Tag Archives: Platformer

Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex Review

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It’s time to take a look at another Crash game. I actually completed this one before the GBA one but that one was so much shorter that it made sense to just churn the review out real quick. The HD Collection for Crash was pretty fun so I figured it was about time I got the next installment. The Wrath of Cortex does hold up pretty well to the others although I don’t think it beats any of the first 3 one on one. While the gameplay styles are quite varied as Crash is known for, some of them are definitely weaker than others. This results in weakening the overall package a bit in the end.

The game starts with the mask reprimanding Corte and the other villains once again. They have failed him for the last time so he gives them yet another shot to win back his good graces. Cortex is pressured into admitting that he has built the ultimate weapon to beat Crash. It’s a dark prototype known as Crunch and he basically is Crash except a whole lot more powerful. Cortex has also awakened the immensely powerful Elementals who once brought the planet to its knees. Can Crash really stop such a powerful alliance?

I always like starting the game off with a good villain meeting. This way they all hype each other up and it works out quite well. That being said, most of them don’t actually get to fight in this one which is a bit iffy. What’s the point of a big villain meeting if they aren’t actually going to fight right? They all returned for the GBA game and some of them got to fight there, but I was expecting everyone prepped and ready for this fight. No matter, it was still a pretty fun opening cinematic and I’m always going to give a game a thumbs up for including them. Cutscenes are something a game should always have if you ask me.

The main gameplay here are the 3D platforming levels. You run and jump over obstacles. Additionally you can use your spin move to defeat most enemies or a power slide to go right underneath them. It’s definitely a very useful technique and I recommend it against all of the human agents. It’s more trouble than it’s worth to spin on them. A lot of the time you can just breeze past them though. In this game there is no real benefit to fighting them all off so I would say don’t bother. What’s the point of attacking an enemy when you could just walk right past them? That’s the way I see it at least. These levels can definitely be tricky. A lot of time the best thing to do is just stop and survey the level instead of continuing to run forward.

As I mentioned there are other kinds of levels here though. Another one is when you are in a plane flying across the world sinking ships and space stations. These levels are a lot of fun for sure. Just keep on blasting and you’ll be through it with ease. A lot of the time you don’t even need to worry about the ships behind you. Try to tune out the super loud sound of motors behind you though. It can get extremely loud next to the other sounds and music for some reason to the point where you may want to lower the volume a bit. Another kind of gameplay is when Crash puts on the mech suit and starts blasting. It’s a bit clunky so I feel like the game added it near the end. It’s not terrible but I do think it could have been a lot better. The levels don’t show up often though so I wouldn’t really worry about it.

Then we have the underwater levels where you’re in a ship or swimming free reign. These were my least favorite levels in part because it is very hard to turn. That means if an enemy suddenly appears out of nowhere then you are basically out of luck. Struggle as you may, but in the end you won’t be able to dodge. I remember losing quite a few lives in this battle. There are also the Monkey Ball levels. This felt the most random to see, but it was nostalgic. These levels were pretty decent although there was one where the final maze was a bit much. It wasn’t even hard, just time consuming to check every path until you found the right one. If you picked a bad path, well you wouldn’t know it til you got to the end of it.

The graphics are pretty solid here. The final levels get really dark but I think that’s more on my TV than the game. I did prefer the earlier worlds to the final one though. The final world felt like it dragged on a bit next to the others. One thing about levels is you never want to have a section where you have to wait a lot. Sections with waiting means that the second time around won’t be nearly as exciting and if you die a lot then it keeps lowering and lowering the hype. This was mainly an issue when climbing as Crash climbs very slowly. The souundtrack is pretty decent though. There weren’t any memorable tunes, but I had no issues when playing the game. It all felt pretty appropriate.

The game’s length is pretty short. I’d say that I cleared the game in about 2 hours. The game wasn’t very clear on how to save so I did have to beat the first 3 worlds twice. If you count that then the game lasted about 3 hours. To save you have to walk over to a big TV in the hub world and click on it. Definitely make sure you do that before turning the game off because otherwise you definitely won’t be thrilled to have to redo all of your work. At least I was able to see how quickly I could adapt because the second time I didn’t die nearly as much. It felt like I had really improved on those levels.

There is also a good amount of replay value here as you can try to get all of the collectibles. There are a ton of them to get on every level so if you do that then expect this game to last quite a bit longer. That’s really it, but I’m assuming you would unlock something pretty good for doing that. It would be a shame to do all that work and not really have anything to show for it. Surely the game wouldn’t even dream of doing that…right? If it did then you are definitely free to feel a little disappointed.

My only real complaint with the game aside from how the saving works is that in some levels it can be a bit of trial and error at the beginning. There are some obstacles you couldn’t possibly know are there until they suddenly appear and squash you. In particular this happens quite a bit in the underwater levels. You know where they are the second time but it’ll cost you a stock each time you find out. That’s a lot of stocks in the balance.

While this complaint doesn’t affect the score quite as much, the sound settings in this game as pretty odd. The cutscenes are all extremely low so you can’t hear anything til you raise the volume. Then the actual music and sound effects in the levels are decently loud. Finally you have the aerial levels where the sound effects are incredibly loud. Same for the electricity in ground levels. You can never have your TV at the right volume because the game keeps changing things up on you. I can’t think of another game that had this issue to such a large degree so that was definitely interesting.

Overall, The Wrath of Cortex is a pretty fun game. It’s a nice sequel to the series even if it doesn’t really do a whole lot that the first 3 didn’t. I’m always glad to see another Platformer and especially on the Gamecube. I’d recommend getting the game. The price is pretty good right now and who doesn’t want to revisit the world of Crash right? Sometimes you gotta just take the plunge and see where it takes you. I’ve got one more Crash game to play but then after that there might be a bit of a delay before I get more. I’ll definitely round them up at some point though.

Overall 7/10

Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure Review

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It’s time to look at another Crash title. This one is the first portable Crash title I’ve played so I was ready to see what it was like. I did see him briefly in the Spyro crossover but I bought the Spyro version so I don’t recall if you actually played as Crash at all. Well, this game is solid and keeps in most of the gameplay from the console games. You can’t help but feel like it’s a pale imitation though. The Gamecube version was already short and this one’s even shorter which is a bit tricky to get around. I beat the game in a little over an hour which is pretty crazy. I guess there is a bit of replay value to work with here, but that’s still pretty crazy.

So the plot is that Cortex has come up with his latest invention to defeat Crash. It’s a device that shrinks the planet to the size of a grapefruit which sounds like a pretty sophisticated piece of equipment. I was certainly impressed at any rate. There’s a lot of pressure on Cortex because the Mask has warned him that he isn’t allowed any more failures. Cortex does tend to fail the guy a lot so you can understand where he’s coming from, but I personally think it’s a bluff to get Cortex working. Crash doesn’t have time to worry about that though. His goal now is to find a way to restore the planet back to its original size and save the entire planet. Can he do it?

The main gameplay here is that of a 2D platformer. You jump over obstacles and smash enemies as you head to the end of the level. At first you only have a few abilities like rolling, slide, jump, and spin. After each world you unlock new abilities though including the really handy double jump. The game becomes infinitely easier once you obtain this skill. That’s because almost the whole game is built around trying to get through it with 1 jump even to the final world so you’re in a pretty good position as a result. Just be warned that the second jump destroys your momentum in the air so be prepared to not cover as much distance as you might think with the jump.

The gameplay is definitely pretty fun. I think the Crash style is good at bringing in some difficult levels that will test your fundamentals without going overboard. Even the toughest of sections will be cleared before long. The game also has some other gameplay styles here like swimming. The underwater levels are greatly improved here from the Gamecube game so I’ll give the title some props there. It’s still not quite as fun as the traditional levels though. Then you’ve got the running to the screen levels. Those still seem to be a bit luck based if you ask me since you can’t see where you’re going. They’re fun enough though.

Finally you have the aerial levels which are definitely a lot of fun. You fly through the air and blast away at all of the objects that stand in your way. It can be hard to dodge the obstacles while still landing hits on the opponents. To that my best advice is to just stay in place while blasting. You can actually deal far more damage than they can so this works in all levels until the final aerial one. There you need to move a bit. So keep in mind that you still dodge minions but for the checkpoint bosses just stand still and blast away at them. It works pretty well. There is one world boss which is in this style and that one’s pretty fun. I recommend knocking out the machine gun on the bottom first since that makes the boss a whole lot more manageable.

When it comes to the graphics Crash looks pretty good. The character models are solid and the illustrations look nice as well. They make Cortex look even sadder than usual but that’s pretty much in character so I can’t really say that there are any issues there. The level designs don’t have a lot of variety though and it feels like the game re-uses the backgrounds quite a bit. Unlike the other Crash games where each world has a theme, pretty much every world in this game is either a forest or a science lab. I think more levels would have been nice.

When it comes to the soundtrack, it’s pretty fun. I wouldn’t say that any of the themes are all that memorable though. If anything the sound effects are really the memorable part of this game and you probably won’t be forgetting those anytime soon. As I mentioned, the length of the game is under 2 hours though so keep that in mind when buying this game. You can extend your playtime a bit though by going back to all of the levels and getting all of the collectibles. It sounds like that would trigger a bonus level or some kind of extra cutscene I suppose. Hopefully it’s something good because collecting everything seems like it would be pretty difficult and take a while.

There isn’t a whole lot of plot here outside of the opening although that isn’t really unheard of on the GBA. You’re in it purely for the gameplay after all. Hopefully the next game will have a bit more story though. As for the boss fights, they were all different so that was one of the best parts of the game. The most enjoyable boss fight would have to be taking on the giant fox as he jumped from platform to platform. It was a fun idea for a boss fight and I don’t believe I’ve fought one quite like it before. I always like seeing a creative new approach to a battle.

Overall, Crash The Huge Adventure is a pretty solid Crash game. It definitely could have benefited from a few more hours of runtime but what we do get is solid. It really just holds the game back a star, but that’s all. At the end of the day if a game is fun then it’ll still earn itself more of a decent star. Maybe if it was something even more excessive like 10 minutes that’d be another story like some of the NES games, but at around 1 hour it could be worse. I look forward to seeing how N’Tranced fares. It’s listed as being a little longer than the Huge Adventure so we’ll see if that is true as my Crash marathon continues.

Overall 6/10

Journey Review

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Sony put this game up for free recently which was pretty cool. I’m not sure if the deal is still going, but if it is you should definitely take the plunge and check it out. This game is more of an interactive movie than what you would typically expect in the format which is part of why I never bought it before. Also, it’s relatively short as you can complete it in around an hour. That being said, you can’t go wrong when it’s free right? It’s a charming enough game that is fun to play through once. I also think if they do a sequel and add in some combat gameplay this could end up being a pretty awesome title. Not saying they should do this…but they definitely should!

The plot is a bit ambiguous of course, but the goal is to get to the peak of a mountain. For some reason the lead just needs to get there. You can run and jump for most of the game and later on you can even fly as long as you have some energy left in the meter. You refill it by running into other players or coming across some pixie dust. I recommend flying whenever possible. From there it’s just a matter of running to the goal and some platforming. Admittedly it can be easy to get lost here. If not for some other players running around the game may have taken me a bit longer. In the end I followed their lead and it worked out.

While there is no big story here there are a few cutscenes that show up once in a while. A pretty fun one involves a monster that pops out at you. The environment in this world is pretty interesting and since the game doesn’t give you a story you are free to make your own. I assume that this takes place in an apocalyptic future where humanity has been wiped out by these monsters and are now struggling for survival. The few remaining ones have gained psychic powers and wear the cloak to survive in these hot climates. It makes enough sense for me to get behind that at any rate.

The graphics are pretty solid. They may not be high end PS4 level but they look nice. I think the game probably would have been able to shine a little more in this area if the levels had involved cities and forests or something like that. When you’re in an empty desert there is only so much that you can show after all. The monster designs are good though. As for the soundtrack, it’s made to be more background noise/generic tunes so you won’t really remember it much by the end. It works well enough as you go through the game.

The main drawback to the title is how short it is. The gameplay may not be too stimulating but it is fundamentally sound. If you put a good story behind it then it would work out really well. Even without a story the game could still have been interesting with more levels. Granted, this could be a mixed bag because if there is no story then the game would run the risk of being repetitive. Still, only being 1 hour in this day and age without a whole lot of replay value is pretty rough. At most you can go back and try to get the Platinum Trophy I suppose. It’s a nice enough title where I would still call it a good game but one that just won’t keep your attention for very long.

Overall, Journey does make you feel like you’re on a bit of an adventure but only to that one restaurant that isn’t too close to you. It only takes you around an hour to achieve your goal so you get the feeling that the lead wasn’t all that far away from it after all. There’s a lot of potential behind making the Journey a franchise or even a feature film about it starring The Rock and some of his sidekicks as they try to get to the mountain. You can easily construct a plot around this goal if you put your mind to it. While I wouldn’t pay for this game, you definitely shouldn’t miss out while it’s free.

Overall 6/10

Little Big Planet 2 Review

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It’s time to look at the second Little Big Planet game. I played the first one a while back and wasn’t particularly impressed. I found the story mode to be rather boring as nothing really happened. Platforming gameplay is fun enough but I do need some kind of story or at least bright graphics to get me through. The first game’s gameplay wasn’t the sharpest and the backgrounds weren’t amazing either so that left me in a spot. Fortunately the sequel greatly improved on all accounts and actually ended up being quite solid. I was impressed with this game and now I can actually say that I look forward to playing the third when initially I scoffed at the prospect.

Sackboy is thrust into another big conflict here. Some dark dragons/overlords have begun kidnapping powerful people and conquering multiple worlds. Sackboy must now team up with a comedian, an old man, a queen, a fighter in order to take these guys down. Sackboy may not look like the most intimidating character in the bunch but he has the power to interact with anything and he’s got a lot of determination on his side as well. He won’t be going down easy and with his friends at the ready maybe they can actually make a real change here. He won’t know until he tries so Sackboy is ready to defy all odds and get started here.

First off the fact that this game actually has a real story nearly blew me off my chair. I was pleasantly shocked to see real cutscenes with voice acting and everything. The story even has an epic feel to it with powerful opponents and a lot of scary designs. The purple monsters are excellent and they all look quite evil. These aren’t kid designs or anything like that, they’re just going in. The worlds all have pretty unique designs and gameplay strategies to them as well which is good and there’s a reasonable degree of difficulty here. This is a platformer that is actually trying quite hard. There was a lot of time put into this one.

The main gameplay is that of a 2D platformer. You run and jump past obstacles as you get to the end. There are a lot of extra details and mechanics at play here too though. For starters you’ve can grab onto objects which helps you jump across large gaps. You also throw objects to block some flames or throw them into enemies. You lead mini Sackboys over obstacles as well. Then you’ve got the possession levels where you use a stuffed rabbit or cat to blast your way through levels. There are also levels where you take control of a bee and these are basically sci-fi ship levels. You have an energy blaster and it’s all great fun. I wouldn’t have minded if we got more aerial levels like that. The important thing though is that the game succeeds in all of its different gameplay variations. They’re all pretty fun and well polished.

Graphically the game has come far from the first one too. The first game felt more experimental in a lot of levels as it would have odd looking live action graphics and things of that nature. This one still keeps some of the more disturbing imagery but it’s toned down to a great extent and feels a lot more mainstream. That’s definitely the way I like it and while it’s still not on the level of Mario or Kirby there are some really nice looking moments. The enemies and the final world in general are good examples of that. The soundtrack is a lot more forgettable though. There are no tunes from the game that I even remember.

The length is fairly reasonable for a platformer. I’d say it took 5-6 hours to complete. It’s definitely not the longest title out there but you don’t really expect games in this genre to be all that long. It’s mainly all about a quick experience filled with a lot of creative levels and fun times along the way. The main question is if those levels were fun and engaging to which I can confirm that the title did a good job with this. I was certainly kept well entertained throughout which was good. There also is a good amount of replay value to be found here even if the online may not be operational anymore. You can still collect a lot of items and complete side missions too.

Overall, Little Big Planet 2 brings in every element that I had wanted to see from the first game. It’s a big improvement in every sense and this may be the most improvement I’ve seen from game to game in a long time. If you like platformers then I can completely recommend this one to you. It’s good fun and while some parts of the game can be challenging I don’t expect you would be stuck for long. The final boss is probably the only part of the game that didn’t seem to be designed all that well. The fight just takes too long and there is a ton of waiting here since for most of the fight he is invincible. Eventually you defeat him but it’s a lot longer than it is difficult.

Overall 7/10

Disney Classic Games: Aladdin and The Lion King Game Review

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It’s time to look at a recent HD collection which brought two Disney games from a while back. I’m sure you know these two games or at least heard of them when they first came out. They were not very accessible until this remake came out though so you had to hope that you had one of the older consoles. Otherwise you would need to settle for online videos of the game. Aladdin was a lot of fun back in the day so it was nostalgic to play it again. I can definitely see how I got stuck in the fire level because that one is still pretty insane. This is a quality collection to check out.

First let’s talk about the Aladdin game since that’s the one I have nostalgia for. It follows the movie’s plot naturally and the gameplay is that of a 2D platformer. You run and jump across obstacles as you slay enemies and reach the finish line. The gameplay is pretty smooth so you don’t have to worry about glitches. If anything the difficult part is that you move very fast so a lot of the time you may run into enemies. It can also be hard to defeat them without taking damage so as the level goes on you may end up dying a lot.

It’s a pretty short game so you should have it beat in around an hour or so. The toughest level is definitely still the fire cave. In that level you ride the carpet and have to move up and down to avoid obstacles. The tough part here is aside from how fast the obstacles show up after the warning, towards the end there are one or two obstacles that don’t have a warning. It doesn’t really feel like you have much of a chance outside of luck to beat the level on your first shot. Eventually you can memorize where the obstacles will be though but without the handy save feature that we have in this collection it would still be incredibly difficult to clear this level. Ultimately you could do it with practice and determination, but it would not be a cake walk.

Then you’ve got the Lion King which is also pretty difficult. In this game the platforming is what will take some time to get used to. There is a lot of climbing and jumping across enemies involved which has to be done quite precisely or you are out of luck. The second level took me the longest to beat because I just kept dying before I would make it past all of the jumps. The other really tough level is the maze near the end of the game where there are a bunch of tunnels and you have to pick the right one. Each time you choose the wrong one the enemies all re-spawn and you have to take them all down win order to win.

The final boss is definitely a lot of fun as Mufasa really gets a lot of props. You’ve got a thunderstorm in the background for dramatic effect and the background is even on fire. Mufasa also puts up a really good fight. I was landing blows on him for a long time before I realized that there had to be some kind of trick to this. After button mashing for a bit I found out you could flip Mufasa so the trick is to jump him over the cliff. If you do that then you end the fight and claim ultimate victory.

Both of the games are pretty short when it comes to length. Each one is about an hour or two so you should have the collection done in about 4 hours I’d say. It’ll depend on if you use the new features or not. The game added a new save feature that you can use after each level which is definitely handy. Alternatively you now have a rewind feature which you can use whenever you die. With this feature there is no challenge too difficult to overcome since you can just keep redoing your actions until you pick the right one. It’s a nice quality of life upgrade and I’m always game for this feature to be around.

In terms of replay value there isn’t much inside of the actual games but the collection does give you other methods for playing them. You can play different versions of the game like the console port, game boy port, arcade edition, etc. both games have several versions to choose from which is pretty cool. It may not be extra levels but it should make the experience a little different so you have more reason to replay the game. You can also aim to get all of the PS4 trophies in the game as well.

The graphics for both of the games are pretty solid. It’s nostalgic to see the old sprites and the artwork does a good job of resembling the actual backgrounds of the movies, there was certainly a lot of effort put into this part. The cutscenes also used illustrations to get the story across. As for the soundtrack, both games went for music that would be fitting in the setting. Neither ost is super memorable or anything like that, but they work well during gameplay.

Overall, This is a fun double pack for all to enjoy. It’s a pretty difficult pair of games to try and complete if you don’t use the new features in game. I at least recommend the save feature between levels even if you don’t want to use the rewind button. The difficulty also helps to extend the overall game length since it is unlikely you will be able to beat the levels on your first shot. Perhaps if you go really slowly but I always like just charging into the fray and taking names. Now that they’ve been remade it’s time for a AAA sequel to one of these. I’d vote for Aladdin since there’s a lot you can do with a 3D adventure through Agrabah.

Overall 7/10

Bubsy: Paws on Fire Review

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Long have I waited to check out this new Bubsy game. The first one was a little too short which ultimately limited how good it could be. I couldn’t help but feel that the game left a lot on the table. While the sequel is longer, it mostly thrives on artificial length which is regrettable. It has enough faults to where I can’t call it very good but it’s still a solid play through in the end. I’ve been a Bubsy fan for ages so it was disappointing to see this game not quite meet expectations, but I guess they can’t all be winners.

The game starts with an incredible opening cutscene where the kids tell Bubsy that his help is needed once more. Aliens show up to mock Bubsy but he ignores them and gets ready to save the world. Even if nobody is ultimately grateful to him for doing so that doesn’t stop Bubsy from doing the right thing. It’s part of why he is such a good hero, he just doesn’t get slowed down by what’s going on. It’s why Bubsy is a hero you can really rely on. The rest of the game unfortunately has no plot until literally the final cutscene where we get an epilogue. I was hoping for cutscenes between each world but I suppose that was too much to hope for.

So, as I mentioned the opening cutscene is amazing. A few times the game disconnected my controller so I was forced to hear the beginning quite a bit. I think what really makes it so good is the timing of the music and the characters running in. I just haven’t seen that level of expertise in quite time so it was most impressive. In general the graphics are quite good and the soundtrack works well. The technical elements of the game really hold up quite well. It’s just too bad that the gameplay can’t match it so lets talk about that.

This is a 2D endless runner. Personally I always felt that endless runners are best in 3D because you can really see where you’re going. Think Subway Surfers or something like that. When it’s in 2D you run the risk of “cheap” deaths where obstacles come in a little too quickly or without warning. It was always my issue with 2D Sonic games. This one keeps the deaths to a minimum, but there are still times where you have to shake your head. There will be 2 paths and one leads to an eventual death but you don’t know this until you take the path. That’s an impossible obstacle then unless you already knew which obstacle to take so I have to give those levels a thumbs down. The level designs really weren’t the best here.

The actual gameplay is smooth at least. There are 3 playable characters and they’ve all got different styles of gameplay. Beyond running and jumping you might be able to glide, double jump, ground pound, or fire off blasters while flying instead of running at all. You’ll master all of the gameplay before long. There are 3 worlds in the game and each world has 9 stages + 1 boss level. That should be easy to complete in an hour or two right? Well, one reason why you can’t do that is because of artificial length. The game forces you to get a bunch of medals in order to unlock the next levels. Completing a level gets you one medal. You can complete a level 3 times (once per character) and if you got all the pieces of a collectible you can beat it a fourth time with another character. You will need to get 75 medals to unlock the final boss. Let’s do the math here for a sec, if you beat all of the levels once you will only have 27 medals. This means that you have to replay most of the levels 2 times. Replaying old levels isn’t really my idea of a good time.

I’ll do it of course, but I don’t like being forced to do it. It should totally be 100% your choice and the fact that it isn’t is what I don’t like. It’s really just a way to pad the game’s length without actually creating new levels. I was surprised when I saw that this was the case and not in a good way. This basically confirmed that the game wouldn’t be getting the solid 7 that almost every platformer is able to achieve. The game just feels really lazy in doing this and going through the levels can feel more tedious than fun. I’m down with playing each level once but not doing them all 3 times.

Overall, Bubsy: Paws on Fire should have been an amazing game. It was going to continue the revival of Bubsy just the way everyone wanted it. Unfortunately this just wasn’t in the cards. Bubsy ended up squandering his chance to be truly great and it ended up costing us all. This is still a good game and I would recommend it but you need to like endless runners. There is virtually no story here and there is no replay value to be had after beating all of the levels. At best you can try to get new high scores and buy some T shirts but there’s nothing noteworthy here. You just gotta go through these levels over and over again until you have the medals. If we get a third Bubsy game I hope it goes back to the series roots.

Overall 6/10

Megaman Zero Review

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It’s time to look at the original Megaman Zero game. I’ve always thought that the Zero games had some of the most dynamic covers in the series. The overall art style helps you feel like the games do take place a lot farther in the future than the X titles. The plots were awesome and in many ways the games were ahead of their time. That being said, what holds this one back are some mechanics that fortunately didn’t make their way into the sequels. As a result while this game is good, it could have been way better.

The game starts with Zero being revived into a new body. It has been many years since he was active to the point where he is known as a relic of the past. Ciel is the lady who has revived him and she explains that X has gone on a rampage trying to murder all reploids. Zero doesn’t think this sounds right, but is quick to agree that X has to be destroyed. He’ll do what he can, but the resistance is fairly small and X has legions of powerful mavericks on his side. If Zero can’t defeat them all in time then there won’t be much of a planet left to save.

The idea of X turning rogue is definitely an interesting one. The guy was always so heroic that it’s hard to picture him turning evil, but being resurrected does tend to have a pretty big effect on a person’s psyche. X would hardly be the first person to turn evil from the experience. A game actually adapting the Elf Wars would be awesome, but Megaman Zero gets to start you off with a lot of suspense which is always a good thing if you ask me. The stakes are also high as you see guys in the background getting destroyed quite a bit as the game goes on. While the ESRB doesn’t list any blood in the game you may think otherwise as you look in the various level backgrounds. It’s clear that the mavericks aren’t pulling any punches in this game. The Zero saga is easily the darkest one in the Mega Man franchise.

The gameplay is pretty easy to get used to, but difficult to master. You have two main weapons, a buster and a Z saber. You can use these weapons to slay your enemies. You can also dash and jump so be careful to get out of enemy range. Of course, that will cause minions to re-spawn if you go too far back so always charge forward. The bosses are very difficult so the best thing to do is dodge their attacks entirely. Play it safe until you master their attack strategies and you’ll be fine. They all move very quickly so you’ve really got to get it all down to muscle memory. If you do that then you’ll be in good shape.

You can level up your weapons by using them a lot on minions. One easy way to max them out is to go back to one of the first levels and attack the tower that never moves. Just keep attacking it for about 40-50 minutes and you’ll have the weapons maxed out. They don’t learn a whole lot of new skills, but the Z Saber has a charge attack that’s neat and the buster gets to charge faster which is handy. You can also farm Elves this way which you can then use in the levels. An Elf aids you either in a direct way or through a supportive role. These can mean the difference between life or death in a fight. Just remember to activate them manually or they won’t take effect. You also lose the Elf whether you win or lose in the level.

This brings us to the mechanic that slows the game down though. You have 3 lives in the game and you don’t get any more. The only way is to beat a lot of enemies and hope they drop a life. I beat many enemies and I never saw a single extra life but apparently it is possible for them to drop one. It’s just really rare. This is a very difficult game so you’re going to really need those lives. The final level is one of those classics where you have to fight all of the bosses again. I was able to beat 2 bosses, but then I lost to the 3rd. Doing all of this with a single life is pretty crazy hard. Additionally you have to click through the cutscenes each time you re-start since the file loads you to before the conversations.

The game also made it so if you lose a level then it vanishes completely. You only get 1 chance for all of the levels except the big ones like the intro, finale, and a level near the middle. Otherwise the bosses just get away and Ciel thanks you for trying to stop them. It’s an interesting mechanic to have the game continue, but I don’t personally like it. I can’t think of a game where I was glad such a system was implemented. It didn’t work in Armored Core or Pikmin and it didn’t work for this one. It’s the main reason why this is the weakest Zero game for me. Between that and not getting any more lives it feels like the game is being way too harsh.

As for the graphics, Megaman Zero is definitely top tier there. The colors are very nice and the effects are ahead of their time. This could easily pass for a DS game. It’s sprites at their finest and so it can challenge the earlier shaded style of the DS and 3DS. It all looks perfectly dark and dreary to match the tone while still using a lot of colors. Zero is more of a dark purple than a light red like in the old games for example. Then the soundtrack is top tier as well. A lot of the tunes here would go on to be fan favorites and I often enjoy listening to them online.

Overall, Megaman Zero is a fun game, but one that does have its share of issues. The game is very short and you would be done with it in about an hour if you actually manage to win the levels. I got to the final level in about an hour after all and it would have been sooner if I didn’t stop to grind out the weapon levels. The difficulty should make this longer than an hour of course, but it feels artificial to an extent. The lives should not be limited and should replenish when you get a game over like in other titles. The soundtrack and smooth gameplay ensure that you’ll still have a lot of fun. You’ll probably end up watching the cutscenes online so you actually see how it ends. It’s all very engaging. If you don’t mind only experiencing some of the game then I definitely recommend buying it. Otherwise you should start with Zero 2.

Overall 6/10

Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts Review

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It’s been a little while since I went back to one of the SNES games, but it was time to change that and what better game to jump into than Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts? It’s a pretty classic 2D platformer and a title that holds up quite well over the years. The game’s rather short, but it is very old so that is pretty understandable. The ending is the only thing that limits the game to an extent but I wouldn’t say that it affects the score.

The plot of the game is that demons have kidnapped the princess. The main character must now head off into the unknown in order to save her. To do this he will need to conquer legions of monsters and other deadly foes until he makes it to the castle. It won’t be easy, but this guy does have some experience in this arena. The game has around 8-9 levels and you should be able to clear it in about an hour. It’ll depend partially on how often you die and if you use the rewind feature or not. I certainly spammed the life out of that button but for those of you who do not wish to resort to such tactics you will likely appreciate the difficulty level. I wouldn’t say that the game ever gets unfair, it’s just unrelenting if you make a mistake.

A single error on your part will likely result in your death. I don’t know if you have to restart the level or the whole game when you lose since I never let it get that far but if it’s like most titles then you would need to restart from scratch if you get a game over. So long as you can avoid doing that then you should be fine. As you go through the levels you will encounter various weapons. You can only have one weapon at a time so you really have to think carefully about getting a new one. My personal favorite was the fire ball so once I had that I was not going to go back to a sword or any of the other options. None of them seem flat out worse than the others except for the slow boomerang so it’ll depend on how you want to play the matchup. Once you find your perfect weapon then it’s off to the races.

The graphics are pretty solid and the game actually had an opening cutscene which impressed me. Even if there isn’t a lot of story beyond the intro I’m still glad to have that much. It’s something that was not always a guarantee back in the day. The soundtrack is pretty reasonable. I wouldn’t call it the most memorable tune out there, but it worked well enough if you ask me. I was able to get behind this and the gameplay is always more fun when you have something to listen too.

I realize that I didn’t speak much on the gameplay, but it’s pretty self explanatory. You use your weapon to slay any enemies you get in your way as you aim to get to the end of the level. At the end there is a boss you will face and upon defeating the creature you are able to get into the next level. There are no crazy jumps and the platforming is actually pretty mild next to most of the others. It’s more combat focused than anything else.

There isn’t really any replay value after completing the game though. So the full game should last you about an hour and then if you want to 100% that maybe make it 2 hours. When you reach the end of the game the ending you get will depend on some factor in the levels. The Princess seems to hint that you had to grab some collectibles along the way but I must admit that I did not notice anything like that in my travels. So I got the fake ending where they start you back at the beginning of the game again. No way I was going to do the whole thing again just for a quick cutscene but if that’s up your alley then it’s certainly something to look into.

Overall, Super Ghouls is a pretty cool sounding title and the game is a lot of fun. I really can’t see you not having a blast with this one. It’s really got everything you could ask for in a game and then some. Keep in mind that it’s a short one but if you already have the SNES Online package then it’s effectively free. There’s no real downside to giving it a shot so you may as well do that. We’re getting some new games added to the service soon so I’ll definitely be ready to try those. The collection for the SNES is getting more and more impressive with each passing month.

Overall 7/10