Tag Archives: Review

Finger of Guilt Review

Posted on by
Reply


All right it’s time for a Noir title with pretty good atmosphere and an engaging plot. There is something that holds it back though and that’s the main character. He really didn’t handle things all that well here and really dug his own grave at times. That makes it so that the villain’s plan feels rather convenient as it just should not have worked at any point.

Reggie is a guy who wants to have a good Hollywood career but he has no self control. The guy got into a big fight and ended up losing his job the first time around because he was messing around and had an affair with his boss’s wife. Not a very smart move right? Then after that he finally got married to the daughter of another person he’s working for but at least this time that doesn’t mean he was cheating. The problem? Letters have started coming in from a lady who claims to have been going out with Reggie. He denies it but his wife is taking this very seriously and is worried at this point. Reggie has to set this straight but part of him wonders if maybe this is real and he just forgot.

So this is where the story loses me a little bit. Every time this kind of mystery happens, the main character starts to wonder if maybe he’s crazy. Maybe somehow he did have a secret relationship with someone and forgot about it. You can see how crazy that is right? These characters get gaslit so easily and it doesn’t make any sense. You know if you did or didn’t do something and there’s no way someone should ever be able to convince you otherwise. It’s just really convenient for the villains.

Meanwhile, Reggie looks awful once he goes to confront her. For starters he is immediately flustered and even goes as far as to try and hide the picture of him that was on her desk. This just made it very easy for her to walk in and point out to the wife that he hid it for some reason. Odd behavior if they’ve never met before right? Reggie walked into her traps constantly. Then the worst part was when he decided to make the rumors true by actually cheating on the wife with this lady.

I feel like the film really skims past this when it’s an extremely big moment. Literally he just gets drunk and decides to get together with her. Later on he said it’s because he wanted to test how far she would go if it was an act but that’s just an excuse. Of course she would go far because it just makes her story better and better. This guy really did not think things through and so later on when he’s upset and complaining about how he did nothing wrong….it’s not true because he did. This guy has no self respect or decency about him. It just ends up all being a big mess.

This is a Noir mystery and part of the fun is in seeing how things will play out so I won’t go too far into the twists but what I can say is that the villains are super lucky here. Their plan just shouldn’t work in any sane universe. Usually in a film like this you would have the mysterious lady blackmailing Reggie which is what gets him to respond but that doesn’t happen here. She never asks for money or anything and just sends him letters so that he can’t report this to the police. So all he had to do was tell the wife that the person sending letters is lying and that’s it. It only became suspicious initially because he decided to try and hide the letters instead of immediately telling his wife about them.

Then later on, all he had to do was say that the lady was crazy and move on. Instead he takes her out to a bar without telling the wife and she catches him. It’s crazy misunderstandings like this that happen time and time again in the movie. There’s always someone walking in at the perfect moment to hear something and then the situation gets worse. Once the mystery is unraveled and we get to the actual villain, Reggie has just been compromised too much by that point.

The actual main villain is also super petty and whiny. There’s nothing much to like about that character at all. This may be starting to sound rather negative but basically it’s just that the character cast is really weak. Fortunately a Noir mystery is about much more than the characters. The writing and tension means that this is still a good title, just be prepared to be rolling your eyes a whole lot throughout the movie. You just can’t feel bad for the main character at all.

Overall, Finger of Guilt is a good movie but Reggie really makes things too easy. I would argue that the villains’ plan was about as flimsy as it gets. It revolves around a ton of very convenient things happening and Reggie handling them all in the worst way possible. The writing is still good otherwise but the whole thing doesn’t feel very plausible. At least we do get a little action in the end as they manage to squeeze in a fight. I wasn’t really expecting that at such a late point in the game so it was a pretty interesting way to go. I feel like I spent most of the review talking about Reggie because he’s so awful but it’s also because the plot of the movie is very straight forward particularly when I’m not really talking about the twists. It’s him trying to figure out what’s going on while also going insane the whole time. I would have given him a sadder ending to wrap things up to be honest. Even though she was one of the villains, the mysterious lady was a lot more likable than the protagonist.

Overall 6/10

Suddenly Review

Posted on by
Reply


All right it’s time for an old school thriller. It’s a pretty fun film that goes by quickly and has interesting characters. I would say the weakest link is really the romance but that’s probably not super surprising right? I don’t think the film has the right approach on that part but the rest is good so overall I’d say we’re in the green here. It succeeds in the important ways.

The film starts by introducing us to the town of “Suddenly” where nothing really happens so the name is more on the ironic side. Everyone has a bit of fun with that part but what they don’t realize is that the town is about to live up to that name. See, the President of the United States of America will be passing by and so all of the different police groups are here to make sure nothing happens. After all they have gotten wind of an assassination attempt. The one problem? The assassins have already infiltrated the town and are keeping one family hostage. This house has the perfect angle to murder the President. Can the villains really get away with this?

This is a film where I felt like the villains would have been taken down before having a chance to fire either way but based on the ending maybe I overestimated the cops. The villains end up taking the sheriff and the head police officer so you figure that people will be searching everywhere for them right? Well, they do search a little bit but all it takes is for Ellen (One of the hostages) to assure them that the cops already left for these guys to walk away. Why not realize immediately that this wouldn’t be possible? They wouldn’t have deviated from the plan at the drop of a hat like that. It was a bit rough to see them outmaneuvered so easily.

Now as for the romance, yeah this is definitely the weakest part so lets really dive into this. The main heroine Ellen lost her husband 3 years ago and so now she raises her son Pidge by herself and lives with her father Pop. The Sheriff in town, Tod, is in love with her but she doesn’t want to move on from her husband. That’s admirable but he doesn’t see it that way. He tries to guilt trip her by saying that Pidge needs a son. Tod basically makes the case that she needs to get over it already and marry him. He has the gall to say that his offer won’t be there forever either and that she needs to stop letting everyone down. It’s crazy talk.

Tod seems to think that she owes him love because he’s been such a nice guy the whole time in helping her out and everything. That’s definitely not cool, I would expect a lot better from him. At the end of the day you can be the nicest person everywhere but that doesn’t mean you deserve a girlfriend. It’s just not the way that the ballgame works. So he was real annoying there and from that point on I was really not rooting for them to be together. Additionally you have to consider that he was openly defying/undermining her at every turn.

He knew that she didn’t want Pidge to be playing with guns and yet he buys the kid one anyway. Ellen doesn’t watch him to watch war films but Tod says that it’s okay. The worst part is that it’s portrayed like Ellen is making the mistake here as she has gotten a little too paranoid after her husband was gone but these are very reasonable requests. Also she is Pidge’s mother so she should be able to make the call on what’s objective.

I’d even say that Pidge isn’t ready for these things based on all of his outbursts. He makes so many mistakes and nearly gets everyone murdered in this film. The villains tell him not to yell? Pidge yells. Then at one point he runs to grab his fake gun which won’t work anyway and he talks really tough the whole time but can’t back any of it up. That’s a big issue as well. Yeah he’s a kid so he can’t fight but then you have to stay quiet and listen to orders. All he does is create trouble which gets old fast.

Pop is quick on the uptake at least but doesn’t do a ton here. He’s just a little too old to get in on the action but he does help come up with plans. Ellen is mainly a little too scared to do anything for a while so that leaves Tod. Tod would have been more helpful but he takes a bad injury when he is sneak attacked near the beginning which hampers him for the rest of the film. Yeah that was definitely real inconvenient which was a shame. While I didn’t care for him in the romance bits, he did a good job of talking tough in the movie while being able to back some of it up. He was actively thinking of plans and contributing so I give him the most credit here.

In general it’s the cops who don’t look great here. They just never take out their guns in time. at one point the villain is on the run and you figure they can take care of him since he’s injured and alone. Instead what happens is that he just shoots them. This guy takes out several opponents before they finally put him down. When you have a murderer on the loose and armed you really have to shoot first. Running out and yelling freeze or something like that is never a good idea.

Meanwhile the main villain John is definitely memorable. He’s a very intense villain all the way around and one that really does command respect. He is smart and tends to be 1-2 steps ahead of the other characters. He even gets a bit of a backstory which I was not really expecting the whole time. The other villains may have been more forgettable but this guy did good. That helped make all of the scenes at the house even more engaging.

Overall, A film like this always gets you thinking about how you would act in a situation like this. As Todd points out in one scene, they are effectively already dead. When you’re kidnapped in your own home like this, you have to try something because the alternative will be worse. Even if you die, you at least make sure that the villains would go next. Additionally you need to make sure that your attempt is bold enough so that you actually do die and don’t get left alive to be tortured or something like that. So there’s definitely a good amount of tension here and the script is solid all the way so you never get bored.

Overall 7/10

The Company of Wolves Review

Posted on by
Reply

This review is of the TV-14 version of the film. All thoughts below should be addressed as such as a review of the unedited version of the film would be more negative

Oh noooo it’s time for a film about wolves. Let me tell you something, these films tend to be rather lackluster at best but this one really takes the cake. It was just so bad on every level. From the plot to the violence to the characters, it was all so bad that I had tears in my eyes. You will want to avoid the movie at all costs. Get out of there as soon as possible, it is definitely not the way to go.

So the movie starts with a girl getting ready to go to sleep. She goes to sleep and everything starts moving and getting all trippy but we go back in time for another girl’s sister gets eaten by wolves and then the grandmother of the first girl tells her a story about how men with unibrows are evil. From there we lose the plot further as we have tons of stories inside of other stories with wolves murdering everybody and it just goes to show that you are not safe anywhere. It butchers the little red riding hood story so hard on every level.

Lets start jumping into the negatives here. First we have the obligatory animal violence. The wolves like to eat just about anything of course and so that does include a poor cattle that was simply minding his own business. The scene is surprisingly graphic but it gets less surprising as the time goes by. Why? Because the whole film is thriving on shock value. The transformation scenes are easily some of the most graphic that I have seen. It’s pretty crazy seeing the guy just bleed himself into a wolf. That was super crazy but more grotesque than scary. Then in another one you have a wolf coming out of the guy as if the human skin was just a suit. This one was creative though so I will say that the special effects were really good this time.

Reminds me of when Reverse Flash jumped out of some guy’s body in the CW show. That was weird and spooky without being grotesque so props there. It’s just that the props I give the movie are always very far and few in between. For every decent moment like that there are a ton where you will be shaking your head. Lets go back to the romance angle for a minute. So we’ve got this villager kid who likes the main heroine and he’s always going after her but his persistence makes him feel more like an antagonist than a good character most of the time. He basically steals a kiss at one point and she has to shove him away and he doesn’t get the hint.

They play up the fact that he’s naive but as the saying goes, no means no. He needs to accept the rejection and keep it moving. It does lead to a quick fight between the fathers which was fun but yeah that character was awful. Then in the segment with the grandmother, you’d think the girl would have more of a reaction to her grandmother being eaten. She doesn’t react as you would expect her to which will make you grown as well. That’s not a small offense, that’s literally murdering a member of your family. Pretty crazy you know?

The grandmother is so mean to everyone that it can be a bit funny. She’s constantly intentionally scaring the kid with all of these violent stories and generally being a bit of a jerk about it. My only problem here was that when it came time to actually prove her abilities, she got folded immediately. Yeah she’s old but where’s her gun or at least some kind of a dagger? She was completely unprepared despite being the expert and that was disappointing. Felt like the whole plot was rather useless as a result. At least that’s the way I see it.

Now it is clear what message the film is going for. Don’t let anybody take you away from the straight and narrow path. Don’t trust anyone since all strangers can be evil. The grandmother throws this message in constantly and you can assume the wolves are basically a metaphor. The problem is that a big message can’t save a film and it’s really just an excuse to have all of these stories. At the end of the day it doesn’t help to make them be any more connected and the film is a real bore as a result. You know that the humans can’t do much here. Yeah they can shoot one but usually it will have bit someone else who can transform.l

The humans will always be on the backfoot here and due to the anthology format, it’s not like they can get a final win anyway. All in all, this film definitely did not do anything to make me all that impressed with it. Instead it just did the opposite. I don’t think that it would have been much higher if it was all one story but probably would have been better than a 0 at least. Maybe we could have stayed in the modern day which is an infinitely better backdrop than the olden days here. The olden days with werewolves is a super bad combo.

Overall, This film was pretty bad. At no point in the film was it cooking up a good story or developing any good characters. Everyone here is on the annoying side, the romance is dreadful, and the violence is definitely over the top. I didn’t really get what the point of the whole thing was. Surely they could have thought up a better script than this right? I think the movie got a little too ambitious with all of the stories inside of a story. Having it all be chronological would have helped but even then, anthologies are always the worst kind of format. You should really have more confidence in telling a complete story.

Overall 0/10

Nosferatu the Vampyre Review

Posted on by
Reply


Oh no, we’re back to vampire world. As you can probably expect this film is pretty bad all around. The characters are sloppy and the main villain is anything but intimidating. The whole time he’s on screen you’ll be shaking your head because he’s just not really a threat. If the characters could learn how to throw a decent punch it would all be over for him but unfortunately they don’t have the speed feats needed to take the edge here. It’s a real shame when you think about it.

The movie starts off with Jonathan being given a big job from his employer Renfield. He has to go over to Dracula’s lair and sell him some real estate. The place is rather far but it’ll pay well so Jonathan goes even though Lucy begs him not too. She has seen visions of his this will go badly but he doesn’t care. He wants the money asap! Everybody is scared or Dracula though so he can’t use a horse and as a result the trip takes months. Not a great amount of luck there but at last he has made it. Dracula seems rather spooky the whole time though as he keeps on staring at Jonathan. Jonathan is sloppy and cuts himself which causes Dracula to go crazy and eventually Dracula decides to go take down his wife Lucy. Jonathan has to try and make it back home before Dracula but it won’t be easy now that he is super ill. Additionally a plague is going to be wiping out the place in short order.

Where to start with this one right? The bloodsucking is pretty awful as always. The heroes never put up a fight and just take it. Jonathan for example just stays in his bed as Dracula gets closer and closer. The guy barely even reacts as he is knocked out. Then the same goes for Lucy who is unable to do anything. Those scenes are super annoying the whole time and you’re always waiting for someone to break the cycle. In the end I would argue the heroes didn’t do much of anything and Dracula just got sloppy. I can’t even give Lucy much credit there because you’d think Dracula would be hyper aware of what time it was.

He’s just sloppy in general. Jonathan even had a good time to finish him off earlier but got spooked. This is one of the slowest incarnations of Dracula and he isn’t particularly impressive physically. There’s no way anyone should be afraid of him. His design is certainly very sinister but more in a completely insane, psychotic way as opposed to being threatening. Jonathan should have just knocked the life out of this guy. The fight should not play out any other way.

Also this is where the slow burn approach fails because all the scenes of Dracula staring at everyone is more annoying than it is scary. It will bore you to tears the whole time because it all feels so unrealistic. I don’t care if he’s using some kind of hypnotism, just break out and take him down. Every time they just stand/lie there you know how the scene will play out and it still takes forever.

Then the whole town plot with the plague is pretty boring as well. Basically a bunch of mice start coming around and the villagers know they are doomed so they all start to eat and just give up on everything. Surely they could have tried something before throwing in the towel right? Instead they did absolutely nothing and that was a shame. The ending is surprisingly grim for the heroes. It looks like evil has won out this time and if the cycle continues then it’s just going to keep on happening over and over again. Even Van Hellsing didn’t look particularly great here to be honest. His role is rather small and he just didn’t have a whole lot of confidence. He’s a far cry from the more action centered version that I am used to.

As the main heroine Lucy nis okay and she definitely has some guts but I was still expecting a little more out of her. I’ve already talked about Jonathan enough but the guy is super annoying and should have heeded Lucy’s warning. If not, at least get out of the house right away after getting the papers and don’t just let Dracula stare at you the whole time. Renfield is definitely at his most insane in this version and he was an interesting character. I can’t say that I was able to take him very seriously though. It’s not like he has a lot of raw power or anything and he’s no genius. He just gets lucky that the cops are not particularly careful so it’s easy for him to break away. That was extremely embarrassing.

Then Dracula is rather dull and boring. So yeah there’s not much here to make this film all that good. It’s one of the most boring Dracula movies that I’ve seen and that’s even considering that it still hits all of the usual negatives like excessive violence and a lot of blood sucking. It’s very rare that there is ever a good vampire film and this will certainly not end up being one of the exceptions.

Overall, I highly recommend skipping this film. It’s way too slow paced and unrealistic the whole time. If Dracula himself looked more powerful then at least that part could be believable but instead he looks flimsy enough to just toss away and that would be it for him. The guy is super slow as well. So if you’re in the mood for a thriller film, definitely skip this one as soon as possible. You absolutely do not want to be anywhere near this film unless you’re ready for a good nap. In that case then we have an exception on your hands.

Overall 1/10

The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time to play a Legend of Zelda game that has been on my wishlist for a super long time. I’ve wanted this game for years and so when they finally added it to the Nintendo Switch Online, I was pumped! Long had I waited for this one and I can tell you now that it absolutely lived up to the hype. It’s easily one of the best Legend of Zelda games that I have played. There are no annoying puzzles here and you really feel stronger as you get more items and power ups which is the way that it should go.

The story starts off with a mysterious sorcerer showing up and turning Princes Zelda and her subjects into stone. Only Link is able to escape but to defeat this new villain he will have to awaken the Master Sword! That won’t be easy but he is joined by a magician who has been trapped inside the form of a hat. Well, not the most impressive debut but he promises to be helpful and at least Link will not be alone now. Do the two of them have what it takes to claim victory here?

I do miss Ganondorf as that guy still has a lot more aura than the new villain here but Vaati is not bad. He has a cool design and can fight, I just didn’t find him nearly as impressive as good ole Ganon. Now there was a threat! Vaati could maybe get up there if he could just get a few more games I suppose. Zelda looks good here though. While she was taken by surprise and overwhelmed, she seemed like a capable leader and one of the Zelda versions that had a lot of personality.

So lets dive into the gameplay here. It’s an overhead platformer where you go through a lot of dungeons and lands in order to find the Master Sword elements and then save the world. There’s a lot of exploration going on here and while the main events tend to be linear, you have a lot of freedom in what you do on the way there. There are little pieces of rock that are scattered everywhere. Under bushes, dropped from enemies, etc. When you get those you can then try to find the civilian who has the matching piece. Almost every civilian has a rock but there are so many shapes that it can take a while to find the one that the villager has. Every time you make a match it unlocks either a new dungeon or a cool minion encounter that gets you a ton of rupees. A lot of the dungeons lead to useful items like extra heart pieces so I recommend doing as much matching as possible.

It’s a gameplay thing that I didn’t even realize was there until the very end of the game so the benefit at least was that I had a ton of pieces. I was handing them out for around an hour at least and it was cool to see the world opening up so much. In a lot of ways that is why this game succeeds, the world has such a high amount of replay value around every corner. You’re really incentivized to go out there and explore especially as you unlock more abilities. It feels a bit like Shantae where you have a noticeable power boost by the end. That series still does it best but Minish Cap is the best example that I have seen from the Legend of Zelda.

It also helps that the map is really good so you won’t get lost and of course there are a lot of quick travel points. So you don’t have to go everywhere by foot or anything like that. The benefits just keep on coming right? The hub world is really pleasant and the map is just small enough where the parts that you do have to walk through never feel intimidating. It’s really well crafted on every level. Then you have the actual dungeons where the puzzles are handled really well here. There’s nothing abstract like staring at a painting and trying to figure things out or anything like that. Yeah the puzzles can still be rather difficult but it’s in a very fair way. It all feels very legitimate which I appreciate.

The boss battles are also nice and creative here. Definitely no recycled bosses or anything like that. The dungeons are all unique and every weapon tends to be fairly useful. The only exception is probably the boomerang. I was pretty excited to find that one but in the end I never had any reason to use it. The arrows were simply better and the ammo for those was super jealous so I never ran out anyway. In general the game was very generous around the board. I would max out on the gems real quick for example and the same would go for all of the weapons.

I guess what I’m saying is that this game had a ton of great quality of life features. It was always a lot of fun every step of the way and I definitely appreciated that. After all you want to be having a lot of fun at all times and that’s what happens here. It sets a really high bar for the other Legend of Zelda games like Spirit Tracks to try and follow so we’ll see if they have what it takes there. Lets just say that I have some really big doubts there. Minish Cap is one of those titles that is just a bit too ahead of its time.

The graphics were definitely really good here. The character designs were on point and the backgrounds were nice and bright. Meanwhile the soundtrack was on point as well. The tunes were all fairly iconic and it’s another example of how this game got the big budget. They definitely spared no expense on this one and even the gimmick of turning small for some of the puzzles was fun instead of being annoying. That takes effort!

Overall, The Minish Cap is a great game. I really felt like the developers gave it everything that they had here and held nothing back. There are so many unlockables that I didn’t even get to explore a lot of them because the game ended. 100% completing the game would probably be a real trial with how many extra caves there are and such but it’s very satisfying to see the new areas. The gameplay is smooth and the graphics are solid. What more could you ask for right? You absolutely need to check this one out as soon as possible!

Overall 8/10

Ghost Rider Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for an old school superhero game. This one’s not trying anything fancy and is really just focused on letting you smash as many demons as possible. This works out well though and while the game could maybe use some polish in some areas, it always keeps up a fast pace so you are bound to have a great time here.

The game starts off with Ghost Rider being told by Mephisto to destroy a bunch of demons or the main heroine is going to be taken out of the picture. So Ghost Rider will reluctantly be helping Mephisto to stop Blackheart but if the demon lord lets his guard down for even a moment then it’ll be all over. Ghost Rider is a being of vengeance after all, he will never relent and he will never stop. His abilities are simply too powerful.

The story’s really just a cover to start on the beat em up gameplay. It’s technically about as thin as they come, particularly for a newer console like the PS2. The cutscene are still a lot of fun but the sound gets real low for those which is a really odd decision. I would have the volume in the 20s for the gameplay, then I’d quickly have to shoot it up to the 30s for the cutscenes. It was a lot of back and forth there and there’s no subtitles option.

Now the gameplay is where this one really excels. You have your standard attacks, power moves, jumping attacks, shotgun, super attack, and super mode. You have to carefully decide which moves you want to use when taking the enemies down. Shotgun, and Supermode use the same energy. Personally I would say to stick with the mode since it lasts a while so it’s way more useful than the gun. The shotgun is only good to use if you ae fighting one of the enemies who is protected by a barrier that won’t break until your combo level is high enough. Those guys can be annoying but the shotgun does help with that. See your combo meter goes up by switching up your attacks rather than a total number of blows.

A good tip for that though is to use your super move. If you have it properly leveled up then it automatically raises your combo level enough to destroy any barrier. The game is also extremely generous with the EXP. Trust me you’ll be blasting through the levels like it’s nobody’s business so you’ll have maxed out all of the abilities early on. From there it’s really a breeze. I would say the game is on the easier side. I died like 2-3 times total and they were all because I fell off of the stage. There was one tricky elevator ride where the edges always got real close real fast. Beyond that I didn’t have a problem with the enemies.

Mainly just make sure you jump a lot since the jumping combo is super handy and don’t worry about saving energy. You earn it so fast that you should just focus on blasting away at any enemy that stands before you. Then you keep it moving. Your super attack is also so good that it can take out a clean 1/3 of even the final boss’s health bar. Not bad right? It’s why you want to level these attacks up real fast.

If you let your guard down or get too sloppy then you can still lost some lives here. When I say that the game is easy, I’m certainly not saying that it’s a cakewalk or anything like that. It will still take some effort here and good planning but as long as you fight carefully then you should be okay. The game has 30 levels but the overall length is fairly short at around 4 hours or so. The longest levels can go up to 12 minutes but the shortest ones are under 2 so it really depends on the stage. Around half of them are the racing levels which tend to always be on the short side. I did enjoy the gameplay a lot with those though. The motorcycle controlled really well the whole time and the shotgun did work wonders while here.

Of course I always like beat em up gameplay so the combat levels were also really solid. You had takedown throws and everything. The way you recover health is to stand next to fire which I thought was a pretty interesting way to go about it. Meanwhile one of the highlights here is the rock music. There is nonstop rock music in just about every level in the game. When you’re fighting just about any kind of demon it shows up and really gets the blood pumping. The game properly understood that when you’re playing as Ghost Rider you want to feel that special intensity since you’re such a powerful force. It’s safe to say that this really helped elevate the game up further. It was so good.

The visuals were more on the standard side. They were good and all but definitely could have popped out a little more. I like all of the fire everywhere and the character designs are on point so that’s what counts. Blackheart even gets to show his true demonic side this time which was really nice to see. Ghost Rider really needs to get another game at some point, there’s a lot you can do with him.

Overall, Ghost Rider was a pretty good game. You can tell that it is a movie cash-in in some ways but on the other hand I don’t think it was totally phoned in. You do get to use Ghost Rider’s chain a lot and the moveset really does a good job of working out the way you would expect it to for this fighter. There’s enough content to keep me entertained all the while here so I really have no complaints there. You can get it for a really good nowadays too. So if you haven’t played this game yet then you should definitely change that!

Overall 7/10

Golden Axe Review

Posted on by
Reply


Golden Axe is one of those retro games that just about everyone has heard of and for good reason too. It’s a very classic beat em up that got several sequels and the gameplay is very smooth. It’s also got a bit of a story to it so there is more of a budget than some of the other titles. The difficulty level is super high but what else is new right? At this point that’s really just par for the course.

The gameplay is fairly straight forward here. You can swing your sword, hit opponents at close quarters, and you can throw them. I found the most effective attack was to jump and swing your sword. This is because most enemies can’t reach you in the air which is already a super big advantage and then another good bonus is that it knocks the opponent over. So if you were getting trapped in the corner or something like that then this will give you a whole lot of space. Trust me, it’s a really good way to reset your positioning.

The only downside is that the attack isn’t particularly strong so you will have to use it a lot. Still beats getting hit constantly while trying to use the normal attacks though right? I would say to never use the standard hits unless it’s a one to one because almost inevitably the opponent will land a counter attack on you somehow. For some reason your hits just don’t really have much of a stun effect on them so the opponent is able to squeeze in a hit sometimes. Let me tell you, your health bar goes down really quick so those hits tend to add up before you know it.

That’s the part of the game that I would definitely like to have tightened up a bit. The beat em up style works better with large hit boxes where I can really be sure that my attacks are landing. You need at least some hit stun on the opponents and that’s really not much of a thing here. It makes it so you have to go with some cheesy strategies like the jumping hit that I mentioned. I really don’t think that’s the intended way to always launch an attack but it worked the best so why wouldn’t I use it right?

The graphics here are really good and I would say that’s one of the more impressive parts of the game. The colors really stand out and the stages are well designed. The soundtrack is also good with a lot of energy and life built into it. They didn’t hold back on the technical elements. As for the game’s length, I’d say it’s around an hour or so. The difficulty should definitely add on a few hours to that though as you will not be beating most of these levels on your first shot.

Maybe if you find the best place to use the bombs that will help. I never really figured out how to be more efficient with those. I sort of just used them as I got more because otherwise I’d be filled up a few times and the extra bombs would go to waste. Only unfortunate thing is you use them all up at once, I couldn’t figure out how to make it so I would only use 1-2. There has to be a way to do that though.

That’s about it for my gameplay tips here. It’s fairly straight forward so it’s really just about executing the attacks with perfect timing as opposed to learning anything fancy. You can always try to wait for the opponent to lunge at you. That way you step out of the way and then launch a counter attack. That’s actually a pretty effective way to handle things but not all enemies will do that. You can also cause an enemy to fall off the stage. Some minions like skeletons will literally just walk off the map if you bait them, while others require a quick jumping hit to take them over the edge. Either way it’s not super hard to do and it is really efficient since you are skipping a fight so I would say to keep that in mind. I feel like most beat em ups don’t really do that so it’s a nice little touch there.

The toughest enemies in the game are definitely the knights with a shield. I’m still not sure what the best way to deal with them is. Their blades are so long that they can hit you while you are jumping and they don’t let you get up close to hit them. I mostly just kept moving up and down to try and hit them as soon as they appeared in front of me but that’s hardly foolproof and I definitely took a lot of hard hits in the process.

Overall, Golden Axe is a pretty good game. It may not be the longest one out there and I had a few suggestions to improve the gameplay but on the whole I think it did pretty well for itself. I’m certainly ready to go and check out that sequel. It’s yet another game that would work really well in a modern setting. I can picture this becoming a 3D beat em up like Dynasty Warriors on the PS5 and just enjoying the process of taking all of the opponents down a few pegs. That would be a lot of fun. In the meantime if you have the Switch Online I would definitely recommend checking this one out.

Overall 7/10

Alisia Dragoon Review

Posted on by
Reply


The Genesis games keep on coming! This one’s pretty fun but the gameplay is a bit weaker than some of the other titles. It’s missing features that I would consider to be fairly basic. Like they’re just not around at all which doesn’t make a ton of sense. With them in place this game could have gone a little farther, but as it is this is still a game that I would recommend checking out while you have the Switch Online.

You play as Alisia who can shoot lightning while also commanding different familiars to fight by her side. You get 4 of these before the game ends and you can switch them in/out as needed. They do help a tiny bit with their fire blasts but don’t expect them to be providing you backup for too long. In general they just like getting in one shot and then dipping out. You need to count on yourself at the end of the day to take the win.

There are only around 8 levels so the game isn’t too long. It is on the harder side for Genesis though. It feels like there is a different threat around every corner. Your health goes down very quickly and while the lightning is a great attack there is no indicator when it is doing damage. So you know that you are injuring the opponent but you don’t know how long you have to keep the blast up. This means you have to just keep running and dodging until he goes down but without some kind of timer, you sometimes have doubts that maybe this enemy is invincible to magic and you need a special way to injure him. It certainly felt that way during some of the later boss fights where their health is absolutely massive.

So I guess the best advice for me to give you is to just keep on blasting. Even if it doesn’t feel like i’ working, it is. There are no bosses in the game who are immune to the electricity so you can just keep that in mind. Beyond that, get used to jumping, ducking, and dodging because you have to do so much of that. Some bosses got me over and over again because it’s super hard to judge the trajectory of their attacks. I would wind up walking right into them several times which was pretty rough. Alisia is fairly big so she covers a lot of space on the screen.

Meanwhile the graphics are good here. Perhaps not quite as top tier as some of the last ones that I played but it definitely looks nice. The soundtrack is more on the unmemorable side so I can’t say that there are any tracks here that will really stick out for you. They’re not bad or anything like that but they are very forgettable which can be similar at times. The game will have to succeed without the music this time.

Really the weakest part is the actual platforming here. Your cool thunder laser will take care of the enemies as you go through but the levels are really tight so in many cases you bump into an enemy while you are trying to proceed. It’s often difficult to stop before you bump into the enemy because of close they are so taking a lot of damage feels inevitable. If the platforming were a bit smoother then I feel like you could have gone around this but instead the game is just a little bit too sluggish.

Also they definitely could have leveled up the familiars a little bit. They don’t shoot as often as they should and they go down so quickly when it counts. Half the time you really are on your own so this is like a complete aspect of the game that you miss out on as a result. Easy way to fix is to either make the enemies unable to hit the familiar or again just make him more of a tank. So he can endure a good amount of shots while backing you up. That’s the kind of dynamic that I would want to see. It would also reinforce the teamwork/friendship angles.

The game’s about an hour or so long so you will beat it fairly quick. As par for the course with Genesis titles, there isn’t really a post game here. You complete the game and then the day is saved. It lasts you long enough when you factor in the difficulty so it’s not a bad amount of value. It’ll also help teach you a lot about strategy as you monitor your lightning’s power. You’re incentivized to give the blasts a break every now and again to give it a further boost.

Overall, Alisia Dragoon is a good game. It would have been great if you could see the damage you were doing and maybe throwing in another kind of attack as well. The electricity is super handy and better than most standard guns in a game like this but at the same time you still need something a bit more than that. Maybe if the gameplay was a bit smoother or something but this one is such a difficult game to play that it does occasionally overwhelm the fun factor and you never want that to happen.

Overall 6/10

Contra: Hard Corps Review

Posted on by
Reply


All right now this was a really fun shooter game. It definitely went all out with the premise. We got a lot of action, high end graphics and a good story. The game even had decisions you would be forced to make which would decide what stage you played next. The fact that the decisions actually matter is impressive since some games really mess that up. For this one you actually have to think about what route you want to take. For example in one level you have to choose between heading back to base to save a hostage or finally taking out the main villain. I opted for the latter because the sooner he is knocked off of the board, the sooner everyone will be at peace and safe anyway.

So Contra plays like a super intense 2D shooter. You have your machine gun with unlimited ammo and have to shoot at tons of enemies who are attacking you from all sides. As you defeat them you can gradually inch your way further and eventually you reach the end of the level. The bosses are definitely intense so you gotta keep on blasting until you win. In some ways the bosses can be a bit easier than the normal enemies sometimes since you only have to dodge from one direction but it’s super relative. Either way you will be dying a whole lot in this one.

However, it’s one of the most enjoyable Genesis games that I’ve played either way. It’s all so fast paced the whole time so even when you lose you can just jump right back on the saddle. Beating it normally would be an incredibly difficult endeavor though. It’ to be expected with Contra and since most Genesis games tend to be very tough anyway, just multiply that by 2. The graphics here are really good and it’s another Genesis game that is definitely on point with the amount of effort they put into it. The soundtrack is good as well and of course the gameplay is really smooth.

Aside from your main weapon, you also have a ton of side weapons that you can get during the levels. Enjoy them while you can because you lose them just as quick as you got them. That is, unless you can be really careful to never get hit but realistically you are definitely going to take some hits. There are too many enemies to dodge them all. Fortunately the main machine gun is super good either way. I never found myself needing another weapon because this one would do the job just fine. It’s a simple point and shoot and the unlimited ammo is really what takes it to the next level.

I love it when games have unlimited ammo so that earned another star in my book. I think this is a game that would absolutely be high tier with a AAA remake at some point. There’s a ton you can do with it. It’s sort of like GI Joe meets Halo. The high tech aliens going up against the government fighters with modern graphics would be real intense. They need to make sure they keep up this same level of intensity though. I want tons of bullets whizzing by at all times.

Overall, Contra: Hard Corps was definitely a pretty solid game. It balances the difficulty with the fun factor extremely well. At no point do you feel like just putting the game away. You are always ready to try another level and give it another go. The story is very compelling as well so there are a lot of reasons to play this game. Just keep an eye out for your reaction times because you’re going to need them to be at peak performance to handle this title. This game feels like it was ahead of its time with how polished it is. It could have easily been a title in the next generation and I wouldn’t have even flinched.

Overall 7/10

Comix Zone Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for a Genesis game that really had a pretty memorable style to it. This game looks like a comic book all the way through which was pretty cool. You get to run through the pages and take down a bunch of enemies. At times the concept can be a little better than the execution but at the same time I can’t really be too harsh on it because it’s a good game either way. It almost goes without saying at this point but the game is rather difficult.

So the author/artist gets sucked into his own comic and has to get out. He’ll need to play through the adventure now but the comic doesn’t fully go the way that he drew it. Fortunately this guy gets the hang of being an action hero rather quickly and starts taking names left and right. Nobody’s going to be keeping him down for very long here. The gameplay is that of a classic 2D beat em up. You go through waves and waves of enemies as you try to make it to the end. There is usually a boss somewhere along the way and you take him down with your fighting moves. Eventually you will have beaten the game.

The gameplay is super basic but it’s till difficult because your attack range is rather small so you have to get up real close to the enemies. That means it gets really easy for you to end up taking a stray hit and your health goes down very quickly. Realistically you can expect to get a ton of game overs before you complete the game unless you bust out the very trusty rewind feature. In some ways that may be your last and best hope.

The graphics are pretty solid here. Like I said it does really look like a comic so they did a great job there. The soundtrack is also really good. It’s got that 90s tough guy type of vibe to it. A lot of rock themes all the way through which helps to make the gameplay more exciting as well. There is a good amount of dialogue in the game and a real story the whole way through which I appreciated as well. So the game had a good budget all the way around.

On the negative side, the actual gameplay is just very uninspired. You’re not going to be super entertained while fighting the enemies. Not saying it’ll be a snooze or anything but even for a beat em up you need some better attacks. Something that stands out more than a simple punch you know? That would have done a world of good for the game. Also some of the aerial enemies would feel a bit cheesy with how quickly they would fly into you. Again, your attacks are short range so it’s really hard to deal with these enemies except to just eat the hit and then counter. The problem is that the hits add up very quickly and then you’re out.

The final boss is a really fun level though because you’ve got a time limit that has two different endings play out. Basically you have to try and beat the enemy before the main heroine dies. Unfortunately I wasn’t fast enough so I got the bad ending here. It’s really tough to defeat the enemy right away especially because I didn’t realize at first that I needed to have the machine hit him. I was just landing combos on my own but apparently that was not nearly enough.

In terms of replay value, there isn’t much here but that’s normal. The idea is to beat the game and then that’s the end of the road. The game’s length is fairly short at around an hour or so but still longer than other Genesis titles. It sort of comes with the territory of being an older game but if you have the Switch Online it shouldn’t be much of a factor anyway. I don’t think spending a lot of money on these games back in the day would have been a good investment but the game has definitely changed with how the online titles work.

Overall, Comix Zone is a game that I won’t forget. It absolutely is memorable but in terms of gameplay it’s not as strong as the average beat em up. So you’re playing this more for the novelty than the quality which can be tricky since the novelty can’t hold you up for the entire time. Still, it’s a good game and I would recommend checking it out if you have the Switch Online. You’re going to be experiencing lots of action all the way so it definitely delivers on the genre you’ve been promised here.

Overall 6/10