Tag Archives: Combat

Mach Rider Review

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It’s time to bring in the Mach Rider! The gameplay isn’t my favorite but the game deserves some props for actually having a story. That’s a whole lot more than I can say for some games, that’s for sure! It’s not a whole lot of a story of course, it’s mainly a prompt that you get before every level but the main theme here is that aliens have taken over and we have to take them down. It’s what the Mach Rider does!

The story mode is 10 levels long and basically you just have to survive until you get to the end of the level. This may sound easy but the game is actually fairly difficult. Basically you have to drive through a fairly narrow road while dodging any obstacles and pitfalls in your way. You have 4 speed levels, if you stay on 1-2, you will be slower than the CPUs so they will ram into you which causes you to lose. If you go on 3-4 you will stay ahead but will have a really hard time controlling your car. Other times the enemies will come from in front of you so you need to blast them away with your machine gun. It’s definitely a handy weapon to have but you can run out of ammo so be careful how you use it.

With the power of rewind and access points I did good, but this would be a super difficult challenge without it. I can’t imagine that you would have had too much fun at that point because when you lose you go all the way back to the first level again. That’s always a pet peeve of mine in any game. Be as difficult as you want to be but at least restart me on the same level. If you take me too far back then that’s just rough. There are more modes to be played though.

You have endurance where you just drive without any computers around. You have to make it to a certain distance within the time frame and then you win. It’s a pretty interesting way to go about things and I thought it was actually the most fun mode. You really had to be careful here and I made it pretty far even without using any of the Switch features. I always felt like it was mostly luck though that kept me from crashing because I really could not see where I was going at all. The objects were coming in at the speed of light, even the game couldn’t always process them in time.

There were also battle challenges about seeing how many racers you could beat. This is more effort than the average NES title so I appreciated that. The graphics aren’t bad for their time and the music is okay. Alas, at the end of the day gameplay is the King when talking about a game. You need that to be on point and the style wasn’t really something I was super into. For racing games I always like the 3D titles so you know where you are going and can make plans. In a more overhead setting like this, it’s harder to see the object before bumping into it which is my main problem. So no matter how much content the game has, it can only go so far for me as a result.

Overall, Mach Rider is a fun game in super short doses but doesn’t have the staying power for me to call it good. I’m ready to call it quits after 20 minutes which is just way too short. For a game to be good, it needs to be one that can last and ultimately this was just not up to the task. If you have the Switch Online then there is no reason not to check it out but ultimately it will be forgotten in the end. There are just better racing games that you can find around every corner that exceed this one and outplay it at every turn. The concept of the Mach Rider is solid though. Make a modern 3D remake of this game with a big story and there is a lot of potential to be had.

Overall 5/10

Star Wars: Demolition Review

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It’s time for another old school title. This one deals with the Star Wars verse before there were too many huge characters. The character roster is really interesting because the only character I actually recognized was Boba Fett. I assume the bigger characters are hidden somewhere in there behind unlockables but you would expect at least a handful of other big players right? Maybe the game was trying to be accurate to the lore but in my opinion that’s taking things a bit far.

So the general plot is that Jabba The Hut is flexing on the empire once again. He has decided to continue doing some underground races despite this being illegal and now it’s even more dangerous than it used to be. Everyone is to test their mettle in these life or death races. A single mistake will mean the end of everything. Who dares throw themselves into the ring for money, status, and power? Well, Boba Fett is certainly in the running and he’s absolutely got the skills to do well here. Do not underestimate him!

The gameplay is really where the game falls apart for me though. There are two main types of gameplay. One of them is where you hunt a bunch of droids and see how many you can blow up in 3 minutes. Fairly simple but without someone else to play with there’s not much to this mode. There’s no progression or unlockables to be found here. Then you have the main gameplay which is fighting other ships. You are thrown into a map with a bunch of other players and have to take them down. This one actually had a lot of potential, but alas it could not live up to this. Here’s why that is the case…the game is too easy to run away from. When you appear on the map you can just drive in circles and escape the opponent.

Sure, he will hit you a few times but it takes dozens and dozens of hits to actually bring the other player down so there is never a worry about losing. Unfortunately the same thing goes for when you are trying to win here. No matter how many times you hit the opponent, he continues to get up again and again. It just never ends and that’s what will make you shake your head here. A single match really takes forever and at one point I ran into a glitch where the enemy ran inside a wall and I had to wait until a time out occurred.

If the gameplay were better then the whole experience would be saved but there’s not much that you can do once the gameplay is busted. The only thing that I can say for it is that it would probably be fairly entertaining with another player. Sort of one of those games where you mock it as you are playing it. That’s all I can think of there. It’s a shame because the game put in a lot of work in every other area. The soundtrack is nice and the graphics look pretty good for its time.

Then you have the death animation which is really hype. This happens in tournament mode, so if you lose a battle there is a whole cutscene that plays before the game over screen. You are brought over to Jabba the Hut and executed. It turns out that the penalty for losing really is death. I thought this was a nice attention to detail and in theory they rendered a cutscene like this for every playable character. Well done I must say. The fact that the game has a full opening and everything is cool too. It may not be the same as having a story mode but it’s still an extra detail that shows the level of effort that went into this one. It feels like this game was not meant to be some cheap tie-in even if the gameplay makes it feel that way.

It’s not exactly AAA though since the game is very limited in content but at least what is there was well polished. So this feels like a game of missed opportunities because I could have easily seen this being really good. It just wasn’t meant to be which is unfortunate. Maybe next time right? I mean it’s been many years so this is likely not getting a sequel but nowadays you never know.

Overall, Star Wars: Demolition is a game that’s okay but I can’t really see myself going back to it. It doesn’t really have a hook to keep you and the gameplay should have been way better than it was. The fact that it could not surpass that was definitely unfortunate. On the PS2 I played a few Star Wars racing games which were fun although this one is really about the combat so it’s a bit different. I think racing games are easier to pull off but the fighting ones can be a blast. You just have to really nail the timing, weapons, and how you want the rules to operate. This one didn’t quite get that taken care of which is what hurt it in the end.

Overall 5/10

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

SpyHunter 2 Review

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It’s time to finally jump into the next installment in the SpyHunter series. The first one was a reasonably solid game that didn’t have a big story mode but the gameplay was pretty solid. This one switches things up quite a bit. There aren’t a lot of objectives you have to complete in every level this time, typically there will just be 2-3 and they are done one at a time instead of being all at once. As a result the gameplay experience is a lot smoother and this one definitely beats the original.

You’re given the story objectives through the loading screens each time but effectively another terrorist group is around and they’re causing mayhem. Funding the wrong people, causing explosions and damages, etc. It’s now up to the main character to put a stop to this. He now has one ally, a professional agent who is so skilled that she gets the opening cutscene here. Will these two be enough to stop the villains or have they already lost when faced with this much unchecked power!

So the general gameplay is that of a 3D racer. You drive your car through the levels and blast away at all of the enemies who attack you. Typically there is some kind of opponent to beat at the end but other levels will have you protect someone or have to destroy a bunch of objects. There are no literal races here as every mission is serious business. You have two weapons and a defensive option at the ready. You unlock new upgrades every few levels and the game will always default you to the most recent ones. Often times that’s for the best but on the defense side I actually preferred the forcefield that gives you complete invincibility for a little while over the improved armor which was technically scored higher.

It’s nice that you actually get to customize your weapons this time around though. That’s not something you were really able to do back in the day. The level designs are all pretty sharp as well. Only once did I think the level wasn’t too straight forward. It was a water level where you had to use a lot of short cuts through the pipes but because the pipes were everywhere the whole thing got confusing really quickly.

Now this is not an easy game by any means. Expect to die quite a lot because your vehicle doesn’t have a lot of durability. Aiming is also very rough here so a lot of times you will be blasting right at an opponent and still missing somehow. I definitely think that part could have been refined a whole lot more than how it was. Something tells me it was not intentional but hey…if it was intentional then I guess that’s fine…not. Still should have been more usable.

The best thing to do sometimes is to just circle back. Never let an opponent get behind you because then they start blasting and the next thing you know, your car is completely broken. Losing some time to get behind them is always worth it. Fortunately later on in the game you get a smoke attack that shoots behind you and it is easily the best tool at your disposal. It can beat just about any minion instantly and it even works on some of the bosses. I remember having trouble with one of them so I went on ahead and used the smoke. Surprisingly it did the job.

The game does allow you to be a little creative here. It’s also done in a way where you don’t feel too annoyed at having to start over again. I’d say it’s because the game is fast paced and the soundtrack is so good. You’ll see some really excellent themes pop up from time to time in this game. It’s got that old school rock feel to it which really makes the races a whole lot more exciting. The graphics are also very good. Not out of this world or anything but it holds up quite well over the years.

One tip I’d say is that your vehicle actually has a ground mode. There’s one level where you have to go through the mud and the car was going super slowly the whole time. So I thought that was intentional and it was one of those almost auto scroller type levels but then I lost due to the time running out. It turns out that I was supposed to click the upwards directional button to transform. I don’t recall the game explaining that at any point and so it took me a little while to figure out. If you’ve got that at the ready then you’ve nothing to fear.

It’s just a strong all around title. The gameplay is really good and it stands out among its peers as a vehicle combat game. I’d like to see the series get more of a comeback with some AAA titles in the future. I think there is a whole lot you could do with this franchise and a solid company could really get it into the mainstream. I guess we’ll see if that ever happens or if this stays forgotten in the past instead.

Overall, SpyHunter 2 is a pretty good game and I’d recommend checking it out. The campaign isn’t super long or anything so you’ll have it beaten before long but the difficulty level really helps to keep it from being too fast either. So that way you’ve got a pretty good balance here. Just keep on trying and use different tactics in the levels. Before long you’ll have this one knocked out and then you’ll be ready for the next challenge.

Overall 7/10

Ninjala Review

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It sure took me a while to play this game but it definitely lived up to the hype. This may be a hot take but pure gameplay wise I actually prefer this to Splatoon. Of course a big part of that is the fact that you’re on your own here and don’t need to fight as part of a team. Then you’ve also got the close combat gameplay which is even better than the ink shooting.

The game even looks a lot like Splatoon which I have to assume is intentional. The game has a lot of modes but naturally you’ll be most interested in jumping online to get right into the battle royale. There are around 8 players in a given match and you have to try and get the most points. You obtain points by grabbing orbs around the stage, more points by breaking these little sandbags all around, and a ton of points by knocking out other players. The gap in points is rather large: 20-100-400 so knocking out players is your best bet. They’ll be trying to get in your way regardless so it makes sense to try and take them out right off the bat.

The controls are fairly simple here. You can run along the ground and up the walls as well as jump. You have a dash attack which lets you get up close and from there you have your standard attacks and a super attack once your meter gets high enough. It seems like characters have different moves so you’ll want to learn them but your main method of attack will be with classic attacks. Land a good combo and you’ll take your opponent out in an instant. It’s definitely the way to go if you want to be the one wearing the championship belt.

The thing I don’t like about the gameplay is that it has a rock paper scissors mechanic going like in Pokken. So when you clash you both have to choose a direction and hope it’s the right one. I never cared for this kind of mechanic and don’t get why it tends to pop up every now and again. Why would you want to throw some random variables into a fighting game? That seems like the last genre to add such a thing since you want it to all be about your individual skill right? Seems to me like throwing this in just muddies the waters.

It’s also pretty much inevitable that you will have several clashes in every fight so get ready to see this mechanic a lot. Personally I’d say the game should drop it and then it would feel a lot more balanced. It would really make you have to focus on when you want to attack and try to stay cautious so nobody ambushes you. Yes that would definitely be the best way to do it and I think that would work out for everyone.

Well, even with that I did manage to win my first few rounds but I suspect the game threw in some bots. I can’t prove it, but I was fighting several opponents with very generic names like Paul and Chris. No extra letters or numbers so I find the odds of them getting those names to be rather slim. I was also dominating throughout and sure I’m great at picking up on a game’s mechanics right away but I was a little suspicious. It was almost too easy which started to tip me off. Maybe I’m overanalyzing this, it’s possible but I’m not buying it.

After a few wins then I started seeing a lot of fancy names and the games quickly grew harder. Ninjala is certainly a game that is easy to start but hard to master. Don’t expect that you can just walk in and start claiming wins. This game isn’t quite so easy as all of that. There are quite a few mechanics to master and that makes sense since the tutorial seemed really large. I quit out of it after the first lesson but you’d want to study it all if you intend on playing for a long while.

I should also mention that there are some bonus stars. You’re scored by total points at the end of the round but you then gain some for doing the most damage, most KOs, etc. So keep that in mind, just because you have the most points when entering the results screen doesn’t mean that you will win in the end. That actually bumped me down from 1st to 2nd once. It’s an interesting idea but I think the game should go by base points. If you win then you win, no worrying about extra factors or any of that.

The graphics are solid. This definitely looks like a very modern game and it’s also very colorful. There’s a lot to look at and the levels have a lot of detail to them. I definitely have no issues there and the soundtrack is good as well. This really is a solid all around title and if you ever threw in a big cinematic story mode then this could be a great game even without online. The gameplay is certainly polished enough to make it work.

Overall, Ninjala is a fun game. I don’t really see people talking about it anymore so its window of fame may have already ended but the fundamentals are sound. I like that you don’t have to enter in teams like a lot of the similar online titles. You can just jump in and take names. While the battle royale results being based on points does mean that you can lose even while playing super well, it won’t be too likely. Beating opponents gets you the most points so as long as you do that well then you should be in high spirits. I would definitely recommend checking this game out for a fun blast.

Overall 7/10

Digimon World Championship Stats and Records

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Stats time!

Play Time 4h 39m
Tamer Rank: Bronze/Level 6
Training Lic. Ultimate
Max Capacity 160
Cage Space 18
Titles 32%
Digipedia 12%
Map 64%
Battles 40
Win Ratio 70%
Cages 19/19
Memory 4/4
Tool Checker 4/4
Analyzer 6/6
Radar 7/12

LBX: Little Battlers eXperience Review

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I’m always up for a good robot game. Mega Man and Custom Robo were always exceptional titles and so naturally LBX looked like a winner from the get go. I actually got to watch the TV show way before the game so if anything this version feels pretty nostalgic while playing through. The anime adapted the game pretty faithfully to be honest and the quality is sharp since it’s by Level 5. Those guys really do a great job of completely building a game around its concept. Layton is the perfect puzzle game and this is the optimal robot experience. You just can’t go wrong with buying this title.

The story follows a kid named Van. He’s really interested in the new game that everyone is playing. It’s called LBX and you buy a mini robot that you can use to fight with other people. Think of it like those classic Rock em Sock Em toys that used to be around, but 1000X cooler as the robots have weapons with live ammo and you control them with your phones. Unfortunately his Mom is against it for reasons unknown and Van’s Dad may have created the LBX franchise, but he died in a plane crash. A mysterious lady gives Van a one of a kind LBX one day though and after he stops some burglars from stealing it, he ends up joining a private faction who is trying to stop the villain organization from using it for their own means. They tell Van that his Dad is actually alive and being held hostage so Van quickly goes on board. His two friends Ami and Kaz agree to help as well. They’ll have to win multiple tournaments, break into enemy territory, and hone their skills. The risk is high, but there are lives on the line so the heroes put on their game faces and get ready for action.

It’s a pretty long game at 15 hours so that’s really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the plot. There are 12-13 episodes in the game and the length varies for each one. There is also a lot of replay value as you have many parts to buy and quests to complete. I did a few quests here and there and got a bunch of weapons, but getting them all would take a long while. There are also online battles that you can play so content is certainly not lacking in this title. You can have fun playing the game for a very long time and it’s worth the full price.

The soundtrack is stellar. It was pretty cool hearing the tunes from the anime even if they technically came out in this game first. It was still nostalgic and most of them are quite memorable. LBX spared no expense in this department and the same goes for the graphics. Not only are the in game graphics sharp, but there are a number of fully animated cutscenes at the ready as well. They really help you dive into the game. It used up a bunch of these cutscenes early on and I would have preferred for Jin to get more of them, but it’s how it goes. It’s really impressive that they added so much in and I feel like we got more animations than Layton. It just feels that way so I can’t confirm it, but a quick Youtube search would give you the answer to that.

As you can imagine, the gameplay is really sharp. It’s in full 3D like Custom Robo and you can equip two weapons at a time. I always went with a good Machine Gun and an electric sword. Even if it’s not the strongest, I like the electric sword because it stuns the opponent so you get more hits in. More hits = More damage or at least that’s how I saw it. The gun can be safer, but the opponent can use the downtime between rounds to get in close and take you down. You have to use a lot of strategy here. You can carry health items to help yourself out as well. There are also a number of final smashes that you can equip. You can use a weaker one to try and get some damage in, but the catch is that the enemy might dodge it. You can instead use an ultra attack which is impossible to dodge, but you can’t move for around 5-8 seconds which is a long time and if an opponent deals enough damage during that time you will lose the attack. I was able to use it successfully in the final boss which was helpful. It seems to always happen that the boss gets me to my last bit of health and then I clutch it out. It’s an amazing feeling, but also super stressful. The final bosses were definitely incredibly powerful so I recommend training a lot so you’re prepared for it.

I still think the concept of LBX was borrowed heavily from Megaman Battle Network, but it certainly did a good job of making a name for itself. It had a lot of its own unique features which differentiated itself from Megaman. It’s also a good move to be like Megaman since Capcom isn’t making any new games at the moment so we can get our Megaman fix this way. Imagine a Megaman game that was 3D like this one with a bunch of hype cutscenes. Hopefully Capcom can learn a thing or two from this title and incorporate it into future titles.

The cast is basically the same from the anime, but I’ll briefly mention some of the big ones. Van is a solid hero as you’d expect. He’s always ready for a fight and is very proactive in trying to save his Dad. He has a brief lapse in confidence, but gets over it right away. At times he can almost seem too happy like when they arrive to the toy store to buy things which felt like a contrast to his rather serious self, but at the end of the day he’s still just a kid. It’s hard to say if he beats Lan Hikari or not as they’re both very similar. He’s a lead you can get behind.

His two friends aren’t bad. Kaz is always low on confidence which can be a little grating, but he still helps out when he can. Ami is always supporting Van and doing her best to get in on the action. The school friends are pretty bland and underwhelming though. I can see why they got such tiny roles in the game since they didn’t add anything to the dynamic. Jin is a great rival and his LBX has an excellent design. He’s pretty reasonable throughout and does a good job of balancing this while still acting really confident the whole time. He’s an ideal rival and his team up fights with Van at the end are a blast.

Dak and Gouda are two other characters who help out a bit. They’re a step below Jin and Van when it comes to ability, but the more allies the better right? I thought Dak was an enjoyable supporting character, but Gouda is a little too weak to be taken seriously. He was good as an opening boss though. Mr. Kaido is a solid main villain. The fact that he can actually fight goes a long way since he doesn’t have to hide when the fighting starts. His robot is also really cool and has a great design. One villain that came in towards the very end was Kirito and he was exceptionally good. Taking out almost the whole cast on his own was certainly a hype moment and the fact that his LBX had a Super Form was really cool as well.

I have to say that I liked how the super forms were incorporated in this game. When you get below 25% health you can activate it and heavily boost your attack power. It helped a lot in the final boss and just looked really cool. When an opponent would use it, it would up the stakes as you had to focus on defense a lot more. Since some fights would give them all of their health back, the game really didn’t hold anything back. You need to be pretty good at the game and be at a high level to win. It always feels fair and balanced with just the right amount of difficulty to make things interesting.

Van’s Dad is okay at best here. I still think he tends to run off too often and leave Van behind for no reason. He gets a lot of hype so he’s a good scientist, but seems like a bad father. I wasn’t impressed with the Red Haired guy and his Team Rocket homage members. They’re the only part of the cast/plot that I couldn’t take seriously. I just never liked them for some reason. The true final boss of the game was great though. His origin story was definitely pretty intense and his LBX even more so. It was a pretty nice/explosive way to end the game. It’s great to see Level 5 get to go all out with the ending here as most of their other titles are a lot more down to Earth. Now we know what they can do with a good action title. I didn’t even totally get how the final boss worked and just had to keep on buying time and using hit and run tactics. You can probably see why I just barely defeated him.

Overall, LBX is without a doubt an excellent game. There are absolutely no negatives with it. The gameplay was completely on point. It felt balanced and it was easy to lock on to an opponent. The levels were huge which was a lot of fun but you can move fast so you don’t have to worry about matches dragging out. The plot was really engaging and kept you alert with all of its twists and turns. You felt like you were playing a big RPG and I think this probably would fit in the genre considering that you do have to backtrack to various areas and you explore as you go through the game. The cast of characters was a lot of fun. It’s a little hard to get used to the American names so in this review I mainly used the ones I was familiar with but not all of them were downgrades. The main case where the English name definitely loses is with Justin though. The graphics and audio were definitely well above average and there is a lot of content in this game. It’s the definition of a AAA title and I’m convinced that Level 5 is one of the best studios of all time. It’s hard to see them churning out a game that isn’t great at this point. I highly recommend buying this game. You’ll be glad that you did.

Overall 9/10

Rayman Arena Review

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It’s finally happened. I’ve finally gotten around to playing one of the Rayman games! Honestly speaking, I can’t say that he’s probably going to become one of the more likable main characters. I just can’t get behind this guy in the same way as the hardcore platformer leads like Sonic, Pac-Man, Mega Man, Mario, and Roy(?). That being said, I do like fighting games and I really like 4 player ones. That was a huge advantage that the Gamecube always had over the other consoles. It’s the one thing that the Playstation consoles have lacked. If they ever got this feature for most of their games, it would be Game Over for the competition. This game is great when playing with friends and just good if you’re by yourself. You need to have others around to make the most of this adventure.

There are two main forms of gameplay here, Racing and Fighting. Each of these two options have two more options so lets get right to it. The normal way of fighting is a time limit is set to around 2 minutes and you have to blast each other. The player who scores the most points takes the win. You can use your normal blaster to take away life points from the other player or you can use the power ups which are scattered across the stage. I highly recommend going for these super weapons since they are incredibly overpowered. Grabbing the Green Multi Rifle basically guarantees a full 5 life wipeout for the opponent. There is no way to escape once you have been hit which is why the next 4 shots are confirmed. You can also grab bombs, (Which are terrible) self guided missiles, (Also terrible. They should have grabbed a page from Star Fox Assault’s playbook) and Barriers. (Which are awesome) There are a few more weapons, but those are the main ones. A nice defensive option is a magnet, which lets you steal the opponent’s weapon. Use these tactics to win the fight! You can jump and hide to cheese out the opponent if necessary. It may not always feel fun, but if it works then it’s time to use it.

The other form of combat has both opponents try to grab as many objects as possible. Both players get a freeze gun to start the match and shiny objects are placed around the field. They switch positions each time someone grabs one. The matches are all right I suppose, but these are definitely very luck based and once you have a large lead, you can just stand in place and wait out the clock. I definitely prefer the standard combat. The main racing game has you try to dash to the goal. There are many obstacles around the stages and you have a purple energy blast which you can use to activate traps and grab aerial rings to give yourself a boost. Activating traps may not sound like it’s in your best interests, but you can really trip up an opponent that way. This was definitely the toughest mode as the A.I. is quite good. Just remember to pace yourself and look for the shortcuts. They will certainly come in handy.

The alternate racing style is a one on one fight. You have to get ahead of your opponent by 6 seconds in order to win. This results in a lot of incredibly short 1 lap fights in one player mode, but I don’t see how it’ll work in multiplayer mode when you’re facing someone of similar skill. Maybe you just lose if you’re behind when a certain amount of laps end or something like that. Both players get freeze guns once again so you can try to freeze your opponent at a tricky spot so they lose a lot of time I suppose.

Graphically, the game holds up pretty well. The character designs have that solid Gamecube feel about them. They have depth and everything looks pretty sharp. The color scheme is a bit dark if you ask me, but it’s solid otherwise. The soundtrack is very forgettable though and it doesn’t help that the game doesn’t really have any cutscenes. World of Final Fantasy puts this game to shame in that aspect among others. It doesn’t hold the game back, but having some more up beat tunes would certainly make the game a lot more fun.

There isn’t a whole lot of replay value to be found here. There are 4 tournaments for each event and you can play each event in two difficulties. That makes 32 tournaments or 96 actual matches since each tournament has 3 rounds. You can beat each tournament in around 10 minutes and possible less depending on the event. It’s not a terribly long game, but there’s not much point to beating the hard mode versions aside from a few extra shirts for the characters. It wasn’t enough of an incentive for me honestly and that’s the only post game content available.

Of course, there is one form of replay value that does save the game. I’m talking about multiplayer mode of course. The fact that it is compatible with 4 players opens up a lot of doors that had been slammed. The game would still get a solid 7 if it was just single player, but it would be lacking quite a bit in content. Fighting games get around this through the multiplayer and that’s exactly what Rayman does. This kind of gameplay would work really well with 4 players. It has less depth than others, but the core gameplay is solid. The racing works really well and I can only imagine how chaotic it gets with 4 people around. Likewise for the shooting events. That ultimately helps bump it up an extra star as it’s a game I can definitely see myself picking around Christmas time for everyone to have fun with.

Overall, Rayman Arena is definitely a solid game. Adding in both racing and fighting was definitely a good idea as it adds some variety and also adds more content to the title. A little more of a story would have been appreciated though. It would possibly help me like Rayman more as a character and it would make Story Mode more interesting. Just look at Pokken, they were able to squeeze in a nice story during the normal campaign. Trust me when I say that it makes quite the difference. Of course, Pokken was just a complete masterpiece in every sense of the word so that’s another story. Rayman’s great, but Pokken is amazing. It’s scary how large the jumps are between scores. Look at Super Smash Bros, Pokken isn’t even in the same league because Smash is the ultimate game. It’s like the saying goes, there’s always something better. I digress. I definitely recommend picking Rayman Arena up if you want a new fighting game to play or just something fun and chaotic for a session with friends and family. This game won’t let you down and it’s very easy to simply plug and play. The controls are intuitive.

Overall 8/10