The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie’s Revenge Review

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The Nightmare Before Christmas is a fairly iconic film so I suppose it makes sense that it would get a game at some point. Games based on movies or around movies typically don’t have the greatest rep but a lot of times they can still be fun in a basic sense. You’ll have your classic platforming as you go from level to level and that’s enough. Unfortunately where this game falters a bit is perhaps in trying a bit too hard to be more than that. We’ve got power ups and different weapons as well as a bunch of puzzles but they aren’t all connected quite well enough. In the end this makes the game jus end up falling short.

The game starts off with Oogie Boogie making his big return. He wants revenge on Jack and so he has stolen the masters of every holiday. They are all gone now and this is really bad news for Halloween Town. Jack has to try and save them but is this actually a trap? Jack has a new whip that he can use to strike at his opponents and manipulate in all kinds of ways so he will have to hope that this is enough to get the big win in the end.

First off what I do like about the game is the combat system. Being able to swing the whip around is actually really fun and it’s a lot more action oriented than you would expect. There are many sections in the game where you just have to keep on swinging and take down enemies in droves until they all go down. It’s basically part beat em up and who doesn’t enjoy that? Additionally you have alternate forms in fire Jack and Christmas Jack which come with their own special abilities. The Christmas form doesn’t typically damage opponents as it’s more about throwing presents to stun opponents but the fire form actually does burn opponents to a crisp. So that one is handy but it runs out of ammo almost immediately.

When I’m bashing away at enemies then things are going well. Meanwhile the graphics are also pretty solid here. It certainly captures the classic feel of the movie with the very memorable designs. This is still Halloween Town of course so everything is appropriately decorated. The game knew what it was trying to do and did it well. It’s also surprisingly long and should take you nearly 20 hours to complete. I can tell you now that this is very rare for movie-tie ins. You do not typically expect to see one of these games take nearly so long.

Now for what didn’t work, the game’s soundtrack is incredibly limited. There are basically 2-3 songs that are constantly looped as you play through the game. They just keep playing that Halloween song and for the boss they have the song with the kids. You have to end up hearing this song over and over again. Hey the songs ae catchy but after a while the spamming is just a bit much. You want something more and this is a game that could have stood to have been a bit quieter. Maybe at least change it for an instrumental version for some points which would have broken things up.

Additionally back to the puzzles, a lot of times you have absolutely no clue where to go. There is a map but it is completely unlabeled so it’s really not all that helpful. You can be lost for ages until you memorize all of the locations. By the time I completed the game I had a rough idea of where everything was so I started to move a little faster but until then I was getting lost constantly. This is not a fun game to be lost in because if there is an enemy around then you won’t be able to use your whip to climb so you have to beat them again. You at least get some money from them in order to buy more upgrades but it will take a while because the upgrades are expensive. They only drop a handful of coins. The only effective way to buy all of the upgrades is to go to one of the towers where there is a big gold coin that will randomly give you up to 250 coins in one shot. Grab that and then you are absolutely set. The fastest method is to grab it, enter a house, leave and the coin will appear again. Keep doing this over and over until you have enough money to buy everything. I did this for around 2 hours and that was enough to let me beat the final parts of the game.

This is a game where you have to grind. Grinding is not bad, I tend to enjoy it but the problem is that this game was not really set up for it so as a result you have to do a whole lot of extra stuff. Meanwhile the boss battles can be a bit fishy as well and usually getting back there if you lose requires a lot of moving around. There is a “Continue?” option when you die but all it does is steal your coins and put you back to your last checkpoint. It’s almost always a better option to quit out completely and just reload your game instead.

This game probably needed a little more time in the lab to iron out some of the kinks. I think the beat em up approach was good in theory but the game probably went a little too hard in adding the grinding elements without building a true system around it. Even at max level I just barely beat one of the time trial challenges which almost felt like luck. I had to spam all of my best moves and even then I just barely made it. One thing that would have helped a whole lot would have been fast travel. Aside from the final boss area the only place to replenish your health and extra bottles is back at the main hubworld. These bottles are important because you can immediately replenish your health back to full with each one. These enemies take up a ton of health so you will want to have those bottles for sure. Without them you likely aren’t going to go far here.

That does mean that you will have to run all the way back to the hub world on multiple occasions and this is usually quite the journey. We’re talking several areas back which is sometimes over a whole chapter into the past. It’s not a journey that you really want to be making much but at the same time it’s not like you have much of a choice. So adding in a fast travel would have solved all of that immediately.

Overall, This game was probably just a bit too ambitious considering the budget. It can happen when you go too far in the wrong medium like the first Sword Art Online game that I played on mobile. There is a rhythm based aspect of the gameplay though which was neat since I’m seeing that everywhere all of a sudden. When you’ve dealt enough damage you get to activate your song abilities. It deals heavy damage to the boss but the timing is definitely tough so you will have to really get the hang of it. During the final boss I messed up quite a few times so the boss battle took forever. Make sure your reaction times are on point or you’re in trouble!

Overall 5/10

Mario Party Star Rush Review

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All right do you know what time it is?? It’s Mario Party time!! Yessss…well at least Mario Party used to be a super hype series like that. It really started to fall off slowly but surely as the games went on. Mario Party 4 is where the series peaked but I would say that Parties 5-7 were all still really great. It was in 8 where the cracks started to show and then beyond that into the Wii U era is when things really got fishy. I cut the portable games a little more slack in the sense that they usually don’t have any iffy gimmicks they’re just more limited by what the console can do. Star Rush not having any kind of a story mode is a little shameful though. Cmon you couldn’t give me anything? This one also introduces a gimmick that I’m not a big fan of. The game is saved by having a good amount of modes to play and ultimately it’s a good title.

So in the game the main party mode is something called Toad Scramble. Everyone plays as Toad and the idea here is to defeat 3 bosses in order to end the game. Each boss is holding onto the power star. Now here’s the kicker. No matter who bumps into the boss first, all 4 players are pulled in to enjoy the boss fight. The only disadvantage is that if you are rather far then it will take you a few seconds to join the fight as you see your character flying over. The character to do the most damage earns the star and getting the final hit gets you a lot of point. There are 3 different lengths to the mode so you can do 3 boss fights, 5, or one with an unknown number.

I’m not a big fan of the game trying to force all of this teamwork on you though. Can’t I just get the star myself? You also have to land on the exact space where the star is or you won’t get it. So unlike most of the games where you can keep on going, this means you will sometimes have to keep walking in a circle until you can grab the star. You are able to move backwards for once though which is interesting. You don’t have to just go forward like in the other Party titles. These two gimmicks just feel a little pointless though and don’t add to the experience.

There are no turns in this game so you also don’t get consistent minigames to play. Only happens when people bump into each other on the same square. There’s also a mechanic where you see Mario and friends scattered across the field and can recruit them. They all have different dice blocks and help you out during the fights. This one is an interesting idea at least although I don’t know if it was worth only having Toad as the playable character. Once you have the allies you can switch so they are the ones running on the field so I guess in a way it’s like an alternate way to play as someone else but that just seems a bit convoluted.

I wasn’t a big fan of that mode but there was another mode which was a lot of fun. This was the coin battles. Basically this is a one on one duel with another opponent and you are both put on a track and field course. A minigame will start and they all involve collecting a lot of coins. Each coin collected is one step closer to the goal and the first to 300 coins wins. As you get further into the mode the challenges get tougher and the amount of coins you need becomes larger but I really liked this mode. It was super fast paced and so something was always happening. It was a unique mode while also not feeling like it was just a gimmick that was thrown in at the last second. Oh yeah I definitely enjoyed that quite a lot.

There’s also a rhythm mode which I can’t say that I was expecting. You have to press the buttons in sync when the characters are playing classic Mario songs. It’s a fun test of your reaction times and is just a peaceful mode in general. It’s difficult to lose but it’s also really hard to ace them with an S rank because getting a single great instead of an excellent can be your downfall. Still, that was fun and so I give the game credit for having different modes like this. There is actually a reasonable amount of content for someone even without friends.

For example, there is a level up system here. You can exp for just about every mode like winning a Toad Scramble or a coin battle. Each level up tends to unlock either a new mode or a new character. I wasn’t at the highest level yet so I wouldn’t be surprised if there were even more modes that I hadn’t unlocked yet. It’s a nice feeling knowing that the adventure can still go on further. You can get this game for rather cheap now so it’s something you should really try to have on your radar. You definitely don’t want to miss out on it after all.

The graphics are really solid. It’s not surprising since this is Mario after all but it’s still worth noting. The 3DS does well with all of the characters looking crisp and of course the soundtrack is on point as well. This doesn’t feel low budget which is good. At the end of the day it’s hard to see people picking up this game instead of the home console ones but for the people who do play it, you want the game to be as good as possible.

Overall, Mario Party Star Rush is definitely different but it’s still a fun game. While the party mode may leave some things to be desired, the coin mode has you covered. It’s a lot of fun trying to grab a whole ton of coins and just getting through as quickly as possible. The minigames themselves are also really solid. I didn’t notice any that were really recycled and there were a lot of good ideas here. It does make me think about buying one of the ones that I’m missing one of these days. At this point there are a handful so I should probably start on that. Either way I would actually recommend buying this one. You’ll have a good time with it and won’t be disappointed.

Overall 7/10

Cardfight!! Vanguard G: The Prologue Review

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Cardfight Vanguard is one of the greatest franchises of all time without a doubt. It always delivers on amazing duels and constant moments of hype and amazement that you just would not have seen coming. The series is just built different and it’s cool that it got a fun little prologue story like this. It’s a bit of an AU as things happen differently than in the main series but it’s fun to see Chrono return for the G part of the series. We get 2 duels here within the 5 chapters which is a pretty good mix I’d say.

The series starts off with Chrono scaring off some bullies who were picking on a weak cardfighter. He is always defending the weak but doesn’t really know what to do with himself. Well that changes when he finds a deck in his locker. He figures that he can sell this for good money and then take the world by storm but he is confronted by the store’s assistant Kamui who insists on dueling Chrono first. Just tossing out the deck would be a waste and his boss Shin also agrees. Chrono will have to fight hard to get past these two veterans. The man called Shin also seems very suspicious with how much he knows about Chrono. Playing these duels may end up teaching Chrono more about his past so that’s another good incentive to this fight now. Fight hard Chrono!

The chapters are all fairly short so I can only imagine that this was a very small volume even once it was released physically. Hopefully you could buy it at a discounted price and then it would definitely be a really good pick-up here. The art is solid and it captures all of the characters that you know very well. The character proportions are on point without a doubt. The action scenes are good and it’s all very clear so you couldn’t ask for much more from the series. A good amount of effort was put in and this could have been really fun as a long ongoing as well. You can never have too much fun with more and more Cardfight spinoffs coming out after all. This could have been another long one to add to the list.

As the main character Chrono is pretty good here. Unlike his main version he actually doesn’t come close to giving up or forfeiting this time. That’s a weakness that he has in the main series as well as the anime but in this prologue he fights all of his matches all the way to the end. That’s exactly how it should be for an up and coming duelist. You have to take the losses along with the wins. Chrono is a very solid character as a result and he fights really hard considering that he’s just getting started. He’s certainly ahead of the curve.

Kamui’s role isn’t super big but he was always a main character in G so it’s fitting that he got his own duel here. As one of the originals I would always expect him to absolutely crush Chrono though. I know Cardfight is set up in a way where the matches will almost always appear to be close but at least you definitely shouldn’t have any doubts about who will ultimately end up winning the match. Then we have Shin who is a lot more mysterious looking than usual. What I liked here is that Shin acts a little more like himself from the prequel anime. I believe this pre dates that one but it’s just nice to have him as a very serious adversary and cardfighter as opposed to being a washed up storeowner who can’t fight anymore.

Shin’s portrayal here is good and he actually does remember the good ole days. His deck was solid and he helps Chrono to pass his limits which is certainly a big deal. He works really well as a final boss in a prequel as he gives Chrono just enough info to get him interested in the game while also maintaining the mystery that this is only the tip of the iceberg. Chrono will still have a lot to look forward to and so you have cameos from characters like Ibuki and Tokoha who are around.

There isn’t a whole lot to say though because even if you merge all 5 chapters of the series it’s barely longer than one of those big One Punch Man chapters. It’s a very quick read that it just here to get you to see a fun pair of cardfights. Fortunately that’s all that I need in order to have a good time. The duels are good fun with a solid amount of detail put into them. They explain enough of the rules to where you should be able to follow along. They don’t bother to explain some of the more intense rules like stride riding but you can just figure that it’s a really impressive move.

At his best Aichi always does tend to beat Chrono for me but Chrono starts out stronger and this manga really shows why. He is already able to stand up for himself right from the start and he is quick on the uptake. It took Aichi quite a while to really believe in himself and that’s just not a problem that Chrono has. This prologue really gets you interested in re watching some of those classic G battles.

Overall, As a prologue I would say the goal of the manga should be to try and get some new fans into the franchise. With that in mind I would say this succeeds as it gives you a lot of reasons to come and check out the show real quick. You see enough interesting characters in the background and cool dueling mechanics to make you want a little more. With that in mind you should definitely check this one out. It really has no issues and it’s not like it’ll take you very long to read it either. It’s just two quick duels and you’ll get a flavor for what the franchise is like.

Overall 7/10

Mori Hui vs Hearts

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Suggested by Sonic Mori Hui is a powerful fighter who basically has all of the abilities of the original Mori Jin. He can destroy planets with ease and has crazy speed but ultimately Hearts is someone who was able to contend with Super Saiyan Blue Goku. This is not an opponent who will be scared of Hui’s abilities. Add in that Hearts can read the heart and that puts Mori Hui in a very difficult spot. There’s just not a whole lot of options open to him. Hearts has the better stats. Hearts wins.

Bullet vs Ulti

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Suggested by Sonic Ulti is a powerful fighter in Wano who was strong enough to go up against Strawhat Luffy in one of the strongest points in his career. Bullet was able to do the same though and so this makes things very interesting. Ultimately the reason I would give this to Bullet is because we’ve been able to see him fight at a high level for a very prolonged period of time. Ulti may be able to match his power for a little while but it’s hard to say if she could really do that for very long or not. He just has better showings right now. Bullet wins.

Zakuro Fujiwara vs Moriking

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Suggested by Sonic Morking is a pretty tough guy but for the most part he’s stuck in a series that is more interested in focusing on gags instead of his true power. He’s up against Zakuro who is probably the strongest Mew Mew of the group but her series isn’t totally about action either so it makes for a pretty interesting setup. Ultimately Moriking’s feats are still a lot better though and he has the speed to take Zakuro out in one hit. Moriking wins.

Yami Sukehiro vs Yamato

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Suggested by Sonic This is definitely a pretty close fight. Both fighters are near the top of their respective universes and for good reason. They have power, speed, and a ton of abilities to choose from. Ultimately what gives the edge here is Yami’s speed is a bit greater and his sword can cut through just about anything so blocking is not an option for Yamato. That would have been her best bet to try and counter him but ultimately it just won’t be enough this time. Yami is too strong. Yami Sukehiro wins.

Brooklyn vs Luck

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Suggested by Sonic Brooklyn may have been one of the strongest Beybladers to ever take the stage but at the end of the day he is not going to be ready to take down someone like Luck. Luck has speed that is so great he wouldn’t even be visible on the stage. Brooklyn’s bey beast just wouldn’t be a factor as a result. He would be outgunned from the start and unable to counter the electricity. Luck wins.

Rush vs Rush EXE

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Suggested by Destroyer It’s a battle of the two Mega Man dogs. Ultimately Rush EXE was a fun homage to the original but he really couldn’t fight much. He was great at using portals to escape every which way but the original Rush was a true robot who could zoom around and barrel into you. EXE never had any real attacks or natural defenses so the portals may buy a little time but that’s it. It would only be delaying the inevitable. Rush wins.

Sailor Mercury vs Blob

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Suggested by Destroyer I don’t find Sailor Mercury to be the most impressive fighter among the Sailor Scouts but it is certainly true that she is strong enough to take the Blob down. He may be powerful but he doesn’t have any speed alongside that and so he would quickly be crushed here. Mercury can just keep on firing her water blasts until his durability fades. It’s why not having speed is a huge detriment in a fight because then you just have to stand there and take the blows. Sailor Mercury wins.