Avex
You would think a game based around the joker and bane of all things would be a very fun experience the first time around, but my god does this game really show it's age.
I'll start with the good points of this game. The voice acting and the environments are pretty sick for a brawler centered around the batman universe. I don't do capeshit this much, so I'm just viewing it from a very casual perspective, but everything does really stand out as dreary and asylum-ey (if that's even a word). Sadly, the rest of the game is not just about looking at environments and hearing the voice actors bicker at each other back and forth.
The bad. Holy hell, the bad doesn't cut it with how utter dogshit the game is. You know, for a game called the batman and knowing how cool it is to brawl your way through tons of enemies, why does this game really like to completely stop and force you to play stealthily in certain sections where it was alright to just play however you wanted? This really hit hard when enemies start having literal hitscan rifles that track you even if you are attempting to get away, and then you have to reload that checkpoint over and over again. I'm playing on the hardest difficulty, so it maybe just that, but even after maxing out my health and armor did it still feel like I was getting aimbotted out of the sky while I was just trying to fly around and take down someone.
Another huge gripe is definitely the bosses minus a certain plant fight that happens that feels different for once. EVERY FIGHT IS JUST BAIN WITH A DIFFERENT COAT OF PAINT. EVEN THE KILLER CROC SECTION IS JUST BAIN AGAIN WITH THE FUCKING BATTERANG, And to top it off with a final fuck you to the player, the last boss fight is just another FUCKING BAIN FIGHT. These fights sucked along with the wave of enemies that you have to try to hit along with just the other Bain-alikes that just end up being a huge pain in the ass.
Overall, this game did help shape the genre of the 3rd person brawler into the mainstream, whether that is a good thing or not. I honestly thought I was going to enjoy this game as a lot of people were giving this game such high praise when it released, only to just be shown this crap. I've got a couple more of the batman games to go through, so I hope this disappointment lingers over to the other games as well.
I'll start with the good points of this game. The voice acting and the environments are pretty sick for a brawler centered around the batman universe. I don't do capeshit this much, so I'm just viewing it from a very casual perspective, but everything does really stand out as dreary and asylum-ey (if that's even a word). Sadly, the rest of the game is not just about looking at environments and hearing the voice actors bicker at each other back and forth.
The bad. Holy hell, the bad doesn't cut it with how utter dogshit the game is. You know, for a game called the batman and knowing how cool it is to brawl your way through tons of enemies, why does this game really like to completely stop and force you to play stealthily in certain sections where it was alright to just play however you wanted? This really hit hard when enemies start having literal hitscan rifles that track you even if you are attempting to get away, and then you have to reload that checkpoint over and over again. I'm playing on the hardest difficulty, so it maybe just that, but even after maxing out my health and armor did it still feel like I was getting aimbotted out of the sky while I was just trying to fly around and take down someone.
Another huge gripe is definitely the bosses minus a certain plant fight that happens that feels different for once. EVERY FIGHT IS JUST BAIN WITH A DIFFERENT COAT OF PAINT. EVEN THE KILLER CROC SECTION IS JUST BAIN AGAIN WITH THE FUCKING BATTERANG, And to top it off with a final fuck you to the player, the last boss fight is just another FUCKING BAIN FIGHT. These fights sucked along with the wave of enemies that you have to try to hit along with just the other Bain-alikes that just end up being a huge pain in the ass.
Overall, this game did help shape the genre of the 3rd person brawler into the mainstream, whether that is a good thing or not. I honestly thought I was going to enjoy this game as a lot of people were giving this game such high praise when it released, only to just be shown this crap. I've got a couple more of the batman games to go through, so I hope this disappointment lingers over to the other games as well.
Gone are the days where the story of the series went from Michael Bay explosions to the now very serious Hollywood-esque story this new retelling of the series.
So, now that we've finished the first story, where do we go now? Well, surprisingly, Mexico. Reviewers here can explain the gist of the story, but I think the most interesting parts are where we completely forget the main story and just focus on the cowboys story, but it just eventually moves back to the main iraqi plot, then the withering just starts to show as it's just, we did it america! Honestly, you could just watch a cutscene compilation on youtube and get the same experience.
Does it hold up a candle against the original? Absolutely not. I do highly recommend playing the original MW2 before going into this one, as it is heavily fan-servicey when recalling past events and characters that are implemented into this new story. Not to mention that soundtrack that has you on the edge of your seat? Either gone or none-existent with this game. In fact, most of the tracks just feel like they're there to pad out the levels so you can just keep moving on with the B-movie and it feels pretty sad, as the tracks in the original trilogy had some pretty nice bangers.
Is it a must play? Probably not. Would you think you've wasted your time playing through this? Eh, that depends if you still like call of duty to begin with as a whole. I thought it was just fine, but I wouldn't see myself running through the campaign again and again as I did with the original sequel.
But Avex, what about the multiplayer?!
Ah yes, the multiplayer. As of writing this, I've clocked almost 40 hours on and off on the multiplayer, and for the most part right now, it's a toss up. This by no means is a definitive review of the multiplayer, as this can change drastically over the next couple of months, but teaming up with a couple of friends so far has been pretty fun.
Do I see myself playing this game in the long term? I'm not sure, but upgrading weapons and seeing my get higher and higher still gives me that monkey brain dopamine that tends to hit when I'm doing well, and crashes like a 747 when I'm playing like crap.
Just make sure to mute all when you're playing by yourself, as the lobbies tend to be a bit rowdy with a whole lot of naughty words.
So, now that we've finished the first story, where do we go now? Well, surprisingly, Mexico. Reviewers here can explain the gist of the story, but I think the most interesting parts are where we completely forget the main story and just focus on the cowboys story, but it just eventually moves back to the main iraqi plot, then the withering just starts to show as it's just, we did it america! Honestly, you could just watch a cutscene compilation on youtube and get the same experience.
Does it hold up a candle against the original? Absolutely not. I do highly recommend playing the original MW2 before going into this one, as it is heavily fan-servicey when recalling past events and characters that are implemented into this new story. Not to mention that soundtrack that has you on the edge of your seat? Either gone or none-existent with this game. In fact, most of the tracks just feel like they're there to pad out the levels so you can just keep moving on with the B-movie and it feels pretty sad, as the tracks in the original trilogy had some pretty nice bangers.
Is it a must play? Probably not. Would you think you've wasted your time playing through this? Eh, that depends if you still like call of duty to begin with as a whole. I thought it was just fine, but I wouldn't see myself running through the campaign again and again as I did with the original sequel.
But Avex, what about the multiplayer?!
Ah yes, the multiplayer. As of writing this, I've clocked almost 40 hours on and off on the multiplayer, and for the most part right now, it's a toss up. This by no means is a definitive review of the multiplayer, as this can change drastically over the next couple of months, but teaming up with a couple of friends so far has been pretty fun.
Do I see myself playing this game in the long term? I'm not sure, but upgrading weapons and seeing my get higher and higher still gives me that monkey brain dopamine that tends to hit when I'm doing well, and crashes like a 747 when I'm playing like crap.
Just make sure to mute all when you're playing by yourself, as the lobbies tend to be a bit rowdy with a whole lot of naughty words.
2010
TV show? Or a slog of a game that I just went through where I just made parallels of kingdom hearts and playing the music in the background as a joke to feel something? I still don't remember that much about playing this game and beating it a couple of months back. But I do know the bald sidekick for the game (God I forgot his name already) was the only pulse that this game had when playing through. Glad it was just for one time until I forget again.
2016
I played through this game recently from reading a review a friend of mine made on here thinking, surely this rhythm game can't that long and boring? Right?
Man I should really trust my gut sometimes. Although the first few levels were pretty fun! But holy hell 9 levels? It feels like it's overstaying it's welcome by the 5th one and I'm here wondering when it's going to end...
And you have to hear what feels like different flavors of the same track over and over again from these levels? I just don't know how some people do it man. If this is falls under a rhythm game, simon says may as well be a major contender against the IIDX series. The most rhythm it gets is when you go on the same left right left right curves and the bumps that you hit over and over again, where it just ends up being drowned out by the loud percussion anyways.
This sucked, but by the time I was in the 6th level, I was just continuing to press on just to see what was in the end, and even that was pretty lackluster. I didn't even buy this and I want a refund.
Man I should really trust my gut sometimes. Although the first few levels were pretty fun! But holy hell 9 levels? It feels like it's overstaying it's welcome by the 5th one and I'm here wondering when it's going to end...
And you have to hear what feels like different flavors of the same track over and over again from these levels? I just don't know how some people do it man. If this is falls under a rhythm game, simon says may as well be a major contender against the IIDX series. The most rhythm it gets is when you go on the same left right left right curves and the bumps that you hit over and over again, where it just ends up being drowned out by the loud percussion anyways.
This sucked, but by the time I was in the 6th level, I was just continuing to press on just to see what was in the end, and even that was pretty lackluster. I didn't even buy this and I want a refund.
Here comes Ryan Cooper! The comeback kid!
I have never played a Need for Speed game before in my life. Wait, scratch that. I have only played one, but that was just Need for Speed Carbon on the GBA, so I'm not sure if that counts or not, but I'll count it out as I'm just talking about the mainline console titles for this review.
I wish I could talk about this game more in depth, but my journey begins with getting the damn thing to work in the first place.
First, I had to"Google the game's zip file" I mean look for a copy of the game that wasn't broken or still would be supported. That means either asking origin support for a copy of the game that I wanted to purchase, or take my chances with the internet and see what I could find. I did end up finding a copy, but christ did it feel like I was back in 2010 and just taking a chance on finding a game like this would be a gamble if it worked. Not to mention people in the comments would also be posting about their problems with the game, so that really didn't help me out one bit either.
But anyway, game acquired. Now time to play.
But wait guy, I see you're trying to do a race or two.
Let the game just stop working at every win screen and prevent the player from moving forward by hitting the key or button to move on to the next screen. This happens throughout my entire time playing the game, and I have to take a gamble at which race I'm going to do to keep playing this, or just have fun beating myself with a rock instead, as I would probably get more done than just repeating the same races hoping for a different result.
The race days in the game can be finished with getting enough points per match (If the game decides to let you move forward), so there wasn't that much of a problem for me. I got to play a bit of everything, and my progress was moving along as it should.
Until I got to a damn showdown king race event.
If you don't know, the game's whole shtick is around you doing certain types of races with each showdown king that holds the title "King" for each type of race. So there's a drift king, a drag king, a grip king, and two other ones I forgot as I was just getting frustrated writing this review.
But anyway, the way these events are made is that they go in a certain order. So if you're facing a drag king showdown event, you're going to do a 1/4 mile drag race, a 1/2 mile drag race, and finally a wheelie drag race. Sounds pretty simple, and I could knock em out.
But the game does this thing where the options are not spread out like they should be as it is with every racing event that you compete in. You're supposed to win one, and then go back to the main menu, and then do the next event, and so on and so forth.
I retried to do the first event 7 times until I just called it quits as the game just didn't want to budge.
This is not a review of the full game, but an review as to what I played for myself up to a point.I do see the fun in this game while others felt bitterness for this, due it being Blackbox's last title for the Need for Speed series until Criterion took over. I don't think this game is going to win any awards for best racer, because while this does feel empty with the races at times, it's so goddamn stylish with its presentation and soundtrack banging while you're finishing a race AND full customization of cars just makes it feel Grand Turismo esque while still maintaining its arcadey roots.
This game is a reminder that titles that are not available to play anymore should at the very least be preserved well for anyone else to try. Hell, if something like Syndicate can have a better time being available, why can't this title as well?
"So even all of these struggles, why did you play this game in the first place?"
I saw this video on my recommended yt feed, and it gave me an itch to finally try the game out.
Hell of a way to start off 2023.
I have never played a Need for Speed game before in my life. Wait, scratch that. I have only played one, but that was just Need for Speed Carbon on the GBA, so I'm not sure if that counts or not, but I'll count it out as I'm just talking about the mainline console titles for this review.
I wish I could talk about this game more in depth, but my journey begins with getting the damn thing to work in the first place.
First, I had to
But anyway, game acquired. Now time to play.
But wait guy, I see you're trying to do a race or two.
Let the game just stop working at every win screen and prevent the player from moving forward by hitting the key or button to move on to the next screen. This happens throughout my entire time playing the game, and I have to take a gamble at which race I'm going to do to keep playing this, or just have fun beating myself with a rock instead, as I would probably get more done than just repeating the same races hoping for a different result.
The race days in the game can be finished with getting enough points per match (If the game decides to let you move forward), so there wasn't that much of a problem for me. I got to play a bit of everything, and my progress was moving along as it should.
Until I got to a damn showdown king race event.
If you don't know, the game's whole shtick is around you doing certain types of races with each showdown king that holds the title "King" for each type of race. So there's a drift king, a drag king, a grip king, and two other ones I forgot as I was just getting frustrated writing this review.
But anyway, the way these events are made is that they go in a certain order. So if you're facing a drag king showdown event, you're going to do a 1/4 mile drag race, a 1/2 mile drag race, and finally a wheelie drag race. Sounds pretty simple, and I could knock em out.
But the game does this thing where the options are not spread out like they should be as it is with every racing event that you compete in. You're supposed to win one, and then go back to the main menu, and then do the next event, and so on and so forth.
I retried to do the first event 7 times until I just called it quits as the game just didn't want to budge.
This is not a review of the full game, but an review as to what I played for myself up to a point.I do see the fun in this game while others felt bitterness for this, due it being Blackbox's last title for the Need for Speed series until Criterion took over. I don't think this game is going to win any awards for best racer, because while this does feel empty with the races at times, it's so goddamn stylish with its presentation and soundtrack banging while you're finishing a race AND full customization of cars just makes it feel Grand Turismo esque while still maintaining its arcadey roots.
This game is a reminder that titles that are not available to play anymore should at the very least be preserved well for anyone else to try. Hell, if something like Syndicate can have a better time being available, why can't this title as well?
"So even all of these struggles, why did you play this game in the first place?"
I saw this video on my recommended yt feed, and it gave me an itch to finally try the game out.
Hell of a way to start off 2023.
One of the best RPG's I have played in a while. I only wish that the game was finished, otherwise it would be an amazing 10/10.
Minor nitpicks for my playthrough only involve the combat and a few broken sequences regarding certain NPC's needing to do something or a quest needing to be progressed, but I decided to play with the bloodlines patch installed for my playthrough of the game. The dialogue paths and the way characters are written in this game presents a benchmark in storytelling for the western market that we're still trying to catch up to after all of these years, but still come up short to live up to the hopes of this game. I don't think there was a single person in my playthrough that I thought wasn't memorable, from the beginning of the game and onwards. Even after writing this, I'm temped to start a second or third playthrough just from remembering all of the shenanigans you can cause as other factions, including new pieces of dialogue depending on how deprave-looking your character is. Man, this really is a must play.
Minor nitpicks for my playthrough only involve the combat and a few broken sequences regarding certain NPC's needing to do something or a quest needing to be progressed, but I decided to play with the bloodlines patch installed for my playthrough of the game. The dialogue paths and the way characters are written in this game presents a benchmark in storytelling for the western market that we're still trying to catch up to after all of these years, but still come up short to live up to the hopes of this game. I don't think there was a single person in my playthrough that I thought wasn't memorable, from the beginning of the game and onwards. Even after writing this, I'm temped to start a second or third playthrough just from remembering all of the shenanigans you can cause as other factions, including new pieces of dialogue depending on how deprave-looking your character is. Man, this really is a must play.
1998
This review contains spoilers
My god there is a game under this pile of fucking rubble somewhere. I swear I'll find it and be a true member of the glove buddies.
I had no idea as to what I was getting into with glover. On a whim I wanted to try to play it because I really liked the glove from a distance, with the way he looked and all from the cover. Sadly, the cracks immediately started to show but at least the hellride was only 3 hours long. I bet I could summarize every level with how short it eventually becomes.
Atlantis: Man this level fuckin rocked. It's short and the tracks were just banging out of the gate. Collecting everything in that small area was really relaxing when just starting to get a foothold for glover's controls, really just set the highlight for the entire glover playthrough for me as it was just going to be rocky from here on.
Carnival: This level was a big toss up for me, as the flying pigs can go fuck themselves for stealing my ball more than half of the time and the bee being bugged and not wanting to pop the pig balloon caused me to have to keep trying to move my ball fast enough as to not get caught, or risk getting soft locked again and again. Other than that, was a fine level really. The carnival games on the first part of the level was pretty cute, with the plinko and all, but just fine overall.
Pirate's realm: This level fucking blows my ass. As there are tight jumps you have to make and having your dribbles be delayed on purpose as glover is an absolute nightmare. This level sucked like hell and I'm glad I never get to touch it again. This is also where the music takes a nosedive into just penismusic tier tracks, so just a crap level overall.
Prehistoric level: Oh god we're finally back into good track territory. Too bad that the level is just as lame as the pirate level, as there is not much extra to the level except for the amount of collectables around the area which I didn't care about. The boss is just a bowling section and gets out of the way fast at least.
Fortress of fear: WHY DID THEY INTRODUCE A BOMB THAT CAN JUST CHASE YOU SO FAR AND HAVE IT'S EXPLOSION RADIUS THE SIZE OF A FUCKING NUKE. This entire level was just another headache after another, and if that wasn't fucking terrible, good luck being able to see shit more than half of the time when you're getting flashbanged every 5 seconds by the level. So much for an epilepsy warning when it feels like I'm playing through the damn porigon episode from pokemon. THIS LEVEL ALSO HAS ONE OF THE WORST FUCKING BOSSES AS YOU HAVE TO BALANCE YOUR BALL ON A PILLAR WITH ALREADY SHIT CONTROLS WHILE A BIG FRANKENSTEIN JUST SHITS ON YOUR DAY IF HE KICKS YOUR PILLAR OR SHOCKS THE PILLAR THAT YOUR BALL IS IN THIS IS THE WORST FIGHT IN THE GAME IF YOU DON'T GET THE RIGHT PILLAR OFF THE BAT FOR THE FIRST TIME. The music also goes back into the same shithole it crawled in during the pirate level.
And finally the space level. You would think that because there is zero gravity, there would be no fall damage as you're falling pretty slowly, but no. The fall damage is only negated if you're holding onto the damn ball, so if you're doing a platform part without the ball and miss the jump, tough fucking tits. I managed to get stuck on the second part of this level and I looked up a playthrough as to how they got through it and they just completely skipped the level by tossing their ball on a gear, and bouncing over the gate and into the goal. This was such a crapshow level to where the final boss is just A FUCKING TURRET SECTION ARE YOU KIDDING ME. Game ends you kill the fucking glove and the game shits on you if you didn't collect all the damn mcguffins or whatever the fuck they're called.
You know, for a game that was created 2 WHOLE YEARS AFTER MARIO 64, you'd think they would at least look at that and take some pointers from it, because underneath this cacophony of shit, there's a game here that could've been great. I really wanted to give glover a chance. I really did. But man did it let me down so hard. I do love all the little quirks they gave to him, as there was a lot of detail put to him at to how he behaved when he was idle or just on a ledge hanging out. Hell, even when he's underwater the camera just points at him in different dutch angles like he's in a goddamn evil dead film. Maybe in another life this could've been an improvement on something like mario 64 or just an improvement on the platformer genre in general.
I had no idea as to what I was getting into with glover. On a whim I wanted to try to play it because I really liked the glove from a distance, with the way he looked and all from the cover. Sadly, the cracks immediately started to show but at least the hellride was only 3 hours long. I bet I could summarize every level with how short it eventually becomes.
Atlantis: Man this level fuckin rocked. It's short and the tracks were just banging out of the gate. Collecting everything in that small area was really relaxing when just starting to get a foothold for glover's controls, really just set the highlight for the entire glover playthrough for me as it was just going to be rocky from here on.
Carnival: This level was a big toss up for me, as the flying pigs can go fuck themselves for stealing my ball more than half of the time and the bee being bugged and not wanting to pop the pig balloon caused me to have to keep trying to move my ball fast enough as to not get caught, or risk getting soft locked again and again. Other than that, was a fine level really. The carnival games on the first part of the level was pretty cute, with the plinko and all, but just fine overall.
Pirate's realm: This level fucking blows my ass. As there are tight jumps you have to make and having your dribbles be delayed on purpose as glover is an absolute nightmare. This level sucked like hell and I'm glad I never get to touch it again. This is also where the music takes a nosedive into just penismusic tier tracks, so just a crap level overall.
Prehistoric level: Oh god we're finally back into good track territory. Too bad that the level is just as lame as the pirate level, as there is not much extra to the level except for the amount of collectables around the area which I didn't care about. The boss is just a bowling section and gets out of the way fast at least.
Fortress of fear: WHY DID THEY INTRODUCE A BOMB THAT CAN JUST CHASE YOU SO FAR AND HAVE IT'S EXPLOSION RADIUS THE SIZE OF A FUCKING NUKE. This entire level was just another headache after another, and if that wasn't fucking terrible, good luck being able to see shit more than half of the time when you're getting flashbanged every 5 seconds by the level. So much for an epilepsy warning when it feels like I'm playing through the damn porigon episode from pokemon. THIS LEVEL ALSO HAS ONE OF THE WORST FUCKING BOSSES AS YOU HAVE TO BALANCE YOUR BALL ON A PILLAR WITH ALREADY SHIT CONTROLS WHILE A BIG FRANKENSTEIN JUST SHITS ON YOUR DAY IF HE KICKS YOUR PILLAR OR SHOCKS THE PILLAR THAT YOUR BALL IS IN THIS IS THE WORST FIGHT IN THE GAME IF YOU DON'T GET THE RIGHT PILLAR OFF THE BAT FOR THE FIRST TIME. The music also goes back into the same shithole it crawled in during the pirate level.
And finally the space level. You would think that because there is zero gravity, there would be no fall damage as you're falling pretty slowly, but no. The fall damage is only negated if you're holding onto the damn ball, so if you're doing a platform part without the ball and miss the jump, tough fucking tits. I managed to get stuck on the second part of this level and I looked up a playthrough as to how they got through it and they just completely skipped the level by tossing their ball on a gear, and bouncing over the gate and into the goal. This was such a crapshow level to where the final boss is just A FUCKING TURRET SECTION ARE YOU KIDDING ME. Game ends you kill the fucking glove and the game shits on you if you didn't collect all the damn mcguffins or whatever the fuck they're called.
You know, for a game that was created 2 WHOLE YEARS AFTER MARIO 64, you'd think they would at least look at that and take some pointers from it, because underneath this cacophony of shit, there's a game here that could've been great. I really wanted to give glover a chance. I really did. But man did it let me down so hard. I do love all the little quirks they gave to him, as there was a lot of detail put to him at to how he behaved when he was idle or just on a ledge hanging out. Hell, even when he's underwater the camera just points at him in different dutch angles like he's in a goddamn evil dead film. Maybe in another life this could've been an improvement on something like mario 64 or just an improvement on the platformer genre in general.
1986
But the japanese loved this game! Hell, there was even a reference to it in Popteamepic! What gives?
I played the Japanese copy 怒Ikari on famicom for this review.
Why in gods name did they decide to give you a limited amount of ammo in a game about shooting everything in front of you in an arcade setting. I get that this type of game is supposed to eat all of your quarters when you go to the arcade, but the home version should've at least thrown me a bone to chew on.
Also, why does your gun fire from the side instead of the middle of your character like every other game did at the time? I get that contra doesn't come out for another two years, but getting killed by an enemy that goes in a diagonal angle while I try to full spin to turn around (I get that it's trying to be innovative with giving the player full diagonal control like using the whip in castlevania IV, but it just feels like shit in this game) gets so frustrating after a while. I tried playing this without save states at first, and even with savestates it felt like I was grinding my balls on a sander trying to get through the first level.
I ended up looking at a walkthrough and noticed that all four levels take roughly around 20 MINUTES. That's such a long time for a shooter like this, but hey if it pads out time and little kotaro keeps trying to get past the levels back in 1986, he probably enjoyed the hell out of this game too.
I'll probably watch Arino and see if he's done an episode on this game and watch how he suffers through it.
I played the Japanese copy 怒Ikari on famicom for this review.
Why in gods name did they decide to give you a limited amount of ammo in a game about shooting everything in front of you in an arcade setting. I get that this type of game is supposed to eat all of your quarters when you go to the arcade, but the home version should've at least thrown me a bone to chew on.
Also, why does your gun fire from the side instead of the middle of your character like every other game did at the time? I get that contra doesn't come out for another two years, but getting killed by an enemy that goes in a diagonal angle while I try to full spin to turn around (I get that it's trying to be innovative with giving the player full diagonal control like using the whip in castlevania IV, but it just feels like shit in this game) gets so frustrating after a while. I tried playing this without save states at first, and even with savestates it felt like I was grinding my balls on a sander trying to get through the first level.
I ended up looking at a walkthrough and noticed that all four levels take roughly around 20 MINUTES. That's such a long time for a shooter like this, but hey if it pads out time and little kotaro keeps trying to get past the levels back in 1986, he probably enjoyed the hell out of this game too.
I'll probably watch Arino and see if he's done an episode on this game and watch how he suffers through it.
1998
"Jesus my hand hurts. I feel like a goddamn melee player after finishing one Fox vs Falco match." - Man who has shot over 4000 rounds into one boss.
I promise I'll get to playing .hack again. Just needed to scratch that old arcade itch again until I remembered this game.
Let me set the stage really quick for you.
The year is 1998, and The House of the Dead just came out with it's sequel that same year and it's hogging players left and right with how tight the controls were and how fun it was despite quarters being eaten left and right.
But... in that same arcade was a little cabinet that happened to release on Halloween day of all days.Holy geez did it look different compared to the competition at the time.
Before actually reviewing this game, I think anyone interested in this game at all should take a look at the development of this title when they have the chance.
Just seeing this game even be released was a miracle with the way things were headed for Jack Haeger's team during the beginning of the end for Midway games at the time. Only a couple of years before their impending bankruptcy in 2006.
I mean, they had good reason to think that as well. Hell, this is the same small development team that made Narc (Yes, that helmet blowing up hobos with rockets Narc.) after all.
Sadly the reviews on this game back then were not so kind. Going as far as to call it a "Crappy House of the Dead clone."
But enough of the past. We're in 2023 and I want to do some light gun shooting before MAME gives me a fucking headache upon setup. How does it play?
Like a faster paced House of the Dead. You're zooming left and right, jumping hoops and going through different rides in every level with the head camera changing every moment. The different perspectives you get while shooting down clowns, bats and whatnot is so different from any lightgun shooter that I've played. The music and the art-style is fitting for its Tim Burton Nightmare Before Christmas influence and the blood and gore taken from the Mortal Kombat arcade games.
This game is fucking cool as hell, but it's also short as hell too. If you're really good, you could probably beat this game in just under an hour, and with something like MAME with mom giving you infinite quarters at your disposal, you can just smash on through each hit.
Funny that the last boss is called Tokkentaker, because you'll be dying so many times throughout fighting him and the entire game really.
If you have 30 or so minutes to burn, give this a go. If you're new to using MAME like I was, check out this guide for setting up controls.
I promise I'll get to playing .hack again. Just needed to scratch that old arcade itch again until I remembered this game.
Let me set the stage really quick for you.
The year is 1998, and The House of the Dead just came out with it's sequel that same year and it's hogging players left and right with how tight the controls were and how fun it was despite quarters being eaten left and right.
But... in that same arcade was a little cabinet that happened to release on Halloween day of all days.Holy geez did it look different compared to the competition at the time.
Before actually reviewing this game, I think anyone interested in this game at all should take a look at the development of this title when they have the chance.
Just seeing this game even be released was a miracle with the way things were headed for Jack Haeger's team during the beginning of the end for Midway games at the time. Only a couple of years before their impending bankruptcy in 2006.
I mean, they had good reason to think that as well. Hell, this is the same small development team that made Narc (Yes, that helmet blowing up hobos with rockets Narc.) after all.
Sadly the reviews on this game back then were not so kind. Going as far as to call it a "Crappy House of the Dead clone."
But enough of the past. We're in 2023 and I want to do some light gun shooting before MAME gives me a fucking headache upon setup. How does it play?
Like a faster paced House of the Dead. You're zooming left and right, jumping hoops and going through different rides in every level with the head camera changing every moment. The different perspectives you get while shooting down clowns, bats and whatnot is so different from any lightgun shooter that I've played. The music and the art-style is fitting for its Tim Burton Nightmare Before Christmas influence and the blood and gore taken from the Mortal Kombat arcade games.
This game is fucking cool as hell, but it's also short as hell too. If you're really good, you could probably beat this game in just under an hour, and with something like MAME with mom giving you infinite quarters at your disposal, you can just smash on through each hit.
Funny that the last boss is called Tokkentaker, because you'll be dying so many times throughout fighting him and the entire game really.
If you have 30 or so minutes to burn, give this a go. If you're new to using MAME like I was, check out this guide for setting up controls.
2022
Why don't I just boot up an old SA2 level? - Woodaba
So much for redemption. - Lastkeymusic
These are two quotes from some recent reviews that I've taken a look at right after beating the game, and they've resonated the problems that I've had with it throughout my entire run-through of Sonic Frontiers.
Now, I want to preface this by saying that I have not touched a sonic game in almost a decade, since beating sa2 as a kid. I've seen gameplay videos of the other sonic games as time went on, but I haven't went out of my way to play through them as I just wasn't interested. But with the hubbub of this game receiving praise from players both sonic lovers and not, I wanted to check it out for myself. I will link to both of these people's reviews if you'd like to check it out for yourselves for a deep in-depth look at what the game provides. For now, I will only relay my gripes on my playthrough here with various questions I hope someone in the comments can help me understand.
Why is there a delay with each person sonic homing attacks on? I understand enemies that don't fall with one hit, but the ones that do still have that "stand still" pose that sonic does every time he hits someone.
Why can't I do a small homing attack anymore to get onto a platform, and instead have to use my boost and pray to god that I didn't hit it hard enough to fall down 50 fucking stories?
Why are we retreading on stories that have already been explained and then just brushed these same small stories off to the side like nothing ever happened?
Why did the game not explain to me that I could light dash, and I accidentally did it by pressing my left thumbpad, and even worse WHY DO YOU COME TO A COMPLETE STOP WHEN BOOSTING WITHOUT MOVING THE STICK UP. You can even see it happen if you go on a speed rail thing on the ground and if you stop moving up, you'll come to a complete stop as if someone just hit the brakes hard.
What happened to the music that was very amped up and cheerful, and instead having to listen to the same track for every stage for at least 2 hours?
Why does turning with sonic during the flashback levels feel like I'm trying to turn an old steering wheel that never had some WD40 applied to it?
In these same flashback levels, if I am trying to collect the red rings, why aren't they placed at every shortcut like they were before? The game actively punishes you for either taking these shortcuts, or going to fast when trying to collect the damn things, and I've had to restart these levels a bit of times because of one ring that was either right below a platform or I was going to fast on a rail, and missed the rainbow ring just that was as the end of a grind loop.
WHY DOES SONIC FEEL SO SLOW IN A GAME WHERE HE'S SUPPOSED TO GO FAST. Yes, he can go faster if you upgrade his speed and max out on your rings, but that shouldn't be a reward when you're playing as Sonic the fucking hedgehog.
Why does sonic immediately lose all of his momentum the moment boosting wears off, then he has to slowly start up again?
Why is everyone praising the boss fights when they just boil down to just holding the counter button (Which you don't even have to time?) and just mashing the punch button and watching the same cutscene over and over again until the big bad is dead?
Why is ALL of the "sidecontent" absolutely forced to play and just boiling down to just shitty puzzles or just straight up fucking jump rope?
When trying to go back or even cut through some of the grind rails (Looking at you world 3), why can't I go back and try to go to the rails that I can clearly reach, but I can't because the camera decided to change the way I would land on the grind rail I was aiming to?
Speaking of the camera, for a game that Is supposed to be very open world, the camera sure does love to stay in the 2d format for more than half of the game, which makes me confused why they couldn't go the adventure route and keep the camera focused looking forward on sonic all of the time?
As of writing this, I just beat the last boss and wow, it felt like the people working on this last part of the game were just up playing something like ikaruga and saying, how about we end off the game with that? That'll kill time and we can end it off with a simple press x to win combo and call it a day!
Collecting everything towards the very end was so much of a pain in the ass, that I just resorted to using cheat engine to get the rest of the small medals that sage needed to progress in the last level, because I couldn't be assed to collect them around the world.
Overall, this game has so much of an identity crisis it's insane. On one hand it wants you to do as much as you want at your own leisure, and on the other hand, it wants to have a tight fucking grip on you with a leash to make sure you're not having too much fun, or the adventure will end just like that.
I don't think I'll ever play or think about this game again.
So much for redemption. - Lastkeymusic
These are two quotes from some recent reviews that I've taken a look at right after beating the game, and they've resonated the problems that I've had with it throughout my entire run-through of Sonic Frontiers.
Now, I want to preface this by saying that I have not touched a sonic game in almost a decade, since beating sa2 as a kid. I've seen gameplay videos of the other sonic games as time went on, but I haven't went out of my way to play through them as I just wasn't interested. But with the hubbub of this game receiving praise from players both sonic lovers and not, I wanted to check it out for myself. I will link to both of these people's reviews if you'd like to check it out for yourselves for a deep in-depth look at what the game provides. For now, I will only relay my gripes on my playthrough here with various questions I hope someone in the comments can help me understand.
Why is there a delay with each person sonic homing attacks on? I understand enemies that don't fall with one hit, but the ones that do still have that "stand still" pose that sonic does every time he hits someone.
Why can't I do a small homing attack anymore to get onto a platform, and instead have to use my boost and pray to god that I didn't hit it hard enough to fall down 50 fucking stories?
Why are we retreading on stories that have already been explained and then just brushed these same small stories off to the side like nothing ever happened?
Why did the game not explain to me that I could light dash, and I accidentally did it by pressing my left thumbpad, and even worse WHY DO YOU COME TO A COMPLETE STOP WHEN BOOSTING WITHOUT MOVING THE STICK UP. You can even see it happen if you go on a speed rail thing on the ground and if you stop moving up, you'll come to a complete stop as if someone just hit the brakes hard.
What happened to the music that was very amped up and cheerful, and instead having to listen to the same track for every stage for at least 2 hours?
Why does turning with sonic during the flashback levels feel like I'm trying to turn an old steering wheel that never had some WD40 applied to it?
In these same flashback levels, if I am trying to collect the red rings, why aren't they placed at every shortcut like they were before? The game actively punishes you for either taking these shortcuts, or going to fast when trying to collect the damn things, and I've had to restart these levels a bit of times because of one ring that was either right below a platform or I was going to fast on a rail, and missed the rainbow ring just that was as the end of a grind loop.
WHY DOES SONIC FEEL SO SLOW IN A GAME WHERE HE'S SUPPOSED TO GO FAST. Yes, he can go faster if you upgrade his speed and max out on your rings, but that shouldn't be a reward when you're playing as Sonic the fucking hedgehog.
Why does sonic immediately lose all of his momentum the moment boosting wears off, then he has to slowly start up again?
Why is everyone praising the boss fights when they just boil down to just holding the counter button (Which you don't even have to time?) and just mashing the punch button and watching the same cutscene over and over again until the big bad is dead?
Why is ALL of the "sidecontent" absolutely forced to play and just boiling down to just shitty puzzles or just straight up fucking jump rope?
When trying to go back or even cut through some of the grind rails (Looking at you world 3), why can't I go back and try to go to the rails that I can clearly reach, but I can't because the camera decided to change the way I would land on the grind rail I was aiming to?
Speaking of the camera, for a game that Is supposed to be very open world, the camera sure does love to stay in the 2d format for more than half of the game, which makes me confused why they couldn't go the adventure route and keep the camera focused looking forward on sonic all of the time?
As of writing this, I just beat the last boss and wow, it felt like the people working on this last part of the game were just up playing something like ikaruga and saying, how about we end off the game with that? That'll kill time and we can end it off with a simple press x to win combo and call it a day!
Collecting everything towards the very end was so much of a pain in the ass, that I just resorted to using cheat engine to get the rest of the small medals that sage needed to progress in the last level, because I couldn't be assed to collect them around the world.
Overall, this game has so much of an identity crisis it's insane. On one hand it wants you to do as much as you want at your own leisure, and on the other hand, it wants to have a tight fucking grip on you with a leash to make sure you're not having too much fun, or the adventure will end just like that.
I don't think I'll ever play or think about this game again.
1999
Well how about that, the movie guy wrote a video game story!
You know, for someone just going off of his son playing goldeneye on n64, Spielberg didn't do so bad for his first try! Of course it's not without it's faults. The levels can be very short enough where you could probably beat this all in one sitting (whether that's a good or bad thing to you is subjective), and the AI can be a major pain to fight against when they can stand half a magazine of bullets halfway through the game. But other than that, I had a pretty good time playing this! Ah, and that Michael Giacchino ost will always be a treat to hear.
Can you believe the best song is through a small radio and in the credits if you check it out? Anyways, Is it going to be on a must play again for me? Probably not, but I am glad that I got to play through the franchise's first baby steps. Hell, even recommending something like this game can be rough with the control scheme and could be a huge barrier for gamers these days. I almost had blisters playing through this on an emulator, just because the dual stick option wasn't the best scheme for me. I did end up with scheme two, where it made me feel like I was playing doom with the way I was speed strafing all over the levels.
You know, for someone just going off of his son playing goldeneye on n64, Spielberg didn't do so bad for his first try! Of course it's not without it's faults. The levels can be very short enough where you could probably beat this all in one sitting (whether that's a good or bad thing to you is subjective), and the AI can be a major pain to fight against when they can stand half a magazine of bullets halfway through the game. But other than that, I had a pretty good time playing this! Ah, and that Michael Giacchino ost will always be a treat to hear.
Can you believe the best song is through a small radio and in the credits if you check it out? Anyways, Is it going to be on a must play again for me? Probably not, but I am glad that I got to play through the franchise's first baby steps. Hell, even recommending something like this game can be rough with the control scheme and could be a huge barrier for gamers these days. I almost had blisters playing through this on an emulator, just because the dual stick option wasn't the best scheme for me. I did end up with scheme two, where it made me feel like I was playing doom with the way I was speed strafing all over the levels.
At last, our tale of the Spielberg Medal of Honor series comes to a conclusion.
Back in 99, the thought of playing as a girl would probably make some men feel a little weird, but now that we have our samus aran's, our Joanna Dark's or our Laura Crofts, I'm very happy to say that our friend Manon here has had quite the adventure.
I won't delve into the gameplay all to much as it plays exactly like the first game, with the inclusion of the autoaim setting that you can turn on, which helps tons when running and gunning. But of course, you can't have a sequel without the hard as fuck final that this game offers as well, infinitely spawning enemies and all. Even the funny joke level was a pretty funny thing to go through, but holy hell why was it so grueling to go through. I don't think I've played a hard joke level in my life.
Not much to say about this game as it was just more of the same game. But sometimes that alright, as it tried some new things like the companionship stuff and even the replacement for the ID where everyone thought was useless, the camera. Taking shots and seeing all of the different poses each character made was pretty amusing.
I'm very glad that I got to see what the Ps1 era of MoH games were like, and I hope my enjoyment doesn't change as I move onto the next generation of consoles.
Back in 99, the thought of playing as a girl would probably make some men feel a little weird, but now that we have our samus aran's, our Joanna Dark's or our Laura Crofts, I'm very happy to say that our friend Manon here has had quite the adventure.
I won't delve into the gameplay all to much as it plays exactly like the first game, with the inclusion of the autoaim setting that you can turn on, which helps tons when running and gunning. But of course, you can't have a sequel without the hard as fuck final that this game offers as well, infinitely spawning enemies and all. Even the funny joke level was a pretty funny thing to go through, but holy hell why was it so grueling to go through. I don't think I've played a hard joke level in my life.
Not much to say about this game as it was just more of the same game. But sometimes that alright, as it tried some new things like the companionship stuff and even the replacement for the ID where everyone thought was useless, the camera. Taking shots and seeing all of the different poses each character made was pretty amusing.
I'm very glad that I got to see what the Ps1 era of MoH games were like, and I hope my enjoyment doesn't change as I move onto the next generation of consoles.
2002
No tagline for this review.
There isn't much to say about this game despite me willingly putting almost 30 hours into what is essentially a giant prologue.
The combat is very archaic and very straightforward. Beat somebody up by hitting the x button various times until you guard break them or until they're dead. Rinse and repeate for the entirety of the game until you get to the last boss, where I thought I was very under-prepared with the way my team was set up, only for me to steamroll through because I managed to find some good endgame weapons along the way.
So if the gameplay is very boring, what about the story? Is it worth your time playing this game (And watching the OVA) just to see what you're missing?
Eh, that's all really up to you. The only reason why I got into .Hack or started playing these earlier games was because I did think at the time that this series was sort of a niche type of deal. It's like playing Digimon for the first time when all you've known is Pokemon and the few other battlers around that time.
As I stated before, this is just a prologue to the next couple of games. And with the way this game ended off, it gave me at least a bit of a second wind to keep going despite all of the tediousness about the combat which made a bulk of the decent story the player manages to read with either emails, or even the message board within the game.
I do love the tutorial this game provides though. It's like having a wiki for the game inside of your game without having to ever go online if you're looking for that rare item.
I'll check back again with mutation to see if I still have that spark to keep going.
There isn't much to say about this game despite me willingly putting almost 30 hours into what is essentially a giant prologue.
The combat is very archaic and very straightforward. Beat somebody up by hitting the x button various times until you guard break them or until they're dead. Rinse and repeate for the entirety of the game until you get to the last boss, where I thought I was very under-prepared with the way my team was set up, only for me to steamroll through because I managed to find some good endgame weapons along the way.
So if the gameplay is very boring, what about the story? Is it worth your time playing this game (And watching the OVA) just to see what you're missing?
Eh, that's all really up to you. The only reason why I got into .Hack or started playing these earlier games was because I did think at the time that this series was sort of a niche type of deal. It's like playing Digimon for the first time when all you've known is Pokemon and the few other battlers around that time.
As I stated before, this is just a prologue to the next couple of games. And with the way this game ended off, it gave me at least a bit of a second wind to keep going despite all of the tediousness about the combat which made a bulk of the decent story the player manages to read with either emails, or even the message board within the game.
I do love the tutorial this game provides though. It's like having a wiki for the game inside of your game without having to ever go online if you're looking for that rare item.
I'll check back again with mutation to see if I still have that spark to keep going.
2022
This review contains spoilers
I've never watched Rick and Mortimer, but I do know some of the voice actors in this. So how bad could it be?
It feels like everyone reviewing this game is just going to give a 1/5 without actually playing the damn thing, so I decided try to beat this in one go to see what was up.
I'm first going to talk about the gameplay before I touch on story, which isn't the biggest thing I disliked overall. There is a setting as to how frequent you want your weapons to talk to you if you do end up getting annoyed by them while playing the game, and I sent it on occasion just to see what they would say instead of outright muting them.
This game feels like it wants to be something akin to ratchet and clank with the amount of weapons given, but even the trick actions (The secondary firing action of each weapon) feel very underwhelming, even on the hardest difficulty. The only times I got to see myself switch between weapons were during the bossfights, and that's because I was running around a room staying behind a pillar till I could regen my health again to shoot another "trick" shot. At least when using the knife your shield regens if you are killing any of the mobs you're fighting, minus the armored ants for whatever reason.
For my playthrough I mostly used the frog shotgun as he talked and felt more like a weapon that didn't annoy my ears every time I did an action.
On that note of the weapons, their versatility is pretty fine for the most part. You have the main morty pistol that shoots long/short range just fine with a gloop shot that forces people in the air, the shotgun frog that deals huge damage up close and has discs that you can shoot and reflect with knifey to repeatedly do damage at whatever you're fighting at, the "Needler" weapon has a longshot for a scope in and a free firing rapid fire mode from the hip with a time bubble that she can shoot at to slow enemies down, and lastly the minion launcher that is pretty much going to be your damage dealer for the rest of the bosses unless you want a bigger headache dealing DPS while you're running away in an arena. His main shtick is shooting minions and those said minions can deal damage over time to whatever they're stuck on, and his trick shot is shooting a purple minion that mind controls whatever enemy is stuck to it but dies after a while. There is one more weapon, but I'll get to it when I talk about the story, as you don't get him until the very end of the game.
So going back on gameplay, the gunplay feels like a mix of Halo and ratchet and clank and if you like executing a lot with the knife, a bit of doom eternal with the way you can execute enemies to regain back your shield. And you do this for the rest of the game with no changes to the loop. Shooting enemies felt pretty fun, and seeing their shields get knocked out was just as fun to see as well. Sadly the fun starts to stop when the bosses come up, as they can be a pain in the ass if you're not ready to keep dashing/roping around with the grapple in the air. As said before, I played on the hardest difficulty and I died a lot more than I thought on these bosses so if you're a huge gamer, I don't think you'll have too much of a hard time. For me, I just kept getting my ass kicked until I got through it finally.
Alright, gameplay and mechanics out. Time for the actual story discussion. It's Fine. The story is just the main character and his sister finding out there are aliens on earth all of a sudden, and our main character finds the morty pistol and decides to warp out of there using a teleporter that you snagged from an alien ship. Now you and the rest of the pistols that you find on your way are the only things capable in stopping the G3 head honcho, garmantuous or else the world is doomed. Sure you find gus and your sister arguing on occasion but this has absolutely no bearing on the story at all. None of the relationship discussions that you have with either one of them matter at all, and are only there to make you laugh. Or at least try to.
Sadly, the rest of the game's jokes are like this too, where they just overstay their welcome and at times, you can't even leave without hearing what whatever person has to say. The only time I got around to laughing was at some point in the game, Zach hadel's voice for a bear or whatever is cut in half and is dying on the floor, and he wants you to stay with him in his last moments alive, and any time you attempt to leave, he says "Cmon, you would leave me like that?" and it was just so hilarious hearing him get more and more annoyed as he's dying to see you walk away. I melee'd his character on accident so I didn't get to see the end of the bit sadly.
This game has sort of the deal that YIIK had going on when it was developed and people played it over time. "There is a game under all of this crap that they've made, and even if some of those features aren't all perfect, there is something fun here." I think High on Life has the same idea going for itself too, where it's just hampered by all of the writing and the overblown jokes. It's like playing through Borderlands 2 with the dialogue turned up while in a gunfight for the whole game. I enjoyed myself playing some parts of this game, and the gunplay was pretty fun too. But the story wasn't very new, and even when they give you the Ratchet and Clank equivalent of the RYNO, it was just rushing through just for the player to get to the final boss. I busted out laughing just wondering who thought putting a Nier Automata type of boss as the last boss was ok? Even the other bosses had something unique to them, and even with the second phase, garmantuous was just a pushover, you get a little heart to heart with morty as he's going to try and sacrifice himself, and then the big bad explodes but mortimer is still alive, then the game ends.
I sometimes felt whether I wasted my time with this game, but even after playing through it, I don't know what to think about it. The mix of crap and actually good gameplay ideas coming from this was just jarring to my brain.
I think this game is good for a one time playthrough, but I don't think I'll see myself digging it up from my library again. Good thing it's on game pass though at the time of writing this.
It feels like everyone reviewing this game is just going to give a 1/5 without actually playing the damn thing, so I decided try to beat this in one go to see what was up.
I'm first going to talk about the gameplay before I touch on story, which isn't the biggest thing I disliked overall. There is a setting as to how frequent you want your weapons to talk to you if you do end up getting annoyed by them while playing the game, and I sent it on occasion just to see what they would say instead of outright muting them.
This game feels like it wants to be something akin to ratchet and clank with the amount of weapons given, but even the trick actions (The secondary firing action of each weapon) feel very underwhelming, even on the hardest difficulty. The only times I got to see myself switch between weapons were during the bossfights, and that's because I was running around a room staying behind a pillar till I could regen my health again to shoot another "trick" shot. At least when using the knife your shield regens if you are killing any of the mobs you're fighting, minus the armored ants for whatever reason.
For my playthrough I mostly used the frog shotgun as he talked and felt more like a weapon that didn't annoy my ears every time I did an action.
On that note of the weapons, their versatility is pretty fine for the most part. You have the main morty pistol that shoots long/short range just fine with a gloop shot that forces people in the air, the shotgun frog that deals huge damage up close and has discs that you can shoot and reflect with knifey to repeatedly do damage at whatever you're fighting at, the "Needler" weapon has a longshot for a scope in and a free firing rapid fire mode from the hip with a time bubble that she can shoot at to slow enemies down, and lastly the minion launcher that is pretty much going to be your damage dealer for the rest of the bosses unless you want a bigger headache dealing DPS while you're running away in an arena. His main shtick is shooting minions and those said minions can deal damage over time to whatever they're stuck on, and his trick shot is shooting a purple minion that mind controls whatever enemy is stuck to it but dies after a while. There is one more weapon, but I'll get to it when I talk about the story, as you don't get him until the very end of the game.
So going back on gameplay, the gunplay feels like a mix of Halo and ratchet and clank and if you like executing a lot with the knife, a bit of doom eternal with the way you can execute enemies to regain back your shield. And you do this for the rest of the game with no changes to the loop. Shooting enemies felt pretty fun, and seeing their shields get knocked out was just as fun to see as well. Sadly the fun starts to stop when the bosses come up, as they can be a pain in the ass if you're not ready to keep dashing/roping around with the grapple in the air. As said before, I played on the hardest difficulty and I died a lot more than I thought on these bosses so if you're a huge gamer, I don't think you'll have too much of a hard time. For me, I just kept getting my ass kicked until I got through it finally.
Alright, gameplay and mechanics out. Time for the actual story discussion. It's Fine. The story is just the main character and his sister finding out there are aliens on earth all of a sudden, and our main character finds the morty pistol and decides to warp out of there using a teleporter that you snagged from an alien ship. Now you and the rest of the pistols that you find on your way are the only things capable in stopping the G3 head honcho, garmantuous or else the world is doomed. Sure you find gus and your sister arguing on occasion but this has absolutely no bearing on the story at all. None of the relationship discussions that you have with either one of them matter at all, and are only there to make you laugh. Or at least try to.
Sadly, the rest of the game's jokes are like this too, where they just overstay their welcome and at times, you can't even leave without hearing what whatever person has to say. The only time I got around to laughing was at some point in the game, Zach hadel's voice for a bear or whatever is cut in half and is dying on the floor, and he wants you to stay with him in his last moments alive, and any time you attempt to leave, he says "Cmon, you would leave me like that?" and it was just so hilarious hearing him get more and more annoyed as he's dying to see you walk away. I melee'd his character on accident so I didn't get to see the end of the bit sadly.
This game has sort of the deal that YIIK had going on when it was developed and people played it over time. "There is a game under all of this crap that they've made, and even if some of those features aren't all perfect, there is something fun here." I think High on Life has the same idea going for itself too, where it's just hampered by all of the writing and the overblown jokes. It's like playing through Borderlands 2 with the dialogue turned up while in a gunfight for the whole game. I enjoyed myself playing some parts of this game, and the gunplay was pretty fun too. But the story wasn't very new, and even when they give you the Ratchet and Clank equivalent of the RYNO, it was just rushing through just for the player to get to the final boss. I busted out laughing just wondering who thought putting a Nier Automata type of boss as the last boss was ok? Even the other bosses had something unique to them, and even with the second phase, garmantuous was just a pushover, you get a little heart to heart with morty as he's going to try and sacrifice himself, and then the big bad explodes but mortimer is still alive, then the game ends.
I sometimes felt whether I wasted my time with this game, but even after playing through it, I don't know what to think about it. The mix of crap and actually good gameplay ideas coming from this was just jarring to my brain.
I think this game is good for a one time playthrough, but I don't think I'll see myself digging it up from my library again. Good thing it's on game pass though at the time of writing this.
2023
You've got a killer track! But every song's gotta end!
Holy 180 turn for Tango Gameworks here. After viewing Microsoft's developer direct that they hosted a couple of days ago, this game was dropped that very same day by the same guys who have done nothing but survival horror games like the Evil Within and Ghostwire Tokyo. The director John Johanas really hit it out of the park with this title of what he quotes, " His dream game." that he had in the back of his mind going all the way back in 2017 when he was still directing the Evil Within 2.
But that's all good and well to have a dream, but how does this dream game play?
Well, Really damn good honestly. Like rhythm heaven meets DMC for a mashup of kicking ass to getting that S rank in the corner while you jam out to the beat in each level.
The soundtrack has to take center stage with this game, and there are very huge hitters with this package. The prodigy, Nine inch Nails, and even Number Girl? Glad to see we get to listen to some Fukuoka jams as well.
Most of the game's tracks are by the composer Shuichi Kobori, who is usually doing the tracks for tango with their Evil Within games, but has also done most of the tracks for Metal Gear Solid 3. He really killed it in setting the tone for each section of a level the player is put in, with the music becoming dynamic as the player moves on from point to point, getting progressively louder and faster.
As always, even the most fun games have to have their faults, and not even this game is without em either. Luckly, they're mostly nitpicks than actual complaints for me.
The platforming sections can feel a bit wonky at times, and I feel a bit slow when airdashing while platforming also. Didn't really mind it that much since most platforming sections were very small distance, but was a little weird for me.
Getting money is also rough in the beginning as you're unlocking all of your moves, but this problem goes away at around the third area with the amount of challenges you end up doing subconsciously.
The story isn't going to be hitting any greatest of all time lists anytime soon, but I'm a sucker for "Sonic Adventure 2" likes where we just team up to defeat the big bad to save the day.
I think that's about it. This game surely was a surprise as of writing this review, it's been only 3 days since the game dropped, and I'm almost finished with a new game plus playthrough. After beating the game, I thought I wouldn't feel the same way going back through it after experiencing all of what it had to offer, but I just beat the first boss again and holy shit I'm in love. I can't stop tapping my foot after each section playing through this.
Wait, this game is only 30$? That's insane. Not to mention it's on day 1 gamepass too? Goddamn.
January hasn't even ended yet and this might be my GOTY. There's still a full year to go, but I'm feeling confident about this pick.
Holy 180 turn for Tango Gameworks here. After viewing Microsoft's developer direct that they hosted a couple of days ago, this game was dropped that very same day by the same guys who have done nothing but survival horror games like the Evil Within and Ghostwire Tokyo. The director John Johanas really hit it out of the park with this title of what he quotes, " His dream game." that he had in the back of his mind going all the way back in 2017 when he was still directing the Evil Within 2.
But that's all good and well to have a dream, but how does this dream game play?
Well, Really damn good honestly. Like rhythm heaven meets DMC for a mashup of kicking ass to getting that S rank in the corner while you jam out to the beat in each level.
The soundtrack has to take center stage with this game, and there are very huge hitters with this package. The prodigy, Nine inch Nails, and even Number Girl? Glad to see we get to listen to some Fukuoka jams as well.
Most of the game's tracks are by the composer Shuichi Kobori, who is usually doing the tracks for tango with their Evil Within games, but has also done most of the tracks for Metal Gear Solid 3. He really killed it in setting the tone for each section of a level the player is put in, with the music becoming dynamic as the player moves on from point to point, getting progressively louder and faster.
As always, even the most fun games have to have their faults, and not even this game is without em either. Luckly, they're mostly nitpicks than actual complaints for me.
The platforming sections can feel a bit wonky at times, and I feel a bit slow when airdashing while platforming also. Didn't really mind it that much since most platforming sections were very small distance, but was a little weird for me.
Getting money is also rough in the beginning as you're unlocking all of your moves, but this problem goes away at around the third area with the amount of challenges you end up doing subconsciously.
The story isn't going to be hitting any greatest of all time lists anytime soon, but I'm a sucker for "Sonic Adventure 2" likes where we just team up to defeat the big bad to save the day.
I think that's about it. This game surely was a surprise as of writing this review, it's been only 3 days since the game dropped, and I'm almost finished with a new game plus playthrough. After beating the game, I thought I wouldn't feel the same way going back through it after experiencing all of what it had to offer, but I just beat the first boss again and holy shit I'm in love. I can't stop tapping my foot after each section playing through this.
Wait, this game is only 30$? That's insane. Not to mention it's on day 1 gamepass too? Goddamn.
January hasn't even ended yet and this might be my GOTY. There's still a full year to go, but I'm feeling confident about this pick.