I meant to buy the first Blaster Master Zero, but I somehow accidentally bought the second, so here I am.

Blaster Master Zero 2 is the second in a revival series of the NES game Blaster Master. It's kind of a Castleroid, but not really. While the game does indeed have a somewhat interconnected map and upgrades, there are several planets that you unlock in different levels. While there is interplanetary backtracking, very rarely will one be required to return to a planet after doing the main object (Unless you want the good ending, that is). Even so, the game never feels restrictive and does give freedom in how you tackle many of the missions. It also helps that the Tank sections are really fun. Most of the weapons are fun to use, and while movement options like Dashes, Wall Jumps, and Ground Pounds, and hovers are ridiculous to see a Tank do, they're pretty fun.

The Top-Down sections are good too, but I had a few issues. You see, in the Tank sections are pretty simple. The basic guns are your bread and butter. The special moves use gaia power, which is recharged by... jumping from a high place. It's pretty simple.

The Top-Down sections have the upgradeable blaster, a selection of grenades, and multiple counter moves. I think that there's a bit too much to deal with here. All of the 8 blaster settings are somewhat different, but I rarely felt compelled to use half of them. The same goes with many of the grenades. The counters are interesting and executed fairly well (Although I kinda wish the dash move was independent of it so I could use it without countering). Apparently Blaster Master Zero 3 simplified it with only one counter and Five Blaster Options with statistical upgrades, which sounds much simpler and funner.

Aside from that, these Top-Down sections are designed just fine, but they're pretty simple. There's really no moments where you have to use any unique powerups to progress, besides grenades breaking cracked walls. There are a few interesting level design gimmicks, but it's not as diverse or engaging as the Tank sections.

Obviously I didn't play the first game so I was kind of thrown into the story, and I can't say I'm too impressed. It's kind of neat that the other pilots you meet are references to Sunsoft titles, and they have fine enough personalities, but they aren't particularly special. I did like how occasionally gameplay mechanics were used to inform the story, such as how the gaia system was used near the end, but other than that, it's alright.

I'm definitely gonna check out the other games. It's a fun retro revival that I'm gonna give a 7/10.

Ah yes. The 'Castle' in Castleroid. In my opinion, this is the best of this style of Castlevania. While it is true that games like Aria of Sorrow are more streamlined, I think Symphony of the Night has more mystique in terms of its systems and exploration. The fighter-esque spell combinations that are available from the beginning but are learned later in the game, the freedom in how you can equip items, and some surprisingly advanced movement really elevate the skill ceiling for the game.

Combine this with excellent visuals and what is quite possibly the best soundtrack in gaming and you have something that's automatically special despite some flaws. Yeah, I agree with many of the criticisms. The inverted castle is an interesting way to extend the game, but it's not as tightly designed as the early game. The RPG style level up system is a great way to reward exploration and battling, but combining that with every other form of progressions results in an easy endgame assuming you explore the castle thoroughly. You also can't sell duplicate pickups of items, so they're just kind of useless. These are all things later games improved on, and as a result the belief that they're better is understandable. However, this is still a must play in my opinion.

I think the best way to describe this game is that it is to independent game development what Super Mario Bros was to console game development. Despite being made by only one guy as a non-profit side project, it's still one of the best games ever made. It's inspired by several NES games, but seemingly most of all Blaster Master. The subpar implementation of the weapon upgrades in Blaster Master has been transformed into one of the best game mechanics for encouraging the player to engage with enemies. It's a consistent game of trying even harder not to get hit while collecting crystals to increase your gun's strength. Even though the alternate endings are decided by seemingly irrelevant player choices, I still love replaying the game because of the different possibilities of what guns and upgrades you can have. The gameplay is super engaging and I love it.

The story is also pretty good, but moreso in how it's presented. While the main narrative going on is solid in and of itself, certain details are left for the player to discover themselves. It's the perfect sweetspot between uncovering important mysteries and a satisfying main narrative.

The visuals and sound depend on the version you're playing. You really shouldn't pay for this game, as it is still free for the PC, but I'd be lying if I said some of the visual options in the paid versions weren't better. The music though? Original all the way, and in general an incredible soundtrack.

Even if this game was just 'OK', what it represents is extremely important: Pure creative expression in the form of a game. It deserves to be remembered in the vein of games like Super Mario Bros, Final Fantasy VI, Street Fighter II, Ocarina of Time and many others. You need to play this game.

It feels weird reviewing a game like this. It's Super Mario Bros, one of the most iconic games in existence. Um... guys, in this game, you uh, run and jump through 32 levels, fight a big lizard guy named bowser, and rescue a princess. It's insane. On a serious note, I'm going to try my hardest to justify writing this review.

This game is a bit stiffer than most pure platformers. It's not on the level of Castlevania, but changing direction in midair can take a while. Mario has a weight that makes the forward momentum the funnes part of the game. Just keep going, get the coins, and try not to stop. If you do, you'll have to speed up again, and some jumps may be a bit more difficult. For a game this simple, I think that works really well.

One thing that I realized while playing this game is that this is pretty much the only Mario game where I really went out of my way to get coins. Like, most Mario games are really easy, and if you really need lives you could either farm an earlier level or use an infinite 1-Up trick. In SMB1, your farming options are limited and you can't return to previous levels, and assuming you don't use the continue trick (Which, honestly, maybe you should). As such, new players will really need to collect some coins so they can get more lives.

On another note... points contribute nothing. This is an issue in almost all of the 2D Mario games. Well, more of a non-issue, but I think it's worth pointing out because it's interesting. Points made sense in arcade games, and home games like Castlevania used them for earning lives, but in Super Mario Bros, they don't really do anything. One could argue they add replay value, and they were a part of the NWC I guess, but I never really looked at the point counter and said, 'Wow. I did great this level.' Maybe I would've if there was a tangible reward for it. As I said, this was just me pointing out an example of outdated arcade design. It doesn't really affect my enjoyment all that much.

Another issue, one that is a bit more substantial, is that there is only one boss in the entire game. Now, they do change up that one boss a little bit by giving him a new attack and placing some blocks in your way, but the strategy is always the same: Get behind Bowser and touch the axe. Even one more boss that was completely different would've been much better, although I think 4 unique bosses would be a realistic, albeit hopeful expectation.

But hey, wanna know another positive? The ability to warp to later worlds through secret passages. I'm sure few games had such shortcuts at the time of this game's release, and I'm sure even fewer executed them as well as Super Mario Bros. It can drastically change the pace of the game in a fun way, and is something that wasn't really brought back until Super Mario World.

Other than that, the general level design is fairly varied, and the game looks about as good as an NES launch title could. And of course, the music's really good.

All in all, a really good game. I thought about giving it an 8/10, but the lack of boss variety bumped it down to a 7. Obviously though, you should play this game.

Blaster Master Zero III kind of confused me. It fixed 2's biggest problem: The clutter of a toolkit in the Top-Down sections. In III, there's 5 guns (each of which upgrade individually), a selection of subweapons, a dedicated dash button, and a singular counter button. I also loved the risk-reward element that many of these dungeons had: risking your progress for even more upgrades, or playing it safe and leaving. The Top-Down sections still have problems; The progression isn't nearly as developed as in the 2D sections, the level design is still very basic and rarely makes use of all the moves, etc.... However, they were undeniably better than those of 2.

However, I think I prefer the 2D sections in 2 more than in III, for several reasons. 2 had much more level variety and felt like a much more streamlined yet still unique experience. In III, most of the locations are just cyber-hallways. The movement in 2 was also much better. You had a dash, a 'ground-pound' in the form of a drill, wall jumps, and deployable springs. III ditches the drill and springs, and has spawnable block lines. An interesting concept, but it's introduced near the very end and is underutilized.

I also wasn't a fan of the reverse dimensional rifts. It's an interesting idea: Flipping a game mechanic on it's head in fun ways. The issue is that often, the ways are not actually fun. I liked the enemies jumping when you touch a spring, but everything else was pretty forgettable. In Top-Down, the rifts are just auto-generated sections that aren't all that great.

That just reminded me of another thing that annoyed me. In the top-down sections, often you're presented with really tough enemies or constantly respawning enemies. However, fairly early on the game basically says, "Oh, just take the rifts to skip those." What? Why are you making a section intentionally annoying and encouraging the player to skip it in a game where scouring the map for collectibles is the whole point? There's nothing in said sections, so they are quite literally made to be skipped.

I know I've been ragging on this game, but I still enjoyed it more than I didn't. The visuals and sound are a bump from 2, the story is cheesy but somewhat entertaining, and most of the bosses are really good (Although a few were reused ones from previous games). However, a few dumb choices prevented this from being the true pinnacle of mutant-blasting action.

Yeah yeah, I was brought here by Nitro Rad too. Is the game good though?

Yeah, I guess, but that comes with a lot of asterisks.

The movement and moveset in general are excellent. I could nitpick a few details, like the side somersaults' uselessness due to the triple jump not being space-sensative like in Super Mario 64. Also, the grapple hook and timestop are pretty situational in use/ Regardless, this is a very good moveset that makes the player plan each jump in advance, unlike A Hat in Time.

The level design isn't the best, but I think it's mostly fine. The game beckons players to master the moveset and perform skips in pretty much every level. Combine this with a genius checkpoint system that allows the player to control their respawn position, and those seemingly ludicrous skips are much more achievable and fun to try. I also appreciate that you can get every collectible on the first run and you don't have to come back with the turf abilities (which you earn in each boss fight) or something. Point is, the level design is pretty basic, but the game does a really good job of distracting that fact.

But now its time to talk about the highlight of every 3D platformer! Combat! Oh boy! I dunno though, this really wasn't that bad. Probably like half the levels have required combat sections, and they're over really quick. Still, that's far from a compliment. What really pisses me off is that the final boss is kind of purely combat, which I think is dumb for a 3D Platformer.

Uhh... There's a story. Is there? Yeah, but it's pretty nothing. There's an attempt at some kind of arc with the protagonist Beebz's friend, but this leads to nothing. I like the concept of beating these bosses up and gaining clout overtime, but the game doesn't really expand on this in an interesting way.

Also, this game definitely lacks the level of polish of a game like A Hat in Time. The movement feels great, but the way Beebz interacts with the environment feels spotty at times. Most of the minor NPCs look really bad too. Lastly, I ran into a few glitches.

There's also the structure of the game. Now, there's 28 Levels, and each level has a post-boss version that changes things up a bit and utilizes the newly acquired turf ability. So, there's like 56 levels in total, and beating a level gets you a battery, right? Well, for the most part, the structure is simple. Beat all 7 levels in the world in whatever order you please, fight the boss, go to the next world.

However, to fight the final boss, you need 50 Batteries, so you have to beat 50 out of the 56 levels (Or maybe there's other ways to get batteries. I haven't delved that much into the side content). Keep in mind, half of these levels are reskins. As heavily altered as a reskin can be, they're still reskins. Imagine if to fight Bowser you needed 110/120 stars. Like, why not make me just get all at that point? I guess I'll take it though, because I only had 40 batteries after beating the 4th boss, so I had to play 10 more levels, which kind of ruined the pacing.

Despite all of those problems, Demon Turf can be really fun. It has some great ideas, but I think the devs were just a bit too ambitious. Maybe if the game was a bit better paced, the combat was gone, the story was minimized, the moveset tweaked a little, all the fluff was removed, and the visuals were more consistent I'd like this game more. Oh wait, the standalone expansion Demon Turf: Neon Splash did this and it costs $20 less than this game (Not a sponsor). The lesson is, you should probably get that instead. Still, if you like 3D platformers, this is a fine time.

First off, thanks to 'lpslucasps' for his recommendation for this game. He recommended it to me because I liked Wario Land 3, so maybe fellow Wario Land fans will enjoy this one, idk.

Anyway, the only other time I'd ever seen this game was once in a Dunkey video where he brushed over it. It also has a pretty low rating here, which sucks, because this is actually a really good game, dare I say a great one. It's a pretty odd idea: You can only jump in straight lines from ceiling to wall to floor and however else. And yeah, it felt weird initially, but the more you play it the more fun it is. You can tell they really worked on the jumping here, with several small details that make each jump feel right.

The combat is also really good. It's very deliberate due to needing to charge your short-range gun, but extra weapons unlocked along the way change things up really well. I got a decent amount of use out of all of the extra weapons here. No complaints in terms of combat.

Now, this game is indeed a Castleroid, so you may be wondering how it holds up in that regard. Well, let's start with the structure. The game is actually pretty linear. There is inter-area backtracking, but there's few moments where you're asked to travel further than just back out of an area you just explored. You can get get all of the stuff in every area first time through as well. The thing is, this is all probably for the best, considering you couldn't just rush through previous areas the same way you could in a Metroid or Castlevania game.

In terms of upgrades, this is one of my biggest issues with the game. Upgrades either consist of health or special ammo refills, aforementioned extra weapons, items that change the level design or how you interact with it, or experience points that can be used to increase max health, ammo, and how much the refills of each respectively fills. All of these are fine, really. My main issue is that very rarely do these actually mix up the gameplay or add to a feeling of progression. The items that change level design are an interesting idea, but many are just like, 'this platform moves now.' Many of the interesting mechanics don't really extend outside one area either, which was disappointing.

The game also uses the 'oops, you died! Now go to where you died and get your experience back or lose it forever!' system. If this game was less linear this would bother me, but it's fine here since usually I'd be going to the same area anyway. As it was, this only annoyed me a few times.

There's also the story, which was... I dunno, apparently this game was made by Brazilians and is inspired by Brazilian imagery (Which does look really nice, as does the rest of the game), but I don't really know if this actually informed the story in any way. Maybe there's a bunch of cool lore, but most of what I got was a pretty basic anti-establishment story with a few underwhelming 'Ooh, the characters know you respawn!' moments. Thankfully, the story is pretty easily ignored either way, so I can't hold it against the game too much.

It's in between a 7 and 8 out of 10, but I'll give it the benefit for now. It's really good overall and I recommend it to anyone who feels like Castleroids have become a bit too homogenized in nature.

If one was to ask me my favorite genre of games, I'd likely say the 3D Platformer. As such, I watch Nitro Rad a lot, and generally respect his opinions. I've certainly disagreed with him, but he's introduced me to games like Hypnospace Outlaw, Anodyne 2, and of course, Glover, the magnum opus of humanity. Anyway, when he made a video about Super Sam Raimi Roll, I decided to wishlist and eventually stimulate the economy by purchasing it.

And uh... This game is surprisingly great. Most indie 3D Platformers are fairly underwhelming, but this one nails almost everything gameplay wise. Your core moveset is fairly simple: You can roll around, jump, do a ground pound bounce akin to SA2's, and the tongue whip that Sam Raimi can be seen doing on the game icon thingy. You have to use these moves to run through some sixty odd linear stages. Be quick though, because each stage has a time limit, and oftentimes these can be pretty strict. Or not if you play easy mode. I actually played the hard mode, which had no checkpoints, so the game was fairly difficult for me overall, but you can change difficulty at any time with no penalty, which I'm sure many will appreciate.

There's two main collectibles: These yellow gems that give you a bit more time to complete the stage and one raspberry in each stage. They can be difficult to get on occasion, but if you collect it and die you'll retain it. Both of these can be used to unlock some new looks, modes, items, and stage secrets. Anyway, I really like the way they health, or rather, the lack of it. Getting hit by an enemy/obstacle will just send you flying up a little for around two seconds. That may not seem like a big deal, but two seconds could be the difference between completing the stage and not. It also puts you at risk to fall off the stage, the only other way to die besides a timeout. It's just a cool simplification of the idea of health in a 3D Platformer.

In general, everything is pretty streamlined. There's no boring combat sections, a very simple level select screen, and a classically phoned in story. Way too many 3D Platformers are insecure and shove in a lot of annoying minigames, so I gotta appreciate that. However, there are bosses, and they're pretty underwhelming. For the most part, it's the same 3-Hit system Platformers have been using for decades, and they don't really use the moveset in any interesting ways. This is probably the only notable gameplay stumble aside from a few level design nitpicks I have.

The other thing holding this game back is a lack of theme or unity. I said the story was 'classically phoned in', and yeah, it is. An ape kidnaps Sam Raimi's friend, so he goes after him. The presentation switches between 8-Bit still image cutscenes/level selects and the 3D levels. The worlds are kind of themed, but aside from said themes being very basic, sometimes the backgrounds and level assets clash. The gameplay is really the only cohesive element. A game like Streets of Rage 4 also has a pretty basic and miminalized story, but its presentation really sells the idea of it being a 90s revival with its comic book artstyle. Considering this game seems to be a spiritual successor to the obscure N64 series Chamelion Twist, they could've attempted something involving that? At the very least, better presentation would've helped, although I'm sure the team did the best they could.

But yeah, this is actually one of the best 3D platformers I've played. 8/10.

Ori and the Blind Forest is a Platforming-Focused Castleroid, and it's pretty darn good at being that. The movement is extremely smooth and the level design is great, with each new ability being taught to the player naturally and expanded upon in cool ways. While the moveset isn't the most unique in any platformer, there are some really cool abilities, such as catapulting yourself off of enemies and projectiles. Most of the puzzles are pretty good too. Also, compared to most Castleroids, Ori's difficulty curve is pretty consistent even with it's experience and adventure based progression system. Honestly, this game is excellent when it comes to being a Platforming Castleroid.

However, I do have two major complaints: First, the combat. At best, Ori's combat is a fine change of pace. At worst, it's passive to the point of arbitration. Oftentimes it consists of mashing Y (I played on Switch) while running past enemies. This is because the game auto-aims the attacks for you. Sometimes you may have to use the ground pound or aforementioned projectile catapult, but even then it's pretty basic: Ground pound to get ride of the enemy's armor, THEN mash Y. Shoot the projectile back continuously until the enemy dies. I see an attempt to tie platforming and combat together, and it can work, but 50% of the time the combat is unengaging.

I do, however, have to praise that the game actually had no real bosses, and each section of the game is instead topped off with a great chase sequence. Many games would've inserted a boss just because that's an expectation at this point, so I have to respect the decision to cap off each area with a bit of the main focus: platforming.

My next big issue is with the story. I wasn't expecting that much, and I feel like the story here simultaneously was pleasantly surprising and kind of annoying. The best moments are the opening an ending. Both are wordless scenes that display the emotions of the characters well. However, the rest of the story has a bit too much narration, despite the fact that it's easily discernable what's happening at any moment. It just makes the game feel a bit patronizing.

In terms of audiovisuals, Ori is actually very poor. That was a lie, the audiovisuals are really good. My only complaint is that while the locations are stunning visually, they're not interesting conceptually. The most interesting was the Misty Woods, where your map is pretty much useless and the layout of the world changes seemingly randomly, but even "Confusing Forest" has been a trope since Super Mario World. Not a huge issue, but worth mentioning.

I thought about giving this game an 8/10, but since I usually lower the rating later anyway, I'm pre-emptively rating the game a 7/10. That's kind of arbitrary though. If you enjoy either 2D Platformers or Castleroids, you'll probably enjoy this.

NOTE: I did not finish this game. However, I played about half of it, so I think I've played enough to form an opinion.

Bioshock starts out incredibly strong: An interesting world, Solid gunplay, Unique abilities, and great atmosphere. Solid stuff. However, the problems become apparent fairly early on. Namely, upon one's first death. There is no punishment for dying. Sorry, there is a punishment: The inconvenience of walking back from a spawn point to wherever you died. However, the enemy is still as damaged as before, and all progress is saved. This means first aid kits are pretty much just for convenience, and any encounter can be trivialized.

I just want to stress that this is already a massive potential turnoff for me. Games at their core are about making meaningful choices, and choices can't be meaningful if there's no consequences. Now, games can be easy and have meaningful choices. The good Kirby games are fun because of all the copy abilities, and the fun comes from trying all of them. Same with Pokemon (Both of these series do have punishments for losing, but I digress). While Bioshock does have many fun uses of progression, many choices are entirely arbitrary and, as cliche as it is to say, the illusion of free choice. The best example of this is the hacking system.

The idea is simple: You can hack robots and several kinds of shops/stations for different benefits. The robots are a solid mechanic, because the player has to make the risk of getting close before hacking. There's also safes that are super hard to hack, which have much more risk in doing so. However, hacking first aid dispensors, ammo stations, and crafting stations for discounts is entirely arbitrary, because there's no reason to not hack any of them. The worst case scenario is that you trigger security which summons drones, but this is extremely easy to avoid. You may get hurt by a short circuit, but once again, this is usually very easily avoidable. The point is, you should absolutely hack every station you see, meaning you'll have to play the same minigame over and over again.

Even a few cool progression abilities feel pretty underdeveloped. There's an ability very similar to the Gravity Gun from Half-Life 2, but it's utilization is even more basic than it was in HL2, and it mostly just boils down to tossing trash cans at enemies. However, most of the abilities are at least alright, and add to that whole meaningful decision thing I was talking about.

I do have to give the game credit though, fighting the Big Daddies is pretty fun. There's much more tension because in the time it takes to walk back to a Big Daddy, the sisters could've already escaped, meaning you really want to take them out in one go. Planning all of that out is pretty fun, although it still doesn't entirely escape that difficulty problem I discussed.

Anyway, I may come back to this game, but I haven't had fun the last few times I've started it up. The story is kind of interesting, but nothing special, really (Although I heard there's a big twist near the end, so maybe that's really cool). Either way, 4/10, close to a 5.

Since this is a Gameboy launch title, it's not like I could expect that much, but I still think this game could've been better. It's fairly linear and extremely short, so there's not much replay value. There's a top score counter on the title screen, but that resets when you turn the game off, so it's pretty useless.

For the most part, the game is similar to SMB1, but it also has some spaceship/submarine levels (Including the final boss). I get annoyed by this kind of variety in general, but especially so for a game like this, which is extremely short.

Probably the best part of the game is the soundtrack, which is pretty good. Nintendo should pull more songs from the Mario Land series. Visually, the game sure is a Gameboy launch title. Each level does have a little bit of background and decoration, but not that much.

I really don't know what else to say. Maybe if the game was a little more unique, more replayable, or better thought out I would give it a higher score, but I can't really go higher than a 5/10 for this one. Still, this can be beaten in under an hour, so I'd recommend it to those who like 2D Mario.

Alright, these next two paragraphs are going to be me talking about my personal experiences leading up to purchasing the game, so skip those if you just want my analysis of the game.

A while back, I had played the other Rayman games sans the first, so I decided to ask Reddit (I was young and foolish), and I quote, "Is Rayman 3 worth the buy?" Now, some friends of mine followed me on Reddit and thought this question was peak comedy, so it became an inside joke.

However, Rayman 3 wasn't a game I was particularly in a rush to get. I did eventually buy a copy on Gamecube, but it messed up after the first world, so I couldn't really answer the question. After that, I asked my father to get it for me for Christmas, but we soon after had a falling out and I haven't talked to him since, so no good there either. Finally, I got the GBA version of Rayman 3, but that game is worth its own review. Eventually, I realized the game was available digitally on the XBox 360, and bought it for $9.99 USD. It took me three years to get this game. But hey, I am typing this on a website named Backloggd.

Let's start the biggest improvement from Rayman 2: The combat. Rayman 3 has some of the best combat in a 3D Platformer I've played. That's a pretty low standard, but the combat can be fun. It simply feels better than in Rayman 2, but aside from that, the powerups and level design add much more to many encounters. Many of the bosses are really good too. Some can be annoying, but they often use the powerups in cool ways. I'd even call the final boss great if it didn't end with a turret section. Other than that, there's not much to say about the combat, but it does its job as a diversion from the platforming

...Is what I'd say if the combat wasn't so prevalent. As mediocre as the combat was in Rayman 2, it was usually done and over extremely quickly. In Rayman 3, It's half the game. If the combat was combined with platforming more often, I probably would've been fine with this, but the combat can still be pretty repetitive.

Honestly, the platforming lacks variety as well, despite the solid controls and movement. The powerups add a bit of variety, but the only platforming-focused ones are the flight and hookshot ones, which are pretty one-note in their use. You occasionally shrink down and race in a shoe, but these sections are pretty boring. All you do is ram into the other shoe a few times. In between worlds, you do race through this funky wormhole, which is fun, but if you were expecting sliding, plum-riding, or any other fun mechanic from Rayman 2, you'll be disappointed. Instead, the game starts with an on-rails flying section and ends with a turret section. Awesome...

Another gameplay note is that Rayman 3 is really easy. Most Rayman games are really easy, but 3 might be the easiest to beat. Throughout the game, I only died twice, and I'm not that good at these games. However, the scoring system kept me engaged (Even if it needed some work in terms of what it prioritized), so it's not that big of an issue overall.

Storywise, the game is far from great. Globox accidentally vores the main villain Andre, so he and Rayman go to a bunch of national stereotype doctors to try and un-vore Andre. Each doctor is just like, 'uh... I can't do anything. Now go to this guy.' It's a bit repetitive, but whatever. The Rayman series has never been known for its brilliant narratives or character studies (I mean, Legends didn't even have a story), but Rayman 3 was trying to be funny. Sometimes it is, but its often just annoying. Either way, I'm glad excess dialogue is often held during gameplay. Not just because I don't want a bunch of cutscenes, but because the VA dubbing is weirdly bad here. I'd imagine the animation sync is better in France or other Countries, but as a citizen of The United States of America, I am truly disappointed in the dubbing of Rayman 3.

Audiovisually, the game is quite good. The animations are mostly nice, there's a great variety of locations, Rayman's new design is great, and the artstyle is overall very good. While I can't say every track in the game is a bop, I can remember two that stick out, which were the snowboarding theme and the final boss theme.

So it's time to answer the question: Is Rayman 3 worth the buy? Honestly, I've been mulling this over for a while. I'm kinda between a 5/10 and 6/10. I suppose either way, Rayman 3 is only worth the buy if you're a fan of the series or 3D Platformers in general. Otherwise, Rayman 2 is a much better outing.

Well, I've played every Rayman game now, except for the first. I've heard it's rather hard. I'll have to see for myself.

Devil May Cry is considered the grandfather of the... 'character action' genre (If anyone has a better genre name, please tell me), but it's certainly different from many of the other games in the genre. There is some over-the-top action, but the game is also permeated with atmosphere on many occasions. Oftentimes, you have to collect items and solve puzzles in a medieval castle. There's also fixed camera angles. In case you didn't know, Devil May Cry was originally going to be a game from the Star Fox series. Just kidding, it was actually going to be a Resident Evil game, and you can certainly tell. Even the menus are reminiscent of Resident Evil.

Anyway, this game is much simpler than other... '''character action''' games, which is understandable. You can switch between weapons, but it takes time and doesn't allow for cool combos like in later DMC games. Either way, it's still really fun learning all of the moves and using them to demolish your enemies. However, one thing I noticed is that even when I was steamrolling enemies, that didn't necessarily mean I was getting a good ranking. And when I did get a good ranking, I often wasn't sure what I did differently this time than other times. I have to guess it's based mostly on just getting in a bunch of hits instead of a variety, but I'm not sure. Combine this with bosses and many enemies where using the guns is the best option, and it seems to me that the developers weren't aware of what makes games in this genre fun. Honestly, I'm really disappointed that Kamiya didn't have a firm grasp on what people liked in the genre he was pretty much creating. Jokes aside, this is the only part that I'd say the 'this game hasn't aged well' argument fits at all, unless someone's really gonna argue that underwater levels and repeating boss fights three times were beloved in 2001.

Also, I know I was making a joke with the whole Starfox thing approximately 11 sentences ago, but the last two levels do have on-rails shooter sections. I just played Rayman 3, and it did the same thing. Apparently the new Sonic game did something similar. Why do games feel the need to completely change their genre in the last minute? Once again, was this something people liked in 2001? I don't think it is.

That aside, onto the story. Spoilers, I guess. Uh... Some girl named Trish tries to kill main character Dante and subsequently asks him to help her kill an evil demon guy, and Dante's like, 'yeah sure'. Then they don't interact for like two thirds of the game. Then it turns out Trish is evil, but then she saves Dante, and now she and Dante and buddies so they beat up the bad guy and leave the island. The biggest problem is that Trish just disappears midway through, so we don't see her and Dante grow close. They're still basically strangers by the end of the game, but they act like best friends. Also, the main villain, Mundus, is just some guy. He's boring. I'm not asking for much from these games' stories, I just want the cutscenes to be entertaining and motivating, and Devil May Cry's story was only entertaining sometimes, mainly when it was Dante just swinging weapons around and making fun of bosses.

Visually, the game is an early PS2 game. It looks fine. I like many of the enemy designs, but the castle is pretty basic in terms of visuals. The audio seemed pretty unmemorable to me to be honest.

I was considering giving this game a 7/10, but there were a few too many flaws, so 6/10 it is. Either way, I'd definitely recommend this to fans of the... '''''Character Action''''' genre.

After playing the Streets of Rage series, I decided I needed to try more beat em ups. And whaddya know, Nintendo's crappy online subscription had this for free for a week! A buddy and I played through the game in two sittings, and despite some problems, I rather enjoyed it.

First off, this game is actually non-linear and has a lot of RPG-style elements, which I thought was pretty neat. While the moveset felt a little restrictive at first, it doesn't take long to unlock a wider moveset that keeps things fresh. At the same time, I also had an overabundance of moves near the end of the game. Early on you unlock moves by leveling, but eventually you just have to pay for them at a dojo. This is fine, but dang, there's a lot of them. At the very least, I'm glad that the game eases you into the movesets of the characters as you progress, but I'm still not really sure if half the moves I had are even that different. There's also the fact that due to long stagger times for enemies, the game is extremely easy unless you're swarmed by several opponents, which is most of the time after a certain point, but still. Regardless, comboing enemies was fun, and as I said, I played the game with a friend, which always makes a game a little more fun.

The story is pretty hit and miss, as well as the humour. Either way, the story is a bit repetitive. It's just...

Main characters: 'Uh-oh, our boyfriends have been kidnapped! This boss must know where they are!' beat the boss up

Boss: 'Dang, you're strong. I don't know where your boyfriends are, but maybe the next boss does!'

Main Characters: 'Cool, let's go find said next boss!' leaves

It's fine. I don't expect much out of these games storywise, and this game did the job I guess. Humourwise... I dunno, I didn't hate it as much as many seemed to. Anime-isms annoy me just as much as the next guy, but some of the dialogue is still mildly entertaining. Also, every cutscene can be skipped, which is appreciated in general.

The biggest story complaint I, and seemingly everyone else has is the ending. I used to be fairly tolerant of the whole 'true ending' trend that's been popping up recently, but it's been grating me more and more, and River City Girls is no exception. I shouldn't have to do a whole side quest to get an ending that doesn't suck. Honestly, I would've even been fine with the bad ending if it was developed throughout the story. In this sense, we kind of got the worst of both worlds.

Audiovisually, the game is quite good. My main complaint is that the visual presentation can feel weirdly inconsistent. Some cutscenes are animated while others are manga-styled. Considering this is a gender-bender retro revival, I probably would've preferred to just have the manga cutscenes with either a 90s shounen or shoujo artstyle. Still, the game looks and sounds great either way.

The point is, despite some issues, I did rather enjoy this game. I'll give it a 6/10, but I may make it a 7. If there are other games with a similar structure to this, please tell me. In the meantime, I'm definitely gonna check out the other River City games.

Alright, I'll start with the good stuff. Obviously, the audiovisuals are great. In particular, the way that chunks of meat fall off of demons as you hurt them is genius. The controls are good, all the guns are fun and varied too.

Okay, now I get to talk about why this game doesn't really work for me. First is that there is an excess of moves, weapons, and progression systems. By the end of the game, you have seven normal weapons. Each of these weapons also has two mods, which can in themselves be upgraded and switched between mid-battle, and many of these mods completely change the function of the gun. You also have glory kills, the chainsaw, and the flame belch. Each of these can be used against enemies to gain health, ammo, and shield respectively. Next is the grenade. There's a normal one and an ice one. Next is the dash, which gives you a quick burst of speed. Don't forget the two superweapons. One is obviously the BFG, a massive damaging attack. The next is a sword which has tamer animations than the glory kill despite being built up massively throughout the story. There's also the blood punch, which is built up through glorykills. Aside from your moves and weapons there's also multiple progression systems, each of which uses a different currency. There's one for your guns, one for your suit, one for new abilities, and one for stats. Look, I get wanting to add new stuff, but isn't this a little too much?

Of course, excess isn't always a killer. In fact, it often feels like Doom is trying to be a Spectacle Action game similar to Devil May Cry. However, one thing that separates Devil May Cry and DOOM Eternal is that DMC often gives the player much more freedom in what it lets the player use. However, DOOM Eternal feels so deadset on forcing the player to play the way the developer intended. The cacodemons is a good example. You could fight it the normal way, or you could just throw a grenade at it and glory kill. The latter is extremely easy and efficient, so obviously it's what you want to do. A lot of enemies have similar weaknesses, some of which I do think work. The pinkies are vulnerable on the tail, so freezing them with the ice bomb is the logical course of action. Hitting a group of enemies with the flame belch is also very intuitive and logical. Honestly, looking at some of these weaknesses separately, it all seems good. However, when you put them all together, the entire game is just "Use the specific weapon or hit the specific part". It's also annoying that the game points all of these weaknesses out, so there's really never a need to experiment using different weapons or anything. As such, there's a clear lack of expression in using your weapons.

All of this is brought to a head with the marauder. With these guys, you have to stand at a specific range, wait for them to lower their guard, hit them with a burst weapon, and repeat until it dies. And my gosh, the discussion around this enemy is so stupid. I've seen so many people be like, "This enemy isn't that hard to beat." This is true. As long as it's one-on-one, these encounters aren't that difficult. However, they just aren't fun to fight.

As such, gameplay wise, DOOM Eternal is less than the sum of its parts. Many ideas seem good, but when put together, they just don't fit, even if the weapons are cool and satisfying to use.

Alright, now the story. I've made it known that with these kinds of games, I don't expect much storywise. DOOM Eternal mostly does the job. It contextualizes everything well enough, and I'm glad that most of it is kept to datalogs that I don't have to read. Still I do have complaints. First, the game really wants you to know how cool the Doomslayer is. This is strange, because Doomslayer/Doomguy is usually just... well, a guy in most games, including the game preceding Eternal. Aside from this tonal shift, it just annoys me in general. I probably would've enjoyed this angle more if the infamy of the Slayer grew as you played, but it seems all of that took place in between 2016 and Eternal. The other thing is that the cultists' dialogue, which appears occasionally all throughout the game, is really dumb and not funny. Once again, none of this is a big deal and it doesn't change my opinion that much at all, but I thought I might as well discuss it.

Overall, DOOM Eternal is fine. It's occasionally fun, but too many systems simultaneously overwhelm and restrict the player. It could change to a 6 later, but I'm giving it a 5/10 for now.