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Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Review

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It’s time to look at Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, one of the greatest games of all time. This title is absolutely amazing and definitely a real special experience. I liked the first Remake game quite a lot and this one even exceeded it. You feel the grandness of the story all the way through while also allowing for a lot of fun interactions between the cast. There will be less time for that in the third game so this one really made the most of it. It’s due to this game that I finally own a PS5 and I’m sure it’s the same thing for a lot of people so Sony fans should definitely be grateful to this title.

The game picks up where the first one left off, with the gang fighting off Sephiroth. He’s still around though and now that the rest of the team has seen him, they don’t have to doubt Cloud anymore. Unfortunately finding Sephiroth will be difficult as he’s constantly running around with the speed of lightning while the heroes have to take cars and planes to catch him. The deeper their journey takes them into the world, the more they have to confront their doubts and dark pasts. Will the team be able to hold it together?

First off, this game is a fairly long RPG. We’re talking a full 40 hour experience right here. It’s pretty impressive and that’s considering that I didn’t do much in the way of bonus content. I awakened any towers in my way and explored a few ponds for items but for the most part I was plunging ahead to get to the core of the mystery. With the plot being this exciting, it’s just hard to want to do anything else. You just want to dive in and have a blast. Based on the amount of side content I saw here, I’d be willing to bet you could almost double the playtime.

There’s a whole mode for Queen’s Blood, a Yu-Gi-Oh type card game that has its own story. All of the opponents apparently have their own cutscenes, personalities, and it’s really very expansive. The gameplay reminds me of a board game I played not too long ago, Castle Keep or something like that. You want to have the most points in a line and you move based on the numbers on your card. It’s fairly easy to start but difficult to master because there’s a ton of strategy in it. There are tons of other minigames scattered between each world as well ranging from ocean based to space based.

Of course you also have the combat room to unlock new summons, tons of side quests, explorations, mini bosses, etc. They basically grabbed the whole hub world from Tears of the Kingdom and that’s just the side content. So yeah that’s super impressive. Then like I mentioned, the actual story is incredibly impressive. It’s just really emotional and intense the whole time. It adds a ton of extra context to the characters. Cloud’s role in particular is one that I mainly knew the extra details from data books and fan videos but now we actually get to see more of what he went through here. Unfortunately it does mean that he looks pretty bad in times. I would argue he looks significantly worse than in the original game because of that. Technically a lot of the actions are the same but this one has a lot of extra build up to set these moments up and it does feel like he has low will power as a result.

This wouldn’t be a modern Square Enix game without a ton of convoluted plot twists and story developments though so you can bet that it has changed a lot from the original. I’ll offer my ideas on what these twists mean in the spoiler section at the end but the less you know about the story the better. It really helps you to be able to just get out there and enjoy it. Zack’s role here is good but I’m still not sure it’s big enough to justify putting him on the cover. I’d have switched him with Aerith to be honest at least narratively. I’ll agree that having Zack there does look cooler since you have the 3 SOLDIERS at the front.

It also goes without saying that the graphics here are absolutely top tier. It’s one of the best looking games that I have ever played. Of course it’s my first PS5 title but I’d be willing to bet that it would look super sharp on the PS4 as well. Final Fantasy VII just doesn’t hold back. The soundtrack is also really good, I’ll be listening to some of those tunes quite a bit coming up. You’ve got fresh themes as well as a ton of remixes.

The gameplay is a 3D active turn based system. So you can move around and you can use normal attacks at will but to use any items or specials you have to build up enough energy to use them. It’s a pretty unique system since most titles will at least let you use items freely. So that means that you have to really bring your A game at all times because if you’re caught without meter for too long then you might die before you can use a revive or a potion. Not a particularly fun way to go out I have to say.

It’s a difficult style that does take some getting used to. Particularly if you don’t use the combat simulator to learn the basics. I’d say the most important thing is to just fight a lot and you’ll get all of the little intricacies down to an art. You really want to unlock as many synergies as possible as quickly as possible because those will help out a great deal during combat. A lot of them give you super armor and they also raise an enemy’s stagger meter quite a lot. Most bosses will be nearly impossible to defeat without them. You also have your limit breaks and materia of course. The materia you equip will allow you to use different spells so I recommend putting in as many as possible.

One thing to note is that all of your party members get EXP even if they aren’t present in the battle. The same is true for their equipped materia so make sure that you have everyone fully loaded at all times. It will save you a ton of headaches later on. Each one levels up very slowly after all. As for the characters, they level up rather quickly. To compensate for that, there aren’t a ton of minions in the various areas so beating them as you go will have you at the natural level but if you want to be overleveled then you should try to do side quests and extra bosses.

One trick to getting XP is to find a large enemy group that is easy to beat. Defeat all of them except for one and then hit retry battle. You keep the XP this way and can keep on fighting the same mob over and over again. This helps you get around their 15-20 minute cool down before showing up a second time. This is one game where I didn’t skip just about any enemy and for most of the game that worked out fine. I only ended up grinding once before the final boss for an extra few levels and then when I lost at the final boss, I had to grind for a few more hours.

I beat the game at level 50 but I would recommend trying to get to 55 or so in order to give you some more breathing room. One thing I have to warn you about is that you can get yourself trapped. Once you are over the halfway point for chapter 13, there is no way back. You have to complete that chapter and the next one without being able to leave for better weapons or summons. Unfortunately this means it is also very difficult to train since the only minions in the dungeon have a ton of durability or don’t give much EXP. It was one of the scarier moments for me since I was really at about the end of how far the training could take me. Fortunately I just barely managed to beat the boss. I nearly had to resort to lowering the difficulty level.

This final saga is tough for a few reasons but the main one is the time it takes to get there. If you lose and have to go back to change your equipment, then you have to redo 11 boss fights and a ton of unskippable cutscenes. To get back to where I was up to, it took me well over an hour. So that’s why I say better safe than sorry here, make sure you are at a really high level and have good gear before entering the dungeons. Otherwise you will definitely be in some trouble.

It’s kind of fitting in a way that I lost to the first boss in the game as I was still learning the controls and then I lost dozens of times to the final boss. It’s truly an end to end experience here. In terms of quality control I think that’s the one area the game slips in because there shouldn’t be a full lock out like that. If I was just a few levels lower than I could have been permanently stuck unless I entered easy mode.

I already talked about the replay value so have no fear, there is a lot to keep you busy. The Platinum for this game also looks really difficult. Beating the whole game on hard mode won’t be easy and then there’s one that looks like a lot of grinding where you have to get all of the items in the game. From the online stats, more people have beaten the game on hard than have done that, which is quite telling.

As for the story direction, without spoilers I can confirm that I like where it is going. It is pretty controversial that it has changed things from the first title but most of that should have died out with the first game since that’s where the divergence started. It’s not surprising that this one continued with that and even more so I would say. It’s considerably different but this lets us get a new story so I’m all for it. I’ll always be in favor of changing things up instead of just doing the same story for a second time. All right now the rest of the review’s going to involve spoilers so you can skip to the final paragraph for the wrap up or exit here until you have completed the game. Just have to wait 4 years to see how it all goes down.

Spoilers time All right so with all of the universe hopping and that ending there’s a lot to discuss. So first up, I would say that this is flat out a different Earth than the one of the original Final Fantasy VII. It seems like Sephiroth became aware of the multiverse at some point after his origin story which is basically the same as in the original/adapted in Last Order. In Last Order when he stabbed Tifa, it was obviously not a killing blow while in this game it seemed like it might have been from Cloud’s POV which is why he was suspicious. In this case I think Cloud just wasn’t thinking clearly and didn’t notice that she was alive.

Since Sephiroth is aware of the other timelines and universes, it’s why he is able to manipulate the fates. We see at multiple points in the game that he can take control of the body of any cloaked figure. At first this appears to just be Cloud hallucinating but I would say it is literally Sephiroth doing this. Similar to Slade in the Teen Titans episode where he was beating up on Robin, Sephiroth is trying to make Cloud look crazy and also to doubt his own senses which starts working.

We got some foreshadowing of this in Advent Children, where in that movie Kadaj is able to become Sephiroth temporarily by drinking the Sephiroth gene. Cloud ultimately defeats him there and in the film they’re referred to as remnants. Of course that takes place after the game but it’s the same concept. Additionally it implies that eventually he will be able to control Cloud once the degradation is complete which is why he is already able to influence Cloud. I don’t like how he is already able to completely control Cloud though to the point where he nearly murders both Tifa and Aerith in the story.

It’s great that Tifa is so patient with him the whole time but after a point he is basically becoming a villain here so she should probably keep her distance quite a bit. I don’t see how any of the characters can sleep soundly at night with how crazy Cloud gets in this one. The game goes all the way with showing how insane he is throughout. In fact in the ending I’m pretty sure he still is crazy and Aerith isn’t actually there. It would be really cool if she was and I’m sure a force ghost of her will appear at some point but right now I think that he’s just delusional.

We see Aerith get murdered by Sephiroth like in the original game. Cloud was too slow to save her and her hair gets cut off. When she shows up in the big final boss with Sephiroth, her hair is back to being long and the same is true for all of the cutscenes in the ending. Everyone ignores her except for Cloud so we can tell that they can’t see her at all. You could say that Cloud is able to see her ghost because he’s so close to the mako at this point but I don’t think that is the case. Additionally when he tells everyone to look up at the sky, they don’t see the rip in space. So yeah he’s completely seeing things differently from the cast which is scary but also exciting. You just know that’s going to escalate.

Also, the game adapts the final boss from the original FFVII. We flat out finished the game, albeit with some events skipped. So game 3 can really go in a ton of different directions. I think at this point I’d like to see them really double down on the multiverse. Bring in the original timeline Cloud, maybe even the Cloud from Kingdom Hearts. There is so much potential here and it’s all a real blast. That’s about it for now but I’ll be having a lot of fun watching all the different theory videos on this. One thing’s for sure, in this timeline the planet appears to be losing to Sephiroth so the heroes need to think of something and fast. With how he can keep body swapping and how his power level is so much higher than all of the other characters’ in the game they will really need a miracle to stop him. End Spoilers

Overall, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is a top tier title in every way. No exaggeration to say it’s one of the best of all time. It’s right up there with Adventure 2 Battle, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and Kingdom Hearts II as one of the all time unforgettable titles. Super Smash Bros is still the greatest game of all time so I won’t use it in the same sentence for the comparison just yet. The amount of polish and detail that went into the game is incredible. As always RPG type games tend to be the best bang for your buck because of how long they last. A good fighting game can do the same thing of course as long as you have online access and a friend to fight with but with an RPG all you need is a controller and some time on your hands. I suspect the next game won’t be around for another 4 years at least but at least that gives us plenty of time to watch tons of videos with different theories about what will be coming up. That sure sounds exciting to me I gotta say and of course now the pressure on the 3rd game is going to be absolutely insane.

Overall 9/10

The Revenge of Shinobi Review

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All right, the Shinobi has returned for another adventure. This time he is going up against a bunch of different fighters who look like popular characters. Unfortunately this version is after the references were toned down a whole lot but it’s still fun to see them. The bosses stand out and the game has a real story but ultimately it still isn’t a great title. The gameplay isn’t all that high end if you ask me. It’s got its share of issues spread throughout the game with a difficulty level that almost doesn’t feel fair at some points.

Basically you can throw Kunai until you run out of ammo. Then you use your short blade to attack the other fighters. You can also use the blade by getting real close to an enemy even when you still have ammo. In general there are enough ammo boxes where you won’t run out of kunai too often. Typically this will only happen when you are fighting the bosses since they have so many invincibility frames everywhere that it can be hard to get through to them. Some enemies require you to wait until they temporarily expose a weak point and for others you just have to keep on blasting them. Naturally I preferred the latter but there is a fair mix of the two different types.

Then you have your special abilities. I couldn’t figure out how to toggle through them so I only used the thunder one. It’s really handy though, you temporarily get a barrier that is impossible to penetrate. With this barrier activated, you can really play hyper aggressively for a little while. I highly recommend saving this for when you fight the boss at the end of each area because it saves you a ton of rewinds. It’s not always possible to do that but it should be your goal.

You could also change up your weapons a bit at times although I didn’t fully understand how this works. You hold up or down it seems when you fire off the weapon and sometimes the kunai will turn into 3 or you will shoot off an energy blast instead. Either way I was pretty happy whenever that happened. You can also duck under some attacks so you should definitely get used to crouching whenever possible.

The controls themselves are fairly smooth. My only issue is with the double jump. Rather than be like most games where you just tap the jump button twice, you have to tap it at a specific time in order to land the double. This gets real tricky and I actually messed it up a whole lot of times. I wonder if there’s something else to it beyond the timing because I felt like I got the timing right a lot of times. Maybe it’s also in the angle or something.

You’ll get it eventually but it does result in a few jumps where you die but feel like you shouldn’t have though. Meanwhile the graphics are pretty solid. The third game will end up having a noticeable improvement even over this one but it has aged well. The color are dynamic and I like all of the stages. The soundtrack is actually good as well. So this one had a good budget behind it and is a very well rounded title.

The length isn’t very long but considering the kind of game it is, it would be more frustrating to replay if it was much longer. I still say just add check points and a level system but I’m not sure how common that was on the Genesis. There’s not much replay value but playing through it once is good enough. The final boss is fairly original with how he throws his hair at you the whole time. It’s extremely hard to dodge that attack and it took me a ton of tries. He doesn’t even look crazy hard at first but the trouble is with how fast the attacks move. If this was Mega Man you could just dodge because he moves fast but the Shinobi is rather slow in times like these.

It’s part of the difficulty in the game because you will see the attack coming and just won’t be able to dodge it. That’s always the worst part because deep down you know that this is no match for your gamer reflexes. You could absolutely outmaneuver the opponent but it just won’t work in the end. I’d like to see the character’s speed improve in the future because I think that would address some of the difficulty issues and also make you feel like you’re more in control which is always a good thing.

Overall, Revenge of Shinobi is a fun game. The difficulty level that take some of the joy out of it though. High difficulty can be a good thing as long as you have proper check points and a good level select system but in older games like this it would often be more of a deterrent than anything else. You don’t want to go back and play the whole game over again once you get a game over. Trust me, it just wouldn’t feel worth it at that point. Still, as long as you have the Switch Online you should give it a fair shot. It’s still a nice way to spend an hour or 2.

Overall 6/10

Golden Axe II Review

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It’s time to follow up the original Golden Axe with the sequel. This one is very similar to the first game to the point where you could almost think of it as unlocking some new levels. They did fix the magic system though which I appreciate. The A.I. is a bit easier as well so it’s easy to always trick them into pitfalls. I highly recommend doing that to save yourself some time. It’s not like there is an EXP system anyway right?

The game starts off with the villain returning to conquer the land once again. You must now put an end to these evil ambitions! Yeah it’s an extremely basic story all the way through. Not much is going on here at all in terms of the plot so you’re really just thrown into the gameplay once again. The game feels shorter than the first and you should have it completed in under an hour. I think part of that is due to the difficulty not being as high so I didn’t need to rewind quite as much.

The basic attack combo does more damage than the first game which I appreciate. The jumping attack does a little less but that balances out fairly well. Your hitboxes also seem a bit bigger so you can actually approach the enemy more often without having to worry about getting hit with some kind of a counter attack. I definitely enjoyed being able to be a little more active here. Additionally the magic system fixes the main issue I had with the first game.

In the first title, you could store up to 6 magic crests so that you can cast spells but you were always forced to use the all up in one shot. Your magic would be more powerful when using all 6 of course but sometimes you just wanted to use one or two. Well, in this game you can hold down the action button to determine how many magic orbs you want to use at once. You don’t have to actually fire everything off in one shot unless you really want to and I can’t stress enough what a massive quality of life upgrade this is.

In terms of graphics and soundtrack, it’s very similar to the first game. It sounds and looks fairly good/decent so I have no complaints here. The themes may not stand out a whole lot but they work well enough within the context of what’s going on. It’s high budget enough to assist the gameplay but also not quite impressive enough to amplify it either. So it’s sort of in that happy middle ground.

I mentioned this in the intro, but if you see any area where you can fall, absolutely make sure to bring the enemies over there. It saves you a lot of health from having to beat them. Basically the trick is to exploit the fact that the A.I. mirror your movements. So just go a little to the left or right of the pitfall and walk down. Keep going and they will keep repeating the action until they fall over. It wasn’t so easy in the first game so I wonder why that switched. Granted, there aren’t many areas where you can fall so it is still a decently rare occurrence.

All of the different bosses tend to be very unique so the game did a good job of not copying them. Most of the bosses tend to be a bit easier than the minions since you only have to deal with one opponent. The exception to this is the final boss though who is incredibly difficult to defeat. That’s because he constantly summons new minions to attack you. He brings out up to 3 at a time and while they are weak, this is the kind of game where sheer numbers are hard to deal with. No matter how careful you are, a lucky hit will get through and deal a lot of damage.

You already have to approach the boss carefully as it is so this also messes with the timing. Then there’s the time factor because if you leave him alone for too long, the boss hits you with an unavoidable, unblockable magic attack. So you have to hit him before he gets that off, meaning you have to stay really close to him. This boss took me quite a while to defeat due to that. Get ready for a lot of rewinding or if not, a ton of game overs at this point. This is the kind of game where you have to start from scratch if you get a game over and let me tell you…that’s not very fun. Particularly when you lose at the end because in the back of your mind you know it could happen again at which point you will lose all of your progress.

Overall, Golden Axe II is pretty much just the first game all over again but the gameplay did have some improvements that I appreciated. The short length becomes more noticeable in this iteration though so that’s something to keep in mind. You will absolutely be blasting through this game at record pace. So it’s a fun title but definitely keep that part It keeps this one from going any further but it’s still worth a playthrough if you have the Switch Online.

Overall 6/10

Phantasy Star IV Review

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Phantasy Star IV may be known as one of the easiest in the series and all but I had a good amount of trouble with it. The enemies are very dangerous and it takes a long time to level up in order to beat them. I’m always impressed at how people coast by these RPGs on such low levels. It goes to show that there is a whole lot of strategy that you can use once you have really mastered the system. As more of a casual RPG player I had to compensate by getting lots of level ups. So the game took me longer than most but I was still able to clear it.

The basic plot is about the eternal battle between light and dark. The light has won the last few rounds but now The Dark One has returned to cause a lot of mayhem and destruction at every corner. A dark plague has begun to get many people sick and it’s hard to know what to do. The main fighter for the heroes ends up going down early and so her sidekick must prove himself. Does he really have what it takes to fight against ultimate evil when he is still just a kid? Well, he’s about to learn the answer to that because ready or not…this is one battle that cannot be avoided.

Right out of the gate one thing I really liked about this game is that it had actual illustrations during the cutscenes. This is clearly a really high budget Genesis game and it is leagues above all of the others that I have played on the console. This absolutely could have been onto the next console and it still would have worked really well. There are a good amount of cutscenes here in general. The hub world is rather big, particularly since it is split up into 2-3 worlds. You have quick travel which is excellent as well as different vehicles to drive around in.

There are a lot of good quality of life features in here. The enemy spawn rate is rather high so you will be seeing a lot of minions but more times than not, you can outrun them. The only real downside here is that level ups take a while like I mentioned. I feel like the EXP wasn’t set up perfectly because you always feel like the minions should give a little more considering how long the battles take. Once you find the perfect area you can do fairly well with the battles but it’s still more work than the average RPG.

The gameplay is classic turn based combat with different spells, techniques, and physical attacks. You should play around with them and at times you may even use a combo by mistake. This seems to be part RNG but if you choose the right attacks in the right order then your allies will land a hit at the same time. I could never figure this out exactly but it was fun when it would work. Except ironically in one instance where it turned into a combo attack that the enemy boss was immune to, so I lost a turn there.

Aside from the graphics being solid, the soundtrack is also on point here. There are a lot of good themes throughout the game ranging from the battle themes to even the main tune when you first open the title. It has a lot of energy throughout and that’s always a good thing because it really gets you pumped to play the rest of the game. There may not be much replay value once you have beaten the game but the main story is already long enough where that’s no problem. It took me at least 15 hours or so to complete it and apparently there are side quests so you can work on that. Maybe there’s even a post game but I’m not sure how that would work here since beating the game takes you back to the loading page. I would have to double check that.

In terms of tips, this is one of the only games where I would recommend not equipping a weapon for some of your fighters. It’s way better to have the double shields for a lot of defense. Yeah I know that sounds crazy but it’s surprisingly worth it. I initially started out with 5 attack builds but they would all get shredded in an instant. So you want two medics that only heal and can use magic and then the other 3 can have their signature weapons. In general the concept of having to choose between equipping a weapon or shield is an interesting one. It definitely adds some extra depth.

Another reason the game can be really difficult is the way the techniques and skills are labeled. The game doesn’t provide you with any descriptions for any of them and the titles are super abbreviated so it can be hard to tell what does what. You will need to consult with an online guide for that or you will be really doomed there. You definitely need to be using the right abilities to defeat the boss. If nothing else, just test them all out against minions. By the end I was still confused on some of the abilities and why they would work on some enemies and not others…but as long as you beat the bosses that’s what counts.

Overall, Phantasy Star IV is a pretty fun game. Definitely make sure you grind levels quite often or you will get stuck though. I had to reach around level 45 before I was able to beat the game and even then it was super close. The bosses will randomly throw out crazy attacks that down your party sometimes so you have to hope that RNG is on your side. Towns don’t sell many items in this game either so if you get lost in a dungeon then it’s all over. Yeah, I would definitely say that this was one of the harder RPGs that I’ve played.

Overall 7/10

The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap Review

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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