Tag Archives: Game Review

The Misadventures of Tron Bonne Review

Posted on by
Reply


My Mega Man Legends marathon continues with the spinoff. Tron Bonne is a pretty unique game as it’s essentially a collection of minigames that you play until you unlock the final showdown. It definitely makes for a good adventure though even if the game can be a bit more complex than needed. You should expect the difficulty to really ramp up by the end.

The game starts with Tron’s brother being kidnapped by some debt collectors. They explain that he owes them 1 million Zenny and so Tron will have to gather that amount in order to free him. It won’t be easy to earn that much money the right way and so Tron begins to rob banks and steal livestock from various farms. She will have to contend with the interest on the money as well but Tron is ready for this. She has been trying to prove herself for a while now and this is really perfect timing for that.

Right away I can tell you that these minigames actually have some decent levels of challenge to them. Fortunately you don’t need to beat every minigame in order to complete the game. You need to earn 3 million Zenny to unlock the final boss. How you do that is up to you. Clearing the minigames is advised because they can get you bonuses from 150,000 all the way to 800,000. Of course the higher the prize, the more difficult the minigame. I was never able to clear the 800K one.

So what do you do if you get stuck at the minigames? Well there is a free roam dungeon that you can challenge an infinite amount of times. You make 80,000 per run and each run only takes 3-4 minutes. So it’s a bit on the tedious side but in theory you can beat the whole game that way. I’d recommend trying to complete as many minigames as you can though because that variety will make the game more fun. Each minigame has 3 levels to it before they shut down.

The first one is about moving boxes around so that you can get the right ones onto a boat. It’s almost like navigating a Tetris run or something like that. I was able to handle the 3 puzzles for manual running but got stuck on the first puzzle with the tractor. Definitely not a minigame that is for the faint of heart.

Then you have the RPG levels which replicate the gameplay of Legends 1. You basically run through a bunch of caves and have to open chests and hit switches. It’s a bit more detailed than you may expect. These levels weren’t super hard but do take up more time than all of the other games to the point where you just aren’t sure if they are super worth it or not. I’d still say to go ahead and do it though, they add more story to the game.

You also have the robbing the bank levels. Those are the most fun because these levels are fully action packed. You have to destroy all of the robots in your way and break into the buildings. It definitely reminds you that you are playing as a villain which is something that you may end up forgetting after a while. There is a recurring character who is a cop that you have to stop. Trust me, you’ll feel bad for her after a while.

Then there are the farm levels. These got really tough and I got stuck on the third one that was worth the 800K. You have to corral animals which is easy enough but the final part has to trying to defeat a robot before it destroys your car. No matter how many times I tried that level, I just couldn’t do it. It seems like you need a better gun for that but I was stuck with my starter buster for the whole game.

To get power ups you need to play with your Servbots and that part of the game is pretty complicated. Basically there are 40 Servbots and each one has something that they like. You have to give them their favorite object to unlock other objects to give to other bots. You also need to improve their stats through missions and the gym. Finally there is a torture room where you have to take them whenever their sloth ranking gets too high.

It feels like the game really wanted you to spend a lot of time on this but that wasn’t really my gameplan. I would have done more of this if it was more intuitive but it’s all a bit too vague for me. Particularly when I was already close to the end of the game, I didn’t see the point in devoting too much time to this. If I had lost to the final boss then I would have had to consider it though.

The final boss was stressful because I had to defeat several segments with just my basic gun. It meant that the final boss was pretty long and a few hits would take me down for the count. Fortunately dodging actually wasn’t that difficult in this one. I was expecting the attack patterns to really change as the game went on but that wasn’t really the case. So just keep running in circles and the boss will not be able to keep up with you.

You should also buy a bunch of potions. This is one of those games where potions are absolutely broken because they are dirt cheap and yet you can stock up on a ton of them. I had only bought 2 potions but if I had bought more then the final boss would have been child’s play. In short, the game gives you a lot of decent options and that is the hallmark of a solid title. If you were required to complete all of the minigames and train up the Servbots then the game could have become annoying.

The graphics are definitely solid here. The artstyle has aged pretty well and definitely reminds me of the PS1 glory days. The soundtrack is also pretty good so you have a very well balanced title right here. At most you can just say that the game may be a little too short. It felt shorter than the first Legends even though they are technically about the same length. There is more replay value here because of the Servbots though. I imagine it would take a really long time to 100% this game.

Overall, The Misadventures of Tron Bonne is definitely a fun story. The characters are charismatic and the gameplay is solid. While action may be less of a focus than in the Legends series, the gameplay holds true when you do get the occasional boss fight. I also like the idea of minigames being the way you progress the story. It’s pretty original and just works well as long as you have enough variety. This one probably could have used a few more minigames so you didn’t have to rely on the free roam grind but had enough. If you don’t have this game yet then I definitely recommend picking it up asap!

Overall 7/10

Spark The Electric Jester 3 Review

Posted on by
Reply

It’s finally time to jump back into the world of Spark! Well that’s what I would be saying except the first two games never got a console port. So this ends up being the first one that I’ve gotten to check out. Well I can say it does a great job of reliving the glory days of the Sonic series. The 3D gameplay is incredibly fast paced and even the soundtrack sounds like Adventure 2 Battle. If you have enjoyed playing those Sonic games then you should definitely play this one, it is an amazing homage.

The story starts off with Jester running around and having fun as normal but then the stakes get higher. Not only is his old foe back but a mysterious girl has appeared who also has a grudge with him. Powerful forces are operating within the shadows and Spark is about to learn some things about his own past. Nothing will be the same after these revelations and Spark will need to try and keep himself in one piece by the end of this. It won’t be easy though.

I was not expecting an almost 30 minutes series of cutscenes at the end of the game but it shows how much thought the writer put into the story here. At first you mostly get context from short text bubble cutscenes but then later on you have full cinematics and everything. We learn knowledge that recontextualizes the entire trilogy which is no small feat. I can see this being a little jarring for longtime fans of the series but as someone starting with this title it was just hype.

The ending also stuck the landing which was important. Then we also have a top tier soundtrack. All of the stages sound excellent and then of course there is the one lyrical song that slips in during the 3rd last boss of the game. The song was excellent and I had fun Youtubing it afterwards. Some games may have been satisfied with replicating the Sonic gameplay but going the extra mile and getting the soundtrack was an extra cherry on top. The graphics are also really good so that is another point in Spark’s favor. It just kept on winning and winning throughout.

So lets talk about the gameplay. The main gameplay style is your classic 3D platforming. There is a big emphasis on speed so you use that to zip through the stages and try to get to the goal. Some stages are around 2 minutes while others can go up to 4. You have two jumps and 2 boosts so you have to use each one strategically to get to the end. You also have the homing attack and even a blaster. The game is designed to give you a ton of gameplay options and it’s up to you to choose the right ones.

There are also car segments where you have to drive around which was handled well. These levels were a fun change of pace. Then there is the free falling where you have to activate different moves to slow your fall as well as some levels where you have to locate coins around the level. It was pretty neat to have so many different gameplay styles in here. You don’t actually have to beat every level to get to the final boss, but about 90% of them are required. Beating the extra 10% will net you bonus lives on the final trial.

There are also combat segments where you have to use combos to destroy every robot in the way. These levels are pretty fun and can be challenging. You have to get very good at parrying every blow or they will really add up and deal massive damage. I got pretty good at it although sometimes I would just use my speed to dodge instead. It’s what Sonic would have wanted anyway I’d say.

Now for the final trial that was really intense. It’s a level that is over 20 minutes long and you have to get past every obstacle that appeared throughout the game. You have to have mastered every different element or you will not be completing this level. Before now you had unlimited lives with which to get past the levels but this time you only have a few. If you run out of lives by the end then that will be game over and you have to start again. I got the game over 3 times in this level so I got to spend over an hour on this single stage. Man that was easily one of the tougher 3D platforming levels that I’ve played. It really makes you stop to appreciate how tough Sonic gameplay can get if it tried.

Now if I could choose I’d have split it up into several levels. I like a good challenge but I think it’s better to keep that difficulty into smaller bunches so you can challenge each part without having to replay everything. I understand why you’d merge it though because that does inherently make it even harder. The mental strain of having to stay 100% focused through each obstacle can be challenging and then you start to overthink yourself. Suddenly even basic jumps start to get difficult. Whew, it was really a journey.

I’d say the most challenging part for me were the circular loops. Usually in these games you can count on it keeping you in the center but here you are in charge of keeping yourself level. So you have to react incredibly fast at every turn or you just fall off. I was able to cheese this a few times by reacting very quickly and jumping as soon as I started to fall off but that wasn’t always easy. I even ran across the outside of a bridge on the final trial to bypass 3 of the challenges. Probably not the intentional design but hey you have to break out all of the tricks to win.

Overall, Spark is definitely a great game. I had a blast playing through it and I just love fast paced gameplay like this. The stages were super creative as well as all of the gameplay tweaks to the usual Sonic formula. I wish they’d bring in the first two games at some point, or at least the second one since the gameplay is really similar. If you like 3D platforming then I definitely recommend getting this game as soon as possible. You definitely won’t regret it, this is AAA quality right here.

Overall 8/10

Mega Man Legends Review

Posted on by
Reply


It feels great to finally play Mega Man Legends because that game has been around for so many years. I had hoped Capcom would go ahead and start a remake but they really dragged their feet on that. So it was time to play through all of the games thanks to PSN. The game is retro in all of the right ways with a fun artstyle and even full voice acting. No excuse for newer Mega Man games to not follow suit if you ask me. The game is a bit short but does have plenty of extra content.

The game follows Mega Man and his friends who crash land near a small town one day. They figure it won’t take long to get a power source and leave but it turns out that a crew of treasure hunters is around. They are not going to make things easy and then Mega Man finds himself knee deep in a big conspiracy. He will need to see this through to the end now and must make sure that the town is safe. This won’t be easy, but it is absolutely a job for Mega Man.

Right away you will be impressed by the 3D environments. The town is extremely large to the point where it takes up almost 7 areas. There are plenty of people to talk to and shops to visit. The amount of replay value in here is really impressive because of the side quests. I didn’t really touch those when playing through the game but can see how they would be useful. This game is fairly difficult and so a big part of the game is about earning money. You want enough cash to get a lot of upgrades and power ups.

I spent a full 90 minutes on just grinding money and I’m glad it did. I got my missiles leveled up a whole lot and this came in handy for a 3 phase boss fight in the sky. It worked for the whole game with the exception of the final boss who is actually a bad match up for the missiles. I had to finish the game with the basic mega buster but it does the job. Just make sure you open up every chest because the parts in there are incredibly useful. Without them it is safe to say that I would have been on the back foot.

The best tip I can give you is to constantly be moving side to side. You can fire the buster as long as you do that, but note that you can’t shoot while moving backwards. So keep making a circle around the boss and jump when an attack is about to land. With a little practice you’ll be able to dodge just about everything that gets thrown at you. The missiles are incredible for damage but do add a second of end lag to the beginning and ending of your attacks so you should keep that in mind.

You are always given the choice to choose between attack, range, ammo, and speed. Choose wisely since it isn’t possible to max everything out. Fortunately you can change your allocations at any point so you really should experiment. Range and attack are the most important if you ask me. Some enemies literally cannot be hit if you don’t have enough range after all. Ammo is the least critical since it’s rare to run out of weapons but I guess that may depend on your gameplay style.

The graphics are definitely really good and have held up throughout the years. The soundtrack can be a little less memorable but still sounds good on the whole. I don’t really have any issue with the technicals here although it’s worth noting that the voice acting can be really hard to hear at times. It felt like the audio was going up and down throughout. I was still impressed to have had full voice acting here though. The game probably just needed some subs or text boxes.

You’re going to be spending a lot of time in the dungeons throughout the game so keep in mind that you don’t have to beat them in one shot. If you want to just farm money you can go through a few rooms and then leave. I did that a lot while trying to get money for the various power ups. It’s a really good strategy so I would say to just keep that in mind. The game will be a lot easier if you even just buy a few power ups so you shouldn’t try to go it alone.

As for if you want to focus on your weapons or Mega Man himself, that’s up to you. You won’t have enough money to do everything and that’s why for the weapons I would recommend just sticking to one of them. If you mix and match too much then you’re going to not see as much progress. By sticking to the missiles, I was able to get it very overpowered before long.

We’ll see if the next game can beat this one. There are a few quality of life things that could be improved like your running speed. I know I said the town was large before but part of that is also because Mega Man can’t run very fast. So it takes him longer than you would like to get places. Especially if you get lost which can happen once or twice. Near the end of the game you’re told to go to the old city but turns out you were supposed to go to the re right outside of Old City. That threw me off for a while there.

Overall, Mega Man Legends is definitely a game that I would recommend. The most important thing to consider here is just how fun the game is. It’s really a blast and a half throughout which is really important. Additionally the story gets a little more intricate than I may have guessed by the end of it. The voice acting helps a lot but same with the characters just being a lot of fun. This is certainly not your average Mega Man adventure that’s for sure. There is a lot of room left over for the next game to pick up on some story elements and I’ll be playing that before long. The city environment is also just such a great backdrop because you don’t get to experience that very often.

Overall 7/10

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages Review

Posted on by
Reply


The Legend of Zelda has returned but of course long time fans remember when the series was not doing so well. It has had some really impressive highs but unfortunately the lows are quite strong as well. It’s what keeps me from putting the series higher than where I have it. You just never know if it’s going to end up being the next top tier showcase or if it’ll be more of a stinker. Unfortunately this one was the latter.

The game follows a young man named Link who is tasked with saving the world. A queen has turned evil in the past and this is having a negative effect on the present. Link will now have to travel back and forth from the past to the present to find a way to save the day. It won’t be easy though as the villain appears to have similar abilities. Link may need some help this time around.

Now first up I do want to say the game has some interesting ideas. I was glad to have a different setting re than the usual Hyrule days. The supporting cast wasn’t even bad like another hero who wants to be the one to save the day and a happy witch that is always flying around. There is a decent plot going on in the background here which can be more than what you see for other Zelda titles. That said, it can still vanish for large chunks of time since this isn’t first and foremost a story driven title.

I would also say that the soundtrack is pretty good. There is one track in particular that is much better than I would have expected. It just works really well as a suspense theme. Of course on the flip side, the worst themes are pretty bad. The hub world theme in particular is super jarring because of how loud it is. Your ears will definitely be hurting by the end of that because you’ll be hearing the tune so often.

This is where most of the game’s issues come from. It just isn’t fun to play for decently large periods of time. The levels are tedious and the backtracking makes this worse. We needed a better form of quick travel and other movement options to help with the quality of life. In theory you should always be able to get past an area quicker the next time you enter it. I felt like the series didn’t really understand that part and that just made things tougher than it needed to be.

The hints aren’t always very helpful so you will be wandering around for a lot of the time. Ironically the dungeon puzzles ended up not being as difficult in comparison. The hub world is what took up the most amount of time. This ended up being my game with the most amount of play time on the Nintendo Switch Online’s game boy section.

A big problem with the gameplay is how you can only equip 2 weapons. As a result you have to constantly be pausing the game to switch weapons over and over. Let me tell you, that part’s not fun after the 20th time. You want to be able to just quick change your weapon. It’s those little things that make such a big difference after a while because it heavily inflates the play time but not for any fun reasons. It’s almost funny how quickly the bosses go down in contrast.

Still, the story is a bright light here. If they ever made a 3D remake of the game with great quality of life features then I actually think it could be really good. The potential is absolutely there after all, the game just has to live up to it. You also won’t be able to play the complete game without having a file for the other game. The true ending is only obtained by having save data for both oracle games which is a really bold strategy. Not one I’d recommend since it seems a bit greedy towards the gamer.

I’d also say the game’s graphics are pretty good. A minor nitpick is that it can be hard to tell when you are in the present or the past though. The coloring is just so similar at that point. The past has a slight blue tint but trust me when I say that it is incredibly slight. You need to have a really strong pair of glasses to be able to consistently note the difference. Otherwise you are really out of luck there. There’s not really any replay value but the main campaign is long enough where this doesn’t feel like a problem.

In theory if you don’t get lost at all and crush every boss then the game will be much shorter but that still feels like a stretch to me. I don’t see how you would be able to ace everything on your first go. It would be very impressive though and would make the game more fun. It steadily becomes less and less fun as you run around in circles so if you are able to counter that, then it goes without saying that the game itself would improve quite a bit. It would almost allow the game to hide its biggest flaws from you but maybe for that reason it is better than you do run into them.

Overall, Oracle of Ages is about on par with the Oracle of Seasons title but that’s not a big complement. The game just has too many downsides that take away from the experience the whole time. With modern quality of life upgrades it would be easy to fix this title. It’s not something that you an ever take as a given though. Some companies just aren’t as on the ball about that and I suppose this may be one of those times. I would only get this game if you are a massive Legend of Zelda fan. Otherwise it’s time to skip this one.

Overall 4/10

Lost Soul Aside Review

Posted on by
Reply

It’s time for one of those PS5 games that you see everywhere. It always looked pretty fun although I don’t think the cover does it any favors. Almost looks a bit uncanny like an action figure or something. The actual game’s artstyle is more like a typical Final Fantasy adventure though so don’t let the cover fool you. This is a great game but one that could have stood to have more content overall.

The story starts by introducing us to a world where the empire owns its country with an iron fist. The people have risen up through a resistance group known as GLIMMER. The main character is a member of this group and is also a “gifted one” which means that he has super powers. Unfortunately these powers are not enough to turn the tides of battle so he went off to train. Upon his return, the lead ends up meeting an ancient dragon lord named Arena who gives him true power. This would be enough to end the world but then the kingdom is attacked by aliens who are led by Aramon. This guy wants to end the human race and in the process he absorbed the souls of many humans. We now have to stop him as well as the emperor and in particular save the soul of Kaser’s sister.

The plot definitely starts fast here and introduces a whole lot of characters right away. I really enjoyed the fact that there were 3 factions here because it immediately makes things more interesting. Kaser is essentially forced to work with his life long enemies here but knows that they can betray him at any moment. That’s a good amount of tension to be working with here. Ther is also a lot of extra lore through the pages that you pick up along the way but generally I wouldn’t say any of it is too crucial. The main plot is within the game that you’re playing after all.

I will say that the story can get a little slow during the middle part though. You’re really interested in fighting Aramon and the Emperor so when you have to fight a bunch of reskinned bosses you just want to get to the next cutscene. There is an impressive amount of boss battles here with at least 50 but a bunch of them are reused as the game goes on which makes this a little less impressive. The game does leave a little room for a sequel should they ever want to do that.

The strongest aspect of the game is the gameplay though. It plays like a 3D beat em up and you have to use a mix of dodging and blocking to get past the waves of enemies. I spent most of the game blocking but by the end it was incredibly difficult to read the opponent moves so I relied more on dodging. Each style has its set of pros and cons but blocking is best if you are comfortable with the timing. By blocking an opponent’s attack you reduce a lot of their stamina and it also causes them to freeze up for a good chunk of time. This gives you some more free hits right away.

The beginning of the game is when it is the most difficult because you don’t have any arena powers or upgrades yet. Interestingly this is an example of a game that continues to get easier as you go on because your upgrades are incredibly broken. Additionally the game has a great XP system so you are leveling up constantly. The more you die, the stronger upgrades you unlock so I dare say there are even some roguelite elements to this title. I guess everyone wants to add those nowadays. The combat is super smooth and there are so many different attacks that you can use. You can really have a field day equipping all of the fun ones that you want.

Now the game does have an issue with the menus though. I think the devs needed to workshop these a bit more because they are not intuitive at all. There is a whole crafting section of the game and I never used it because I just couldn’t figure it out. The parts you need to make the weapon are unclear and the weapons seemed weaker than the base ones so it seemed pointless. Every weapon I unlocked naturally were also weaker than the base one so I stayed with my starter equipment the whole game. There has to be something that I was missing.

There are also boss rushes and survival challenges but there didn’t seem to be an upside to doing them. I suppose they give you online trophies for completion so down the road they would be useful but not during the campaign. There are too many options in the main menu to choose from and as a result I didn’t pick any. It’s a fairly small deal but the kind of thing that does separate an average game from a top tier one.

I did enjoy how easy it was to acquire money and items though. Now I will mention that the game has a super guide type feature where you can skip any puzzle automatically by talking to a blue diamond. I decided not to do that since it felt cheesy but I guess that’s good if you really don’t like puzzles. Trust me, I’m not a big fan of them but skipping them entirely like that will always be a last ditch effort at best.

This game really had a lot of fun trying out different gameplay styles. For the most part these additions were a bit pointless but they don’t take away from the game. You’ve got skateboardig, mecha fights, aerial combat, grappling, platforming, puzzles, etc. The game was trying to use every kind of gameplay style it could think of. Ultimately it would always go back to the combat you were looking forward to though which is the important part. That is the ultimate highlight of the game after all.

The graphics are pretty good. This may not be a full AAA type title but it holds up well enough. I liked the character designs and the colors are striking. The gameplay itself is particularly colorful. The soundtrack is also pretty good with some really solid tunes. The boss themes definitely will not disappoint. The overall campaign length is around 15 hours too which is fairly solid. There is virtually no replay value though so your best bet is in trying to get all of the trophies. That will definitely take you some time because the game is really relentless on that front. I won’t even try to achieve the platinum in the foreseeable future.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this game. It may be a hard sell for $60, but I got it for $10 thanks to Prime Day. If you can get a price like that for this game then I highly recommend doing so. It’s a steal for that price and either way the gameplay alone is enough to make you want to get this game. If they ever do make a sequel, I’ll definitely be picking that one up.

Overall 8/10

Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for another big roguelite game! Hades really helped me get into the genre and it’s been nonstop Ws since then! This one isn’t quite as story based but there is definitely a lot of story content here to sink your teeth into. This collection also brings 9 DLC waves with it so that’s a lot of extra content at the ready. Get ready to lose a lot but every death will take you closer to your big victory.

You play as an undead guy who just won’t stay dead. For some reason you are doomed to regenerate after every death. There is some kind of a grand plan at work here and the hero knows that he will have to defeat an ultimate evil. Problem is he doesn’t have much of a memory either so the whole thing is like a never ending mystery. One thing’s for sure, escaping this realm is not possible so he will have to keep on moving forward.

There is a lot of lore within the game’s universe but it’s all told within interactable objects. There is the occasional cutscene with some vague dialogue but the atmosphere is the top priority here. Additionally if you want to get the true ending then you have to complete the game on all 5 difficulty levels. Props to anyone who is able to accomplish that because this seems like an incredibly difficult task to me. Beating the game on normal and hard was tough enough.

The gameplay feels a bit like a Castlevania title. It is 2D and you use your weapons to clear out the enemies and make it to the next room. Each room has around 2-3 exits which lead you to other levels. There is also a rest level in between each one for you to heal up and gather your bearings. You will be presented with many different weapons and bombs as you go through the levels and you need to choose the ones that you prefer to use. There are many different ending rooms since each of the DLCs are baked into the game as well. It makes for a lot of variety and of course the room layouts are randomized so don’t think that you can just memorize all of the spots.

Defeated enemies drop orbs which you can use to unlock permanent power ups as well as alternate costumes. Be warned that every weapon you unlock becomes part of the random rotations. So if you really don’t like a weapon, you should not unlock it. There is no way to turn off unlocked weapons unless you go into creative mode. For the most part I tried not to unlock new weapons after I got my initial set and just focused on mutations and the permanent ones. Still, it’s possible that you will miss out on some really cool ones as a result so you shouldn’t be too picky.

Each weapon has a rank from 0 to 10 and those ranks have 3 levels to them. As you progress through the levels in each run they will get higher. What that means is that you might start a run with your favorite weapon but it’s in your best interest to upgrade soon. Yes, that means getting rid of your favorite weapon sometimes but that’s just how it goes. There is no benefit to staying with a grade 0 weapon and in fact it’ll make defeating some bosses nearly impossible.

The enemies scale up with each room so you need to keep pace with them. In each level there are also scrolls which you can use to amp up the power of one type of weapon. Red, Green, or Purple. You want to focus on always using the power ups on whatever color you are going to prioritize. They scale like crazy with compound interest so trying to do a little of everything is a super bad idea. Definitely don’t fall for it and stick to one. That’s the best way to make a lot of ground here.

My favorite setup was the mega hammer and a freeze gun. I would just freeze the enemies in place and then land my power move. It’s not good against the boss at the shipyard but works on just about everyone else. I was able to use that combination to beat the game on my only 2 successful attempts. I have a harder time reading the enemy movements so going with the faster swords didn’t really work for once. The game also puts a lot of work in for setting up shields for parrying/blocking but admittedly I never really tried it. I mean literally I never used the shields. I feel like this game is more about DPS and I didn’t want to bother trying to learn how to use the shields effectively.

The game has over 110 trophies which is incredible. That’s thanks to the DLCs of course but I’ll take it. I got over 60 trophies during my run which was a satisfying number. Getting the platinum is not something that I’m really going to attempt though. It would definitely be really difficult as it is and you need total mastery of the genre. It would be a true milestone to get that though. It’s something that most players won’t get anywhere close to.

The graphics look pretty good. It has that indie type vibe to it while still being pretty colorful. It does well in the retro side of things and the soundtrack is also good. I would say that the Castlevania tracks tend to be the best ones though. The remixes were a blast and there was a lot of care put into that one. The Castlevania DLC also was the most story based one which was pretty cool. You’ll easily be here for at least 20 hours or so. Honestly I’ve been getting some pretty good bang for my buck lately as every game seems to last at least 20 hours or so. It’ll probably be time for the shorter games to make a comeback at some point but it’s just hard to turn down the longer ones.

Overall, I would definitely recommend Dead Cells. As long as you enjoy the Roguelite genre then you can definitely appreciate all the work they put into this one. The amount of content you get is super impressive and the gameplay is extremely smooth. Some things may be really difficult to figure out without a guide so I recommend checking in with the community. Then you will have fun unlocking the final levels and slowly improving your home base. You get to see new weapons and items pop up on the ceiling and I guess one goal you can have is to get them all up there. I don’t know if there is a reward for that but there might be one.

Overall 8/10

Sword Art Online: Echoes of Aincrad Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for a game that I had to pre order immediately! Sword Art Online is one of those franchises with unlimited potential but unfortunately does tend to stumble. This game is not one of those times. While there are some gameplay limitations which I will get into, it’s clear that the developers had a very grand view of the world. They wanted to make this title feel as massive as the actual game from the anime and they succeeded. The game is over 25 hours and only covers 2 floors which is really crazy. Sadly I doubt we will ever get to see all 100 but it was still nice to see how in depth this one was.

The game follows the adventure of you, the player! You have logged into this game to have some fun but unfortunately get stuck in there along with 9,999 other players. The only way out is to complete the game and if you die in the game…you die in real life! You meet up with a bunch of new characters as well as some familiar faces from the anime. Conquering the game may be a difficult ordeal but it’s something that you are absolutely ready for. Your whole life has been leading up to this moment!

So lets go into the weaker parts of the game first. There are some obvious quality of life items missing from this title like the ability to access parts of the map that are not related to the current mission. This means that you have to play around in different missions before you can actually unlock the whole map. It’s a bit arbitrary and clearly set up that way to extend the game. There are also some pointless mechanics that never end up mattering and are seemingly just there to check off a box. This would be the platforming (Which is not very well done to be honest) and the multiple answers part.

No matter what you answer, the story does not change at all and the characters hardly acknowledge your answer anyway. Most responses are limited to nodding your head or choosing to “look confused”. If these choices weren’t going to matter anyway then I’d have preferred they make the main character real. Give him some voice acting and personality. The self insert just doesn’t work very well for games and it can be jarring to see him looking oblivious the whole time while everyone is fighting for their lives.

The game also does reuse a whole lot of bosses and minions. The in game reason for this is that the 2 floors will naturally only have a very limited amount of bosses. It can just get a bit old to fight the same boss over 10 times. They just color swap the boss and call it a day. I think the funniest part is that the final boss is a reused one except for the final phase that was brand new. Cmon at least the final boss should be completely new right?

So it did feel like this game had a tough budget at times. Someone also called it a walking simulator and I get it. The game has you run for large distances at a time without combat. Other times there is combat everywhere so the run will take forever. There are no beacons to show you where you should be going so it is also easy to get lost. Perhaps this is by design but it wasn’t a good one.

Now that sounds bad but these are all more in the way of nitpicks. On the whole the gameplay is very strong because the combat is great. That’s why we’re here after all and you can seamlessly master all kinds of weapons. I used a sword for the first half of the game and then the hammer for the second half. Each weapon has a lot of pros and cons to it. You can also level up your weapon class in addition to leveling your character. There is a whole lot of customization to be had here and unlike the enemies, your character is always changing. It keeps the gameplay really fresh.

I also did enjoy the story. It may be a bit slow at times but it’s clear that this was made with the idea being that it would be the first step in a whole saga. Many more floors and adventures could be added as DLC. If not…well then it’s true that at least 5-6 plots were not actually ended in this game. Also I wasn’t able to find the Kirito side quest before I beat the game so in the end he did not show up almost at all here. We got to meet him twice and that was it. I like the idea of being a random side character but would like to see the main plot a bit more.

The soundtrack is definitely solid. The main theme song/intro is super good. It feels like something right out of the anime and was really handled perfectly. The themes within the game are a little less memorable but still good in the end. The graphics are also very solid. Not top tier, but more like high end AA. Again, you can tell that the budget wasn’t massive but they did a good job overall.

The biggest factor in why this game is great aside from the combat is how convenient all of the questing is. You can pick up quests at any time and resume whenever you want. Don’t want to be locked into a side quest for long? Well, you aren’t! You can resume progress at the exact point you left and keep on moving. You also keep your EXP whenever you lose a fight so you are constantly getting stronger. There is also a perma death mode for those who want to try that but fortunately there is no trophy for that.

Getting the platinum feels achievable here even if it would probably take a very long time. There is a side quest about defeating a level 200 enemy which seems absolutely crazy. I don’t see myself being able to conquer that for a little while but I do look forward to grabbing more trophies. I feel like the best time to aim for a platinum in a title like this is when the game is still fresh in your mind. You’ll have gotten a lot of the trophies naturally just by playing the story. There are no missable ones either so that’s another thing that is very gamer friendly.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this title. The game can be a little rough around the edges but never stops being an absolute blast. I’ve said this many times in the past but a game’s ultimate goal is to be fun. I had a lot of fun playing this one between all of the voice acting, solid combat, great story, etc. It’s the kind of game I could just keep on binging without needing any breaks. You just want to see what the other weapons feel like and slowly unlocking each map feels incredibly satisfying. If they ever make a sequel for this one then I’d definitely get it day 1. Less guarantees on DLC though since I don’t usually tend to buy any of that.

Overall 8/10

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy Review

Posted on by
Reply


Phoenix Wright is one of those game series that I have seen around for a very long time but never got to play before. With the collection being on one of those big PSN sales, I knew this was finally my chance! It is definitely a pretty great collection and the games give you a lot of bang for your buck. This collection took me over 90 hours to complete which was intense! I came super close to hitting that 100 hour milestone.

The story follows a young man named Phoenix who is a defense attorney. He wants to help the innocent and prevent them from being sent to their death. See, in the future there are so many crimes that court cases are only allowed to take up to 3 days. If the defendant is found guilty then more often than not they are put to death. The prosecutors will use any trick up their sleeve to win a case and so Phoenix has to spot the contradictions in the evidence. If he is able to do that, then he will be on the right side of history.

Each game has a similar setup but the main prosecutor tends to change. The first game focuses on Edgeworth who knew Phoenix back when they were kids. They have quite a lot of history and so Edgeworth gets to have a full character arc. The second game has Franziska who is quite ruthless and whips anyone who annoys her. The games don’t mind getting a little extreme in this sense. What other franchise would actually have the judge allow whipping in his court right? Like with Edgeworth she does get a good amount of character development by the end.

The final game has Gadot has the main villain. He has a whole mystery going on that is unveiled as the final game gets to the end. While he felt like the weakest villain which was an interesting way to end the trilogy, I do have to admit that he had the best lines. Pretty much everything he said about the coffee or his abstract messages were just fun. So he definitely grew on me by the end.

Something the games really had going for them was the strong character roster. The supporting characters are a lot of fun. Mia and Maya have really big roles throughout the games and are people that Phoenix can rely on. Mia was really portrayed as the strongest character in the series and you could argue that she still has that spot by the end. Maya goes from being a total novice to actually challenging Phoenix in the final case. She really came along way there. The villains I already mentioned are really good as well. It doesn’t mean that every character is fun, some are a bit overplayed like the old lady. Whenever she appeared I’d have to shake my head. In a way the world feels too small when you bring a character back too often.

The games also did a great job of constantly switching things up. You end up playing as different characters as the games go on like when you play as Edgeworth or Mia. That just helps to keep everything really fresh. Seeing young Phoenix as an unreliable witness was intense. It really reinforces how you can’t trust anyone who is on the stand.

So what’s the gameplay like? Well, you have two sections, free roam and then the court case. In free roam you switch between different areas and talk to people to get evidence. You can also present evidence to people in order to get some reactions and obtain some clues. You will also click on different objects in the background like something in I Spy to get more clues. The toughest part can be deciding what to show each suspect or making sure that you have clicked on everything in the area. So you have to be very methodical. One thing you will figure out quickly is that every person should have 4 lines of dialogue. So if they have less then you must have missed something.

Some cases will add bonus gameplay styles to this like when you have a metal detector or a spray that can locate hidden blood splotches. The meat of the game is in the courtroom though and that’s my favorite part. Basically the witnesses will say 4-6 things and you can press or object to the statement. Generally you will need to press the statement first and then object to the one that is wrong. You will have to prove the contradiction by presenting a piece of evidence. It’s a lot harder than it sounds. Sometimes it is incredibly difficult to find a contradiction and I died many times in this game. It is rather brutal, if you don’t save the game midway then you have to replay a large chunk of the case. Definitely keep a backup save at the ready because it is possible to get save locked here.

The game isn’t a graphical masterpiece though so you shouldn’t expect too much there. There aren’t a lot of animations as most of the story are just still images. There is also no real voice acting outside of the characters yelling objection in the court room. I’d like them to add voice acting to all of the dialogue at some point. It would just make this feel more like an authentic audio book. So the games are very strong but they succeed more on the premise and gameplay than on the technical elements around it.

Technically there isn’t a lot of replay value once you beat the game. It’s not like there are bonus paths, you either win or you lose. Still, at over 90 hours you don’t actually need any replay value. I obtained the Platinum when completing the game because I made sure to go back and get answers wrong as needed. You’ll get most of the trophies naturally but can definitely work on getting any you missed as a form of replay value.

Overall, This was definitely a great trilogy. On its own each game may be more like a 7 because they are just lacking a bit in gameplay but together this just makes such an incredible narrative that I had to bump it up. I’ll definitely be curious to see how the next games play out. I’ll miss Phoenix being the main character as the next trilogy switches but I’m sure they’ll do a good job with the next one. It’ll probably be a while before I get the next trilogy though.

Overall 8/10

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Review

Posted on by
Reply


I’ve finally managed to grab the new Sonic racing title! Crossworlds always looked like a lot of fun. At the same time, it’s a bit hard to justify getting any racing game for $60. Fortunately it was on sale for $20 for Prime Day and that’s when I realized that this would be the perfect time to take the plunge. The game definitely holds up and really has a lot of content built in throughout the game. There are just so many characters, stages, and items here.

Naturally I went through the grand prix mode first. There are 8 tournaments and then you can play them all again in mirror mode. Each race will really push you to your limit as you try to come in first. There are quite a few speed levels in the game and the faster you go, the smarter the A.I. gets. So you will really want to keep that in mind here. It would be nice if you could jump right to the highest speed but you have to beat all cups on a lower speed to unlock the higher one. The gam is really made to force you to play it over and over a lot.

I think that can be a little annoying with how direct the game is about this. It has enough content where it doesn’t need to artificially extend it like that. At least if you ask me that was unnecessary. I did have fun beating all of the cups and am nearly done with beating them all a second time. You will really learn the ropes by the time you’re done with this. It’s also worth noting that the game starts you off with driving assistant on by default. Basically this prevents you from crashing or falling off a stage.

It’s nice as a form of training wheels and the catch is that this makes it impossible to get some of the red rings. If you want to get all of the collectibles then you’re going to have to work hard and drive on your own. I thought that was a pretty fair way to do things. You need to pay some price if you’re using an assistant like this.

Of course aside from the grand prix selection there are a lot of other modes. You have time attack mode and free racing. Then there is the racing park which has minigames that you can play. There is also the online races of course and thanks to the free PS+ weekend I actually got to check that out. It is really fun to play against other players online. I was surprised that the cars keep their customizations and items though. I suppose that means there will be an actual tierlist in the Crossworlds meta.

You can also use the online as a way to play the new DLC stages that you haven’t actually purchased yet. I’m glad that it doesn’t just lock them out or anything. The game makes sure to keep them tempting at all times with how the locked characters/stages will stay on your homescreen though. Basically the game is reminding you not to forget about all of this. The prices aren’t bad so if you really enjoy the game then you should consider buying everything. Personally I just don’t buy DLC very often at all.

As for the graphics, the game definitely holds up really well. The colors are super sharp at all times and there is a lot going on within the matches. The items are all really fun to watch even if they can be hard to keep track of at first. This game prides itself on being chaotic and lives up to that reputation. Especially on the faster speeds where things are really moving.

The soundtrack is also really good. There are a ton of remixes here so as long as you enjoy Sonic music then you will have a great time here. The main theme may not be the greatest Sonic tune that we’ve had but it’s still catchy. I was mainly listening to that tune while writing this review. You do feel like you’re about to get on a grand adventure. There is a lot of replay value here between the multiplayer mode and all of the online features. This is a game that will clearly keep on being supported for a very long while.

The customization also adds a whole other layer to the title. You basically have to try and get a ton of customizable equipment throughout the game and then see what you like to use the most. You’ve got tons of cars, wheels, horns, etc. For now I haven’t spent too much time on this and just picked the Shadow car with whatever items I had on hand. For the pre set boosts I picked extra rings and boosters. Generally I’m just not a big customizations guy. I’ll use whatever you’ve got and then go on to have a blast. It may come back to bite me in online races but that’s just how it goes.

The game has a pretty detailed tutorial so don’t be afraid to check that out if you feel a bit overwhelmed at first. Since this game is still getting updates, you will get a ton of pop ups when you first turn the game on. That is completely normal though. I unlocked over 10 characters and about 40+ items when the game first loaded. It’s honestly pretty exciting because it shows you how much free DLC the game got before it moves onto the paid model. Sure it’s probably a tactic to make you more willing to spend but since that tactic helps the player out, I’m totally cool with it.

Overall, I definitely recommend this game. It puts the racing genre to great use and pushes the genre about as far as it could go. I do wish we had a story mode though. Even a barebones one would have been nice just to have had something on the single player side. I suppose it just wasn’t meant to be in this case. A racing game doesn’t need one but it’s a little cherry on top of the package. As long as you like the genre then you should check this one out right away. I don’t see very many racing games coming close to this one anytime soon. It goes without saying but I would even put this one above Mario Kart World.

Overall 8/10

Donkey Kong 64 Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time to play a very infamous DK game from a long while back. This is one of those games that you either love for how ambitious it is or it quickly begins to feel overwhelming. I’m not often a big fan of these old Rare titles but this one was actually pretty good. I definitely get how switching between characters so often feels unnecessary, but the character points are close together. Ultimately the fun gameplay and smooth controls helped to make up for some quality of life features that were not present.

The game starts with he DK crew being kidnapped by the powerful King K. Rool. DK will now have to save his friends and put a stop to all of the madness. He will need to gather 100 Golden Bananas along with a host of other items. It won’t be easy but DK is not the kind of guy to back down from a fight. King K. also has many minions at his disposal so fighting through all of them won’t be easy.

The gameplay is that of your classic 3D platformer. You will run through various worlds looking for collectibles. Each world has a set formula. There are 25 Golden Bananas in a world, each Kong can get up to 5 of them. Each Kong can also get up to 100 normal bananas, reaching 75 of them gets you a medal. You need 15 medals to unlock a sci-fi game that you have to beat in order to get a coin that lets you complete the game. So this title is definitely not shying away from its genre of being a true collectathon. Of course that was never really in doubt.

What this game does well is not force you to come anywhere close to 100% in order to beat the game. That should always be reserved for people who really want to do that and you can reward them with a secret ending or something. For example you only need 100/200 Golden Bananas and 15/35 Gold Medals in order to clear the game. I like those odds pretty well so I never felt like I had to be really exhaustive when playing through the game.

That said, I did manage to beat most of the opening worlds because in a way you save some time there. You are already familiar with the layouts after all so you may as well just finish them off right? Then for the final worlds I could go a lot faster and ignore most of the Golden Bananas as I raced to the boss. It’s just a really good balance and it’s clear that a lot of time and effort was put into these level designs.

Naturally I liked some worlds more than others but that will probably vary based on the player. For example my least favorite world was easily the underwater one. Swimming just takes too long and it’s really hard to tell where you are going. Then my favorite world was either the forest or the haunted house. There was a lot going on there but it never felt too overwhelming. In short it was the perfect balance for what the game was trying to do here.

One quality of life feature I would switch is how the power ups worked. So basically each Kong gets a power up or two in every level. You have to find the huts and get stronger. Then when you recruit a new Kong, you have to go back to the old worlds and get the power ups. Once you are in the final worlds then you can do this at one time but this did require a lot of back tracking throughout the game.

In some ways I guess you could call it a Metroidvania in that sense. Again, the game was pretty good about this. Backtracking doesn’t feel as bad as it could have since there are a lot of quick travel points. The game also does a good job of pointing out where you haven’t been yet. It’s not perfect as some mechanics are really not explained well but you can’t win them all. On the whole the game does a lot more things right than wrong.

The difficulty is fairly high though. Without rewind you can actually expect to lose quite a few times. Specifically the minigames are really unforgiving. You have to complete several tasks under a strict time limit and I dare say that I would have lost at least half of them on my first try. The final level is also intense with another strict time limit. The more blue prints you unlock ahead of time, the easier this will be. Each one unlocks another minute which is handy. You’ll likely get a ton of them just from playing the game normally though.

On the technical aspects the game holds up really well too. The graphics are colorful and really pop out at you. These were the Kongs in their ultimate designs. The levels are really colorful and this title must have pushed the Nintendo 64 to its limits back in the day. The soundtrack is also far better than I expected. I have to be honest and say that I was not expecting much. The DK games tend to sound okay but usually don’t have too many stand out themes. This one actually sounds really good throughout. Additionally even the jingles are really catchy. So yeh I was definitely very impressed with this one all the way through.

Naturally there is a lot of replay value here. I beat the main game in under 20 hours but getting the rest of the collectibles will likely double the playtime. This is the kind of game that gives you a lot of bang for your buck so you definitely wouldn’t want to miss out on it. If you’re worried about the backtracking and all, just know that it is considerably less time consuming than the Bano-Kazooie game. It’s also just really lenient with how low the game completion requirements are.

Overall, Donkey Kong 64 is a reminder that some of these older games have really withstood the test of time. It may be no Bananza, but it can hold its own with most of the other DK games. It was also nice to see a full fledged story with some actual voice acting. It’s not like the story is ultra deep or anything but honestly it’s just something that I can’t help but appreciate because it’s really not a guarantee in the present day. I look forward to seeing what other gams Nintendo adds to the online service.

Overall 7/10