1995
A rather cute little shooter game that I feel is really ignored as a whole by the gaming community at large (mostly thanks to its Amiga-exclusivity likely). At its core its pretty basic but firing through levels based off sports, medieval kingdoms and computer innards feels utterly charming. The pretty simple but well executed controls caps it all off perfectly.
Sure, as I mentioned, its a little on the basic side and some of the theming charm does wear off as the game reaches the latter half but it still doesnt stop this from being a neat little thing.
Sure, as I mentioned, its a little on the basic side and some of the theming charm does wear off as the game reaches the latter half but it still doesnt stop this from being a neat little thing.
The Doodle God series was never the most exciting of series but it still deserved better than this mobile-lite abomination that screams lazy desperation.
2015
Nani-no. This FNAF clone is sheer trash and an exercise in sanity. Avoid at all costs.
This game is dumb. Sure, hidden object games usually have some level of dumb to them but this takes it to a whole unintentionally comedic level as even getting the most basic of things requires a whole smorgasbord of puzzles to reach.
You want that quarter? You better ransack an old ladys home, an alleyway and three other areas to get to it because apparently New York has a real coin deficit these days.
Outside of the dumb logic... its rather basic. In fact if it wasnt for the dumb logic, I wouldnt even bother talking about it. Oh well.
You want that quarter? You better ransack an old ladys home, an alleyway and three other areas to get to it because apparently New York has a real coin deficit these days.
Outside of the dumb logic... its rather basic. In fact if it wasnt for the dumb logic, I wouldnt even bother talking about it. Oh well.
Honestly a total joy to play. On the surface it seems like a rather basic but well-themed shooter but dig a little deeper and suddenly you'll realise this game has a lot more smarts than its letting on.
Take the weapons system for instance. On first glance, a lot of the weapons seem very arbitrary and unbalanced but as you play, you'll realise in reality almost every single weapon has key uses. Waterguns for basic fodder zombies, soda-cans to throw over fences. fire extingushers to freeze troublesome enemyes and rocket launchers which not only deal out big damage but also come in handy as makeshift door openers.
The overall design is just an absolute joy as well and if you happen to be a B-Movie fan like myself, has a ton of nods, references and full blown parodies to wade through. Its glorious.
If I have one complaint (and I do), its that the difficulty curve is just all over the darn place. You'll happily skip through some levels with barely a moment of stress, only to have something like the big baby boss ruin your perfect run as he slams about everywhere.
Even that cant run just how ridiculous and fun this game is. Come on Lucasarts/Disney. Re-release this already!
Take the weapons system for instance. On first glance, a lot of the weapons seem very arbitrary and unbalanced but as you play, you'll realise in reality almost every single weapon has key uses. Waterguns for basic fodder zombies, soda-cans to throw over fences. fire extingushers to freeze troublesome enemyes and rocket launchers which not only deal out big damage but also come in handy as makeshift door openers.
The overall design is just an absolute joy as well and if you happen to be a B-Movie fan like myself, has a ton of nods, references and full blown parodies to wade through. Its glorious.
If I have one complaint (and I do), its that the difficulty curve is just all over the darn place. You'll happily skip through some levels with barely a moment of stress, only to have something like the big baby boss ruin your perfect run as he slams about everywhere.
Even that cant run just how ridiculous and fun this game is. Come on Lucasarts/Disney. Re-release this already!
1987
Everybody loves Street Fighter II, III, Alpha and so on. This? Er. No. Its clunky, jarring and just flat out difficult to play thanks to limited controls that makes even basic actions difficult to do. Its really only worth trying as a historical artifact to show how far the series has managed to come.
1999
Minigame collections live and die on the overall hit and miss ratio of their games and oh boy Incredible Crisis really drops the ball more often than not. The wacky storyline that flicks between the main leads is fun but none of the matters when the core games feel buggy, boring or even at times physically painful to complete.
And I said complete and this is probably this game's biggest sin. Theres no skip options, theres no way to pick and choose games. Instead its do or die the entire game with a limited life and continue system and this just is nasty, especially when some of the games I REALLY hated decide to re-appear multiple times (such as the boat sinking game).
Its a shame because theres a few games that do shine and you cant help but like some of the 'Lol zany' Japan theme but overall its just too much of a mess to persevere with for too long.
And I said complete and this is probably this game's biggest sin. Theres no skip options, theres no way to pick and choose games. Instead its do or die the entire game with a limited life and continue system and this just is nasty, especially when some of the games I REALLY hated decide to re-appear multiple times (such as the boat sinking game).
Its a shame because theres a few games that do shine and you cant help but like some of the 'Lol zany' Japan theme but overall its just too much of a mess to persevere with for too long.
Dont get me wrong, the developers of "Everybody's Gone to the Rapture", the chinese room, they sure know how to make an incredibly pretty game full of scenic vistas, cluttered abandonment and haunting locales. Its all stunning. They probably also know how to make a decent tale too but they cant seem to grasp the idea of making their game... well... a game? Everything is just so slow and drawn out to the point where it just takes an age to glimpse even the smallest of plotpoints. Its just not fun.
Dont get me wrong, visual storytelling is fine but there comes a point where you feel their talent may have been better placed in independent filmmaking vs games.
Dont get me wrong, visual storytelling is fine but there comes a point where you feel their talent may have been better placed in independent filmmaking vs games.
Half a star for the music, half a star for the graphics and another half star for the intro that gave me nightmares as a kid. Stylistically this game is stunning, haunting and a sight to behold.
Gameplay wise though it's shit. It's full of dead ends, gotcha moments and ways to fail your game that you couldn't have seen coming at all. It's just a slog and not one I want to revisit ever.
Gameplay wise though it's shit. It's full of dead ends, gotcha moments and ways to fail your game that you couldn't have seen coming at all. It's just a slog and not one I want to revisit ever.
1991
I honestly forgot this game existed until recently and I wish I hadn't. Its just a very dull and slow platformer that feels completely lacking in the personality department as you skate from flat street to flat office block as the same couple of snoozeworthy songs lull you into a coma.
This unfortunately was my first proper game I bought as a kid with my hard earned pocket money. I saw Simpsons and went 'YES' and oh boy I regretted every moment leading up to that point. This game is just a shitcan mess in every manner possible.
Graphics are ugly, blocky and every single character comes off as messy and deformed. The music is painful and each character speeds through looped catchphrases like a broken talking toy.
But then you get the gameplay, good lord the gameplay. Wrestling isnt really in this game, instead most of the game is spent spamming clunky badly animated attacks everywhere and hoping for the best. Theres rarely rhyme or reason as to when or if hits land. Just... Bleh
It may be vaugely fun if you happen to be drunk and playing with friends but so is jumping through tables loaded with pushpins and id rather do that then play this sorry excuse for a fighting game ever again.
Graphics are ugly, blocky and every single character comes off as messy and deformed. The music is painful and each character speeds through looped catchphrases like a broken talking toy.
But then you get the gameplay, good lord the gameplay. Wrestling isnt really in this game, instead most of the game is spent spamming clunky badly animated attacks everywhere and hoping for the best. Theres rarely rhyme or reason as to when or if hits land. Just... Bleh
It may be vaugely fun if you happen to be drunk and playing with friends but so is jumping through tables loaded with pushpins and id rather do that then play this sorry excuse for a fighting game ever again.
2008
Most TV show game spinoffs suck horribly and when it comes to reality tv based games, you usually are looking REALLY at that bottom of the bin here. Surprisingly... Top Chef somehow manages to avert this.
Ok dont get me wrong, its not a great game by any means, the animation can be a bit stiff and the gameplay basically is a series of quite repetitive 'dash' style timing maneuvers but its clearly been made with some thought.
This is mostly thanks to the occasional scoring quirk where you not only have to combo dishes together, but you have to make sure you use ingredients that compliment each other to gain bonuses. Its basic but effective, even though sometimes your end meal can be a spinach salad with spinach leaves and a spinach sauce... But thats not the point.
So yeah. Casual breezy fun that'll be a nice aside for fans of the series but anyone wanting something a bit more serious should look elsewhere
Ok dont get me wrong, its not a great game by any means, the animation can be a bit stiff and the gameplay basically is a series of quite repetitive 'dash' style timing maneuvers but its clearly been made with some thought.
This is mostly thanks to the occasional scoring quirk where you not only have to combo dishes together, but you have to make sure you use ingredients that compliment each other to gain bonuses. Its basic but effective, even though sometimes your end meal can be a spinach salad with spinach leaves and a spinach sauce... But thats not the point.
So yeah. Casual breezy fun that'll be a nice aside for fans of the series but anyone wanting something a bit more serious should look elsewhere
2002
This honestly feels like a platformer just on the verge of something good but through level design it doesnt quite work.
Generally theres some really nice ideas and some fun collectathon elements in play with the general gist being Dr Muto trying to collect isotopes, animal DNA, machine parts and other material in order to restore his destroyed planet.
As you move along in a very Banjo-Kazooie manner, you'll unlock various animal transformation moves which will let you access all manner of other areas like the Rat can get you into small spaces, the bat lets you fly for short periods of time. Its all generally pretty workable and fun.
But... Oh boy. The level design is not good. Most of the levels flat out are just not very intresting to traverse thanks to the game's colour palette of browns and greys as you explore sewers, junkyards and factorys aplenty. Worse are some of the collectables and the game's habit of sticking them in incredibly shitty and fustrating to reach locations. Sure, you dont have to get ALL of them to finish the game but theres still way too many gotcha and pixel perfect jump moments to really make you want to get to that point.
Shame really...
Generally theres some really nice ideas and some fun collectathon elements in play with the general gist being Dr Muto trying to collect isotopes, animal DNA, machine parts and other material in order to restore his destroyed planet.
As you move along in a very Banjo-Kazooie manner, you'll unlock various animal transformation moves which will let you access all manner of other areas like the Rat can get you into small spaces, the bat lets you fly for short periods of time. Its all generally pretty workable and fun.
But... Oh boy. The level design is not good. Most of the levels flat out are just not very intresting to traverse thanks to the game's colour palette of browns and greys as you explore sewers, junkyards and factorys aplenty. Worse are some of the collectables and the game's habit of sticking them in incredibly shitty and fustrating to reach locations. Sure, you dont have to get ALL of them to finish the game but theres still way too many gotcha and pixel perfect jump moments to really make you want to get to that point.
Shame really...
2000
I honestly have a big bag of feelings with this game. Bishi Bashi Special is essentially two Japanese games smashed into one overseas release (The two games titled as Super Bishi Bashi and Hyper Bishi Bashi respectively) and both are pretty similar in nature to the point where some minigames are used on both. Both of these are honestly an absolute blast with friends but theres definitely some issues that stop the collection as a whole from reaching its full potential.
Firstly we have Super Bishi Bashi and unfortunately it is very much the worse of the two thanks to the game just being outright mean at times with its objectives. Even on the easier difficulties, you'll find yourself using continue after continue thanks to an incredibly high skill ceiling, something not helped by some of the minigames being incredibly muddy and hard to control. Sure, they are minigames and if you dont like one, another is right around the corner but theres a few too many misses vs hits.
Thankfully Hyper Bishi Bashi is basically the reason we're here thanks to its fast but fair gameplay leading to all manner of fun moments. The single player portion thanks to the fairness also is better off, doubly so as the game decided to split the minigame selections into two nice playlists, one focusing entirely on single player score chasing, another focusing on direct competition against an AI or human opponent.
Overall the collection still stands strong but I do constantly wish the 'Super' side of the compilation was better.
Firstly we have Super Bishi Bashi and unfortunately it is very much the worse of the two thanks to the game just being outright mean at times with its objectives. Even on the easier difficulties, you'll find yourself using continue after continue thanks to an incredibly high skill ceiling, something not helped by some of the minigames being incredibly muddy and hard to control. Sure, they are minigames and if you dont like one, another is right around the corner but theres a few too many misses vs hits.
Thankfully Hyper Bishi Bashi is basically the reason we're here thanks to its fast but fair gameplay leading to all manner of fun moments. The single player portion thanks to the fairness also is better off, doubly so as the game decided to split the minigame selections into two nice playlists, one focusing entirely on single player score chasing, another focusing on direct competition against an AI or human opponent.
Overall the collection still stands strong but I do constantly wish the 'Super' side of the compilation was better.