2007
Basically the first game, but like 1 new tower and some new stage types. Tbh trying to beat a stage after failing is a pain in the ass because the first rounds are so slow, it needed a speed up button for retries.
2020
I actually like the idea of a gacha song system, it let's you find new songs and get excited about unlocking your favourites. And the gameplay is simple enough for a phone game, but surprisingly difficult. There's a few little problems I have, like the note hit counter goes "great" "perfect" and "perfect+" instead of the more logical good > great > perfect. And since perfect and perfect+ are the same colour, it's super hard to tell which one you can't take your eyes away from the notes to check.
The problem with this is that it's basically EVERYTHING wrong with free phone games. Full of ads, exclusive paid content, pointless wait times for things like opening rewards etc.
The problem with this is that it's basically EVERYTHING wrong with free phone games. Full of ads, exclusive paid content, pointless wait times for things like opening rewards etc.
This review contains spoilers
Better than the first part of the DLC, this time having an actual story to playthrough (however short). But this DLC's story still has it's own little developer time-saving twists that you'd expect from this game by now, such as skipping the first SSj Blue Goku vs Freeza fight, and removing the new Freeza Force characters entirely. But hey, there are a few really nice looking cutscenes now, like in the main game, whereas the Beerus "story" had still images for the God ritual itself.
Funnily some of the things they did that were clearly done to cut costs were actually kind of a bonus. Seeing Goten, Trunks, Yamcha and Chaozu at the scene of the Freeza battle was pretty neat, and depending on who you picked for your party they'd even get small but unique one liners before the fights with the Freeza Force members. Speaking of which, reusing Dodoria, Cui, Zarbon and the Ginyu Force instead of putting in the effort to make the new characters allows for some more banter of established characters whereas the new ones didn't really get any interaction with the heroes.
The 3 subquests were all pretty fun, although they fell into the exact same two types of quests as the game has always done (collect stuff or fight), but it's really always been about the dialogue in these quests that make them worth it. Goku's wish in that first quest really had me laughing.
This time we get two max level boss fights, in the form of Beerus (again) and Golden Freeza. Personally I found them to be far easier than the DLC 1's Beerus fight though. I beat Freeza on my very first try, while Beerus only caught me off guard with his clone technique, which I think is new to this DLC? I don't remember it anyway. The last DLC made the Beerus fight feel like a true endgame challenge, this time it felt like beating two strong, but otherwise unnoteworthy opponents.
Horde battles are a new type of battle here that really over emphasise just how much of a button masher this game is, as if that wasn't already obvious. Buuut I think it works because easily spamming through hundreds of mooks is exactly what that part of the movie was about.
Overall I enjoyed the DLC for what it was. It felt like a true expansion to the game, even if it was kinda short. After the lackluster first part which was basically just two new fights repeated dozens of times, in a single empty location with next to zero story, this gives me hope for the third and final part of the DLC which is supposed to be an original story for the game.
Funnily some of the things they did that were clearly done to cut costs were actually kind of a bonus. Seeing Goten, Trunks, Yamcha and Chaozu at the scene of the Freeza battle was pretty neat, and depending on who you picked for your party they'd even get small but unique one liners before the fights with the Freeza Force members. Speaking of which, reusing Dodoria, Cui, Zarbon and the Ginyu Force instead of putting in the effort to make the new characters allows for some more banter of established characters whereas the new ones didn't really get any interaction with the heroes.
The 3 subquests were all pretty fun, although they fell into the exact same two types of quests as the game has always done (collect stuff or fight), but it's really always been about the dialogue in these quests that make them worth it. Goku's wish in that first quest really had me laughing.
This time we get two max level boss fights, in the form of Beerus (again) and Golden Freeza. Personally I found them to be far easier than the DLC 1's Beerus fight though. I beat Freeza on my very first try, while Beerus only caught me off guard with his clone technique, which I think is new to this DLC? I don't remember it anyway. The last DLC made the Beerus fight feel like a true endgame challenge, this time it felt like beating two strong, but otherwise unnoteworthy opponents.
Horde battles are a new type of battle here that really over emphasise just how much of a button masher this game is, as if that wasn't already obvious. Buuut I think it works because easily spamming through hundreds of mooks is exactly what that part of the movie was about.
Overall I enjoyed the DLC for what it was. It felt like a true expansion to the game, even if it was kinda short. After the lackluster first part which was basically just two new fights repeated dozens of times, in a single empty location with next to zero story, this gives me hope for the third and final part of the DLC which is supposed to be an original story for the game.
2007
An obviously primitive tower defense game, with only 5 tower types and 2 upgrades per tower (or one upgrade for the Super Monkey).
In fact ice towers barely even count since I found them so useless. They have the same range as tack towers, cost twice as much, only freeze balloons, and the frozen balloons can only be popped by cannons. Why would I not just use tack towers to pop balloons instead of freezing them? I went through a handful of failed runs, and then the first run I decided to buy no ice towers I won.
Anyway it's a flash game from 2007. Can't expect much from it. But it's a series that spawned multiple sequels, so I do plan to see how they did.
In fact ice towers barely even count since I found them so useless. They have the same range as tack towers, cost twice as much, only freeze balloons, and the frozen balloons can only be popped by cannons. Why would I not just use tack towers to pop balloons instead of freezing them? I went through a handful of failed runs, and then the first run I decided to buy no ice towers I won.
Anyway it's a flash game from 2007. Can't expect much from it. But it's a series that spawned multiple sequels, so I do plan to see how they did.
2008
Big improvement over the last 2 games. Way more stages, now there's different difficulties per stage instead of each difficulty having its own stage. Some of the stages are also pretty interesting and ask for different playstyles, like the one where the corridors between the track are super narrow, or the one where the track is just a line shaped like a monkey and you have much more freedom to place your towers.
There's not a huge amount of new towers but I like the ones they added, like the tower is a purely support item which can also unlock a screen wipe if you save up enough. It feels like there's just generally more options and ways to complete levels now. The pineapple bomb is also an unique weapon as unlike everything else, it requires active participation in the middle of a round and good timing to make use of, but if you use it right it's better and cheaper than roadspikes.
I like the inclusion of the new balloon type, MOBA, since it basically provides a boss battle. I do think the difficulty spike when it first comes out in round 37 is too large though.
Fuck the last level by the way.
There's not a huge amount of new towers but I like the ones they added, like the tower is a purely support item which can also unlock a screen wipe if you save up enough. It feels like there's just generally more options and ways to complete levels now. The pineapple bomb is also an unique weapon as unlike everything else, it requires active participation in the middle of a round and good timing to make use of, but if you use it right it's better and cheaper than roadspikes.
I like the inclusion of the new balloon type, MOBA, since it basically provides a boss battle. I do think the difficulty spike when it first comes out in round 37 is too large though.
Fuck the last level by the way.
This review contains spoilers
Not much to say about this that hasn't been said already. It's a big improvement on the first game. Strafing improves combat massively, there's more variety, there's more levels etc. It is a bit more gimmicky, which can be hit or miss but I did enjoy the faster hoverbike races and the expanded air battles. Didn't so much enjoy the Clank boss battles (or any clank part), but at least there's only 2 of them. The arenas especially were a great addition to complement the improved battle mechanics.
And speaking of combat, you can tell how much more focused this game is on it because there's now a whopping 80 total health to get, 10 times more than the last game. Of course this is balanced by the fact some enemies can shred off more bars at once than others, further adding to the sense of power scaling.
One thing I wanna get into is this weapon upgrade system. The idea of using a weapon more meaning it gets exp and eventually upgrades itself is fine in theory, but when playing all it meant was that I was forcing myself to use weapons in the wrong context just to get it the exp it needed, while avoiding any weapons I'd already upgraded because using those felt like wasted exp. Some weapons are also far more a pain in the ass to upgrade than others, like weapons with low ammo count and/or extremely situational weapons like the spider glove. I guess the point is more that you pick the guns that suit your play style and then they get better, but then why have a skill point specifically needed for upgrading them all? The devs are telling you that if you wanna unlock everything, you gotta play in a way that feels unnatural, and just less fun. But at least balance the mechanic around the types of guns though, jeez.
And speaking of combat, you can tell how much more focused this game is on it because there's now a whopping 80 total health to get, 10 times more than the last game. Of course this is balanced by the fact some enemies can shred off more bars at once than others, further adding to the sense of power scaling.
One thing I wanna get into is this weapon upgrade system. The idea of using a weapon more meaning it gets exp and eventually upgrades itself is fine in theory, but when playing all it meant was that I was forcing myself to use weapons in the wrong context just to get it the exp it needed, while avoiding any weapons I'd already upgraded because using those felt like wasted exp. Some weapons are also far more a pain in the ass to upgrade than others, like weapons with low ammo count and/or extremely situational weapons like the spider glove. I guess the point is more that you pick the guns that suit your play style and then they get better, but then why have a skill point specifically needed for upgrading them all? The devs are telling you that if you wanna unlock everything, you gotta play in a way that feels unnatural, and just less fun. But at least balance the mechanic around the types of guns though, jeez.
Review contains spoilers, of course.
But starting with a non-spoiler, the graphics in this game are gorgeous. Definitely a great way for the PS4 to go out before we move onto the PS5, and leaving big shoes to fill.
Ever since games have advanced to the point they became interactive movies, games like TLOU are kinda hit or miss for me due to extreme pacing problems. It used to be that you’d get cutscenes, then gameplay, while now they essentially mix the two, and have you walk through environments at a painfully slow pace while the characters converse. It has tarnished so many games for me, but it never bothered me during The Last of Us due to me just loving the characters and the writing, and the sequel delivers on that front. I actually CARE what happens to these characters as much as I would as if I was watching a movie. Hell there are many scenes that evoked reactions and emotions from me far more than any other game, and I’d possibly say most other forms of fiction. The characters are just that well developed and written that they feel real.
I’ve also often felt like way too many stories involving dangerous situations are too soft when it comes to killing characters, it gets boring when your good guy characters goes through hundreds of life or death fights but you know they’ll never actually die because plot power. This game absolutely shatters that idea within the first 2 hours or so when THE main character from the last game is unceremoniously murdered. It sets the tone that no one is safe, and I actually spent most of the game expecting that Ellie herself could die, because the standard rules are already broken. While Ellie and Abby (the 2 main characters of this game) do end up surviving, almost all their friends die in realistic and swift ways. It’s a game that fully embraces the danger of the world and I love it.
Moving onto gameplay, TLOU is funnily enough one of the few times I actually find myself wanting the gameplay to take a backseat to the story. It’s not bad by any means, but it can be a bit repetitive. It also feels a little broken; obviously stealth is a huge mechanic in the game, but I found I could rarely ever position myself to stealthily take down opponents without notifying the rest of the enemies of my position because the takedown animation takes so long and enemies are placed in ways that they rarely leave each others sight for long. This meant I tended to do 1 stealth kill and perform the rest of the battle in a shootout more often than not.
That said there’s a ton of options in battles, and you can help keep a stealth approach with things like crafting silencers or using throwable objects to distract enemies.
Just like the first game the scare amount of ammo means every shot counts, every single enemy, no matter how “common” they are, demands a decision of how to take them down.
I think the worst thing about the game for me was the level designs. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with them in general, but they’ve made them more pseudo open world, so even though the way forward may be near enough a straight line, there’s an entire mini-world to explore. That SOUNDS great, and it would be, but the collectables real ruin this experience. If it was just crafting materials it’d be fine, but the game hides weapon and ability upgrade materials, along with new weapons and training manuals which will provide extra ability stat trees. Having these hidden in large open areas, with no kind of map or other way to track progress meant that I spent pretty much the ENTIRE game having this nagging feeling that I was missing stuff. I could never fully enjoy myself because I was thinking “What if I missed an important item? What if I end up underpowered because I missed too many materials?” It’s far worse when you accidentally take the right path straight away, and the game blocks the path back meaning you could actually miss an entire area of collectables because you accidentally went the right way without knowing. Most games reward exploration, this game makes exploration an anxiety-inducing near impossible fare, while straight up punishing the player for going through the story-progressing door.
Going back to the story for a bit, I think it’s worth talking about how the game splits you up into two campaigns that go over the same 3 days, one from Ellie’s point of view and one from Abby’s. I think it’s a great idea, and helps highlight how both have their good qualities and look completely evil from the other side. It’s an idea that has literally divided the playerbase into who was right and wrong. It does feel like a huge risk to make you play as the character most players likely hated at that point though. I’ll admit to letting Abby die on purpose while playing as her multiple times.
I do feel like there’s a huge missed opportunity here though, despite both stories taking place over the exact same 3 days, it isn’t until the last day that we start to hear about Ellie’s story while playing as Abby. It seems like the entire point of doing it this way was to open up so many possibilities to see “So that’s what she was doing while Ellie was doing this” but the two pretty much never cross each other’s warpaths until the end. The closest I can think of is in Ellie’s second day, when she ends up in the hospital basement/lower floors one of the WLF soldiers asks “Why is the power on?” which we later find out was due to Abby turning it on in her playthrough. It’s a neat little detail, but it feels like it would have worked much better if the power came on during that scene, rather than it just being on beforehand.
The playable character swap also introduced a problem in regards to a complete character reset in terms of weapon upgrades and abilities. It feels kind of bad to grow your weapons and character only to be pushed back into factory reset mid-way through the game and have to do it again.
And now I’m going to end the review by talking about the end of the game and its pacing problem. When the game looks like we’ve reached Ellie and Abby’s final confrontation, the game skips ahead about a year to show Ellie and Dina at their new farmhouse. It feels like an epilogue, but it keeps going… Then you’re playing as Abby and you think “Well okay it makes sense to see how both characters get to live their happy endings”, but then a brand new conflict happens to Abby, and suddenly Ellie still has desire for revenge so we get an entire extra chapter that not only feels out of place, but paints Ellie in a really bad light after we got an ending that put her on par with Abby. It’s such a weird decision; the game had already had its climax, having to play an extra 3 hours after that felt way too tacked on.
Good game, not without its flaws. Would have been an 8/10 if the last chapter wasn’t a thing.
But starting with a non-spoiler, the graphics in this game are gorgeous. Definitely a great way for the PS4 to go out before we move onto the PS5, and leaving big shoes to fill.
Ever since games have advanced to the point they became interactive movies, games like TLOU are kinda hit or miss for me due to extreme pacing problems. It used to be that you’d get cutscenes, then gameplay, while now they essentially mix the two, and have you walk through environments at a painfully slow pace while the characters converse. It has tarnished so many games for me, but it never bothered me during The Last of Us due to me just loving the characters and the writing, and the sequel delivers on that front. I actually CARE what happens to these characters as much as I would as if I was watching a movie. Hell there are many scenes that evoked reactions and emotions from me far more than any other game, and I’d possibly say most other forms of fiction. The characters are just that well developed and written that they feel real.
I’ve also often felt like way too many stories involving dangerous situations are too soft when it comes to killing characters, it gets boring when your good guy characters goes through hundreds of life or death fights but you know they’ll never actually die because plot power. This game absolutely shatters that idea within the first 2 hours or so when THE main character from the last game is unceremoniously murdered. It sets the tone that no one is safe, and I actually spent most of the game expecting that Ellie herself could die, because the standard rules are already broken. While Ellie and Abby (the 2 main characters of this game) do end up surviving, almost all their friends die in realistic and swift ways. It’s a game that fully embraces the danger of the world and I love it.
Moving onto gameplay, TLOU is funnily enough one of the few times I actually find myself wanting the gameplay to take a backseat to the story. It’s not bad by any means, but it can be a bit repetitive. It also feels a little broken; obviously stealth is a huge mechanic in the game, but I found I could rarely ever position myself to stealthily take down opponents without notifying the rest of the enemies of my position because the takedown animation takes so long and enemies are placed in ways that they rarely leave each others sight for long. This meant I tended to do 1 stealth kill and perform the rest of the battle in a shootout more often than not.
That said there’s a ton of options in battles, and you can help keep a stealth approach with things like crafting silencers or using throwable objects to distract enemies.
Just like the first game the scare amount of ammo means every shot counts, every single enemy, no matter how “common” they are, demands a decision of how to take them down.
I think the worst thing about the game for me was the level designs. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with them in general, but they’ve made them more pseudo open world, so even though the way forward may be near enough a straight line, there’s an entire mini-world to explore. That SOUNDS great, and it would be, but the collectables real ruin this experience. If it was just crafting materials it’d be fine, but the game hides weapon and ability upgrade materials, along with new weapons and training manuals which will provide extra ability stat trees. Having these hidden in large open areas, with no kind of map or other way to track progress meant that I spent pretty much the ENTIRE game having this nagging feeling that I was missing stuff. I could never fully enjoy myself because I was thinking “What if I missed an important item? What if I end up underpowered because I missed too many materials?” It’s far worse when you accidentally take the right path straight away, and the game blocks the path back meaning you could actually miss an entire area of collectables because you accidentally went the right way without knowing. Most games reward exploration, this game makes exploration an anxiety-inducing near impossible fare, while straight up punishing the player for going through the story-progressing door.
Going back to the story for a bit, I think it’s worth talking about how the game splits you up into two campaigns that go over the same 3 days, one from Ellie’s point of view and one from Abby’s. I think it’s a great idea, and helps highlight how both have their good qualities and look completely evil from the other side. It’s an idea that has literally divided the playerbase into who was right and wrong. It does feel like a huge risk to make you play as the character most players likely hated at that point though. I’ll admit to letting Abby die on purpose while playing as her multiple times.
I do feel like there’s a huge missed opportunity here though, despite both stories taking place over the exact same 3 days, it isn’t until the last day that we start to hear about Ellie’s story while playing as Abby. It seems like the entire point of doing it this way was to open up so many possibilities to see “So that’s what she was doing while Ellie was doing this” but the two pretty much never cross each other’s warpaths until the end. The closest I can think of is in Ellie’s second day, when she ends up in the hospital basement/lower floors one of the WLF soldiers asks “Why is the power on?” which we later find out was due to Abby turning it on in her playthrough. It’s a neat little detail, but it feels like it would have worked much better if the power came on during that scene, rather than it just being on beforehand.
The playable character swap also introduced a problem in regards to a complete character reset in terms of weapon upgrades and abilities. It feels kind of bad to grow your weapons and character only to be pushed back into factory reset mid-way through the game and have to do it again.
And now I’m going to end the review by talking about the end of the game and its pacing problem. When the game looks like we’ve reached Ellie and Abby’s final confrontation, the game skips ahead about a year to show Ellie and Dina at their new farmhouse. It feels like an epilogue, but it keeps going… Then you’re playing as Abby and you think “Well okay it makes sense to see how both characters get to live their happy endings”, but then a brand new conflict happens to Abby, and suddenly Ellie still has desire for revenge so we get an entire extra chapter that not only feels out of place, but paints Ellie in a really bad light after we got an ending that put her on par with Abby. It’s such a weird decision; the game had already had its climax, having to play an extra 3 hours after that felt way too tacked on.
Good game, not without its flaws. Would have been an 8/10 if the last chapter wasn’t a thing.
Rating these is always hard because technically I think the overall rating of the game is lower than the highest rating I'd give an individual game in the collection. Most of the games in the collection are either ones that you'd play once and never again, or just ignore completely.
To be fair though this one is a lot better looking and highly polished than many of these type of games, which is expected since it's from Nintendo.
I guess if you absolutely love board and card games this is a great way to have them all available at once while saving space and set-up time, although you lose out on a lot of the satisfaction a physical game can bring.
I'm pretty lukewarm on most of these games, so an average rating of 2.5 seems right.
To be fair though this one is a lot better looking and highly polished than many of these type of games, which is expected since it's from Nintendo.
I guess if you absolutely love board and card games this is a great way to have them all available at once while saving space and set-up time, although you lose out on a lot of the satisfaction a physical game can bring.
I'm pretty lukewarm on most of these games, so an average rating of 2.5 seems right.
This review contains spoilers
First Lego game I ever played so I wasn't 100% sure what to expect. Turns out it's kinda like a point and click game with more control. None of the combat, platforming or the puzzles provide any real challenge, so the game is basically entirely about the charm of seeing the world in lego, seeing the creativity they can pull off with it, and seeing the story mimed out in a comedic way. To that end I'd say it's a pretty fun experience, albeit one that I could only ever recommend to somebody who is a big fan of whatever franchise is being represented.
It's basically just a whole bunch of fanservice. One thing I really liked was how the characters had different traits that fit in the world and story. E.G. Hermione can use Crookshanks who can dig, only characters of their house can open their dormitory doors, only Griphook can use a safe key, some obstacles can only be taken down by characters who use dark magic etc. It made unlocking certain characters with those traits a real treat as you know you can now go and tackle those areas that were locked off before.
The game has a whole bunch of collectibles, which is kinda good and bad in a way. Good because obviously it's more content, and it provides reasons to explore everywhere, return to old areas when you get new spells etc, but bad because you start to see just how much is reused. You'll find many of the same "puzzles" used to get many collectibles. Half the time it's not even a puzzle, it's just "hit or active a certain item 3-10 times on this stage to get a thing". Or it's just a very forced kind of extra content, where an item is in plain view in the level but it can't be opened by the story characters so you're forced to come back to the stage in free play to use a character who can open it. That's it, no puzzle connected to it, just a box that can only be opened with dark magic so you replay the level so you can open the box.
And since you're replaying all the levels and areas you're losing out on that initial charm that made them so fun the first time.
I think the game could have benefitted from a few more gameplay mechanics. We only really get two moments that switches things up, one being an underwater level and one being a short vehicle chase section. You don't play any quidditch matches, the chess game in the final level of year 1 is done in the most boring way possible (it basically just plays itself as you "click" on the pieces, and you can't click the wrong ones). Even the majority of the boss fights are just "wait until they throw something you can use wingardium leviosa on and throw it back".
Casting spells can also be a problem as when you try to aim at something you'll accidently aim at your other characters who constantly get in the way.
I did love the music pulled straight from the movies, although certain pieces can get replayed way too much as you roam the halls.
It's less of a game and more of an incredible virtual lego toy box. Which I guess is the point, so don't worry about my lowish score, it does what it means to perfectly, it just so happens that what it means to do isn't the most fun thing for me.
It's basically just a whole bunch of fanservice. One thing I really liked was how the characters had different traits that fit in the world and story. E.G. Hermione can use Crookshanks who can dig, only characters of their house can open their dormitory doors, only Griphook can use a safe key, some obstacles can only be taken down by characters who use dark magic etc. It made unlocking certain characters with those traits a real treat as you know you can now go and tackle those areas that were locked off before.
The game has a whole bunch of collectibles, which is kinda good and bad in a way. Good because obviously it's more content, and it provides reasons to explore everywhere, return to old areas when you get new spells etc, but bad because you start to see just how much is reused. You'll find many of the same "puzzles" used to get many collectibles. Half the time it's not even a puzzle, it's just "hit or active a certain item 3-10 times on this stage to get a thing". Or it's just a very forced kind of extra content, where an item is in plain view in the level but it can't be opened by the story characters so you're forced to come back to the stage in free play to use a character who can open it. That's it, no puzzle connected to it, just a box that can only be opened with dark magic so you replay the level so you can open the box.
And since you're replaying all the levels and areas you're losing out on that initial charm that made them so fun the first time.
I think the game could have benefitted from a few more gameplay mechanics. We only really get two moments that switches things up, one being an underwater level and one being a short vehicle chase section. You don't play any quidditch matches, the chess game in the final level of year 1 is done in the most boring way possible (it basically just plays itself as you "click" on the pieces, and you can't click the wrong ones). Even the majority of the boss fights are just "wait until they throw something you can use wingardium leviosa on and throw it back".
Casting spells can also be a problem as when you try to aim at something you'll accidently aim at your other characters who constantly get in the way.
I did love the music pulled straight from the movies, although certain pieces can get replayed way too much as you roam the halls.
It's less of a game and more of an incredible virtual lego toy box. Which I guess is the point, so don't worry about my lowish score, it does what it means to perfectly, it just so happens that what it means to do isn't the most fun thing for me.
2014
These dumb idle clicker games are so pointless but they draw me in. This one is pretty neat with all the RPG elements. There's certainly a lot of things to unlock and upgrade so even after starting over a week ago there's still elements to it that I haven't touched.
2000
Very similar to the previous game despite the leap in console generation. There's a few new mechanics, like hyper beast drive, an extra super move per character and some kind of sway dodge, but none of them are explained in game. Presumably they're in the game manual, but if you don't have that gotta look it up online (and I could still never get the sway to work consistently).
It even suffers that extremely horrible difficulty curve the previous 2 games have had. Placing the game on the medium difficulty will make the first fight insanely easy, and the 9th and final fight plays like a pro. I don't get why they bother having difficulty options when a single arcade run differs so damn much.
Story mode is gone, now arcade mode tries to take its place, except instead of having a fully fledged story with each character, we instead get a few "cutscenes" before the first battle and after the last. These cutscenes are just like in 2, where they're still images with text overlayed, which was already cheap feeling in 2, but now that they've got a brand new powerful hardware to work with AND they reduced this story to two small segments, it's far less forgivable. Also not gonna lie but the story lost me on this one, it felt like there was tons of new lore and terms being thrown around that were never in the second game.
There's a lack of new characters too, going from 6 or 7 in the second game to only 3 in this one. And of those 3 one is a robot clone of another. The other two characters are a chimera and "unborn". These are all cool concepts in theory, but when the draw of your game series is being able to play as humans who transform into animals, it'd be nice to get new real animals to play as instead of 3 "special" forms.
This game did improve training a lot, input display is now back from the first game after being mysteriously gone from the second, but they now also show whether each hit in a combo is high, middle or low, so if you want to get really indepth the training is very accommodating to that.
Overall it feels more or less like the last game with better graphics. I gave it a slightly lower score because making the story near non-existent really hurt how much characters were able to stand out.
It even suffers that extremely horrible difficulty curve the previous 2 games have had. Placing the game on the medium difficulty will make the first fight insanely easy, and the 9th and final fight plays like a pro. I don't get why they bother having difficulty options when a single arcade run differs so damn much.
Story mode is gone, now arcade mode tries to take its place, except instead of having a fully fledged story with each character, we instead get a few "cutscenes" before the first battle and after the last. These cutscenes are just like in 2, where they're still images with text overlayed, which was already cheap feeling in 2, but now that they've got a brand new powerful hardware to work with AND they reduced this story to two small segments, it's far less forgivable. Also not gonna lie but the story lost me on this one, it felt like there was tons of new lore and terms being thrown around that were never in the second game.
There's a lack of new characters too, going from 6 or 7 in the second game to only 3 in this one. And of those 3 one is a robot clone of another. The other two characters are a chimera and "unborn". These are all cool concepts in theory, but when the draw of your game series is being able to play as humans who transform into animals, it'd be nice to get new real animals to play as instead of 3 "special" forms.
This game did improve training a lot, input display is now back from the first game after being mysteriously gone from the second, but they now also show whether each hit in a combo is high, middle or low, so if you want to get really indepth the training is very accommodating to that.
Overall it feels more or less like the last game with better graphics. I gave it a slightly lower score because making the story near non-existent really hurt how much characters were able to stand out.
Super short and doesn't really stand out in any way. Left 4 Dead is a great game, but this campaign on its own is probably one of the weakest parts.
2021
MH Rise started out as a game I could put hours into at a time, but then quickly becomes a game I can only play a few quests of before getting my fill; and even then it only gets those quests at the promise of some new gear I could craft, which will become quickly outdated.
While the story up to the credits is really short, the games total length seems way too long for the repetitiveness of it. No hunt ever really felt different to me, it always involved the exact same "strategy" of just starting at the camp, running to the monster (sometimes exploring if it was a new map) and using the same combos over and over. Some monsters were more annoying than others, but generally speaking I never felt like I needed to change how I approached any battle, and I got through them just fine like that.
The repetitiveness is further exaggerated by things like the amount of missions not really correlating with the amount of new monsters. At first it feels like every new mission introduces a new monster, with a fantastic documentary-style cutscenes to boot, but then higher rank missions are just "fight this monster again, but harder" or "Fight this monster you've fought before, and then fight this one". Not to mention the fact there's basically only 5 maps in the entire game, and they don't even randomly generate the resources each time so it's always the exact same bugs, plants, monsters, mining spots etc in the same places.
The game was kind of middle of the road in terms of graphics for Switch. It didn't look ugly or anything, but it didn't impress me. The actual monster designs were great however. But the game did have a very slight performance issue when it came to monsters who were in the background - especially notable on flying monsters as they seemed to move and flap their wings at a very flow frame rate until you got close.
There's a few little niggles I have along with all this. Like when you gain a new hunter rank you unlock a ton of new stuff, but there's more than one of any given important NPC in the game, for example 2 blacksmiths, 2 shopkeepers, and for some reason you need to talk to BOTH of them to hear the exact same message about how they've expanded their stock or whatever. And then there's the dango girl who after a new rank will always have about 5 things to say, and you have to go through them all separately because the game can't just put them all into one interaction.
I haven't played the past games (except for a tiny bit of MH3, but I can't remember anything about it), but I do know the wirebugs and palamutes are new to this game and they were great additions, but it makes me wonder how sluggish the past games must have felt. I couldn't imagine having to run around these maps without a palamute to speed around on, or the wirebugs to accelerate climbing.
MH Rise to me is a game that is best at the beginning when everything is new and the game puts effort into making each monster introduction seem special (it should be noted that all high rank missions take place in co-op mode, which doesn't include cutscenes, so any monsters introduced there don't have them). But it doesn't have the meat in the gameplay to justify the amount of grinding and content it has. It does try, even when in late game, as each new rank will offer some new stuff, but it's usually something like a new dango meal, or a new way to make item decorations, and not enough to justify playing through 10 more quests doing the exact same thing
You could change weapons every mission to get a bit of variety, but that just means grinding more because weapons are not very cheap. Even when I only focused on one weapon type the whole game, a lot of the later weapons were hard to obtain without dedicated focus on a single monster, repeating the same mission over and over.
While the story up to the credits is really short, the games total length seems way too long for the repetitiveness of it. No hunt ever really felt different to me, it always involved the exact same "strategy" of just starting at the camp, running to the monster (sometimes exploring if it was a new map) and using the same combos over and over. Some monsters were more annoying than others, but generally speaking I never felt like I needed to change how I approached any battle, and I got through them just fine like that.
The repetitiveness is further exaggerated by things like the amount of missions not really correlating with the amount of new monsters. At first it feels like every new mission introduces a new monster, with a fantastic documentary-style cutscenes to boot, but then higher rank missions are just "fight this monster again, but harder" or "Fight this monster you've fought before, and then fight this one". Not to mention the fact there's basically only 5 maps in the entire game, and they don't even randomly generate the resources each time so it's always the exact same bugs, plants, monsters, mining spots etc in the same places.
The game was kind of middle of the road in terms of graphics for Switch. It didn't look ugly or anything, but it didn't impress me. The actual monster designs were great however. But the game did have a very slight performance issue when it came to monsters who were in the background - especially notable on flying monsters as they seemed to move and flap their wings at a very flow frame rate until you got close.
There's a few little niggles I have along with all this. Like when you gain a new hunter rank you unlock a ton of new stuff, but there's more than one of any given important NPC in the game, for example 2 blacksmiths, 2 shopkeepers, and for some reason you need to talk to BOTH of them to hear the exact same message about how they've expanded their stock or whatever. And then there's the dango girl who after a new rank will always have about 5 things to say, and you have to go through them all separately because the game can't just put them all into one interaction.
I haven't played the past games (except for a tiny bit of MH3, but I can't remember anything about it), but I do know the wirebugs and palamutes are new to this game and they were great additions, but it makes me wonder how sluggish the past games must have felt. I couldn't imagine having to run around these maps without a palamute to speed around on, or the wirebugs to accelerate climbing.
MH Rise to me is a game that is best at the beginning when everything is new and the game puts effort into making each monster introduction seem special (it should be noted that all high rank missions take place in co-op mode, which doesn't include cutscenes, so any monsters introduced there don't have them). But it doesn't have the meat in the gameplay to justify the amount of grinding and content it has. It does try, even when in late game, as each new rank will offer some new stuff, but it's usually something like a new dango meal, or a new way to make item decorations, and not enough to justify playing through 10 more quests doing the exact same thing
You could change weapons every mission to get a bit of variety, but that just means grinding more because weapons are not very cheap. Even when I only focused on one weapon type the whole game, a lot of the later weapons were hard to obtain without dedicated focus on a single monster, repeating the same mission over and over.
Honestly pretty meh. The location is insanely generic for Left 4 Dead, there's no standout set pieces or moments. Incredibly short even by DLC standards (another 2 act one). And it has a fuel gathering part in the finale which is always one of the low points of these games, particularly in single player.
It's okay, but the location is very boring for a Dead Rising game, although it does do what it can to make it worth playing after DR2, like new combo weapons. It has some story stuff that maybe goes somewhere in the future, maybe not - I haven't played the sequels yet. Assuming it does carry on, then this was a pretty necessary epilogue to DR2.
The way survivors are implemented is kinda interesting. There's no notifications anymore, instead you just kinda gotta stumble in to them. And you don't have to lead them back either, it's just a case of finding them and "saving" them. Though some of them do still have requests. Not sure if this is really better or worse. The game definitely gives you plenty of time between cases to find them, but that time can also feel surprisingly long if you're only in this to quickly experience the story. After all, there's only so many ways you can entertain yourself killing zombies in such a limited environment when you've had much more options in the main game.
It's a fun enough, short ride. Nothing special. The gun enemies do suck some fun out of it though.
The way survivors are implemented is kinda interesting. There's no notifications anymore, instead you just kinda gotta stumble in to them. And you don't have to lead them back either, it's just a case of finding them and "saving" them. Though some of them do still have requests. Not sure if this is really better or worse. The game definitely gives you plenty of time between cases to find them, but that time can also feel surprisingly long if you're only in this to quickly experience the story. After all, there's only so many ways you can entertain yourself killing zombies in such a limited environment when you've had much more options in the main game.
It's a fun enough, short ride. Nothing special. The gun enemies do suck some fun out of it though.