Tag Archives: PS4

Spider-Man Review

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After all these years I have finally played the big Spider-Man game that came out many years ago. This one really made a whole lot of waves and it’s easy to see why. They clearly put a lot of budget into it and the world is very expansive. There are so many different collectibles and side missions to go through. I guarantee you will be playing this game for a very long time, you can trust me on that.

The game starts off with introducing us to a very experienced Spider-Man. He’s been at the game for a very long time and has saved the world more times than we can count. Well, he’s going to be up at bat once more because the Demons have shown up to take control of the city now that the Kingpin is behind bars. This new gang is absolutely ruthless and they have dangerous plans for the city. They have a beef with Norman Osborne and its one that threatens to destroy even the innocent civilians who have nothing to do with this. Can Spider-Man save everyone this time?

It’s really nice to see an older Peter Parker who already has a handle on things. The game puts a lot of emphasis on his scientific knowledge as well so you can definitely expect to see him inventing a lot of things and generally being a handy guy. The game works these in as minigames which are fun enough. Admittedly I was always ready to just go out there and enjoy the combat some more but the minigames are fairly short so it’s not a big deal. The story itself is definitely excellent and you are going to have a good time here. It’s a fairly sizable campaign too so you won’t be completing it too quickly.

Then you have the primary gameplay which is definitely really solid. The game makes incredible use of the spider sense as you weave in and out of attacks. It’s all very fast paced and you can approach the game in many different ways. The combat just gives you a lot of freedom and of course you can imagine that I tend to go for a more hyper aggressive style. I just want to take down every enemy in my way and that’s sometimes going to be more of a challenge. The game does want you to opt for stealth sometimes and I try but I usually get spotted anyway. Most of the levels are about being Spider-Man and generally dominating but you do have the occasional level as Mary Jane or Miles which are complete stealth missions.

I didn’t mind them but I’m sure I would have gotten more tired of them if these levels popped up too often. As it is, they were a solid change of pace. Each level can be beaten quickly if you want to get to the end or you can explore a bit and pick up a lot of easter eggs/foreshadowing for the future. I’m impressed at how interactive every part of the game is. This is exactly the kind of title you think about when you hear the words “AAA game”. It’s a term that has gotten a bit watered down over the years but this is a great example of a title that had a lot of effort and care put into it.

It goes without saying that the graphics are excellent here. It is going for a more movie/cinematic type of artstyle so it may not quite look as sharp as the more colorful titles but it still works really well. It’s always fun to see New York City in a big game like this as well. They got in so many different landmarks and it’s really impressive. The soundtrack is a bit less noticeable. It’s good and all but not great so I wouldn’t expect it to be knocking you out of the park or anything. It performs its job well and that’s what counts though.

In terms of replay value, well where should I even start? There are tons of suits and powers to unlock. You can upgrade your tech, and of course gather all of the trophies associated with the game. It’ll take a while to really do all of that even if the trophies themselves aren’t super difficult. I imagine you’ll be playing for 30 hours minimum so you’re getting a whole lot of bang for your buck. The game has aged really well so it’s still not too late if you want to purchase it now.

Probably the area I’d give the most credit to within the game is how seamless the whole hub world is. You can be on your way to fight the next story mission when a crime breaks out a few blocks away. You can choose to ignore it or go over there and fight. I decided not to ignore crimes early on since they would help for trophies down the road and it’s just really smooth. After I stop the criminals I go to where I was supposed to go. On the way to objectives I would stop by to pick up backpacks and other collectibles as well. No loading times or anything like that to break up the flow. You also get faster as you level up which makes going through the city a breeze. So I rarely ever used the quick travel except for the trophy associated with it although I am glad that it is an option. It is easily one of the best hub worlds I’ve ever seen.

Overall, Spider-Man is an elite game. It’s definitely the kind of title that you think about when you are expecting a top tier comic book game. Fans of the character should be very pleased and I will be back in the world of spiders very quickly since I got the Miles Morales and Spider-Man 2 games in the same batch. So 3 big titles all in a row. We’ll see how they stack up to the original here. It’s definitely a tall act to follow after all.

Overall 9/10

Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm 4: Road to Boruto Review

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The Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm series has always been one of the top tier, elite video games of our generation. The amount of playable characters and attention to detail is absolutely uncanny! I don’t think we’ll ever see another Naruto game that can quite compete on this one’s level. It’s really the full package and a perfect end to the Ultimate Ninja Storm series. Way I see it, all other games are spinoffs until they announce a Ninja Storm 5. If you’ve been playing the series already then you know what to expect but if not, lets just say that it’s about to blow your mind!

The game picks up with the war and takes you through the rest of the series up through the first sequel movie. So it covers quite a lot of content. For the first time the series does take a few shortcuts with more anime type clips rather than doing all of the cell shaded cinematics. As you get deeper into the game it goes back to normal though. They’re both good of course but seeing the whole thing in the game’s animation style does get you a little more invested so I loved seeing that style. The story is a bit shorter than the last title but when you through in the Boruto part I would say it’s about the same length. I liked the way the story also diverges with both the Naruto and Sasuke paths. I had fun alternating to try and keep it all as chronological as possible.

The gameplay is that of a 3D fighter. You pick 3 fighters and then try to dominate your opponent in close quarters combat. You can switch fighters at will or use them as assists. The characters all have great combos and the final smashes are as cinematic as ever. Each fight is very fast paced and fluid. It’s some of the cleanest 3D fighting you will ever see. We also have the quick time events for the story mode battles and even a few alternate gameplay type moments like the Kaiju type fights. Those are always fun as well although I’m not nearly as good at those. Getting S ranks there feels like an extremely difficult task if you ask me.

So you can expect to spend at least 10-15 hours on the story. After that there is also an Adventure mode with tons of content and also good ole survival mode. Don’t expect this to be easy either. The survival mode actually gives you a good run for your money and the intimidating thing is how long it can be. For example one trophy is to defeat 30 opponents in a row so if you get sloppy or make a mistake 25 opponents deep, get ready to start from scratch. The trophies here definitely look very difficult. Certainly achievable as long as you train your skills though but I imagine you will be here for a very long time before you are able to knock it out.

It almost goes without saying but the graphics here are absolutely top notch. It’s great to see Naruto and the gang on the PS4. It’s really night and day compared to other games where Naruto has appeared in like Jump Force. The colors here are so vibrant and there are a ton of cool animations that aren’t just recycled among characters. The soundtrack is also pretty good. I tend to like all of the themes even if there isn’t any singular track that really stood out for me.

In terms of character balance the game seems to do a pretty good job. Some characters just seem to have final smash animations that are too long. Like you should be able to dodge or block their final smashes every single time. Rock Lee and Might Guy are two examples of this. Meanwhile some characters like Sasuke in his End of Series version are extremely useful and will hit the opponent almost every time. It’s pretty much a cheatcode in survival mode and I highly recommend using him. You can just keep on using the final smash over and over again for quick victories. Of course that does mean watching the cinematic over and over again so I hope you really enjoy it.

I’d also like to note that the fact that there are so many unique dialogue quotes for the final smash depending on your opponent is really cool. Again, it’s all the little things that help to really make this game stand out. If they could squeeze in an easter egg then that’s exactly what they do. I’m sure there are a bunch of little things that I haven’t even noticed yet. In fact, that’s a guarantee since there are a bunch of bonus missions and side quests that I haven’t even stepped into yet. So yeah this is the game that just keeps on delivering.

Overall, Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 is definitely an elite game. One that should not be underestimated at any cost. I highly recommend picking this game up immediately if you don’t already have it. It’s really the gold standard of what an anime fighting game should be like. Any series would certainly be super proud to have a title with this amount of professional development behind it. The content justifies the price many times over as well. Naruto will always be remembered as one of the most iconic and influential series of all time and titles like this do the legacy justice.

Overall 9/10

Jump Force Review

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I remember how disappointed everyone was after this game came out. Everyone was super hyped for the initial trailer and everything but the actual game sort of fell flat. I get it because the game could and should have been so much better. That said, I would still call it a great game. You get to have your favorite Jump heroes all teaming up and interacting in the story and the combat works well for the fighting aspect. Ultimately, I’m glad we got this game and I’m confident that a new one would be vastly improved since they can build off of their mistakes.

The basic story is that all of the Jump Worlds are converging with the real world. The heroes are all rather confused about what’s going on so they turn to a random organization where the head is confident that he can fix this. Goku, Naruto, and Luffy lead the 3 main teams and together they have to recruit the rest of the jump heroes and save the day. The new villains have these mysterious cubes and a dark book that allow them to make fully functional clones of all the heroes. Things are going crazy real quick so they have to be stopped.

The first thing I would note off the bat is to completely ignore the power levels here. Trust me, they make absolutely no sense here anyway. Goku, Naruto, Kenshin, etc. Everyone is portrayed to be at about the same strength and the same goes for the villains. This is all just to get all of the characters together but I do think that they should have tried a little harder to make the plot make sense. It really wouldn’t have been that hard you know? So the writing is pretty bad here but it’s still fun to see the characters around. The script makes them all sound a bit generic at times so you don’t get to see their character personalities shine through, but again it’s all just an excuse to see them running around. The story is rather weak but at least it has one. A lot of fighting games don’t even have that.

The gameplay is naturally what you are really here for and no worries, that part is really solid. It’s a 3D title like the Ultimate Ninja Storm games although it isn’t quite as polished as those since those are the golden standard across the video game industry. You use quick combos, power moves, and ultimate attacks to take down your opponents. You can freely change between characters mid combat and a big focus here is on timing. You can dodge and even counter attacks by clicking the escape button at the right time. When you do this, the enemy is always allowed to respond as well so then it becomes a back and forth game until one of you messes the timing up. This is pretty easy to do since the window you have it smaller each time. All it takes is a slight hesitation and you are out of luck.

In terms of graphics, the art style hasn’t aged all that well but the game still looks good. It was going for a hyper realistic style which as you can expect doesn’t translate very well for all of these colorful characters. It was definitely a very questionable design idea. The attacks all tend to look very flashy though although that is a double edged sword. The one weakness to the gameplay is that the cinematics all last just a smidge too long which adds up as you are playing each match. They should have cut the timing on those.

Speaking of time, get ready to see the loading screen a whole lot. I haven’t seen loading screens this long in a very long time. It’s sort of like Sonic 2006 for PS3. There are loading times after every battle and between every cutscene. For some reason the cutscenes are often broken up into multiple chunks so you will play 30 seconds, loading screen, next 30 seconds, loading screen, etc. It just keeps on happening which really keeps you busy. You want to have something on hand to multi task with during the load times.

That aside, the story is fairly lengthy though. It’ll definitely take you upwards of 15 hours to clear the campaign and aside from that there is a ton of replay value with all of the bonus missions. There are tons and tons of those to a super impressive degree. There is also a level up system so getting all of your characters to level 99 will take some time. It actually does make a difference in your stats so I recommend grinding those levels up as much as possible. Getting the Platinum trophy looks like it would be exceptionally difficult so good luck if you are aiming for that one.

Overall, Jump Force is a great game but one that is carried almost entirely by the gameplay. The modes around it can be rather lackluster and really don’t do justice to the overall premise of the game. This should have been one of those games that really wow’d you, you know? I should have still been talking about this game for years and years to come. Instead, there isn’t much reason to play it while better fighting games exist. The best you can say for it is that the game has a really fun cast of characters. That is certainly true and it will always be the main hook here but it also shows you how incredible this would have been if they had tried a little harder. So this may sound like the harshest 8 star review I’ve written but that just speaks to how much promise was here.

Overall 8/10

Override 2: Super Mech League Review

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Override 2 is a pretty fun game. It really keeps the same gameplay style of the first game although in this case it does remove the story mode entirely which is too bad. Instead you just play through a lot of tournaments and stand alone battles. It’s more like what you would find in a Tennis game where your career mode is really just about racking up wins. It works well enough in a sports context but in a fighting game like this you definitely want to see a little more. Particularly since the first game had the whole invasion plot. Ah well, at the end of the day the gameplay is the true make or break point here.

It’s a classic 3D brawler where you can use standard attacks and power moves to deliver damage to your opponents. You can also use different items from the environment to deal damage as well so you always have a lot of options. That being said, your best option is usually to watch for the glowing circle on the map and get to it. The longer you are under the light, the more you can charge up your final smash meter. That ends up coming in a whole lot of use when you’re dealing with multiple opponents. There are different rulesets you can switch between in this game. You have the classic 1 vs 1, 2 vs 2, 4 player free for all, then you have tournaments which are 3 battles in a row, battles where you fight a ton of mini robots, and also a 4 player stay in the ring challenge.

The last one feels like it was inspired by Fortnite since you start taking a whole lot of damage if you leave the ring. Your normal attacks also don’t really deal damage in this mode so you mainly want to focus on grabs. Throwing your opponent out of the circle is a great way to win. In general the game is fairly easy on most of the lower ranks but I imagine that the more I play the game, the harder it will get. For the 4 way battles I would usually hide and let them knock each other out before jumping in. In the 1 on 1 battles I found it easiest to just keep using combos and they wouldn’t fight back much.

Ranking up in the mode is rather weird. You can actually move backwards if you aren’t careful by playing the same mode on a lower rank. This tricked me a bit on the way the mode works but if you’re careful you actually can continue to go up. I got stuck on D rank for most of the modes and it just wouldn’t let me go up though. I suppose I just have to keep on winning over and over until it sticks though. Ultimately I wasn’t sticking around quite long enough for that to do the trick.

The graphics for the game are pretty solid. They’re not out of this world or anything but I thought they were pretty good. The character models are nice and I liked the attack animations. The soundtrack is more on the bland side, I wouldn’t count on seeing any tunes that you really love. They’re more the basic type all around. At least in terms of content there is a whole lot here. You have to win tons of battles to get all the way to the top in career mode which will take many hours. The game tends to go for a fairly cheap price as well so that’s something to consider as well.

You do get a lot of value here. You will have the most fun if you have someone to play with of course but the 1 player experience isn’t bad either. The gameplay is good after all which is ultimately the main thing that counts. My version brought the Ultraman characters with it which was definitely a lot of fun as well. If the gameplay was just a little faster and more intense then that would have really helped the game out. I think part of the problem is the matches can take a little while and it’s not very cinematic either.

So it’s like you’re playing more of a retro fighting game as opposed to a PS4 title. Don’t let that scare you away though. If it was $60 then that would be spooky but that’s not the price at all so it really works out here. Aside from adding a Story Mode the other main change I would add is to give all of the characters more impressive final smash attacks. The current ones don’t even have cinematics or anything like that and those really add o the experience. Not having them just doesn’t make sense. It just feels like another power attack.

Overall, This is a pretty good fighting game. While there is a lot of content, I would say it still feels rather barebones compared to other modern fighting games though. The difference in quality is night and day between this and something like Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm or Tekken. Still, if you don’t compare it to other titles then it does hold its own. The gameplay is a bit different from those after all and there is always room for more 3D brawlers around the bend. I wouldn’t exactly be pre ordering a third game if it came out but I’m still glad to be playing this one. There was enough effort put in to make this one worth it.

Overall 7/10

Granblue Fantasy Versus Review

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It’s time for a great fighting game that knows how to combine solid gameplay with a good story. This game is really the whole package and that’s why it is so much fun. It’s always cool to see the Granblue cast returning once again. Throw in an excellent soundtrack and this is a game that you won’t be forgetting any time soon. So strap in everyone because you’re going to be in for a high quality time.

The story starts with most of Gran’s friends forgetting about him and Lyria. They’re going to have to beat the memories back into everyone but this will not be an easy task. For starters, all of their friends are quite powerful. Additionally, there is a mastermind behind all of this and if he isn’t stopped soon, all of reality will be destroyed. This may be their toughest task yet but Gran and Lyria know that they are up to it. Nothing can destroy the bonds that they have forged!

There are 40 levels in the game and they tend to be fairly short but there are a lot of cutscenes in the game which help it to end up feeling longer. We’re talking full voice acting here and also some complete cinematics. So you know that you are in good hands as soon as the story starts. There is also a lot of replay value to be found around every corner. There’s hard mode, tons of extra missions, and also some kind of tower mode. Naturally you also have the vs mode which would be the main mode for replay value. You could fight against other players for everyone as you test out each character and learn how to use their combos.

The gameplay is that of a 2D fighter so you should be fairly familiar with the different standard and special moves in the game. You have super attacks, and can use your special moves with standard ones for fusion type attacks. They work like Ex moves in Street Fighter. The movement combinations can take a little getting used to though. It took me until the end of the game to be able to reliably use my final smashes since you had quite a few buttons that you needed to click at the same time. It’s not something that you could just blink and ace in an instant.

The story isn’t very difficult, you should be able to blast through it. Just remember that you can level up your gear and abilities. I only did that twice during the story when things were starting to get close and each time I would really leapfrog past a tons of levels. So if the bosses get close, just do this and you’ll be good. In general all you need to do in order to win is button mash a lot. Gran has a really good 3 hit combo that leads into any special attack so keep repeating that as often as you can.

As long as you block the occasional counter attack then you’re fine. Especially since you can carry two support abilities with you. I recommend one for healing and one for increasing your attack. Switch them from little to medium as you progress through the game and they make a huge difference. It can just be hard to remember to use them but once you make a habit out of it, you will really be all set.

In terms of graphics, there’s not much more to be said here. The game looks fantastic at all times. They really went all out on the budge here and the cinematics are also really impressive. Trust me it even looks like a CG tv show. Then for the soundtrack, it blew me away with some of the themes towards the end of the game. You had really intense anime opening type music going on and it really makes the difference in having you get invested into the climax.

If you’re a Granblue fan then you will get an extra big kick out of the game but even if you don’t know the series, you’ll have a lot of fun playing through this game. It can be easy to take a great story for granted but many story games can only dream of having a cinematic adventure like this. It just doesn’t happen very often at all and I can absolutely confirm that it elevates the game to the next level. Yes, I would have still enjoyed the game without the story since the gameplay is very solid, but the story is one of the big reasons why I won’t forget the game.

In the story you play as Gran the whole time although I think I may have been able to switch later on. I just never tried so I haven’t actually gotten to try out the other characters yet. I’ll definitely need to do that at some point. Since every character has a final smash with a whole animation, it will be fun to see what the other characters look like. I’ll definitely be returning to the game to try and get some more trophies so that’ll probably be my chance to try the other characters since often times there is a trophy for playing as everyone.

Overall, Granblue Fantasy Versus is definitely a great game. I really enjoyed it and every aspect of the title felt like it had a good amount of polish. The main menus are good, the colors are striking, and it just feels really modern. At no point will you feel like you got the short end of the stick here. There’s just too much to have fun with. I know there’s an expanded pack/sequel of sorts in Rising so that might cause some to jump ship but otherwise this is definitely a game that you should be able to hang onto and enjoy for a long while. It stands out well among its competitors. As a last gameplay tip, just remember that you need to duck to guard low attacks as the final boss will try some cheesy attacks with that. He’s the one part of the game that actually is really challenging but odds are that if you’ve made it that far already you’ll be fine. Just attack him patiently and block as needed.

Overall 8/10

Demon Slayer: The Hinokami Chronicles Review

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It’s time to look at a game that was great through and through. It goes into way more detail than I would have expected from any adaption. It’s seriously impressive and the combat in the gameplay is good. I won’t say it’s quite on Naruto Ninja Storm’s level or anything like that but I was really satisfied by the end. It’s cool to be reliving all of the big event from the show and they even got the movie in here.

The story revolves around a kid named Tanjiro who needs to destroy the demon mastermind in order to turn his sister back into a human. Along the way he meets up with a bunch of quirky characters who have their own reasons for murdering the demons. Will the humans be able to triumph here or are they going to be quickly destroyed by the overwhelming number of the villains? The demons have regeneration and numbers on their side after all. Destroying humanity isn’t just a pipe dream for them but possibly an inevitability.

So the story is definitely a lot of fun and it has complete voice acting all the way through. In a lot of ways it’s like watching the anime all over again and they actually reanimated all of the scenes with the in game engine. There are 8 chapters in the game and most of them are fairly long except for 1-2 of them. All in all the game should take you around 8 hours give or take which is a solid amount for a fighting game. Then after that you have the vs mode which has endless amounts of replay value in its own right. That is the main focus of the game after all.

This is a 3D fighter so you can use your normal attacks, special moves, and of course your final smash. I often found that the best thing to do was launch the enemy into the air at the end of your combo which allows you to start a second combo. Rather brilliant wouldn’t you agree? The computer has a really hard time breaking out of that one at least. The game can get a little hard near the end, particularly the final level which is a whole league above the rest. Your opponent has constant super armor so you have to time your attacks perfectly. Actually that reminds me of the final level in Tekken 7 a whole lot. Still you will be able to knock it out in the end. You can also go the cheesy route and just auto recover your health. The catch is that you forfeit your right to an S rank if you do that.

The graphics here are very high tier as you would expect. The character models are all on point and you can tell that a whole lot of effort went into this title. The soundtrack is also really good with a lot of tunes grabbed straight out of the anime. It’s all the little things that really help to remind you that this game was a big deal. It wasn’t just thrown together in a few minutes or anything like that. I’d definitely like to see a sequel to this title at some point.

There’s also replay value in the story itself as you can talk to people and complete side missions. You’ll need to do that if you eventually want to obtain the Platinum trophy and I can safely tell you that this is in my bucket list of things to do. Could be a while of course but it’ll always be around. You also have a solid training mode to get used to the controls and other bonuses on the main menu.

After playing as a few of the characters in the story, I can safely say that Rengoku is my favorite character to play as. His fire abilities are really intense and I feel like he has more power behind his strikes than the other characters. I suppose that makes sense though as he is a Hashira and should feel way stronger than the average Demon Slayer. It’s still a shame he couldn’t get more fights in the series but we felt his strength either way.

Overall, Demon Slayer is a great fighting game. It has solid gameplay throughout but it also spent the time to actually come up with a grand story as well and I thought that was fantastic. It went the extra mile to really pack the game full of content and I’d say it worked out. This does stand out among the many anime fighters. At this point the only thing it’s lacking is a larger character roster and I’m confident that the sequel will build that up quite a bit.

Overall 8/10

Soul Calibur VI Review

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It’s time to look at the latest installment in the Soul Calibur series. It’s definitely been a long while since I played the last one. The good news is that the actual gameplay is as great as ever. I definitely enjoyed it a great deal and so that alone already makes this a great game. On the more underwhelming side, I have to admit that the story is a real step down even though it tried to do some rather ambitious things.

The game has a main story and then a bunch of individual stories for each character. There is also an alternate story type mode where you can make an original character and run through a bunch of levels. First, the impressive part about this is how many story options you have. There is a big map that shows you where across time each character story takes place so in theory you can keep switching in between characters if you want. I didn’t do any of those yet but it’s nice that everyone gets one.

Here’s the problem though, the story is rather low effort. I played through the main story mode which is 20 chapters long and good portions of the story are told through a single illustration. Yes there is voice acting but no animation. Out of those 20 chapters, at least 5-7 didn’t even have any fights so you would just watch a long text cutscene. In a PS4 game and especially for a huge franchise like this, there should be constant cutscenes. At no point should you just be reading through the game like this.

It can be done I suppose if the illustrations are really excellent and constantly changing or if the soundtrack is just that dynamite but for the most part it’s a non starter. We only get 2-3 actual cutscenes here and they actually look good so you wonder why they didn’t do that for the whole game. I have to assume that it’s a budget thing but that’s a bad look for a huge title like Soul Calibur. So I was definitely not a fan of that, I expected much better here. The story itself also wasn’t the most interesting. The goal of finding the Soul Edge is always a classic but there’s just not much chance for things to happen before the game ends.

This is mitigated a bit by the fact that there are tons of individual stories to play through but more effort should have gone into the main story considering that it’s their main item you know? Ah well, maybe I should be happy that there is a story mode since not all fighting games have that. I’ve heard disturbing rumors that Street Fighter VI doesn’t even have one but I hope that’s not the case.

Of course there are tons of other modes to play through as well and you have the classic vs mode. You can fight offline or online and there are plenty of characters to choose from. There are also a lot of trophies to try and unlock, those are sure to take you a long while. So there’s no shortage of content to find here and the game is relatively cheap so you don’t have to break the bank trying to get it. I’d definitely say to purchase it.

While Story Mode wasn’t the ideal, the gameplay is fantastic and like I said earlier, that’s important. I like the long reach of the weapons which helps make it feel different from other fighting games. You don’t have to get as up close and personal as in other titles. Each character has many different moves to play around with and I like the attack sound effects. It still can’t beat Tekken in that arena but this may be in second place for that. The soundtrack as a whole is okay but nothing too special. The graphics are really solid though, the art style works well and this definitely looks and feels like a PS4 game which is important.

Going back to the gameplay, I like how simple the final smashes are to use. The game isn’t going out of its way to make it really convoluted or anything like that. It’s just a quick button press like the old days and then you’re off to the races. To compensate for this, the attacks don’t deal a ton of damage but they are still really handy to have. I did have to get used to pressing a button to block though as I’m really used to just holding back on the control stick. I’ll likely eat a lot of attacks while I get used to that, but eventually I’ll get the hang of it.

Overall, Soul Calibur VI is definitely a great game. I wish they would have tried a little harder on the story but if the reason is that they really had to prioritize the gameplay then I technically can’t really fault them for that. If the vs mode had ended up being no good then that would have been a massive problem right out of the gate. Feels like it’s been a minute since this one came out so they should start looking into making a seventh Soul Calibur. Hopefully they can grab more guest star characters around and try to make it the ultimate title in the series or something like that. I think that would be pretty cool.

Overall 8/10

Injustice 2 Review

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As with My Hero, I had to buy the sequel to this one right away after completing the first. Injustice was a great title with a really interesting plot and the same is true of the sequel here. It really picks up right where the first one left off but with extra content and a really big character roster. I definitely blasted through this one because you will not want to put the game down.

It starts off after the first game with Superman behind bars and most of his allies running off to bide their time. Batman has the tough mission of protecting the planet while also preventing Superman from being broken out. Meanwhile Wonder Woman and Black Adam are raising Supergirl so that she can help them rescue Superman and bring the world to its knees. A third party is around though in the form of Brainiac. He doesn’t care about the sides that the heroes have split into, he just wants to destroy the world. Will the superheroes be able to stop him or is it all over?

Yeah there’s a lot going on here the whole time and I like the fact that Brainiac was thrown in because it does make sense that villains aren’t going to wait until this civil war is over. They’re just going to jump in and take names. If anything it’s the perfect time to be a villain with how divided the heroes are. It means that there is less opposition to stop them…much less!

It’s fun to be jumping between the two teams in the chapters. Batman’s team is still the heroic one of course but at least most of the folks on Superman’s team have started to be less crazy. The big exceptions to this are Black Adam and Wonder Woman. Adam’s usually evil anyway so that fits but yeah Wonder Woman really went off the deep end in this universe. She is really a far cry from her usual self. Superman is also permanently traumatized at this point. Even when he is playing ball for a little while, he feels a lot edgier than he usually is. Definitely not someone I’d want to trust.

The gameplay is top notch. The 2D movement is very quick so something is constantly happening. At times it feels like watching a fight scene in a movie with how many attacks are being thrown out. It helps that I don’t block much and the same goes for the computer so we’re really trading blows. For the most part the game’s not too hard but I would lose a life on occasion. Sometimes they would just have me beat with the attacks. It happens from time to time. Just keep calm and you’ll take them out. They usually can’t block the final smash so keep that in the back pocket. Also if you absolutely have to, just block a bit. It really throws them off and then you can counter.

I found the easiest thing to do is hit them with a jumping attack and then a 3 hit combo. Almost every character has the ability to do this so just learn what the easy link combos are and get to work. Once you learn those it makes the whole game a lot easier. The story mode’s length is reasonable with around 13-14 chapters and each one has around 3 fights. There are a ton of cutscenes also so it’s not like you’re just fighting and then leaving the game. It goes without saying that there is really unlimited replay value here with the trophies that you can obtain as well as the high quality multiplayer mode that you can play.

This is a fighting game that really plays to its strengths. A ton of time was clearly put into the combat itself and it paid off. This is definitely one of the stronger fighting games that I’ve played in terms of gameplay. In a way it reminds me a lot of Tekken in that it has great gameplay while also keeping up a very compelling story. Definitely impressive all the way around.

The graphics are really solid here of course. As with the last game, I will say that the art style does make all of the characters look a bit on the ugly side. Like they’re all brutes and I suppose that’s just unavoidable with this look. The game could easily look way better with a more vibrant approach but it definitely would clash with the tone of the game a bit. The soundtrack is solid enough although I can’t really think of any stand out tunes here. It was all a bit more on the forgettable side.

I got the Legendary edition so a bunch of bonus characters are playable here. It’s cool to have Hellboy and one of the Ninja Turtles at the ready. Definitely pretty cool I have to say. My mains will tend to be the DC characters but I do like experimenting. In terms of pure gameplay I found Batman and Harley Quinn to be two of the best characters. Their combos are very fast which makes it easy to land a ton of hits. I tend to prefer characters like that than the slow ones. Sure the damage is intense but it can be hard to land hits.

Overall, Injustice 2 is definitely a great game. The gameplay is top notch as always and of course they did not hold anything back on the story either. The whole game is very smooth to play with all of the menus being straight forward and there are no long loading times. I’d definitely be hyped to see them make an Injustice 3 at some point. There’s definitely a whole lot more you can really do with this verse before calling it a day.

Overall 8/10

My Hero: One’s Justice 2 Review

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After the first My Hero game, I knew it was time to quickly buy the sequel and round out the story. This one really takes a lot of cues from the first game so you’re able to jump right in. Personally I dare say that it might have taken a few too many cues from it. The loading screens are the same and much of the UI is unchanged as well. There is a new story of course but for the most part it feels like they copy and pasted the last game with a new title. I can only imagine that buying it day 1 would have probably been pretty interesting.

But hey, the first game was pretty fun so if this is the same thing but with more characters and story then that just means that I’m guaranteed to have fun right? At least that’s the way that I figured it. The story is reasonably long with close to 50 chapters and then you can play through the story again from the villain’s point of view which will basically double the size of the story. The game may not have much in the way of cinematics or anything like that but it does have full voice acting with the English Dub which I definitely appreciate.

Outside of the story mode you do have a bunch of other options like Vs Mode and Mission Mode. You can have some good fun in there and of course as a fighting game this is really where the bulk of your time will be going anyway. The story won’t really last you more than a few hours but you can keep fighting against other players and the computer for a super long time. That part really doesn’t have to end any time soon. The replay value here will be unlimited as a result, particularly since there has not been a Justice 3 yet.

There are also quite a lot of trophies to obtain as well. I imagine it’ll be a long while before you have the Platinum and that will buy you more time. The going price for the game is also super cheap at the moment so that’s another thing to keep in mind. It’s not like you’re dropping $60 on this title. You can probably get it for around 10-15 if you’re looking in the right place.

The graphics look good here. I wouldn’t say that this is a top tier title by any means but it works well enough. Likewise the soundtrack is good. It has a lot of the classic tunes that you will recognize from the show. This also helps the story since there aren’t many big cutscenes, you at least want to hear the passion and the energy in the songs. I would say the game definitely succeeds there. It can even be funny how random some of the story battles are, so that will keep you chuckling when the serious music is playing.

The 3D gameplay may not be the most popular in a competitive sense, but I still enjoy it. I can see how there’s probably a little less depth to it and it’s certainly not as fast paced but it’s fun seeing the attacks fly in a 3D environment like this. The energy effects are good and every character has a good amount of techniques at their disposal. I particularly enjoyed playing characters like Deku who could chain really long combos together. I get the feeling that the game isn’t super well balanced as there are some characters who can land a 12 hit combo off of one jab while others only get a few hits. Ironically Bakugo is an example of a character who didn’t seem to be very good there.

I know every character will have their own strategies and playing styles so I wouldn’t assume to know the optimal way to play them all but all I can say is that the characters just feel like they’re on different tiers at times. That’s just my two cents though. At the end of the day you just need to try them out and in story mode at least you do get the chance to try a bunch of the characters.

Also I liked the way that the final boss goes because there was some good effort there to make it unique. You are forced to lose the first two times due to an unblockable final attack there but the villain doesn’t use it until the end so each time you think you have a shot. Then after that an option shows up to beat him once and for all. In the final round you get unlimited energy so you are encouraged to spam final smashes the way Deku kept using his abilities in the manga since Eri kept healing him. So that was an example of the game going the extra mile there since I was just expecting another normal boss fight. They even made a huge character model for the final boss so it felt more spectacular than usual. I think it shows a glimpse of what the game could be like if it treated everything with this same energy.

Overall, One’s Justice 2 is a pretty good game. It really is just a glorified port of the first title in a lot of ways as the company clearly took the easy way out of just reusing all of the assets instead of leveling up. It’s certainly a cost effective way of doing things and I can’t really fault them for it. At the end of the day the big thing is still if the game is fun and it is. It’s like Madden, I can keep playing the same game over and over as it hasn’t felt played out yet. With just two games for now, I would definitely say that this game is not played out. It may not compete with the bigger fighting games out there but every series had to start somewhere. This one will likely get better with every installment.

Overall 7/10

Tekken 7 Review

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All right, it’s time to dive into one of the biggest fighting game series around. It’s been so many years since I played Tekken 6 and 7 definitely throws you right back into the mix. I really like how strong the continuity is in this series. The events from Tekken 6 play a massive part in this one and it’s why Jin is basically out of commission the whole time. This is definitely a great game that you will absolutely want to have some fun with.

The story mainly focuses on Heihachi as the main character this time around. He has returned to lead the Mishima Zaibatsu once again. With Jin temporarily incapacitated, it is his chance to finally take down Kazuya/G Corporation and rule the world. The game even teases a tournament briefly but that is more of a fun little moment for fans. This deep into the story I feel like it’s unlikely that we will ever get such a big tournament again. There are ways you could definitely write that in but I don’t love its odds. Meanwhile you have the main character of 6 (Lars) getting some screentime as well.

It’s pretty fun to still be getting more information on what happened with Heihachi and Kazuya even this deep into the series. I can definitely say that Kazumi is a very interesting character now to be sure. Her arc definitely went into a bit of a different direction than I was expecting but it does make a whole lot of sense based on what we know about Kazuya. The bloodline had to turn at some point after all. It also does make Heihachi a much more tragic figure than he used to be.

This game might be a bit heavy handed in trying to make you feel bad for him though. Like I’m not completely convinced since in the older games he was so antagonistic. Sure it all could be a front but I just have the feeling that this origin wasn’t fully in mind back in the day. Maybe it was since certain story elements do go back that far but I’m 50/50 on it. Either way Heihachi is still a villain either way, sympathetic motives or not. It was fun to have a game from his POV though.

The only part of the story that I think should have been cut out was the reporter. Each chapter starts with this guy monologuing about stuff but he does it in the most bored voice possible. Even when he says stuff like “I was shocked!” he says it in a super deadpan way. I don’t feel like these moments added to the story at all and the whole time I’m just getting ready to go back to the good parts. It doesn’t help that these moments tend to just be illustrations with no actual animation.

The gameplay is a lot of fun as always. To date no series has made the attack sound effects quite as brutal and intense as Tekken. In this game you really feel every punch and kick. I love the electric type effects that accompany every blow as well. It really helps take things to the next level and the movement is very crisp. When you execute on a good combo you really feel good. You can also see how the skill ceiling for this game would be absolutely immense.

For the most part the story mode isn’t super tough but the final boss really goes crazy. You have to beat someone 3 times and on that last attempt he has complete super armor the whole time. It’s super hard to play around that because he can and will counter everything that you do. It took me a lot of tries but hey I eventually pulled through! So you just gotta keep it up and eventually you will make it through. I recommend just doing a lot of blocking which is something I wasn’t doing for most of the game. At least for phase 2 you absolutely need to do it because he loses his super armor after launching the final smash attack.

Meanwhile the graphics are definitely top tier here. This is a very high end PS4 title that looks like a PS5 game. A lot of effort clearly went into both the big CG cutscenes as well as the gameplay. The title was confident enough to even have cutscenes that lead straight into the gameplay. Of course there is a difference but it’s not super massive and still looks really good on both ends. Then you have the soundtrack which is definitely great. In particular the final boss theme is incredible. It’s super memorable and is a song that I’ll definitely be adding to my playlist. It really works well as the end to an era. (Although of course 8 will possibly be the true ending)

I also have to give the game a shoutout for actually making a crossover character really relevant. The fact that Akuma actually does stuff here as opposed to just being in vs mode is incredibly impressive. That means no matter what, he will always be a part of the mythos. He also gets a good amount of respect. Yeah he’s not good at finishing the job to be honest but in a fight we see that he is the strongest. Nobody’s touching that guy which makes sense. He’s always virtually unbeatable in the Street Fighter series and I’d expect the same to be true here as well. Just look at Asura’s Wrath for evidence on just how busted this guy is.

In terms of length, the main campaign is fairly short. I’d say probably about 3 hours or so, a bit less if you don’t die as many times as I did near the end. However there is a ton of replay value here like with the Arcade mode, character stories, and trying to get the Platinum trophy. Additionally this is a fighting game which means that it already has unlimited replay value in the vs mode. That’s always going to be a massive perk of any fighting game title. It’s really hard to beat that and when the gameplay is top tier like this, even more so.

Overall, Tekken 7 is a must buy not only for Tekken fans but for any fighting game enthusiast. It’s incredibly well polished with a whole lot of content to have fun with. There are so many possible combos and different attacks to play around with. I never really got the hang of using the final smashes because the button combinations are rather difficult but that just shows that you really need to stick with this one for a while.

Overall 8/10