If you noticed my rating of this game, Rango for Nintendo DS surprised me. It’s simply a solid top-down action game.

You control Rango as he makes his way to find meteor shards and rescue Beans' missing father, and fighting Bad Bill and his goons. Rango can switch between his different roles, by holding R and pressing one of the 4 directions on the D-Pad. At the beginning, Sherriff and “out of character” personas available. As Sheriff, you posess a peashooter, which is used to shoot at enemies and even flash enemies with a badge to stun them, which is unlocked pretty late in the game, and in casual stance, you can get more close and personal, as well as run fast, which is useful for traversing long distances, and also useful for timed switches. You can also block melee attacks with any persona that isn’t Sheriff if you hold the R button and lock onto an enemy. The game automatically locks you onto them so you can strafe, of course, just holding R also makes you strafe, and potentially lock onto enemies if you haven’t attacked them beforehand to do that, and press the R again to undo the lock-on. In a way, this game feels like a massaged Monster House GBA. Later on, you unlock more personas, and other items that can be used in combat. Excavator persona with a pickaxe can be used to uncover treasure, there are also some spots that are marked with a red X that only appears when you’re in that persona, and hitting that area yields lots of rewards, and counts towards a 100% completion. The pickaxe itself is slow to swing, but has a surprisingly high damage output. Lastly, there’s a Duelist persona, you can do a roll to quickly get away from enemy attacks, though it doesn’t give you invulnerability. You can also quickly dash towards the enemy if you lock onto them to give in some quick hits... seriously, you can upgrade that persona to hit pretty fast, aside from overall damage output, but I’ll talk about upgrades later. Also, Duelist persona can jump over some small gaps, usually leading to secrets. As for the items, there are homing golden bullets that can be shot as Sherriff and it can be aimed manually. It can be used to hit far-away levers and can also be used to scout areas ahead and potentially clear out enemies. Firecrackers can be thrown as Excavator, and, well… it’s good against enemies, and can be used to blow up walls for secrets, though be careful not to get hit by your own firecracker, your health can drop significantly. There’s a level of strategy when using different personas, and I found myself making use of all of them in different situations, even normal Rango who, even fully upgraded, is outmatched by pickaxe or a sword, but is still useful for running ability, and making a quick run from one area to another. Of course, to make traversing less of a hassle, there are 4 roadrunner points, which act as fast travel.

There’s not that much enemy variety, but there is some. Naturally, there are enemies that shoot their own projectiles, and those that get close and personal. There are enemies that hurl firecrackers at you, or those that charge. There are rodents that jump on top of you, trying to squish you, that only appear in the first few areas. Thare are also giant charging rodents can even stun you, disabling the ability to change current persona and defaulting you to normal Rango. There are also annoying flies that swoop into you and seem to damage you even when they die, for some reason. There are also lizard eating plants, though they can also eat other enemies. Coming near them is ill advised, unless you can roll past its attacks, and its invulnerable to normal peashooter shots. Using firecrackers or gold bullets can be beneficial. There are also big pickaxe enemies, that are also invulnerable to normal shots, so, getting close and personal is it. Admittedly, that’s not a whole lot, so the combat can feel a little bit repetitive at times. The bosses, on the other hand, are actually a highlight, featuring interesting patterns to learn, and are just engaging. For example, the rattlesnake jack, the second boss of the game, sees you chipping its health away, while it slithers about and occasionally shoots at you. It would be a pretty easy fight with all the firecrackers lying about (btw, I’m going to call them dynamite from now on, because c’mon), but when its health is seemingly depleted, phase 2 begins, where using dynamite is required, and it moves about faster. When it sits on one of the four wooden panels, you need to throw dynamite at it to crack that panel. Crack the same panel twice, and the boss is toast.

Throughout the game, you’ll find the game’s few collectibles, like metal bits (gold) used to buy stuff, and upgrade tokens to upgrade Rango’s roles, stuff like damage, item capacity or other things. There are also power-ups, depending on the color, enhances one of Rango’s roles (except for out of character one for some reason), stuff like increasing peashooter’s fire rate or making pickaxe swing around and excavate in a 3x3 grid, or making duelist’s roll damage enemies, though these effects are temporary. There are chests to be found pretty much everywhere which usually contain aforementioned upgrade tokens, and, in specific chests, fruit that gives extra health. It’s much easier to buy all the fruit from the salon to upgrade Rango’s health up to 17 hearts, though if you die, you always start with 3, as if this were Metroid for NES. There are also a few side quests, which usually involve killing specific enemies and only one that sees you picking up crates in the desert, lost merchandise. While not much, they do provide a little bit of a distraction. Did you know that there are achievements in this game? Something that's not very common for the platform. They’re called feats, and involve stuff like upgrading your roles fully, or killing enemies with golden bullets or dynamite, stuff like that. I was invested in this game, that I went for 100% completion… I would’ve liked to say I succeeded, but I missed a single chest and about 6 red marks for excavation. I really wish the game had a way to track how many of these things are left to be found in a particular area. The map at the top only provides the layout of the area and maybe a marker to tell you where to go if you’re still going through the story. As much as I like this game, I'm not going to wander around figuring out where I missed stuff.

The graphics are quite solid, and the music is pretty good. The plot doesn’t actually follow the movie, and it genuinely feels like a fever dream. I mean, there are aliens at the end and everything. It opens up with Rango incinerating some guy with a metor shard. There was a vision from Mr. Timms in the dessert, Beans says something about “defensive mechanism kicking in again”. I was sure that the game would be written off as a stroke, but uhh, that doesn’t happen. There’s also a mention of zombies, which is called out as something that didn’t happen, but it does seem to be exclusive to the Home Console versions of the game.

Of course, Rango is not without faults, aside from others that I've mentioned previously. For one, I found it way too easy to accidently jump down ledges and having to climb up the place I were in before, Monster House GBA had you push against where you wanted to jump down for a little longer, but I also don’t remember many instances where I could’ve accidentally jumped and reset my progress. There are also box-pushing “puzzles”. As excavator, you can push and pull objects onto switches, and there’s only one that I found to be interesting, the rest felt like a time waste. Another issue with these, is that you can accidentally undo your progress – if you die, and press the switch, the opened gate will close back, which means you’ll have to push those boxes back where they belong, since they reset to their original positions. Lastly, there are a few enemies that are burrowed in the ground that only appear when you get close, which can feel a little cheap.

Overall, Rango for Nintendo DS ended up being a pretty enjoyable experience. It’s one of those elusive “good” licensed games for the handheld that I may even pronounce a “hidden gem”. It’s not flawless of course and far from great, the combat can be a little repetitive at times, and it probably could’ve used more enemy variety and a little more polish, but I do like its overall design, and it’s a surprisingly fun time. I can actually recommend giving this one a go.

Enchanted for Nintendo DS, is, well... not that good as you can imagine. It’s basically a worse version of Phineas and Ferb for the same platform, though seeing as that game released a few years later, the opposite is more like it: Phineas and Ferb is a better Enchanted. Not that that makes it a great game anyway.

So, what do we have here? It’s a 3D platformer, with touch screen mini-games galore. The platforming itself is not very challenging or fun, and occasionally requires touchscreen action, like swinging off poles. There’s also material gathering aspect, something that sees a return in Phineas and Ferb, as Giselle you’ll find yourself crafting dresses or other stuff required to move the game along. Gathering materials requires using a specific touch screen action for specific instances, like a circular move to clean a spider’s web to gather some string and such, or honey from bee hives. I, uhh… don’t like the crafting aspect of this game. First off, gathering materials becomes a chore – you basically go back and forth between transitions to respawn item spots, and do one and the same task. Second, the crafting itself presents one and the same mini-game of drawing a circle to spin the bucket with materials that’s been thrown in, you’ll have to change from clock-wise to counter clock-wise periodically. I don’t remember having to grind in Phineas and Ferb, though in fairness I did gather most materials on my way to the goal, while this game throws you in a sort-of central location with no goal besides collecting materials. Even if I did grind in that game, it wasn’t as egregious as in this one.

Giselle is accompanied by various animal buddies of varying usefulness… mostly context specific. There’s a chipmunk/rat, the animal depends on whether you’re in Andalasia or in New York, but serves same functionality. Anyway, to be honest… I forgor what it does. I remember the rat was useful to lure slime enemies in New York (don’t question that) onto vents to make them fall through, where you controlled the rat with the touch screen, which was… kinda interesting, makes me think of Overlord in a way. There was also one area where the rat just chewed a wall to pass through, which lead to materials. Otherwise, I don’t think it’s useful for anything. There’s a Bear/Dog which is heavy enough to sit on switches. A cartoony blue bird/pigeon, which can be used to gather some out of reach materials. Butterflies, which make you move faster, especially if combined with a cartwheel move which only seems to serve as a mobility option, as it’s faster than just running. As soon as I discovered they make you fast, I made as much use of them as I could. There’s a unicorn/horse that can kick an obstacle, which is only used in the main story, like, 2 times. If you thought that animal was useless, hold your horses, let me introduce you to skunk/skunk. All it does is… gas enemies. It’s only required in a sort-of tutorial section where you let terrible smell at 10 mushroom enemies, and never use it again. Seeing as there’s no need to defeat enemies as Giselle, at least not in the main story, pretending these enemies don't exist is a viable strategy. Lastly, there’s a cat, who is unlocked after the game has been beaten and you reload the game in the “Enchanted Mode”, where all areas are open to explore, if you want to 100% this thing. You can pet the cat by drawing a circle around it, which restores health. The recovery is slow, so it’s usefulness is questionable.

There are song stages scattered about. Neat, but most of them are just… useless? The game says if you sing a song on them, something will happen. Well, in the tutorial, it opened a door. The mini-game is just tracing a line of one of the images presented. After that, I tried a couple, and didn’t notice any good effects, so I continued ignoring them until they were actually required. Like, what’s the point? There’s a song that makes you walk on water, which is required once (or twice, I don't remember anymore). Again, it could be useful for 100% thing, but it’s very situational outside of that, as if these pads are mostly a pointless distraction.

Besides Giselle, you’ll also have to play as Pip the Chipmunk and Prince Edward. Let’s talk about the former. Pip’s sections are pretty simple 2D platforming sections. You can use a touch screen to touch Pip to jump (or use a button for that), and there are items scattered throughout, which can also be touched. Pip can cling onto walls and ceilings, and enter some glass orb thing for rodents and ride inside it which gives a speed boost, though you can’t climb surfaces like that. When you beat the level, you get a rank based on your performance. I kept consistently getting B ranks, not sure how to get it higher. Maybe collecting all items, or I just wasn’t fast enough, even though I pretty much speedran my way through. There are also a couple of basic bosses tied to these sections. It’s a pretty simple and inoffensive distraction. That’s where my assessment of this gameplay type would probably end, but, according to The Cutting Room Floor, Pip’s Game was supposed to be a separate item on the main menu and not mandatory for the main story (or maybe it was still mandatory, we may never know for sure), which does explain the ranking system and best time saving, despite having to start a new game to see that new record. To be fair, presence of these sections does make sense in the context of the game’s story… except, for the last one, where Nathaniel seemingly frees the chipmunk from the ball thingy where he put him in the first place, which is NOT what happens in the movie… only for Pip to be entrapped in it again, and be freed by Edward at the end, something that DOES actually happen in the movie. Apparently, there was also one Pip level completely cut, he would’ve climbed up to the dragon and made it fall, just like in the movie, but the level was never made. Altron did eventually get to make a side game that remained a side game, that being Bolt DS and its Rhino’s Mission, and that legit was the most fun I got out of that game. I could probably say the same for Pip’s Game honestly, even if it’s just simple and OK.

Next, we have Prince Edward, which focuses on the combat. Guess what? More touchscreen goodness! Basically, you touch an enemy when an icon appears and participate in fighting. First, you “catch stars”, there’s stars falling from the top where you have to touch them and avoid black ones, one that moves about and bounces away when you touch it and you have to touch it multiple times, and a roulette. Depending on the color, you may receive health, a special meter, or… I think increased damage? Anyway, there are a few methods of attacks. Slices when you slide in heart icons from one end to another, thrust, when you just touch multiple dots, or… more thrusting when you have one dot, but you touch it multiple times. There are also moments where you have to defend yourself by sliding in a wave-like pattern, and there are also occasions where you need to ESCAPE! By touching one dot multiple times… again. Pretty simple… and fairly repetitive. There’s not much variety in what you do for attacks. Maybe they add a couple harder ones that still act the same, but ultimately, there’s still not much to keep me interested or engaged. There are also pointless finishing moves, assuming you didn’t touch a bad star in the opening, you’ll have to perform a finishing move, again, slide a heart icon from one end to another, but in a complex pattern (ok, you don't actually HAVE to do it, you can just let the timer run out). All it does is… give you a spectacle, and more hit combo, which is, as far as I can tell, worthless. One more detail, is that at the end of the game, Giselle takes on the role of Prince Edward, with identical mechanics, to fight the dragon. That’s it. Actually, there’s also Edward’s Horse sections, that I forgot about the first time until I encountered it for the second and final time. It’s very simple, you draw a circle around the horse to speed up clockwise, or slow down counter-clockwise. You tap the horse or Edward to jump over or duck under oncoming obstacles. That’s all there is to the mini-game. Pretty basic.

The graphics are alright, and the music… well, it’s also alright. One thing I noticed with Altron’s DS games is that they retain that GBA sound quality, I noticed this with their later games (Bolt DS and Phineas and Ferb DS), and this game just reaffirmed that Altron didn’t feel like upgrading… for some reason. Heck, I can even recognise some sound effects from Hey Arnold! The Movie, a Game Boy Advance game from 2002. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but DS is capable of producing high quality sound. Again, I’m gonna cite The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody: Circle of Spies’s soundtrack as one of the best and highest quality soundtracks I’ve heard from the handheld. Even Madagascar DS and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire DS show how big an upgrade the sound’s quality is over their GBA counterparts, and they released relatively early in DS’s life span (at least, they released a couple years earlier than this game, and Altron’s subsequent ones). The story… ok, I don’t usually talk about stories in these games, because they’re usually the same as the movie. The thing is, this is the only licensed game, out of more than 60 that I’ve played up to this point, that actually made me want to watch its source material. And so I did. The game is mostly faithful to the movie, though there are a bunch of differences throughout. Like how Robert and Giselle at the end don’t make a callback to that one scene at the beginning of the movie, where Giselle lands in Edward’s hands. It does also have a few scenes that aren’t in the movie, like the one where Nancy receives pigeon gift delivery and talks about forgiveness. There are a few instances where you’re transported to Andalasia for a flashback or “What if?”, which is usually used to teach a new mechanic. Also, there are slimes ramming about in New York, Narissa’s minions, the game says. Yeah. I did notice a few grammatical errors in the text, though not as many as in game’s unused files.

Overall, the game ends up being a very “meh” experience. The game does feel a little unfinished and unpolished at times, for example, you can encounter straight up dead ends, which made me lose time. Like, for Enchanted Mode, sure, but for main story just block the unnecessary routes, alright? The crafting and gathering aspects are not very enjoyable. The mini-games are pretty repetitive, one thing I can’t criticize Phineas and Ferb DS for is the increased variety of them (even if that game still ends up being repetitive at times). And I feel there are too many ideas, that many things feel pointless. The combat is mediocre at best. Enchanted for Nintendo DS is simply not a very good game.

iCarly for Nintendo DS is a mini-game collection, which some people have compared to Wario Ware. I have not played Wario Ware, so... suck it, this is the best Wario Ware game I've played. And, I'm going to be brutally honest here... the game is actually kinda fun? The game starts with a “Choose a funny name!” screen, where you choose a “funny” name, such as “Ew! Ew! Ew! Etc.” or “Bubble Butt”. I chose “Suckish’, because I expected the game to suck, I mean c’mon. But to my surprise, I enjoyed it.

As I mentioned before, iCarly is a mini-game collection, featuring some unusual activities, such as finding chicks in the dark, or decorating a Christmas tree with noses, or dressing a dog as a cow and a tiger. The mini-games do repeat, but usually they’re changed enough to feel slightly different and more difficult. Usually, some are pretty much the same thing, like a crane mini-game or the dark maze where only things changed are items you pick (or “pick”) and the layout of the maze, respectively. All of these mini-games utilize the touch screen. The only big issue I have with the game, is if you fail any of the mini-games, you have to start from the very beginning of the Webisode, which is pretty annoying. The difficulty of the mini-games is also inconsistent, you can have the second last mini-game be hard, and then the last one be much easier, or the very first mini-game be very hard, and the next one being a breather. There are also mini-games exclusive to DSi, which make use of camera and microphone, which I actually like, first one is about finding various colors with the camera. Even with a little repetition, I did like the mini-games and the creativity. The game is pretty short, which is typical for licensed games, but this one was really short, I beat it in under 2 hours. Of course, you can quick play the mini-games if you like them that much or “iBreak Records” which is unlocked after beating the game.

The graphics and music are alright, though the latter, some of the tracks can be a tad repetitive. The story is fully voice-acted, which is nice.

Overall, a genuine surprise, it probably helps that I’ve played a few bad or average games beforehand, but I liked iCarly DS. I’m not saying it’s a goooooooooood game, but I thought it was decent, and enjoyable enough. And I’m sure I’ll be damned for exclaiming that this game is good-ish.

Space Chimps for Nintendo DS is a 2.5D platformer, developed by Wayforward Technologies. I wrote down a few of their licensed games after playing a surprisingly good Despicable Me: The Game: Minion Mayhem. Hotel Transilvania was a slightly worse, but still decent offering. Unfortunately, it was only going downhill, as Space Chimps demonstrates that the company is still capable of developing some typical licensed garbage.

The gameplay is a pretty standard 2D platforming, mostly. You can jump, you can barrel-roll in air which acts as an attack against all lifeforms, making the character spin as if it were a Sonic The Hedgehog game. You automatically enter this spinning state if you jump on top of an enemy, but it's always safer to enable it preemptively. You can wall-jump, but it only works on some surfaces, for some reason. Like, the game is not always consistent about which surfaces you can jump off of. You can also slide, which is only really useful in cave levels where you're told this move to slip into tight areas. It takes a second to initiate, so as a combat tool it's worthless. And it's not required in any other level, so its inclusion is questionable. There's also a dodge maneuver by pressing X. Haven't used it much either, but at least it sounds more useful than the slide. Unfortunately, the level design is pretty bland. The game is very similar to Garfield's Nightmare, in that it can have some good ideas and interesting gimmicks, but the level design leaves a lot to be desired. I'm not asking for Donkey Kong Country levels of execution, but at least something interesting. Actually, missed opportunity to turn this into a DKC-like, seeing as it stars primates. The only notable level is towards the end, after escaping the prison thing to the outside areas, which seem to have some festivies on-going. One of the sections has spikes everywhere, as if it were a Rayman game, where you have to carefully navigate on rolling things. And in the last portion, one of the gimmicks from an earlier level returns, the mantis creatures that swoop in certain areas, kinda similar to Donkey Kong Country 3 's Fire Ball Frenzy. Actually decent level design? Even the boss battle is decent, up to this point they weren't much of a challenge. This one has pattern recognition and stuff Unfortunately, you have to trudge through a lot of it's dull gameplay to get there.

There's actually another type of gameplay in this game - flying. And I dislike these. You just avoid upcoming hazards and try not to hit surfaces too much, but the collision can be occasionally janky, and the controls don't feel consistent, as they can feel... slippery. Like if you hold the d-pad for long and let go, you carry momentum. It could very well be the fact that the action takes place on both of the game's screens, and the game keeps you from being in-between of the screens. In any case, these don't feel good.

The game does offer some extras. You can collect coins, with each level having exactly 100, you can also collect 5 butterflies in each level, and depending on your performace, you can get up to 3 golden bananas. There's an in-game shop that allow you to buy extra outfits, like the "Dole®" shirt, or even abilities like a double jump (as you can imagine, it's very useful). At least there's some replay value to revisit all the levels to get some stuff. I don't know why you would want to replay its levels, but the option is there.

The graphics are pretty decent. Once again, similar to Garfield's Nightmare, it's a 3D game, with platforming levels taking place in a 2D plane, although I think that game's graphics are smoother. I did notice stutter when the enemies load. Speaking of enemy loading, some of them can appear right before my face, which feels unpolished. Speaking of unpolished, I did notice one area with cutoff, thanks to the camera panning while holding L button. The cutscenes are pre-rendered and feel a bit cheap. I get it, they definitely aren't going to be the same quality as the movie, and it's a common practice, but... these feel inconsistent, you can clearly feel the framerate dipping in said cinematics. The music is also pretty mediocre. Unfortunately, Jake Kaufman didn't lend his talent, and it kind of shows. Not that it's "bad", but its just so generic. There's probably one track that I can call decent. Another disappointment. Yet again, Garfield's Nightmare beats this game in that department. Can you already tell this is basically a worse Garfield's Nightmare? That game wasn't very good to begin with. One of the few things this game does better over that game is offer more replay value.

Overall, not a very good game, with mostly basic level design, occasionally janky mechanics and those frustrating flying levels, these monkeys are not worth your money (or time. or even space).

Ice Age 2: The Meltdown for Nintendo DS is an interesting beast of a game. It's a sort of top-down puzzle game with exploration element to it. You control one of three main characters that you acn switch between with their dedicated tiles. Your goal is simply find a special character that unlocks the next level (Scrat, Crash and Eddie (both are located separately), or the boss statue). This was actually a relief to me. See, the levels are actually quite open and extensive, and get larger as the game progresses. Along the way, there are other creatures that you can rescue from The Meltdown. You don't have to rescue them, and they only count for score. Needless to say, I sacrificed a lot of creatures to get to the end of the game.

From the tutorial, I expected this to be a middling straightforward puzzle game, but it was anything but. There are golden acorns that lead the way, but you still have to go out of your way to get a proper character, and in later levels, they aren't present at the start of the level for guidance, which, in my opinion, leads to a bit of trial and error and confusion. In later levels, you're required to use one character, then backtrack for another, and come back, all simply to beat the level. There is a mini-map at the top of the screen, which marks all the creatures as dots, and level completion stuff as stars, but I do wish the game also marked character swap pads. On top of all of this, there's a timer constantly ticking, indicating the flood level. You must pick up snowflakes or destroy objects to get smaller snoflakes to freeze the water and reset the timer. Collecting 50 acorns also freezes water. Once you're past the game's confusing beginning, you're in for a tedious time. I didn't like the game that much, the mechanics can be occasionally janky, the level design can be a bit of a mess, and it's just not very fun. I was actually worried about each world having 6 points to unlock. Thankfully, there are only 3 required levels with 1 boss at the end, the 2 other pads are optional mini-games.

Speaking of the boss, you use touch screen to fling snowballs at the fish, and drag the ice platforms in place of broken ones, and occasionally, said ice platforms can have vicious plants that can stun you. Simply touch one to rid of it. While the boss does get slightly harder each time, it's still not very difficult and it's just one and the same thing. Very generous, game.

Overall, not a very fun game. The only good thing I can say about it is its humorous dialogue. The graphics are decent. The presentation is actually quite unique, as it seems to use some pre-rendered videos for like the main menu and game over screens (and these are unique for each world). The levels themselves use 3D graphics and look alright. The world and level selection is simplistic, but it has a 3D-like appearance when you scroll between worlds. The music is ok. In the end, I don't really recommend this game, as you may find it boring and tedious. I'd rather play Ice Age for Game Boy Advance than this. That game wasn't amazing (in fact, quite mediocre), but at least it was straightforward and relatively pain free. This game is a miss.

Now that the game’s service has been shut down, I’ll just write my thoughts on the game. To me, it made sense to shut down the original Love Live! School Idol Festival, seeing as the game ran for nearly 10 years, and the idea of a new shine successor sounds really cool. Shutting this game down made less sense to me, and was kind of a surprise, but I guess they just want to keep running one game instead of keeping tabs on multiple projects.

Anyway, I thought the game was fine for what it was. I was actually excited at the idea of combining all characters from all 3 schools together. Kind of like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s slogan of “Everyone is here”. That introduced the potential of new and interesting character interactions. The characters and stories are just as fun as ever. They had to design new characters for Nijigasaki school, in addition to the three regular characters that won popularity user poll in Love Live! School Idol Festival. Heck, they introduced new members even as the story progressed, with 3 new characters, rounding the roster to 30. I still think all characters are fun and memorable in their own way. Even the characters I think are “the worst” are at least decent and can be entertaining. You, the player is technically also a character, displaying big time dedication to all the idols and working 24/7. Seriously, how the player character manages to tend to the needs of whopping 30 girls? Anyway, your character’s personality is preset. When going through bond stories, there are dialogue choices, but these are merely flavor text that only show one line of extra dialogue. May as well not have these, to be honest. Said bond stories were unlocked by increasing bond values for each character by putting them through the works, and as you might guess, focused on that character. There were also event stories, stories tagged to an event that unlocked as you obtained event points (or unlocked them with memory keys if you missed ‘em), typically putting 6 girls from all 3 schools in different situations, which is where character interactions shined. I also really liked stories that were more fantastical, or alternate-universe-like. Slice of life is good and all, but having fantasy elements provides a nice change of pace and makes them rather unique and interesting. Unfortunately, I did notice QA degrading over time, with more typos and other snafus, for example, in this image, the line is repeated for both the main character and one of the girls. I highly doubt that was intentional. The devs were generous enough to open all main and bond stories leading to the game’s closure. Something I can’t say for Princess Connect! Re:Dive.

The gameplay was changed from a more straightforward rhythm gameplay of Love Live! School Idol Festival to be more complex. There’s now management aspect to it, besides tapping or holding the notes, you also can switch mini-groups to appeal with them. Only three idols at the time, with unique skills and attributes. You can assign one group to be focused on score, then swap to a group focused on stamina recovery. This adds a layer of strategy and depth to the gameplay, which I can appreciate. The stages themselves can have trick notes that encourage certain builds. There’s a beauty in Love Live! School Idol Festival’s simplistic gameplay, but it did get repetitive and it’s wasn't very fun to do for the sake of it. I’m not saying this game’s rhythm gameplay is that great, but I do appreciate the added complexity. Buuut… I’m still thankful Skip Tickets existed. Skip the tedium of replaying one song multiple times and reap the rewards. Also, the autoplay function was a godsend, since I emulated the game on PC for convinience (maybe I could've mapped the keys just right, but whatever... skill issue and all that). I primarily focused on putting school idols through practice, unlocking their power-up tiles with macaroonies and such. I just liked focusing on upgrading characters, unlocking stories and just going at my own pace. There’s honestly more than just choosing characters and upgrading them, there are accessories that also can be upgraded and give a bonus to attributes, as well as a passive effect that can be activated, and putting characters through training, yield items and additional skills. Again, I admire the attempt of making the play experience fresh, making this one of the more unique rhythm games I’ve played.

Overall, I liked the game well enough, though I think I might be biased, simply because I liked the characters and stories well enough. I don’t think I’m qualified to say that it was a great game if we compare it to other mobile offerings (though to be honest, I don’t know what to compare it to), but it was, in my opinion, at least decent, and I liked to check it daily. It didn’t feel as generous compared to Love Live! School Idol Festival, but you could still scrape by. The characters are just as likeable, and the new Nijigasaki characters are mostly fun. The gameplay was made more interesting and complex, which I appreciated. It was just a chill time, y’know? I think I’ll hold some fond memories of this game, just like the other one, and I’m looking forward to what Love Live! School Idol Festival 2: Miracle Live! will have to offer.

Also, I still think Kasumi Nakasu is objectively the best character ever ok bye

So I discovered the first Medal of Honor is a PS1-exclusive first person shooter, so I got curious and decided to check it out. And, I think it holds up remarkably well. In my Alien Resurrection review, I made a following statement:

the game was the first, or at least one of the earliest games to utilize dual stick control scheme which has become a standard in modern gaming

I might have exaggerated when I said “the game was the first”. Medal of Honor does feature a preset that allows for one stick to move, and the other to move the camera if you have a Dualshock controller. There are probably earlier examples of these controls that I’m not aware of (also, I’m talking about double analog controls in the context of a first person shooter, I know Ape Escape exists). Anyway, I thought these controls worked pretty well. Of course, just aiming with the camera isn’t precise or advisable, since there’s no reticle. That’s where aiming mode comes in, press and hold the left stick to aim. The game is inspired quite a bit by Rare’s Goldeneye 007, and it shows. I thought standing still and aiming while taking shots would be detrimental, but it worked fine in the end, and you can lean slightly left or right if you tilt the pressed stick, although it’s more for aiming accuracy rather than dodging. There are “stealth” missions where you act as a spy, you’re required to “shoot” your documents to make people let you pass and to avoid suspicion, although some people of higher ranking can bust you. Failing doesn’t result in an instant failure and isn’t severe enough, which I’m thankful for, although it’s still better to be sneaky. I’m also thankful that there are only a three of these levels in the entire game.

There’s a decent variety of weapons, although your arsenal changes from mission to mission. In one level you get a sniper rifle, in the other, a rocket launcher. There are a few minor things I like about combat. For one, the enemies will actually try to use your grenades against you or just kick them out of the way. It’s satisfying to throw a grenade, then stun them with a regular shot so that the grenade explodes in their hand. Although, the AI isn’t always smart about them, as they can kick a grenade towards a wall, bouncing back at them. Another small touch I like, is that the helmets are actually protective. I thought it was a neat thing in Darkest of Days, but I discovered this game did it MUCH earlier. It’s a mechanic I don’t see very often in First Person Shooters (not that I’ve played that many). The difficulty is mostly smooth, there aren’t any checkpoints, but there are rarely moments of frustration when you lose, actually, some levels are pretty short. That being said, it does get pretty tough towards the end, which automatic rifle men tearing you apart in seconds, and rocket launcher enemies, colliding with a rocket is pretty much an instant death, which does feel a bit much.

The graphics are actually pretty nice, the characters are well animated, and there are plenty for being hit in different areas. The framerate is mostly steady, with rare instances where there are many enemies that slow down the game. The only issue I have with the presentation is the draw distance, it’s not very far. Usually, it’s not actually an issue, but it can be difficult to spot enemies, like in that mine level towards the end where you have an open area and a rocket guy on the bridge, whom you can’t see and pick from the distance. And they can just bamboozle you from bad eyesight. When zooming in using a sniper rifle, you can see the geometry popping in and it still doesn’t give you much of visibility. The music and sound effects are cinematic, which I guess is to be expected from a Steven Spielberg production. And I’m not complaining, it sounds unique.

Overall, I had a surprisingly good and fun time with Medal of Honor for the Playstation. I can call this game a classic, the dual stick controls work well, the presentation is nice, and the gameplay is enjoyable. If you’re a fan of first person shooters, and especially if you’re a fan of retro games, this first entry into popular series may surprise you.

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole for Nintendo DS is underrated. At least, if we compare its metacritic score to that of Garfield Gets Real. That being said, while I vastly prefer this title, I'm not saying it's actually a great time, in fact, I think it's one of the most average experiences I've had.

The game is basically a flight simulator with RPG elements. The game is almost entirely touch screen based. You fly around by moving your stylus in a third-person perspective. You can also press any button (except for Start, which is for pausing and skipping cutscenes) to do a 180 degree turn. Flying around does feel nice, although there are a few occasions of janky collision with the envoirement. There are occasional weather currents that act as a speed boost, and there are even especally weathery currents that can teleport you somewhere, used in place of backtracking. In these, you're required to hit the currents, and avoid lightning bolts. Pretty simple stuff. Of course, it can't be all about flying around.

Besides flying around, the game also features a fairly simple combat. When in an encounter, you're placed in a circular arena. You swipe through enemies and hold a button to block upcoming attacks. After succesful blocks and attacks, a special meter fills up, which can be used to release a more powerful attack, by swiping in a particular direction from the enemy. You can also do a circular move with the stylus, which creates an area of effect, but I didn't find it very useful when dealing with enemies. Unfortunately, the combat ends up being a repetitive process, as there's little enemy variety. The only interesting encounters I can name are small bats, which are easy to defeat, but they're also annoying, in that there are many of them, and instead of hurting (or at least, they don't hurt very much), they stun you until you break out, and rare boss battles. The only two noteworthy bosses are the twin owls (or not twin, but basically just two owls) that only can be attacked when they're done swooping in on you and spinning around. The boss utilizes something that isn't strictly required - moving around to avoid being hit. Unfortunately, once one of them is defeated, the fight degrades into the repetitive swipe fest. They didn't even try to fight back. The final boss is a little more interesting, and surprisingly, actually pretty easy. The most noteworthy thing about it, is sometimes it utilizes some machine that spawns projectiles in a circular pattern. At least it added an interesting phase of hazard avoidance, even if it doesn't evolve past that. I think the game should've leaned more into a bullet hell aspect, with careful play, or just... more interesting enemy patterns. There's definitely more potential here, I would've liked something similar to Princess Remedy in a World of Hurt. As is, the combat ends up being not very satisfying or engaging.

The levels themselves aren't just a string of combat however, you do have certain objectives, like bringing coal and somehow using it like a bomb and dropping giant gates through the textures, or burning stuff. There are missions where you have to assist an NPC or protect people, err, owls, which does involve everyone's beloved good fashioned brawling. Clawing? Anyway, there is one entire level which is a race against another NPC, just fly forward and dodge deforming terrain or other hazards, which reminds me of recent Donkey Kong Country titles with rocket barrels. Even then, I don't think these objectives are particularly interesting, it's still mostly just flying around, doing fighting and chores.

I haven't actually touched upon aformentioned RPG elements, have I? Well, after each level, you receive experience points, based on your performance. Wrecking enemies, collecting EXP spheres that are floating around and overall level rank. You can receive a gold medal for level complete if you complete it under a certain time threshold, kill enough enemies, collect enough orbs and don't die. I may actually be compelled to go after all gold medals. Getting a certain amount will unlock a bonus mission. The only one I unlocked was a timed race, just fly through rings. I'll be honest, I think it's kind of a lame reward, just flying around isn't my idea of fun. Anyway, when you get enough experience, your attributes will raise, like health, and you get one skill point to upgrade those special attacks. When progressing through the story, your gear will be upgraded for more damage and defense, as well as the ability to carry more items. Also, you unlock "Wingman", which is basically an assisting owl who gives you a passive effect, like allowing more items to be carried, heal when outside of battle or fill the special attack meter quicker. Speaking of items, they can be scattered about in levels, and can be useful in battles, like health pickups or a shield to take less damage. I must say, these elements add a bit more depth to the game, and I respect the ambition.

Graphically, I think the game looks pretty nice, with good looking environments. The color palette also changes depending on the location, for example it'll change to be more orange and red when in fiery areas, which adds a bit of a visual flare to the game. The framerate does occasionally stutter, mostly when there are moving hazards present or other loaded areas. The music on the other hand, is a bit more average.

Overall, the game does have some nice things about it, combining RPG mechanics and a flight sim sounds like a unique idea. Unfortunately, it doesn't really do anything special beyond having a little depth with said RPG mechanics, the flying is ok, and the combat doesn't have a lot going for it, which is a shame. It's just another licensed game, which isn't a bad time, but I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend it to everybody. It's just ok.

Littlewood is a fairly enjoyable life sim game. The gameplay is engaging, each in-game day I was asking “What to do today?”, the progression system is straightforward, you can chop wood, mine rocks farm crops or fruit from trees, fish, catch bugs, craft, and even play a card mini-game. The characters are likeable and memorable. You can customize your town, and decorate houses. And there are useful items you’ll uncover as you progress, such as an OP item that gives you infinite stamina basically. Speaking of stamina, the time flows differently, instead of just ticking down like normal, your actions will decrease the available time, which means you can do a consistent amount of stuff per day, which is pretty unique. Sounds like great time, right? Well… kinda. I do think the game is good, but I also feel it has one fatal flaw.

I think the game is severely lacking in replayability and content. I’m going with an obvious comparison here, Stardew Valley. With Littlewood, I can’t imagine my new playthroughs playing much differently, or sticking with the game for much longer. I would still fix up the town, max my skills, unlock other locations, and so on. The ONLY thing I can imagine being different is a marriage candidate, but at that point I’d rather just backup my save instead of starting over. What’s different about Stardew Valley? Well, for one, there’s simply MUCH more content and depth. The game is more sizeable in terms of the number of areas, activities, and is filled with secrets that I have yet to uncover, and I’ve player around 70 hours of that game (as of writing this). In comparison, I’ve played about 50 hours of Littlewood, and unlocked roughly 90% of the game’s content, and I have all but two achievements. It isn’t just about content. Stardew Valley gives you more replay value by offering different farms you can start on, making the game fresh. Lastly, modding, baybeeeeee. Now, modding isn’t necessary to make your game insanely replayable, I played hundreds of hours of Rune Factory 4 on both 3DS and Switch without any mods, which is a testament to its fun factor, but I do think modding is a nice extra that can breath new life into games. I really think the devs should’ve stuck with Littlewood for longer, maybe add a few new things, or aforementioned modding support for the fans to do the dirty work, instead of going straight to the sequel. At least there's hope that the sequel will be bigger, faster, and stronger too.

In the end though, I do still think Littlewood is an enjoyable enough game. It may not be as content rich, but it's simple, and it’ll still provide many hours of fun content. That is, if you don’t mind some repetition. I can recommend this.

The most fun I've had with a video game in a while. Incredible high-pace action, shooting and moving around feels satisfying and performing those sweet sweet glory kills. The game was so fun, I actually thought it was short and wanted more, even though it ran for like, 8+ hours. But, there are loads of extras. You can play classic maps, that are modeled like classic Doom (1993) levels, with modern gameplay. You can revisit old levels to do challenges or find secrets you missed. You can new game+ and upgrade Doom Slayer to the max and so on.

Also, this game made me realise that maybe I'm underestimating my new laptop. I thought this game was a benchmark for good PCs, I mean, I already know that I can run A Hat in Time or Slime Rancher on highest settings with great performance, but I thought Doom (2016) would be quite intensive. But it ran smoothly. Or maybe the game is not as intensive as I thought, I dunno. In any case, the graphics are great. And the music... well, y'know the deal. It's intense during combat and makes you feel like a badass.

The game is not perfect of course, there were a few times, where an enemy would just stand still and not do much. There were also a couple of instances where I had to search for the last enemy to end the combat encounter, in big arenas, on top of occasionally faulty AI. There was also one time, where I performed a glory kill and clipped out of bounds, and died. Thankfully, it seems it's very rare to encounter casually, and it does make for a neat speedrun trick. But otherwise, I didn't notice many technical faults.

Overall, the game is pure fun, a high recommendation for First Person Shooter fans.

Garfield Gets Real. Garfield Gets Real... bad. This game is truly awful, bottom of the barrel tier stuff. There are only 7 levels (thank god for its relatively short run time), but those are levels of hell. First, you have levels where you need to collect stuff that’s falling from… somewhere, and you need to collect a certain amount. These are the most tolerable levels. Not great, but at least they don’t make me pull my hair out. You move left or right, and you can dive left and right, and jump in place. Occasionally, coins appear, but these are only for score. Basically worthless. Next, there are “””“platforming”””” 2.5D levels. You can only move forward, jump in place or long jump forward. These are long, no checkpoints and feature inconsistent mechanics that can force you to die. The first such level took me around FORTY minutes of suffering, thanks to bad hitboxes and swinging things not spawning consistently that makes it hard to jump from one onto the other (sometimes impossible), and it takes forever to beat. There are only two such levels in this roster, but these are the worst. The last one where you rescue Odie from a burning house forced me to jump into a hole near the end of the level. Remember, you can long jump forward, no short jumps forward, and you can’t just walk up stairs, so I had no option of progressing other than dying. Great game design. Lastly, there’s an awfully long memory game, where you remember moves and execute them at the right moments. The moves themselves don’t show up as button prompts, instead they show up as Garfield in different poses. They’re somewhat intuitive for touch screen controls but not for buttons (as the game can be controlled with either), so I had to use a combination of both. Overall, this game is little fun. Stay far away from this game and treat yourself to something nice.

What did I expect from Hannah Montana for Nintendo DS? I don't know, maybe that it would tolerable like Wizards of Waverly Place? Unfortunately, this game is not good. It's basically a simple point and click (although I guess it's a point and tap on Nintendo DS, since there's nothing to click. Unless you use emulation, of course) adventure. You solve mysteries, which involve simple use of inventory, hunting for thingamajigas with gadgets, roasting people or doing boring skateboarding/roller-skate mini-games.

You move by constantly tapping where you want to go. You can’t hold stylus to lead the way or use conventional controls, you have to keep tapping the screen to move. Occasionally you’re tasked with using a magnifying glass (or a flashlight in dark areas) to find mandatory items, which devolves into trial and error “pixel hunting”. There’s a light inventory management, where you’ll be combining one item with another, then gifting them to an NPC. It doesn’t ever evolve past that, you can’t have lots of items that you need to figure out a use for, which make it feel like pointless busywork. You’ll be constantly body blocked by NPCs that you have to converse with and choose right answers to progress. To do that, you need to draw some shape (which is also necessary to unlock doors to some areas), in what is probably the worst pattern recognition I’ve experienced in a DS game. Even when I tried to draw the shape exactly the same as what was shown, the game refused to register that, which feels arbitrary. You do get to diss on seemingly rival characters, which is kind of amusing for a few times, then it just becomes annoying how often the NPCs are conveniently placed in front of the area you’re supposed to enter. I actually managed to find an out of bounds glitch to skip a human wall and advance past, but the game didn’t budge, I tried to give an item to the sender, but nope, you MUST pass those speech checks for the game to progress. This game truly hates fun.

The (lack of) fun continues. Even conversing with right NPCs can be tricky, as the collision for taps can be wonky. There are also generic NPCs in some areas that you’ll bump into, and off them, which makes traversing these places even more annoying. The game isn’t very intuitive, I kept using in-game hint system to figure out where I was supposed to go or what to do. I admit I did blank a few times and I don’t know Hannah Montana show very well, but it would’ve been nice to have a character name in the dialogue so I could remember who is who, a simple but quality thing. The only character I remember (aside from Hannah Montana herself) is Chuck, and he’s a gigachad. Lastly, there are aforementioned riding sections, that are autoscrollers, and you’re tasked with removing all sorts of obstacles. The obstacles can take more effort to remove, but otherwise these sections are pretty bland and have little variety. Did you know? When riding a skate or rollerblades, you trip over a manhole, instead of falling in. I wish that was the case in this game, that would’ve been kinda funny.

In the end, Hannah Montana is simply a boring game, it features inconsistent mechanics, lacks challenge or any sort of satisfaction and a repetitive game loop. Hard pass on this one.

Haha Jonathan, we're in metroidvania. After a surprisingly good Despicable Me: The Game: Minion Mayhem for DS, I had to write down more games from Wayforward Technologies and see if they're just as good. Meet Hotel Transylvania. It makes me curious if they went out of their way to get this license as their next project and make it into what it is, ot it was just another job and it just made sense to make it a metroidvania that has huge Castlevania vibes.

You heard me right, Hotel Transylvania is a metroidvania game. You obtain abilities to progress through the game and unlock new ways to get the crystals scattered around. The plot doesn't really follow the game. Though you don't get to play as Dracula himself, instead you play as his daughter Mavis. You must rescue Jonny from being eaten, though to do that you have to do a bunch of back and forth chores and fetch quests. Cooking sure takes a lot of prep time if Jonathan is about to be eaten only after around 3 hours. It feels like Dracula can't get shit done for his daughter's Birthday Party, since he asks her to do stuff, like... how did he handle all 117 birthdays prior to this one? Also, everyone's out to get her. There are zombies and skeletons and walking suits of armor everywhere, ready to obliterate our heroine. Is it a Birthday or a Murday (the day of murder)?

Anyway, the obtained abilities open new areas for exploration and, of course, to get the plot going. These include running on marked walls, freezing enemies and using them as platforms, electricity attack, which is used to power machines and attack enemies, but is rather underutilized for platforming purposes, transforming into a puff of cloud to phase through grates and tight areas, and lastly, the ability to transform into a bat to fly, which is unlocked towards the end, since it’s pretty OP. Admittedly, the platforming itself is pretty generic, it’s mostly just platforms and enemies everywhere, with few clever moments. It feels like the abilities chosen are restrictive on creative setups. Take running on walls. All you do is… run on walls. You can jump off the wall, potentially onto another, but that’s it, can’t have many interesting things with this ability. At the same time, I didn’t find myself too bored with the game’s platforming, so… success? Although, the enemy placement isn’t always great. Like the jumping skeletons that can jump at you from offscreen, or zombie servants that throw fish bones at you.

The exploration is pretty much non-existent. From what I can tell, while the game does feature a percentage completion, it doesn’t care for all the crystals you collect, you are guaranteed to get 100% by simply beating the game. All those crystals do is increase your health max by 1 for every 200. Useful, but otherwise I think the game does fail in making exploration particularly interesting or satisfying. It's not helped by the fact that the game doesn't even show how many crystals are left in a particular area.

The graphics are solid, using pixel art style and smooth animations. The backgrounds and foregrounds are more detailed. I checked the 3DS version out of curiosity, the graphics are more detailed in that version, and it has other changes like higher resolution that makes enemies easier to see, and it seems to have more content in a form of hidden entrances that are like extra levels. Also, the map actually displays where you have been in, unlike the DS version. The music… well, it’s Jake Kaufman, so it’s pretty good… mostly. Some tracks give heavy Castlevania vibes, or boss battle themes that of course are way more epic than the battles themselves, but there are also tracks like the generic piano that doesn’t even loop properly. The OST is mostly a hit, so I can recommend checking what’s on YouTube.

In the end, I do respect the game for what it tried to attempt, and I would still consider this above average for a licensed game. It’s far from an amazing Metroidvania, but for it’s decent for what it is. Not bad, Wayforward.

So, I decided I was craving some First Person Shooter action. And of course, I had to roll with an obscure but fairly run of the mill game.

The mechanics are fairly standard, you shoot, you aim, you can throw grenades, occasionally find turrets or artillery you can use. You can only carry 2 weapons at a time, and there are also marble-like things called Chasers - throughout the game, you'll encounter special enemies that have blue aura around them. They are "history figures", even though they look like any ordinary enemy. You are not supposed to kill them, instead you have to incapacitate them, which can be done by shooting at their legs or shoulders, apparently. I always aimed for the legs though. Seekers are an alternative mean of dispatching of them. If you actually kill them, the time stops for the surrounding action, and special forces are dispatched to get rid of you, which are fairly tough if you don't have good weapons. Also, you receive less skill points after you beat a level which are necessary for upgrading weapon handling, which I'll discuss later. So... just don't kill them, ok?

For the most part, the acting of shooting is nothing really special, but there are a few things that I like that stand out to me. For one, the act of reloading. When you reload, a circular gauge is being filled, which displays a green area. If you hit the reload button again when in that green area, the reloading goes faster, but if you fail, the weapon jams, making reloading slower. This makes the act of reloading more active and interesting. I'm sure you can point out to some trendy/popular FPS that has this mechanic, and I admit I haven't played that many first person shooter games, but to me, it feels like a unique system. The closest thing I can think of is Call of Juarez: Gunslinger, where you can unlock a perk where you can make reloading go faster if you mash the reload button, but it's not the same. Speaking of perks, as I mentioned earlier, there are weapon handling upgrades, you get a few points each level (unless you screw up with those history figures). All weapons are divided into two categories: rifles and sidearm. Both have same kind of upgrades: you can upgrade aiming accuracy, clip size, reloading speed and firing rate. Not very deep, but at least its something to spice up the gameplay and make it a little more strategic. There's a map, that you physically hold in your hand, which is cool, and when you get captured at POW prison during Second World War, the map gets holes in it and scribbles of your objectives, a nice little detail that I like. Another minor thing I like, is that the army helmets are actually protective. In you try to get a headshot at a certain angle, you may shoot their helmet away, and not get the headshot. Pretty neat, though I recently discovered Medal of Honor for PS1 had that feature in 1999. I don’t know if it’s common.

There are some things that I don't like however. The game is a bit heavy on invisible walls, even in places which could make for a small shortcut, which annoyed me quite a bit. The maps are pretty sizeable, it feels like the devs probably wanted to add in a multiplayer with these sprawling maps, but there's no multiplayer in this game. Instant Action just puts you through the story levels, though you can adjust the gear and such to vary it I guess. I think it would've been nice to have some hidden collectibles to add in a bit of exploration, otherwise the maps feel kind of wasted space most of the time, and it's an insanely linear affair, secrets have been a staple of first person shooters since Wolfenstein 3D. I also wish there was some way to review dialogue, or for subtitles to be more potent, the subtitles are slow but don't hold a whole lot of info, which is especially vital for tutorials which don't have standard text box messages or stuff like that. I had to reload a save to re-listen to what the guy was saying. I died a fair amount, occasionally it feels like the enemies aimbot you to death. The game lacks any sort of manual saving, so I couldn't pussy out by savescumming, but the checkpoints are adequate, so it’s not too bad. I did have to reload an earlier save because I ran out of ammo for both weapons and could barely scrape any, but it wasn’t too bad. What was bad, is that the game started crashing in the last level, even loading saves crashed the game, so I had to reload earlier saves to progress. I once got a chance to enter a pool of water, and I just sank, as if I was wearing Power Armor from Fallout 4. Other places just insta-kill you if you try to go for a dip. Lastly for glitches, I noticed you can’t use mouse properly to look around in windowed mode. Solid programming right there. Not a glitch, but walking and running animations for the player character feel like they're skipping, instead of properly walking/running. The story feels like a bit of a mess, it involves time travel, which in itself opens a can of confetti worms, though it does allow you to use futuristic weapons.

I would lie if I said I didn’t enjoy my time with Darkest of Days at least a little bit. I guess I was starving hard enough that even an unremarkable budget title could satisfy me. The gunplay is decent enough, but in general the game does feel a bit unpolished. I don’t think the game is the worst, there are a few gameplay aspects that I like, but I also wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend this to anyone. It does have "With Chest Hair" as hard difficulty option, so it's obviously a 10.1 out of 10.

I may be a bit generous with my assesment of this game. Essentially, it's a simple beat-em-up with basic platforming. At least you have various button combinations, so you can mix various moves as you fight, so it's not always mindless, and it does allow for experimentation.

As you progress through the game, you acquire the ability to transform into different alien forms with Omnitrix, which is how you'll be playing through the game for the majority of it, seeing as Ben himself isn't very agile or strong. At least he does have Dark Souls-like dodge roll. All different alien forms have different properties, for example as Fourarms you can climb some vines, though this ability isn't utilized in later stages. As Heatblast, you can suck up fires and reveal bonuses that way, and it's decent at knocking enemies. The one I pretty much mained is Wildvine, which is very good at stunning enemies, and it looks silly. It also has a ranged attack, which was useful against bosses. You can obtain upgrade points to unlock new abilities or strengthen these forms in other ways. You'll obtain them by doing challengesm which are just enemy gauntlets. I did run through a couple, because that last boss was troublesome, and to see what they're about. Well, they're the more of the game's combat, and I didn't find them all that challenging.

There's a little bit of platforming, but as I said, it's pretty basic, sometimes you utilize alien form abilities, but they're pretty short in-between sections before fights. The combat does feel repetitive, but at least knocking enemies made it fairly painless and kind of satisfying. I wasn't too impressed with the game at first, as it reminded me of Big Hero 6: Battle in the Bay, which was THE last DS game, and it wasn't very good (it's by the same developer company). As I progressed, I thought I was enjoying the game a bit more. Part of that is because of the game's soundtrack. It's composed by Bart Roijmans, the same guy who composed music for The Suite Life of Zack & Cody: Circle of Spies, so of course the music was going to be good. That sounds like a joke, but the music in that game is legit pretty good. And this game didn't disappoint in that regard. That was the main reason why I played this game, and not because I just found it and added to the list of potential licensed games to dig through.

I think the bosses are the highlight of the game, requiring strategy and are actually challenging and interesting. Especially the very last one, which obliterated my ass. That's where I get into negatives. Said bosses do occasionally have cheap attack patterns. The game features finite lives. I didn't find that to be an issue, until that very last boss. If you do run out of lives, you have to replay the level through its entirety, which is pretty annoying. Your character doesn't have invulnerability frames, which means you can get dogpiled by the enemies with no chance to survive, something that hasn't been fixed in aformentioned Big Hero 6: Battle in the Bay, which is really lame. Switching alien forms and activating Omnitrix is done via a touch screen, which isn't the most convenient. At least activation could've been done through a Select button, which is otherwise unused.

In the end, while I realize the game isn't stellar, it is WAY more enjoyable than big hero 6 game. The music also definitely helped. The combat is fine, the bosses are interesting, the platforming on the other hand isn't great. The game is just ok, y'know? Not bad.