Tag Archives: Arcade

Joy Mech Fight Review

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So I like a good fighting game as much as the next guy. This one even has a plot which is cool so I would have been pretty satisfied if I got this back when it first came out. That being said, it’s a shame that Nintendo didn’t translate this one. Seriously would that have been so hard? The game has an impressive amount of battles in the story and while it will be tough to beat them all in one batch, I appreciate the replay value since you get a decent bang for your buck if you had bought the game.

The basic plot appears to be similar to Mega Man where two doctors have created a bunch of robots but one of them turns evil. So you play as the main character and every time you beat an enemy robot, the heroic scientist mind controls it so it joins your side. You rinse and repeat this until you’ve beaten all 8 robot masters. You then jump to the next planet and do the same thing. You beat all of them…then you go to the 3rd planet. It just keeps on going and going and going. The robots actually do change a bit, some are color swaps while others actually swap parts a bit. They’re mainly similar but I liked how creative the devs were here.

My only issue is that you can’t unlock these robots so that’s a bit of a tease. I beat the first two worlds and stopped at the 3rd one. There appears to be 4 worlds and every fight is a best of 5 set so this actually takes some time. You’re basically looking at 40 battles per world so over 100 in the game. Again, the value here is pretty good. I won’t say the gameplay is extremely polished and everything but it’s fun enough. It should remind you of the old Street Fighter days where you would spam the hadouken to keep on hitting enemies for as long as possible. That would just keep them at bay over and over again.

Well I did that here with my main projectile attack and it was great. I would then use a flying kick and take the win. I never even needed to rewind which was cool although it was starting to get really close in the last world so I was probably pretty close to that point. The game would be a lot more difficult without spamming since the attacks can be hard to dodge. Like you think it’ll hit a certain area but then it hits you somehow instead. The hit boxes may not be perfect but granted it can also just be that the designs are all a bit different and take some getting used to.

The graphics aren’t bad but not super clean. I’d say for NES standards they’re a little below average. They make up for that with the colors and the interesting designs though. You won’t forget some of these robots very quickly so I give the devs credit for that. Again I also give them credit for having an actual story since that’s pretty awesome and you don’t see it very often.

Overall, This is a decent mech fighting game. To be honest there is little reason to play it more nowadays with so many other fighters on the block but it doesn’t take away from the fact that a decent amount of effort was put into this one. Certainly more than I would have expected based on the box art and how the game’s never gotten popular. As long as you have the Switch Online you should play the game. It’s got a multiplayer mode as well so you can definitely play that for a long while before getting bored. It’s yet another game that I would consider a good proof of concept for something that could be a lot grander with a modern remake.

Overall 6/10

Beast Boy vs Arcade

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Suggested by Destroyer Arcade could certainly beat any of Beast Boy’s real life animal forms but the ones that will give him some trouble are the alien ones. Beast Boy has turned into some really powerful alien monsters that should be able to break Arcade’s machines and take him down for the count. I don’t see Arcade being quite fast enough to dodge the attacks and he won’t be able to fire enough lasers in time to win. Beast Boy wins.

Arcade vs Wasp

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Suggested by Destroyer Arcade has a lot of tech on his side to try and get around the fact that he isn’t very strong physically. Some of these robots and devices are actually pretty formidable even if I don’t think they will be enough to defeat the Wasp in the end. Her aerial mobility still gives her a good advantage here and it will be really difficult for him to keep up with her. Her stingers have gotten a lot more powerful over the years and can definitely break through his defenses. Wasp wins.

Fighting EX Layer Another Dash Review

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Whenever there is a free fighting game to check out, it’s definitely worth a play. Fighting Ex Layer is much like Street Fighter X Tekken in that you can see the full game content right out of the gate in the menus but you just can’t interact with them unless you pay the full price. I went into this one with the freemium version of course so I stuck to my selection. The game’s modes aren’t too extensive anyhow.

The modes here are vs mode (Online and Offline), Arcade mode, and Training. There isn’t a story mode here and Arcade only has one block of text as a character ending of sorts. So this is really a game that is focused purely on the combat. For most that will probably be enough for them to spend money on the full version so they can play the online vs mode. Battling against people online really throws in the replay value after all. If you stay strong on that though then your best bet is playing through the Arcade mode.

You get 4 fighters to play with and each one has their own special techniques and attack options. Mastering each character is your best way to win. I was able to complete the Arcade mode on normal and easy and they were reasonably tough so I imagine going on hard mode would really be a tough ordeal. Definitely not something to do unless you’re really confident in your own abilities. You have to have absolute confidence in yourself or it’s all over. I recommend going for the leg sweep, they seem to have a hard time blocking that move.

Mix in a few aerials and just keep swinging buttons. I can’t say I had an easy time finding out which attack combo’s into another so just find a 2 hit combo and you’re set. You can at least launch a flying kick and then go for a sweep which should work for any character. Pull that off and then you’re in a really good spot. You can also use an unblockable attack by pressing the A and X buttons at the same time. It’s super slow but gets the job done in a pinch.

Another benefit to jumping a lot is that if the opponent counters you will be just out of range. A final tip I should mention is grabbing is really good here. Just throw the opponent all over the field and you won’t have a problem. It’s a great way to keep the momentum at all times. It also deals quite a bit of damage so the game reminded me of Street Fighter V in that sense. Man I used to throw all the time there and it would just work. That’s how good the throws were.

The graphics are definitely really solid here. The game looks new and has a fairly sci-fi kind of feel to it. You feel like it’s a modern title and I would like to see the characters show up in a game with a story mode someday. Now that would absolutely have a ton of potential behind it. The soundtrack is more on the forgettable side. No real bad tunes or anything but none that you’ll remember once you finish the game. It could really use one rock solid rock theme if you ask me.

In general the game is just lacking in content kind of like Super Mario Run’s free version. It would be good to have added some more things to do here or maybe we could get a story mode at some point. The best thing to do if you ask me would have been to have added some text before each opponent so the arcade mode feels like a story. I think that would have hit the best balance by far and it’s a relatively low impact way to enhance the game as a whole. I’m surprised more titles don’t quickly slap a little story together like that. Would be a perfect way to pull it off.

At the end of the day the game is still good because the gameplay is solid though. It may not be the fastest paced fighting title but the moves make sense and you always feel like you have a chance. It’s got a higher bar to really learn the controls than a lot of the other fighting games so you can’t expect to just pick it up and start landing combos. This is one of those games where actually learning the moves will be absolutely mandatory.

Overall, Fighting Ex Layer is a game that I’d recommend giving a download. After all, it’s free so there’s no reason not to. Way I see it, downloading a free game is always worth the effort. Even if it doesn’t light your world on fire, you’ll have still gotten to play a nice game and it won’t have cost you anything. I don’t think you’ll be playing this game for very long as there isn’t much to do on your own but you can enjoy the nice gameplay and characters. Slap on some more content for this without having to purchase it and you’ll definitely have a winner here. It just has to be done soon before people have forgotten about the game. Honestly the marketing wasn’t that intense so you very easily could have missed hearing about it even from the start.

Overall 5/10

The King of Fighters XV Review

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Reaching 15 games is a great accomplishment for any series. Of course when you count spinoffs then this series already passed that number but 15 in just the main-line is even more impressive. While the story isn’t as big as in some of the other games, everyone has their classic Arcade Mode here so you’ll be playing a lot of stories. With solid gameplay at the ready you can bet that this game is a full success.

The story is that the next tournament has been announced so everybody is invited. Most of the characters share the same intro this time around so you might not know the reason they are all entering but you can make good guesses based on the endings. The main teams here are the ones led by Isla and Shun’ei. They both still need to work on mastering their psychic abilities and there may be something more to this tournament. When a mysterious cosmic being known as Re-Verse appears, the teams will have to fight hard to stop her. What if she is even more powerful than Verse from the last game? The heroes can’t let their guard down for a moment!

I have to admit that I would have liked a bit more of a story though. Even the classic opening and ending routine would have felt a bit better since everyone gets two shots. With most of the teams only getting the ending it felt like the story may have been rushed a bit. Make sure you check the gallery before playing though as it will let you know which characters get different versions of the cutscenes aside from the ending. Usually you will have your character rival cutscene during the story as well so be on the lookout for those.

Re-Verse makes for a cool villain and she even has a super form. The battle is also quite difficult in her final form when you’re playing on standard mode. I always start with standard mode but for the rest of the stories I made the settings as quick as possible to get through them. If you are fighting her, make sure you block a lot. It’s a 3 vs 1 fight against the boss so it may sound easy but her attacks hit like a truck. You can’t underestimate her or it’ll all be over. You get unlimited continues but you still want to win as soon as you can.

Isla’s group makes for a solid rival team. Isla herself is a good rival and she even gets some solid development in her own story. She isn’t quite ready to take the main character spot away from the others but I’d like to see her appear more in the sequel. Shun’ei is also a good lead even if he’s no Kyo. I like his confidence and he is getting better at mastering his abilities so he is no longer a novice at this point. Kyo and Terry are still the two big powerhouses to watch out for though.

Aside from the story mode you’ve got a lot of other content like the tutorials, vs modes, online battles, etc. Multiplayer automatically gives a game unlimited replay value as far as I’m concerned because you can always have fun playing more rounds. Without PS+ the online option may not be applicable but there’s always local in that case. The gameplay is also very solid and I started to get the hang of the combos by the end. I had to learn a lot of the different techniques to obtain the PS4 trophies which was handy for the matches.

Obtaining the Platinum would take a while here but it’s certainly something else you can shoot for. Especially if you have PS+, then a lot of these trophies will be more obtainable. Naturally the graphics here are really quite solid. Everything is in HD and the attacks are all very bright. It definitely feels good landing big attacks for that reason. The soundtrack is solid and we get a new main theme which plays during all of the endings. I’d say that it’s pretty good. It’s got a catchy beat to it and raises the tension since it’s the perfect cliffhanger kind of theme. The lyrical song from the last game also returns and of course I like Re-Verse’s themes that play during the game.

There is an album feature here so you can go back and listen to the songs at any time. There’s even an option where you can pick what song plays for each stage like in Super Smash Bros. It may seem like a little thing but I’m really glad that you can do that. This way you make sure that the best song is playing at all times which is always a good idea. When you can choose like this, why would you choose anything but the best right?

For the combat I would recommend playing through the tutorials. Not only is it good because of the trophies that you get but there are a lot of different concepts here and you want to know them all. Gone are the days where you would just punch and kick your way to victory. Now you’ve got a bunch of other techniques up your sleeve and you won’t even know the names or how to use them if you haven’t properly learned how to do it. Button mashing and spacing can only get you so far after all. Find your 3 main characters and then you’ll be all set. For me that would be Kyo, Terry, and Shun’ei, the 3 main characters across generations in a sense. Perhaps the obvious picks but their gameplays were all very solid to me.

Overall, The King of Fighters XV is definitely a great follow up to the series. It brings back everything you like about the series like the great gameplay and a solid story mode. I think the story could have been more expansive/included more unique cutscenes but at the end of the day it’s more like a bonus than the focus here. The character roster is a good size so no issues there and I’m sure the game will be getting DLC for a while to include some bonus fighters. It’s always fun to see what the cast will look like by the end since if we get enough waves it can almost double.

Overall 8/10

Hey Punk! Are You Tuff E Nuff? Review

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It’s time to look at a pretty old fighting game. The title is definitely pretty intense and right away you know that you’re in for a very intense mano a mano affair. As far as these retro games go I would say it’s pretty solid. It’s a fighting game so you can’t really go wrong there. Naturally this is the kind of game that is a whole lot better in multiplayer but arcade mode still hits all of the right notes. I don’t see you playing this over any of the new ones but since it’s free with the Switch Online that’s a plus.

The game starts with letting you pick a character and from there it’s off to the races. The gameplay is very basic with your average punch and kick moves. You also have some special abilities but those are hard to use of course. The whole thing is pretty basic and I definitely wouldn’t say that it’s very ambitious. Still, the A.I. can definitely give you a lot of trouble here so have the rewind button at the ready. You’re going to be getting a lot of use out of it here as things would be a little trouble without it.

Due to the nature of the game though there really isn’t a ton to say about it. You’ll be done with the Arcade Mode very quickly and then there’s nothing else to do aside from playing through it again and again or going into versus mode. To an extent that is true of most fighting games I suppose but with the modern ones at least you have more stat keeping or modern graphics to keep you going. At least individual character stories but this one doesn’t really have much of that.

I’d say that the graphics look pretty decent though. It’s a SNES game that had a good amount of effort put into it. The soundtrack isn’t bad either. The whole thing is a little on the basic side make no mistake about that but you’ll have a little fun here. I guess trying out all of the characters would be a good way to extend the time at least a little bit. That way you’ll also pick up on the controls. At an intro level I would at least recommend not blocking enough. The A.I. always figures out how to beat your block anyway so you’re better off just going on the attack and completely overwhelming them. Then maybe you can deal out enough damage to win. If you can find a consistent 1-2 hit combo that should be good enough to get you going. Don’t worry about doing anything beyond that. If there are even combos beyond 2 hits because I certainly couldn’t find any.

The computer definitely had a way of making every hit connect though. Maybe there are some advanced L cancelling techniques like in Melee over here. It would explain why the enemy was always moving super fast like the wind and being in all of the right spots at the right times. No matter what you would do the enemy would be ready and waiting to counter strike. I would say that they can read your inputs but I’m not sure if that was a thing back then. They just have really solid fundamentals all the way around.

Overall, Are You Tuff E Nuff is a very direct title for what is a very direct game. It’s simply a fighting game where you match your skills against someone else. There is nothing more to it and I don’t expect the game was trying to have anything more than that. The cover art is definitely one that you won’t be forgetting anytime soon though. The whole art style is just very intense and it’d be fun if the actual graphics in game were like that too. Of course that probably wouldn’t have been possible until at least N64. If you have the Switch Online then I would recommend at least giving this one a shot. A modern day remake of it would definitely be pretty fun though.

Overall 6/10

Pac-Man Geo Review

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PAC Man has had a lot of games over the years but it’s been a while since he had anything fresh and different. While this app game may not be the homerun hit fans have been waiting for I would say that it’s not terrible or anything. It’s got a lot of missed opportunities and flaws inside of the package of course but at the end of the day it has some interesting ideas. With a little polish this can be a really good game in the future. Unfortunately for Pac that day isn’t now.

The idea of the game is that you can have a lot of custom Pac-Man maps based on real world locations. You can zoom around New York or London. Eventually I imagine they’ll want to grab all of the levels although right now it’s just a limited amount that cycle through. You eat up the ghosts and prove to the other players that you have what it takes. There are also limited tournaments that are run from time to time where you can get a higher score. They all boil down to the same issue that I have with the game in general though. I’ll get to that in a minute but I have to say that the game has some deep flaws if you ask me.

The gameplay is the same as your classic Pac-Man experience. The goal here is to collect all of the pellets. By absorbing the larger ones you can quickly eat up the ghosts that get in your way and prevent them from launching a counter attack. It’s a pretty good strategy if you ask me and it’s a fun gameplay style. There’s a reason why the original game is so iconic after all. Lets talk about why this game lacks compared to that original: Progression. In the original game a lot of the fun is in seeing your high score and trying to top it. Unfortunately you don’t have that here. There is no high score that the game saves. Worse, you can’t tell which levels you have already completed after exiting. That to me is a huge problem with the game. I absolutely need to know what levels I have beaten because nobody wants to play the game levels more than once if they don’t know it.

I’d like to beat old levels again to improve my score of course but right now there is really no benefit to doing so. If you don’t know what your score is then there’s no point. I’m just puzzled as to how the game would launch without this. It’s such a core concept to any game like this where you are trying to complete levels and improve your standings. Without a sense of progression then it’s like you’re just spinning your wheels and not going anywhere. I expected better out of Pac-Man Geo. I’m hoping it’ll add some new content soon but this is something they really should have had at launch. Due to that I’m certainly not keeping this game around.

The graphics aren’t bad, but they’re definitely nothing special either. It’s basically standard fare of what you would expect and the game doesn’t feel particularly high budget. It’s basically Pac-Man just in mobile format and for that you can play the normal game. The soundtrack is okay, the theme is pretty true to form for the series and fairly catchy. At least on a technical level I wouldn’t take any credit away from the game. That’s good since poor visuals and music would have definitely done some extra damage.

Overall, Pac-Man Geo is not a game that I would recommend. I’d give it a middle score because at the end of the day I don’t think it’s a bad title. It’s just lacking in a whole lot of content and I don’t see the point in really playing through it. That being said, if you’ve never played Pac-Man before then you may get drawn in simply for the gameplay. The gameplay style itself is fun, I just need more of a reason to play. Hopefully they’ll give Pac-Man a more impressive title the next time one of his big anniversary milestones rolls around.

Overall 5/10

Yoshi Touch & Go Review

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It’s time to look at a Yoshi game I didn’t know much about. Thanks to the Gamestop deal it was effectively one of the 3 free games so no harm either way. That being said…it’s just not very good. This game has no story and the 4 modes it has have identical gameplay. There’s really nothing to do here because it’s like playing a Mairo Party title that effectively only has 1 minigame. How long is that really going to last you when you think about it? A single game can work if there’s a lot of effort behind it or it’s simply addicting but I’m not sure if this one really seals the deal on that. At the very least I didn’t find it all that entertaining at all and grew bored of it pretty quickly. This is definitely one of Nintendo’s weakest games.

The gameplay is divided into two phases. The first phase has you falling through the air as Baby Mario. The idea here is to grab as many coins as possible while avoiding enemies. Once you’ve fallen 1000 feet then your stats are used to determine the equipment for Yoshi in the next phase. The way to stop yourself from bumping into enemies is to draw clouds in the sky that you use as borders to steer Baby Mario while also blocking off the enemies. That’s really the only controls you have but it can be tougher than it sounds. Due to how the DS has 2 screens and all, you have to time the blockades really well or they will flat out miss the target. If that happens then things aren’t going to go all that well for you. You can keep retrying until you succeed of course but the gameplay is rather slow so it takes a bit.

The second half has you riding a Yoshi who automatically walks forward. The idea here it to throw eggs at enemies in front of you before you bump into them. Remember, a single touch will result in your destruction so you really do need to keep away. Also remember to build a bridge of clouds underneath you so that you don’t fall to your doom. It can be tough to multi task on everything but this mode works pretty well. Every enemy you hit also extends the timer on the level. The idea is to get as far as possible as there is no end. The only level with an end is Time Attack where you get to save Baby Luigi.

So that’s it, this is the extent of the game. The modes here are Score Attack, Challenge, Survival, and Time Attack. They all have the exact same gameplay though so there’s just not much to this. Additionally there is no way to skip the Baby Mario stuff. I feel like that would have gone a long way to make the game more fun since the Yoshi gameplay, while not perfect, is a considerable improvement. I can at least see myself having a little more fun there. The game just feels incredible rushed though. Couldn’t they have at least given us more stages or different ways to play? A very quick story or arcade mode would have done the job just fine and then there would not have been any kind of issue. That would have been absolutely fantastic so it’s a shame that it didn’t work out.

The graphics are okay though. It does look about as good as a normal Nintendo game. There’s not a lot to base this on because the gameplay is so limited but what we do have is fine by me. The character models are on point and the enemies look like how they should appear. The backgrounds are nice and it’s pretty nostalgic to see the sprites everywhere. The soundtrack is pretty forgettable but I wouldn’t say it’s bad either. It just doesn’t have the pop you would see in a more mainstream Nintendo title.

Overall, I just feel like this game was incredibly lazy. I feel bad for anyone who bought this day 1 and then immediately ran out of things to do. You can “conquer” the game within an hour. By that I mean getting your name in the top 10 leaderboard for each minigame. At that point it just depends how much you like the game so you can replay the modes over and over. The point of a game like this is to have you constantly try to get better and better so that your score goes high but it depends on how much you like the game. Usually there are a ton of minigames so you have a lot of options but in this case there’s only one so if you don’t like it then you’re sunk. It’s kind of hard to see why Nintendo would phone in a game like this. I’m confident they could make a better version of it for mobile now if they really tried. Ah well, maybe next time. In the meanwhile I highly advise you not to get this game. Even if Yoshi’s the main character, it’s just not worth it.

Overall 3/10