Tag Archives: Video Game Review

Super Thunder Blade Review

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Super Thunder Blade is a game that I expected to be a whole lot better than it actually was. I was actually quite surprised at how wonky the controls were. You had a really hard time dodging the enemy fire and making a move because timing it was near impossible due to all the lag and how slow the frame rate was. The whole game felt so buggy you’d think it came out in the 2020s. I like the concept of the game but I’m afraid that I have to review the actual title and not the concept. A true shame but that’s how it goes.

The game is short with only 4-5 levels in it. It’s a 3D title where you can move from side to side as you dodge enemy fire. The goal is to survive until the end of the level where you then have to take down a boss that appears. Typically the boss will have some obvious weak points to target but I should warn you that this isn’t always the case. So you just have to keep on blasting and you’ll win eventually. Your opponent will of course be shooting a lot of blasts at you during this fight as well so you can think of this like a classic bullet hell game.

I guess part of what hurts the experience here is just how limited the game is. You only have one kind of blaster, which is your default gun. There are no power ups or alternate guns of any kind. Then all of the enemies shoot the same kind of attacks at you. So the character model may change but not the attack itself which feels a bit limited. Or dare I say cheap? This plays more like an NES title than a Genesis one. So you’ve got a short game length and almost nothing to do within it. Just moving from side to side isn’t exactly the most thrilling gameplay after all. You just need a whole lot more than that here and the game doesn’t really end up satisfying you there.

The graphics aren’t all that good either. You can always tell what is going on which is nice but the colors and backgrounds are nothing particularly inspiring. I won’t say they’re terrible or anything but this game definitely needed a win somewhere and I can tell you that it is not coming from the graphics department. No sir, that’s definitely not going to be the case. The soundtrack is okay I guess. Not a whole lot of tunes to be found here but they do fit in with the gameplay which is the important part.

My only real gameplay tip is to be constantly moving from side to side. Odds are that you won’t be hit but you will be moving too fast to actively be dodging on your own. So you just have to hope that the game doesn’t catch on and often times this will work for a very long time. Likewise when it comes to dodging and going into caverns, try the same approach. The only time you may have to pause this technique is during boss fights where you have to target specific areas.

There is one boss where you can only damage him once his eye is open and the guy blinks like crazy. So you have to be moving while blasting and the whole fight tends to be pretty tedious. It’s just a nonstop game of momentum after all and you have to try and stay ahead of it at all times. If you stop to focus then you will make the fight a lot quicker but you also run a much higher chance of getting hit. So you have to decide to take the safe and guaranteed route that takes forever or the short bursts of glory with high risk. Either way it is not super fun since the gameplay itself can be rather dull.

With a name like Super Thunder Blade you are just counting on something with a whole lot more pop. I think that’s what had me confused the whole time. Shouldn’t I be able to shoot out electricity or maybe pop out some kind of an elemental blade? Now that would have absolutely been fitting and would have made the game more exciting. The first step of game design is to make something memorable that everyone wants to play. Unfortunately this is definitely not it. Super Thunder Blade will not last for very long in your memory as you complete it in under a day and place the game back on the shelf, never to be played again.

Overall, Super Thunder Blade is an okay game but it just feels like they put in the bare minimum level of effort. For a lot of games I can at least talk about how I think they are hanging in there and doing their best but not this time. The controls are just too slippery and half the time when you get shot you don’t feel like that is what should have happened. It’s a game I would have been unable to complete without the Switch Online and I don’t think it would have been close. I also wouldn’t really have much of an incentive to keep on playing either.

Overall 5/10

Streets of Rage Review

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Streets of Rage is a series that has gotten quite a few games. It’s actually pretty impressive when you think about it. The series had very humble beginnings and yet it has gone very far into the modern day. The game feels its age but the fundamentals aren’t bad. It’s a quick title but it is fun to play through with some decent level designs. Probably not a title you will be talking about 10 years from now but when it’s free on the Switch Online there is no real downside right?

The controls are simple as you move up, down, left, and right as you try to land attacks on your opponents. You can also grab and pummel them which can be good for the more powerful opponents. The main key is to make sure you never let the enemies get too close to you. Once they are within range then you are really going to be in trouble. At that point you’re basically doomed since they can get you into near infinite combos. Usually I would opt for some aerial attacks but in this case that’s not always a great idea. The range is pretty small and the damage is super negligible.

Now granted, there are 3 characters here and I only tried playing as one of them. It’s completely possible that playing as a different one will yield different results since they all have different movesets and abilities. I do appreciate that as well as it adds another dimension to the game. It may be simple but the average title would have made 3 identical characters. The bosses all have different movesets and abilities as well.

I would also say that the game doesn’t feel “cheap”. If you played this at the arcade with a friend you feel like you would be able to go pretty far and wouldn’t have to spend much money to get all the way to the end of the game. It is very difficult, don’t get me wrong on that. But it is difficult in a way where you can continue to get better and defeat the game as opposed to feeling like it is all rigged against you. When a game is impossibly difficult then it’s time to shake your head.

The graphics have aged reasonably well. I won’t say the game looks amazing or anything but the colors are striking and I like the backgrounds. You feel the weight of each of the attacks as you play through the game and it just has processing power that you wouldn’t expect from this era. It is a game that had a lot of effort behind it. The soundtrack is also fun and very lively the whole time. I really appreciated that as well.

The main campaign is pretty short, you can probably complete it in a little under 2 hours. Probably way shorter than that if you are particularly good at the game but honestly you should expect to die a whole lot as you get used to the game. All it takes is one mistake on your part and you could end up eating a nasty combo and losing a whole lot of health. It’s the kind of game where you have to continually win neutral over and over without letting the opponent win once. That kind of strain can definitely be rather tough to overcome.

Of course the Switch Online has access points and rewinding to make that part easier. Without that? Yeah you may be here for hours and hours and hours with no real way to continue. The final boss in particular is unforgiving and I feel like the game glitched at one point because I kept hitting him over and over and his health bar never changed. It’s quite possible that I just wasn’t doing something right but after switching to grabs it didn’t seem to matter. The next day when I went back to the game I was dealing damage so I don’t know. It was all just pretty weird. If that happened to me live back in the day I’d definitely be shaking my head.

Overall, Streets of Rage is a good game. It’s admittedly not one that I would break out the wallet for or anything like that but it will pass the time by relatively well. If you like beat em up titles like this then you will definitely enjoy the title. If you don’t like the genre then you won’t like the game. The reason for this is because the game completely embodies what that kind of gameplay is like. There are no ribbons or special features around this. It’s about beating up your opponents completely and thoroughly with a tiny smidge of plot thrown in. If there was more story then the game would be more appealing but back in the day it was rare to have big stories like that.

Overall 6/10

Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV: Wall of Fire Review

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It’s time for another tactics title and unfortunately I am here to say that it is definitely not a particularly good one. As with the others that I’ve played recently, it takes away all the fun from the concept. The game goes too far in trying to be as realistic as possible and completely forgets about the fun factor. You always need a good balance in order to succeed here and the game completely forgot about that. It’s a shame since I think this could have really ended up being solid but in the end it definitely did not live up to the potential.

When you begin the game you get to pick which event you want to play through. Big history buffs will recognize the differences but to a casual player it all looks the same. Fun enough and all that but nothing to really hang your hat on. They may as well have only had one level for all the difference it would make. The levels can also be quite long as I managed to survive for well over a decade before dying and that’s considering that I had no clue what to do.

Aside from combat you can also make deals among the men, give them food, barter for items, etc. The game lets you simulate almost every part of a real war from back in the day. You definitely have a lot of control this way and I can definitely see someone getting a kick out of it but the problem is that everything takes so long. This is probably unavoidable for a game of this scale from back in the day but it also means that you wish it was not so intricate.

You want to be able to just rush in and start fighting but of course you are penalized for doing that. It puts you in a really bad position because you are meant to do all of the side parts of the game but in that case it will be forever until you see any real combat. The actual combat is slow enough as it is since you can barely move in each turn. It ends up feeling like a real RNG fest. I know a lot of it comes down to skill as well and I couldn’t figure that out either. So as a result everything ends up going sideways here. Not really the way to go about things.

At the end of the day this feels like a war simulation game but without any real hook. It doesn’t help that the graphics are not particularly good. They’re not awful or anything but they also aren’t testing the limits of the SNES architecture. You’ll forget all about them by the end, same with the soundtrack. It’s just very generic and doesn’t do anything to elevate the experience. At the end of the day it means that this is a game that will not withstand the test of time, not even by a little bit.

Throwing in a true story mode would really help for this kind of thing. Adding that in addition to the simulation mode would have been a really good idea. For starters it would give you a way to really identify with the characters as well as make you want to keep playing. There isn’t much reason to play through otherwise since there are no real cutscenes. You just have to absolutely love the gameplay and it feels like that would be a very limited audience. How many people actually enjoy that kind of thing? Give me a classic 3D beat em up instead any day. Then no matter what happens with my allies and the A.I., I know that I can do in and just start taking names. That’s a way more fun experience.

Overall, This is definitely not a game that you have a whole lot of fun with. It was too ambitious for its own good although even in the modern day I’m not sure how good a remake would be. If it can make things very cinematic then that could work but the key will be ensuring that every part of the game is fun. Counting up the money and distributing among the warriors doesn’t really seem like a good idea if you ask me. It’s just not the proper way to play a game and have a blast. Definitely skip out on this title if you can.

Overall 3/10

Wario: Master of Disguise Review

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“At what point did you realize you were playing the worst game of all time?” I always like thought prompts like that. Usually the answers are pretty fun, especially when the person is still playing the game. Well, I started to have this question pop in my head as I was playing the game but I know deep in my heart that this isn’t the worst game of all time. Man did it try though. The gameplay is really bad and the stylus destroys any potential that it might have had. Make no mistake, this isn’t a game that you play…it’s a game that plays you.

The game starts with Wario watching TV as he wishes he were rich but then he comes up with a brilliant idea. Why not teleport inside the TV show and get rich??? He is a mega genius after all so he invents a helmet that lets him break the boundaries between dimensions and hops inside. He steals a wand from Mr. Cannoli and now wants to assemble the missing relic pieces to get his wishes granted. Yes, everything is going well for Wario but is he dabbling with powers beyond his comprehension?

The story isn’t particularly interesting so you’ll tune out early on. There are parts that are ironically fun like Cannoli’s theme that plays whenever he appears. That was pretty fun because it was a quality theme. Additionally I would say the game does try to throw in a lot of lore and hype by the end. It was just so deep into the game that it was basically over by then. They should have found a way to make things a little more interesting before then. The idea of a more plot based Nintendo game is always fun, you just have to handle it with the greatest of care.

It all comes down to the gameplay though. A game can have a terrible story but still be fun with the right gameplay. Well sadly it doesn’t deliver. The game is built around transforming into different Wario forms and using their abilities to solve puzzles. The goal is to get to the end of the level and find a relic or beat up a boss. The levels range from being 20-90 minutes long. I think they’re all meant to be more like 20-30 based on how the play time goes red as it gets too long but good luck figuring these out so fast. The levels are as poorly developed as possible.

To switch costumes you have to draw on the screen but the game is very particular about the drawings themselves. This means you often have to try and transform more than once in order to actually get into the form. This part is what will have you shaking your head. It just doesn’t make sense…none of it makes sense. So yeah that part definitely stings and then the powers themselves also use the stylus. To fly you have to blow into the 3DS microphone so be prepared to do that a whole lot near the end.

You have to open treasure chests to get key items and these require you to play through the same 5 minigames over and over again. Definitely brutal stuff and some of them just feel rigged. There is one minigame about tracing objects that I never got right even once. Fortunately the treasure chests do change the minigame every time so even if you lose once then you can try again and it’ll be a different minigame. That should provide some solace at least.

Then you have a 1-2 checkpoints in a level so you respawn there when you die. Yes, if you die to a boss be prepared to have to go through a few rooms again to get back there. Additionally some of the puzzles deactivate so you have to solve them again. You already know the answers by this point so it’s not too bad but it’s still tedious. The game almost goes out of its way to be as tedious as possible and that’s what will have you shaking your head. This was not supposed to go this way. The game was supposed to be intense and awesome, not a total letdown like this.

It comes down to why you don’t want to tie your game into a gimmick because it will always backfire. The stylus just isn’t fun to use. Never was…never will be. When I play a platformer I want to be actually playing it. At least I can say that the graphics aren’t bad. The character designs are actually good like with the final boss. The game does turn out on the visuals. The soundtrack is way more on the repetitive side but I still wouldn’t say that it’s bad. The Cannoli theme is good like I mentioned before. I think there is some kind of true ending if you get all the treasures in the game too so it had a bit of replay value. Not enough to even be remotely tempting mind you, but if you enjoyed the game then there’s that. Although none of the treasures are even hidden so if you liked the game a lot then you will have probably gotten them already. The game feels rather long so I guess it earns the price you paid to get it at least.

Overall, Wario: Master of Disguise feels rather disgraceful most of the time. You’d think it would be on the level of Mario or something but it’s not even close. The game is definitely not up to Nintendo’s seal of quality the whole time. Everything feels slapped together without a lot of care or consideration. I wanted the game to be better but I had to shake my head while playing it. The game doesn’t have any quality of life features and so playing through it can be a bit of a chore. It’s just not the big game that I thought it was. You want to stay far, far away from this one. It’s just a recipe for disaster.

Overall 3/10

Cobra Kai 2: Dojos Rising Review

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Now we have made it to the second big Cobra Kai title! This one switches things to 3D and was definitely a very ambitious title but alas it wasn’t meant to be. The game absolutely folded under the might of its ambitions and so this won’t be remembered too fondly. The game itself is good but you can really see the potential that just got knocked away.

The game starts off by letting you decide if you want to play as Cobra Kai, Miyagi Dojo, or some bird related team. I went with the Cobra Kai of course and basically you have to find 5 allies to go with you to the big tournament. The game lets you choose from a bunch of stage options to recruit fighters and each recruitment opens up more stages. Once you have enough players you can go ahead and enter the tournament to begin the climax of the game. I actually didn’t realize you could jump into the tournament so soon or I may have even gone in earlier since I recruited over 10 fighters.

The combat is about what you would expect. You have your standard moves, super attacks, and chi moves. The special attacks have an interesting gimmicks. Every character has 4. The top one gives you money when it lands, the bottom XP, the right more power, and the left is health. But they each do something which is nice. Naturally I spammed the XP one but sometimes the health part could be crucial. You fight through waves of enemies and then there is a minigame for each of the recruits. Sometimes it is as simple as defeating them but most of the time it involves a more unique task. Each level has 3-4 people to recruit.

Once you’ve recruited them, you can level them up at the Dojo and also rank up their moves. Again it’s pretty ambitious but most of the menus barely work and switching between characters can get a bit tiresome so I ditched the skills early on and just did the level ups. You can also level up the dojo itself which lets you house more people and make them happy. If a recruit isn’t happy then he will leave and you have to try and re recruit him. That mechanic was annoying, why would you let people just leave like that? I hope they at least keep the level ups that you gave them. It would be annoying to have to get that back again.

The tournament is the hardest part of the game by far. You have to win 7 rounds in a row without getting any health back. Each round can force you to KO the opponent 6 times so that’s around 50+ victories. You can get more points by intentionally stalling the match to land a 3 victory strike but it is risky since of course it gives the opponent more time to hit you. This one took me several tries to finally complete and I definitely felt triumphant afterwards. Unfortunately the game glitched shortly afterwards so I wasn’t able to play through the final level.

The glitches are definitely going to be remembered as the game’s legacy. For one thing the frame rate is crazy bad, the game will lag on you constantly. At times it will be as if you can’t even move. I haven’t played a game dropping that many frames in a long time. Maybe ever, at least for console releases. Naturally the huge glitch sending me back to level 1 is another one to look at. I literally didn’t beat the game as a result of it. Moving through the menus can be glitchy and sometimes enemies don’t die when they should. I even had the game freeze twice and I had to restart.

So unlike Sonic 06 where you are unlikely to really encounter the bugs on a normal playthrough, you will be seeing a whole lot of them here. Just beware of that because it’s definitely bound to be a bumpy ride for you. That said, the gameplay itself is still solid so I’d still end up giving it the thumbs up in the end. Without the glitches it would definitely be an even higher score. They really jam packed this game with loads of content like the upgrade tree and how many levels are in there. Having 3 different teams to play as is also really good. It’s lazy in some aspects like seeing your character in the background while you’re fighting but that’s probably more of a budget issue.

The graphics are not particularly good. The game doesn’t have a ton of details and the character models feel more like something out of PS2. The soundtrack is fun enough though, definitely some fast paced tuned all the way through that get you into the Karate fighting spirit. Of course there is a decent amount of replay value with the trophies…provided that you are able to get them. I see that the Platinum rate is at a literal 0% which is probably a pretty bad sign. There has to be a glitch preventing a Platinum from being possible which is pretty crazy. I definitely won’t be trying for that one.

Overall, Cobra Kai delivers on what you would expect in the action department. It’s a fun game and you will have a good time going through it but unfortunately it did need a lot more polish to really be out there in the market. I do have to dock points for literal game breaking glitches after all. That does put a damper on the overall fun environment that the game is going for. It pains me to do it but that’s how it goes. I’ll still check out the Karate Kid game at some point though. I expect that will have more polish and at this point I’ve been playing through quite a few of these retro styled beat em ups so why not right? Especially when the price is so cheap hehe. $5 is less than even getting a Big Mac at McDonalds nowadays.

Overall 5/10

Bleach Rebirth of Souls Review

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It’s time to talk about an absolutely elite title! Bleach went above and beyond in terms of adding a ton of awesome content and easter egg for true fans. The presentation and story are absolutely first rate and of course this is a fighting game so you can’t go wrong there. Now granted, there is one aspect about the gameplay that I don’t love but barring that it’s all at an elite level here. The game is also surprisingly long so you’re guaranteed to have a satisfying time here.

The story begins with Ichigo having to gain supernatural powers in order to save his family. He is now a Substitute Soul Reaper, someone who stands on the edge between life and death. He has to fight powerful monsters and also save his friends from the corrupt Soul Society. Along the way he also learns of sentient monsters in Hueco Mundo who have big plans as well. Can Ichigo stop them all and save the entire universe from certain anhiliation?

One thing’s for sure right from the jump, the developers really paid attention to the manga. There are tons and tons of extra details here. A story mode doesn’t get much more detailed than this, particularly a fighting game one. There are hours and hours of pure cutscenes here even aside from the combat. There are also a ton of secret missions and also secret cutscenes that are triggered when you clear challenges during a level. So you really get rewarded for doing your best to follow the story beats.

The story is also handled pretty well on a difficulty basis. None of the levels are a piece of cake to get through, far from it! You’ve really got to focus here because if you let your guard down at all then it’s all over. Here’s where the gameplay becomes important. Unlike traditional fighting games where everyone has a normal health bar, this one is focused on reishi. That’s basically an aura. The only way to deal damage to your opponent’s life points is through final smashes. You can use these as soon as your opponent’s shield hits the red level but it will be one point weaker. Alternately reducing the shield to 0 means you can use your final smash at full power.

The downside to this of course is that you will be seeing the same final smashes over and over and over again. They each have a little pre recorded cutscene at the start but those do add up eventually. Some characters like Ichigo and Aizen also have longer than average cutscenes for the final smash. It’s definitely nice for the game to show off the top tier animation that they have but this is the only part that can get a little old. I’d have preferred a traditional health bar system but hey it is unique.

Naturally the graphics are completely top tier here. It all looks really amazing while playing through the game and they did a good job on the cutscenes as well. The soundtrack is also elite with a ton of great songs mixed in throughout the game. Whenever you are in battle and someone activates their Bankai, you can expect the game to really speed up. The game isn’t really focused on balance so some characters are super weak compared to others. That’s just how it goes, it’s a pretty fun approach that I can appreciate though. They’re trying to make every part of the game lore accurate even right down to the gameplay. You never really see that so it was impressive.

Naturally there is a whole lot of content here. The main story is almost 30 hours long and then aside from that you’ve got side missions, bonus levels, and lots of other stuff to do. Vs mode itself is naturally enough for infinite replay value as well. So when you mix the whole thing together then you have a winning formula. The Platinum trophy for the game definitely looks like it would be a really hard one to grab though. Definitely not one that I would aim for anytime soon at least. It is yet another way the game has a ton of replay value though.

After playing through a ton of characters for the story, I can safely say that the most satisfying character to play as is Ichigo. They did a good job of developing him as a really good all around fighter. He may not be the strongest but he has good reach and his attacks combo well. My least favorite would be Uryu. Spamming the arrows can be interesting but you just don’t get to play as much. It feels less active when you can’t just be swinging a sword the whole time and forcing the opponents to back off. That is when Bleach is at its best after all, when you can just take off the limiters and run in for action.

It does match Uryu’s fighting style though so it’s yet another good detail. Similarly Mayuri doesn’t run around, a scientist like him is too proud for that. So he has good reach and attacks that pull in the opponent. Of course while accurate, that’s why I wouldn’t play as him much. Grimmjow is a lot of fun with his savage attacks but they also hurt himself which makes him rough. Yeah I’ll stick with Ichigo. Also quick shoutout to the fact that the whole game is English dubbed. I can tell you that this makes a massive difference. You really feel the emotion and the passion in every fight. It further helps the cinematic feel of the story mode.

Overall, Bleach: Rebirth of Souls was a game that was getting a ton of hype for months and months and I am proud to say that it completely lived up to it. Every part of this game is completely satisfying and polished. I will be getting the sequel right away when it comes out as I’m hyped to see how the sequel goes. There’s definitely a lot more content to cover and now I can say with 100% confidence that this team will know how to handle it. If you had any doubts about the game you can definitely put them aside. This is the ultimate tribute to Bleach fans and I expect it to continue to be talked about for a very long time.

Overall 9/10

Cobra Kai: The Karate Kid Saga Continues Review

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Cobra Kai is one of those titles that definitely got big out of nowhere. I remember thinking that a sequel to Karate Kid would be reasonable but to think it would get two different video games? I wouldn’t have guessed that. Now that the games are pretty cheap, it was time to get them and see just what I’ve been missing all this time. Well, suffice it to say, the game is pretty fun. It’s not great or anything but I enjoyed the story and between the two campaigns there is a decent amount of content here. Any beat em up fan will get a kick out of this.

I went with the Cobra Kai story of course. The title starts with two kids being thrown into detention for having another fight. One of them is a big fan of the Cobra Kai dojo wile the other is a Miyagi stan. They both have differing accounts of what exactly happened that caused so much drama. From the Cobra Kai side, it seems like Daniel LaRusso is causing a ton of trouble and really making a mess of things. It seems like he can’t move on from the past and so he has to be stopped before karate is fully corrupted. Where is he hiding though?

The gameplay here is a classic 2D beat em up. You have to fight through waves and waves of opponents as you proceed forward. You have your basic moves, super moves, and you can switch between your 4 characters at will. You lose a level if all 4 are defeated but generally I don’t see that being a problem. The game isn’t one of the more difficult ones. Maybe if you opt not to use any upgrades then it could be tricky. The upgrades are really handy since they reduce cooldown timer on your special attacks and also increase the attack power itself.

You earn the currency to use the power ups as you defeat enemies and clear specific challenges like finishing off 15 opponents with your signature move. Basically you’ll get a ton of these challenges by playing normally but definitely check them out at the dojo since there are some you will need to actively try for. The upgrades are all increases of about 1% but they really add up. You don’t want to miss out unless you are intentionally trying to make the game more difficult.

How the game works is there are normal levels and boss levels. The normal levels are circles on the map which lead to the boss levels. These stages have no cutscenes and you’re just blowing enemies away. Each boss level has two big fighters who stand in your way in addition to all the minions. Clearing a boss level gives you a clue point. Once you have 8 clue points, you can go to the final boss lair and fight Daniel LaRusso. There seem to be about 12-14 boss levels so you really have some options on where you want to go. Also if you feel you aren’t strong enough to defeat him yet, then you could play those levels for more EXP.

Be warned, whichever Dojo you start with, you will not be able to switch back, to them again during New Game+. In that mode you must play as the second dojo and complete the game again. That will then unlock the true ending so you can see here how the game has a certain amount of depth to it. Definitely not something to be underestimated. The levels are reasonably long too. The normal levels are only around 10 minutes or so but the boss ones can approach 25. You don’t want to lose there. Now, I never did so it’s possible there is a checkpoint or something but I wouldn’t risk it. Just keep fighting as hard as you can.

I’d say the most important thing here is to use a lot of special attacks. You gain invincibility during almost all of them and they cool down very quickly even without upgrades. So keep on spamming those and spam your dodge in order to stay one step ahead. As you play through the game you will quickly get a feel for how to deal with each enemy. When in a group, be careful about hitting an opponent while they’re down. You have no super armor during this maneuver which means that you will be super vulnerable.

Perfect blocking/parrying an attack does restore some of your health though so this is really something to be aware of. Most of the enemies can seem a bit unpredictable at first but they keep the same movements throughout the game. So eventually you should have a good understanding of how to defeat them, or at least I would figure you would. There are a lot of health items that are dropped in each level though so this may not even be necessary. Your fallen allies even revive after a little time.

There are also a few collectibles in each level so that will help during the replay value. Getting the Platinum doesn’t look insane but it definitely will take time so you really can’t go too easy on it. Expect to be here for a little while. Fortunately the gameplay is fun so that works well enough. Considering that you can get the game for about $5 nowadays, I would say that’s even a bargain. It’s definitely got more content than your average tie-in.

As for the music, it gets surprisingly good as you play through the game. It’s trying very hard to emulate the old music and you can feel that but after a while it just starts to come into its own. Perhaps it is from listening to the same themes so many times but you begin to enjoy them. That’s a pretty good feat. The graphics are definitely sub par though. Stuff you could have seen on the PS2. I appreciate that there is voice acting though. So all in all, the technicals are good enough.

Overall, Cobra Kai is one of those video games that takes you down memory lane. They don’t make a ton of games like this anymore. It feels very authentic and is a lot of fun. You will be done with it quickly but not too quickly considering the price. It may even make you want to watch the TV show and see if it can hold its own with the game. I’ll be going through the second game fairly quick so you can expect a review on that one soon enough. It uses a completely different gameplay style so that will either be a good thing or backfire big time.

Overall 7/10

Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition Review

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Xenoblade Chronicles is often thought of as one of the all time great RPGs and I would say it lives up to that. The story is dynamite, the gameplay is a lot of fun, and there is just so much to do within the game. It’s the kind of game that you can play for a very long time and not get bored. The content just keeps on going and the Switch version even has a whole epilogue to it. So now you’ve got extra content on top of a game that was already very long. This game is definitely a bargain at any price.

The game starts off by showing us a war between Mechonis and Bionis. After a large scale war, Bionis won and the world was finally at peace. Unfortunately it would not last forever. Several years later, Mechonis has returned and now the fighting is intensifying. Local researcher genius Shulk will now have to wield the legendary Monado Blade to fight back. The blade is so powerful that it cannot be controlled by most people and then injures the people who do wield it for too long. Shulk seems impervious to the effects but for how long? Also while he uses it, he appears to be able to see bits of the future. Maybe he can save the whole universe now!

There are a lot of positives to get into here but the first one has to be just how fast the story gets going. You start the game off with a massive war, and then another invasion a few cutscenes later. The game isn’t trying to bog you down with a long intro, you’re just thrown into the mix. The pacing stays pretty fast throughout the game and well the main tory is around 50 hours to get through so that’s a whole lot of content. There are hundreds and hundreds of side quests to play through as well, and optional bond moments too.

The game is also reasonably difficult so you are really encourages to go around completing a lot of side quests to get stronger. Doing this is the best way to really make sure you are ready for action. I spent many hours just fighting minions to get stronger and let me yell you, it was absolutely needed. The amount of times I was destroyed by a boss was very high. The villains are given a lot of respect in the power levels department so as Shulk you do feel like the underdog. This works well with the story.

The game also handled the future sight really well. It’s generally hard for any character to land a hit on Shulk. He’s much too fast, skilled, and powerful with that ability. Then to counter it, we have enemies who can read minds who turn that against him or other times when Shulk is not doing well and temporarily loses his abilities. It helps to keep things balanced. The story changes a lot throughout the adventure as we meet many different factions and fighters. They’re all well thought out and as always RPGs do have a huge advantage here because of how long you’re with the characters. How could you not grow to like them after being on the journey for so long right?

As for the gameplay, it’s a turn based system with a little auto attacking. Think of it like .Hack. So every second hat you run around and don’t click on anything, you will do an auto attack. This builds up your Monado gauge for powerful attacks. Additionally you can cycle through your signature moves and use any of those at any time. These deal a whole lot of damage and are really good to have in the pocket. They all have a cooldown though so you want to be careful about when you use them.

Meanwhile you can switch characters and use their abilities as well. Then there are combo hits and a lot of other mechanics to go through. This is a very involved game and then you can also level up the attacks when you find the book that activates the upgrade. Most of these are found in shops for lower levels and then at the highest levels you have to find specific enemies to drop them. As a result it can take a while to get the exact item that you want. Quick saving and reloading is probably the easiest way to get around the low percentage drops.

Throughout the game you will be asked to complete tasks which gets you money and exp as well as some good items. I was extremely impressed at the hundreds of missions in the game. That’s pretty much unheard of for virtually any game. It’s a staggering amount and I had to complete nearly all of them in order to become strong enough to beat the game. That’s how I knew that this game meant business. It’s also nice that for all of the fetch quests, the map does show you where to find them. Doing this blind would have been absolutely brutal.

The worlds are absolutely huge after all so these quality of life features were greatly appreciated. Yet another thing that shows why Xenoblade Chronicles is such an elite title. A lesser game would have still had you searching blind the whole time which would have been rough. There are also a few mechanics I didn’t get to try out much like trading materials with different passerbys. I also didn’t do most of the bond missions and just leveled them up naturally by fighting enemies.

There are so many different ways to equip and form your party that the possibilities are nearly endless as well. If hypothetically the levels ups were not enough, then I would have done a lot of tweaking in my party until I found the right balance. It’s another area where trial and error is a good idea. Meanwhile the technical aspects are top tier as you’d expect. The soundtrack is excellent with a whole lot of great rock tunes. The main battle theme is a true all star and all of the other tunes hold their own as well. Meanwhile the graphics are great. I really enjoyed the battles within the cutscenes and of course the effects during gameplay as well. The game never lacked for detail.

Overall, This was a top tier game. It’s just really hard to beat a good RPG! It was also nice to finally see Shulk in action. His personality here is definitely quite a bit different than in Super Smash Bros but you still get the general idea. It always gives me a lot of high respect for how Sakurai really adapted the moves and lines from the game. It really makes his moveset in Smash a true celebration of his character. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is still the best one but this holds its own. I’ll be eager to see how X ends up faring.

Overall 9/10

Donkey Kong ’94 Review

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It’s time for the return of Donkey Kong. This is one of Mario’s first ever antagonists and I can tell you that nobody ever expected he would end up becoming the great hero that he is today. Well, that wasn’t the case here as he’s up to his old tricks in kidnapping Pauline so now Mario has to stop him. This time DK is well prepared though and has hidden behind dozens and dozens of levels. Can Mario get through them all in time to save her? One thing’s for sure, it’s unlikely that Pauline would be friends with DK again after all of this.

The gameplay initially starts off with the classic Donkey Kong style as you jump through the different floors and try to dodge all the barrels. The level then ends once you reach the top. Well after a few levels of this the game transforms into a more standard platformer and this is when things get real. Each world has levels in multiples of 4 where you fight DK every 4. So some worlds have 8 levels while others have up to 16. It’s definitely a lot of levels to get through. The objective in the platforming levels is to get the key and bring it over to the chest in order to open it. This may sound easy but as the levels go, there are more and more obstacles in your path.

I was pretty impressed at different points with how creative the game would get. It was also rather difficult, certainly a lot more difficult than you would expect a game to be nowadays. Nintendo was not holding back so you can expect to die a number of times here. All it takes is to mistime one of your jumps and it is curtains. You can throw your key around to get past some but if you don’t pick it up within a few seconds, it will respawn back to where you first grabbed it. So you often have to move really fast or you will have just lost a bunch of ground for no reason.

The levels tend to be on the smaller side so it doesn’t feel bad if you lose too much though. Ultimately it comes down to having a plan. As long as you know what you are going to do then time will rarely if ever be a problem for you. Sometimes you just can’t execute your plan quick enough so there will be a degree of trial and error here. Just don’t give up, keep on swinging and eventually you will make it. If you’re super stuck, try looking for an alternate path because sometimes you’re just looking at the puzzle all wrong.

The toughest parts are definitely when a level has different arrow orbs. These create blocks that can be climbed or walked on depending on where you pout them. They often end up being the toughest because there are tons of ways to use them since you choose where they go. In most puzzles, you’re figuring out how to use equipment that has been put in specific places so that is way easier. Well, just keep your composure and you’ll be fine.

The graphics are pretty good. The game looks nice throughout from the backgrounds to the character designs and items. It has that Nintendo charm to it at all times. The soundtrack is more forgettable but DK games rarely keep pace with the classic Mario titles anyway. As long as they’re close, I suppose that’s the important thing. The story mode will take you a decent time to get through thanks to all of the levels. Probably 3-4 hours if I had to guess and potentially a bit more depending on how many times you need to try again. You’re getting a pretty decent bang for your buck even if it’s not crazy long or anything like that.

I guess my biggest piece of advice when playing the game is to try not stopping much. It’s better to take the wrong approach and lose a life than to be left wondering what to do and lose when the time runs out. The timer isn’t especially high so it will run out rather quickly and in the worst case you will be just as lost when you respawn. At least when you die from the first method you can rule that out as an option. It’s not like the levels are crazy complex so just knowing one way that isn’t correct will really help you narrow things down.

As for the boss fights, those are pretty self explanatory. You have to hit Dk with the barrels that he drops down. Keep the pressure on him and you’ve got this. Unlike the levels, I would say the bosses always tend to be pretty easy. Not crazy easy like you can close your eyes during them or anything like that but easy enough where I don’t expect you will die much at all. It’s just not that game.

Overall, Donkey Kong is definitely a fun game. It takes you back to a simpler time of gaming and it holds up really nicely. I’d be up for more titles like this one. The whole transporting the key around thing was definitely really creative. The Mario vs DK series is still kicking so there is always a chance to keep on making new games like this one. Until then, you should definitely check this out on the Nintendo Switch Online. There is no downside to doing it after all so why not right?

Overall 7/10

Nobunaga’s Ambition: Lord of Darkness Review

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Uh oh, it’s another strategy type game! Lord of Darkness takes thing further than the first game in regards to how realistic they are going with the simulation. You now have to worry about supplies and 7 different kinds of locations in addition to the battles. As a result there is far less gameplay than in the first one. The difficulty of the battles themselves appears to have been lessened but the game itself is just as difficult as always because of all the other factors you have to worry about. The more you have to keep track of everything, the more you will quickly find yourself being absolutely shut down. Ultimately, you’re doomed here.

The game has only 2 scenarios instead of 3 this time but maybe you unlock the third later on. The main goal of the game is really to go in and conquer all of the world. Along the way you will have to fight or ally with other team leaders. Of course the whole quest feels virtually endless with how the other armies keep popping up like whack a moles. Defeat one of them and another 3 come in to take their place. Trust me, it’s not ideal when you like to see your progress going up. I felt the same way for De Blob 2 and Paper Mario: Color Splash. I never like the idea of enemies recapturing different locations that I already got.

The only exception I can think of is Dynasty Warriors since it’s all happening in real time and it’s on the same level. So it doesn’t feel as bad when I lose a piece of land compared to other games where it means a whole lot of back tracking. I would argue that it is a completely different circumstance to be honest. Then this game is also just very complex with how the supplies are handled. You can give orders once a month so you have to be very complete with them. Try addressing as many areas as possible because the wait to the next month will be absolutely brutal. Of course on the other hand this also means that each month will be really time consuming.

The enemies seem to be a lot more relaxed this time around though so I made it through many seasons without being attacked. That also means that the game gets downright boring though. You’ve also got a lot of RNG elements here like floods that come washing in and illnesses that take chunks out of the general populace. Why add RNG to a heavy strategy game like this? The answer might be that it tests your strategic skills in an ever changing environment but it just makes you less invested since your well thought out plans can be done in an instant.

The graphics are okay at best but it’s clear that they were not a big priority here. There’s also not much of a soundtrack at all. I can say that they did put a lot of effort into the gameplay so I’ll give them some props there. It just wasn’t any fun and ultimately that is the most important part of any game. Who is going to play a video game that they don’t think is an absolute blast? It just wouldn’t make sense and so this one just forgot to be super fun. I’m sure strategy fans may get a kick out of this one but it definitely does not have the kind of widespread appeal that you would like to see here.

In terms of quality of life features, the game could definitely stand to label the units. They’re all very easy to mix up. The difference comes down to their weapons and flags. If you really pay attention then you will know what they all represent but having a basic map on screen would be nice. In a more modern adventure you wouldn’t need that since the game would have way more details but in this case it is an absolute necessity. It’s certainly an instance where the game’s technical limitations really came back to bite it.

There’s not a whole lot more to get into with this game. You can activate multiplayer which can make things a little more fun but the sheer chunk of time that it would take up would probably end up hurting quite a bit. With two players that is basically double the amount of time that it would take to clear each game and that’s assuming that one of the other 25 computers doesn’t win. So if you’re going to do a multiplayer battle this is probably not the title to use.

Overall, I would say to avoid this game. Even though it’s free, there just isn’t much fun to be had here. The menus are way too extensive and the gameplay is too limited. I would probably rather read a book about the warring states than play through this one. I can’t say that I find the period too engaging even on a good day but there are ways to make it interesting. Perhaps a modern PS5 remake would prove to be different but in the meantime this is definitely a full on skip.

Overall 2/10