Tag Archives: Video Game Review

Snake Rattle ‘n’ Roll Review

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It’s time for another classic retro game. This one’s definitely fairly difficult with how the control scheme goes. Particularly in the last levels you wonder how anybody could pull this off in a reasonable amount of time. You have to be running and jumping while trying not to slip on the ice and it’s a really difficult task. I had to retry the sections so many times. There may only be 11 levels in here but let me tell you that the levels can take a while to complete.

The gameplay itself is fairly simple. You have to maneuver your way through the level until you reach the scale where stepping on it will cause the alarm to hit the ceiling. That means that you have put enough weight on it. At that point, the door at the end of the level opens and you can crawl through it. The way that you pick up weight is to eat the little balls that get shot out of a cannon somewhere in the level. The cannon also shoots out bombs that look similar but you must make sure not to pick up those or you will lose health instead. All the while you have to keep the timer in mind because if that goes to 0 then it is all over for you.

The timer is often the most difficult part to get around. The exception are the ice levels that I mentioned earlier, but it can just be really difficult to get big enough to break the scale before the time goes away. I suspect there is probably a better way to optimize how you eat the pellets since I was just button mashing though. All in all, it’s an interesting gimmick but it’s a gimmick that does get old quicker than standard platforming.

In terms of graphics this isn’t the most impressive Nintendo title. It looks good but it’s nothing to write home about. I do like the artstyle though. In terms of the soundtrack, eh it’s okay but also not super good. So all in all it is passable which is sort of how I would describe the whole game. It excites you a bit with how unique it is and by the end you start to get tired of it. I would say that’s what separates a good gimmick from one that gets old. As you see it used in more difficult contexts you have to ask yourself if this is still a lot of fun or if it’s getting in the way now. In this case it was the latter so then that’s an issue.

While there may not be much in the way of replay value, the 11 levels will take you longer than you might suspect so that’s not actually a big problem. Especially for back in the day when most games were super short. I’d say it’s why people loved RPGs and Mario titles because those were certainly way longer than the average title. It’s definitely quite impressive and I couldn’t appreciate that quite as deeply as I do now after playing all of the competitors. Who knows, maybe this will get a remake at some point, but in the meantime it’ll stay forgotten and that just makes sense to me. It needed to have a little more pop.

I guess my quick gameplay tip for this title is to remember that you are always moving in 4 directions. There is no way to move diagonally despite what the camera angles might indicate. So if you are having trouble getting somewhere, pick a direction and plunge straight ahead. It can be really tough to see exactly where you are going so this helped me a lot in the later levels. It doesn’t mean that things will suddenly get easier but it certainly helps.

Overall, Snake Rattle is a decent game but I do think that the level designs end up holding it back quite a lot. There needs to be less slipping and sliding. If you remove ice from the equation then the levels end up being a lot more pleasant but part of the problem is that you just don’t want to play through the later levels. You just spend too much time slipping around which takes away from the platforming. That’s where this game doesn’t really age well if you ask me. Give it a try if you have the Nintendo Switch Online but it’s not a game that you will be coming back to.

Overall 5/10

Demon Slayer: The Hinokami Chronicles Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall 8/10

R.C. Pro-Am Review

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It’s time for an old fashioned racing game that’s finally back on the NES titles within the Switch Online. It’s definitely extra nostalgic to be back here but I would not say that this is a game which has aged all that well. There just isn’t a lot to do here at all. The content runs out fast and I wasn’t a big fan of the controls.

Now of course you do have to be a little lenient with how old the game is. I probably would have had a much higher view of the game back in the day but now I’ve played things like M&M Kart Racing. I’m going to be expecting a higher bar of stuff in any game. So for this one, you have 32 tracks where you race in order to be the best. One unique thing here is that you keep going as long as you place in the top 3. The spots above that only matter so much as you get better trophies when you win but you can actually play the whole game as a third place finisher and there will be no issues.

Don’t let that fool you into thinking that the game is easy or anything like that though. Put it this way, the A.I. know that top 3 is what you need and so all of the cars are really racing their hearts out. It’s really hard to stay in front of the pack because the turns are so tricky. Turn too hard and you lose all momentum but if you don’t turn enough then you will crash. It’s incredibly difficult to get the turns just right. On the straight roads you can easily overtake the computers but once the turns get involved, that is really game over.

Now you do have items in this game which can help to even things out. I was passing them by for a while but didn’t actually start using them until later on. I kind of assumed they were boosters or something but there’s actually a good variety like rockets and bombs. The rockets in my opinion are easily the best weapons. You can store up over 30 of them and pepper your opponents. The roads aren’t very wide so it is easy to blast them. In the levels I played they would never use the items back at you but I’m guessing the deeper you go, the more they would start busting these things out. Just a guess of course but it makes sense.

The graphics aren’t bad but the soundtrack isn’t memorable. So really my only issue with the game is the lack of content as the 32 level main mode is the only thing but also the gameplay. I just didn’t think it was really smooth. It’s way too hard to make the turns and since you have to do this numerous times in each level, it felt like you could never go at full speed. That really ends up limiting things in the end.

Overall, This is a car game that won’t be able to hold its own with the big shots. The controls need to be ironed out first and then the rest will come into place. I would still recommend checking it out when you have time just since it’s free with the Switch Online. If nothing else, it will give you a greater appreciation for the modern racing titles. I’ve always considered this to be one of the easiest genres to do well but that really just applies to the modern era and I get how an older title would work a bit differently there.

Overall 4/10

ToeJam & Earl Review

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It’s time to play the original ToeJam & Earl title. This one’s fairly basic but in a way that’s the game’s problem. It’s sort of like playing a slice of life video game. I think with more likable main characters and some kind of ongoing story that could certainly work but as it is, there’s not much to keep you here for long. The RNG and everything makes this even trickier as well.

Basically the gameplay revolves around you walking through a level until you find a piece of your spaceship. You need to find 10 pieces in order to leave the planet but of course that won’t be easy. There are 25 levels in the game though so not all of them have a piece. Fortunately the game does let you know right away if a piece is on the level or not so you don’t have to worry about aimlessly walking around or anything like that. Now that would have been annoying so I have to give the game some real credit here. That’s a good quality of life feature.

You walk around as I mentioned and the only real controls are pressing A to interact with things and B to open up your gifts. The gifts are the items of this game and so they are all mystery boxes. At least the first time around, the longer you play, the more you will find gifts of the same type that you have previously opened and those will be marked going forward. The one rough part is that some gifts have negative effects like one that blows you up and one that takes you back to the original level. There’s no way to know which is which on your first playthrough which is rather sketchy.

Some of the items are really handy like one that lets you run around and one that lets you fly. The only problem is that since these are locked behind gifts, it means that you can’t normally run around. Instead you have to walk everywhere which isn’t the most efficient way of travel. Some pieces are also locked behind large jumps so if you already used up that gift, you’re gonna need to go through a few more levels to find one and then head all the way back. That’s definitely not great.

There is a very odd sort of atmosphere around the game which is probably the real selling point here but at the same time I don’t think it’s necessarily as cool as it could have been. I actually have one easy fix for this. Your character should be able to fight. If he was holding a blaster then the game becomes a lot more fun as you blast away at everyone who is in your way. Instead…you guessed it, your only forms of attack are locked behind items that are randomly spawned and temporary. So for most of the game you have to run away from enemies, most of whom are faster than you anyway. So in the end this wasn’t really my cup of tea.

The graphics are fairly good though. Here is where the wild vibes of the game actually come back to help it. The art style is very memorable and you can easily identify everything in your way. This helps with the presents once you are on your next playthrough or if you are using rewind a lot. The soundtrack is less inspiring though and you probably won’t be remembering any tunes in particular.

Then we come to the replay value which is fairly decent here. The difficulty of finding all of the pieces when the levels are constantly changing is already one reason why you wouldn’t beat it too fast. Then because of those changes you might have fun playing it over and over again. There is a lot to have fun with here to be sure as long as you enjoy the gameplay. I wasn’t a big fan of the initial game so the replay value doesn’t do much for me but at least it is there.

Overall, ToeJam & Earl is definitely a very unique game. You can’t say that it is copying any other titles or anything like that. At the same time, I don’t think the gimmick worked this time. So credit to the devs for trying but at the end of the day you won’t be able to win with all of your bets. Some of them will inevitably not pan out and that’s just the way that it goes.

Overall 4/10

Godzilla Unleashed Review

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Godzilla is one of those franchises that has a big revival every few years and reminds the world why it is on top. This game is one of the only missing pieces of the franchise that I hadn’t gotten to experience yet. Well, I finally got to play it and it’s pretty fun. Personally I would say that it loses to the previous two big console Godzilla games but there’s a lot to enjoy here even with the Wii controls. Now those were an…interesting blast from the past.

The game actually has a story with full voice acting which I thought was really impressive. Seriously, it’s not like that’s a given or anything even in the Wii’s era. Basically crystals are appearing all across the planet and the Kaiju are being drawn towards them. These crystals are powering up the Kaiju and making them way more powerful. Who could be behind this crystal catastrophe? One thing’s for sure, the humans might need the help of the King of the Monsters for this one. They might need the help of….Godzilla!!!

The classic gameplay is mainly unchanged from the previous titles although it does have the downgrade of removing the Rage feature. Seriously, why would you remove that? It was pretty cool to be honest. The energy blasts in this game are motion controlled which means that they are virtually useless in the game so you should never bother firing off anything. Fighting in close quarters combat is also extremely not recommended. The enemy Kaiju will always break out mid combo and just knock the life out of you.

So….how do you fight? Well the best thing to do is pick up buildings and chuck them at the monsters. Each building takes out half of a health bar so just throw like 4 of those and you win. If there are no buildings to throw then you should throw the Kaiju which deals about the same amount of damage. Problem solved right? Trust me, follow these two easy steps and you will really be off to the races. I admit that it may feel like an odd way to fight but in the story mode campaign at least it is really the best way to do it.

So I think the multiplayer will end up being more fun from a pure gameplay standpoint but it’s definitely interesting. I’ve never really played a fighting game before that actively encourages you not to start fighting. Then a lot of the levels involve destroying crystals to end the level so you can go and shatter those instead of fighting the other Kaiju. Destroy the crystals and the level ends. Now this part does seem optional though. I didn’t totally get how this works but it seems like there are 3-4 factions in the game.

What you do in the levels increases or decreases your points in each area. There’s some kind of secret ending if you max them all out but I’m not sure exactly how this works. I even beat a few levels where I’m not even sure how I beat them. The complete message would just appear after a bit so it might have been time based. Hey, I’ll take it of course but I was a bit surprised. So the moral here is to really just jump in and things will work out. I flat out lost one level and I still moved on just fine so maybe winning is optional? Maybe that was just the first level though.

The character roster is pretty solid though and you see most of the classic Kaiju running around. The game was smart to save Orga for the final 2 levels since that guy is a beast and still the most underrated Kaiju of all time. Seriously, I’d argue that it’s not even close. I always get really impressed to see him running around. The graphics are also good. Perhaps not amazing but I’d say they get the job done. I also liked the soundtrack, quite a lot in fact. There’s a really solid rock theme for all of the menu screens that plays a lot.

In terms of replay value there is naturally a whole lot of it. You have Vs Mode for endless fun and you earn currency in the levels so I assume you can buy cool things in the shop. I didn’t really check it out yet but yeah there’s a good amount of content here. The game also goes for a fairly reasonable price on the Wii. If you want the PS2 version then that’s another story but that version is strictly a downgrade anyway with no story mode and less monsters so you would want to pass on it.

Back to the gameplay for a minute, I do like the extra detail of everything breaking when the Kaiju are running around. You see a big bridge? It gets crushed when you walk past, same with buildings, monuments, etc. Almost everything is destructible which really makes you feel like a Kaiju. You also have the government blasting you in the background with everything they’ve got and you don’t take much damage. The only weapon they have which gets tricky is the ice ray which completely immobilizes you. It’s a little RNG I’ll admit but one that I didn’t find annoying here since it wasn’t overplayed. You just feel like giving humanity some props for coming up with such a good weapon.

Overall, Godzilla Unleashed is a pretty good game. I had some issues with it and the direction the game went compared to something like Save The Earth but ultimately it is fun. At the end of the day, it does hold its own and it was pretty nostalgic to play this game. Controlling Kaiju and running around is surprisingly rare after all. There aren’t a whole lot of games like this. It is truly a fighting game that is meant for the multiplayer experience and that’s where you will end up having a ton of fun. I’d recommend checking it out, particularly since it feels like we won’t be getting another Godzilla game for a while at this point although they could surprise us.

Overall 7/10

Kid Chameleon Review

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The Genesis run is almost over but it’s time for another platformer real quick. This one does have me impressed with how long it is. There are over 50 levels which is almost completely unheard of for this console. Usually we’re looking at 10 levels, maybe 12, etc. 50+ though?? Yeah that’s really impressive. I don’t think the gameplay is the smoothest that I’ve seen on the console but the length really helps to make up for it.

So the levels are your classic platformer type levels which can be long or short depending on what the game feels like. You use different power modes in order to get past the obstacles. For example one of them allows you to break walls by running really fast, another one lets you fly, etc. The power system is really the critical part of the gameplay that makes this different from other platformers.

I would also say there are some puzzle type fundamentals to the gameplay as well. Finding the goal isn’t always as simple as just running to the right. Additionally the timer will actually become a big obstacle as the game goes on. You end up cutting it really close with the levels at times which isn’t easy. You have to have some kind of strategy in mind in addition to pressing on.

So what is the game’s weakness for me? Well, some of the costumes just aren’t that fun. For example there is a bee mode that lets you wall jump. The jumps can be rather tricky which isn’t bad on its own but mix in the game’s odd sense of momentum and you end up going too far or too short at times. It was hard to really wrap my head around it. Some of the puzzles that the level designs were wrapped in were also just a bit too much if you ask me. Removing that element and focusing completely on the levels would have been a good idea if you ask me.

When you get the flying power there are always a ton of obstacles to prevent you from running for long. When you get the power to run through walls, there will be something that makes you switch powers again later on, etc. There are always tons of power blocks to replenish your abilities and give you new powers but that also means you don’t always have a lot of time to enjoy them. There aren’t a lot of bosses here but they can be fun. They are the most difficult part of the game by far though. You have to blast away at these floating heads that are constantly moving and they deal you damage if you bump into them. It’s hard not to with how much they move so that’s where things get tricky. You’ll probably be rewinding a lot there and this is also where the timer becomes a real problem with how large their health bar is.

The graphics for the game are pretty good. They may not be top tier or anything like that but they work well. The soundtrack also isn’t bad. It’s way less memorable than some of the other titles but it works well enough. So the technicals are okay. Nothing to write home about but they also won’t hold the game back. You get a lot of value for your dollar with how many levels are in the game as well. It should take you around 3 hours or so which may not seem like a ton but it beats the average for this era.

Of course you don’t have to spend any money if you have the Nintendo Switch Online but if you did have to buy a Genesis game this would be a better value than most. There isn’t much of a story which is too bad but it’s not something you would expect a whole lot here. I do think the main character is very distinct though. He definitely has a cool air about him and it’s one that has aged well. It never gets cringe or anything like that. This guy knows he has what it takes to save the day.

Overall, Kid Chameleon is a pretty good game. I give it a little more credit due to the overall length than the gameplay. Naturally the gameplay still has to be good in order to reach this high of a level but if the game was short then it probably would not have been quite as high. So I recommend checking this game out if you have the Switch Online and see how far you are able to get in the campaign. If you make it all the way then you actually do feel a good sense of pride and accomplishment. The game’s difficulty level may not be as high as some other titles but it should give you some troubles.

Overall 7/10

Soul Calibur VI Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall 8/10

Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects (Gamecube) Review

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I remember playing Marvel Nemesis on the DS so many times back in the day. I was hooked on that game! The controls worked really well on the DS and it kept track of play time well so I would just have a blast beating the game over and over again. Well, after all of these years it is pretty cool to finally be checking the Gamecube version out and actually witnessing the story first hand. It’s definitely a very unique Marvel game, one that you don’t really see nowadays with the general roster.

The story begins with an invasion. The Imperfects and their leagues of monsters have attacked the planet. Heroes like Captain America and the Hulk go down quickly. The story parts that we don’t actually see are just as interesting as the ones that we get to witness. Like we hear about Avengers Mansion being attacked, the FF being in trouble, etc. There’s no time to see these guys but we do see the aftermath. For example Wolverine is told to go to Avengers mansion and see what’s happening. Everyone is gone by that point except for the Imperfect assassin. We see the story through very narrow instances like this which is part of what makes the story so intriguing.

It’s going for a sort of spooky approach for the most part. Also, you choose what paths to follow. For example, you have 3 different heroes you can play as at first. Each one has 3 missions, the first 2 typically don’t have any real cutscenes and then the third is the big boss fight with an Imperfect. After that you get an origin cutscene for one of the Imperfects. Then you have the tough call of deciding which Marvel hero to kill off. Whoever you choose will no longer appear in the game and the rest of his levels are lost to you.

You keep up this format and eventually there are 5 heroes at a time and you have to keep bumping one off. By the end of the game almost every hero is dead which shows just how powerful the Imperfects are. It’s a little hard to believe that they would do this well in a fight though. A lot of them seem like street level fighters so how did they beat someone like the Hulk? Well, regardless it makes for a very interesting story. Elektra and Daredevil even show up and while that may not seem like a huge deal, it’s rare to see them show up in one of these big Marvel titles like this.

There is full voice acting and everything. So yeah the story is the highlight of the game to be sure and I think if we ever got a remake, they could go even further with it. Unfortunately one thing that hasn’t aged well is the animation. The graphics are well below average for Gamecube and the issue is that it’s all so dark. The whole game has this green tint that makes everything hard to see and it also makes it so that none of the characters really stand out. I’m not really sure on what the point of this artstyle was.

Maybe it’s just to make the whole thing look scarier? Well, either way that part could have been a lot better. Screenshots of the game don’t tend to turn out well and even while playing it, you feel like the game should be way more vibrant than what it is. It’s a real problem and one that the game really created onto itself. The soundtrack is really good though. The themes there definitely stand out a whole lot. I also like the various stages. They all look really good and there is a lot of variety. You have Avengers mansion and a lot of other really iconic locations. That was definitely a really good idea.

As for the gameplay, it’s very unique. I would say it’s good but some parts of it haven’t aged well. For example, each character has a ton of regeneration going for them. So you can land a ton of hits but if you don’t follow up fast, most of the damage will be restored. The game also heavily favors characters with long range throws like Spiderman and Venom. They are simply better than short range throws and it’s not even close. There’s not much incentive to using your hand to hand moves because a lot of them can be interrupted mid combo.

Projectiles are super handy because they strike so fast that you have no time to put up your barrier. You can replenish your super meter rather quickly as well so you won’t be running out of the projectiles very often. The best method of attack is definitely to throw something. Yes, the opponent can catch the object but that’s when you hit them with an energy attack. Throwing things is easily the most effective way to deal damage and during the story I was spamming that the whole time. If there was something that could be thrown, you better believe that I was picking it up immediately!

The game could definitely have benefited from making the hand to hand attacks more useful though. This is probably the only 3D fighting game I’ve ever played where you’re encouraged not to fight like that. Of course, that is why I say that the game is unique. It’s different enough where you should have a lot of fun playing with others. It’s more fun to fight a real person than a computer by far since they react perfectly to the projectiles which seems to be a bit iffy.

Overall, Marvel Nemesis is definitely a nostalgic game. The story is really interesting the whole way through so I had a blast there. Hopefully some day we can get a sequel or a remake. If you can find this one I would definitely recommend getting it. The game’s not that expensive nowadays and it’s worth the play through. Then you can keep on playing vs mode for a while which really has unlimited replay value. That’s definitely the way to go and remember…make sure you play as Spiderman or Venom and you will be dominating!

Overall 7/10

Injustice 2 Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall 8/10

My Hero: One’s Justice 2 Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall 7/10