which animal he is. Maybe a fox?) named Toto, and a girl named Nana. Together this crew has to find the answers and save the world from demons along the way but do they have what it takes? It won’t be easy that’s for sure.

So why are the characters not all that good? Well first off you have Lexor who is absolutely obsessed with Kit’s body for medical research. One of the main problems here is that you never get to see the guy doing any actual research and there is no tangible goal in sight so he just comes off as insane the whole time. Since he is making no progress after poking and prodding Kit for so long then there just isn’t much point to the whole plot at large. It’s played off in more of a creepy way the whole time too and never gets funny particularly as Kit is begging the guy to let him go. That doesn’t make for a very humorous subplot now does it?

Then you’ve got the same thing going on with Toto and Nana. Nana is obsessed with Toto’s fur and constantly tackles him to hub the creature and pet his fur the wrong way. Toto constantly asks her to stop this but she never listens. Again it’s not funny since Toto clearly isn’t enjoying this at all. You could potentially try to make this work in an anime as we can see body language and facial expressions to maybe try and make this lighter but in a game it just doesn’t work.

The other issue with this is the repetition. It feels like over 70% of the dialogue are these two gags happening over and over and over again. There is never a break or a chance to rest after that goes on and it’s always distracting away from the story. It doesn’t matter how serious the moment is, Lexor and Nana will just keep harassing the other characters anyway and it takes you out of the moment. It definitely would have been nice if the characters had just been cut out to be honest.

There’s a decent story buried beneath all of that with Kit and Allie but it’s always brushed to the side. I did get to play through all of the endings here though so it was fun to see the various paths. Some definitely end on a rather sad note for the characters to be sure and no matter which ending you unlock, there is room for a sequel. Hopefully the characters just matured a lot since the ending so that the dynamic could be a bit better. The villains were solid enough though, they do a lot of planning and get some big moments.

Now with the gameplay we’re back to operating on a high level. The turn based combat is very smooth with minimal loading times and you can also speed the game up to triple speed at all times. Additionally you can also turn off surprise encounters in areas once you have completed them so after beating the game you can feel free to look for treasure chests and such at your leisure which is a nice feature to have. As a result the platinum trophy for this game feels like it is a very attainable one. It should only take a few hours after beating the game to unlock that one. Note that the planting trophy is the only one that will likely take you a while. You really have to wait a long while in order to grow enough plants to bloom. I had less than half of the amount I needed by the time I beat the game.

I would say the campaign is around 16-18 hours so it’s a pretty good length. There are plenty of areas here and additionally the game is also fairly difficult. I had to go up to around level 300 before I was able to complete it. Part of the reason for this is that your characters die really quickly even with some of the best armor so the only way around that is to continue bumping up your stats. I recommend opening every chest you find so that you can hopefully get some rare weapons and armor that can possibly bump up your odd a bit. Ultimately with enough time you can defeat every challenge though and that’s part of the fun of the turn based system.

For example you unlock leaves to upgrade your character’s special abilities every few levels and by growing a tree. I recommend putting all of your money into upgrading the tree since long term that will be just as handy as any upgrade that you can buy. It’s how you get a lot of passive abilities and your ultimate moves. Each character has at least one big attack that can deal several thousand points of damage in a single hit. That is what you really need for the end game. Since the characters are permanently stuck as being glass cannons here then you need to maximize the amount of attack power that you can use in a single swing. So follow that and you should be fine.

Each character has a whole lot of special attacks so it may take a while to find your favorite one but that’s a good problem to have. You can certainly approach the game in a whole lot of different ways. Meanwhile the graphics are definitely solid here. The game is clear and you can always tell what is going on at all times. The soundtrack is also pretty good with all the usual fast paced Asdivine tunes playing throughout. You have solid boss themes and so that always helps to enhance the experience. You can really tell when things are getting grand based on the music tracks.

Overall, Ruinverse may not have a particularly good set of characters this time but the gameplay is really the most pivotal aspect and the title nails that out of the park as expected. The gameplay is incredibly smooth and highly customizable so you should be able to find your favorite settings right away. From there it’s off to the races and you will probably be tempted to go for the Platinum as well at that point because you’re so close. Why not right? Then you will have done everything the game has to offer. You should absolutely pick this one up whenever you come across it.

Overall 7/10

Trollhunters: Defenders of Arcadia Review

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Trollhunters is a game based on a series that I never watched which always makes for an interesting way to play a game. That said, gameplay is always the most important factor here and it looked solid so I figured that I had a winner here. This is a fairly short game. There’s nothing amazing about it and it doesn’t stand out in some kind of special way but it still had something that I needed…a fun experience. Yeah this is just a very retro kind of platformer with no frills to it. You just jump in and have a good time.

The plot starts with a villain managing to steal a relic that allows him to cross space and time. The main character needs to put a stop to him so Merlin lends us a time map that can also allow me to time travel. Pretty handy right? With this I knew that I had a chance. You dash across the various worlds in order to find this guy and repair the damage to the timeline but be warned, he may not be working alone. Time for the biggest sci-fi battle of the ages!

I’m not sure exactly how long I’d say the game is but maybe around 4 hours or so? It felt really short as I was blasting through and that’s considering that I even managed to grab most of the collectibles along the way. In part I did this because they were pretty easy to spot so it wasn’t a big deal going back to grab them and also in part because I was worried that if I didn’t grab them then I would need them to unlock the final level. There are 4 socks and 3 trolls hidden in each level so I recommend grabbing them whenever you can. You definitely won’t regret doing so. They really add up. You can also obtain items for doing this.

Once you complete the game then the platinum trophy is within reach. I dare say you can platinum this game in well under 15 hours. You just have to replay the game a second time and get a few miscellaneous trophies but nothing that is particularly difficult. Just give it the ole go and you’ll be just fine. Now I haven’t talked about the gameplay much so let me take a step back here. It’s a 2D platformer as I mentioned earlier and you defeat any enemies in your way with the sword. Now you will also be doing a lot of jumping as you would expect here. You have assists which let you activate special abilities like making a statue to jump on or a skateboard to ride. You absolutely need these in order to proceed so you should try to get used to them right away.

Beyond that there isn’t much else to describe about the gameplay. It’s made to be as easy as can be so you just jump in and it’ll come naturally to you. Some of the bosses surprisingly don’t have a hurtbox so you can run right up to them and start smashing away with your sword. Most opponents go down in seconds as a result of this but for the final bosses just be prepared to dodge the slow attacks once or twice. Do that and you should be fine and well on your way to claiming absolute victory. There just won’t be any stopping you because this game is really not very hard at all. At the end you even get a random healing power-up which is completely broken so that’s why it didn’t appear until the end. If you had that the whole game then it would have just been plain unfair.

As for the graphics, I wouldn’t say they are anything particularly special. The colors are on point and it all looks good. It’s just your average TV-tie in kind of graphics. The soundtrack is also more on the bland side. You’re definitely playing this more for the impressive gameplay and level designs than anything else. It’s all crafted in a fun way where no levels have boring spots or poorly designed moments. Instead it all flows together really well so you can allow yourself to be drawn into the hype right away. The levels are also fairly short so none of them ever really drags on.

This is where the game shines. It’s simple but knows this and takes that to its maximum benefit. Sometimes it’s good to play a game that is scaled back where you can just relax and have fun. The story is also decent as well. The characters seem fun enough from what I’ve seen of them. Naturally I’d have loved fully animated cutscenes and all but I suspect the budget for this game wouldn’t be nearly high enough for that. It would probably be asking just a little too much out of this title.

The game’s not very glitchy at least but for some reason one trophy didn’t pop for me when I beat the game. I’ll be completing it again soon for a different trophy so I hope it pops up there. It would be a shame for it to have just been lost in the void like that. Just wouldn’t make sense and it must have been a fluke. Glitches are okay as long as there’s a way around them but when it interferes with my trophy hunting then we have a problem.

Overall, Trollhunters is a pretty good game. The gameplay is smooth and there was real effort put into this one. The only thing holding it back is that the game is very short. You will be done with it right away so make sure that you get a good price for it. This is not a game that you should be spending $30 or $40 on. It may have a fairly easy platinum which makes the game more tempting but you should be able to find it on a great discount. Trust me on this one, it’s worth waiting until you find the perfect price and then nabbing it. Hopefully they make a sequel to this at some point. I’d definitely check this out, particularly if the gameplay sticks around as this style.

Overall 7/10

Redout: Lightspeed Edition Review

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Redout is definitely a game that I can’t say I knew a whole lot about before getting it but it ended up being quite solid. It’s effectively an F-Zero type game. Granted there is no story mode here so you are really going to be focused on the races and going as fast as possible. There is a whole lot of content to be played through here so you’ll have a lot of bang for your buck. Especially considering how cheap the game goes for now. It’s definitely a title that you won’t want to miss out on.

The main mode you’ll be sticking to is Career Mode. Basically you will start off with a bunch of race options for class 1 vehicles. You will start to race on those and as you obtain medals you will earn EXP to level up. Once you have enough EXP then you will make it to the next level and then you gradually unlock more classes. There are 4 classes in total and the final one is unlocked at level 22. So at that point you can say that you have all of the content here ready to play. You don’t have to actually complete all of the stages in order to unlock the final class as it’s all about EXP. You could theoretically keep on playing the same level to grind out EXP although it would take much longer so there would be no point. Additionally I think the game is wise to that plan because I was farming gold on one level and then I suddenly started receiving 0 gold from there.

The reason gold is important is because that’s the only currency in the game so you have to budget out what upgrades to buy. An upgrade is around $10,000 for example, then power-ups are around $9,000, and a new car can go from $9,000 to $90,000. Everything gets more expensive based on the class of car/power-up you want and money gets scarce quickly. Each new car for class 1 and class IV get you a trophy so you’ll probably want to buy those right away. I ended up still needing to buy around 2 more cars by the end so maybe I’ll head back one day just to grab those silver trophies.

Ultimately if you want the platinum then you will need to beat all of the levels though. At least the base game levels. You will see some for the Mars DLC on the screen and you don’t need to worry about those unless you end up buying the DLC. So that’s one thing to keep in mind here. Beating all of the levels would definitely be really challenging. I played some of the tougher ones and kept on dying because it feels like you can just never move fast enough no matter what you do. It’s really tough to keep pace with the other racers but I suppose in the end that is part of the fun. Trying to keep outdoing yourself as much as possible.

The racing controls are fairly basic but one difference is that you use your right joystick to strafe which helps with the turning. This is the part of the game I likely didn’t master and feel like if I understood that mechanic better then I would hold my own a lot better. You also have the power-ups which are different based on which ones you equip but I have to admit that I never understood those so I intentionally chose passive ones. That way I wouldn’t have to even worry about activating them. In my races against opponents I never really got hit by anything so the whole thing’s a mystery.

This game could serve to have a real tutorial. I feel that’s pretty rare to say but that way I could be sure that I was playing the way the game expected me too. Instead I was sort of just driving as best I can which is good enough for the lower levels but really mastering the game’s specific mechanics is probably the only way I would be getting anywhere near the top. The graphics are really good though. Everything is colorful and vibrant the way you would expect for a sci-fi racer like this. I also enjoyed the soundtrack. There are some decently emotional songs in there but for the most part it’s very fast and techno the way you would expect it to be. It matches up well with what the game is going for.

There is also a lot of replay value because of all the purchases that I mentioned and the levels here. There really are quite a lot of levels so you should have plenty to do for a very long time. Just keep on plunging ahead to the goal and you’ll be at the end in no time. Even when you lose you earn a good amount of XP and Gold which I like because then it never feels like your race was a waste. There was always a purpose to entering each event and some other games can definitely take a few pointers from this one in that regard. You should always get something for your trouble.

Overall, Redout is a pretty fun game. The racing gameplay is on point and while I may not have understood part of it, the overall experience was still on point for me. There is a whole lot of content to enjoy here so you certainly won’t be bored all the way through. It may not stand out compared to other titles but it’s so cheap that you should really give it a chance. After all at worst you may just think it doesn’t stand out but at best it could be the next big racing game for you. It makes no real mistakes and I do like the simplicity of the level up system. Get stronger to race better cars. It’s extremely straightforward and so when you lose you just have to take a look at your car and rethink how you play the stage. There aren’t any big gimmicks to worry about.

Overall 7/10

Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe Review

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This is one of the few Kirby games that I hadn’t gotten around to playing earlier so it was nice to finally dive in and get to experience this adventure with the DLC included. It certainly is nice to get to experience a brand new epilogue thanks to this and I feel like adding extra story content is really a must for any big remake/remaster. It helps give the game its own identity as opposed to just being a port of the original title.

The story starts with Kirby and friends hanging out until a ship crashes. A guy named Magolor comes out of the ship and explains that he needs some serious help from Kirby and friends in order to make his ship whole again. The parts of scattered across the planet and without a ship he will never be able to go home to confront the big fire dragon. Kirby is eager to help because his heroism is only matched by his endless hunger. Is there more to Magolor than what meets the eye though?

There isn’t much of a story beyond that though. I’d say that it’s a bit smaller of a narrative than most of the other Kirby games as that is pretty much it for story progression until the very end of the game where you launch into the final bosses and the truth of the matter. Still, you’re playing this game for the gameplay and that’s where the game does well. You have your classic 2D gameplay here as you fly across the worlds and take on all kinds of enemies.

You have lots of power ups to grab and many different special abilities at the ready. Every level has a bunch of collectibles to grab which help you unlock minigames and continue to progress through the adventure. You can also choose to not use the power ups and fight the boss with your normal suction ability. Some abilities feel weaker than your base form but it all comes down to what kind of fighting style you are able to use best. I like being a brawler so any power ups like the sword, spear, or punch is what I’m looking out for.

The game is fairly short but not unreasonably so. You should be able to knock it out in under 10 hours and since it’s not a game that is super difficult you can actually shave off some time if you decide to speed through instead of worrying about collectibles. I grabbed a bunch just in case they would be needed later on but fortunately that was not the case. Collectibles should always be optional items to grab after all.

As for the epilogue , I liked that it actually goes for a completely different gameplay style here. I mean it’s still 2D but you are using energy blasts and other kinds of attacks at all times rather than needing a power up. Magolor also uses an EXP system so you level up using points which was also cool. I think a Kirby leveling up game could be fun one of these days. I wouldn’t replace Kirby’s gameplay with this full time but as a change of pace I do think that it would fare quite well. It keeps in the core Kirby aspects while doing something new and I can definitely appreciate that.

Meanwhile the graphics are solid as always. Nintendo spares no expense on their titles and you can feel that in each of the level environments. The whole game looks really good and shines on all sides. Then you have the soundtrack which is also really good as you would expect. The boss theme also sounds a whole lot like the Ridley boss theme from Metroid which was cool. You can feel that Nintendo connection there and it works really well. It also increases the suspense levels for when you’re approaching the boss because you know that things are about to get interesting.

I would say the main thing to remember while going up against bosses is to not get sloppy. It can be easy to completely rely on your powers as you go in but that’s the easiest way to lose because you also need to dodge their attacks. In a battle of attrition you will always lose so dodging the boss attacks is extremely important. If you don’t do that then you are going to run out of health really fast and you will be down for the count. Slow and steady is often the way to win this one.

As always the game gets out there for the final bosses as the title suddenly turns into a cosmic epic. I always appreciate how the Kirby series does this because the final boss should feel grand. I would be on board for a whole game against cosmic monsters with all kinds of destruction in the background but I understand that this isn’t Kirby’s style even if it would make for a very effective game. I know that I would have a blast with it after all.

Overall, This was a fun Kirby game. Ultimately the only thing you can really say against it is that this one doesn’t stand out among those. For example you could call this your basic run of the mill Kirby title and that may sound like an insult, but at the same time that’s really what it’s going for. There aren’t any big gimmicks here or really memorable aspects to the title. The story is also barebones as just another adventure. So you’ll have a good time with this one but you probably won’t recommend it above some of the more influential Kirby titles. This one just isn’t the next all star hit from Kirby but all of the fundamentals are in place so it’s pretty solid. You will have fun all the way through the game and at the end of the day that is the main point to any title. So pick this one up when you have a chance and you won’t regret it.

Overall 7/10

Goosebumps: Dead of Night Review

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This is one of those games that I basically got on a whim as I needed a low priced game for the Gamestop deal and it ended up being a bit of a gem in the rough here. Goosebumps is a short game but one that handles the first person horror genre well. It’s a fairly niche genre if you’re looking for a game like Bendy without going all the way extreme. This one’s definitely aimed a bit younger but they really put effort into each of the scares and level designs. So the game ends really quick but you’ll only need to spend a few bucks in order to get it so it balances out.

The game starts with you heading inside a house and finding out that R.L. Stine has been locked in a book. Slappy managed to turn the tables on him and cast the writer away while also ripping the pages out of the sealing book used to stop the dummy. You must now find all of the pages and take him down but you must dodge a whole array of monsters in the meantime such as the clown, the werewolf, and a zombie lady. You better run fast!

This game definitely reminds me of what a Five Nights at Freddy’s game would be like. There is danger around every corner and you’re always looking around. You can only run for a few seconds before you lose all of your stamina so you really want to be careful about when and where you run. You can outrun any of the monsters but walking is another matter entirely. There are plenty of places to hide so you can go under the table or in the shower for example but sometimes there will be a monster there as well. That’s how the clown got me once. Granted, there is an incentive to dying which is that just about every death to a different monster will get you a trophy the first time it happens. So sometimes you can just let them finish you off so that you can see what happens.

The gameplay is really simple though since it’s playing out as if you were really there. So you can only walk, run, and interact with objects. Only in the very last level do you get a laser gun although of course that is fun. The game wants to remain spooky though so it does come with a whole lot of restrictions. You can only fire for a few seconds and if you miss one of the enemies for even 1 second then it won’t be enough to defeat that fighter. You have to then wait for the cooldown and try to survive in the meantime. That cooldown also means that if you are up against more than 1 opponent at once then you are definitely going to be losing that encounter.

Each world also starts getting you involved in some new mechanics real quick. There are only 3 chapters in the game though so it does go by in the blink of an eye though. I’d say it’s probably a little longer than the 2 hours you see listed online but it’s probably around that time, maybe 2.5 hours at best or something like that. So if you see this game for $50 or something then it’s probably not worth getting until you find a discount. It’s not the kind of game you have to play day 1 after all, just play it once you see that it’s a convenient time to pick it up.

The graphics aren’t trying for anything special here but they look good enough. The characters are all recognizable right away. I’d maybe say this is more on the PS2 level than PS4 but as long as it’s clear that is the important part. The soundtrack is for the most part not very memorable but that does change in the final level where we get a final techno type theme once you get the gun. I thought that was a lot of fun and the game manages to give you a solid tune for the two boss fights against Slappy. I also give the game props for actually coming up with two real boss fights that have actual villain attacks and mechanics outside of the rest of the game where you’re just walking and interacting.

It’s the little things like that which showed that the game put in a bit of a real effort here. Ultimately it probably didn’t work since I hadn’t really heard anything about this game online before now but at least they tried. If they made a sequel to this I’d certainly be interested even if I think that is probably a long whiles away if it even happens at all.

So in the end whether you like this game or not will likely depend entirely on if you enjoy the first person style. You have to be in the mood for a fun horror game like this but if you enjoy that style then you will have a great time here. There are also a lot of important quality of life features here like constant save points so when you die you don’t have to redo a whole lot. That makes sense since the game is built around you dying a whole lot so it wouldn’t make sense if you had to go back every time. That would just end up being a drag right? One big issue that they somehow missed though was how you can’t skip dialogue. So if you die at the beginning of the boss fight then the villain will get his whole speech again.

It’s possible that the devs didn’t think about this because there aren’t many boss fights but wouldn’t it stand to reason that this is where you would be most likely to die? That’s definitely one thing I would change. The game is actually reasonably challenging which I appreciate. You will die a few times but in that case you don’t want to be stuck in cutscenes. Nothing will top the first Avatar game for Gamecube in that category but it’s always rough to feel stuck like that.

Overall, Goosebumps is a pretty fun game. You’ll definitely appreciate all the attentions to detail here. The first level is probably the best in terms of being a horror game though. Levels 2 and 3 start to become a bit more of an adventure. Particularly the third level since you get a gun in there while the second is more of a psychological horror as someone is giving you instructions and you have to decide if you will listen to him or not. The first is a classic horror though as you’re in an abandoned house with no way out and monsters around every corner. That’s definitely the level that you would be buying the game for without a doubt.

Overall 7/10

Fire Emblem Engage Review

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Fire Emblem is one of Nintendo’s greatest franchises of all time and I’ve been meaning to play one of the main games for ages. Now at last I’ve made it. There may be some debate as to this being a spinoff or a main title but I absolutely give it the nod to hanging out with the other originals. It just works really well there with the classic gameplay. Nintendo has likely got the game of the year here with Engage since it’s hard to see this one being defeated. The story is phenomenal and every single aspect of the game is super polished from the dynamite soundtrack to the top tier graphics. Whether you like the tactics style or not you should check this one out.

The game starts off with Alear and the 12 Fire Emblem fighters of legend teaming up to deal some absolutely devastating damage to the villains. They even manage to destroy the villain and bring the world to peace. 1000 years pass and Alear wakes up in the present to find out that he is worshipped as a divine dragon. Unfortunately his waking was not coincidental as he is quickly attacked by the corrupted. They are a race of powerful villains, albeit fairly mindless ones who are aiming to really cause a lot of trouble. They are working for a group of villains who are trying to take over all of the kingdoms and steal the 12 Emblem Rings. Alear and friends will have to try and get them first but this adventure will go through a whole lot of twists and turns first.

The game took me over 24 hours to complete according to the playtime but if you count retries and such I’m confident it was a lot longer. Fortunately I had a lot of time to play this game, you make time for the top tier titles after all and I can’t think of the last time I marathoned a game so hard. It’s just because this is the kind of game you can’t put down. It’s just way too exhilarating and exciting. The rush you get while playing the story here is not something that just any game can get. You can imagine how much story content there is in such a long game and no expense was spared on the cutscenes.

For example a lot of games will have some cutscenes sporadically but this one has such long cutscenes that the switch would constantly dim from power saver mode and you’d have to make the screen go bright again. Additionally there is full voice acting in just about every step of the game which is incredibly impressive. You hear all the voices in the main story missions, the side quests, etc. It’s a lot of extra detail here and it’s the little things like that which make the game feel extra special. As I mentioned there are a lot of great tunes throughout the game as well and it starts with a very solid intro theme. The music can get quite emotional and then switch to action paced on a dime.

In terms of replay value it goes without saying that there is a lot to do here. After beating the game you can play through the tower of trials and a lot of other modes. There are extra paralogue chapters where you can meet characters and you can also increase all of your bonds with the characters to unlock bonus cutscenes. A nice bonus of watching these cutscenes is that they increase the bond level of your fighters further which increases the stats. There are even minigames like doing pushups to make your characters stronger. I didn’t touch too many of the bonus modes but there is just an incredible amount of content here.

Now if I have my first minor issue it’s that it can be difficult to see which weapon is more powerful to buy at the shop. In most games it’s quite easy to pick out the one you want since you compare it to the weapon you are holding but there is no easy menu to do that. Additionally every weapon has close to 11 stats and the one with the higher attack isn’t always stronger thanks to speed and type advantages. As a result that muddies the water even more and you almost don’t want to destroy any items. On the other hand it’s hard to earn money here so you really need to do that if you want more funds.

It’s a tough pickle for sure but this is a strategy game so that may be intentional. You can also adopt animals in this game which was cool. I made sure to rescue every animal I came across in the level hub worlds because as a hero I could do no less! You can pet them and feed them once you’re back at base which is fun. This is really a complete game. There’s nothing that feels like it was held back for DLC although we are getting several waves of that already. This is a game that was complete out of the box and I can always appreciate that.

Wow I still haven’t talked much about the gameplay right? Well, it’s your classic strategy turn based style so you move your fighters from area to area as you try to take out the enemy commander. Occasionally the objective will be something different but this is generally how it plays out. As the game starts you will control a few players but by the end you will control as many as 14 while the opponent has 30+. So it’s all about choosing when to start battles and when to avoid them. Like in Chess each character has a different amount of spaces they can move and their abilities are all different so you have to take that into account.

As you bond with your emblem you can learn new skills to stack on top of the old one as well. The gameplay is very thorough so pay attention to all of the tutorials. In terms of strategies my main tip is to always use Segall and Byleth as separate characters so don’t pair them together. The reason is that Segall can allow a player to get a second turn while Byleth can restore 4 turns. So if you use this as a combo right you can get 5 extra turns in the blink of an eye which is super handy. I used this combo a lot near the end of the game. There are plenty of other cool abilities as well so at the end of the day the main thing to remember here is to try and use each ability to the best you can. If you do that then you’ll be just fine.

If you die, no worries. You have a time crystal so you can respawn on any previous turn and rethink your strategy. Keep grinding out different formations until you have secured victory! The fight animations here are also really cool with complete choreography for each move. Admittedly I started skipping them after a while just for time’s sake as watching every attack would probably double or triple my overall play time. I do like that they put a whole lot of effort into this.

Overall, Fire Emblem Engage is an elite title and you will definitely enjoy your playthrough of it. I always enjoy tactics gameplay but that alone wouldn’t make this an elite game. No, what pushes this one over the top is how fantastic the story is. It’s one of the more emotional titles you’ll play in a while and it just has a super satisfying ending which seals the deal. I don’t go into much details here because it’s the kind of story where you want to go in fresh but there are just so many dynamite characters all around. Whether you’ve played Fire Emblem or not, you can absolutely jump into this one. It’s very new player friendly and you will have no regrets when going through the adventure.

Overall 9/10

Street Fighter Duel Review

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Street Fighter came out with a new mobile game recently so I jumped in right away to give it a go. This is the only idle game I’ve played since that first Godzilla mobile game which I’d say nailed the concept a little better. Ultimately I don’t think idle games are for me or rather you would need it to either be an incredible franchise that I’m invested in or also have a big story mode to back it up. I think idle games will generally be decently fun and certainly super addicting but the ceiling is way lower than with most other genres. I wouldn’t call this game better than good but it’s still not bad. I’m actually writing this review in part so I can finally delete the game because otherwise it does eat up time and there’s only so many hours in a day.

The story is the minimum you need for this to be called a story and you can tell that there isn’t a focus on it. Basically mecha versions of various characters have appeared and we need to take them down asap! This also leads to a tournament being set up for some reason. Every 40 levels you will get a quick cutscene as you beat up a character who appears and that’s about it. I cleared close to 200 levels and the format never changed except for the chapters getting a little longer each time. At first they were around 36 levels and by the end they were 40 levels and more. It is really impressive that the game launched with more than 1600 levels though, I have to give the devs credit there.

Additionally I want to underscore that the game is not lazy by any means. Yes the story is but the rest of the game has a lot of content and various modes which is what people are playing it for. That is the impressive part to the point where there are so many modes that it is hard to keep track. I was still unlocking new modes as I went through the 5th chapter. There are so many areas to keep track of and I think the intent is for you to be a little overwhelmed. It can be tempting to spend some money so the game runs itself to an even higher degree but resist the urge! By definition an idle game will eventually give you the resources that you need in order to complete it, you just have to be patient.

Let me go into more detail on this. Remember those facebook gardening game? That’s the best example. As you go to sleep and keep the game off, your fighters are training and beating enemies constantly. This gives you EXP, orbs, money, and every other resource in the game. It caps out at 19 hours so make sure you at least log in once every 19 hours to collect the points so they start up again. Of course then you’re tempted to do the daily log ins, check each of the many modes to get those logins, etc. That’s where the game gets you. Yes you don’t have to do those things but it’s sort of hard not to while you’re there since each individual task only takes a few seconds, maybe 2-3 minutes max. But by the time you’ve done this for every single menu and mode suddenly you’ve been playing for 40 minutes. Then there are the levels. You can turn on “consecutive challenge” which will have all the levels keep breezing by but it still takes some time as you watch the characters take down the enemies.

You don’t really have to “play” the game at all and just watch the computers take care of business. You can take direct control to click on the special moves but the computers handle all the movement and normal attacks. You are basically the coach here and that’s not a bad thing but it is an acquired taste. I don’t think this kind of game will be for everyone. Hey, I found it addicting so I would say that it is doing something right but in general I love stats so seeing all the numbers going up and everything is great. You have to know when to cut out early though and after beating so many levels I figured I have the game a fair shake.

The graphics are on point and while the soundtrack is forgettable you can just turn on some background music. It’s not like you really need the game’s actual audio for checking in on your characters and materials. Ultimately you can do that in complete silence if you want although I feel like it’s always a bit comforting to have some kind of music on. I usually talk about replay value but it goes without saying that it is basically infinite here. You can keep playing for as long as you have time and if you opt to just log in once every 19 hours for a few minutes that is a valid strategy. Honestly they give you so many resources for free that you will be rich if you can just hold out for a few days without using it. You should be able to dominate all of the single player content the game gives you as long as you just give it some time.

Overall, I can tell you right now that the extent to which I covered the menus, modes, and overall game can’t possibly do the title justice to the sheer amount of content here. So if you are looking for a good idle game then this is a good bet. It will take you hours just to understand all of the mechanics and there are so many items to re-roll and develop that you should be busy for a very long time. This is definitely not a title that you pick up and master in an instant. I would just say to watch out just because I feel the risk of getting addicted here is much greater than any ordinary game. There’s something about it that just feels really aggressive but as long as your strength of will is good then you will have a good time here. I see this game being quite profitable so I expect it should be around for a long while. Maybe it will help fund a new Street Fighter anime or movie at some point.

Overall 6/10

Nexomon: Extinction Review

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Okay it’s time to talk about Nexomon, a game that I picked up on a whim and it turned out to be way better than I was expecting. The story is absolutely epic and a nice change of pace after playing through Need for Speed (2015). In a lot of ways it’s sort of what you could picture Pokemon doing if they ever decided to make a story that was a little more Shonen like in nature. There are certainly a whole lot of twists in this one so by the end you know that you were in a huge RPG.

The game starts out by explaining that the Nexomon and Dragons were in a big war a long time ago. The humans didn’t fare too well in the crossfire but eventually a group did manage to destroy Omnicron, the king of the monsters. The world went into a state of relative peace afterwards but the Tyrants continue to spawn and while the humans do their best to fight, every day is a never ending battle. This can’t be how humanity was supposed to live. In comes Terry (You choose the main character’s name) and he aims to become a guild fighter who will climb up the ranks. Can he save this world?

One of the many reasons why the story is so good is because of all the factions here. You have the humans, the Nexomon, the higher Nexomon known as the Tyrants, the kids of Omnicron, the Dragons, etc. Everyone is mixed in here and the Earth can only take so many factions so naturally there is a lot of action all the time. The game also asks you a lot of moral questions as you have to wonder if you are on the right side at all. I would even go as far as to say the game hints you are on the wrong side for a good chunk of the second half and I would say yes.

Now you are technically presented as doing the right thing at least in as far as you’re seeing things from the main character’s point of view but at the same time you also know that the arguments made in favor of his side are usually used by the villains. Basically the heroes fear the birth of a new creature called Vados who will end up wiping out all Tyrants in the world. This is actually the goal of the heroes so that sounds good right? Well the issue is that Vados is so powerful that he can wipe out all Tyrants in the blink of an eye so if he ever turned rogue then the heroes would be in trouble. Sounds similar to how Lex Luthor views Superman eh? Think about it in that context and it makes everything very interesting.

The game also doesn’t take the easy way out by making Vados a mindless creature or one who is super evil. He is actually fully sentient and even says several times that he will not harm the humans. He just seems like a good guy and as the heroes keep pushing him farther and farther you wonder if he will be able to stay strong or not. The writing here is excellent in how the game never makes any side appear to be too deranged and both sides have a lot of good points throughout the adventure. Throw in some clever 4th wall breaks as well as a lot of witty dialogue and you’ve got yourself a very engaging script. This would make for a really solid anime all the way through if it ever got animated.

Now the gameplay is also important of course so lets get into that. It’s basically Pokemon as you fight in turn based combat battles and catch Nexomon to add to your collection. The type advantages are a little different so you will need to get used to that and the way you catch Nexomon is similar to catching Pokemon but still a bit different as you have to match the right actions on the screen in order to effectively throw the Nexotrap. You can also increase the odds of success by feeding Nexomon or using a specific type of trap. As you play through the game you also get a lot stronger thanks to passive items with permanent boosts like EXP going up by 3% or your catch rates going up. Each one stacks so you really want to open every treasure chest that you can find.

The gameplay is very smooth and is probably one of the better Pokemon homages that I’ve seen in a while. The hubworld is really solid and a nice feature here is that monster encounters only happen in specific patches of grass that you see ahead of time. So you don’t have to be constantly worrying about running away from monsters as you can safely avoid them almost 100% of the time. There are a few select areas like some caves where random encounters will happen but these are few and far between. You can expect that you won’t be seeing these very much at all. So you’ve got quite a few quality of life updates here.

One edge Pokemon does have though is the EXP share system. It feels so odd to go back to only leveling up one Nexomon at a time. I’m glad there is only a trophy for getting one of them to level 99 and not a bunch because that would be a lot of work. I got one of mine to around level 70 so I don’t think it’ll be too hard to get it to 99. You do have cores you can synthesize which allow other Nexomon to get at least some EXP per battle though. So if you grind and get enough materials then eventually you can make your own pseudo EXP share.

So yeah you should have a lot of fun with the gameplay. As more and more games turn to a real time action combat system, it can be fun to go back to the more retro turn based style sometimes. I’ll never turn down real time action of course but I also really like turn based. Why not both as they would say right? This one still has a whole lot of relevance within the video gaming world and as long as it’s done smoothly then it will always work out. At most you could say that one thing the game is lacking is that the opponent can switch Nexomon after one is defeated while you cannot. Feels like a bit of an unfair advantage in the game and considering that in Pokemon both trainers can do this, it felt like an odd change. I always thought the computer was basically cheating a bit tbh.

The difficulty can be a little high at times so you should know that you will be grinding at some points within the game. It is basically inevitable but at the same time you can really focus on one and not worry about the other. The game’s enemies scale up so as you level up, so does everyone else in the game. Wild Nexomon, trainers, etc. So just get one Nexomon really high up and then catch 5 others to make up a team of super powerful fighters. If you do that then you will already be in a good spot and will stay that way for the rest of the game. Also make sure you at least use some strategy because the final boss is actually really difficult and has more phases than your average RPG final boss. Now that was an impressive way to end the game and if I had skipped out on any training then I may have been in trouble.

Overall, Nexomon: Extinction is a great game that I definitely recommend. It had one of the best stories that I’ve seen in a while and the developers did a great job with a fairly low budget. There may not have been big animated cutscenes here but the illustrations were all very well done and so were the sprite based animations within the gameplay. They showed more creativity with these than I’ve seen some AAA titles use. You really felt like the world was alive by the end of the game and it nailed the mix of humor and action. This is the kind of game you can play for hours without worry because of how smooth everything is. Definitely check it out and hopefully they get that sequel in quick!

Overall 8/10

Need for Speed (2015) Review

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It feels like it’s been a while but it’s time to dive in with the next Need for Speed title. This one brings in all the exciting racing you could hope for from previous installments but the story isn’t all that good. This one is trying for an ambitious story with a lot of different group dynamics but it really never gets all that good. The first mistake was making this a more grounded live action kind of story. Give me fun graphics and an animated story any day.

The basic premise here is that you come into town and are looking for some fun racing action. You meet up a group who help you find the right tracks. From there you start racing so well that everyone wants you on their team. You have to complete missions from 5 different people and the more you complete on one side, the more the others get mad at you for always being busy. You even end up helping the Outlaws and so you’ll be in a meeting where everyone is upset at them but on the downlow you’ve actually been helping them the whole time. There’s some real drama here for sure and one character even comes close to beating you up at one point.

These driving tests and races really get personal that’s for sure. You can’t afford to let your guard down at all or you may end up in trouble. The only thing to do is to race and race hard! There are a lot of missions in this game so I wouldn’t expect to complete the game too quickly. It can be a bit tricky with the races when their cars are going super fast and likewise the group drifts can get difficult. On the whole drifts are still easier than races though. I would recommend sticking to your main car for most of the game and just upgrade it as needed. Once you see that the opponent’s cars are simply faster than yours even with max upgrades then buy the best car you can. The reason you want to hold off on buying a car right away is so that you have enough money to buy one of the top ends as opposed to a middle grade car that will only buy you some time. There’s just not a whole lot of point in doing that and then having to earn money when you can jump to the top. I did this and so I only needed to buy one really great car at the end.

Just base it all on how much faster your car is. If you’re faster then you just have to make sure not to crash and you’ll win. If you’re slower…well then there isn’t a whole lot that you can do so you may as well not worry about it and just get a good car. The money is fairly generous in this game so I wouldn’t worry too much. Additionally, the more build missions you complete, the more upgrade parts you get so that’s another thing to keep in mind. You absolutely are going to want those down the line as it is so don’t lose sight of that. If you get to level 50 then you should have all of the parts at the ready although you’ll likely beat the game well before that. I beat it at around level 44 if I remember correctly.

You can fast travel to any mission by selecting it and then scrolling right so make sure you do that. I didn’t realize you could teleport at first so I was actually just driving around instead. Teleporting is infinitely easier and more convenient. Then you just complete the missions and if at any point you think a mission is too tricky you can select a different mission instead. With 5 types to choose from it’ll be a while until you actually have to take a specific mission and by then you will likely be a lot faster than you once were.

The graphics here are really sharp. The cars and environments are absolutely high end and everything just looks really sleek and nice. You feel like you are in the car and ready to dominate at all times. The speeds you can go at without the game lagging at all is very impressive. The soundtrack is more on the underwhelming side to the point where you will want to lower the volume in the settings right away. EA has never been known for its soundtracks so that’s not a huge surprise but be that as it may you will probably still shake your head here. Either way just hearing the engine is reasonably soothing.

There is some replay value after beating the game which is to try the Eddie challenges and go after the Platinum. You don’t even need the former to obtain the latter which is interesting. Good luck finding anyone online but the offline gameplay still has a lot of races and non story content to accomplish. Considering that the main length was also rather long as well, I’d say you should be kept nice and busy here. There’s just a lot to really take in and enjoy even if the story is really weak. You are mainly here for the gameplay either way.

The difficulty can be high but it still feels fair. There is a bit of rubberbanding on the CPU side with the enemies suddenly appearing right next to you at times but for the most part I wouldn’t say that this ever becomes a big problem. If your car is faster then you will win. I have repeated this point a few times already but mainly just to emphasize how big a deal that is. Yes crashing will become easier so you better master drifting but at the end of the day if you don’t make mistakes then you’ll be good and that’s how it should be.

Overall, Need For Speed is a quality game. I look forward to seeing how Payback stacks up against this one. Will it surpass the 2015 title or will it end up being left in the dust? It may be a while before I play that one so I won’t know the answer too soon. In the meantime I am aiming for the Platinum on this one so you can probably expect to see an update within the next few days. I mainly just need to get a lot of XP to reach Level 50 and do the daily challenges and I’ll be set. I think this would be my first Need for Speed platinum as those are usually really rare.

Overall 7/10