Tag Archives: Nintendo

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance Review

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Final Fantasy Tactics Advance has to be one of the oldest games that I’ve had on the back burner for many years. It’s been patiently waiting it’d turn and now it was time to see what this game was all about. It definitely goes all in on the tactical gameplay and there’s a lot of customization here but other parts of the game have not aged well which ends up holding the experience back.

The game starts with our hero Marche having a snowball fight with all of the other kids at the school. At first glance it seems to be going okay but everyone is actually dealing with something. The kids are actually targeting his friend Mewt a lot. Marche’s brother can’t walk so he isn’t able to have fun with the gang and the main heroine Riza is very self conscious about her hair being white so she dyes it every day. There’s quite a lot of unhappiness in the air and for Marche the main point is that he’s a pushover and doesn’t stick up for himself.

Well, one day Marche wakes up only to find himself in a fantastic kingdom ruled by Mewt. It’s effectively a palace like in Persona as it is created by his wishes. Marche figures it isn’t healthy to life in a made up reality like this and he decides he has to destroy the world. The other kids are not in agreement though and will do everything they can to stop him. Can Marche finally find his inner confidence and take the win here?

Interestingly Marche can almost feel like the main villain here in some respects. Think about it, to the creatures living in this world, the place is very real. All of a sudden you have this guy showing up to try and destroy the world because he says its fake. You’d assume this guy is insane and I can see why they were all fighting against him. You also have to ask yourself on whether these guys have become sentient and in a way is Marche actually destroying everyone? If all of the monsters will revert to townfolk similar to how everyone here is a distortion then that helps with making it okay in the end but it’s definitely an interesting concept.

Not really one that the game goes into all that much but it does make you double think what you are doing the whole time. The main focus on the story though is Marche trying to convince everyone that this world isn’t better. Sure they have super powers and live a life of wealth and prosperity here but Marche says that since they know it isn’t real, it’s like they’re running away from the real thing. I thought the game did a good job of not having all of the kids suddenly agree with him or anything like that. It was handled as more of a slow burn which was good so the kids had a chance to explain their side. All in all it may not have been constant end of the world stakes or anything like that but things do get cosmic in the end and the story was fun.

As for the gameplay, it’s your classic tactics style with a few changes here. So if you know tactics gameplay then you remember that it’s all about getting the right angles. You want to attack from the sides of behind an enemy for better damage as well as a better percentage chance of hitting the opponent. You can attack, guard, use a special move, or an item. You can control up to 6 fighters here and the enemy team will typically have around as many. It’s fun to think out your moves and try to get to the win as efficiently as possible. If this was played straight with no gimmicks then there would be no issue.

The gameplay can be a little slow with all of the animations and everything being unskippable but it would still work pretty well. The main issue comes with the law system that is unique to this game. Basically when you start a level there will be a random law that says you cannot do something during the battle. Sometimes it will be that you can’t attack, can’t heal, can’t use fire, etc. As the game goes on there will be 2 laws at once and then three. The big issue with adding RNG into the mix like this is that you can’t just make a plan and stick to it. You have to adjust your combat based on the law for the battle and there is no way to see it before starting the level. What that means is that if it’s a law you can’t hope to overcome then you have to reset the game.

After that you can walk around a bit (Since each step counts as a day and switches the law) and then head back. It’s quite a few extra steps that aren’t needed. Additionally there are random minions running around all the time and if you bump into one then you have to start another long fight. The level up system is also a bit different than the others as each action gets you some XP rather than a total at the end of a level. This is fairly unique for RPG titles but for tactical fighters I’ve seen this in the past so it makes sense. It’s not my favorite style but it is what it is.

There’s also perma death which is active on any desert level. If any of your members dies here and you don’t revive them before the match is up, the member is lost forever. There goes your equipment and level ups. I’m not a fan of perma death in any game. It’s way too harsh and just serves as a big punishment if you end up losing. There’s also a jail system here in case you break the laws in a level. Two strikes takes you to jail while one acts a a fine and your character suffers a penalty. To remove the card you have to play a few battles without the character but at the speed in which the battles are, that’s a fairly long commitment so it’s often better to just reset the game whenever you do that by mistake.

Then you’ve got some quality of life features that aren’t present. One of the big ones is that it’s very difficult to see which equipment is the best one to attach to your character. You can only see the stats for one piece at a time and can’t compare it so you have to remember the numbers as you check each piece one by one. That just seems like something which should have been easier. It’s also odd that you have to actually set the items to your character’s ability slots or you can’t use any at all. I think that’s a bit much and there’s no indication of when they have learned a new ability so you have to manually check everyone every time there’s a level up. Same with ability mastery to learn new classes.

So what I’m saying is the gameplay is held back by a whole ton of features ranging from just about every area you can think of. It’s definitely a problem. The graphics are good though. I thought the character designs were on point and the levels were good. Meanwhile the soundtrack was more on the unimpressive side as none of the tunes were all that good. It was going for a rather calm feel to it but give me rock or metal any day so I can really feel the tunes at all times.

As for the replay value here, there are a ton of missions to complete so that’ll help on that end. There are 300 missions in the game and you’ll probably end up beating around 100 before you finish the game. The missions have several categories including combat and dispatch. Dispatch missions are ones your allies will complete on their own and either take a few days or just some extra battles without you. So choose who you send out on a mission wisely since you never want to be without your best fighter for very long.

Overall, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance would be one of the weaker Final Fantasy games. It has some pretty good ideas and so the story ends up being the strong point here but the gameplay mechanics are what ended up bringing it down. If anything the game’s just trying to be too intricate and having way too many things going on at once. We’ll see if the sequel can dial things back a notch, removing laws entirely would definitely be a great start. If not, maybe there’s a way to just make them better. This is a really long game so make sure you really enjoy the tactics style before picking it up.

Overall 5/10

Jelly Boy Review

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Jelly Boy is one of those games that very easily could have been a really good one. Instead it made the big mistake of trying to force collectibles onto you instead. Let me tell you, that was not a good move. By the time you finish the first world you’ll need to turn back and nobody wants to do that. It’s a bit sloppier than other platformers but I wouldn’t call it a bad game. You’re just not likely to go back and finish it.

You play as a little Jelly guy and can go around punching your opponents. Along the way you can turn into a variety of items like a hammer which will certainly keep your opponents on guard. This helps to ensure the gameplay is always adapting since you’re never in any one form for too long. Turning and jumping can be a bit more on the annoying side here but you do have some features like the rewind to help with that. It’s not exactly Mario in terms of how smooth the game is, but few titles are right? It’s not exactly a knock against the game because nothing should be expected to go toe to toe with Mario like that.

As mentioned earlier though, the biggest issue here is really the fact that I could not get into world 2. Seemingly this was because I didn’t have the piece of the puzzle from every level but they’re really hidden. I only happened to come across one of them so the rest are probably buried deep into the levels. This really goes against the concept of a platformer in the first place since it’s supposed to be a very calming experience where you have fun with the levels and keep it moving. By giving you something to look for, the game is no longer than leisurely experience you once craved. Quite a few platformers seem to make this mistake.

Now the graphics are good at least. I thought they did a good job with the artwork for each of the characters and the color schemes as a whole. The game looks good even though it’s so old. The soundtrack is also okay. Nothing super memorable but it is catchy enough and so the game flows rather well. On a technical aspect I do think they did their best here and you can tell that some effort was put in.

There’s not a whole lot more to say about this one. It’s always fun to play the more retro games but in some cases like this one, it just reminds you how far we have come. Nowadays a game like this would probably still be a little bit better because either there would be more of a real story or the gameplay would just be smoother. This one hasn’t aged particularly well and that’s probably why you wouldn’t have heard of it before Nintendo announced that it would be in the next online wave. A title like this just would not have stood out for very long at the toy store. Not when you had bigger titles always coming out to overshadow it.

Now if you could remove the collectibles and tighten up the gameplay a bit, then I think this would have really had some potential. The gimmick of turning into objects and other people is one that would work really well. Right now that’s still a big thing like how Odyssey let you control others with the hat and Kirby would transform in the latest game. People like to have different gameplay styles and that’s where Slime Boy would come in. Who knows, maybe one day they will make a sequel or a full remake. The odds seem slight but you never know.

Overall, Jelly Boy is okay at best. You can see some promise in the game as you go through it but it just made too many mistakes and that’s why this one never hit it big. The biggest thing to remember is you never want collectibles to be mandatory. Perhaps there was another reason I couldn’t get into world 2 but if there was then that’s just as bad because there was no indicator of that. All in all, it just means that accessing the rest of the game is more difficult than it should be. You’ll probably want to avoid this one but if you need a new platformer to check out then I suppose this one will do the trick at least for a little while.

Overall 5/10

Bombuzal Review

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It’s been quite a while since I went back to play the old SNES titles so this was certainly nostalgic. Can the new ones possibly beat the classics though? Bombuzal has an interesting concept that reminds me of Bomberman to an extent. It’s an interesting puzzle game but one that ultimately could have benefited big time from actually having more of a story or at least some kind of illustrations between the levels. It would make the whole thing come alive because otherwise you don’t see the point of continuing after a while. There are a ton of levels here so you’re absolutely getting a lot of bang for your buck but it all starts to feel the same after a while.

The gameplay has you starting on a field with a bunch of bombs. The idea is to set them all off without being caught up in the explosion. Initially this just means setting them off and walking away. You can only move 1 space after setting off a bomb so you would go in the opposite direction. The levels quickly get more difficult though as you have to set off multiple bombs and stay out of the way. You can even cause a ripple effect where everything blows up except your square.

If you pick the wrong spot then it’s all over though. Additionally some levels will have switches and other gimmicks to help you move the bombs around. There are even teleportation squares and naturally ones that disintegrate so you can’t use the same route to go back. The puzzles are impressive here because the levels are really not that big and the controls are simple so you’re surprised that you don’t find the right answer right away.

With the game being on the simple side, you really feel like the difficulty is earned and nothing about it is cheesy. If there’s a level you aren’t able to beat then that’s on you and not the developers. Yeah some of the controls may not be made apparent at first but you’ll certainly get it after some trial and error. Some bombs even move around so you have to time it carefully on when you want to detonate them. Do it too quickly or too late and it will wreck your chances at clearing the level.

The soundtrack’s okay. The game feels like it has one main theme but it’s a catchy one that works for the levels. I’d also say that the graphics aren’t bad and hold up fairly well for their time. The explosions are nice and the controls are smooth so you don’t feel like you’re just stuck. If you lose it’s because you didn’t interpret the level correctly, not because you slipped or something like that.

With over 100 levels this game will last you quite a while. As mentioned earlier, I just think it could have used more of a story or something to break up the monotony though. Now if a gameplay is good enough then you don’t need anything else. You can play endless levels because it’s just that fun like Lollipop or Fruits Mania. The problem is that Bombuzal just isn’t in that league. If I had to guess on why that is, I would say it’s because the puzzles are a bit longer but less active. You’ll spend a lot of time thinking about what to do as opposed to just doing it. In other puzzle titles you are always moving things around to try and get a clearer picture. So in a way this one has you in the backseat for a bit. It makes all of the levels a bit longer.

There’s not much bad to say about the game except that it’s just very limited. There really isn’t a whole lot to do here and so you’ll probably grow bored of it long before you end up beating all of the levels. I would say it’s one you can just pick up and continue in the future but it’s not an easy one to plug and play since you’ll have to remember how each of the bombs work through the level designs. Otherwise you’re just going to be dying a whole lot.

Overall, Bombuzal is a reasonable game but one where the limitations really show themselves. This is an example of an old game that feels old. It couldn’t pass for more of a modern title and needed some other options to improve its replay value. If you have the Switch Online this is free so you should definitely check it out for a little while. I don’t think you’ll be going back to this one though so it’ll likely end up being forgotten after that.

Overall 5/10

Kirby and the Forgotten Land Review

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I knew as soon as they announced this Kirby game was coming out that I would need to buy it day 1. I’ve been waiting a little while for the next Kirby game and while I may not be caught up yet..I’m close enough. Outside of the first 2 levels, I ended up playing the whole game through in one batch. Not to say that it’s super short (Took around 5 hours) but Kirby games are not usually known for length or difficulty so it wasn’t all that difficult to do. It does speak to the enjoyment levels of the game too.

So the story starts with multiversal Kirby walking around when some kind of hole in reality appears and sucks everyone inside. Kirby’s now in a whole new world filled with vicious beats and monsters. He has to help this little blue creature along the way as he finds out who did this and how he can possibly get home. Will Kirby be able to get out of this in one piece or is it curtains for him?

In a way you almost would think this is still Planet Popstar if you skipped the cutscene because the first world definitely has that classic Kirby feel. It’s a green forest kind of planet that has an upbeat feeling to it. The level designs are all on point and there is a lot of variety here as we have the classic water planet, fire planet, etc. Each world has 4 levels and then the boss at the end except for the second last world which has 5 levels plus the boss and the final world which only has a boss. So you can see how you can go through the levels pretty quick.

I did die twice to one of the last bosses though. That one was deceptively tricky as it’s tough to dodge the ballerinas and the big guy’s spin move. Your best bet here is to rely on your quick dodge which is R2 and then pressing A at the same time. I didn’t even know about that until near the end of the game but it’s quite handy. There is an easy mode too but I recommend sticking to Wild. Having a little bit of a challenge is always a good thing and then you can really appreciate the bosses.

The gameplay is your classic 3D adventure. You can’t really spam Kirby’s flying too much though. The game developers probably figured you might cheesing the whole game so you can’t go too high and still have to use the ladder. You have over 10 copy abilities you can use though and each one can be evolved twice. You can even power them up further beyond that which is handy. Obtaining rare stones can take a little while but you will at least get enough to evolve everything by the time you complete the game.

I highly recommend focusing on the fire blast ability. It causes lasting burns to the villains which means that you are dealing constant damage even when you aren’t attacking. The ability is extremely useful. I would say they all mostly are but I didn’t care for the spike ball much. It tends to lag behind the other abilities in terms of how useful it is but you should still try to get used to it since you will need to use it for treasure road.

So it’s time to talk about the replay value here. Don’t mistake a short campaign for a short game as Kirby has tons of modes to keep you busy. Aside from the main levels you have Treasure Road which are a series of 8-10 challenges in each world. If you complete them then you will be awarded a rare stone and these are how you power up your abilities. You also earn extra gold to buy things with. Completing all of the challenges will buy you some time. Each one’s about a minute or two but there are a lot of them.

Then you have the tournaments. While Meta Knight sadly misses out on the story, you get to fight him here. He was reasonably tough even on the intro level so I imagine the more difficult tournaments could get crazy difficult here. You shouldn’t underestimate them and this could absolutely take a while. Finally you have the collectibles of which there are a ton. There are 300 Waddle Dees here and a ton of trophies. I’m assuming you unlock some kind of bonus content for getting everything so that’s some incentive to keep going for.

There’s also a bonus world for the post game here. It directly continues where the main story ended so you won’t want to miss that. The levels are considerably longer than the normal ones and have more parts so you should go in prepared to really give it your all. At the time of this review I’m still going through the post game so I look forward to seeing how it all goes. Between all of that, this game will take you a long while to achieve 100% completion that’s for sure.

The graphics are naturally top tier here. All of the characters look sharp, the designs are great, and as I mentioned the stage designs are really quite nice. You feel like each world is different and it doesn’t feel like they’re reusing levels. No corners were cut here. The soundtrack is also fun. There’s no theme that quite matches the classic Nightmare theme but it’s hard for anything to top that. There is a lyrical song that plays twice in the game which is fun but it would have been especially good to have had something in the climax too.

Kirby games are known for really getting out there with the climaxes so you’re probably wondering about this one right? Well, I can safely say that it does go high tier. You don’t have to worry about that here. While I was underwhelmed with the big villain’s design initially, the super form makes it all worth it. You’ll certainly raise an eyebrow when you see the villain’s official title. A certain Sega villain will immediately come to mind. There’s always a lot you could do with Kirby lore and while this is not that kind of game, I’m always glad to see any kind of big plot climax like this. It works well and helps to really make sure you don’t forget this one.

Overall, Kirby and the Forgotten Land is a pretty fun game. The story could have been longer but even at 5 hours it’s still a bit longer than Sonic Forces and Star Fox Zero so Nintendo’s still got the lead there. I’d like to see a proper 15 hour Kirby game some day as long as they can get to that length naturally and without forced collectibles. This game had a good amount on that front as you need to get some, but not enough where you feel like you have to go out of your way to grab them. The game’s fun enough where I went back and beat most of the treasure levels and am going through the post game so it succeeds there. I would definitely recommend checking this one out. You may want to wait until there’s a price dip but this is Nintendo so you may be waiting a very long time. In that case, just take the plunge and have fun here. You won’t be bored, that’s for sure.

Overall 7/10

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Review

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After all of these years I have finally gotten to experience the hype of Xenoblade Chronicles 2! It’s one of those games that I’ve had an eye on for a while but never really got around to playing. I was certainly missing out as this game did the unthinkable. It beat out Final Fantasy XIII and Kingdom Hearts II as my favorite RPG of all time. This game is now the king of its genre which is absolutely not something I was expecting going in. The game just delivers with so much content and fun all the way through.

The game starts out by introducing us to the world which is not in a good spot. Everyone lives in the clouds and the only “land” around are giant monsters. People live on them as continents but as you can imagine the space is very limited so the world has a population issue. Rex is a scavenger who goes around trying to salvage some spare parts to make money. One day he is recruited to help a group called Torna out in a rather dangerous expedition. Rex agrees to help out but the group double crosses him and murders the poor guy when they come into contact with the Aegis.

So in this world everyone uses a humanoid weapon to fight. The Aegis is the ultimate weapon and so they seem to want her for nefarious ends. Fortunately Rex was quickly able to make a contract with her so their lives are now linked. The Aegis’ name is Pyra and she asks Rex to take her to Elysium. He is happy about this as well because with a new land, perhaps he can help the world find some new space to live. The two will meet many companions and have to fight against a ton of enemies to get up there but neither one plans on giving up.

The game’s story took me almost 60 hours to complete so you can bet that there are a lot of other things going on here. The story is always changing dynamically and does a good job of really getting you invested. There are several factions so even the various villain groups are always trying to get in each other’s way. One of the elements that really got me on board was how likable all of the characters are. We have a bunch of really fun villains running around and of course the heroes are solid too.

Then the game spared no expense in having a bunch of fights during the cutscenes. I always like to see the characters going at it even outside of gameplay and this title delivers there. The battles are always very intense like when we fought Morag and then fighting against Jin later. The guy being able to go past the speed of light was an incredible moment because it showed how the heroes were badly out of their league. Every time they would get stronger, so would the villains. There was always a ton of suspense at every moment.

The soundtrack was also absolutely top tier. There are so many great themes throughout the game. You have solid battle themes, emotional themes, and victorious themes. These really went in during those battle cutscenes as well. It goes without saying that the graphics here are also really good. It definitely feels like a modern game through and through. You’d never mistake the graphics for anything older than current gen. No chance of that.

The game is already long as I mentioned and there is a ton of post game content to go through. You’ve got the friendship events, side missions, leveling up further, etc. There’s also a whole paid DLC story but I don’t count that directly as replay value since it’s not actually on the disc. If it was then that would be a different matter. So if the game takes you 60 hours then you’ll have spent 1 dollar per hour which is a really good deal. How can you go wrong there right?

Rex had big shoes to fill in since Shulk was the main character of the first game but I would say he did a great job in this role. Rex has a lot of confidence and ends up being a character who will really inspire you the whole time. He never gives up on his dreams and fights hard. He does lose confidence at one point but for the most part he is always ready to get in on the action. Then you have Pyra who is a fun heroine and of course she can fight really well as the Argis. The two of them have a fun dynamic as friends.

Then there’s Mythra who is the more confident version of Pyra who has unimaginable power. When she appears this is a really big tipping point in the game. I had a lot of fun playing with her in the party but the game does give her a big limitation which is that you can’t use her final smash while you’re indoors. A lot of bosses are indoors so that does hurt a bit.

One of our main companions is Nia who was a member of Torna but fortunately joined up with us. She’s always a fun character and liked to mess with Rex and Pyra. There is a twist regarding her character which does hurt quite a bit near the end of the game but all in all she is definitely someone you can trust to have your back. Zeke started out as someone who didn’t seem all that impressive but by the end he looks rather good. It was also good to have him on the squad although by the time he joined up the villains were so powerful that he didn’t seem to get a lot of wins.

Morag has one of the best entrances in the whole game. She appears as the most powerful driver in the land and gives the heroes their first real big battle. It was also a solid moment where Rex chose to trust Pyra instead of delving into her past. Morag would go on to become a very reliable ally for the heroes throughout the adventure. Then we have Poppy who is a fun android. The fact that she is an artificial blade comes in handy on more than one occasion.

There are quite a number of villains in Torna. Some of the members don’t even appear until you’re deep into the game but once they show up, they make their presence known. The two most impressive villains would be Jin and Malos. Both of them have detailed backstories to explain what is going on here. For Jin, he’s extremely fast and determined which makes for a solid villain. He’s also got an honor code so you couldn’t ask for a much more impressive guy. He steals the show for the villains. Malos is also solid though, I like his confidence and he makes things tough on the heroes many times over as the game goes on.

Of course there are many more characters and events going on but you’ll want to play the game for yourself to see how that plays out. Now, what is the gameplay like? Well, that’s the only part of the game that I wasn’t all that impressed with. It’s sort of a turn based RPG, but one that operates in closer to real time and is part auto battle. So you try to stay close to the villain and your character will start automatically attacking. You can then choose special attacks and combos but a large part of the game is pretty much 100% automated.

I’m more used to seeing that on the mobile and not in a console experience so it took me for a bit of a loop. There is still a lot of strategy to it and I want to underscore that the game can still be quite challenging. That said, it just wasn’t my ideal gameplay style. I’d have preferred to have gone with traditional turn based or more of a fully real time style like Kingdom Hearts. If the game had gone in either of those routes then I think it would have ended up being quite a lot better for it.

Seeing as how this is the gameplay we’ve got though, then the next step is that you need to master it as soon as possible or the final bosses will really take you down a few pegs. I delayed learning about the orb system until the final chapters but then I had to use it. It’s difficult to describe so pay a lot of attention during the tutorials in the game. Effectively, you have to launch a combo of a level 1, level 2, and then level 3 special in the correct order to plant an orb on an opponent. Then when your team combo gauge is maxed out, you can use a unity attack. If you break an orb then you get to attack again and this goes on for up to 3 orbs. You can have more but they don’t seem to trigger extra attacks.

One big tip I’d give here is to constantly have your blades out on scouting assignments. It’s a great way to always be building up some funds and extra XP. You’ll need every bit of that in order to beat the final bosses who really jump up in terms of difficulty level. You won’t be breezing through them the way that you would have done so against the earlier villains. When the game’s difficulty jumps up, it is always very sudden as opposed to being gradual. So one minute you’ll be dominating and in the next you will be getting wrecked.

Overall, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is a game that will take a while to beat. You really have to fully understand the gameplay style and how to make the best out of every character. You will be engaged with the story right from the jump though. It’s just extremely solid from start to finish and the ending was also the perfect way to end things. With Xenoblade Chronicles 3 on the rise, I can now say that I’m ready for what comes next. I don’t see how it can beat 2 though. If you haven’t played this game yet, I would say that you should change that as soon as possible!

Overall 9/10

Zapper: One Wicked Cricket! Review

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Zapper is one of those games that I happened to see randomly and thought it would be interesting. I was in the market for platformer ripoffs of popular mascots and this guy had some spunk. The game was also dirt cheap online so I couldn’t refuse. It definitely doesn’t mind playing out exactly like a Frogger type game with a minimal story. The adventure is over before you know it but the gameplay is certainly fun.

The game starts with Zapper deciding to use his brother as a living battery to power his TV. That’s when a notorious bird shows up and kidnaps the insect. Zapper must now go on a journey to save his bro from this villain but to do so he will have to travel across many dangerous lands. Can he pull this off or is it going to be game over right from the start? It’s hard to say but what he does know is that losing is not an option this time!

There is an opening cutscene and an ending one so don’t expect more of a story outside of that because this is all that you’ll get. From what we see, Zapper isn’t a particularly nice guy. He gets the job done and travels across the distant lands but he isn’t someone that you would want to have to trust. The villain seems interesting enough but it’s just hard to get a real feel for the personality and skills that he might have here. I’d definitely like to see a sequel so we could follow the cast around more.

The game is considerably easier than any of the Frogger titles though. So if you’ve played the Frogger games before then you will have absolutely no trouble getting past this one. The controls are simple, you can move in any direction which causes Zapper to move one square. Press the A button to move 2 squares t once which is how you jump over pitfalls and such. You can also use your thunder blast to wipe out small enemies. The goal of each level is to grab 6 eggs which automatically ends things. That’s the trick to each level aside from the first and only boss in the game.

That one’s actually really creative. You have to touch a bunch of orbs in the proper order and then inch closer to the villain. You can’t touch the wrong one or you’re sent back and the ground is crumbling as you’re doing this. You need to have quick reaction times and really think about what is going on the whole time. I rather enjoyed this part, it was just a nice gimmick and a good way to make the boss memorable. Because of that I really wish we could have gotten more bosses. It’s clear that the game was up to the challenge at any rate so why not right?

There are a lot of collectibles to get as well. Each level has 100 orbs and I can only imagine that getting them all will unlock something cool. I’m not actually sure about that though so you should look it up before attempting such a thing. None of the orbs are really hidden though so you should be able to grab them without a lot of effot. There aren’t too many levels in the game as it is. I cleared the game in under 3 hours and if you aim to get all of the orbs from the start then you could probably increase that to around 5-6. There isn’t any other replay value beyond that though so make the time count.

The graphics are nice enough. It’s got a very classic look to everything from the characters to the levels. The thunder effects are good and it’s always easy to see where you are going. The soundtrack is less memorable though as you probably won’t recall any theme in particular. On a technical level the developers seemed to be focusing on the gameplay above all else and that’s not a bad idea. After all the key is always to make sure that the game runs smoothly and that is true here. No matter what else you can say about the game, poor gameplay is not one of those things.

Still, the lack of content is enough for me to take off one point. I’m hesitant to call this a very good game when you can complete it so quickly and there isn’t much else to do. If there were more cutscenes or more of a story in general then that could have been different. As it stands, this is a game you should definitely pick up and have some fun with if you see it for a good price. It’s not the kind of game that will be a big investment or anything like that though.

Usually I might throw in a few gameplay tips around here but there isn’t much to say on that because the game is straight forward. The best word of advice is to just plunge ahead without hesitating. Due to the nature of the game, you want to always be moving so that you don’t get run over by an enemy. A single hit means that you will lose a life after all so just stay one step ahead of them. You get a lot of free lives in each level so don’t even worry about getting a game over.

Overall, Zapper delivers on what you came here for. You bought the game hoping to get that classic Frogger experience right? Well, you definitely get that in full here. You just don’t get any of the extra features or content that could have been used to amp up the game even more. It would have been nice to have had that as well but it’s what separates the big AAA titles from these knock offs. I can see why the game never got a sequel but hopefully that changes some day.

Overall 6/10