Tag Archives: Puzzle

Poppy Playtime Chapter 5 Review

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It’s time to return to Poppy Playtime! I think the biggest mandela effect here is that it’s Poppy Playtime vs Poppy’s Playtime. I dunno I’m used to the latter version but apparently it’s never been like that. The adventure continues on here as the lead is still stuck in this facility with no way out. This place sure was huge and it looks like the journey to the end is going to get a bit longer for him. If you thought that the villains were out of cards, think again!

The game picks up where the last one left off with Huggy Wuggy about to finish you off for good. There is no escape, no way out. Only death awaits but fortunately it turns out that there was a door behind you so you escape with that. At this point it’s hard to say if there is anyone left to save so you just have to get out of the facility but there appear to be more creatures across every corner. Additionally we learn a bit more about the origins of these creatures.

Chapter 5 brings in the main gloves from the first 3 games but changes out a few of the ones from game 4 for new controls. You now have a steam hand that can be used to overload doors and push objects as well as an elemental hand that can control the powers of fire and ice. It allows the game to have fun with more puzzle variations outside of the usual hand movements. As a result this is the first time I’ve completed the game without needing to use my grabbers over 200-300 times and got that bonus trophy. So that was pretty neat.

As always there is going to be a big mix of chase scenes and puzzles. The chases tend to be my favorite as they can get legitimately difficult and force you to really memorize the map. The toughest part is always transitioning from crouching to running. I tend to get eaten a few times during the chases but the check points are spaced well so retrying isn’t a big problem. At most I can say it would be nice not to have to sit through the quotes every time you die but that’s a staple of the series.

Most deaths are also spaced after an unskippable cutscene so you don’t have to wait too long. The only exception is during a tense game of green light/red light. Although it’s not like I died a ton of times so maybe there are other tricky death points. As for the puzzles, they are consistently better than other games. Puzzles can be really hit or miss for me but most of these felt rather balanced. There are maybe a few that are super unclear but most of them you can brute force your way out of when needed.

This may be the darkest game in some respects. It’s hard to say though, maybe that should be the earlier part with the hour of joy. You get to see a lot more of what the kids and toys had to go through here. While it is done stylistically with the toys, the whole intro is pretty disturbing with the outimals. The game uses your imagination as the scare factor here which is how it can keep to a T rating. So you are given enough tools to picture what happened without seeing anything. The better your imagination, the darker it gets. All in all, nothing too crazy but the game does want to really remind you how tough things are.

We don’t have the kid in your ear trying to tell you that everything will be okay this time after all of the twists in the 4th game. So this time you have a little guy here as your moral support but he wanders off for most of the game anyway. As a result the game is a little quieter even with the various audio tapes around. This was nearly the first game where I got all of the audio tapes on my first playthrough but unfortunately I missed one which held me back. I saw the VCR and everything but could not find the tape.

The graphics have definitely improved from the last game. I would say without a doubt that this is the best looking out of the Poppy games. They’ve done a great job with the colors and designs. I would also say that the sound effects are nice and eerie for the game. There isn’t much of a soundtrack here but I’ll give it a bit of a pass given the horror vibes of the game. Not a full pass mind you since horror games should still have great music but at least I understand where it’s coming from.

The game is fairly short like most Poppy titles but does last for 5 hours which I believe does make it the longest game in the series. It’s a bit easier than some of the earlier parts but still has enough difficulty where I would expect you to lose several times during the playthrough. There is an extra trophy in it for you if you can beat the game without dying though. Getting the platinum would be very difficult in this game because of how specific the trophies are. You would need to complete the game under a certain time limit and without dying. Given the constant auto saves, it’s a bit tough to get around that but there is probably some trick to it.

Every game has a big boss and of course this one is no different. She has a fairly strong powerset even if her design isn’t quite as scary as most of the previous enemies. They’re going for more of a crazy angle with her. I’d say she leaves more of an impression than the crazy doctor from a while back and even beats Doughy but is not on the level of Huggy Wuggy or Catnap. Those bosses are definitely all time threats.

Overall, I definitely recommend checking Poppy out. There are a few glitches that will cause you to have to restart the game but that’s normal for while it is new. A patch will probably fix this. Just try not to go too fast, the glitches tend to happen if you do something before the game is ready for it. This especially happens during one of the flashbacks where you have to pick some toys up. You never lose too much progress though. As we get closer to the end, we’ll see what the main character can do to finally get a win here. He is probably going to need a full on hand gun at this point. The game ends on a pretty weak cliffhanger but I’m sure there will be a lot of fun theories to come out of this. Either way I will definitely be there once episode 6 is out.

Overall 6/10

The Tower of Druaga Review

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This is easily one of the worst NES titles that I’ve played. I’m afraid it just hasn’t held up at all. Any game where you have a missable item that makes completing the title almost impossible is definitely going to be a thumbs down from me. It’s a super obscure gameplay decision but this isn’t the first time that I’ve run into this. So that’s already a bad thing against this title. The gameplay actually had some potential too so that’s what makes this one sad.

There are 50 levels in the game. You essentially start off in a Pac-Man type of maze. You have to find the key that is scattered somewhere within the maze and then use that to unlock a treasure chest. When you’ve done that then you will have completed the level. Rinse and repeat for 50 levels. There are various enemies and ghosts that will try to get in your way. If any of them touch you, then you lose a life. You seem to be able to slash at them and can defeat most enemies but it is unclear on exactly what enemies you can defeat. I didn’t have very much luck with defeating them.

So far this doesn’t sound so bad right? It means you will be getting a good amount of exploration done and you have to move quietly and carefully so that you don’t bump into the enemies. Well, the main problem comes midway through the game when the title suddenly turns the lights off. Now you can’t see anything and it turns out that the reason for this is because there is an item you have to get from one of the minions. This would have worked as a flashlight of sorts and by missing it, you are now in big trouble. With the help of rewind I was able to power through 2 of the dark levels but it takes an incredibly long amount of time to do that in each instance. It’s definitely not easy, to put it mildly.

This was an absolutely massive misstep by the game. It makes the later levels virtually unplayable as a result. Not only can you not see the various paths but you can’t even see the enemies in some cases which causes you to bump into them. Your only recourse is to start the game from scratch. When that is the only thing to do, you have essentially failed at being a game. There should never be a case where you are effectively soft locked like this.

To an extent you can get a small pass on this in strategy games but even then it should be something that is difficult to achieve. For example in Fire Emblem games it is absolutely possible for this to happen but in general I would say that it should be rare. More the exception to the rule if you would. In this game, odds are very high that you won’t get the light because defeating enemies is already very difficult.

The game incentivizes you to skip them and to focus all of your attention on the key. So now you have a gameplay mechanic that goes against the game itself. There also could be more gameplay mechanics like that within the title. I don’t know about them because I didn’t make it to the end of the game but it certainly feels likely to me. This is a game that is all about punishing the player and that’s a problem.

The gameplay also isn’t very smooth which is part of why defeating enemies is so difficult. It is very ease to just move too quickly or to miss something. If you really want to make a game about finding things and going backwards, well then I’d suggest making a rogue-lite kind of game. The kind of title that encourages you to play over and over again with quick runs on the back-end. If you develop a game like that, then you could have game ending scenarios. I would still recommend not making it quite as easy to fall into as this game though. No matter how you look at it, this feels too excessive.

As for the graphics, well it looks okay. The game is definitely old and the graphics reflect that but at the same time it doesn’t look below average or anything like that. I would say it fits in with the rest of the games well enough. As for the soundtrack, it’s certainly on the bland side but that was the case for a lot of the NES titles back in the day. So even this is more par for the course really. The technicals are not holding the gameplay back, it is simply the game design which did that.

In terms of replay value, well I believe the game does loop after 50 levels so you can keep on trying to play it and see how far you go. That’s the only kind of replay value here though and the original 50 levels should only take you around 2-3 hours to get through. As long as you don’t lose or miss any items. The amount of content here is about up to standard as well.

Overall, If you have the Switch Online then you have access to hundreds of other great games. I would recommend playing those instead of checking this one out. It’s easily one of the weaker games that I’ve played through and that’s saying something. It is definitely not the kind of game that will become your favorite franchise going forward. Trust me on that one. That said, maybe I’ll check out another game in the series because it sounds like it is a very different kind of experience. You can only go up after a title like this as well. It’s pretty rare to play a game that I would say is downright “bad” so in a way that will end up making this one fairly memorable, more so than if it was actually good.

Overall 3/10

The Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection Review

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It’s time for a pair of exploration type games which have a whole lot of mystery within them. What is really going on and who are the enemies that need to be defeated? These questions will be getting answered as you get deeper into the adventure. The games have a unique atmosphere to them and definitely makes you feel like you’re getting a true indie type experience. That said, clumsy controls do keep the games from being better.

Ico starts off with a kid finding a girl who was captured inside of a castle. He manages to free her but there is no easy way to escape this place. For now he will need to activate a lot of devices and use that to try and find a way out of here. It won’t be easy but he has a lot of tenacity and won’t be backing down. There is also a mysterious queen of evil who seeks to get in your way.

The game has a whole lot of puzzles for you to solve. To help with this, the gameplay itself s really simple. You only have 2-3 controls here. You can swing your sword, jump, and grab onto things. That’s it so then when the puzzles come up you have to figure out a way to solve each instance while only using these 3 abilities. In some ways that makes it rougher on your end when you can’t figure something out because the controls should make it easy.

There was definitely one time where it felt like the game pulled a fast one though. You had to jump off of a pole to the next area but throughout the game you had been jumping normally. Apparently by holding down one of the buttons you would jump longer and farther. I feel like that would be hard to guess and I ended up dying many times in the meanwhile. You also have to be careful about getting too far away from the heroine or she will end up being kidnapped by the shadow creatures which is an instant game over.

Trust me, that’s a rough way to go out. I recommend saving as often as you can although it’s not always the easiest thing. You have to go to one of the benches with the heroine to save. There aren’t a whole lot of them in the game but granted, it’s not like the game is super long. Swinging the sword around is definitely fun and I enjoyed the final boss but I do wish there was more combat. The platforming part of the gameplay could often be way too clunky while at least the fights are straight forward.

The art style works well for the ambiance though. I will give the game some credit there and the soundtrack is also pretty solid. The stakes always feel really high and a good chunk of the climax takes place during a thunderstorm which was handled really well. You could really hear the boom in the background and that’s also when the visuals are at their best. This one isn’t trying to be the big AAA title in terms of visuals but leveraged the style really well.

Then in Shadow of the Colossus we play as a guy who needs to save a girl who is currently in a coma. In order to wake her up, he needs to defeat the 16 Colossus that are scattered around the land. It won’t be easy since he only has a sword. The game is really built around locating the colossus and then taking them down. The combat is all built around balance as you use the sword to hang on until you get to the weak points. You could say this is equal parts exploring puzzles and then combat puzzles.

I was glad to see the action part at the forefront although I will say that the game goes out of its way to make some of these fights extremely painful. When you fall off of the Colossus then you have to climb all the way back up each time which usually revolves around waiting for specific actions to happen. This means you can’t just go in and land a bunch of attacks right away. Then once you’re on the Colossus, part of it seems to be RNG.

There were one or two bosses where I kept getting shaken off but then I’d land again and this time they couldn’t shake me off at all. So I’d stab quickly until I took all of the health down. Like with Ico I’d say that the gameplay can be super clunky which also makes this a bit more difficult than it would be normally. Platforming and quick movements can be tough for any title but I feel like it really stood out here the whole time. This collection’s mistake was really in focusing so hard on realism that it forgot the fun part. Letting the character jump farther and move faster would have automatically helped out quite a bit.

If the games could tighten up the gameplay like when riding the horse or jumping around, it would make a world of difference. The quality of life features/enhancements are what would really turn this into a winning title. The games certainly can’t be called generic or anything like that though and I do see the appeal. If the intrigue can override the gameplay for you then that should be enough for this one to claim victory. I’d be interested in seeing how a modern sequel would fare although I can’t say that I would have super high hopes for it.

Overall, This is definitely a collection that will give you a run for your money. The games aren’t very long or anything like that but at the same time they are difficult. You won’t be just barreling through these. Both games took me longer than the estimated time to complete which is pretty rare since it is usually the other way around. I would have liked to have had more of a story here but at least we do get true endings in each time. These games are more for visual storytelling than a cinematic presence which I understand. Ultimately it ends up being in the middle of the pack for me but if you really like the concepts here then you should have a good time.

Overall 5/10

The Bionic Commando Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall 4/10

StarTropics Review

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StarTropics is one of those games that definitely comes off as real strange and different. It’s certainly not your average title but at the same time this also means that it can often times be a little too ambitious for its own good. There are a whole lot of puzzles here after all and they tend to break up the gameplay. The gameplay itself isn’t bad for the most part but some of the bosses can randomly get annoying. It’s the type of game that you probably would not have had a whole lot of fun with if you had played it without the rewind feature.

The story is at least pretty crazy in a way you wouldn’t see in newer games. You have gods and monsters, robots and aliens. All kinds of different lores smashing together here where a kid has to basically contend with all of them as he travels across the world trying to find his uncle who went missing very suddenly. You’d think a boy and his yoyo would not go far but that would just mean you never played Earthbound. This main character is as tough as they get and even knows how to pilot a submarine.

The game is wacky and fast paced so if the gameplay could keep up then we would be all set. Mainly it uses a top down style like Legend of Zelda although some of the fights become more turn based. It’s a game that desperately needed more quality of life features though. For starters the game isn’t always very clear on where you are supposed to go next. It is extremely easy to get lost and the NPCs don’t tend to offer very clear advice.

It’s not as if the world is huge so you will eventually get unlost but it isn’t always even about the location. Sometimes you have to talk to people more than once in order to get them to open up and really talk to you. It puts you in a paranoid state where you have to keep on talking to people over and over again just in case something is different. I got stuck early on because I didn’t realize you had to talk to the chief twice in a row. Yes, you heard me right “Twice in a row”.

So if you talked to him and left the hut, when you got back he would still start with the first line. You had to click twice and I don’t understand how anyone is expected to reasonably know this. The game has a lot of moments like this where it feels like the rational move just wasn’t thought of. The game design just shouldn’t work like that as nobody normally talks to NPCs twice. At the very least, I can say that I don’t tend to go out of my way to do anything like that.

It’s why the best kind of puzzles are found in games like Professor Layton. You use clues and logical deduction to put the pieces together. It’s a puzzle that has a concrete beginning and ending. You aren’t just told to go find something in the distance. You have a puzzle in front of you to solve and then you solve it as smoothly as possible. It’s why puzzle games stick to their lane and you shouldn’t mix the genre with platforming. That just doesn’t tend to work.

The graphics aren’t all that bad. Yeah they definitely look super old but the game itself is very old. The art direction for it was about what you would expect and there’s nothing wrong with that. The soundtrack is on the forgettable side as well. In short, it’s not the kind of game you would generally pay money to play nowadays. I’m not sure if I would have paid much money to play it back in the day either to be honest but the times were different.

Overall, I want to emphasize that this isn’t a bad game. It’s just not a good one either. It’s the perfect example of a game that would end up falling right in the middle because it just goes through a lot of stretches where it isn’t very fun. It really can feel like work to solve those puzzles but at least the story was good and it could have been worse. The technical details don’t really help it either. So right in the middle makes a lot of sense to me. Maybe some tropical music could have helped the game at least be more memorable in the long run.

Overall 5/10

Kirby’s Star Stacker Review

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It’s time for one of those Kirby games that is so obscure nobody has heard of it. I didn’t think this was even possible but sure enough, it was a whole new experience. I could finally see what the retro Kirby was like. The game is fun enough but a bit on the limited side. It adds a new dimension to the stacking type of games with how the gameplay works but once you’re past that gimmick there isn’t really anything else left. At that point you’ve really seen everything that the game has to offer. Not saying that’s a bad thing, but it does mean the gameplay really needs to impress you.

There are 4 difficulty levels here. The first two are super easy, the last one is super tough. So you could say the third one is the best level to get familiar with things. Basically you need to make matches with at least two items of the same type. When you match enough of them, you summon stars to defeat King Dedede. Additionally there are stars scattered throughout the level and matching two items across from a star will automatically use it as well. This is where the main gimmick comes in. It’s not enough to be making basic matches here, you need to get really creative and make matches from long distance. If you can pull this off then you will be able to beat the levels easily.

The first difficulty has 8 levels and each level takes around 25 seconds so this is fast. The next one has 16 levels and they take around a minute so that’s a bit longer. Then the final one presumably has 32 with the third being 24 but I don’t know for sure. With the final one I just had fun doing a few levels here and there but by the end it definitely got old. Not the kind of game where I felt like I absolutely had to complete everything.

There is no story here after all so you’re just playing for the love of the game at this point. You go through all of the levels to prove to yourself that you still have what it takes. While there is some repetition, it’s not like the game is super long or anything. I can see why this one wasn’t remembered very well though because ultimately it’s just not going to last very long. I imagine even if you bought the game for full price on day 1, you probably wouldn’t stick with it for more than a week. Even that is probably an overly cautious estimate. There’s also just not a whole lot to say about the game in general either because the gameplay is so simple. Not in a bad way but it means that everyone knows what you are talking about right away.

The graphics aren’t bad but of course there are no colors for the Game Boy titles when playing on the Switch. Kind of removes any charm the game might have had there. The soundtrack wasn’t bad though. Nothing particularly memorable I gotta say but it still gets the job done well enough. Ultimately this is a Kirby title after all and you’re just happy to see the little guy running around. The game has a very calm atmosphere about it.

At least with the highest difficulty there is a real challenge here if you want one. If they ever announced a sequel I would be interested but it would definitely be conditional on their adding more content to the game. Throw in a story and I’ll have fun no matter what the gameplay is like. Trust me, that’s really all I need there. At least if you want me to spend money on a game. Now the next Kirby game for me to play might be the elusive Planet Robo.

Overall, Kirby’s Star Stacker is a good game but it doesn’t really bring a whole lot to the table. Nowadays you would expect this to be the kind of game that you would find on the app store for free. Buying it as an actual paid title is just crazy. Even if you really enjoy the Tetris type gameplay, there is a real lack of content here. Ultimately I would not be able to defend it. Of course you tend to be a little softer on it when you end up playing the game for free. At least that’s the way I see it.

Overall 6/10

Tomb Raider I-III Remastered Review

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Tomb Raider is one of those franchises that is super well known but I actually have not played most of them. Crazy right? Well it was time to play 3 of the original ones via this collection but unfortunately the games have not aged well. The level designs can be rather brutal and the whole game seems focused on trying to defeat you in the most obnoxious and sudden ways possible. You’ll need to strap yourself in because you’re definitely going to be here for a very long time. The total collection took me over 50 hours to complete it and that’s without playing the 3 separate post/tie-in games that have their own sets of trophies.

Lara Croft is often thrown right into the action in each of the games. Sometimes she doesn’t really have much context on what is happening and other times she is following a lead. Each game has a full story and cinematics but the third game definitely has the largest amount of them which I appreciated. More cutscenes is always a good thing to really get you hyped on what is going on. Each of the games have their strengths as well. The first game has the best main villain and the best final level, the second game has the best combat gameplay, and the third one has the most cutscenes. That said they all do tend to share the same issues which is what really holds the title back.

The first thing I would say is to make sure that you have changed the controls to modern. Immediately you will feel a huge difference here as everything is a lot smoother across the board. You can actually turn without falling and everything. It’s not perfect mind you as Lara runs quickly and you’ll still fall a ton. it’s one of the many reasons why you need to quick save constantly to avoid deaths that set you back a great deal of time. that said, you also have to be careful that you don’t save yourself in an unwinnable position. That happened to me twice which meant I had to restart the whole level. I lost about an hour that way so yeah be careful.

The game keeps track of how many times you’ve saved which is pretty near. The first game I needed around 300 quick saves but in both games 2 and 3 I needed over 600. Shows you just how hard the games were and why it took me 50+ hours. It’s extremely easy to get lost in the games even with modern lighting. I should note now that al of my complaints with the modern version would be 10X worse without modern mode. There are many stages and areas that are extremely dark. You have flares to light things up but I would be going through those really quickly. The game would be virtually unplayable between that and not having quick saves.

Almost every level will have some kind of super unreasonable puzzle that takes you ages and ages to figure out. Then there is also the occasional glitch like bullets not dealing any damage or falling through a wall. They’re very rare but each instance is definitely annoying. If you missed a key anywhere you sometimes have to backtrack a very great distance. The levels are al made to be like mazes that intertwine as well so you can lose your sense of direction right away. Not the spot you want to find yourself in.

All of the instant deaths are rough but the worst is probably fire. If you even touch any fire then you get lit up and the only way to save yourself is to find water. Often times there is no water around so you just have to reset and go back to the previous save state. Also make sure you find all of the big guns because if you don’t have them then you’re in trouble. Particularly in the second game where every enemy hits like a tank. The third game is much easier in that regard as the enemies never appear to be that crazy. You get the legendary desert eagle in the final game which can wipe out virtually any foe right away. Even the final boss was absolutely shredded against this gun.

So in the end the biggest problem that the Tomb Raider game has is that they’re just not fun. Often times you are forcing yourself to get through the level but you just want to put the game down. Too many unrefined parts of the title exist like the gameplay, jumping, level designs, etc. Every time you start to have a little fun you are quickly brought to another annoying section of the level that will have you stumped for at least an hour. Rough stuff all around. Every game has to try and balance the difficulty and puzzle mechanics along with the fun factor and this one did not do the math right. The fun must always heavily outweigh everything else and that was not what happened here. Not even close and that’s why the game gets the rare distinction of being put in the under average category. Being fun is the biggest objective for any game after all.

Despite that, the cutscenes are fun though. The graphics look good for them and I do like all of the witty banter from Lara herself. She is definitely a really fun heroine and it’s fun to see all of the action going on. The first game in particular has the best climax as the enemies invade her home and she has to fight them all off. Now that was really cool. The next two games couldn’t quite top that but it would be difficult to do that for any title.

The soundtrack is okay when it appears but the sound mixing is not great. Often times the music is way lower than the soundtracks and then it vanishes for large parts of the stages as well. The game could have really benefited from having a real soundtrack there the whole time. Music can always enhance and improve different scenes by flaring up the emotions and this one needed that instead of the heavy silence that would often appear. Then you’d need to raise the volume for cutscenes since the dialogue would be low and then lower it again because of how strong the gunshots were.

Well, it goes without saying that there is a ton of replay value here. Over 50 hours of content is absolutely crazy and that will go to around 70+ if you play the expansions for each game. If you end up liking the titles then this would be a complete bargain. It’s rare to be getting any game with that sheer amount of playtime and it’s why people do like collections quite a bit. Just be ready to have to deal with a whole lot of puzzles.

Overall, Tomb Raider is a series that I like the concept of way more than the execution. By all accounts this should be a terrific series with an excellent lead and stories that know how to have a little fun. Lara literally takes on gods, dinosaurs, monsters, and magical beings. All just armed with some guns and her intuition. It’s a great kind of premise here. Unfortunately puzzles are often the Achilles heel of any good game and since the titles are built around not just puzzles but the levels working as interactive ones…there really wasn’t any way to get around that. If you like puzzles then you should check these games out but if not then you should probably skip this title and stay far away.

Overall 4/10

Sutte Hakkun Review

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It’s time for a puzzle title but unfortunately this is not one of the top tier ones. The mechanics are interesting to be sure but I wouldn’t say that they are all that good. They get old pretty fast and so you are unlikely to go through all of the puzzles in the game. Kudos to whoever pulls it off though. The puzzles are really difficult too so it’s not like you can just dive through them either. This is not a game for the faint of heart as you will have to keep on thinking hard all the way through.

The main goal of the game is to reach a rainbow gem in each level. In order to get to this gem you have to use your blood sucking skills to alter blocks. Each block in front of you can be made to move in different directions based on the kind of energy that you give it. Yellow goes diagonally while blue goes up for example. You can jump on top of blocks but can’t inject colors while in mid air. A lot of the puzzles involve timing so you want to be careful on the order of when you do things. That is absolutely important here.

If you make a mistake and get stuck you can always reset the level. Each level is a one room puzzle so at least you don’t have to back track a lot if you lose. Each world has 10-15 levels within it. Once you complete the levels in a world then you move on to the next one. You also don’t have to play through the levels fully chronologically either. You can mix and match as some puzzles might be easier for you to solve than others. Due to the way puzzles work in general, you may find that later ones are easier than the one you’re stuck at.

Although I don’t imagine that will be the case forever. As the worlds go on, even the weakest puzzle will probably still beat the strongest from a previous world. The setup really allows for a ton of difficulty jumps with how many blocks are in play at once. I very quickly got conquered myself. These puzzles were more than I was prepared for and I can say that with absolute confidence here.

The sheer amount of levels is super impressive. The game has at least 60-70 but it is probably over 100. Thinking of that many puzzles in general is already impressive. I always thought that had to be one of the most difficult things about game design because you have to come up with a puzzle that works without there being a way to break it and solve without following the right steps. Of course some games may allow that but in general the devs don’t want you to cheese the solutions. They want you to actually solve the puzzles which is the entire point of the game right?

The graphics aren’t bad although they are nothing to write home about. It’s a very basic kind of art style that works well for a minimalist kind of game like this. The screen is always clear and only basic colors are used. You’re ether into that kind of thing or you’re not. If you’re not then this could be a very long experience for you. The soundtrack is not really going to be popping off either. So you’re really here for the gameplay all the way through. If you don’t enjoy the gameplay then I don’t see how you will be able to enjoy any other part of the title.

Overall, Sutte Hakkun is a very unique game. I have to give it full points on creativity here. You are unlikely to see another game that is quite the same as this one. Unfortunately it is an example of a game not being able to get by on creativity alone. It’s just not all that fun by the end of it and that’s considering that I didn’t play through all of the levels. This is a game that has a massive amount of content so you can give the devs credit there. To someone who finds the gameplay to be very fun, they will have an excellent time all around. As for me, I’ll wait for the next Mario title.

Overall 4/10

Tetris DX Review

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Tetris is one of those games that is known to be virtually timeless. It continues to get more and more alternate versions but people always love pulling up the original. The reason is because good gameplay is good gameplay. As long as that part ages well then the rest of the game will quickly follow suit. For the most part you can see how it surpasses the legacy of the original although I do miss the hand drawn illustrations.

There are a few different modes here that you will notice right away. You have the classic mode here as well as survival mode and a number of others like marathon mode. They’re all pretty similar but of course there are key differences in each of them. It’ll take you a while to go through them all though so you’ll need some time here. I made sure to go through each of the modes to see how they played. Generally I’d say my favorite is classic but what I liked about some of the other modes is that they had endings.

For example, in one mode you have to see how quickly you can complete 30 lines within Tetris. The faster you do it, the higher your score is. It gives you something to try and surpass. Technically speaking the main mode had an ending point as well but very few people have ever managed to get there. I remember a kid made the news for accomplishing this because it was such a massive feat. It’s not something that just anyone could do. I could probably play the game for decades and not accomplish this feat which is really saying something.

The graphics are good here. It’s not like Tetris is the kind of game that shows off with a bunch of graphics or anything like that but the ones that are there are quite solid. The soundtrack is more on the forgettable side though. They have 3 different tracks you can choose from and they’re not bad. Just nothing to write home about, I would say they feel closer to public domain music than anything. Imagine hearing a lot of awesome beats while playing instead? Getting in Mario, F-Zero, Pokemon, and any other kind of music would be cool.

I imagine that the top level talents in Tetris may not want to hear any of that since it’ll distract from the gameplay but as a casual player, I’d certainly be down to hear some good tracs like that. It’ll just make the whole game pop more if you ask me. Naturally the replay value here is basically infinite as you can keep on playing more and more with every round being lightly different. Ultimately you just need to get the patterns down and then you can really operate on a high level but of course that is easier said than done. I feel pretty familiar with some of the shape combos but certainly not all of them.

Also after playing a few different Tetris titles, it can definitely be hard knowing the columns as well. Occasionally I would put a piece down in the wrong column by mistake so that’s something you’ll need to get used to. The spacing and such can look a bit different across all of the games even though the gameplay itself is really solid. This is just on the player at the end of the day.

There’s not a whole lot to really say about the game beyond this though. Tetris is a pretty easy to understand game after all and it’s not as if there are a whole lot of modes or variance. So you’ll know right away if you are going to like it or not. I’m still waiting for somebody to make a really story focused version of Tetris. That could really sell gangbusters because it really hasn’t been done yet. The story would draw in the more casual players like me who would otherwise not go our of their way to purchase the game. More players = more revenue. The games can thank me later!

Overall, Tetris DX is definitely a solid game. It’s a fun time even if you may not be here for long. It won’t quite top some of the other classics like Tetris 99 which has done a real good job of revolutionizing the genre. That one really took the series to new heights. The graphics here have held up well though and so it is definitely pleasant to play through. It’s free with the Nintendo Switch Online so I would definitely recommend checking it out. The more rounds of Tetris that you have played across different versions, the more you can really say that you are a Tetris pro.

Overall 6/10