Tag Archives: Nintendo Switch Online

The Bionic Commando Review

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Whenever you make a video game where your main character doesn’t have the ability to jump, it should raise some red flags. How do you actually plan your game around that? Surely it can’t be easy and that’s why I would usually recommend not even taking the risk. Well, this game decided to do it anyway and unfortunately it did not go very well. The game goes too far in being as non-linear as possible to the point where you have no idea where to go after a while.

The game starts out with the world’s greatest agent being taken out of the picture. So the world’s second best agent is forced to get in on the action. He has to find the first guy and save him as well as stopping the villains from taking over the world. It will be difficult but this guy has a whole lot of training up his sleeve so it’s nothing that he hasn’t seen before.

The gameplay is your standard 2D platformer at first glance. You can move and jump as well as firing your blaster at folks. As I mentioned before, there is no jumping though. Instead you have an extendable claw that you can use to grab onto walls and mount your comeback. You will have to time the claw throws very carefully because your momentum only lasts for a quick instance. Once it is gone, then you are back to normal and often times you will be in a worse position than when you started.

Each level has a computer room that you must access before you can complete the level. This is a place where you can swap out your current equipment as well as learn some information about the villains and their movements. So this still sounds straight forward right? Well, where the wheels come off is you have to move through the hub world to the last level but you have multiple paths to get there. There are around 19 levels and the numbers are on them but it can be difficult to follow them in order.

You have to endure extra battles based on the enemies who are patrolling those areas. That’s not the only problem, you then have to factor in that you need the right items equipped for different levels to get through. You have up to 3 walkie talkies for example and no clear indicator on which one you need to use in order to proceed. You also have obstacles that can only be broken by specific guns. So there’s a lot of things to consider and none of them are all that fun. I would say that’s the main problem here.

I want to just get to the levels already. The combat is fairly decent and I enjoyed the boss battles. The shine starts to leave as you have to complete those same levels and bosses over and over again though. They keep on respawning and it just feels like that goes against the whole point of the adventure. This should be a fast paced battle to save your friends, not an ever lasting war against foes who refuse to go down. It just doesn’t add up.

The graphics aren’t bad. I do appreciate that we have actual cutscenes of sorts here as well. There is a real story and so this game put in the effort, it was just unfortunately overwhelmed by the fact that the gameplay mechanics were no good. Unfortunately I don’t believe there are a whole lot of ways to get around that. This game was not able to accomplish such a feat after all and that’s why I didn’t really want to rush back to it. The way I see it, this game just failed on a basic level in terms of being really fun to play.

The game’s length is fairly good for such an old game so I can give it some credit in terms of lasting value at least. The soundtrack was okay too so it had some fundamentals here. I think this would make for a good film and I would definitely play a remake of it someday. In the meantime though, this is going to be remembered as one of the weaker Game Boy games. The title just got a little bit too clever for its own good and so the whole thing backfired.

Overall, The Bionic Commando is not a game that I would recommend. It’s not like it’s bad or anything like that but to me it wasn’t that much fun and that’s the biggest thing you need in a game. Actually, I guess I could call it bad in that case as anything under a 5 can earn that title. If you ask me this game should have either kept in the ability to jump or it should have made the levels linear. Either option would have made this better but the whole guessing game doesn’t really work in a game like this. I wanted to be right there in the action, not left to guess on what was going on. Props to folks who figured out how to complete this game back in the day. If you have the Switch Online, I’d recommend playing Kirby instead.

Overall 4/10

Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters Review

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Kid Icarus may have had an amazing 3DS game but before that he had rather humble beginnings with the earlier titles. This one is a pretty interesting game to play after the big 3DS adventure. It ends up being a fun title even if parts of it are certainly dated. That’s just going to be the reality for any Game Boy game but I had a good time with it. I can’t imagine how kids would have beaten the bosses back in the day though.

The story starts off with Pit needing to go find the 3 Legendary Treasures. With them he will be able to protect Palutena but standing in his way are an army of powerful monsters. It certainly won’t be easy to defeat them all but Pit is prepared to do what he has to in order to win. As the player you better have some good stamina as well because let me tell you, these boss battles are really long! You can expect each one to take close to 20 minutes.

The game is longer than you’d expect as a result although you’ll still clear it in under 3 hours. The levels themselves are easy, it’s just those boss fights which really take things to the next level. Part of why they take so long is each of the bosses like to fly around the levels like crazy with super speed. As soon as you think you’ve caught up, they dash away again. So you have to try and get in a few blows each time as quickly as you can and then rinse/repeat.

It’s a rather brutal cycle all things considered. The boss fights are creative but they definitely could have been improved with a little less movement. The actual levels tend to be more straight forward on the platforming side. You have your arrows to blast away at enemies with and you can jump around. You can use power ups to fly as well and then in the final level you unlock the ability to fly for real. I can see why they wouldn’t have added that power from the beginning though as it would have been pretty overpowered.

There was one level where I actually got lost for a few moments. To counter your ability to flight, they added a bunch of blocks in the air and you have to go through a specific path in order to avoid them all. So it’s kind of like one of those hedge mazes. I eventually got out, but let me tell you it was definitely not easy. I also died tons of times during the game with how fast the minions run around. The difficulty level is quite high here, more than what I would have initially expected from Nintendo. Clearly the Nintendo of old was a force to be reckoned with.

Usually my advice would be to go very slow and navigate your way around the obstacles but that’s probably not going to work very well for you here. You will get punished for not moving since several of the enemies infinitely respawn and move with a whole lot of speed. Instead you are going to really want to stay one step ahead of the competition and actively look for hiding spots. Find a place that is easy to defend while you think of where to go next. Alternately, pausing is actually a good strategy here to give yourself time to think.

The graphics are all green because of the Gameboy but overall I would say it looked good. The character sprites are all solid and have a lot of expressions going for them. The soundtrack is also decent even if it doesn’t have a lot of the energy that the 3DS Kid Icarus game had. This one still gets the job done when the chips are down. The length isn’t all that extensive for the game but considering the era I would say it did well enough for itself.

Overall, Kid Icarus is a reasonably fun game. The boss fights are a bit more exaggerated than they should be but you can still feel the solid fundamentals of the game. The gameplay itself is handled well and this is a title that had a lot of care put into every aspect. I suppose if you played the levels enough times then you would eventually be able to push through but yeah it’s not a relaxing experience. With this I am one step closer to playing all of the Nintendo origin games. So if you have the Switch Online then you should check this game out. There isn’t a whole lot to it, but the game did help to set the stage for future Nintendo titles and it’s not every day that you get to fly in a platformer. Even if it is only for a brief portion of the game.

Overall 6/10

Battletoads Review

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It’s time for another Battletoads title. This time it’s the original although it’s so similar to others that I’ve played where they may as well be the same game. Right up to the detail that the one crazy level in the game involves a chase. It took me a ton of tries to get through this and that is with the rewind. Without it, this would feel like an impossible challenge if you ask me.

The basic plot is that the Battletoads have to fight off an evil villainess. She wants to destroy them all and so they make their way to her homebase. Along the way they will have to fight various mechs and other creatures that stand in their way. Not an easy task by any means but they aren’t called the “Battle” Toads for nothing. They know how to throw a mean punch and are quite resilient.

The gameplay is essentially a 2D brawler as you punch your way through a number of obstacles. The gameplay can vary though as you will also have a level where you are in a car running away from the enemies as well as a level where you have to race to the bottom. I can give the game credit here, a good amount of development went into it. That was no easy stretch. That said, I absolutely preferred the traditional levels to the other ones.

It was nice being able to punch the various enemies around and the racing levels took away from that. The platforming was also not half bad. The difficulty in these levels was solid without being completely over the top. Meanwhile the soundtrack wasn’t bad either. It was solid even if it wasn’t the most memorable thing that I’ve ever heard. The tunes suited the game well and the graphics were also better than you may have expected. Unfortunately the game boy did mean that the colors were all green so the whole thing gets more washed out than it should have been otherwise.

The music did more of the carrying here. Like I mentioned, the difficulty wasn’t always good though. The race is really impractical with how tight the turns are. Being even a fraction of a second off is too much and that’s particularly unfortunate. There should have also been checkpoints here. Now a lot of older games do have these issues as well but they were particularly pronounced in Battletoads. You really just can’t catch a break in this one. There are other tough levels too but I dare say that this single level is what kept it from being a 6.

I would still like to see a 3D Battletoads someday though. I feel like there is a whole lot of potential thee and it would really be fitting for how combat heavy they can be. It would be a way to keep in the punching and combos for a modern audience. This would also scale the difficulty back a little bit which would be a good idea. Ideally we will also get more of a plot in a newer game. The older ones get some slack for being on a much older console but that’s not really something you can say for a new title.

The game isn’t particularly long with only around 12 levels in it but the difficulty does mean that this will take some time. I’d estimate it may take you around 2-3 hours to complete this one. So that’s not terribly short for its time. There isn’t any true replay value as beating the game causes it to loop. I suppose you could try to beat the game quicker each time but that’s stretching things a bit. There are plenty of games without much replay value and it’s not necessarily a bad thing although I do think it will immediately put you at a disadvantage.

Overall, This is not a game I would really be tempted to replay. It’s not bad, there was clear effort here and the game lives up to its reputation of being crazy difficult. I would just say in the end that it was not enough to make this game one that really jumps out at you. The difficulty manifests in really annoying ways as opposed to making you want to keep playing the game over and over. That’s what keeps it from being one of the heavy hitters here. If you have the Switch Online then you should check it out but otherwise I would say to pass on this one.

Overall 5/10

Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos Review

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This is easily one of the toughest games that I’ve ever played. It’s clear that this is the kind of game that would take many, many hours in order to really master. My hat’s off to anyone who actually beat this one without any rewinding or anything like that. It feels like a near impossible task to me and I like to think that I’m pretty good at platformers. This one will absolutely take you to the edge and back. By the time you conquer it, the title will have either driven you mad or you will have high respect for it.

The game follows Ryu as he ends up going on his toughest journey yet. His friend Irene is kidnapped by a mysterious demon lord and a special agent with a gun warns Ryu that there is something extra dangerous about this mission. Ryu isn’t going up against mere ninja this time, but instead he will be fighting demons and deities. Fortunately Ryu isn’t the kind of guy to ever back down from a fight.

You may be surprised at just how cosmic the game gets. It really isn’t afraid to have Ryu go up against foes that are out of this world. This may as well be a full on sci-fi title. The core gameplay is the same as always though. It’s a 2D platformer where you have to slice away at your opponents as you gradually gain ground to the end of the level. You can avoid enemies but often times that may wind up getting you taken out. The villains also respawn almost immediately if you retreat and then go forward.

The combat itself is fairly straight forward. You have a sword and can slice right in front of you, you can also crouch and hit enemies who are trying to go low. You have a basic jump and can climb up on walls. There is also a whole item system but it really confused me so I didn’t invest much time in it. Basically there are tons of bubbles in the air throughout the level and when you slice them, a power up falls out. Sometimes it will summon an energy clone, other times it will let you shoot out fireballs. Each power up has a symbol but there are so many of them that it is really hard to keep track. You will quickly be overwhelmed unless you really take a lot of time to test them all out.

I decided to just plunge ahead. The bosses are all incredibly difficult but the final boss is in a league of his own. He has multiple phases, each one more deadly than the last. If you want to take them all down, it is not going to be an easy adventure for you. The one thing keeping you going will be the story itself which is really impressive. I would even say that the technicals around the board are super impressive here as it doesn’t look or feel like an NES title. It’s all about a generation above that.

The graphics have aged really well for starters. The colors are striking and the backgrounds are really good. The soundtrack is also better than it ought to be. The game has actual cutscenes and quite a lot of them as you get near the end of the game. So what you’ve got here is a very compelling title but I imagine most people did not make it to the end because of how punishing the game is. You essentially have to be frame perfect a lot of the time and a few good mistakes will completely take you out of the fight. There isn’t an easy checkpoint system here either so you will be seriously sent back if you end up losing.

It’s a little too brutal for my liking. I enjoy a difficult game to a degree but it does need to have quality of life features. I never want to be sent too far back and I like for there to be a way to get stronger. You at least need one or the other and this one doesn’t really have either of those. So without the Switch Online, I don’t really expect this is a game that I would have devoted a whole lot of time to.

Still, if you have the Switch Online then it makes for a perfect chance to play this one. One tip I will give is that the final boss has so much health that it can’t fit on screen. So you must keep on attacking. It may feel like you are not dealing any damage, but you actually are. You have to attack for several minutes before you can see the health go down and then from there you are set. I still expect you will die hundreds of times during this experience though.

Overall, Ninja Gaiden II is a really impressive game. It is obvious that a whole lot of care and detail was put into this game. You will get an enormous sense of satisfaction if you can beat the game without rewinding but you will definitely have to put a lot of heart into it. It’s not my favorite title but I can definitely say that the gameplay is smooth. It’s a fun ride even if it goes too far in being as unrelenting as possible.

Overall 6/10

Fatal Fury Special Review

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Fatal Fury is one of those video game series that has done pretty well for itself. It has tons of games and remakes over the years and yet it has always struggled to reach the same heights as Street Fighter and Tekken. It’s tough for any fighting series to match those two though. Street Fighter has decades of legacy among the core fans and Tekken has its legendary story. Fury is sort of stuck in the middle of that and has to share a lot of screentime with King of Fighters. Still, this is a pretty fun game to check out on the Nintendo Switch Online. A true retro title that keeps you on your toes.

I jumped right into Arcade Mode and naturally picked Terry Bogard as my character. That guy is a whole lot of fun to play and he’s also a good all around fighter. So I couldn’t really ask for much more than that. The arcade mode is quite a bit longer than the average one. Usually you have around 8 fights in this mode but this game went closer to 15. Not bad eh? It really makes you work for this and you fight all kinds of secret bosses.

It was a good decision because it does make you feel like you are playing the special version here. The gameplay is very smooth and you will have fun mixing up your combos. The game does a good job of not letting it feel like the villains know all of your moves ahead of time. You can actually “trick” them with a mixup every once in a while which was definitely a good thing. It helps make the whole thing feel more realistic.

Naturally the graphics are fun with the retro sprite look. It will feel like you were playing the game right at the arcade. The soundtrack is also very old school and fast paced to match the action. There are a good amount of levels for the game considering how old it is. There isn’t an abundance of content here so the value is really going to be in the multiplayer. That’s true for most fighting games to be honest. I’d say the ones with a robust story mode are outnumbered by the multiplayer ones, certainly back in these days that was even more true.

So compared to newer games in the series this one won’t be able to compete but if you look at it in a vacuum, this is a good game. It’s very basic but delivers what you are looking for in a fighting game. The characters all have distinct movesets and the combat is executed well. The gameplay is smooth and the game doesn’t seem overly unbalanced. I’m sure it probably would be in the hands of an expert but for the most part on a casual level it feels like the devs did a really good job here.

At this point I own most of the Fatal Fury games. I’m certainly not caught up but I’m always glad to play a fun fighter like this one. The Switch Online has been a great way to play through a lot of retro games so I look forward to seeing which ones come up next. There is certainly still room for quite a lot more titles in the future especially if they keep on adding more consoles.

You probably won’t need rewind a whole lot for this one compared to some of the other old games but of course it can never really hurt. Some of the secret bosses at the end can really hit like a tank and the game’s sped is just fast enough where it can be difficult to react to their attacks at times. You have to absolutely bring your A game at all times and also have to be careful not throwing out too many big hits. They deal a lot of damage but naturally leave you open for quite a while as well.

Overall, Fatal Fury Special is a really good game. It’s one of those titles that reminds you of the fundamentals the whole time. You can’t just close your eyes and start spamming specials. Instead you have to slowly close the gap and win. Also I couldn’t figure out how to use most of the special attacks even if I wanted to do them. So I did a lot of sweeps and throws which is a fun and balanced way to play anyway. I would definitely recommend checking this game out.

Overall 7/10

Bubsy in Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind Review

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Uncle Bubsy has returned! It’s always fun to play another title in the franchise, even if this one does end up feeling a little more dated than the last few. The game doesn’t have the best gimmicks and is a reminder of why sometimes the platformers should really play it straight. When you start to get into all of these gimmicks, it distracts from what could have been a better game. Ah well, that’s just how it goes sometimes though.

The general format here is that of a 2D platformer. You are trying to get to the yarn ball at the end of the level but along the way you will have to dodge several obstacles and take on enemies. Bubsy himself is very fragile so a single hit will take out his life. Yes, there are no rings to protect you or a bigger form to absorb one hit. If you get hit at all then it’s curtains and it is very difficult not to get hit here. I’m afraid that puts you in a rough spot because there are a ton of obstacles here.

The game does not hold back in terms of difficulty. This is the kind of game where you really have to concentrate at all times because if your concentration slips at any moment, then it is curtains for you. There will be no coming back from all of that. Of course that is where the rewind feature comes in handy. Without that, it would be incredibly difficult to defeat this game. You would certainly have to be going slow which is what the developers intended. My problem is that this goes against the genre.

Now this might just be me, but I like to be zooming through levels. I don’t want to have to be going really slow and watching out for things at all times. I want to be having fun going through the levels. This is hardly the only game to do that though so it’s really just a debate between me and the genre itself. If you can get past that, then the game is fundamentally sound. I can’t really give any big negatives against it.

The graphics are also pretty solid and that’s in large part because they have a really fun artstyle here. It’s the kind of artstyle that will continue to look really good even 20 years from now. So Bubsy did good there and the soundtrack is decent although I will say it is a lot more forgettable. I couldn’t recall any of the tunes for you right here but during the gameplay they certainly sounded good enough.

There isn’t a lot of replay value because the game itself is fairly short. Not like there is an extended postgame here or anything like that. Of course that is fairly par for the course when it comes to platformers. Ultimately it’s a game that I would recommend checking out but only because it’s on the Switch Online. If you had to buy it, then I’d say to make sure you could get it for around $10-$15. Purely because you won’t be playing it for very long and you want to make sure not to overdo it.

One of the ways I’d improve this game aside from removing the maze like structure would be to fix the jumping. The mechanics here are way too floaty and it makes things difficult for you when it comes to momentum. The jumps are harder than they should be and naturally that just results in more deaths. Seeing as how platforming is all about jumping and crisp movements, this ends up hurting the game as a whole and should be a top priority to tighten up. I would also say you should be able to endure at least one hit and adding more checkpoints would be a nice addition as well.

Overall, Bubsy is a good game but definitely not a great one. There are too many obstacles to have to run around and the mazes can get rather old. The bosses are also a bit glitchy with one of them just dying and nothing happened so I had to restart the battle. If they had stuck to pure platforming then this would have probably worked but the back tracking and dying to every obstacle really takes its toll here. I will still be hyped for a more modern adventure though because you can see the potential here. It’s just a little dated in multiple ways.

Overall 6/10

Mr. Driller 2 Review

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I’m not really familiar with the Mr. Driller series so it was pretty interesting to be getting into this one. It’s a very short game but does have voice acting which is pretty cool. Basically an alien race has shown up and is causing trouble with their weird blocks. The hero has apparently had to give them a talking to once before. He will have to do so again before the entire planet is crushed by all of these blocks. Fortunately the aliens are not directly malicious, they are just ultra careless. So finding them is the only challenge.

The hero is nice enough. I like how he did not hesitate when deciding to go over there to talk to the aliens. He talks about saving the world in a very nonchalant manner so from the very start you know that he is the real deal. The game reminds me a little of DK Bonanza in that you are going through a bunch of layers and can see what level you are on as you play through the game. There are 3 main levels here and in each of them you have to keep going as far as you can. One level goes down to 2500 feet, then the others are 5,000 and 10,000.

The graphics for the game are pretty solid. It feels like a modern take on Dig Dug and the various blocks all look solid. Think of the intensity from Tetris and that’s what you’ve got here. You are always at the edge of your seat and the game never holds anything back. Additionally the soundtrack isn’t bad so the technical elements are good. A mild game design choice that didn’t work was how it is very easy to start the game on the second level rather than the first. I accidentally beat America first because that’s where your cursor starts. Level one is all the way at the end of the map for some reason.

Odd choice there but it’s not a big deal. The game is definitely hard because you have to continually dig deeper underground while dodging the falling blocks. In a way you have to be calculating a whole lot of things at once. You want to grab the air bottles which restore 20 points to your life bar which is constantly draining. Breaking through any wood blocks automatically takes away 20 points and the air is constantly surrounded by those. So you have to cause a bunch of matches below those in order to get the blocks to fall just right. It’s a really involved process.

I died a bunch of times and the rough part here is with how long the levels are. So if you die, that’s a lot of replaying that you have to do. Perhaps that is why there are only 3 levels but in that case the game would have been better off increasing the level count and just making each individual one smaller. That is always better game design to me because then there isn’t too much disappointment in defeat and you can continue to hone your skills until you are finally a match to go all the way. That’s the best way to improve if you ask me.

What keeps the game from going any further is ultimately that length so hopefully it’s something that can improve with a sequel. There’s a lot to like here, like having the actual story mode and the fun gameplay. It’s just that I would have absolutely not been thrilled if I had spent any money on the game. That would have really felt like a waste. Since I played it for free, that’s a different story but I still couldn’t give the game a higher score. It’s worth about an hour’s worth of content and you’ll have fun for that hour but that’s it.

Overall, Mr. Driller is a pretty fun game but it could have used more content. Once you have beaten the 3 levels, there isn’t a whole lot to do. You can try to beat them quicker and with a high score but the amount of replay value here is ultimately low. The story had a little charm to it but mainly this is something that is content to be aimed at kids. So ultimately this won’t be changing your life, not nearly as much as you might be hoping that it would. Still, the game is free if you have the Nintendo Switch Online so you should check it out. The gameplay is original and I can’t stop giving it props for the fact that they actually got voice acting in here. That was really cool.

Overall 5/10

Mario & Wario Review

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It is always a shame when you have a pretty solid game that is really ruined by a single aspect of it. Unfortunately that is exactly what happened here. The game has solid graphics and an interesting level system but alas the controls are just dreadful. They actually make the Wii Remote look good in comparison! Trust me, you’re going to be feeling rather down about the whole thing by the time you’re done. Still, this was the first new Mario game I’ve played in quite a while so that was pretty cool.

The game lets you choose between Mario, Yoshi, and Peach. Naturally I had to go with Peach because she doesn’t get many chances to shine, but also because her walking speed is slower. That is actually very important in this game because the character is always moving. How it works is that Wario has thrown a bucket over the hero’s head and so you play as a fairy who has to keep the road clear. You will tap on blocks to summon them in front of the player or attack enemies who would have been in the way otherwise. This takes a lot of precision timing and you have to react quickly. So when the player is slower, it ends up helping out a lot.

There isn’t really a plot beyond that unfortunately. There are 10 worlds here and each world has around 10 levels in it So that’s a lot of levels but they tend to be very quick. Most levels you can beat in around 2 minutes or so. The levels start to become more like puzzles once you get deeper into them though. In World 10 there were several times where I just didn’t know where to go. That’s rather impressive in a game like this where there are only a limited amount of actions you can take.

You really have to memorize how high the springs will send you here for example. Otherwise you won’t reach the target or you will go way past it. So it’s definitely something to chew on a bit there. You can use the fairy to reverse Peach’s direction as well which will be key in the final levels. You have to do this a whole lot and with quick timing to avoid the various traps. I can tell you this, without the rewind feature this would have really been a very difficult game to complete.

The artstyle is pretty fun and has definitely aged well. It’s something that Nintendo in particular has done really well over the years. The soundtrack also isn’t bad. It’s not extremely good or anything like that but the main tune doesn’t get too tiring even after hearing it for a large chunk of the game. It’s clear that some real thought was put into the game and that’s why it is a shame that the controls are no good. The gameplay itself is fine. It’s all about pointing and clicking but I have no problems with that.

No, where the problem lies is in the controller itself. To play this game on the Switch Online you need to use the Joypad and then convert it into mouse mode. Nobody wants to use mouse mode. I don’t even know why this is a thing in the first place. Sometimes Nintendo just develops new gimmicks for no real reason. It has really hurt this game and it will hurt others if it continues to be a mandatory style of playing.

There is some replay value here as you don’t have to clear every level to get to the final one. If you go back and do them all, you unlock a final boss level. So you may want to do that to see how the story really ends. Ultimately I just couldn’t get past the controls to do that though. They are really draining the whole time and so you don’t get a whole lot of enjoyment out of them. You’ll die quite a few times even when you know exactly what to do because the controller just isn’t listening to you. Those are always the worst ways to go out and you’ll be left just shaking your head.

Overall, Mario & Wario may have finally arrived on modern consoles but unfortunately it should have been left to history rather than return in this form. It tarnishes the Mario brand and ends up being a waste even with Wario being the big villain. This is the kind of game that could desperately use some kind of high budget remake. I think there are many ways they could improve upon the source material without drastically changing things. It could be a worthy puzzle rival to Mario vs DK. In the meantime though, this is the kind of game you’ll want to skip. If you have the Switch Online then you may as well check it out for free but otherwise I certainly wouldn’t spend any money on it.

Overall 3/10

Shining Force II Review

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You may remember my review for Shining Force I a while back, well I’ve been playing this one ever since and finally completed it. The game is definitely a long one so you get a lot of bang for your buck. I also appreciate that it really followed the template of what a sequel should be. It improved upon all of the weaknesses of the first game like long loading times and making it difficult to swap out party members. Everything has been streamlined quite a lot here which I really appreciate.

The general plot involves a group of devils trying to resurrect the ultimate evil once more. These beings can possess people which makes them rather difficult to stop. The main character’s kingdom is blown up so they are forced to relocate but now they are surrounded by enemies. The King dispatches him to make some alliances and take down the villains along the way but time is not on their side. With every step, he gets closer to danger.

The gameplay is a tactical RPG like the first one. You will have a squad of around 11 fighters and your opponent gets around 30. You have to maneuver around the map in a turn based system to wipe them all out or wipe out the captain of their forces. That means your strategy will often either be about winning slow and methodically or be rushing their king right off the gate. The latter will rarely work to be honest but there are usually a few minions you can skip if you play your cards right. Stay far enough away and you won’t activate their attention.

As you play through the game you will quickly get a feel for which units are strong and which ones are basically just meat shields. Sometimes you will even want to opt for launching into battle with a smaller group as a result. I would just bench the ones who weren’t contributing at all because then there are less turns to go through and that makes the battles go by a lot faster. Sure you could eventually get them strong enough with enough level ups but their growth rate was so bad that it didn’t seem worth it.

Meanwhile like I mentioned before, the game did a great job of really speeding everything up. The turns go by wayyyy faster than in the first game. The menus have also been simplified. You can also revive people with one click when at the priest’s house since it is the default option rather than having to select another option each time. So these were all pretty good quality of life features.

It goes without saying that the graphics here are definitely pretty good. The colors have aged really well and I like all of the various attack animations. It’s clear that the game spared no expense here and that’s really what you like to see as a player. The game did not hold back at all. The soundtrack is also good, although I would say it’s less memorable than some other titles I’ve played. They probably could have had a little more fun with that.

Outside of the battles, the game also has a pretty big hub world with a lot of towns to explore. You’re really rewarded for checking these places out as you can recruit more folks to your army and find rare weapons. The only downside is that the game added random encounters for some reason and these can be annoying since each battle in this game is rather long. You have to try and walk around the encounter zones but there is no way to tell which area will trigger a battle. This felt pretty unnecessary since the game already has a built in exp grinding mechanic with the main character’s teleport ability.

Maybe they just felt it would be easier to level up this way. It’s the only reason I can think of at least. It’s still a rather small detail though. The game’s story will hit you with a lot of different twists and turns as you go through the journey which is also fun. You will really have a hard time guessing exactly how things will turn out. Also if you stay on the credits long enough, you’re rewarded with a boss rush. I’m assuming this is still around on the Switch Online version but after waiting for a while I eventually exited. It’s a cool easter egg for those who wait though.

My main advice here is to make sure to always have the Phoenix in your party. He is by far the best party member and has absolute crazy range. Anytime he would die to a critical hit, I’d have to back up and try again. He is absolutely necessary for winning. Also, you will need to keep in mind that the RNG in the game can really change the flow of battle in an instant. Enemies will randomly hit you twice or paralyze you sometimes or you’ll flat out miss. That means no fight is really a sure thing. I wouldn’t mind if they dialed that down a bit, although of course it’s a lot of fun when it’s your side getting the lucky blows.

Overall, Shining Force II is a pretty fun sequel. I had a good time with it and the game is definitely very well balanced. The wild spawn mechanic may have been unnecessary but at least with rewind you can dodge that most of the time. Without that it would have absolutely been 10x as annoying. I can see why this game has such a strong reputation, it was really well made and I look forward to getting to play the third game someday. What other quality of life updates will they be able to add in there?

Overall 7/10

Shining Force Review

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Shining Force is a game that I was never really familiar with back in the day. In fact, it was so unknown that I didn’t even realize it was a tactics game until I played it. I can definitely say that this is a long adventure though so it’s the kind where you really get your money’s worth. The game also gets quite difficult towards the end. There are a number of areas where the game has not aged particularly well but all in all you will have a fun time here.

The game starts with a lot of turmoil between the kingdoms as always, but this is all spurned on by a group of villains who seek to resurrect an ancient evil. Once this evil is let loose, the world will be in great peril. The main character has to band a lot of allies together in order to save the day. They will be known as the Shining Force and will be travelling across the planet in order to take on all challengers. Will they be enough?

The game’s story is pretty solid. It seamlessly mixes in some humor at good points but is otherwise a pretty serious story. There is a body count here to be sure and the villains tend to always be one step ahead. It’s really not until the very end that the heroes really seem to even stand a small chance. The ending is pretty fun and so you have a real complete journey here.

Now when it comes to the gameplay, tactics style will always take a while. It’s almost self explanatory since you need to come up with plans to win and then manipulate all of your fighters into the right spots. That won’t be an easy task because you will often be outnumbered and have to keep track of a lot of fighters. Your team caps out at 12 active fighters at once while the enemy forces can have around 30 or so. Next up is the RNG to account for. Each enemy has a standard attack which does almost no damage, and then a power attack which can wipe the health bar of even an experienced fighter.

The final boss even has an instant KO attack which feels incredibly cheesy. While the A.I. is dangerous, at least I won’t say that it is completely unstoppable. I was able to exploit it a few times like attacking from an area where the boss would refuse to move. The final boss and his lack of speed also make him easier to exploit which might be why the developers gave him a one hit KO move. Still a bit cheesy if you ask me but that’s how it goes.

Where the game’s age shows is in how the menus work. Each character can only hold 3 items in addition to their weapon. There are a lot of chests everywhere with items but when your main character is full, he can’t pick it up. So you have to go through 4 menus to remove one item and give to someone else. Rinse and repeat every single time you come up to a treasure chest. Trust me when I say that this absolutely gets old quicker than you might expect.

Additionally, there is no way to easily gauge where your units are and their stats. You have to look them up one by one as you navigate the field. You also can’t skip animations so all of the turns tend to take forever. I also think they went a bit too far when increasing the dodge rate for the enemies later on. It gets to the point where they are really dodging everything and that just feels like a really cheap way to lose. I want to lose because their units are more powerful, not because I missed at a critical juncture.

The length also makes field effects feel tricky. For example, there are a few levels where you are in a forest. In those levels, each character’s mobility is cut in half so that immediately doubles the amount of turns to win. It can be seen as a difficulty thing but I’d prefer adding more enemies to just making everything slower. So there are a few times in the game where things can drag a little bit because of that. I generally enjoy tactics gameplay but a smooth interface is absolutely necessary. It’s part of why Fire Emblem is so popular nowadays, they have really done a great job of optimizing the gameplay.

I do like how the game handles EXP grinding though. In some games like Fire Emblem you can effectively get permanently stuck because there is no area to grind. In this game, you can grind forever. The main character has a magic spell that works as a guaranteed escape from battle. You keep all EXP when doing this so all you have to do is keep on defeating enemies without ending the level and you will watch the EXP really rack up in no time. Trust me, it feels really satisfying to pile that up.

One thing to keep in mind is that you can promote a unit to its evolved form as soon as they hit level 10 but you get much better stat boosts if you wait until 20. Personally I decided to wait for my heavy hitters and then the others I did around level 13-15. It’s just hard to wait for some of these fighters who take a while to level up. It’s almost inevitable in a tactics game that you will have some favorite units who will soak up the EXP and that definitely happened here. At the end of the game I had a swordfighter, archer, and a mage. That was about all that I needed, I just left the other units for dead and marched through to the end. Probably not the recommended way to fight but it worked for me.

The graphics are pretty good and definitely benefit from a colorful artstyle. The game has really aged well and I also liked the combat effects like the energy moves and such. The soundtrack is good but a little limited. You’ll probably be tired of the combat theme by the end because you will have heard it hundreds of times. There’s probably no way around that except to set up multiple battle themes that play randomly for encounters.

Overall, Shining Force is a pretty good game. I definitely had fun with it and am looking forward to seeing how the sequel stacks up. If you like a good tactics game then I think you’ll enjoy this one as well. While there are quality of life features that keep me from calling this a great game, it still holds its own when it counts. At the end of the day that’s the important part and all first games in a series will end up having some lessons to learn.

Overall 7/10