In the arcade mode, this is just more Point Blank. Suffers a bit from the minigames all fitting within the same basic formats the original pioneered—you won't see much revolutionary here—but more Point Blank is still more Point Blank. A fun, rapid fire minigame collection that all GunCon aficionados should play.
Where this really takes a step back is in the "story mode". It's scaled back tremendously from PB1's RPG/adventure mode. Instead, here, you have four separate "amusement park rides" to explore. Each has a very basic meta game structure tying all the minigames together. You'll blindly make your weay through a labyrinth while encountering enemies (encounters play out as minigames), or travel through space shooting enemies (and any you miss lead to minigames), etc. The problem is that these meta games are far less compelling than PB1's adventure game structure. Here, the interactions are rather basic—the interactions at this meta level feel more like the cheap framing of an FMV game than the legitimately compelling adventure game of the original.
And the variety of minigames in this mode was rather lacking. It felt like every single game it threw my way was yet another rapid fire minigame where it's all about mashing the trigger as quickly as possible. While these games are important to have in a collection, it's tiring when it's the only type of game being thrown your way every 45 seconds.
Clearly they were scaling back the budget on these ports and didn't want to over-invest in a huge original mode like with the original, but something was lost in the process. I ended up trying this mode once and then quickly switched back to, and stuck to, arcade mode. You're better off skipping the "Amusement Park Mode" altogether.
Where this really takes a step back is in the "story mode". It's scaled back tremendously from PB1's RPG/adventure mode. Instead, here, you have four separate "amusement park rides" to explore. Each has a very basic meta game structure tying all the minigames together. You'll blindly make your weay through a labyrinth while encountering enemies (encounters play out as minigames), or travel through space shooting enemies (and any you miss lead to minigames), etc. The problem is that these meta games are far less compelling than PB1's adventure game structure. Here, the interactions are rather basic—the interactions at this meta level feel more like the cheap framing of an FMV game than the legitimately compelling adventure game of the original.
And the variety of minigames in this mode was rather lacking. It felt like every single game it threw my way was yet another rapid fire minigame where it's all about mashing the trigger as quickly as possible. While these games are important to have in a collection, it's tiring when it's the only type of game being thrown your way every 45 seconds.
Clearly they were scaling back the budget on these ports and didn't want to over-invest in a huge original mode like with the original, but something was lost in the process. I ended up trying this mode once and then quickly switched back to, and stuck to, arcade mode. You're better off skipping the "Amusement Park Mode" altogether.