Tag Archives: Beat Em Up

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: Mutant Nightmare Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall 6/10

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall 6/10

GI Joe: Wrath of Cobra Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall 6/10

Hi-Fi Rush Review

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It’s time to look at a game that made a whole lot of waves when it first came out. This one was a really big deal and looked like a lot of fun, although it took a while to get ported. The physical release still isn’t out so it was time to take the plunge on this one. I can say that the game was even better than I expected it would be. This is an elite title with great artistic direction as well as excellent gameplay. As long as you like the beat em up style then you will have a great time here.

The story begins with a kid named Chai breaking into a government area in order to fix his arm with a robotic enhancement. The only problem is that he ends up falling inside the machine along with his IPod which gets embedded into him. Chai must now always move in tune with the beat and is also on the run from corporate. A mysterious cat shows up and offers to help him get out of the area as long as he also helps her. This may end up being a longer partnership than he had bargained for.

The first thing that was really impressive was the large extent of cinematics within the game. We get whole fight scenes within the cutscenes and a good amount of character development. The game isn’t even all that long and yet they still managed to cram a whole lot of content in here. You really can’t go wrong with that and it makes the whole thing fly by. The game even tries to pull off the emotional ending which could be tough since you barely know the characters and yet it actually works.

The script is very witty and all of the characters are very likable so that’s a winning combo. Meanwhile the soundtrack is pretty solid. The tunes all fit in with the gameplay as they are very fast paced. The graphics are most excellent as you would expect. Definitely no issues at all there. Then we have the gameplay which is of course a key element and I can safely say that this was also really great from top to bottom.

The main gameplay is a 3D beat em up as you smash your opponents with a guitar. You also gain the ability to summon your partners who can defeat specific types of enemy obstacles like barriers and shields. You want to strategically use them to complement your own fighting abilities and then win the day. By the end of the game you have 3 different allies who help you out here and basically make you a one man army. Now I will admit that this also made the game a bit easier than the devs were probably thinking.

The characters only have a cool down of around 3-5 seconds per use. So the best way to fight is by constantly spamming all 3 of the summons as you fight. Between switching from character to character while landing your hits, it makes for an unlimited stream of attacks. Yeah you still can’t close your eyes as they can land some shots in but for the most part you’re going to have a hard time losing. One of your special attacks restores 70% of your health and hitting enemies also makes them drop health containers. Mix the two things together and it really increases your overall fighting potential.

There is also a fairly extensive shop that lets you buy various power ups and badges to use. It’s so extensive that I didn’t touch close to 80% of it before I beat the game. There is an absolute mountain of things to buy and you simply won’t have enough money for all of them. The reason for this is likely in connection with the trophies where you are intended to complete the game 5 times in order to get the Platinum. So with the items carrying over, I could definitely see how you would have money for everything after playing through the game 5 times. How could you not right?

The Platinum trophy may not be extremely difficult but it does look to be a very lengthy one so I imagine that most people wouldn’t bother. Still, it does mean there is a lot of replay value here if you are wanting to get the most out of the game. The story itself is not particularly long but still gives you enough bang for your buck. I’d say the biggest advantage it has is in how much fun it is.

I tend to enjoy rhythm games like this and it definitely worked really well here. You will have a fun time rocking to the beats the whole time. Every bit of this game clearly had a whole lot of work and heart put into it. I’d say the only way you would not enjoy it is if you realllllly did not enjoy the beat em up genre. In that case it’s not like it would really be the game’s fault though. There would really be nothing that it could have done about that.

The game did add some mild platforming elements to the levels, maybe anticipating that people might think it was too straightforward. Honestly that’s the part that I could have skipped but it’s not like it was bad or anything. It just felt a bit unnecessary since the fighting gameplay was where the game really shined. There is a clear progression system and lots of achievements within the game to earn you more money to buy things. That’s why fighting always felt so rewarding.

Overall, Hi-Fi Rush is an elite game. Perhaps in a few months I’ll have cooled off on it or it’s just because I played this game after a bunch that all had some quick flaws. Regardless, this was just an absolutely epic game and the kind I could really play all day. It was a true blast and I definitely recommend you pick it up as soon as possible. It’s only around $30 right now which is a great price and also makes the shorter length not feel as bad. You don’t see a whole lot of games like this either so the originality will really stick out for you.

Overall 9/10

God Eater 2: Rage Burst Review

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It’s time to jump into the big sequel to the first God Eater. Rage Burst definitely improves on some things here quick helped to streamline things. It does fall into some of the issues of the first game though and I would say the story itself doesn’t hold up as well. We do get more cutscenes technically and the pacing is quicker but it doesn’t have the same super end of the world stakes that the first game managed. So it’s a close fight with the two but in the end I would say this one gets the slight edge.

The plot continues where the first one left off. For a while, Aragami had slowed down but now new variations are appearing that are even stronger. Typical God Eaters are fairly ineffective now so you need Blood Eaters in order to tip the scales. The main character joins this blood unit and shows a whole lot of potential. Will the heroes be able to destroy all of the new aragami and save the world or will they only prolong the inevitable? The original game showed that aragami will continue to exist so long as the planet does so perhaps this is a never ending fight.

I would say the game does have you almost sympathize with the villain’s plan from the first game because of this never ending cycle. A lot of sacrifices were made in the first game so to see that the villains are stronger than ever is a bit disheartening. The new villain’s plan is a bit more insane though as she flat out wants to destroy the planet and end humanity. Sure, that’s one way to beat the Aragami but is it a real victory if everyone is dead? At least escaping into space would save some people. Still, you do understand the thought process when the stakes are this high. For all the people outside of the main human bases, they live on the brink of life and death every day.

This game also introduces a red mist that transmits an incurable disease if it touches you. It also contaminates the rain so there are more ways to die than ever before. This game focuses on the story through more of a chapter system as each character gets their own story arc before we reach the climax. Additionally, all side characters get an additional bonus story through character episodes. The amount of content is impressive as the 162 story missions took me around 30 hours and that’s considering that this time I did not do almost any bonus missions and 0 character missions.

The reason for this is because the game is considerably easier than the first game. In the first one they were a lot stingier with the materials and you had to have an incredibly strong weapon to stay in the game. In this one there are so many different power ups and ways to get strong that you can have your weapon be a little weaker to compensate. I still tried to make sure I had strong weapons in all 4 categories so I would be ready for anything but it did give me some extra wiggle room that was super important. I only used Buster Blades and Charge Spears. I didn’t bother with any other types of weapons so this way I could max them out sooner. Additionally I always stuck to the same blood art until it was maxed out.

Trust me, these decisions will save you a ton of time as you go through the game. It makes an absolute world of difference. Not to say I never died or anything though, there were a few times I was defeated. Survival missions are an example of this as you will fight in 3-5 boss battles back to back and they don’t tell you what the final boss’ weakness is. Once you’re in the fight you cannot change weapons and so I guessed wrong twice so I had to go all the way back.

In this game if you use the wrong element then you are cooked. For example with the right type effectiveness you might deal around 1000 damage per hit and then the wrong one is around 80-100. Keeping in mind that it can take around 8 minutes of nonstop attacks to put the enemy down in the first example, the latter takes so long that you get timed out. If you notice that you aren’t doing much damage, your best bet is to immediately quit and save time. Trust me, it’s the best way to salvage a bad situation.

There are so many ways to customize your character, supports, and equipment that you can spend a long time just on that. The one area where the game still suffers is in crafting as they throw over 500 materials at you and they are not alphabetized or anything. It makes searching way more tedious than it should be. I’m surprised that this wasn’t fixed yet since I’d imagine that most players would complain about it.

The other area where the game suffers a bit is in being lazy. Nearly all of the game’s minions and environments are from the first game. Around 90% of the assets are all reused which just feels like something that should not have happened. The game’s sheer length may be impressive but since it keeps on recycling everything, that takes a bit of the punch out of it. God Eater would easily be able to make it to the next stage if the gameplay could feel more innovative. I like 3D combat and even I thought it was a bit exaggerated to keep on fighting the same minions over and over again. After 160+ of them you really get the drill.

The soundtrack is pretty solid, it may even beat the first game. It’s not the biggest soundtrack by any means but it gets the job done and the opening is always fun to hear. The graphics are okay but I would say below the average PS4 experience. I did really like the hand drawn cutscenes when they would show up though. That was always an added treat.

Overall, God Eater 2 is a pretty solid game. If you liked the first game then you will like this one as well because they are so similar. In a lot of ways they are basically the same game just with a new story. So it feels familiar in a fun way and the lowered difficulty does help make the levels a lot more bite sized when going through them. There is dozens of hours of replay value as well so you’re getting a bargain here. I would definitely recommend checking it out.

Overall 7/10

Heavenly Sword Review

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It’s time for a game with a really iconic cover but I admit that I completely forgot it existed for a while there. Heavenly Sword is one of those rare 3D beat em ups that isn’t a warriors title. I love the beat em up genre so this was definitely fun although the game is very short. So keep that in mind because you will have this game done in under 6 hours easy and there are no PS3 trophies in terms of replay value. The initial playthrough needs to be enough for you to get all your enjoyment in.

The game starts off in the climax with Nariko fighting off legions of warriors but the cursed blade is draining her life force. Her battle is at an end but then we cut back to 5 days earlier. Nariko always grew up as someone that everybody disliked and she wasn’t treated particularly well. People wanted a boy, not a girl. Well Nariko did her best to get strong either way and it turns out that she is the one destined to use the Heaven’s Sword. Now she will have to fight off the enemies for a people who don’t even respect her. She only has one friend in the world, a girl named Kai. Perhaps that will be all the inspiration that Nariko needs.

Honestly if Kai wasn’t around I would not blame Nariko if she just up and left. Even up through the end when she’s saving lives you still have the NPCs being rude for no reason. Nariko is basically a one woman army and without her the main fighters would have died out ages ago. The whole thing is just so absurd that you get annoyed when thinking about it. Her own father was tempted to murder her several times and just doesn’t seem like a good guy. I know the game tries to redeem him to an extent but it’s all just too late and he nearly convinces Kai not to help Nariko near the climax.

Kai is the only solid heroine here to help out. She may not be nearly as strong as Nariko but her bow and arrow skills are really good. While most of the gameplay is your classic 3D slasher, her levels are more motion based. You shoot arrows and then control them by tilting your controller to hit the soldiers from the opposing side. While I am not a fan of motion controls and this was the weakest point of the game, I did really like the concept they were going for here. An archer or any kind of sniper is always a huge asset on the battlefield because of how many people they can take out.

Due to the game’s war setting it’s fun to see her taking people out even while the main fights are occurring elsewhere. So that was pretty cool but of course the best part is playing as Nariko. You have light, normal, and heavy attacks. You switch them up to cancel the opponent’s moves and then keep attacking to land damage. It is like a game of rock paper scissors with the 3 elements and it can be tough to memorize them. The game has a lot more depth than the average beat em up. I was actually button mashing for a good chunk of time towards the end of the game because it was hard to land the hits perfectly.

My biggest piece of advice is to roll a lot because that allows you to get out of the line of fire and start some counter attacks. Especially with the final boss who has a huge health bar you need to do this. Any time he lands a hit on you, that’s going to set you back big time. So keep that in mind here. There is some motion control elements with the platforming but not too many. You also have a lot of quick time events which are fun but the timing is incredibly fast. I wasn’t able to react to almost any of those and just had to memorize them for the second run through. Fortunately there are constant check points in this game.

The graphics are definitely pretty solid. It’s going for a big of a realistic vibe but the effects have aged well. The characters do tend to look rather ugly though and while that is the point, I wouldn’t mind a more stylized version for a sequel. The soundtrack is also pretty solid. Nothing out of this world but it works well within what the game is trying to do. You can easily picture this being a movie so I’ll be curious to check that out at some point.

The story ends with some interesting directions they could go in although I would need them to undo one decision near the end of the game. You need certain characters to make this a success. I’m cool with a whole new cast of villains though as none of the bosses you fight in the game are particularly impressive. I enjoy them more for the banter than for their actual characters. I also give Nariko a lot of credit here for her own tough lines of dialogue which bring out the best in her opponents. The shadow bird is really our best hope of a big villain for a new game.

Overall, Heavenly Sword is a short game but it is a hype experience. So how much you enjoy the game will really come down to how well that balance works for you. If you don’t think that’s good enough then you may end up skipping it but at the same time the going price for it isn’t all that bad nowadays. So to me there isn’t really a downside anymore. I would also say the high quality of the hours that we do get is more than enough to keep you going here. The levels will even give you a reasonable challenge. So I’d definitely be hyped for a sequel.

Overall 8/10

Streets of Rage Review

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Streets of Rage is a series that has gotten quite a few games. It’s actually pretty impressive when you think about it. The series had very humble beginnings and yet it has gone very far into the modern day. The game feels its age but the fundamentals aren’t bad. It’s a quick title but it is fun to play through with some decent level designs. Probably not a title you will be talking about 10 years from now but when it’s free on the Switch Online there is no real downside right?

The controls are simple as you move up, down, left, and right as you try to land attacks on your opponents. You can also grab and pummel them which can be good for the more powerful opponents. The main key is to make sure you never let the enemies get too close to you. Once they are within range then you are really going to be in trouble. At that point you’re basically doomed since they can get you into near infinite combos. Usually I would opt for some aerial attacks but in this case that’s not always a great idea. The range is pretty small and the damage is super negligible.

Now granted, there are 3 characters here and I only tried playing as one of them. It’s completely possible that playing as a different one will yield different results since they all have different movesets and abilities. I do appreciate that as well as it adds another dimension to the game. It may be simple but the average title would have made 3 identical characters. The bosses all have different movesets and abilities as well.

I would also say that the game doesn’t feel “cheap”. If you played this at the arcade with a friend you feel like you would be able to go pretty far and wouldn’t have to spend much money to get all the way to the end of the game. It is very difficult, don’t get me wrong on that. But it is difficult in a way where you can continue to get better and defeat the game as opposed to feeling like it is all rigged against you. When a game is impossibly difficult then it’s time to shake your head.

The graphics have aged reasonably well. I won’t say the game looks amazing or anything but the colors are striking and I like the backgrounds. You feel the weight of each of the attacks as you play through the game and it just has processing power that you wouldn’t expect from this era. It is a game that had a lot of effort behind it. The soundtrack is also fun and very lively the whole time. I really appreciated that as well.

The main campaign is pretty short, you can probably complete it in a little under 2 hours. Probably way shorter than that if you are particularly good at the game but honestly you should expect to die a whole lot as you get used to the game. All it takes is one mistake on your part and you could end up eating a nasty combo and losing a whole lot of health. It’s the kind of game where you have to continually win neutral over and over without letting the opponent win once. That kind of strain can definitely be rather tough to overcome.

Of course the Switch Online has access points and rewinding to make that part easier. Without that? Yeah you may be here for hours and hours and hours with no real way to continue. The final boss in particular is unforgiving and I feel like the game glitched at one point because I kept hitting him over and over and his health bar never changed. It’s quite possible that I just wasn’t doing something right but after switching to grabs it didn’t seem to matter. The next day when I went back to the game I was dealing damage so I don’t know. It was all just pretty weird. If that happened to me live back in the day I’d definitely be shaking my head.

Overall, Streets of Rage is a good game. It’s admittedly not one that I would break out the wallet for or anything like that but it will pass the time by relatively well. If you like beat em up titles like this then you will definitely enjoy the title. If you don’t like the genre then you won’t like the game. The reason for this is because the game completely embodies what that kind of gameplay is like. There are no ribbons or special features around this. It’s about beating up your opponents completely and thoroughly with a tiny smidge of plot thrown in. If there was more story then the game would be more appealing but back in the day it was rare to have big stories like that.

Overall 6/10

Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn Review

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Shaq Fu is one of those games that ordinarily might not have crossed into my radar but I happened to see it in store for a great price so I decided to take the plunge. How could I not right? The concept is just pretty interesting and the execution ended up being on point. I’m not going to say that it’s an all star or anything but what I can say is that the graphics and controls are on point. The story will also keep you engaged with how fun it is.

The game starts off with introducing us to Shaq who was found inside a purse and nearly drowned. Who would put a baby through such hardship? Well, he got to grow up learning martial arts and now that will come in handy because there are monsters around. It looks like a lot of celebrities can’t be trusted and things get extra personal when Shaq’s master is seemingly murdered in cold blood. He will not stand for this! No sirrrr!

The gameplay is classic 2D beat em up style. Basically you use your punch, kick, and slam moves to take down enemies. There are tons and tons of enemies so get ready for a lot of punching. Generally you can beat most enemies with the punch buttons but there is a little strategy here. Use your kicks for enemies that are holding a shield because they will block normal hits. When you have enough meter you can also do a ground slam to send the enemies away. It’s a strong attack and does the job but use it sparingly since it takes a while to get the energy back.

Meanwhile you’ve also got a few super forms that appear in different levels like cactus Shaq and robot Shaq. Both of these forms are basically unstoppable since you can spam their heavy attacks with no real drawbacks. So in this form don’t overthink things and just keep attacking everybody. Usually to compensate for how overpowered you are, the game will stack the other side with even more minions than needed. So get ready to deal with a whole lot of that. The super forms are fun but it probably would have been a good idea to have still given some kind of a challenge for them.

After all, the main levels are rather difficult to get through at times. I won’t say it’s a hard game as this is easier than most other similar beat em ups in the genre. You still do have to focus though, if you try to just close your eyes and beat this on instinct then you are going to get absolutely demolished. That’s because of how many enemies there are and how they’re all different. You can react quickly enough to shut them all down but if you get overconfident and let them walk all over you then you’re in real trouble.

The graphics are pretty solid here. It’s going for a very drawn out/cartoony look that works well with the themes of the game. Likewise the cutscenes work really well for that reason as well. Not only is the dialogue great but the fact that it’s all voice acted is incredible. As with all comedies, not every joke will land and the game did go for at least one full crude humor boss which was really unnecessary. Still, aside from that the game had been doing pretty good on the humor.

The soundtrack is solid but the main theme song can be a little much. It’s extremely loud and you hear it for the main menu and every loading screen. So you’ll be hearing it a whole lot, particularly since the loading screens themselves are really slow. I like the concept of the song but the lyrics could definitely be a whole lot better.

In terms of replay value, well you could go for the Platinum. I actually haven’t checked how hard that would be but I get the feeling it will be easy. So with the main game being under 4 hours, maybe this can add another 2-3 hours of replay value. You can usually get the game for a pretty low price so all in all I would say it’s a pretty fair deal. You’re partially playing this game for the pure novelty value after all. A good story goes a long way and since the gameplay is also sound then you have a good bargain. If the gameplay was bad then this would be a harder sell but I do think they actually put some effort into this one. It’s not just some random cash-in or anything like that.

Overall, Shaq Fu gets a lot of points for how up front it is. This game knows that the premise is rather silly and so instead of being subtle about this, it just doubles down on absolutely everything. Trust me, you haven’t seen many games that are as shameless as Shaq Fu is. It’s really the full package and while it isn’t a particularly long game, the most important part is that you will have fun playing it. That’s the key here and if they ever make a sequel, I’d be tempted to buy it day 1!

Overall 7/10

Asura’s Wrath Review

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It’s time to check out the classic known as Asura’s Wrath. I remember that this game always looked super hype when I would see the cover around or even any bits of the gameplay. The feats and characters were all very over the top which worked really well. Ultimately the game may not have done as well as it should have but I would definitely say that for me it did live up to the hype.

The game starts off by introducing us to the various gods who fight corrupted monsters that plague humanity. It appears to be a just cause and Asura does his best to make the world a safer place. Unfortunately he is framed for murdering the emperor one day and his wife is murdered while his daughter is kidnapped. The gods intend to use Asura’s daughter to power their army for eternity until the monsters have been vanquished and this is not an acceptable proposition for Asura. So he decides to take matters into his own hands and destroy all of them. Does he have the power to pull this off though?

While Asura is super powerful, the same is true for the rest of the fighters. In fact, Asura is put at a real disadvantage here because he is destroyed and doesn’t return for 12,000 years. So his skills have not improved while everyone else has ascended to a higher level. The game definitely has bigger time skips than you would expect for any title so it really uses their immortality to the story’s advantage. The gods also appear to be robotic in nature which you could make a lot of fun theories about to be sure. This doesn’t stop them from gaining new power through the energy system known as mantra though. The reason they need Asura’s daughter is that her prayers allow them to focus their powers. She basically improves their abilities on a continuous basis although obviously this isn’t a great setup for her which is why Asura wants to step in.

Some of these fighters try to at least act noble like they’re doing this for a good cause while other members just embrace that they’re being evil and do their best to be massive jerks. You are absolutely rooting for Asura the whole time because all of the other characters just seem crazy. They’re taking the concept of murdering a few to save many to a very huge extreme. For example we learn that they ended up murdering trillions to absorb their life forces to create a robot that can destroy the evil monsters once and for all. The idea is that if they do this then they can create a perfect utopia for eternity.

Fast forward long enough and even trillions of deaths will seem like a small number. Of course you can see how this is still rather insane and a few of the enemies show their true colors when they laugh about how humans exist to serve them anyway so this isn’t a big deal. Yeah Asura really needed to wipe the system clean. In a way he feels like the Hulk or Doomsday here. He is constantly unlocking new abilities and getting stronger as he gets angrier. When he is defeated he just regroups and comes on back. His anger is so high that even death cannot hold him for very long. It’s a really cool premise.

The game goes all in on the aesthetic here too which is what makes the whole game possible. You’re seeing the characters shatter ships the size of planets and moving at incredible speeds. The feats are all crazy here and the characters act like this is completely normal. That’s because it is normal in this context which is what’s so impressive. Then you’ve got the soundtrack which is really good. I liked just about all of the themes here. They’re all really epic and definitely get you hyped for the fights that come up.

It should come as no surprise that the graphics are also really good. The character models are really on point and the energy effects are all really good. This is a game that you can seamlessly play on the PS5 and admire just how solid it looks. Everything about the game was very carefully crafted with no issues at all. Now that’s not to say that the game is literally perfect. It is true that the game could definitely stand to be longer. There are 18 chapters in the game and each one is fairly short. More than a few only have around 5-7 minutes of gameplay while the rest are cutscenes. So you breeze through the game very quickly.

I enjoyed the gameplay a lot so it would have been fun to have gotten to play some more. I was really enjoying how the fights let you play around with the counter attack/quick time action features and of course there was a lot of fun to be had in just bashing the enemies with your standard attacks. The battles ending when you unlocked your rage mode was also a pretty cool approach. The game had a fun gimmick there that was original without being annoying or anything like that.

In the end a lot of the hype around this game is also thanks to the story being so good. It’s a really compelling story that just drags you in and you’re always at the edge of your seat. It’s a shame that some of the chapters are hidden behind DLC since that would help with the length issue but the ending is really intense. Definitely one of those cliffhangers that you are unlikely to forget. Having to replay the whole last level to see the extra cutscene you unlock is a bit much but like I said, the levels are short so it wasn’t all that bad.

Overall, Asura’s Wrath is an elite game to be sure. The gameplay is really out of this world and the quick time events are so much fun. They definitely take up most of the game so it ends up being like an interactive movie at times but when the story is this good you don’t need anything else. I highly recommend checking this game out. It really is a very unique experience and you aren’t likely to forget it anytime soon. Hopefully one day it is old enough to be nostalgic and we get a full blown sequel.

Overall 9/10

Streets of Rage 2 Review

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Classic beat em up titles can feel like a dime a dozen from the old days so it’s really important to have something that helps you stand out. In this game’s case I thought it would be the extra continues that come as part of the game but unfortunately they are finite which hurts the second half a bit. It’s a fun game but yeah without much of a story or anything like that, I don’t see it doing much that other games haven’t already done.

There’s barely even a story here. You have the opening cutscene and then nothing until the very end. I would have liked a little more than that. Ah well, the controls are of course fairly basic. You have your normal hits and then your power moves. The power moves deal a lot of damage but the price for using them is very high. See, every time you use a power move, it drains part of your health bar. So that’s extremely risky and I would only recommend using it if you are fully surrounded. In this game the minions actually use a lot of teamwork so being in the middle is a bad idea.

For example, there’s one enemy who will restrict your arms while the others start punching you. Others will rush in with a quick sneak attack so while you’re punching one minion, he breaks your combo and then the original one hits you. It’s actually impressive of the A.I. I’d say. So the game gets progressively harder and harder as you go through it. There are a few cheesy enemies here though. Whenever I am in the middle of a combo and the enemy activates super armor and hits me anyway…I’m a little skeptical. There’s no way to block or dodge mid combo so that means you have to eat the hit. It doesn’t really seem fair. Then your only option is to go for single aerial hits that can’t be stopped midway but it means beating the level will take forever.

So that shouldn’t be happening. The flying enemies on the jetpack are also a bit much. Your normal attacks can’t reach them so you’re always having to jump up to try and land a blow but it’s just not easy. These enemies are a bit annoying so I’d rather we stay to ground based opponents. You could also just say that the execution was a bit off since otherwise I really wouldn’t have much of a problem with these guys.

The graphics are okay. I wouldn’t say they are anything special but the game was at least trying something as opposed to phoning it in. Then the soundtrack is more on the generic side. So nothing bad but nothing to really write home about either. The game’s length is fairly short. There are 8 levels although each level is longer than the average beat em up title. You’ll have it beat in maybe 80-90 minutes or so. Add or remove time based on how good you are at the game. The initial lives lasted me all the way to level 6 but after that I had to start busting out the rewinds and everything.

There are just so many enemies and they get so good by the end. It’s hard to see how you can get past them on your own. The final boss as well since he is so fast and is always shooting bullets everywhere. He was fairly unique as you would have to get behind him but your character can’t run and is very slow. So you have to try to get to the corner early but that’s how villains end up taking you out. There’s definitely a lot of strategy here.

Overall, Streets of Rage 2 is a decent game but one that still has a big pet peeve of mine. The fact that when you lose you have to go all the way back to the beginning of the game. That’s something that I can never condone. I feel like you should be able to play through the whole title and if you get a game over, you restart from where you left off. Maybe it means that your score resets or something but give me the option to continue. There’s no way I would let myself go back to level 1 and just try to restart again without some kind of progression. So if you have the Nintendo Switch Online, give this one a quick view. It may not change your life but it’s still a fun playthrough.

Overall 6/10