38 reviews liked by Carardilla


As much as this sounds like some chintzy fan mod project and how your expectations likely only dropped further upon seeing it's a Java/J2ME cellphone offering, I encourage you to put aside your negative preconceptions about what a mobile game, particularly one from that era, can bring to the table. This goes unbelievably hard. The switch to the grid-based movement and turn-based combat systems of old-school dungeon crawlers actually proves to be a clever way of bringing the franchise’s action over, while working around the technological limitations of the hardware which made all of the attempts at a traditional FPS that I've personally experienced basically unplayable. What's more is that it manages to do this without sacrificing any of the intensity the brand is known for. There's still nothing quite like that feeling of walking into a room full of tough demons, taking inventory of your gradually draining supplies of health, armor, ammo for power weapons, etc., and thinking "how the heck am I going to pull this off?!" even in this new format.

The swap in genres also leads to a greater emphasis on more engaging storytelling. Although the plot itself is nothing to write home about, the methods used to tell it are. I genuinely enjoyed interacting with the various NPCs and supporting cast members while reading every computer terminal scattered around for extra contextual information about the situation. I could have done without all of the fourth wall breaks and self-aware jokes as they make the tone more lighthearted/silly at points than I would prefer, but this different approach goes a long way towards making exploring and fighting through the world of DOOM feel for the first time not so empty (in terms of human life) or lonely a process. The property's longtime fans might also get a kick out of the variety of original additions to the player's arsenal they won't find in any other entry, with exception to maybe RPG's own direct sequel. The highlight, in my eyes at least, being the special collars that let you take control of canine foes.

The amount of content is surprisingly pretty decent as well. Seems as if the vast majority of these retro cellular romps can be completed in anywhere from under an hour to mere minutes. This however can keep you playing for upwards of 2hrs+ depending on if you strive for full 100% completion or not. Admittedly, part of that is due to the potential need to level grind. Eventually I found that going back to previously beaten areas to boost my stats and stock up on resources made a lot of sense to better prepare myself for the challenges ahead. Normally, this is something I'm fairly strongly against because of repetition and often the perception of padding, but here it didn't bother me so much since prior stages always contain many hidden secrets you could have missed the first time through and whole new sections that can open up upon acquiring different colored key cards. Everything comes together to create an outing truly worthy of the series and one that I was just as addicted to as the 1993 classic masterpiece.

9/10

Traducción al Español:

Las Tortugas Ninja: La Colección de Puta Madre

You can still pick this up today, and its as fun as it was 30 years ago. One of the best 2 player games ever.

Dunno if it still holds up, but Jesus Christ this was so amazing back in '09! The graphics, story, cast of characters, friggin incredible. Combat was revolutionary for its time, in its simplicity and how enjoyable it was. The stealth, the detective stuff, all been copied to death at this point, but back then it all felt fresh and new.

Still one of my all time favourite gaming experiences.

First 40K game I've actually finished, I really enjoyed it.
It's probably the closest videogame to the actual tabletop game except you can move shoot move and there isn't a restriction to how many of one model you can take (I ran 8 Hellblasters every mission during the latter end of the campaign) Keep in mind that in almost every mission in the campaign except for the last one you will need to kill every enemy unit to win.
If you like turn-based strategy and 40K I highly recommend this and I don't even really like Blood angels

Battletoads (1991): Los creadores serían crueles psicópatas sin sentimientos, pero qué talento. La tensión es constante, el ritmo perfecto y el diseño brillante. Sí, abusa del ensayo/error pero si obvias los problemas de dificultad típicos de la época es un imprescindible (8,10)

Weakest combat, worst checkpoint placement, buggiest gameplay, and the poorest sound mixing (with once again no subtitle option to help your straining ears) out of the Sands trilogy. Yet, it's hard to be any less enamored with the experience given how it brings the story of this iteration of the titular character full circle. No longer the prideful young man we met in SoT or the angry, desperate individual he was in WW, The Two Thrones finds the Prince more solemn in demeanor. Seasoned, weary, and haunted by his past adventures and mistakes. This concluding chapter of his tale is all about him learning to face the consequences of his actions and overcoming the evils of vanity and selfishness in his heart to become the king his people deserve. It's themes of personal growth are powerful and add an emotional component to the story that was missing in its most direct predecessor, as our hero struggles with the temptations offered when the darker aspects of his personality are literally given a voice of their own and a returning love interest (herself having been a bit hardened by events) brings his honorable qualities back to the surface. That final segment before the credits roll where the two halves of his soul battle it out for supremacy, which I had honestly completely forgotten about, really spoke to me and brought about some personal realizations, allowing me to grow alongside the protagonist.

So the writing absolutely delivers in all the ways you'd hope, even exceeding expectations in terms of depth, and luckily while I do have my minor qualms the gameplay does as well. Triple T takes the best received elements from Warrior Within (the combo system, secondary weapons, etc.) and places them in the structure of Time. Although it is a little disappointing to see them forgo the second entry's larger scale rather than further refining and expanding upon it in favor of returning to a linear format, the title's new inclusions to the formula keep things from ever feeling like a total retread. Challenging chariot chase segments have been introduced alongside a variety of original twists on traps and platforming objects such as plates for stabbing your dagger into to hang on walls and panels that can launch you at angles. All of which come off as right at home in the series. Heck, the ability to now perch atop the bars you could previously only swing on is so natural I truly wondered why no one had thought of it sooner. Then there are the creative and exciting scenarios you'll encounter, from making your way through pitch-black ruins by only the glow of a magic sword to scaling the exterior of the massive Tower of Babel, that are memorable enough to help distinguish it in the minds of the players.

I suppose now would be the time to address my comments at the start of this review made in regards to the combat. It's not bad since the game basically uses the same system as Within, but attacks don't carry the same weight, there's a severely smaller pool of secondary weapons, throwing said secondary weapons is entirely unreliable now in terms of whether they'll hit the target or not, and despite looking cool the enemies aren't much fun to actually fight. As a result, I really only enjoyed battles when playing the "Dark Prince" segments. Two Thrones takes the relatively brief Sand Wraith section from the previous outing and runs with it. At regular points you'll swap over to this ancillary character who's devastating chain whip is a blast and can even let you swing across large gaps, more than making up for his constantly draining health. Most of the time you're the standard Prince however, so you'll probably want to avoid engaging with the local threats as much as possible. I imagine this was done to emphasize the new "speed" QTE stealth kills you can trigger by approaching an unaware enemy from behind, which on top of being a solid way to bypass the tedium of clashing with aggressive bands of soldiers also serve to reinforce why I love this title's location so much in a way.

Babylon might be my favorite setting in the franchise thus far. Not just because it's gorgeous and features fantastic level design with stellar environments that have remained etched in my brain for years, but thanks to its phenomenal tone as well. The vibe of being a lone, underequipped individual in a city being overtaken by hostile invaders who's only surviving the war going on around him by sticking to back alleys and streets less-traveled is near-perfectly captured. It reminded me a lot of Call of Duty missions I've played where you're sneaking through some Middle Eastern town to eliminate a high-profile target, stretched out into an entire campaign with that same sense of tension and insurmountable odds.

My point only other complaints stem from the technical side of the package. I've encountered a ton of minor visual goofs (locks of hair poking through faces, swords facing wrong angles in hands, and so on), foes inexplicably walking in circles and becoming invincible in corners rather than attacking me, and it's always annoying to have constantly toggle the volume on your TV because you can't hear what's being said in a cutscene or over the background noise all of the sudden. Stuff like that alongside how this apparently backtracks on the plans for increasing the property's scope the prior installment started should mean this is the weakest of its trilogy for me. Instead, it's currently my second favorite entry in the franchise overall as of this writing. The Two Thrones is a worthy conclusion for Prince of Persia's Sands storyline that takes the brand's always exhilarating parkour platforming and pairs it with some of its strongest writing thematically to give its protagonist the satisfying send-off they deserve, and create another standout gaming experience in the process that defies its age to remain a must-play for any and everyone.

9.2/10

The most overrated Star Wars game? This received strong reviews back in the day, is still held in high regard by the fanbase, and secondhand copies could go for pretty high up until it got rereleased on the Switch and PS4. I remember finding mine in a store years ago for roughly $21 and thinking that was a steal. Little did I know that when I would finally get around to playing it much later, I wouldn't end up having much fun.

Let me be clear, I absolutely LOVE what they were going for tonally. From the insurmountable odds, enemies that were fodder in the movies being turned into legitimate threats, and the occasional splatters of alien blood on your visor Republic Commando expertly captures the tone of a gritty war film. It does a better job of showing a darker, more desperate side of the franchise's conflicts from the perspective of an expendable grunt while still managing to stay true to that classic Star Wars feel than the likes of Rogue One or Andor have. At least until that ill-fitting credits song. If you thought Godsmack was out of place in Prince of Persia, let me tell you mid-2000s misplaced teen angst had nothing on this.

Unfortunately, the actual gameplay isn't as enjoyable. RC is a tactical first-person shooter that doesn't get the shooting, combat sequences, or arguably even the squad control mechanics right. I get you aren't supposed to be a gung-ho killing machine in these types of games, but I at least expected to be able to AIM properly. Targeting with the right joystick is bafflingly stiff, awkward, and clunky making it hard to hit exactly what you want to even with the overly large reticle taking up the center of the screen. To put it simply, Halo this ain't. That's a real problem when the campaign inexplicably wants to try its hand at being a regular FPS at points by stripping you of your AI-controlled allies and forcing you to go it alone. The poor gunplay and speed at which your enemies can kill you can make these stretches quite a drag.

Luckily, most of the time you're with your three AI teammates. It doesn't necessarily make things all that much better, but battles are less of a pain. Well, before they start artificially increasing the difficulty by continuously throwing more of the bullet-sponge special foes at you at once, that is. Your fellow members of Delta Squad are impressively competent on the battlefield. Honestly, the most you'll ever really have to do is point them to spots where they can lay down sniper or heavy weapons fire, focus all their attention on a specific threat, and occasionally tell them to heal up. For the most part though, they can handle themselves and whatever danger is headed their way so there's not always a reason to give them any direction at all. It kind of makes it hard to be excited about anything when you realize the action almost exclusively consists of walking forward until reaching the next area where you'll need to hunker down for a bit to fend of repetitive waves of hostiles, and that in most cases the smartest strategic leadership decision you can make is to just simply sit back and let your subordinates take care of everything. Especially in the stages where ammo pickups are scarce often leaving you with dry blasters. Also, I mean, come on... Ammo? In a SW title?

A shame, because the settings these firefights take place in are genuinely fantastic. From the massive canyons on Geonosis to the sprawling bowels of a Republic capital ship and the immense forest that is planet Kashyyyk, the level design has such a way with scope so that you're fully aware of exactly how VAST these locations actually are in a manner I've not personally experienced from another piece of Star Wars media despite the linear paths you travel through them. I caught myself wishing there was more going on with the writing to accompany the sights. RC is solely focused on delivering its central premise alone, so there's not much happening narratively. Delta are an amusing bunch, particularly Scorch who sounds and acts so similar with his constant sarcastic lines like Grif from Red vs. Blue I legitimately had to check to see if they were voiced by the same person (they're not, it's some dude named Raphael Sbarge), but they really aren't given a whole lot to do. There are some interesting lore tidbits such as the revelation that bullets were once a thing in the galaxy far, far away, and while I wasn't expecting something too significant from an EU story I did at least think there would be a semi-decent plot to keep me invested. Yet, after progressing through the three different scenarios you're treated to a hilariously abrupt conclusion that feels less as if intended to hammer home the theme of stepping into the role of a highly dispensable soldier, and more along the lines of they ran out of development time to include the final mission or two.

Republic Commando isn't a bad game. It simply never does anything it sets out to do all that well. Except maybe multiplayer, it's most praised aspect on release. Naturally however, the servers have long since been shut down so on the OG Xbox in 2024 that's far from a selling point. Even if you were up to go the split-screen route, man, I'd have to recommend you just choose Halo instead any day. As a hardcore fan of the property, I view this as an altogether skippable and forgettable experience. Of all the prequel era SW I've been annoyed by seeing get demoted to "Legends" status (because it's not like Disney is doing anything with this period of the franchise anyways), I'm not too sour about this one.

5/10

People shit on this one, but I loved it. Obviously not as good as RE4, but MILES ahead of RE6. Might even prefer it over 7? Anyway, really good but not top tier Resident Evil.

Muy adelantado a su época, incluso me hizo buscar en Youtube varios vídeos para aprender cómo se hizo. El legado de Paco Menéndez es eterno