BLoLorbes
This review contains spoilers
Rocksteady with their DC games seemed to have peaked with Batman: Arkham City. None of the sequels afterwards haven't come close to it's success and after almost ten years, they step back into the DC Universe with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. But even before the game's release it has had split reactions with audiences. The main issue being that this takes place in the Arkham universe. Which even questions me because I thought it was that Batman supposedly died in Arkham Knight. It's had a lot of split reactions but I still wanted to give it a shot to give it a fair chance.
In this game, you play between four members of Amanda Waller's Suicide Squad also known as Task Force X. You have Deadshot who is good with ranged attacks using firearms, Harley Quinn with her baseball bat and pistols, King Shark who is an absolute powerhouse, and Captain Boomerang who uses Boomerangs but also taps into the Speed Force with his gauntlets. The Squad is forcefully assigned a missioned to kill the members of the brainwashed Justice League members who are enslaved to Brainiac who is invading the Earth.
Now one complaint people talk about is that the main objective is too kill the Justice League. I don't think that should be a valid complaint, I mean it's literally in the title. What I think the REAL issue about it is that this takes place in the Arkhamverse. Not only does it seem to retcon some old plot points from past games but considering that this is the first time that Superman, Green Lantern, Flash, and Wonder Woman appear in this universe, but this is the one where they all die? Can't believe I'm saying this but at least Zack Snyder gave Superman at least one installment in his universe before he croaked. Seriously, if this wasn't canon to the Arkhamverse, there would probably be less backlash.
Gameplay wise, it seems pretty decent. It's pretty easy to get used to when it comes to gunplay, hand to hand combat, and traversing throughout Metropolis. Personally, my favorite was King Shark. But overtime, it does get repetitive with missions and enemy variety. Basic tasks that aren't interesting and even side missions don't give anything unique. The enemies that are the hardest to take down are the snipers and brutes. As Shark, the minigun could mow them down quick but it takes forever with the others. Unless your super attacks and suicide strikes are fully charged, you'll be wasting ammo like crazy.
When it comes to the story, I don't know what to think of it. It's just average. Simple premise and you kinda know what's going on. Sure some interactions and dialogue from the Squad is funny at certain points. You can at least get some reactions from cutscenes but overall, Rocksteady once again can't seem to top what they had in Arkham City.
Now here's where we get into spoilers because I feel like talking about certain aspects of the game. Now you do get introduced to more villains. Some returning ones like Penguin and Poison Ivy where they do give a reason on how she returns after her sacrifice in Arkham Knight. And you got introductions to new villains like Lex Luthor, Gizmo and Toyman. While Gizmo can occasionally give you combat vehicles to use on missions and Lex plays a major part in the story, Toyman seems like he had little reason to be here.
Now let's discuss the boss battles which consist of the Justice League and Brainiac. Two are easy to get through and two that are a bitch to get through. Batman's boss fight is by far the easiest. Just shoot his fear gas form while dodging his attacks. Superman is pretty decent to get through. Might have to do some traversing to avoid his attacks but nothing do tedious. Flash is a tough one mainly because you can't keep track of him when he's zipping all over the place. Yes, Flash is fast but at least give SOME time to locate where he is. Not to mention he keeps unleashing tornadoes that take a quarter of the area. Green Lantern by far is the most annoying boss when you're always occupied with him summoning constructs that take up the whole area that you have no room to get proper aim or even a moment to breathe. But when it comes to Brainiac, it seems like the most embarrasingly lazy boss fight when it's only a rehash of Flash's boss fight. Brainiac in Injustice 2's story was a better boss fight. And that's a game where every fight is the same structure! Is it really that hard to represent Superman in solo video game form? I know Superman 64 was a dumpster fire but it should be an easy bar to raise.
Now this is a looter shooter and it's difficult to do a proper one successfully like Borderlands did. But when it comes to the loot in this game, not only is it a slog to get them (without using greedy microtransactions of course) but the loot is hardly interesting. Just guns and chips. Hell even the outfits are hardly worth getting.
And I don't know what it is with Rocksteady but SOMEBODY couldn't help but including... Riddler challenges. That's right, Edward Nygma comes back to have you traverse the city, looking for the answers to his riddles and doing his time trials. The time trials by the way are going through rings... I feel like Superman 64 should be the obvious sign that no one likes doing these. We hardly wanted to do the side missions. Ain't no way we're gonna put time into a whole scavenger hunt of Riddler easter eggs. They were tedious in the Arkham games, these should have been kept out.
There's a good chunk of bugs. Not enough to consider it unplayable but they're still popping up. One time, we couldn't get into the final mission cause it was bugged when we had to pay for killing Brainiac. And yes, you need in-game currency to unlock the final mission. What's the purpose? Is the concept of just picking the mission just too much? You wanna treat this like a Madden game?
Now I must address the elephant in the room which is Kevin Conroy who lent his voice as Batman in this game. We lost this legendary voice actor in 2022 and in the after credits scene, Lois Lane gives a speech in tribute to Batman which is a clear tribute to Kevin. The controversy around this is that this is the game where the Arkhamverse Batman officially dies.
Now I don't blame them for still using Kevin's voice after his death, I just think it was poorly timed that this had to come out as the first time his Batman is heard after his death. But thankfully this isn't his final Batman performance which will come in the future DC animated movie "Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part 3".
However, this being the death of the Arkhamverse Batman specifically seems insulting. The ending in Arkham Knight felt like a good sendoff for this universe's Batman but having him come back just to become evil and killed off kinda ruins his legacy in the Arkham games. This game should've been in its own separate universe. Rocksteady should've ignored the fact that they made the Batman games and not try to tie this in with them.
In the end, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is a subpar game with an average story and hardly any variety. There's gonna be future DLC. The first one having Joker which again, how is he alive? But I guess the DLC will be multiverse characters since we have Mrs. Freeze. Not MR. Freeze, MRS. Freeze. And it's not Nora, it's Victoria Freeze which is a genderbent Mr. Freeze apparently. And I think I hear rumors that Zoe (Deadshot's daughter), Katana, Deathstroke, and Killer Croc will also be later DLC. But in the end, I don't think I'll have the interest to buy any of them because again, this was average. And I feel this game will die before all the DLC even gets released similarly to the 2020 Avengers game. I don't know is Rocksteady will ever peak again or if they already did with Arkham City. Right now, Marvel seems to be the top contender for superhero games with Insomniac's Spider-Man games. With DC releasing Gotham Knights and this? They have a long road ahead. But hopefully DC can bounce back in the video game department. I mean there's still that upcoming Wonder Woman game but only time will tell if that will be good or not. But until then, DC has a lot of catching up to do.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League gets a 5/10.
In this game, you play between four members of Amanda Waller's Suicide Squad also known as Task Force X. You have Deadshot who is good with ranged attacks using firearms, Harley Quinn with her baseball bat and pistols, King Shark who is an absolute powerhouse, and Captain Boomerang who uses Boomerangs but also taps into the Speed Force with his gauntlets. The Squad is forcefully assigned a missioned to kill the members of the brainwashed Justice League members who are enslaved to Brainiac who is invading the Earth.
Now one complaint people talk about is that the main objective is too kill the Justice League. I don't think that should be a valid complaint, I mean it's literally in the title. What I think the REAL issue about it is that this takes place in the Arkhamverse. Not only does it seem to retcon some old plot points from past games but considering that this is the first time that Superman, Green Lantern, Flash, and Wonder Woman appear in this universe, but this is the one where they all die? Can't believe I'm saying this but at least Zack Snyder gave Superman at least one installment in his universe before he croaked. Seriously, if this wasn't canon to the Arkhamverse, there would probably be less backlash.
Gameplay wise, it seems pretty decent. It's pretty easy to get used to when it comes to gunplay, hand to hand combat, and traversing throughout Metropolis. Personally, my favorite was King Shark. But overtime, it does get repetitive with missions and enemy variety. Basic tasks that aren't interesting and even side missions don't give anything unique. The enemies that are the hardest to take down are the snipers and brutes. As Shark, the minigun could mow them down quick but it takes forever with the others. Unless your super attacks and suicide strikes are fully charged, you'll be wasting ammo like crazy.
When it comes to the story, I don't know what to think of it. It's just average. Simple premise and you kinda know what's going on. Sure some interactions and dialogue from the Squad is funny at certain points. You can at least get some reactions from cutscenes but overall, Rocksteady once again can't seem to top what they had in Arkham City.
Now here's where we get into spoilers because I feel like talking about certain aspects of the game. Now you do get introduced to more villains. Some returning ones like Penguin and Poison Ivy where they do give a reason on how she returns after her sacrifice in Arkham Knight. And you got introductions to new villains like Lex Luthor, Gizmo and Toyman. While Gizmo can occasionally give you combat vehicles to use on missions and Lex plays a major part in the story, Toyman seems like he had little reason to be here.
Now let's discuss the boss battles which consist of the Justice League and Brainiac. Two are easy to get through and two that are a bitch to get through. Batman's boss fight is by far the easiest. Just shoot his fear gas form while dodging his attacks. Superman is pretty decent to get through. Might have to do some traversing to avoid his attacks but nothing do tedious. Flash is a tough one mainly because you can't keep track of him when he's zipping all over the place. Yes, Flash is fast but at least give SOME time to locate where he is. Not to mention he keeps unleashing tornadoes that take a quarter of the area. Green Lantern by far is the most annoying boss when you're always occupied with him summoning constructs that take up the whole area that you have no room to get proper aim or even a moment to breathe. But when it comes to Brainiac, it seems like the most embarrasingly lazy boss fight when it's only a rehash of Flash's boss fight. Brainiac in Injustice 2's story was a better boss fight. And that's a game where every fight is the same structure! Is it really that hard to represent Superman in solo video game form? I know Superman 64 was a dumpster fire but it should be an easy bar to raise.
Now this is a looter shooter and it's difficult to do a proper one successfully like Borderlands did. But when it comes to the loot in this game, not only is it a slog to get them (without using greedy microtransactions of course) but the loot is hardly interesting. Just guns and chips. Hell even the outfits are hardly worth getting.
And I don't know what it is with Rocksteady but SOMEBODY couldn't help but including... Riddler challenges. That's right, Edward Nygma comes back to have you traverse the city, looking for the answers to his riddles and doing his time trials. The time trials by the way are going through rings... I feel like Superman 64 should be the obvious sign that no one likes doing these. We hardly wanted to do the side missions. Ain't no way we're gonna put time into a whole scavenger hunt of Riddler easter eggs. They were tedious in the Arkham games, these should have been kept out.
There's a good chunk of bugs. Not enough to consider it unplayable but they're still popping up. One time, we couldn't get into the final mission cause it was bugged when we had to pay for killing Brainiac. And yes, you need in-game currency to unlock the final mission. What's the purpose? Is the concept of just picking the mission just too much? You wanna treat this like a Madden game?
Now I must address the elephant in the room which is Kevin Conroy who lent his voice as Batman in this game. We lost this legendary voice actor in 2022 and in the after credits scene, Lois Lane gives a speech in tribute to Batman which is a clear tribute to Kevin. The controversy around this is that this is the game where the Arkhamverse Batman officially dies.
Now I don't blame them for still using Kevin's voice after his death, I just think it was poorly timed that this had to come out as the first time his Batman is heard after his death. But thankfully this isn't his final Batman performance which will come in the future DC animated movie "Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part 3".
However, this being the death of the Arkhamverse Batman specifically seems insulting. The ending in Arkham Knight felt like a good sendoff for this universe's Batman but having him come back just to become evil and killed off kinda ruins his legacy in the Arkham games. This game should've been in its own separate universe. Rocksteady should've ignored the fact that they made the Batman games and not try to tie this in with them.
In the end, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is a subpar game with an average story and hardly any variety. There's gonna be future DLC. The first one having Joker which again, how is he alive? But I guess the DLC will be multiverse characters since we have Mrs. Freeze. Not MR. Freeze, MRS. Freeze. And it's not Nora, it's Victoria Freeze which is a genderbent Mr. Freeze apparently. And I think I hear rumors that Zoe (Deadshot's daughter), Katana, Deathstroke, and Killer Croc will also be later DLC. But in the end, I don't think I'll have the interest to buy any of them because again, this was average. And I feel this game will die before all the DLC even gets released similarly to the 2020 Avengers game. I don't know is Rocksteady will ever peak again or if they already did with Arkham City. Right now, Marvel seems to be the top contender for superhero games with Insomniac's Spider-Man games. With DC releasing Gotham Knights and this? They have a long road ahead. But hopefully DC can bounce back in the video game department. I mean there's still that upcoming Wonder Woman game but only time will tell if that will be good or not. But until then, DC has a lot of catching up to do.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League gets a 5/10.
2023
Mortal Kombat is my favorite fighting game franchise. Awesome characters, intense gameplay, and the blood and gore that created the ESRB. Now we have a new installment where we head into a New Era created by Fire God Liu Kang after MK11. Now while I can MK11 is flawed, I say it's too much considering it a "bad" game. I know the microtransactions suck and it's not perfect but I still found myself coming back to it. But how does MK1 turn out in comparison?
The gameplay for MK1 is pretty much what you'd expect out of Mortal Kombat. You can pull off special moves and combos, and of course the Fatal Blows and Fatalities are as intense as ever. Out of all the characters, Omni-Man, Baraka, and Li Mei are probably my top three to play as.
I will admit, it took me a while to pull off fatalities properly. The far and close distance ones are fine but the mid-distance ones are hard sometimes cause for certain characters, it seems like it varies on how far is considered mid-distance. Quan-Chi is like three steps back for his fatalities which seems pretty far to be mid. But when you pull these fatalities off, it's always so satisfying and rewarding.
There's a new mechanic included here called Kameos. You can pick your main fighter and you can call in an assist ever once in a while within fights. People who didn't get a spot in the main roster get a chance to shine in the Kameo roster. I'll admit, I didn't know what to think of it since big name characters of the series like Kano and Sonya were Kameos only but after trying it out, I think it's a nice mechanic. Plus, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, and Kung Lao are in both the fighter and kameo selections so maybe there's a chance a Kameo could be an actual fighter in future DLC. Plus, the Kameos have their own fatalities. They're more straightforward, some that are klassic fatalities from the early games but it's still fun that they get them. Cyrax is definitely the best though. I mean, blowing up the world? That's insane.
You can fight online or with CPUs. You have the towers mode where you fight a gauntlet of fighters and unlock character endings for each fighter. You can equip gear and skins through leveling up characters. The stats don't change but it's a reward system where you unlock the more you use a certain character. I'll admit, it's pretty tedious whereas in another Netherrealm game, Injustice 2, it levels up faster. You can't even level up in the story mode. But it's at least better than just paying for currency to get gear which is unfortunately a thing that is still here. You can also pay 1000 koins you get by playing the game to a shrine to get them.
The characters are great and it's cool to see some old faces like Ashrah, Reptile, Havik, and Reiko. And all of them are voice acted pretty well... except for Nitara who was voiced by Megan Fox. Her performance makes Nitara sound so monotone which honestly, is something to expect from Megan Fox performances nowadays but my god, her voice acting is so bad, that they got a different VA to do the grunts and screams during the fights. People gave Ronda Rousey shit for her Sonya performance in 11 but even she had emotion in her performance.
The story is a pretty fun mode to go through. In the new era, Liu Kang has gathered Earthrealm's champions (Johnny Cage, Kenshi, Kung Lao, Raiden, Scorpion, and Sub-Zero) to participate in the Mortal Kombat tournament in Outworld run by Sindel and her two daughters, Kitana and Mileena. But along the way, they find out someone is altering the Liu Kang's design of the timeline and is using Shang Tsung and Quan-Chi to do so. It's a fun story and it gives people some character development. Baraka and Reptile have their own chapters and it made them more interesting than jut being simple Outworld lackeys.
There's also another mode called Invasions where you go through worlds and doing different challenges to reach the main boss by the end. First season was Scorpion, second was for Nitara, and the current as of writing this is Sub-Zero. It's not bad but it's pretty tedious to travel the world especially when you need to go to specific shops to get specific items and you don't have a map on where they are. Not to mention, you'll occasionally get ambushed, slowing you down in the process. You got normal challenges by just fighting people and sometimes they have modifiers and you get a talisman to get some advantage. You got endurance matches where you fight three fighters in a row. And there's a survive challenge and I swear, these are the worst. Some are easy to understand but the ones where you have to dodge and jump over projectiles are so hard to time and get away from. And it's random every time you try it so unless the pattern isn't bullshit, you can accomplish them.
Another gripe I have with the invasion mode is that when you face a boss, they take forever to take down. And they go through three rounds and most of them have SURVIVE sections. And you have so little time to figure out stuff that you find yourself dying every time and you have to start the boss fight over again. It's just a tedious process, even if you are above their level.
In the end, I think this is a solid Mortal Kombat game. I'm super excited for Peacemaker and Homelander to come in. With John Cena actually playing his role. And I can't wait for Ermac and Takeda. I'll probably find myself still playing this for a long time until the next Netherrealm game so I say this gets a pass from me.
Mortal Kombat 1 gets an 8/10 from me.
The gameplay for MK1 is pretty much what you'd expect out of Mortal Kombat. You can pull off special moves and combos, and of course the Fatal Blows and Fatalities are as intense as ever. Out of all the characters, Omni-Man, Baraka, and Li Mei are probably my top three to play as.
I will admit, it took me a while to pull off fatalities properly. The far and close distance ones are fine but the mid-distance ones are hard sometimes cause for certain characters, it seems like it varies on how far is considered mid-distance. Quan-Chi is like three steps back for his fatalities which seems pretty far to be mid. But when you pull these fatalities off, it's always so satisfying and rewarding.
There's a new mechanic included here called Kameos. You can pick your main fighter and you can call in an assist ever once in a while within fights. People who didn't get a spot in the main roster get a chance to shine in the Kameo roster. I'll admit, I didn't know what to think of it since big name characters of the series like Kano and Sonya were Kameos only but after trying it out, I think it's a nice mechanic. Plus, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, and Kung Lao are in both the fighter and kameo selections so maybe there's a chance a Kameo could be an actual fighter in future DLC. Plus, the Kameos have their own fatalities. They're more straightforward, some that are klassic fatalities from the early games but it's still fun that they get them. Cyrax is definitely the best though. I mean, blowing up the world? That's insane.
You can fight online or with CPUs. You have the towers mode where you fight a gauntlet of fighters and unlock character endings for each fighter. You can equip gear and skins through leveling up characters. The stats don't change but it's a reward system where you unlock the more you use a certain character. I'll admit, it's pretty tedious whereas in another Netherrealm game, Injustice 2, it levels up faster. You can't even level up in the story mode. But it's at least better than just paying for currency to get gear which is unfortunately a thing that is still here. You can also pay 1000 koins you get by playing the game to a shrine to get them.
The characters are great and it's cool to see some old faces like Ashrah, Reptile, Havik, and Reiko. And all of them are voice acted pretty well... except for Nitara who was voiced by Megan Fox. Her performance makes Nitara sound so monotone which honestly, is something to expect from Megan Fox performances nowadays but my god, her voice acting is so bad, that they got a different VA to do the grunts and screams during the fights. People gave Ronda Rousey shit for her Sonya performance in 11 but even she had emotion in her performance.
The story is a pretty fun mode to go through. In the new era, Liu Kang has gathered Earthrealm's champions (Johnny Cage, Kenshi, Kung Lao, Raiden, Scorpion, and Sub-Zero) to participate in the Mortal Kombat tournament in Outworld run by Sindel and her two daughters, Kitana and Mileena. But along the way, they find out someone is altering the Liu Kang's design of the timeline and is using Shang Tsung and Quan-Chi to do so. It's a fun story and it gives people some character development. Baraka and Reptile have their own chapters and it made them more interesting than jut being simple Outworld lackeys.
There's also another mode called Invasions where you go through worlds and doing different challenges to reach the main boss by the end. First season was Scorpion, second was for Nitara, and the current as of writing this is Sub-Zero. It's not bad but it's pretty tedious to travel the world especially when you need to go to specific shops to get specific items and you don't have a map on where they are. Not to mention, you'll occasionally get ambushed, slowing you down in the process. You got normal challenges by just fighting people and sometimes they have modifiers and you get a talisman to get some advantage. You got endurance matches where you fight three fighters in a row. And there's a survive challenge and I swear, these are the worst. Some are easy to understand but the ones where you have to dodge and jump over projectiles are so hard to time and get away from. And it's random every time you try it so unless the pattern isn't bullshit, you can accomplish them.
Another gripe I have with the invasion mode is that when you face a boss, they take forever to take down. And they go through three rounds and most of them have SURVIVE sections. And you have so little time to figure out stuff that you find yourself dying every time and you have to start the boss fight over again. It's just a tedious process, even if you are above their level.
In the end, I think this is a solid Mortal Kombat game. I'm super excited for Peacemaker and Homelander to come in. With John Cena actually playing his role. And I can't wait for Ermac and Takeda. I'll probably find myself still playing this for a long time until the next Netherrealm game so I say this gets a pass from me.
Mortal Kombat 1 gets an 8/10 from me.
2022
When it comes to Batman games, none have done better than the Arkham games. Since then, no Batman game or DC game since have been able to come close. With the recent success of Insomniac's Spider-Man games, DC needs that chance to step it up.
I might have been late to this but frankly, there hasn't been much hype for this game but I decided to go into this with a clear mind and see if it was worth it. Luckily, I didn't spend money due to it being free with PS Plus.
In this game, Batman dies after a battle with Ra's al Ghul and with the Dark Knight gone, it's up to the four knights to take over and become their own heroes.
You can play as the four vigilantes. Dick Grayson AKA Nightwing, Barbara Gordon AKA Batgirl, Tim Drake AKA Robin, and Jason Todd AKA Red Hood. On solo, you can switch between them and if you have friends, you can pick who you want to be. You can level up the characters and luckily, they level up together so you don't have to worry about level balancing. Really, they all play the same so it really doesn't matter who you play as. The ones I usually play the most are Red Hood and Nightwing.
How you go about stopping crimes is similar to the Arkham games. You can set a destination of what crime you want to stop and these can help you level up and progress through the game. Traversing through the game can make progression gruelling though. While there are fast travel points with the help of Lucius Fox, whether you keep on grappling from building to building or riding the Batcycle, it's very boring and tedious.
When it comes to the story, it's hard to keep your attention on the main one. The Court of Owls aren't an interesting criminal group and really, I think the League of Shadows and Talia would have been better main villains. Hell, to be honest, the side mission villains with Harley, Mr. Freeze, and Clayface were more fun. I just wished there were more bad guys to deal with compared to previous Batman games.
There's lots of customization. You can change the looks and powers of your suit and weapons. Some of them are pretty cool but some I don't really like that much.
There's also these side stories where you get flashbacks with certain characters where you get little interactions with the four knights. They're pretty nice but nothing too interesting.
Other side stuff, really I didn't care about. The Watch, I don't know what they're about, Penguin is reformed so you don't do anything with him, and the time trials suck. Really most of the time, you don't care about the situations in a lot of these crimes because it's run of the mill.
Overall, it's not really a bad game but it's not great either. Everything is pretty average and it's just sluggish playing through. DC still has ways to go to reach the peak they once had in the video game scene.
I give Gotham Knights a 6/10.
I might have been late to this but frankly, there hasn't been much hype for this game but I decided to go into this with a clear mind and see if it was worth it. Luckily, I didn't spend money due to it being free with PS Plus.
In this game, Batman dies after a battle with Ra's al Ghul and with the Dark Knight gone, it's up to the four knights to take over and become their own heroes.
You can play as the four vigilantes. Dick Grayson AKA Nightwing, Barbara Gordon AKA Batgirl, Tim Drake AKA Robin, and Jason Todd AKA Red Hood. On solo, you can switch between them and if you have friends, you can pick who you want to be. You can level up the characters and luckily, they level up together so you don't have to worry about level balancing. Really, they all play the same so it really doesn't matter who you play as. The ones I usually play the most are Red Hood and Nightwing.
How you go about stopping crimes is similar to the Arkham games. You can set a destination of what crime you want to stop and these can help you level up and progress through the game. Traversing through the game can make progression gruelling though. While there are fast travel points with the help of Lucius Fox, whether you keep on grappling from building to building or riding the Batcycle, it's very boring and tedious.
When it comes to the story, it's hard to keep your attention on the main one. The Court of Owls aren't an interesting criminal group and really, I think the League of Shadows and Talia would have been better main villains. Hell, to be honest, the side mission villains with Harley, Mr. Freeze, and Clayface were more fun. I just wished there were more bad guys to deal with compared to previous Batman games.
There's lots of customization. You can change the looks and powers of your suit and weapons. Some of them are pretty cool but some I don't really like that much.
There's also these side stories where you get flashbacks with certain characters where you get little interactions with the four knights. They're pretty nice but nothing too interesting.
Other side stuff, really I didn't care about. The Watch, I don't know what they're about, Penguin is reformed so you don't do anything with him, and the time trials suck. Really most of the time, you don't care about the situations in a lot of these crimes because it's run of the mill.
Overall, it's not really a bad game but it's not great either. Everything is pretty average and it's just sluggish playing through. DC still has ways to go to reach the peak they once had in the video game scene.
I give Gotham Knights a 6/10.
2023
Super Mario RPG is one of the most famous Mario RPG style games. The first of it's kind in the franchise which would soon inspire the gameplay styles of the Mario & Luigi games and the Paper Mario games. And just as people thought it wouldn't get any recognition aside from a Mii skin in Smash Bros., the beloved RPG gets remade.
I was unfortunate to grow up with the original and really, the knowledge I had for the longest time was the infamous "Rawest Forest" song. So I was very eager to play this. While slightly different, it's pretty much fundamentally similar to the original.
The story is still the same. A giant sword named Exor comes down from the sky, shatters the Star Road into seven pieces, and pierces itself into Bowser's Castle. Now the Smithy Gang invades the land. Now Mario along with Bowser, Peach, the Cloud Prince, Mallow, and a doll come to life named Geno team up to stop Smithy and his gang from causing havoc.
The big update to this remake is the graphics which keeps the spirit of the original but makes it work in a 3D environment. The characters are more chibi kind of like how Nintendo did Link's Awakening. It's a nice visual and makes the characters look adorable at times.
Gameplay is pretty much the same. Navigating and talking to people in the open world to combat. If you played the original, you might be familiarized with the remake.
Playing as the five characters are fun. Mario with his famous jumps and fireballs, Bowser is a powerhouse, Peach is a very helpful healer, Mallow can summon storms, and Geno has his epic firearms... which are his arms. And that Geno Whirl is hard to execute but so satisfying when you get that 9999 critical hit.
There's one new mechanic that's been included and you can be able to do Triple Attacks where your current party of three can unleash a powerful attack to cause massive damage, a couple (usually involving Peach) can heal your party. There are different varieties depending on which three are in your party. My favorites are usually the ones with Geno and Bowser.
Like many RPGs, there are a lot of puzzles. There are many secrets that are in this game. Many of which, might drive some people insane. And the song wasn't wrong, there were times where I was stuck longer than I needed to be.
The music has been updated with the familiar soundtrack that fans may recognize. Giving it some added instrumentation to give an extra remastered sound. The Forest Maze theme alone really shows the improvement.
Overall, I enjoyed myself throughout this. Sure the puzzles are tedious and sometimes, fighting enemies can be too sometimes (specifically when you miss an attack), I thought this was a good remake to show fans of the original on how much this game has been loved over the years.
I give the Super Mario RPG remake a 9/10.
I was unfortunate to grow up with the original and really, the knowledge I had for the longest time was the infamous "Rawest Forest" song. So I was very eager to play this. While slightly different, it's pretty much fundamentally similar to the original.
The story is still the same. A giant sword named Exor comes down from the sky, shatters the Star Road into seven pieces, and pierces itself into Bowser's Castle. Now the Smithy Gang invades the land. Now Mario along with Bowser, Peach, the Cloud Prince, Mallow, and a doll come to life named Geno team up to stop Smithy and his gang from causing havoc.
The big update to this remake is the graphics which keeps the spirit of the original but makes it work in a 3D environment. The characters are more chibi kind of like how Nintendo did Link's Awakening. It's a nice visual and makes the characters look adorable at times.
Gameplay is pretty much the same. Navigating and talking to people in the open world to combat. If you played the original, you might be familiarized with the remake.
Playing as the five characters are fun. Mario with his famous jumps and fireballs, Bowser is a powerhouse, Peach is a very helpful healer, Mallow can summon storms, and Geno has his epic firearms... which are his arms. And that Geno Whirl is hard to execute but so satisfying when you get that 9999 critical hit.
There's one new mechanic that's been included and you can be able to do Triple Attacks where your current party of three can unleash a powerful attack to cause massive damage, a couple (usually involving Peach) can heal your party. There are different varieties depending on which three are in your party. My favorites are usually the ones with Geno and Bowser.
Like many RPGs, there are a lot of puzzles. There are many secrets that are in this game. Many of which, might drive some people insane. And the song wasn't wrong, there were times where I was stuck longer than I needed to be.
The music has been updated with the familiar soundtrack that fans may recognize. Giving it some added instrumentation to give an extra remastered sound. The Forest Maze theme alone really shows the improvement.
Overall, I enjoyed myself throughout this. Sure the puzzles are tedious and sometimes, fighting enemies can be too sometimes (specifically when you miss an attack), I thought this was a good remake to show fans of the original on how much this game has been loved over the years.
I give the Super Mario RPG remake a 9/10.
2023
Out of the Resident Evil games, I say 4 is most likely the most popular and when a remake was announced with the success of the remakes of the two previous games, this one had me skeptical at first. With how much of a classic it was originally, people wondered if this was necessary and if it lives up to the original. Well here are my thoughts.
The premise is basically the same. Leon Kennedy is hired to head to retrieve the president's daughter, Ashley Graham, from a cult that plans to share a new virus to the world called Las Plagas. Throughout the game, I say the story still works. There may be a few tweaks here and there but overall, it's the same plot.
Graphics are definitely upgraded compared to the original. While I still think the original still holds up decently in graphics, the remake does nice polishing them a bit.
The game still feels as linear as the original. You can check the map to check where you need to go or check places you haven't explored yet. All in all, still solid.
Now gameplay is the main selling point here. Is it better or worse than the orignal? And to be honest, I can't tell if it's the same or if it's way harder than I remember. I haven't played the original in a long time but I don't know if I remembered it being this hard.
The enemies in the Resident Evil games usually take more than one shot but I feel like they drain your ammo way more than this. Is it just me? I try to be as cautious as I can on ammo but constantly I find myself getting overwhelmed by enemies piling up and I get stressed that I may run out of ammo. And when they drop them, it feels like it doesn't do it when you need it the most. For familiar fans of the original, you might have some strategy but newcomers will find themselves going through a lot of trial and error through the whole game.
You have pretty much the same weapons you had in the original. Your pistols, your shotguns, your submachine guns, all of the works. And of course you can upgrade and repair them through the Merchant who is still an icon here. And whenever you get the rocket launcher, while it sucks you have to rebuy it whenever you use it once, it feels worth it whenever you use it when it's necessary. And my god is that thing the most overpowered weapon in the game. I took Krauser and Saddler down using one damn rocket. Kind of made it an anti-climactic ending because of it but with how much I was dying, I didn't really care.
Aside from the bullshit enemies that eat up your ammo, I say the other aspect that is a downside... is keeping Ashley safe. While I love Ashley as a character here, it is such a hassle to make sure that girl isn't getting hit or captured by people. I was hoping her "damsel in distress" thing from the original would be less tedious but it kinda feels the same. Seriously, every time Leon tells Ashley to "stay here for a bit", it makes my hairs stand up.
So in the end, is this a good remake? Well in my opinion, I say it's fine as a remake. There's nothing particularly bad, the negatives I have about the game are usually the aspects that annoyed me. I didn't really run into any aspects that prevented me from finishing the game but I feel like the opinions of this game will be split overall so if you want to play it, then try your hand at it and see what you think.
I'll give the Resident Evil 4 remake a 7/10.
The premise is basically the same. Leon Kennedy is hired to head to retrieve the president's daughter, Ashley Graham, from a cult that plans to share a new virus to the world called Las Plagas. Throughout the game, I say the story still works. There may be a few tweaks here and there but overall, it's the same plot.
Graphics are definitely upgraded compared to the original. While I still think the original still holds up decently in graphics, the remake does nice polishing them a bit.
The game still feels as linear as the original. You can check the map to check where you need to go or check places you haven't explored yet. All in all, still solid.
Now gameplay is the main selling point here. Is it better or worse than the orignal? And to be honest, I can't tell if it's the same or if it's way harder than I remember. I haven't played the original in a long time but I don't know if I remembered it being this hard.
The enemies in the Resident Evil games usually take more than one shot but I feel like they drain your ammo way more than this. Is it just me? I try to be as cautious as I can on ammo but constantly I find myself getting overwhelmed by enemies piling up and I get stressed that I may run out of ammo. And when they drop them, it feels like it doesn't do it when you need it the most. For familiar fans of the original, you might have some strategy but newcomers will find themselves going through a lot of trial and error through the whole game.
You have pretty much the same weapons you had in the original. Your pistols, your shotguns, your submachine guns, all of the works. And of course you can upgrade and repair them through the Merchant who is still an icon here. And whenever you get the rocket launcher, while it sucks you have to rebuy it whenever you use it once, it feels worth it whenever you use it when it's necessary. And my god is that thing the most overpowered weapon in the game. I took Krauser and Saddler down using one damn rocket. Kind of made it an anti-climactic ending because of it but with how much I was dying, I didn't really care.
Aside from the bullshit enemies that eat up your ammo, I say the other aspect that is a downside... is keeping Ashley safe. While I love Ashley as a character here, it is such a hassle to make sure that girl isn't getting hit or captured by people. I was hoping her "damsel in distress" thing from the original would be less tedious but it kinda feels the same. Seriously, every time Leon tells Ashley to "stay here for a bit", it makes my hairs stand up.
So in the end, is this a good remake? Well in my opinion, I say it's fine as a remake. There's nothing particularly bad, the negatives I have about the game are usually the aspects that annoyed me. I didn't really run into any aspects that prevented me from finishing the game but I feel like the opinions of this game will be split overall so if you want to play it, then try your hand at it and see what you think.
I'll give the Resident Evil 4 remake a 7/10.
Insomniac's Spider-Man was the first Spider-Man video game I ever played and I loved every second of it that I 100% it on many occassions. It felt like you were Spider-Man, it captured everything you love about the Spider-Man characters and storylines. Now after two games where we got a taste of both Peter Parker and Miles Morales, we get the sequel where they come together where they try to save the city from both Kraven the Hunter who seeks his greatest challenge and Venom who seeks to turn the world into a new home for symbiotes.
So you can play as Peter and Miles and you can switch off between the two. The gameplay is still the same and Miles still has his Venom abilities. Peter now has Iron Spider legs and new gadgets to try out on enemies which are cool to use. Swinging through the city still feels satisfying as ever and the addition of gliding using the web wings is surprisingly fun as well.
The map of New York has been opened more from the first two games and you can cross to the city of Queens. Giving for more environment for you to explore. You can sometimes ski across the water if you're fast enough which is cool.
When it comes to villains, previous ones mostly are quick cameos or some that are retired and reformed. Some of them are surprisingly killed off by Kraven. I feel like some fans of the characters will be disappointing in that but honestly, I feel like there's nothing else you can really do with them at this point and the boss fights they already have showcased everything they could possibly do. Really, the only one that you fight that has a big impact is Mr. Negative who honestly has a nice character arc in this.
This game offers plenty of new villains. In the beginning you fight Sandman which a wild opening compared to Kingpin's fight in the first. He even has his own side missions where you collect his crystals to figure out what goes on with his daughter.
There's also the Lizard who Kraven makes Dr. Connors turn back into all because he wants another great beast to hunt. He is a monsterous creature in this and the boss fight with him is crazy as hell.
Kraven is also a well adapted villain. A genuine hunter who hunts not only Spider-Man, but his rogues gallery, many of which he kills off. He really tells you that he is not a man you want to mess with. Best part of him personally... is that you can pet his tiger. But in all seriousness, I love Kraven and I love that he's getting recognition in the media.
And then there's Venom. The most beloved Spider-Man villain of all time. While he's usually hosted by Eddie Brock, he's actually Harry Osborn. When I heard this, I expected it, I was just curious on the execution. But it turns out, Venom is just as awesome in Harry as he is when he was with Eddie. And the fact that he's voiced by the Candyman himself, Tony Todd, makes him more awesome.
Harry Osborn I thought was a well developed character as well. Him going from wanting to help others like his friend, Peter, to transitioning in wanting the symbiote to gain the power to heal the world but starting it anew makes him a pretty memorable character. Mostly, I don't give a damn about Harry but here, you actually care about his motives and his struggles. Also, I find it funny that he was played by the live action Ben Tennyson in Race Against Time since we have the voice actor of teen Ben from Alien Force playing Peter.
There's also some side stuff for you to do which means more fun to be had. There's a story where you reunite with Yuri who becomes a vigilante named "Wraith" who's looking to taking down someone named "The Flame" and while it doesn't say who it is, the reveal of who it actually is will make you excited.
You have missions involving Mysterio where Quentin Beck is retired and is trying to open up illusion attractions called "Mysteriums" but they're being hacked by a Mysterio virus.
You can take photos of events going on in the city, take down Hunter hideouts, and you can collect Spider-Bots from the Spider-Verse which give out some easter eggs from different Spider people (and also some villains but they're not spider variants but they're also cool).
This game also introduces the Symbiote Spider-Man who gradually becomes more menacing the more he wears and it is EVERYTHING I was hoping for out of a Symbiote Spider-Man story. After being so disappointing with Raimi's Spider-Man 3 turning the story into a dumb meme and the current Venom movies not giving that story to Peter anytime soon, I am so satisfied where we get a story where Peter actually experiences the symbiote to the point of murderous intent and it was everything I've been asking for. And his gameplay with the suit is so satisfying.
The story is very compelling and is a greater improvement from the first two games. And I am hoping they keep ramping it up with the final game of this trilogy and what they possibly set up in the post credits scenes already have me intrigued.
So yeah, Spider-Man 2 left me satisfied and I'm glad I'm having as much fun, if not, more than the first. The gameplay while familiar, is still fun, even with the new gimmicks. The story is very compelling and has you hooked all the way through and is well paced, and makes it a great addition to the Insomniac Spider-Man/Marvel universe. And I'm definitely interesting in what their Wolverine game has in store.
Spider-Man 2 is a 9/10.
So you can play as Peter and Miles and you can switch off between the two. The gameplay is still the same and Miles still has his Venom abilities. Peter now has Iron Spider legs and new gadgets to try out on enemies which are cool to use. Swinging through the city still feels satisfying as ever and the addition of gliding using the web wings is surprisingly fun as well.
The map of New York has been opened more from the first two games and you can cross to the city of Queens. Giving for more environment for you to explore. You can sometimes ski across the water if you're fast enough which is cool.
When it comes to villains, previous ones mostly are quick cameos or some that are retired and reformed. Some of them are surprisingly killed off by Kraven. I feel like some fans of the characters will be disappointing in that but honestly, I feel like there's nothing else you can really do with them at this point and the boss fights they already have showcased everything they could possibly do. Really, the only one that you fight that has a big impact is Mr. Negative who honestly has a nice character arc in this.
This game offers plenty of new villains. In the beginning you fight Sandman which a wild opening compared to Kingpin's fight in the first. He even has his own side missions where you collect his crystals to figure out what goes on with his daughter.
There's also the Lizard who Kraven makes Dr. Connors turn back into all because he wants another great beast to hunt. He is a monsterous creature in this and the boss fight with him is crazy as hell.
Kraven is also a well adapted villain. A genuine hunter who hunts not only Spider-Man, but his rogues gallery, many of which he kills off. He really tells you that he is not a man you want to mess with. Best part of him personally... is that you can pet his tiger. But in all seriousness, I love Kraven and I love that he's getting recognition in the media.
And then there's Venom. The most beloved Spider-Man villain of all time. While he's usually hosted by Eddie Brock, he's actually Harry Osborn. When I heard this, I expected it, I was just curious on the execution. But it turns out, Venom is just as awesome in Harry as he is when he was with Eddie. And the fact that he's voiced by the Candyman himself, Tony Todd, makes him more awesome.
Harry Osborn I thought was a well developed character as well. Him going from wanting to help others like his friend, Peter, to transitioning in wanting the symbiote to gain the power to heal the world but starting it anew makes him a pretty memorable character. Mostly, I don't give a damn about Harry but here, you actually care about his motives and his struggles. Also, I find it funny that he was played by the live action Ben Tennyson in Race Against Time since we have the voice actor of teen Ben from Alien Force playing Peter.
There's also some side stuff for you to do which means more fun to be had. There's a story where you reunite with Yuri who becomes a vigilante named "Wraith" who's looking to taking down someone named "The Flame" and while it doesn't say who it is, the reveal of who it actually is will make you excited.
You have missions involving Mysterio where Quentin Beck is retired and is trying to open up illusion attractions called "Mysteriums" but they're being hacked by a Mysterio virus.
You can take photos of events going on in the city, take down Hunter hideouts, and you can collect Spider-Bots from the Spider-Verse which give out some easter eggs from different Spider people (and also some villains but they're not spider variants but they're also cool).
This game also introduces the Symbiote Spider-Man who gradually becomes more menacing the more he wears and it is EVERYTHING I was hoping for out of a Symbiote Spider-Man story. After being so disappointing with Raimi's Spider-Man 3 turning the story into a dumb meme and the current Venom movies not giving that story to Peter anytime soon, I am so satisfied where we get a story where Peter actually experiences the symbiote to the point of murderous intent and it was everything I've been asking for. And his gameplay with the suit is so satisfying.
The story is very compelling and is a greater improvement from the first two games. And I am hoping they keep ramping it up with the final game of this trilogy and what they possibly set up in the post credits scenes already have me intrigued.
So yeah, Spider-Man 2 left me satisfied and I'm glad I'm having as much fun, if not, more than the first. The gameplay while familiar, is still fun, even with the new gimmicks. The story is very compelling and has you hooked all the way through and is well paced, and makes it a great addition to the Insomniac Spider-Man/Marvel universe. And I'm definitely interesting in what their Wolverine game has in store.
Spider-Man 2 is a 9/10.
The Super Mario Bros. games are those kinds of games where you just want a simple and fun ride playing a game whereas most games can make you stressed to all hell. Super Mario Bros. Wonder is the new addition to the franchise where Mario and his friends need to stop Bowser from conquering the Flower Kingdom by using the power of Wonder to create the kingdom in his own image.
You can play as Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad, Toadette, you can even play as Daisy who is finally part of the main games where she's just not in the sports and party games. You can even play as Yoshi (with different color variants) and Nabbit if you want an easy experience sincethey can't take damage. Downside is that they can't use Power Ups.
Speaking of Power Ups, you can't have a Mario Bros. platformer without em. You have the classics such as the Mushroom, the Fire Flower, and the Invincibility Star. But this game introduces new power ups. You get a Bubble Flower to blow bubbles and trap enemies within them, the Drill Mushroom will give you the ability to burrow through the ground and ceilings, and of course, you got the Elephant power up where you can swing your trunk at enemies, spray flowers with water if filled up, and spawned lots of suggestive "fanart".
You go through seven different worlds in the Flower Kingdoms and your goal is to get the Royal Seeds to reach Castle Bowser. Most of them are guarded by Bowser Jr. His boss fights are mostly the same, difference is that he changes the stage each time. Other than that, it's always just wait for him to do his thing and jump on his head.
Within each world, you can go through many stages where you play with the usual Mario platformer style. Run through, break bricks, and jump on enemies to reach the flag at the end of the stage to collect Wonder Seeds. But also, there are Wonder Flowers and when you touch them, the world goes all wonky and you have to get the Wonder Seed to finish the segment.
You can also equip badges which can possibly help you through the stage. Honestly, most of them can be helpful but some of them seem completely pointless. Like the invisibility one. Sure, it makes it to where enemies can't see you, but the thing is, neither can you so you don't where you are until you fall in a pit. I just stayed using the badge where I start off with the Mushroom power up cause it seems the most useful.
Overall, I think this is a solid Mario platformer. If you enjoy playing the other platformer Mario games, then I say you'll have fun with this too. There's a little difficulty but I say it's expected with these games.
I'm giving Super Mario Bros. Wonder a 7/10.
You can play as Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad, Toadette, you can even play as Daisy who is finally part of the main games where she's just not in the sports and party games. You can even play as Yoshi (with different color variants) and Nabbit if you want an easy experience sincethey can't take damage. Downside is that they can't use Power Ups.
Speaking of Power Ups, you can't have a Mario Bros. platformer without em. You have the classics such as the Mushroom, the Fire Flower, and the Invincibility Star. But this game introduces new power ups. You get a Bubble Flower to blow bubbles and trap enemies within them, the Drill Mushroom will give you the ability to burrow through the ground and ceilings, and of course, you got the Elephant power up where you can swing your trunk at enemies, spray flowers with water if filled up, and spawned lots of suggestive "fanart".
You go through seven different worlds in the Flower Kingdoms and your goal is to get the Royal Seeds to reach Castle Bowser. Most of them are guarded by Bowser Jr. His boss fights are mostly the same, difference is that he changes the stage each time. Other than that, it's always just wait for him to do his thing and jump on his head.
Within each world, you can go through many stages where you play with the usual Mario platformer style. Run through, break bricks, and jump on enemies to reach the flag at the end of the stage to collect Wonder Seeds. But also, there are Wonder Flowers and when you touch them, the world goes all wonky and you have to get the Wonder Seed to finish the segment.
You can also equip badges which can possibly help you through the stage. Honestly, most of them can be helpful but some of them seem completely pointless. Like the invisibility one. Sure, it makes it to where enemies can't see you, but the thing is, neither can you so you don't where you are until you fall in a pit. I just stayed using the badge where I start off with the Mushroom power up cause it seems the most useful.
Overall, I think this is a solid Mario platformer. If you enjoy playing the other platformer Mario games, then I say you'll have fun with this too. There's a little difficulty but I say it's expected with these games.
I'm giving Super Mario Bros. Wonder a 7/10.
I love the Legend of Zelda series. It's a fun adventure game franchise with memorable characters, amazing stories, and action packed gameplay. It's gone through many timelines and in recent years, we get the "Era of the Wilds".
Breath of the Wild was a great game. Breathtaking environment, a rich story, and the gameplay was intense... and I mean INTENSE. This Zelda timeline is probably the most difficult the franchise has ever been. It's pretty much like if Zelda had Dark Souls difficulty and by that, I mean you die a million times. But even then, we still saw it through cause of how fun it is.
Now we get a sequel in this timeline called "Tears of the Kingdom" (which they delayed the title reveal cause of the Queen's death but that's besides the point) Before, Link had to stop Calamity Ganon but in this game, he faces off with the real deal. We get the return of the Demon King: "Ganondorf". While appearing in games like Hyrule Warriors and Smash Bros, Ganondorf hasn't been in a mainline Zelda game since Twilight Princess. While I like other villains that have came into the franchise like Vaati and Skull Kid, seeing Ganondorf would be a villain again is great to see.
The story revolves around Link and Zelda discovering these ruins beneath the castle but they stumble upon a withered Ganondorf who has been sealed away since the beginning of Hyrule. Zelda is sent back in time and Link finds himself with a new arm and in a land floating in the sky. Now he must gather the five sages and gather the Secret Stones and join together to take down the Demon King and save the kingdom of Hyrul from the gloom of darkness that spreads across the land.
The story is very interesting to piece together. It seems to take some Ocarina of Time similarities with the time stuff. Spread across the land, you can discover eleven geoglyphs where you find dragon tears that reveal the memories of Zelda of when she was sent back to the past. This is so much easier than finding memories in the previous games.
You get to interact with memorable characters. From the first game, you have the champions Yunobo, Riju, and Sidon but Keba has been replaced by his son Tulin. These four help you as sages and they help you traverse the land as well as help you in combat. Tulin can blow a gust of wind to push you while gliding, Yunono can barrel through enemies with a fiery blaze, Sidon can cover you in a shield of water and you can unleash it when you swing your weapon, and Riju can call down lighting when you shoot an arrow at an enemy.
Controls are pretty much the same as Breath of the Wild when it comes to combat. A new mechanic is that in replace of the Sheikah Slate, you get Rauru's arm that has it's own abilities. You can use the Ultrahand to move objects and build vehicles with certain parts. I'll admit, it gave me a Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts feeling but don't worry, it works better here. You can use Ascend to travel through ceilings. The Recall ability reverses the flow of time for an object. The Fuse ability can fuse an object with your weapon or sheild. And the Autobuild ability can recreate anything you previously made with the Ultrahand ability.
You can still do stuff you did in the previous game like activating towers and shrines, take on side missions, and find Koroks. If you liked Breath of the Wild, then you'll have a fine time with this.
Now if there's one thing that can make this hard to play, it's the difficulty. The beginning of the game has the gloom debuff Link and his Master Sword is badly damaged and his health and stamina are back down to three hearts so he has to go through building up his strength all over again. So don't expect to not die in this.
Your weapons and sheilds can still break which has always been annoying. And I suggest you REALLY stock up on arrows and cook A LOT of meals cause you are gonna need as much as possible. I found myself running out of arrows when I needed them the most so I had to improvise.
Enemies and bosses still take more damage than they should and of course, Link can go down in one or two hits. You get some easy bosses but anyone you fight will kill you.
You have three levels to Hyrule. You got the normal surface, the sky ruins which honestly, doesn't have much, and you have the depths which you can get to by jumping into chasms. And honestly, I hate the depths. The depths have gloomed enemies that when they hit you, you can't get the hearts you lost back until you had back to the surface. And you have to light the way every five feet. You really don't do much and only has some moments which are story relevant. To be honest, I don't think there was much point to having sky and depth lands when 90% of the story is on the main Hyrule land.
In the end, this is a fun game but the difficulty can still be tedious like it was in the previous game and there wasn't much to the skies and depths. And the whole breakable weapons thing is still annoying. Though I respect there's not gonna be DLC for this because I feel it's fine for a game to not have DLC for once and with this, there's no really anything you can expand.
Overall, I give Tears of the Kingdom a 7/10.
Breath of the Wild was a great game. Breathtaking environment, a rich story, and the gameplay was intense... and I mean INTENSE. This Zelda timeline is probably the most difficult the franchise has ever been. It's pretty much like if Zelda had Dark Souls difficulty and by that, I mean you die a million times. But even then, we still saw it through cause of how fun it is.
Now we get a sequel in this timeline called "Tears of the Kingdom" (which they delayed the title reveal cause of the Queen's death but that's besides the point) Before, Link had to stop Calamity Ganon but in this game, he faces off with the real deal. We get the return of the Demon King: "Ganondorf". While appearing in games like Hyrule Warriors and Smash Bros, Ganondorf hasn't been in a mainline Zelda game since Twilight Princess. While I like other villains that have came into the franchise like Vaati and Skull Kid, seeing Ganondorf would be a villain again is great to see.
The story revolves around Link and Zelda discovering these ruins beneath the castle but they stumble upon a withered Ganondorf who has been sealed away since the beginning of Hyrule. Zelda is sent back in time and Link finds himself with a new arm and in a land floating in the sky. Now he must gather the five sages and gather the Secret Stones and join together to take down the Demon King and save the kingdom of Hyrul from the gloom of darkness that spreads across the land.
The story is very interesting to piece together. It seems to take some Ocarina of Time similarities with the time stuff. Spread across the land, you can discover eleven geoglyphs where you find dragon tears that reveal the memories of Zelda of when she was sent back to the past. This is so much easier than finding memories in the previous games.
You get to interact with memorable characters. From the first game, you have the champions Yunobo, Riju, and Sidon but Keba has been replaced by his son Tulin. These four help you as sages and they help you traverse the land as well as help you in combat. Tulin can blow a gust of wind to push you while gliding, Yunono can barrel through enemies with a fiery blaze, Sidon can cover you in a shield of water and you can unleash it when you swing your weapon, and Riju can call down lighting when you shoot an arrow at an enemy.
Controls are pretty much the same as Breath of the Wild when it comes to combat. A new mechanic is that in replace of the Sheikah Slate, you get Rauru's arm that has it's own abilities. You can use the Ultrahand to move objects and build vehicles with certain parts. I'll admit, it gave me a Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts feeling but don't worry, it works better here. You can use Ascend to travel through ceilings. The Recall ability reverses the flow of time for an object. The Fuse ability can fuse an object with your weapon or sheild. And the Autobuild ability can recreate anything you previously made with the Ultrahand ability.
You can still do stuff you did in the previous game like activating towers and shrines, take on side missions, and find Koroks. If you liked Breath of the Wild, then you'll have a fine time with this.
Now if there's one thing that can make this hard to play, it's the difficulty. The beginning of the game has the gloom debuff Link and his Master Sword is badly damaged and his health and stamina are back down to three hearts so he has to go through building up his strength all over again. So don't expect to not die in this.
Your weapons and sheilds can still break which has always been annoying. And I suggest you REALLY stock up on arrows and cook A LOT of meals cause you are gonna need as much as possible. I found myself running out of arrows when I needed them the most so I had to improvise.
Enemies and bosses still take more damage than they should and of course, Link can go down in one or two hits. You get some easy bosses but anyone you fight will kill you.
You have three levels to Hyrule. You got the normal surface, the sky ruins which honestly, doesn't have much, and you have the depths which you can get to by jumping into chasms. And honestly, I hate the depths. The depths have gloomed enemies that when they hit you, you can't get the hearts you lost back until you had back to the surface. And you have to light the way every five feet. You really don't do much and only has some moments which are story relevant. To be honest, I don't think there was much point to having sky and depth lands when 90% of the story is on the main Hyrule land.
In the end, this is a fun game but the difficulty can still be tedious like it was in the previous game and there wasn't much to the skies and depths. And the whole breakable weapons thing is still annoying. Though I respect there's not gonna be DLC for this because I feel it's fine for a game to not have DLC for once and with this, there's no really anything you can expand.
Overall, I give Tears of the Kingdom a 7/10.
2023
When I bought the previous Street Fighter game (SFV), I bought it on initial release and it would turn out that would be the worst time to buy it since on day one, it was pretty much empty with lack of story, short arcade modes, and the same online play that all fighting games have. And over the years, they would just add many more characters and the main story mode as DLC which is a very greedy way of doing things. I haven't played SFV since the initial release and never bothered with any DLC with how greedy it played out.
Then Street Fighter 6 rolls around and I had some curiosity but I also had the fear of them doing the same money grubbing scheme they did previously. Capcom hasn't been really the best when it comes to selling their products properly. Unless it's Resident Evil, they got nothing else going for them and Street Fighter is kind of on the point where it can go either way. So, with my fingers crossed, I decided to buy it around the time it was released.
So after playing through all I could, I can definitely say that I did play more than I did with Street Fighter 5 and I can confidently say this is a step up. Of course there will be DLC which is inevitable with most popular game franchises at this point, the content on initial release is way more.
In this installment, you can play up to 18 characters, many returning faces and some newcomers. They're fairly all fun to play. I've had fun with people like Cammy and Ken, and Marisa is a powerhouse when you play as her. Everyone is gonna have different preferences of course. For example, I'm not really into Dhalsim with how floaty he is.
You can play with three different control settings. Classic controls let you do the usual command inputs that all fighting games have. There are Modern controls which is for people new to the fighting game scene and uses simpler inputs to give out combos easier. And Dynamic controls is for those who don't like to try where you only use three buttons and it plays with A.I. assistance. I can admit I'm not the best at fighting games but I like to at least put in effort.
There are three modes for this game. Fighting Ground is where you can train, practice, do special matches, where you can play more solo or locally. This also includes the arcade mode where you can play as a character and go through their individual stories. Of course this game takes place years after Street Fighter 5 where the heroes have took down Shadaloo and M. Bison. The veteran character's stories are pretty much a "Where Are They Now?" kind of story. Chun-Li's teaching kung fu, Blanka is an adventure tour guide, and Ken got it worst in a situation in Nayshall. And the new character stories are like an introduction to who they are and what they do. Marisa is a pankratiast that always loves to fight, Lily seems to be related to T. Hawk, and JP seems to be the main bad guy but many theorize he might be Bison reincarnated although don't take my word for it until something is confirmed.
The next mode is the Battle Hub which is basically the online mode. There you can battle players online. You'll walk around as your avatar and see other players. And while the character creation is insanely good and has a lot of variety, you know there will be people who will make some crazy monstrosities and you can't blame em. You can fight with online players, there's customization options in this, and you can play some of the old Final Fight and Street Fighter games.
And finally the World Tour mode is the main story mode for this installment. Where it is an open world experience where you can run around, challenging opponents, and finding ways in getting stronger. You start off with Luke as your master but overtime, you can train with other characters and learn their techniques and fighting styles. You can collect experience and increase your bond with your masters which gives out a little bit of lore. Though weirdly, the story mode doesn't really have too much development. Really, it feels like they wanted to do a 3D Final Fight game with this since most of the Street Fighter characters don't really contribute that much.
You have a rival named Bosch who is up to some shady shit and you find out what happens to him by the last segments of the story. You also encounter Final Fight characters like Thrasher Damned of the Mad Gear Gang. These people aren't playable but maybe they will be in the future.
Now the biggest problem I have with this mode is the balancing. You really have to grind your power at every opportunity. If you see anyone that you can fight, just challenge them. Like Pokemon, it's better for you if you just fight them, as tedious as they are to keep coming across. Because at some point, you will realize that the levels don't mean jack. You can be Level 30 against someone that's Level 15 and there's still a possibility for you to lose. The A.I. can be frustrating especially when you encounter one guy who does nothing but spam Ryu's Tatsumaki Senpukyaku kick over and over. Power levels don't matter if you can just hit the same move to where they can't touch ya!
And while the gang member enemies are not a problem upon encounter. Anything that is mechanical will be annoying to fight. I'm talking about the Hyoombas, the drones, and the god damn refridgerators... FUCK THE REFRIDGERATORS. You can never get proper combos and these three enemies and they will constantly get your nerves that you're better off avoiding them at all costs. Just punch anything that's human and not mechanical.
Overall, the story feels very underwhelming and the way it ends feels very disappointing and even a bit insulting with it's final message it gives you. I hear they're gonna add more when more characters come as DLC but I doubt it'll make much difference other than giving new fighting styles and movesets.
Overall, Street Fighter 6 is a decent installment. The fighting gameplay is solid and fun, the characters are fun to play, and while the World Tour story mode is flawed in noticable places, it can be fun at times. Overall, I say this is a good start for Street Fighter 6.
I give this game a 7/10.
Then Street Fighter 6 rolls around and I had some curiosity but I also had the fear of them doing the same money grubbing scheme they did previously. Capcom hasn't been really the best when it comes to selling their products properly. Unless it's Resident Evil, they got nothing else going for them and Street Fighter is kind of on the point where it can go either way. So, with my fingers crossed, I decided to buy it around the time it was released.
So after playing through all I could, I can definitely say that I did play more than I did with Street Fighter 5 and I can confidently say this is a step up. Of course there will be DLC which is inevitable with most popular game franchises at this point, the content on initial release is way more.
In this installment, you can play up to 18 characters, many returning faces and some newcomers. They're fairly all fun to play. I've had fun with people like Cammy and Ken, and Marisa is a powerhouse when you play as her. Everyone is gonna have different preferences of course. For example, I'm not really into Dhalsim with how floaty he is.
You can play with three different control settings. Classic controls let you do the usual command inputs that all fighting games have. There are Modern controls which is for people new to the fighting game scene and uses simpler inputs to give out combos easier. And Dynamic controls is for those who don't like to try where you only use three buttons and it plays with A.I. assistance. I can admit I'm not the best at fighting games but I like to at least put in effort.
There are three modes for this game. Fighting Ground is where you can train, practice, do special matches, where you can play more solo or locally. This also includes the arcade mode where you can play as a character and go through their individual stories. Of course this game takes place years after Street Fighter 5 where the heroes have took down Shadaloo and M. Bison. The veteran character's stories are pretty much a "Where Are They Now?" kind of story. Chun-Li's teaching kung fu, Blanka is an adventure tour guide, and Ken got it worst in a situation in Nayshall. And the new character stories are like an introduction to who they are and what they do. Marisa is a pankratiast that always loves to fight, Lily seems to be related to T. Hawk, and JP seems to be the main bad guy but many theorize he might be Bison reincarnated although don't take my word for it until something is confirmed.
The next mode is the Battle Hub which is basically the online mode. There you can battle players online. You'll walk around as your avatar and see other players. And while the character creation is insanely good and has a lot of variety, you know there will be people who will make some crazy monstrosities and you can't blame em. You can fight with online players, there's customization options in this, and you can play some of the old Final Fight and Street Fighter games.
And finally the World Tour mode is the main story mode for this installment. Where it is an open world experience where you can run around, challenging opponents, and finding ways in getting stronger. You start off with Luke as your master but overtime, you can train with other characters and learn their techniques and fighting styles. You can collect experience and increase your bond with your masters which gives out a little bit of lore. Though weirdly, the story mode doesn't really have too much development. Really, it feels like they wanted to do a 3D Final Fight game with this since most of the Street Fighter characters don't really contribute that much.
You have a rival named Bosch who is up to some shady shit and you find out what happens to him by the last segments of the story. You also encounter Final Fight characters like Thrasher Damned of the Mad Gear Gang. These people aren't playable but maybe they will be in the future.
Now the biggest problem I have with this mode is the balancing. You really have to grind your power at every opportunity. If you see anyone that you can fight, just challenge them. Like Pokemon, it's better for you if you just fight them, as tedious as they are to keep coming across. Because at some point, you will realize that the levels don't mean jack. You can be Level 30 against someone that's Level 15 and there's still a possibility for you to lose. The A.I. can be frustrating especially when you encounter one guy who does nothing but spam Ryu's Tatsumaki Senpukyaku kick over and over. Power levels don't matter if you can just hit the same move to where they can't touch ya!
And while the gang member enemies are not a problem upon encounter. Anything that is mechanical will be annoying to fight. I'm talking about the Hyoombas, the drones, and the god damn refridgerators... FUCK THE REFRIDGERATORS. You can never get proper combos and these three enemies and they will constantly get your nerves that you're better off avoiding them at all costs. Just punch anything that's human and not mechanical.
Overall, the story feels very underwhelming and the way it ends feels very disappointing and even a bit insulting with it's final message it gives you. I hear they're gonna add more when more characters come as DLC but I doubt it'll make much difference other than giving new fighting styles and movesets.
Overall, Street Fighter 6 is a decent installment. The fighting gameplay is solid and fun, the characters are fun to play, and while the World Tour story mode is flawed in noticable places, it can be fun at times. Overall, I say this is a good start for Street Fighter 6.
I give this game a 7/10.
As a concept, being a survivor, trying to escape and not die from being obliterated by a Dragon Ball villain sounds interesting. The problem with this game is that we're in the Dragon Ball universe where the writers try to top each OP character with every saga.
I have been trying so hard to win at this game but it is near impossible. Unless you're a raider, you're pretty much kissing your ass goodbye for 90% of every match.
Basically as the survivor, you need to set up power keys to start up a time machine that'll fix the time paradox. This would be great except the time it takes to charge up any of these things takes too damn long. Even with more members, it's only a matter of time until the raider finds your ass and kills you before you're even halfway done with the process.
Seriously, the only way me and my friends were able to win was hiding throughout the map, waiting for the other players to die and the raider blows up the super time machine which makes the escape time machines spawn and we all escape without having to do a damn thing. IT'S THE ONLY EFFECTIVE WAY TO WIN AS A SURVIVOR.
You can transform into hero characters but the energy limit drains quick that it's pretty much useless unless you find all the Dragon Balls to get to full power and the Dragon Balls are a HASSLE to find.
The balance between raider and survivor is so unbalanced, it's insane. Picture a seesaw. One side with five toothpicks, the other a sack of bricks. The raiders. Are. BROKEN.
Of course the raiders are gonna win most of the time because this is a universe where everyone wants to be the most powerful being ever. You have a slight chance to win against Cell, you can win against Buu if all of you gang up on Spopovich before he gets enough energy to wake up Buu but Frieza is pretty much a death wish. AND DON'T GET ME STARTED ON VEGETA. If Vegeta goes ape, you're dead. Simple as that.
I swear they always know where you are and every match as a survivor is rinse and repeat, make a little progress and then you die.
With how unbalanced this game is, it's so hard to make any fun out of it. And yes, it's fun with friends but I'm tired of that excuse because that can be said for any game. Good or bad.
Dragon Ball: The Breakers is a 3/10.
I have been trying so hard to win at this game but it is near impossible. Unless you're a raider, you're pretty much kissing your ass goodbye for 90% of every match.
Basically as the survivor, you need to set up power keys to start up a time machine that'll fix the time paradox. This would be great except the time it takes to charge up any of these things takes too damn long. Even with more members, it's only a matter of time until the raider finds your ass and kills you before you're even halfway done with the process.
Seriously, the only way me and my friends were able to win was hiding throughout the map, waiting for the other players to die and the raider blows up the super time machine which makes the escape time machines spawn and we all escape without having to do a damn thing. IT'S THE ONLY EFFECTIVE WAY TO WIN AS A SURVIVOR.
You can transform into hero characters but the energy limit drains quick that it's pretty much useless unless you find all the Dragon Balls to get to full power and the Dragon Balls are a HASSLE to find.
The balance between raider and survivor is so unbalanced, it's insane. Picture a seesaw. One side with five toothpicks, the other a sack of bricks. The raiders. Are. BROKEN.
Of course the raiders are gonna win most of the time because this is a universe where everyone wants to be the most powerful being ever. You have a slight chance to win against Cell, you can win against Buu if all of you gang up on Spopovich before he gets enough energy to wake up Buu but Frieza is pretty much a death wish. AND DON'T GET ME STARTED ON VEGETA. If Vegeta goes ape, you're dead. Simple as that.
I swear they always know where you are and every match as a survivor is rinse and repeat, make a little progress and then you die.
With how unbalanced this game is, it's so hard to make any fun out of it. And yes, it's fun with friends but I'm tired of that excuse because that can be said for any game. Good or bad.
Dragon Ball: The Breakers is a 3/10.
2022
This review contains spoilers
So the new generation of Pokemon is here and it seems to be the most split among Pokemon fans. So what did I think?
Well when this new gen was announced, I was surprised because I thought it was very quick to announce it. And we technically already had a new region with Pokemon Legends: Arceus and that hasn't even been out for a year. So I had my concerns but I still had to play it cause I wouldn't be true Pokemon fan if I hadn't gave it a chance.
Now I went to it with an open mind, ignoring all the thoughts people have said all over the internet. So let me break down what I truly think.
Now the one criticism that people have with these games are the graphics. And I totally agree, the graphics department could've had this a lot more polished. Comparing it to Legends: Arceus, that game looked way more beautiful. In Scarlet/Violet, there's rendering issues, things spawn in front of you, the shadows flicker, even the text is somehow bugged. It's a bit messy and can ruin the immersive experience. But in my honest opinion, it wasn't enough to make me not complete it. It's not as bad as say, Fallout 76's bugs.
Now the way this plays, I thought was pretty solid. It functions like a mainline Pokemon game and it transferred the ideas they had from Arceus to put it into these mainline games. Battles are solid, roaming the Paldea region is solid, I thought it had the basics right.
Now this new gen has it's own "Choose your own route" with three different storylines and you can go through each destination in any order you please. One is the usual: beat the eight gyms and battle the Pokemon League, you have a route with Arven as you take on the Titan Pokemon to collect these mystical herbs that can give new abilities to Koraidon, and there's the route where you raid the bases of Team Star.
Now all these routes were fun but the issue I had with it is, it can be difficult when you can randomly choose a location because you will make the mistake of heading towards a gym/titan/base that is so much of a higher level or going to a place that you should've gone earlier before and you just sweep it because you're overpowered as fuck. So it's clear there's a very specific way on where to go so your level is in the right place.
Breaking down each route. The gyms were pretty solid, some were easy while others may seem a bit more difficult. The titans were really fun and the story about Arven's Mabosstiff is quite touching, and raiding Team Star was fairly difficult but also fun but honestly the story behind this team seems fairly weak in comparison to past "evil" teams that wanted to destroy the entire universe. And the twist on who Cassiopeia is was so obvious that I got who it was once they started talking. I thought the Professor being a robot was a better twist.
Now there's a mechanic called "Terrastallizing" where you can crystallize your Pokemon and have it be one specific type. Now it's not as a flashy mechanic as Mega Evolutions or Gigantamaxing and honestly, when I first saw it, I thought it was pretty weak. But playing through it, while my opinion is still the same, it does make for some interesting strategy. Like it can make a Suduwoodo a Grass Type which is a really big meta joke right there.
Now what do I think of this gen's Pokemon roster? For the most part, I like them. I like how goofy Orthworm looks, I will always love Lechonk, the new Primeape evolution is badass, and I like the concepts and designs for the Paradox Pokemon. In Scarlet, you have these Ancient Pokemon which is what certain Pokemon looked like thousands of years in the past and in Violet, you get Pokemon from the future with this whole cyberized look to them.
Though some designs feel uninspired like the Pawmi evolution line, the different forms look barely different from each other, Flamigo is just a flamingo with no distinct features, and of course... Dundunsparce.
So what are my final thoughts? Well, yes it is not perfect. And I agree that the graphics of this game could've been worked on so much better. Legends: Arceus was ten times better looking. But it wasn't enough to make me quit. Despite the visual flaws, I think this was a solid mainline Pokemon game. Pokemon is still on new footing with handheld devices being extinct as well as the pixel art style. Hopefully, by the next generations, they'll learn from these mistakes and make future Pokemon games more polished. But overall, I liked it fine. It's not as good as Legends: Arceus but I also don't consider it "The Worst Pokemon Game Ever". I feel like "Hey You, Pikachu" is still top contender for that title. I just think it's... average... With that being said, I give Pokemon Scarlet/Violet a 6/10.
Well when this new gen was announced, I was surprised because I thought it was very quick to announce it. And we technically already had a new region with Pokemon Legends: Arceus and that hasn't even been out for a year. So I had my concerns but I still had to play it cause I wouldn't be true Pokemon fan if I hadn't gave it a chance.
Now I went to it with an open mind, ignoring all the thoughts people have said all over the internet. So let me break down what I truly think.
Now the one criticism that people have with these games are the graphics. And I totally agree, the graphics department could've had this a lot more polished. Comparing it to Legends: Arceus, that game looked way more beautiful. In Scarlet/Violet, there's rendering issues, things spawn in front of you, the shadows flicker, even the text is somehow bugged. It's a bit messy and can ruin the immersive experience. But in my honest opinion, it wasn't enough to make me not complete it. It's not as bad as say, Fallout 76's bugs.
Now the way this plays, I thought was pretty solid. It functions like a mainline Pokemon game and it transferred the ideas they had from Arceus to put it into these mainline games. Battles are solid, roaming the Paldea region is solid, I thought it had the basics right.
Now this new gen has it's own "Choose your own route" with three different storylines and you can go through each destination in any order you please. One is the usual: beat the eight gyms and battle the Pokemon League, you have a route with Arven as you take on the Titan Pokemon to collect these mystical herbs that can give new abilities to Koraidon, and there's the route where you raid the bases of Team Star.
Now all these routes were fun but the issue I had with it is, it can be difficult when you can randomly choose a location because you will make the mistake of heading towards a gym/titan/base that is so much of a higher level or going to a place that you should've gone earlier before and you just sweep it because you're overpowered as fuck. So it's clear there's a very specific way on where to go so your level is in the right place.
Breaking down each route. The gyms were pretty solid, some were easy while others may seem a bit more difficult. The titans were really fun and the story about Arven's Mabosstiff is quite touching, and raiding Team Star was fairly difficult but also fun but honestly the story behind this team seems fairly weak in comparison to past "evil" teams that wanted to destroy the entire universe. And the twist on who Cassiopeia is was so obvious that I got who it was once they started talking. I thought the Professor being a robot was a better twist.
Now there's a mechanic called "Terrastallizing" where you can crystallize your Pokemon and have it be one specific type. Now it's not as a flashy mechanic as Mega Evolutions or Gigantamaxing and honestly, when I first saw it, I thought it was pretty weak. But playing through it, while my opinion is still the same, it does make for some interesting strategy. Like it can make a Suduwoodo a Grass Type which is a really big meta joke right there.
Now what do I think of this gen's Pokemon roster? For the most part, I like them. I like how goofy Orthworm looks, I will always love Lechonk, the new Primeape evolution is badass, and I like the concepts and designs for the Paradox Pokemon. In Scarlet, you have these Ancient Pokemon which is what certain Pokemon looked like thousands of years in the past and in Violet, you get Pokemon from the future with this whole cyberized look to them.
Though some designs feel uninspired like the Pawmi evolution line, the different forms look barely different from each other, Flamigo is just a flamingo with no distinct features, and of course... Dundunsparce.
So what are my final thoughts? Well, yes it is not perfect. And I agree that the graphics of this game could've been worked on so much better. Legends: Arceus was ten times better looking. But it wasn't enough to make me quit. Despite the visual flaws, I think this was a solid mainline Pokemon game. Pokemon is still on new footing with handheld devices being extinct as well as the pixel art style. Hopefully, by the next generations, they'll learn from these mistakes and make future Pokemon games more polished. But overall, I liked it fine. It's not as good as Legends: Arceus but I also don't consider it "The Worst Pokemon Game Ever". I feel like "Hey You, Pikachu" is still top contender for that title. I just think it's... average... With that being said, I give Pokemon Scarlet/Violet a 6/10.
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are childhood icons. Whether you read the comics, bought the toys, watched the cartoons, seen the movies, or even listened to their terrible rock band phase, the heroes in a half shell have made an impact for many generations with them still going on in the cartoons.
Now we have a video game that brings back the classic arcade style beat em up that people loved spending quarters on back in 1989. With updated graphics and modernized but familiar gameplay, does the TMNT arcade style work here? Well let me tell you, it definitely does.
The art style clearly represents the classic cartoon that came out in 1987 and the roster of characters will please all turtle fans alike and it is a beautiful 8-bit style to look at.
Of course you can play as the four turtles: Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael. But on top of that, you can also play as their Master Splinter and news reporter April O'Neil. And you can play as the badass Casey Jones after playing through the story mode once. All of them have their unique fight style but they are all fun to play.
You got the classic punches, kicks, and many martial arts moves from the characters. You even get special moves the more you level up. I personally love April just smashing enemies with the news camera.
I must give credit to the music which is a great listen throughout the game. From the classic Ninja Turtles theme song to songs performed by Mega Ran and even the Wu-Tang Clan. The soundtrack to this game is phenomenal.
The story mode is very quick play and with friends, you can blaze through it in 2 to 3 hours which may sound disappointing but with how fun the game is, the replay value will want you to play this on multiple occassions.
You have a total of sixteen stages and each one you come face to face with different bosses. You can fight Bebop & Rocksteady, Krang, Shredder, and many other enemies of the turtles. It's truly a love letter to the franchise.
Each stage is the classic side scrolling beat em up style with you fighting the Foot Clan, Mouse Droids, and tons of different enemies and obstacles. It even brings back the high speed chase levels where you ride on hoverboards.
There are many collectables in the game. You find other characters in the game like Irma, Vernon, and even the Punk Frogs and you can find collectables they need to raise your score.
Arcade mode is pretty much story mode but you have limited lives and it ends when you get a game over and you have to start from the beginning. For those who want the challenge of reliving the true arcade style.
This game contains many achievements and with how fun the game is, you'll want to unlock it all.
I really have no problems with the game but I will say that I have came across a couple bugs. Sometimes when you play with friends on different consoles, there's a chance in the middle of a stage where the connection might be off for someone, sometimes with a chance from getting kicked from the session. Luckily, I found myself joining back where you left off but it's slightly annoying nonetheless.
There was even a moment where Shredder glitches and he just stopped moving so we had to start the whole stage over.
But despite those minor things, this is a very fun game and it is truly made by real Ninja Turtles fans. For a really cheap price than most games, I definitely recommend this to gamers and turtle fans alike. Cowabunga.Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge from me gets a 9/10.
Now we have a video game that brings back the classic arcade style beat em up that people loved spending quarters on back in 1989. With updated graphics and modernized but familiar gameplay, does the TMNT arcade style work here? Well let me tell you, it definitely does.
The art style clearly represents the classic cartoon that came out in 1987 and the roster of characters will please all turtle fans alike and it is a beautiful 8-bit style to look at.
Of course you can play as the four turtles: Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael. But on top of that, you can also play as their Master Splinter and news reporter April O'Neil. And you can play as the badass Casey Jones after playing through the story mode once. All of them have their unique fight style but they are all fun to play.
You got the classic punches, kicks, and many martial arts moves from the characters. You even get special moves the more you level up. I personally love April just smashing enemies with the news camera.
I must give credit to the music which is a great listen throughout the game. From the classic Ninja Turtles theme song to songs performed by Mega Ran and even the Wu-Tang Clan. The soundtrack to this game is phenomenal.
The story mode is very quick play and with friends, you can blaze through it in 2 to 3 hours which may sound disappointing but with how fun the game is, the replay value will want you to play this on multiple occassions.
You have a total of sixteen stages and each one you come face to face with different bosses. You can fight Bebop & Rocksteady, Krang, Shredder, and many other enemies of the turtles. It's truly a love letter to the franchise.
Each stage is the classic side scrolling beat em up style with you fighting the Foot Clan, Mouse Droids, and tons of different enemies and obstacles. It even brings back the high speed chase levels where you ride on hoverboards.
There are many collectables in the game. You find other characters in the game like Irma, Vernon, and even the Punk Frogs and you can find collectables they need to raise your score.
Arcade mode is pretty much story mode but you have limited lives and it ends when you get a game over and you have to start from the beginning. For those who want the challenge of reliving the true arcade style.
This game contains many achievements and with how fun the game is, you'll want to unlock it all.
I really have no problems with the game but I will say that I have came across a couple bugs. Sometimes when you play with friends on different consoles, there's a chance in the middle of a stage where the connection might be off for someone, sometimes with a chance from getting kicked from the session. Luckily, I found myself joining back where you left off but it's slightly annoying nonetheless.
There was even a moment where Shredder glitches and he just stopped moving so we had to start the whole stage over.
But despite those minor things, this is a very fun game and it is truly made by real Ninja Turtles fans. For a really cheap price than most games, I definitely recommend this to gamers and turtle fans alike. Cowabunga.Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge from me gets a 9/10.
Ever since their first movie in the MCU, the Guardians of the Galaxy went from being an obscure group of characters to a Marvel superhero team as loved as the Avengers and the X-Men. And with Marvel hitting big in the video game department with Spider-Man, it was decided that the Guardians got the same treatment... only this wasn't made by Insomniac who made Spider-Man for the PS4... this was made by Square Enix and Eidos-Montréal who also published the recent Avengers game which was... not well recieved. But did they learn their lessons and do a better job with the Guardians? Well let me tell you about it.
You play as Peter Quill AKA Star-Lord, the leader of the Guardians and you are joined by your teammates Rocket Raccoon, Drax the Destroyer, Gamora, and Groot... but you don't play as them since gameplay is always with Quill. Instead, you command your teammates to do assist by calling out their special attacks or having them do certain abilities that progress you in the story. And here is the first problem.
While I like Quill, his gameplay can get old fast. He can use his blasters, punch people up close, and use his jet boots. That's not nearly enough to enjoy the game. You can get more variety if we switched off characters. I wanna tank as Drax, I wanna slash things as Gamora. Even the Lego games have you switch characters.
There's this strange huddle up ability which boosts your teammates if you give them the right pep talk. Sometimes you don't know which things to say so you're pretty much leaving it to chance. And it does boosts you while a classic song plays in the back but it just seems strange.
And while I usually don't mind Quick Time Events, this is a time where I feel they use it too much. Some of them you can't even react to in time like when an enemy tries to counter your melee attacks but then you don't have enough time to react.
The designs for the characters are fine for what they are and you can find unlockable costumes throughout the story which are cool to find but when it comes to overall graphics, they could've been polished a bit better. Some hair textures look ugly, things in the background don't load in sometimes, and there's plenty of clipping. I don't know if it's because I played this on PS4 but it could've been better.
Now what the Guardians have stapled for themselves is a lot of classic music and you do have a collection of them to listen to. Hits like "Everybody Wants to Rule the World", "Don't Fear the Reaper", "We Built This City", and the song that's a meme classic "Never Gonna Give You Up". If you're a fan of these classic hits, then the music selection is for you.
The story for me wasn't really anything special. Granted, I was surprised at some moments but overall, the story feels underwhelming. The whole religous space cult stuff and granting "promises" didn't really hook me. The stuff with Peter and his potential daughter was interesting but I quickly lose interest as it went on. All the "break up" moments were things we saw before and of course, it gets resolved fast. You got a space llama who's pretty much useless and barely does shit. And you get reminded of things that you wish were part of the game but actually isn't.
Not to mention you gotta do so many puzzles which are a slog to get through and one that pisses me off is when you confront Nikki in her Promise reality and if you don't correctly choose the SPECIFICALLY correct dialogue, you start the whole sequence over again. That is tedious.
We get a couple space battles where you fly the Milano and gun things down which are kinda fun but really, it just makes me want a new StarFox game.
Oh yeah, I crashed a couple times. One of which was during the GOD DAMN CREDITS.
So overall, I was kind of underwhelmed by this and I didn't feel like doing a New Game Plus run. Gameplay gets stale quick, an uninteresting story, you can't play as the other Guardians, some parts are tedious, and really, if the Spider-Man Insomniac universe is the MCU of Marvel video games, then Square Enix and Eidos-Montréal are the Fox/Sony universe of Marvel video games. I give Guardians of the Galaxy a 4/10.
You play as Peter Quill AKA Star-Lord, the leader of the Guardians and you are joined by your teammates Rocket Raccoon, Drax the Destroyer, Gamora, and Groot... but you don't play as them since gameplay is always with Quill. Instead, you command your teammates to do assist by calling out their special attacks or having them do certain abilities that progress you in the story. And here is the first problem.
While I like Quill, his gameplay can get old fast. He can use his blasters, punch people up close, and use his jet boots. That's not nearly enough to enjoy the game. You can get more variety if we switched off characters. I wanna tank as Drax, I wanna slash things as Gamora. Even the Lego games have you switch characters.
There's this strange huddle up ability which boosts your teammates if you give them the right pep talk. Sometimes you don't know which things to say so you're pretty much leaving it to chance. And it does boosts you while a classic song plays in the back but it just seems strange.
And while I usually don't mind Quick Time Events, this is a time where I feel they use it too much. Some of them you can't even react to in time like when an enemy tries to counter your melee attacks but then you don't have enough time to react.
The designs for the characters are fine for what they are and you can find unlockable costumes throughout the story which are cool to find but when it comes to overall graphics, they could've been polished a bit better. Some hair textures look ugly, things in the background don't load in sometimes, and there's plenty of clipping. I don't know if it's because I played this on PS4 but it could've been better.
Now what the Guardians have stapled for themselves is a lot of classic music and you do have a collection of them to listen to. Hits like "Everybody Wants to Rule the World", "Don't Fear the Reaper", "We Built This City", and the song that's a meme classic "Never Gonna Give You Up". If you're a fan of these classic hits, then the music selection is for you.
The story for me wasn't really anything special. Granted, I was surprised at some moments but overall, the story feels underwhelming. The whole religous space cult stuff and granting "promises" didn't really hook me. The stuff with Peter and his potential daughter was interesting but I quickly lose interest as it went on. All the "break up" moments were things we saw before and of course, it gets resolved fast. You got a space llama who's pretty much useless and barely does shit. And you get reminded of things that you wish were part of the game but actually isn't.
Not to mention you gotta do so many puzzles which are a slog to get through and one that pisses me off is when you confront Nikki in her Promise reality and if you don't correctly choose the SPECIFICALLY correct dialogue, you start the whole sequence over again. That is tedious.
We get a couple space battles where you fly the Milano and gun things down which are kinda fun but really, it just makes me want a new StarFox game.
Oh yeah, I crashed a couple times. One of which was during the GOD DAMN CREDITS.
So overall, I was kind of underwhelmed by this and I didn't feel like doing a New Game Plus run. Gameplay gets stale quick, an uninteresting story, you can't play as the other Guardians, some parts are tedious, and really, if the Spider-Man Insomniac universe is the MCU of Marvel video games, then Square Enix and Eidos-Montréal are the Fox/Sony universe of Marvel video games. I give Guardians of the Galaxy a 4/10.
The Kirby franchise has consisted of many games that are very relaxing to play. Simple gameplay and simple platforming making for fun playthroughs and this is the newest installment. In this new addition, Kirby finds himself in a world where everything is abandoned and there is little to no life left. Taken over by a powerful life form.
I was very excited to play this game when it was announced mainly for how beautiful the game looked alone and after playing through the main story and 100% the game, I had a very enjoyable time playing through this.
As always you play as Kirby and it has pretty much the same mechanics as most Kirby games. Press A to jump and press it repeatedly to hover and press B to inhale objects and enemies, many of which you can get power ups from. The controls are done very well and even if you haven't played a Kirby game before, you'd get the hang of it quick. Connect a second controller and you can have a friend play as Bandana Waddle Dee who can use his trusty spear.
The copy abilities are a staple to the Kirby franchise and you have 12 to choose from. Fire makes you spit fire, Ice makes you freeze enemies, Tornado turns you into a twister, Crash has one use which blows up everything on screen, Bomb makes you throw... bombs, Needle gives you spikes, Hammer makes you clobber enemies, Sword gives some slashy fun, Sleep will bring your health back, Ranger gives you a little pistol, Cutter gives you a boomerang blade, and Drill can give you the ability to burrow through the ground.
You can also upgrade these abilities which gives more power and a new flare to their power. For example, upgrade the fire ability and you eventually spit dragon breath, upgrade the Sword ability and you can make it Meta Knight's sword. These upgrades really pack a punch and go up to three or four upgrades. But if you prefer a previous version of the ability, you can always go back to it.
There's also a new mechanic called "Mouthful Mode" where Kirby inhales a specific large object and then he controls it. You can drive around as a car, shoot out cans as a vending machine, or penetrate things as a cone (pause). It's a neat mechanic but I will admit, it is weird seeing Kirby full on vore these everyday items.
While there aren't many worlds, the main story area has tons of content within them. You pretty much go through each level and try to find as much secrets within them. You also have to find the Waddle Dees that have been trapped in cages which help build the town and progress forward. Most of them are pretty easy to find but you really have to look close to see if there's anything you missed. Nothing too difficult but it took me a few replays on certain levels to find that one secret.
Of course, you got your bosses. You got bosses from previous games like Bonkers and Mr. Frosty but this world has warped their minds and caused them to go into a primal state. Even main bosses like Whispy Woods and King Dedede have succumed to this world's primal rage. These bosses are pretty easy for the most part if you know what you're doing but it gets very hard by the end.
You have a hub area where all the rescued Waddle Dees hang out which also has some minigames. You can work at the Waddle Dee cafe and serve as many customers as you can within the time limit, play tilt and roll Kirby where you try to tilt a ball into the hole, and you have a fishing minigame where you try to catch the biggest fish and let me tell you, getting the biggest fish is not easy. You need reflexes of a damn cheetah to get that one.
You can even enter a tournament which is pretty much a boss rush of mini bosses and main bosses of the main story. The basic tournament lets you fight Meta Knight.
This game also have an endgame which really is just a buffed up version of the main worlds but by the end, that's where it gets nuts and the difficulty is too the max. Took me many tries to finish that last boss.
Overall, this is what you'd expect from a 3D Kirby platformer. It's charming, it's fun, it's relaxing (for the most part), and it's everything I love about Kirby. I love this little puffball and I'll never get tired of these games. I give Kirby and the Forgotten Land a 9/10.
I was very excited to play this game when it was announced mainly for how beautiful the game looked alone and after playing through the main story and 100% the game, I had a very enjoyable time playing through this.
As always you play as Kirby and it has pretty much the same mechanics as most Kirby games. Press A to jump and press it repeatedly to hover and press B to inhale objects and enemies, many of which you can get power ups from. The controls are done very well and even if you haven't played a Kirby game before, you'd get the hang of it quick. Connect a second controller and you can have a friend play as Bandana Waddle Dee who can use his trusty spear.
The copy abilities are a staple to the Kirby franchise and you have 12 to choose from. Fire makes you spit fire, Ice makes you freeze enemies, Tornado turns you into a twister, Crash has one use which blows up everything on screen, Bomb makes you throw... bombs, Needle gives you spikes, Hammer makes you clobber enemies, Sword gives some slashy fun, Sleep will bring your health back, Ranger gives you a little pistol, Cutter gives you a boomerang blade, and Drill can give you the ability to burrow through the ground.
You can also upgrade these abilities which gives more power and a new flare to their power. For example, upgrade the fire ability and you eventually spit dragon breath, upgrade the Sword ability and you can make it Meta Knight's sword. These upgrades really pack a punch and go up to three or four upgrades. But if you prefer a previous version of the ability, you can always go back to it.
There's also a new mechanic called "Mouthful Mode" where Kirby inhales a specific large object and then he controls it. You can drive around as a car, shoot out cans as a vending machine, or penetrate things as a cone (pause). It's a neat mechanic but I will admit, it is weird seeing Kirby full on vore these everyday items.
While there aren't many worlds, the main story area has tons of content within them. You pretty much go through each level and try to find as much secrets within them. You also have to find the Waddle Dees that have been trapped in cages which help build the town and progress forward. Most of them are pretty easy to find but you really have to look close to see if there's anything you missed. Nothing too difficult but it took me a few replays on certain levels to find that one secret.
Of course, you got your bosses. You got bosses from previous games like Bonkers and Mr. Frosty but this world has warped their minds and caused them to go into a primal state. Even main bosses like Whispy Woods and King Dedede have succumed to this world's primal rage. These bosses are pretty easy for the most part if you know what you're doing but it gets very hard by the end.
You have a hub area where all the rescued Waddle Dees hang out which also has some minigames. You can work at the Waddle Dee cafe and serve as many customers as you can within the time limit, play tilt and roll Kirby where you try to tilt a ball into the hole, and you have a fishing minigame where you try to catch the biggest fish and let me tell you, getting the biggest fish is not easy. You need reflexes of a damn cheetah to get that one.
You can even enter a tournament which is pretty much a boss rush of mini bosses and main bosses of the main story. The basic tournament lets you fight Meta Knight.
This game also have an endgame which really is just a buffed up version of the main worlds but by the end, that's where it gets nuts and the difficulty is too the max. Took me many tries to finish that last boss.
Overall, this is what you'd expect from a 3D Kirby platformer. It's charming, it's fun, it's relaxing (for the most part), and it's everything I love about Kirby. I love this little puffball and I'll never get tired of these games. I give Kirby and the Forgotten Land a 9/10.
I was excited for this more than the Gen 4 remakes. Exploring a vast and open world in the land of Pokemon and it takes place to where we go back in time. Where gyms didn't exist, Poke Balls were just invented, and we expand on the lore on Pokemon. So I bought it and after playing through the main story and most of the post game, I loved playing this.
People have been ragging on this game and I didn't know why but to be honest, this is Pokemon we're talking about. The fanbase are never satisfied with anything.
Now as you explore through the world, I wanted to scower every inch of land there was possible. It's such a great landscape which, like many people have pointed out, reminds me of Breath of the Wild. You can explore grasslands, mountains, the seaside, the icelands, this really gives you a good environment to explore.
I will admit, some visual glitches take place, things in the background don't render completely until a few second later and when you're in the caves, it kinds looks rough with some white pixels around your character. But I say 80%, I think they did well with the look of the game.
In this game, you arrive through a space time rift made by Arceus which has taken you back in time in the Hisui region, which is a past version of the Sinnoh region, and you're hired by the Galaxy Survey Corps to, like the main games, discover as much Pokemon there is to complete the Pokedex. The members include Cyllene, the captain, Laventon, the Pokemon Professor, Commander Kamado, and you have another fellow member depending on the gender of your character. If you play as a male, you work with Akari, and if you play as a female, you play as Rei.
What I like about the characters is that they seem like ancestors of the modern Sinnoh characters. Cyllene looks like an ancestor of Cyrus, Kamado seems like an ancestor of Professor Rowan, and Akari and Rei are ancestors of Lucas and Dawn. Many more characters look like this and a lot seem polar opposite from their descendants which is funny.
There are also groups besides the Survey Corps that you come across. The Diamond Clan lead by Adaman and the Pearl Clan lead by Irida. They sort of have a friendly rivalry going on but I ended up liking both sides.
There's also the Ginkgo Guild who sell rare items. One of the guild members is Volo... this man is my least favorite character due to a bullshit post game fight.
Of course, you choose between three starter Pokemon, three different ones from three different regions. Rowlet from Alola, Cyndaquil from Johto, and Oshawott from Unova. I went with Cyndaquil and all three of these guys have Hisuian variants of their final forms, Typhlosion, Decidueye, and Samurott.
The way you catch Pokemon is different than the main games. Either Option A: You can just throw the Poke Balls at them by sneaking up on them and if that doesn't work, you can go with Option B: The old fashioned way, battle them to where you lower their HP where it's easier to catch them. Surprisingly, the ancient Poke Balls seem more effective than the modern Poke Balls. Even when you're facing Legendaries. I ain't complaining though.
A lot of Pokemon you might be familiar with but there's new Pokemon and new regional variants of Pokemon. Like Kleavor who is an evolved form of Scyther. You have travel Pokemon that are new as well. Ride on Wyrdeer and exlore the land, search for treasures with Ursaluna, ride through the sea with Basculegion, climb mountains with Sneasler, and fly through the sky with Hisuian Braviary.
More Hisuian variants include Growlithe, Arcanine, Voltorb, Electrode, Zorua and Zoroark. Many more included.
Another mechanic in this game is crafting. This was another thing in Breath of the Wild and it also has some Minecraft elements but it's more simplified here. You can make Poke Balls, healing items, dishes to boost stats of your Pokemon, and you carry these items in you satchel. My problem with the satchel though is that you find that it gets full quickly and you have to send items to a storage box. Even though there's a guy who can make extra space the more you spend money, it still gets full quickly.
While you search for Pokemon to update your Pokedex, you get points which will up your rank in the Survey Corps which work similarly to the gym badges in the main games. Higher level Pokemon will listen to you the higher the rank.
This game has difficult moments. Like the Alpha Pokemon which are bigger than how they normally look. My advice: avoid at all costs until you get a higher level in the post game. Because you'll find yourself wasting many Poke Balls and your Pokemon who are lower level when you first encounter them will barely make a dent in their HP. You may get lucky a couple times but the rest, get the hell out of there.
As part of the main story, Arceus sends down bolts of lightning on the Noble Pokemon. These Pokemon, people praise as Pokemon who serve as Prophets to a higher power they call "The Almighty Sinnoh". The lightning has put them in a frenzied state and it's up to you to calm them down with balms which are pouches with a mix of their favorite foods. There are five Nobles in the game. Kleavor, Hisuian Arcanine, Hisuian Lilligant, Hisuian Electrode, and Hisuian Avalugg.
These boss fights are pretty simple but they can get difficult. You just need to time your dodges and balm throws carefully so they don't damage you too much.
You can also do side quests where people in the village ask you for requests. They require you to search for a specific Pokemon or a certain amount of items. There are over 90 requests in total and for the most part, they're pretty simple. Though some of them are pretty grindy.
Now overall, I say this was a great start to this spin off series. I would definitely want to see future installments because this has been a great Pokemon spin off that I've seen in a while. Only criticisms I have is there are some difficulty spikes, some visual glitches, and some of the Hisuian Pokemon designs look weird, but other than that, I say this was a solid game. I give Pokemon Legends: Arceus an 8/10.
People have been ragging on this game and I didn't know why but to be honest, this is Pokemon we're talking about. The fanbase are never satisfied with anything.
Now as you explore through the world, I wanted to scower every inch of land there was possible. It's such a great landscape which, like many people have pointed out, reminds me of Breath of the Wild. You can explore grasslands, mountains, the seaside, the icelands, this really gives you a good environment to explore.
I will admit, some visual glitches take place, things in the background don't render completely until a few second later and when you're in the caves, it kinds looks rough with some white pixels around your character. But I say 80%, I think they did well with the look of the game.
In this game, you arrive through a space time rift made by Arceus which has taken you back in time in the Hisui region, which is a past version of the Sinnoh region, and you're hired by the Galaxy Survey Corps to, like the main games, discover as much Pokemon there is to complete the Pokedex. The members include Cyllene, the captain, Laventon, the Pokemon Professor, Commander Kamado, and you have another fellow member depending on the gender of your character. If you play as a male, you work with Akari, and if you play as a female, you play as Rei.
What I like about the characters is that they seem like ancestors of the modern Sinnoh characters. Cyllene looks like an ancestor of Cyrus, Kamado seems like an ancestor of Professor Rowan, and Akari and Rei are ancestors of Lucas and Dawn. Many more characters look like this and a lot seem polar opposite from their descendants which is funny.
There are also groups besides the Survey Corps that you come across. The Diamond Clan lead by Adaman and the Pearl Clan lead by Irida. They sort of have a friendly rivalry going on but I ended up liking both sides.
There's also the Ginkgo Guild who sell rare items. One of the guild members is Volo... this man is my least favorite character due to a bullshit post game fight.
Of course, you choose between three starter Pokemon, three different ones from three different regions. Rowlet from Alola, Cyndaquil from Johto, and Oshawott from Unova. I went with Cyndaquil and all three of these guys have Hisuian variants of their final forms, Typhlosion, Decidueye, and Samurott.
The way you catch Pokemon is different than the main games. Either Option A: You can just throw the Poke Balls at them by sneaking up on them and if that doesn't work, you can go with Option B: The old fashioned way, battle them to where you lower their HP where it's easier to catch them. Surprisingly, the ancient Poke Balls seem more effective than the modern Poke Balls. Even when you're facing Legendaries. I ain't complaining though.
A lot of Pokemon you might be familiar with but there's new Pokemon and new regional variants of Pokemon. Like Kleavor who is an evolved form of Scyther. You have travel Pokemon that are new as well. Ride on Wyrdeer and exlore the land, search for treasures with Ursaluna, ride through the sea with Basculegion, climb mountains with Sneasler, and fly through the sky with Hisuian Braviary.
More Hisuian variants include Growlithe, Arcanine, Voltorb, Electrode, Zorua and Zoroark. Many more included.
Another mechanic in this game is crafting. This was another thing in Breath of the Wild and it also has some Minecraft elements but it's more simplified here. You can make Poke Balls, healing items, dishes to boost stats of your Pokemon, and you carry these items in you satchel. My problem with the satchel though is that you find that it gets full quickly and you have to send items to a storage box. Even though there's a guy who can make extra space the more you spend money, it still gets full quickly.
While you search for Pokemon to update your Pokedex, you get points which will up your rank in the Survey Corps which work similarly to the gym badges in the main games. Higher level Pokemon will listen to you the higher the rank.
This game has difficult moments. Like the Alpha Pokemon which are bigger than how they normally look. My advice: avoid at all costs until you get a higher level in the post game. Because you'll find yourself wasting many Poke Balls and your Pokemon who are lower level when you first encounter them will barely make a dent in their HP. You may get lucky a couple times but the rest, get the hell out of there.
As part of the main story, Arceus sends down bolts of lightning on the Noble Pokemon. These Pokemon, people praise as Pokemon who serve as Prophets to a higher power they call "The Almighty Sinnoh". The lightning has put them in a frenzied state and it's up to you to calm them down with balms which are pouches with a mix of their favorite foods. There are five Nobles in the game. Kleavor, Hisuian Arcanine, Hisuian Lilligant, Hisuian Electrode, and Hisuian Avalugg.
These boss fights are pretty simple but they can get difficult. You just need to time your dodges and balm throws carefully so they don't damage you too much.
You can also do side quests where people in the village ask you for requests. They require you to search for a specific Pokemon or a certain amount of items. There are over 90 requests in total and for the most part, they're pretty simple. Though some of them are pretty grindy.
Now overall, I say this was a great start to this spin off series. I would definitely want to see future installments because this has been a great Pokemon spin off that I've seen in a while. Only criticisms I have is there are some difficulty spikes, some visual glitches, and some of the Hisuian Pokemon designs look weird, but other than that, I say this was a solid game. I give Pokemon Legends: Arceus an 8/10.