Tag Archives: Nintendo Switch Online

Big Run: The Supreme 4WD Challenge Review

Posted on by
Reply


This one had some really long sub titles in there so I wasn’t sure how deep to in with this one. Either way I have to say that it is a very sub par racing game and one of the worst that I’ve played. This may sound harsh but they went way too far with the realism aspects that come at the expense of the actual fun. When I step into the car I want to feel the wind behind me as I go all out on the speed. I don’t want to be changing tires and things like that. This isn’t supposed to be a real world simulation!

The game starts off with you having to choose a sponsor which was the first red flag. Each sponsor has different amounts of money and starter equipment. For example the cheapest sponsor starts you off with the most spare tires while the most expensive one leaves you to your own devices. After that you can select who you want to hire to be on your crew for pit stops and emergency repairs. You can also go to the shop to buy engines and wheels. You have to balance out all of your cash here and be very economical because you don’t get any more money for the remainder of the game. The game is 9 levels long by the way and a single loss sends you back to the first level.

Another trope I don’t like. Never send me back to the first level. If I lose then I want you to send me back to the start of the level that I lost at, but sending me back to the first level is really overdoing it here. It’s a game that is so difficult, even the access points may not help you much because you will be absolutely stuck once you are out of inventory. I’m also not exactly sure how the pressure system works. It seems like the faster you go, the more you really burn out the tires but at the same time if you go slow then you’re not going to beat out the aggressive timer. The right speed is somewhere in the middle and it’s a very difficult tight rope to walk.

I suppose at the end of the day you really just have to try your best and keep on fighting. I do like the actual gameplay of driving through the roads, but it’s just overwhelmed by these other aspects. Even when I tune that out and just drive, I’m reminded of the system because my car’s engine suddenly gives out and I’m stranded on the road. No matter how quick you send the emergency crew out, you can bet that you will have just lost the race. So you have to make sure to repair really well after each race but I couldn’t figure out how to have enough money left over. The farthest I made it to was level 6 out of 9 and even that took me a lot of tries.

I imagine truly big fans of the inner workings of a car will get a kick out of this but it definitely didn’t do anything for me. I will say that the graphics are pretty good though. Everything is very bright and colorful which is always a positive. The levels may not have a whole lot to them in terms of details but at least while driving the car I can focus on that. There’s not much of a soundtrack but I’ll give it a bit of a pass there. I wasn’t really expecting one. I suppose there is a lot of replay value in trying to beat the game because that will take a long time. Don’t expect that you will be able to just turn this game on and win because that’s not happening.

I also think it would have been better if you could have seen other drivers to add some more competitiveness to this. For the most part it feels more like a time trial game as you try to beat the clock rather than fighting other drivers. So that also starts to miss the mark on why you’re playing a racing game. Sure, there are obstacles like signs and trucks that you can bump into but there are no scores or anything like that. In a way it’s like you’re all isolated here or you’re an illegal driver messing around on the highways.

Overall, Big Run falls into the trap of trying to be too realistic the whole time. The more realistic you get, often times the more you will just end up biting off more than you can chew. Games are fun because you get the end product without having to worry about the stuff in the middle. It’s very rare that I like a game that goes as far into the weeds as this one does. It just feels like a misplaced goal to me, at least that’s the way that I see it. Perhaps I am just missing the appeal here but the driving takes a back seat and in a racing game that is never the way to go. Go and play Need for Speed instead, you won’t miss out by skipping this game.

Overall 4/10

Blast Corps Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for a pretty unique title with the Blast Corps. Definitely a title I wasn’t all that familiar with but its fun. They did a good job of mixing in a lot of different gameplay styles. Of course that means not all of them will be winners but I enjoyed more than I did not and got through a bunch of the levels. They finally stumped me on the super hard ones but it was a good ride.

There’s not really a plot here and it’s hard to tell what it would be with the context of the gameplay. Maybe in this world there is an unprecedented amount of litter which is why there are always big buildings standing in the way of the moving train. If you don’t get them out of the way in time then everybody will blow up and that will be a big shame. So your job is to intercept the route and make sure everything turns out well. Definitely not for the faint of heart and of course every time you see an explosion you know that you let the team down.

The game has an overhead view and the style of gameplay varies with the vehicles. For example in some levels you pilot a giant mech and these are the easiest ones. You basically just squash all of the buildings with ease and then you’re all set. The most difficult levels have you using a car that can only break buildings with the backside of it. So you have to work on your drifts and try to land each hit with absolute precision. Make one or two misses and that will just be too many to come back from. In particular the most ruthless level is where you have to take out 3 dozen buildings along the train tracks but there is a divider. So you have to break all of the ones on one side, then go to the other side. Rinse and repeat as the train gets closer. If the train bumps into a building before you can destroy it, or bumps into you then it’s all over.

Another vehicle is the speed car where you can boost through everything. Another easy one I’d say since you always move pretty fast. Then you have a robot that can’t jump and instead it spin dashes which is always fun. Naturally the levels I got stuck at didn’t use any of these machines or I’d still be off taking my gold trophies. As the levels go by, you start to have to use combinations of vehicles though. One of them has you pilot a train, then a car, then a robot, then a car, then a boat, and finally one last car. That was one of the longest levels so losing that one is always painful.

The average level is really short at around one minute or less. Those are the levels that are easy to keep on playing and replaying because you know that you will breeze through them. The toughest ones are the long ones where you’re not really sure what you’re doing wrong beyond not being fast enough. For me the toughest level in the whole game is one where you have to use a scoop truck to push explosive blocks onto a block of wood, then control a crane to drop it on a block. You have to do this to 7 blocks before the train arrives and I just couldn’t pull it off.

It’s a lot tougher than you would think to push the block in a straight line. One wrong step and you push it off the crate and end up dooming yourself. The game will absolutely test your coordination and control skills. At the end of the day, the reason why it is fun though is because there’s not a lot of RNG here. When you win or lose, it’s all on your individual skills. Nothing is left up to chance or luck and the levels tend to be short enough where they have a lot of replay value.

There are 56 levels in the game which is a good amount of content. You don’t have to worry about running out of things to do too quickly. In terms of replay value, you can aim for getting all gold medals by completing bonus objectives but I’m not sure what you unlock for that. Either way, it does mean you have a good amount of content here so that’s a W all around.

The graphics look good and have held up over the years. The fact that there is a little voice acting is also pretty fun. Even just having a bit automatically makes the game feel a bit more special. It’s the way to go. The soundtrack is a little more forgettable but the explosion sound effects are definitely very memorable. The technical aspects work well enough for the game.

Overall, Blast Corps is a good game. I’d say the only thing holding it back from being a little higher is I would have liked to have had a real story mode. Additionally, the car that only works by hitting opponents with the back felt a little too restrictive. Just give me the normal car or mech any day. As long as you have the Switch online then this is definitely a game that you should check out. It’s a real nostalgic trip to the N64 days and it holds up well.

Overall 7/10

The Mystery of Atlantis Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for another really retro NES title. This one actually didn’t get translated but it’s a platformer so it’s not like there is really a lot of dialogue anyway. It’s a pretty fun title, they did a good job of emulating that classic Mario style. At the end of the day the fact that it isn’t sequential does hold it back a little and I prefer always having a straight forward level vs the puzzles but it lands way more wins than you would expect.

So I can’t really say much about the story but you play as a guy who looks like Indiana Jones and you’re wandering your way through a maze of 100 levels. Each level will have you running and jumping over obstacles. The only weapon at your disposal is the pocket grenades. The cool thing about them though is that they damage anyone on screen. So if you throw it and miss, the enemy will still take damage in most cases. Some enemies take 3 hits to take down but most go down in one hit or two. It can be tough to angle the weapon just right so this helps to alleviate that pressure a little bit.

There is a really fast timer that is going on the whole time so you need to keep that in mind though. If you forget about it for even a moment then you might be in trouble here. The time is just as deadly as any enemy you will face and in some levels I barely had any time left at all. When you jump, the momentum will keep you going the whole time so it is hard to change directions in mid air. This means one fall can set you back a whole lot or even when you bump into any of the walls. You need perfect control of your character in order to make it through these levels and it takes a whole lot of skills.

This game can be deceptively hard in that way. Then you also have the fact that levels have more than one exit. So this can launch you far into the future or it can even send you back at times. Imagine picking the wrong door and having to go through a level again? That would be rough and a lot of the levels are so relentless that one mistake will cause you to be completely defeated. There are also several “dark” levels where you can’t see anything. These levels were incredibly difficult for me to navigate. The trick in the end was to keep blowing up your grenades which causes the level to appear for a split second.

Of course this doesn’t make it easy in the end either though. You still have to time your jumps perfectly so one wrong step and you will end up falling to your doom. This is definitely a game for platforming vets. So why is this game good when it’s so difficult? Well, it feels difficult in a way that is generally fair the whole time. Additionally the levels being colorful and fast paced helps out a lot as well. You will never be just totally stuck waiting for something to happen.

So the graphics are above average for a NES game which is good and the music wasn’t bad. It’s no Mario though but it was good enough. The game feels very well balanced. It is not without faults of course but easily stands above most of its peers. If you are looking for a fun time then you should definitely play this while you have the Switch Online. Of course it would probably not be as fun without the rewind feature but that’s just how a lot of these classic games go. Each level is around 1-2 minutes so even with 100 levels it goes by quickly. I would even say some levels are under a minute because I knocked them all out in around 90 minutes. Of course, skipping levels helps quite a bit with this.

Overall, The Mystery of Atlantis is a good game. It gets a little too clever for its own good by the end with some of the gimmicks but it was certainly creative. I would say it pushed the NES hardware pretty far. Especially with 100 levels. Yes, they have a lot of levels that are pretty similar and reuse assets but this is still really impressive. I’ve played several games that basically just had one level after all so it’s not particularly easy or anything like that.

Overall 6/10

Cobra Triangle Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for one of those old school NES titles. It’s been a little while since I played one of these so that was definitely nostalgic. You have to grant the titles some slack because they’re ancient of course but the NES has delivered some good ones over the years. This one just tries a little too hard to be the next big thing and ultimately doesn’t pull it off. I appreciate the effort though.

Basically there are around 5-6 different gameplay styles in this one. All of them involve you piloting a boat. The main gameplay style is that of a race. You have to drive through the course and make it to the end within a certain amount of time. During the race, other boats will be trying to blast you away so you need to take them down. As long as you drive fast you should be able to win this one. It’s easily the easiest kind of gameplay style in the title. Ironically it is also the final stage where I was stuck at. There are some jumps that are introduced later on and if you don’t have enough speed you will lose. The problem? You need upgrades to get to that level of speed so if you made it to that part of the level without any, then you’re sunk.

Another gameplay style is about defusing bombs. You have to grab a bomb and then push it over to your side of the field like a soccer game. The other boats will try to steal the bomb back and bring it to their side. So you have to really try zigzagging a lot to keep them off your trail. It’s not easy but you’ve definitely got this. As long as you shake a whole lot while driving they usually won’t be able to steal the bomb.

You’ve also got the boss fights which is the toughest ones if you ask me. Each boss has different patterns and touching them at all will cost you serious damage. It’s extremely hard to maneuver the boat without crashing at least a little bit and then usually the vulnerable part of the boss is very small. So you really have to adjust for absolutely everything which doesn’t really leave a whole lot of time to yourself to get things right. This took a whole lot of tries to get right.

Along the way you will also have to dodge more and more traps as the game goes on like whirlpools that spawn out of nowhere and a ton of glaciers that appear from underneath the sea. They really went all out like I said before but sometimes you can just overdo it and this is one of those cases. They should have taken it a little easier on all of this and that would have made things a lot better.

The graphics are pretty good for its time. There is a lot of color here and it is absolutely in better shape than I have seen for other titles. The soundtrack is pretty much nonexistent but the themes that were there weren’t bad. Nothing to write home about. There are 25 levels in the game so that adds up to a reasonable amount of value here. It’s not a game that you would just complete overnight or anything like that after all. Well..I guess if you’re really good at it then you probably could. Technically each level is only about 1-2 minutes long, you can just expect to die a whole lot of times before you get to the end. Particularly if you intend to try and beat the game without rewinding. Me personally? I don’t recommend doing that but if you really love the game then it is definitely a way to make it last longer.

While I prefer to be able to just zoom my way through the levels and pit my speed against some opponents, I know some people like to be able to experience a lot of obstacles and having to get through them. So for those cases, this will probably work out pretty well. It’s certainly different compared to most other racing games, I can tell you that much.

Overall, Cobra Triangle isn’t really a game that I would play again. The main problem is ultimately that it’s just not too fun and of course that is a huge problem to have here. Without the rewinds you’d be dying hundreds of times to the most random RNG-esque obstacles. There is always a whole lot of dodging so you rarely get to actually just drive and have a good time. You want to strike the right balance with a game like this and unfortunately Cobra was not up to the task.

Overall 5/10

Urban Champion Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for one of those Nintendo games that was unfortunately very weak. I appreciate that they were trying to make a fighting game and of course this is very old but it just didn’t really land at all. The game is way too limited and there is virtually no replay value to be found here. The entire time you’re just hoping there is something you may have missed but ultimately that is not the case. Definitely give this one a full skip and you will be glad that you did. It is not worthy of the champion’s title.

The game really only has two modes. 2 player mode and then single player mode. In each mode, you only have one stage. You have to knock the opponent out 3 times in order to win. When you knock him into a manhole or off the block, then the fight continues with the same kind of background, except they change the store’s name. Yeah that’s not exactly what I would call top budget now is it? I expected better from Nintendo. Both characters are really the same sprite, only slightly color swapped so even that isn’t very original.

The controls are simple as you have a high punch and a low punch. That’s it, there are no other controls here so I hope you enjoyed throwing those shots. Beyond that you just aren’t going to have much left in the tank. I imagine playing with someone else will add a little bit of enjoyment to the game overall but probably not enough to leave a real dent. I don’t think almost any game can pull off the enjoyment factor with a single stage. Pac Man was one of the original games with 1 stage and probably the only one that could pull it off. The thing is…this isn’t Pac Man. It’s definitely not built for that level of success by any margin.

So the graphics aren’t particularly solid, the soundtrack is forgettable….we’re not looking at a very positive game right here. There are no unlockables so there is no replay value. I guess you could say that it’s fun to see the character sort of looking like Mario as he’s throwing punches but that’s just not enough of a hook to get you to play the game. Also you can cheese the main mode a bit by spamming the punch button. Often times the opponent will not be fast enough to block your moves which means you can completely bypass the strategy elements of the game. Not that there is a ton considering there are only two kinds of moves but clearly the intent was there with how the blocking system works. When you don’t move, you block automatically so that’s something to think about.

Overall, Urban Champion is not a good game. It’s one of those titles that you will forget right away because there’s nothing memorable about it. There is no aspect of this game that has held up well over the years at all. I would like Nintendo to consider a modern remake of the game but at the same time there would be little point. Just restart the series from scratch with a whole new name and brand. If you think about it, that would really be the only way to handle this unless you wanted to target the real hardcore fans for nostalgia. Even for free I wouldn’t bother playing this game. There’s just no reason to do so and it’s so limited that there isn’t even much to talk about for this title. Trust me, you’ll know what I mean if you ever decide to play this title.

Overall 3/10

Donkey Kong Jr. Math Review

Posted on by
Reply


Am I being too harsh with a game that is meant to be for kids while also being educational? Hmmm….nahhh they could have done more with this one. The basic idea is that you’re taking the gameplay of Donkey Kong Jr but adding numbers everywhere. So for example the top screen will show that you need to get the number 50. You then have each math sign at the bottom and have to grab numbers until you’ve gotten that number. So for example you grab a 5, then find the X sign, then get a 5. You now have 25. Grab the X and then grab 2 and now you have 50. Congrats, you’ve won the round!

There is one fatal flaw to the game though and it is what destroys the whole experience. Are you ready for this? Where the game ultimately falls short is that there is no computer to fight against you. That’s right, in single player mode you just walk around and do everything yourself. There’s no timer, there’s no way for the level to end in anything except your complete victory. This is where the game made the mistake because there should be some kind of competitive experience here. Even if you’re teaching kids how to look at numbers and such, wouldn’t it be a good idea to have someone to fight against? I would have thought so at least. Instead you only have the multiplayer mode which is fun enough but a game should never depend on multiplayer exclusively.

So there ends up being nothing to do here. You walk around solving math problems but of course since you have to jump and climb for each one, it takes a whole lot longer than if you had your calculator with you. I don’t see it being a very effective way to teach kids either. Perhaps it would have some novelty factor for a little bit there but I don’t think that would last very long. After a little bit the kids would want to go play a real game and that’s how you feel by the end of it. So just to be clear on this, the game itself has potential but it’s all in the execution.

All you would need to fix this one is add a computer to fight against. Immediately now there is some point to playing the game because you’re fighting over the symbols and the numbers. Without that level of battle going on, it’s just not going to hit right. Trust me, I don’t like it any more than you do, but we need some kind of a system here. Without a purpose, even a game loses its entertainment value. We need a way to balance out the fun with learning and there are a lot of ways that this could be done. Ultimately Donkey Kong Jr. just wasn’t able to figure that balance out. It’s a shame that it had to go this way but that’s just how it is.

The graphics are at least reasonable since it’s got that classic Nintendo look to it. It’s functionally no different from the main game. The soundtrack definitely feels forgettable though, I can’t think of any themes right now. Certainly nothing that really sticks out and makes you want to play the title again. With no replay value and not much initial value either, this is a game that was ultimately always doomed to fail in the end.

Overall, This is a Nintendo game that I would say to avoid. If you need to brush up on your math skills, there are definitely much better ways to do it. Ultimately, this game just takes too long to solve any question. It gets rough when you need a number that is too small for multiplication but really high for addition. You just have to keep adding 9 until you’re close and it definitely does not feel optimized. Nintendo should not give up and come out with an even better learning experience some day. Part of me feels like the chance to make a really educational video game has passed but where there is a will, there is a way. If anyone could solve this dilemma. It would definitely be Nintendo.

Overall 2/10

Mach Rider Review

Posted on by
Reply


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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall 5/10

Golf Review

Posted on by
Reply


Uh oh, now it’s time for a game that I actually did not like. Golf is one of those sports that I’ve never been a big fan of but I feel like you can absolutely adapt it to a game if you try hard enough. Just look at the Mario Golf game for Gamecube, that one was actually pretty fun. I spent a lot of time in that game and it was definitely rewarding. It had a lot of depth, multiple levels, etc. You could feel the passion behind every level and that is what’s missing from this older Golf game. See, the original Golf doesn’t have a lot of color or energy behind it.

Yes, the game is ancient so I will cut it some slack, but not complete slack. I think they could have done way more with the game. There isn’t much in the way of animation or soundtrack. It’s just you whacking the ball and seeing it go forward. There is no passion, no creativity, no nothing tbh. It just keeps on going and going. I played all 21 holes and got destroyed but I wasn’t even sad because I just wasn’t invested. I didn’t care if I won or lost because the game did not give me a reason to care. It’s just boring and that’s the worst thing you can say about a game.

The controls are easy enough to learn although I would say that they are hard to master. Basically you choose your golf club based on the distance and power that you need. You are aiming to get the ball inside the hole in as few turns as possible. So you want to learn the distance of each. I recommend watching Rising Impact to learn about the different pieces more in depth. From there it’s all about your skill and timing in using these items. There aren’t really any big unlockables or bonus content modes to play through though which is unfortunate. Again, this is where the game could have tried harder.

Mario Golf had a ton of different minigames like hitting your ball through rings and such. That would have really helped to shake things up a bit. As a result there is no replay value here and there is barely enough content to have fun going through the main campaign. The most enjoyable part of this is trying to point out similarities in the main character to Mario. That’s where the fun is really at but I don’t think that it’s quite enough. I wanted more…I needed more! Throw in some kind of a story or fun cutscenes. The graphics aren’t bad but there isn’t really any kind of animation to show it off anyway.

Golf is a sport that tends to be slow in real life as well. Unless you are playing directly then you are probably going to get bored quickly. That’s the same with this game, only to a greater extent because you get bored even while you are playing it. That should not be possible and yet it is what happens so what can be done to fix this? The answer certainly eluded this game, I can tell you that much.

Overall, Golf is not a fun game. I don’t see any reason to play it. There’s almost no content here and tons of games have been made that go more in depth about the whole thing. The only possible way you can have fun with this will be if you are playing with someone who is very witty so you can just be having a good conversation during the game. Otherwise yeah I don’t really see the potential here. Ultimately this game will not be getting my recommendation and I was glad to put it down. It may sound harsh but this was easily one of my least favorite games. It barely feels like a game because it’s not even super interactive.

Overall 2/10

Wario Land 3 Review

Posted on by
Reply


All right guys, it’s time for a game that was really trying to be different and I can respect that to an extent but ultimately this was definitely not the way to go. The gameplay gets overshadowed by how often you have to keep replaying the same levels over and over again. The bosses tend to be rather annoying and you don’t get stronger by enough of a margin to make the whole experience worth it. And so in the end this game could not surpass all of these hurdles.

The game starts with Wario messing around a bit too much and so he crashes and then falls inside a music box where he is isekai’d into a whole new world. There, a mysterious being asks Wario to free him and stop the dark lord. If he does this then he will be given a ton of treasure and can go back home. Wario is never one to turn down a bunch of treasure so he gets to work. The musical instruments are scattered across the planet and all of them must be secured in order to rescue this guy. The problem is that each one is guarded by a monster and then those monsters can’t be accessed without different power ups that are found by getting other treasures.

So you get the idea, this is a game about journeying through the different worlds and finding all of the items that you need. You start with only basic moves like being able to run and jump. Then as you beat more levels you obtain stronger abilities like ramming through walls, picking up enemies, etc. Each level has 4 treasures. The treasures are hidden through different obstacles and paths so generally they are blocked behind obstacles that you cannot get past with your current skill level. What this means is you will be replaying the levels a whole lot of times so get ready for that. There are 25 levels so you will be playing through 100 times if you get everything.

Fortunately you don’t have to get all 100 in order to move on so you can skip some of them. That was definitely a relief because they definitely get old after a while. A game only works like this when you get noticeably stronger to the point where you can blow through the levels. Let me just blast along but the problem is that the distance tends to be the same in this one. So you are stronger but you don’t feel nearly as strong as you should and that’s the real problem here. I think there was a reasonable amount of potential here but the level designs would have needed to be just a little bit better.

At least we did have a quality of life feature where the guy trapped in the chest would tell you which level to go to next if you were lost. This is good because you rarely know where to go next after you beat a level. It’s annoying that you have to run to the guy constantly but I do appreciate that this was at least a feature since other games would have definitely missed out on that. With this, you will eventually be able to beat the game even if it will still take a while to clear.

The length is actually fairly solid so I can give the game some credit there. It may be forced because of having to replay it so much but you won’t be beating this game in an hour or two. This is a full length Nintendo title so we’re looking at around 5-6 hours I’d say. Add more if you get lost since it is quite easy to do that. The replay value is also there in getting the rest of the treasures so you don’t need to worry about that either. This is definitely a game that will be there for you…for better or worse.

The graphics are pretty good. I thought the colors were on point and the level designs were fun to look at. I may have had some issues with the layout at different points but definitely nothing against the look of the game. As for the soundtrack, that’s more on the underwhelming side. There are no tracks here that will really excite you or anything like that. A modern game could at least fix this aspect which would definitely make things more fun. The game is also desperately missing more of a story. If we had more cutscenes in between the levels that would do a whole world of good for the game as a whole. It would absolutely jump to the next level and could actually be a good game.

Overall, Wario Land 3 is definitely not one of Nintendo’s stronger titles. I would say it has enough going for it where I’m not jumping right into the negative score levels but at the same time it’s definitely not doing wonders for itself either. It’s a game that tried too much and got too ambitious in the end. It should have focused on having more levels instead of having to replay the same ones over and over again. Just focus on the platforming. If you don’t really have anything to play on hand then at least the length ensures you will be kept busy for a little while. It can pass the time but I wouldn’t actively recommend it to anyone when there are way better games out there.

Overall 5/10

Mega Man V Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time to end my Mega Man game marathon. This one definitely ends things on a real high note. For starters, it is the most plot based Mega Man game that I’ve played in the classic series. You actually have a sense of danger here and it’s not the usual story of Wily trying to cause some trouble. I appreciated the difference here and then the game actually gets rather long for a classic title. You definitely won’t be running out of content here, I can tell you that much.

The game starts off with a mysterious robot appearing and defeating Mega Man effortlessly. After that, other robots from space show up and conquer the planet with ease. Mega Man must now gain some upgrades and find a way to take these guys down. If he doesn’t, then the world itself will be doomed to destruction. It will be his hardest fight yet but Mega Man is ready for this. He’s never fallen short when it counted before after all.

There are actual cutscenes and automated fights here which really feels ahead of its time. In a lot of ways you could say this game is light years ahead of the first 4. It’s just in a completely different league and this goes back to the length as well. In addition to the usual 8 robot masters, you fight a bunch of bosses from previous games. There are so many bosses in the climax that I wonder how people did it back in the day without the rewind feature. Particularly for the older game bosses since it always takes time to get used to a moveset and I doubt you would have had the previous games memorized. The difficulty climb is really crazy by the end.

Still, it is ambitious and I like that. One of the main critiques for the Mega Man games is generally that they are a little too short. You blast through them and then that’s it. So at least with this one you do have all of this extra content which does make the actual campaign longer. It’s also worth noting that while the collectibles have been removed, you still do have the Dr. Light shop where you can buy items and collectibles as needed. It’s definitely a big help since you can actually work on grinding out E tanks if you need them for the climax. They are super handy so of course you will need them.

The graphics still have that sad green tint that makes everything a bit hard to look at. You eventually get a little used to it but yeah that part’s a bit rough so you will definitely want to avert your gaze. The soundtrack isn’t bad although I wouldn’t say that any of the tunes were super memorable. The game stands strong mainly on the story and gameplay in this case. The rest of the title isn’t quite able to keep up.

The gameplay is what you’re used to with the series so I don’t need to go into it very much. I still mainly stuck with the mega buster for all bosses except when they force you to change. The Mega Buster is just such a great all around weapon that they almost went too far and ended up making it the best weapon. Why use anything else right? The firing speed and amount of damage per shot is just handled exceptionally well. It may not be broken but it’s extremely steady and will take out any opponent before long. It also works seamlessly with your movement since there is no delay so you can really do your best on dodging enemies and this won’t slow you down one bit. This is exactly the right way to handle things but if you want a challenge you can try to figure out which weapon is good against each boss and win that way. It’s technically how the developers likely envisioned you beating the game at least.

Overall, The story is really good here. I appreciated that the game took itself rather seriously the whole time. The final boss is also a very interesting figure. Certainly not someone that Wily could ever hope to control. There was definitely a lot of potential here if the game had decided to continue down this path for future installments. Of course the color situation would be fixed for the next console. If you have the Switch Online then you should definitely check this one out. It may even change how you look at classic Mega Man in general.

Overall 7/10