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.

Arcade Classics 3D is a collection of "Arcade Classics"... but in 3D! ...Which stops being a feature if you're playing on a 2DS or by any other means that lack stereoscopic 3D. Arcade Classics 3D is a rather poor compilation of clones of classic titles, which include Breakout, Columns, Tetris, Puzzle Bobble and Bejeweled. The UI feels like it runs at 10FPS, the button implementation is not consistent (you can change titles on the main menu with left/right and select with A, but all other functionality is relegated to touch screen (can't even pause by pressing Start). The clones aren't as enjoyable as originals. And the presentation is pretty generic. There's very little value to this game, this is clearly a shovelware title that is best to be left forgotten by the sands of time.

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa for Nintendo DS is a decent platformer/brawler that plays similarly to Crash Bandicoot. Or perhaps, Crash of the Titans DS? And it's no coincidence, this game shares some of the same staff that worked on Crash of the Titans DS, which is why there are many similarities. Pretty much the same gameplay of 3D platforming in hallways with some enemy arenas, quite a bit of in-engine cutscenes with a healthy dose of voice acting, similar stretchy animation style that looks kind of uncanny.

The game is fairly easy and not very long. The platforming is basic. You play as 4 of the main characters, depending on the level, each with a different skillset. Alex and Marty appear most often, and they’ll unlock a few moves as the game progresses, such as Alex’s higher jump, ledgegrab or a roar power attack, or Marty who learns double jump, rocket jump and homing power attack. You also play as Melman and Gloria. Melman can flutter jump, ala Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, while Gloria can swim, and you have to dodge explosives barrels, they're everywhere for some reason. The platforming is fine for the most part, but there are a few janky sections. Particularly, when you have to jump on moving logs as Alex, I think the game’s platforming capabilities aren’t really cut out for these kind of fast paced platforming situations, resulting in frustration. Especially in the very last level, where you don’t get a checkpoint for a while, and the section is preceded by an arena. Speaking of arenas, the game’s platforming is broken by mandatory combat sections. You can perform basic combo attack or charge a power attack, which gains shorter charge as the game progresses, as the name suggests these are more powerful attacks. The combat is overall fairly basic. I think it’s serviceable enough. It ain’t Shrek The Third though.

There are distractions along the way, like the touch screen mini-games, though these are optional and only required for 100% completion. Also optional are Moto Moto sections. You're tasked with either surviving the onslaught of enemies, killing a specified amount of enemies under a time limit or you're only able to attack with ranged mango attacks. Moto Moto is kind of OP, so these sections aren't very difficult either. If you're looking for more side content, aside from the main platforming levels, there are penguin missions, which play similarly to The Lost Vikings, and I have to say that what's offered here is much better than what Vicarious Visions offered with their games of similar playstyle. These missions are purely puzzles, no action. Each penguin has a unique ability, except for Skipper who's holding a doll and can't do much. The goal is to get all the penguins to the goal. These are decently challenging, though they're mostly just figuring what switch to activate to progress. Lastly there's also Mort pinball, and it's... just pinball. Man, this really is a game of side content, isn’t it? If you do bother with collecting monkeys, you unlock some extras, such as sound test for those who like music or SFX or expert difficulty, as advertised, makes the game harder by making you fight more enemies and making mini-games less forgiving, which makes 100% on expert even harder. I didn't actually bother to 100%, I think the game should've indicated what levels have monkeys that remain to be collected.

Graphically, aside from slightly strange but decent models, I think the game looks rather nice. The game plays in a 3D space, the environments look good and the game’s framerate is steady. As for the music, while there are a few tracks that I like, I think for the most part it sounds pretty generic.

Overall, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa for Nintendo DS is a decent time, definitely better than the first game on DS (you’re probably aware that that game is practically the same as GBA verasion). While it is simple, it’s not devoid of enjoyment and there are few frustrations to speak of. I’d say, this is one of the better experiences I’ve had with a licensed game.

Chicken Little for Game Boy Advance is an average platformer with a few mini-games thrown in. The game is surprisingly short, though it took me about 3 and a half hours, which is about right (though now that I've played a bunch of other licensed games, maybe this shouldn't be a surprise). The game is not very difficult, apart from bad racing segment and surprisingly difficult final boss. My first impression when I played it some time ago wasn't very good, but having actually beaten it, it's just alright.

The platforming mechanics are pretty simple, you can jump and climb ledges, you can ground pound with your head which is really only useful on bouncy surfaces to bounce higher and to break floor barriers. And you have your trusty yo-yo, which can be used in combat, and used in some platforming later on, acting as a grappling hook. Though to be honest I feel like yo-yo is kind of underutilized and it could've been used in some puzzles or have more utility in platforming, which is kind of what PC/Home Console version does. The enemies you meet along the way aren't a big threat, you'll find platforming obstacles such as disappearing platforms or falling tree branches. Overall, the platforming is rather basic... as a Chicken Little. There are also two theatre levels where you can play as Ace, Chicken Little's super hero alter ego, though technically you can also play as Ace in normal levels by touching a token, but only for a limited time and I'd say theatre levels is where Ace really shines. He can double jump which makes him better to control. The levels are aboard an alien spaceship and feature different gravity surfaces, like you can walk on a wall or ceiling and around spherical objects, which is really cool. The platforming is still nothing to write home about, but due to these gimmicks they're a little more engaging, and the boss battles in these are cool as well because they also feature these different gravity surfaces. You also play as Fish, though it's only for a single level (at least in the main story). It's a bit faster paced, kinda Sonic The Hedgehog-style but not really, you can move fast but watch out for the obstacles, and you have to destroy a set number of thinanigans. Not much to say. As I said, the game isn't very difficult, up until the final boss, which is a surprising difficulty spike. I get it, the final boss should be hard, but the game really wasn't very difficult up 'till this point, maybe the Theatre bosses provided decent challenge but still manageable. The final boss feels like chaos, I died a number of times. Thankfully, dying isn't very punishing, you'll be put at the last transition point and all collected stuff is remembered.

Though Chicken Little is primarily a sidescrolling platformer, there are two mini-games you'll play through main story, and are available in the menu as extras if you want to play more of them. First is Dodgeball. You have you versus opponent in the main field where you can get kicked out and game over, but you also have three companions on the opposite side who can't be kicked out but can assist in throwing a ball at the opponent and dish damage. The damage you deal to your opponent(s) is numerical, RPG style, and thus HP is also numerical, though it's shown as a green bar instead of numbers. I think this is a really cool idea and a unique take on the sport. Not that I played a lot of video games with dodgeball, but I believe not many games did this. I think this is a cool mini-game, I like it quite a bit. The other mini-game is decidedly not however. It's an isometric racing with strict timer. This is a mini-game where I felt like upgrading the vehicle was nearly required, as well as knowing the shortcuts. The driving can be obnoxious, you have aliens that shoot at you and it can be hard to avoid their shots and they can stun your car, wasting time. I didn't enjoy this one.

This game features a shop where you can by upgrades, increase max HP for the three playable, Chicken Little, Ace and Fish. The last one I find odd, because c'mon, he's only in a single level, feels like a waste. Aside from that you can buy new cars for racing mini-game as well as upgrades and color skins. Dodgeball also features new players you can buy and color palettes for the players. All of these can be bought with in-game's currency, being acorns. You can find them in levels, though limited and gain more by winning a mini-game from the main menu. While the main game is really short, there's a lot of extras if you're into that sorta thing. The game also features sound and music test as well as animation viewer for a handful of in-game characters, which as far as I can tell not many games at the time did that, so that's always nice.

The graphics in this game are about average. Some elements can be rough looking, though the characters are well animated for the most part. My favorite animation is Aces' "Death" animation, it's pretty funny. The music is also alright, there are a couple really good tracks but overall it's just alright, it doesn't help that the levels can be pretty long, so the music can become repetetive.

Overall, Chicken Little for GBA is an average licensed game, the main game is awfully short, but there are some good ideas, and it does have lots of extras for 100%, but overall it's just alright. PC/Home Console version is unsurprisingly better than this handheld one, but I'll talk about that version some time in the future.

Happy Feet for the Nintendo DS graces us with more rhythm gameplay, though it's marginally better than what Game Boy Advance version had to offer. You tap on the icon when appropriate, it feels more energetic compared to GBA’s boring D-Pad fest at least. Then you have a sliding section, where you slide down and either race against the clock or collect some item. Then you have a rhythm mini-game, then a slide, then another slide, then… wait, are you telling me that’s it? And the answer is… yes! The game only features rhythm mini-games and the slide sections for the entirety of the game. Sure, the devs may add some new element to the sliding, but it plays pretty much the same, the level design doesn’t differ all that much, and it's ok at best, and the rhythm mini-games are still fairly repetitive with no variety. It’s very lackluster. It’s honestly hard for me to say which version is better, DS or GBA, as they both suck in different ways. This DS version is pretty barebones and uninspired when it comes to its content. Avoid both versions honestly.

Happy Feet for the Game Boy Advance is not very good. The game mostly consists of very basic platforming that's pretty easy. The only real platforming threats are icicles that are easy to avoid and rare bottomless pits. The game is also basically a fetch quest simulator, as almost every person asks you to bring something for them. At least the game has decency to bring you back to the sender once you collect stuff so you don't waste more time getting to them. The game also features swimming mechanics, that are pretty decent, the controls are modern, which means you swim in whatever direction you're holding on the D-Pad. The swimming segments themselves aren't that fun though, you have to locate fish or some other food source and watch out for oxygen and enemies. There are a couple underwater chase sequences that are kinda decent, though I found the last one quite frustrating.

There are also a couple mini-games. Dancing, which is a simple rhythm game where you press buttons or D-Pad directions on-screen. These use actual licensed music that sounds really good. That's impressive, but unfortunately, the mini-game drags on and it's just so basic. The other mini-game is sliding, with autoscrolling sort-of isometric point of view. It's alright, the only issue I have is that sometimes there are narrow paths across pits you gotta follow, and these are marked when they appear, but due to the perspective it can be difficult to discern where.

The graphics are alright, and the original soundtrack is good, as usual. Seriously, I can't praise Shin'en enough.

Overall, a pretty bland licensed game. Aside from impressive sounding licensed tracks, it's nothing special.

I don't envy the developers of Arctic Tale for Game Boy Advance, having to work on a late GBA release based on freaking National Geographic documentary. But hey, hopefully it paid well. I'm going to be blunt, this game sucks!

You control a little bear from a top down perspective, and your goal is to beat a few mini-games, then beat a mini-game that actually advances onto the next chapter. The game features limited life supply and health, though continues are unlimited. Someone had a bright idea to make running around deplete your health. I mean I get it, overworking yourself is very dangerous, but that's not how reality works, you don't just become close to death when out of breath, the game should've just had a separate bar for stamina that could regenerate when not running. Aside from a bear, you can change into a fox or a walrus when near a changing cave, and these animals have special properties. Walrus can explore water sections, and a fox is super quick and can hunt hares for a little bit of health. As I mentioned, there are mini-games, certain mini-games require a specific animal. These mini-games range from alright to awful. You have shuffleboard, where you launch yourself and try to hit a center of the target, or Whac-A-Mole sort of deal but with seals, or orca race, but then you have a sliding mini-game, where you just slide down, and if you hit too many objects or fall into a pit you lose a life, or surfing on a piece of ice where if you hit too many objects... you lose a life. Both of these share the same issue, in that they don't give adequate view of what's ahead, both are vertically oriented, but you aren't at the very top/bottom, limiting the view of the obstacles. In most mini-games, failure means you lose a life, which is really annoying when you lose them all and you have to find where you played that mini-game. The game features checkpoints, but they don't feel consistent, for instance, you'll get one when you run away from a polar bear, who run around and try to chase you in the overworld, though they're easy to escape from by mashing L and R (and that awards you with a small health boost for some reason). The worst mini-games are the ones where you have to cross an icy land that has weak tiles and you have to figure out a path, and these are mandatory for progression. The first time it's whatever, but the second time, you also have very cold weather condition which also lowers your health, and you have to run to the cover and mash L and R to restore health. It's lame figure out the path + you have to act fast (and the game won't let you go if you stall for too long because there's a timer ticking, not time limit you have to get at least get bronze), AND you have to actually find where the exit is. And need I remind you that you lose lives upon failure and have to find this mini-game again each time you continue from a checkpoint that could be far away? For this mini-game I decided to use save states to get over it. Boo hoo, I'm a cheater, but who cares? I wasn't having fun in any way, and I wanted to get it over with. The game is actually really short, it's only 3 chapters, and there's no mini-game for the ending.

Graphically, the game isn't very impressive. The animals seem to use pre-rendered graphics, but they don't animate smoothly. The overworld looks pretty bland, I mean I get it, it's Arctic and there's snow everywhere, but c'mon I'm sure you can make some interesting land marks. The music isn't great, the title screen song seems to be decent and actually lengthy, but during gameplay you'll have one of the three songs that plays when you play as an appropriate animal and they're short and repetitive.

Overall, a joyless experience with questionable design decisions that feel like they would be at home in an arcade game, but not suitable for a game based on a National Geographic documentary film. The only somewhat positive thing I can say is that there's neat trivia about animals, but for that you're better off watching actual documentaries, or reading National Geographic. Or just go and play an actually good game. Like Shrek The Third by Amaze Entertainment. This is yet another unimpressive licensed game in a sea of unimpressive licensed games.

(Side note: according to an IGN review, DS version is pretty much the same game, so uhh, avoid that as well)

Wow, another game based on National Geographic documentary! And it just so happened to be a random GBA game I picked to play. I was actually hopeful that it wouldn't be as bad as Arctic Tale for the same system, maybe mediocre, but that would still be a better experience. All I knew going in is that it was based on a documentary and that it is a Lemmings-like. Unfortunately, this game is terrible.

For the most part, the game plays like Lemmings, though you don't assign penguins to various jobs to progress. Instead, you use various tools to get them to the end of the level, while collecting a set amount of snowflakes scattered about. Tools like bouncy tents or snowballs so the penguins can safely jump down high ledges (they can't die from fall damage, they'll just look down and walk away), or hot something to melt some ice obstacles, and fish to make penguins go in its direction. There are also a few ice structures, like a slope, stairs or floating platforms, most of them can only placed in specific places. My biggest issue with the Lemmings-style levels is how slow they are. I get it, penguins aren't very quick and nimble, the problem is a combination of the birds' speed and the levels themselves being long. They usually take about 8-10 minutes to complete, but you don't want penguins to fall offscreen, or they'll start from the beginning and slowly start waddling towards the finish line. That's pretty much a level reset, and it can be so frustrating. And if I had built the way forward, I had to wait for the penguins to reach the destination. I would just whip out my 3DS and play something on there while waiting. Riveting gameplay, folks. Oh, and a cherry on top is the game’s poor performance. It slows down fairly frequently for seemingly no reason. That’s just poor optimization IMO. There are more minor deficiencies as well. The icy slope can be turned left or right, but someone had a bright idea of making it depend on the direction in which you’re moving the object. Precision placement is difficult when you have to alternate between left and right. It wouldn’t have been too difficult to make it turn by pressing A button instead. You can scroll the screen by either moving the cursor to the right or the left edge of the screen, or pressing L or R. However, if you hold any other button after letting go of the shoulder button, the screen will continue to scroll. There are more unpolished moments. There were occasions where penguins got stuck in one place for no reason. They just kept looking down even though they weren’t at the edge. Well, a few times they were but still. Tempting them with fish usually solved this. Also, if too many sounds effects play at once, the sound bugs out.

Besides being Lemmings, the game alternates playstyles every other level. And I’m sarcastically happy to report that they’re just as bad. There are top-down labyrinth segments. Y’know that ice gimmick in RPGs like Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban GBA, or old Pokemon games, where you hit ice and continue moving until you hit something. Well, it’s a thing™️ in this game too. And it’s no fun. You navigate between piles of snow to find your mate, and there are ice corners that turn you around. There are occasional brown-ish snowflakes that’ll guide you on the correct path and give a little bit of extra time. The problem is that sometimes, you can’t even see obstacles ahead thanks to the unhelpful camera, which only scrolls when you’re close to the edge, which means you aren’t given adequate view. So there are occasional trial and error moments when you’re trying to figure out the way forward. And if you fall into an ice crack, you’ll start from the very beginning. It’s slow, it’s tedious and it all looks the same. There’s also one level where you have to keep an egg while moving through the crowd of penguins, using the same top-down perspective. You move constantly, so you have to awkwardly alternate moving forward and backward so you don’t bump into someone. There are a few penguins which move who make it harder. If you bump into something or someone, you’ll get knockback and the egg will roll somewhere. You lose 2 seconds instead of 1 if you lose it, so you have to go fetch it, but there are times where it can get into an unfavorable position and you’ll keep getting knocked into submission. And these moving penguins can blend into the background penguins, since they all look the same, for a nasty surprise. Lastly, there are a couple swimming sections, the most tolerable sections. They’re set in 2D perspective, you have to find and eat some fish and watch out for oxygen, move up to the surface. You can dash, but while dashing you can’t just move straight up/down. The hitboxes are occasionally janky. Otherwise, I don’t have much to complain, but I wouldn’t call these sections that fun.

Overall, March of the Penguins is a pretty bad time. The music is generic piano tunes, the graphics are mediocre and the gameplay is boring and tedious, the game is lacking in polish and there are no redeeming qualities. I’m sure watching the documentary this is based on would prove more entertaining than playing this cheap cash grab. This game is not worth a play.

A fairly obscure PAL-exclusive enhanced re-release of Mario Bros. for NES. It restores air control to the player physics, and some content from the arcade version, such as stage intermissions, better enemy art, and cut hazards in a form of icicles that appear in later stages, making this game much closer to arcade perfect. I don't know why Nintendo keeps pushing the original NES release instead of this one, this is clearly a superior version. I heard somewhere that this version isn't actually by Nintendo themselves, and there's copyright involved in there somewhere, but c'mon. I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo just forgot about it's existence. It is worth checking out if you get a chance.

I thought the game was just mediocre. The gameplay wasn't very enjoyable, and enhancing girls didn't feel satisfying. Also, it had translation issues, or at least proofreading isssues in many story chapters, felt like they didn't care in that regard. To be honest, I was patiently waiting for the game to die, enjoying every moment and I won't really miss it. In a way, it feels like the many tie-in licensed games from back in the day. All the stories were a retelling of same stories from the anime, complete with some scenes and video clips. It wasn't the worst thing ever, there was some effort and talent put into it, and there were genuine system improvements. I initially thought of giving it 2.5 stars, because again, I thought it was simply mid, but I'm giving it lower rating out of spite. Also, that means I find Drake & Josh GBA a more worthy investement than this. Devillish!

LEGO Marvel Super Heroes gives me huge LEGO The Lord of the Rings vibe. Same sound effects, many of the same mechanics and animations. It's not uncommon for developers to reuse assets, and it's not the first time TT Games has done it, but this feels the most blatant. They also made a LEGO-las joke. Probably unintentional. but makes you think. And it's no surprise, given that this game's release is sandwiched between LEGO The Lord of the Rings and LEGO The Hobbit (there's also The LEGO Movie Videogame, but it's by a different team at TT Fusion). Obviously, this is still a different product. Different levels, different characters, different universe. However, if I had to call this LEGO The Lord of the Rings 2, (discarding LEGO The Hobbit) then it would have a positive connotation. Sequels usually iron out the flaws of the previous entries. And I'd say this is quite a step up.

In terms of enjoyability, for me, it rivals LEGO City Undercover. Maybe even surpasses it, the levels are enjoyable and the open world is nice to explore. You have to beat a few levels before the world fully opens up, and pretty much all of it is accessible. You'll still want to beat the game to get freeplay since some missions require specific character powers. The game shows all the stuff on the map, but you'll have to actually uncover the unexplored areas for the stuff to be marked. I think I prefer this over the constant use of the scanner in LEGO City Undercover. Nothing inherently wrong with that approach, but it didn't always show areas of interest and I managed to miss a few things and had to look up a guide to 100% that. At least in non-nintendo re-release versions. The map makes it clear where you can find stuff. And unlike LEGO The Lord of the Rings, it's not buggy and is always accurate. And it has added a verticality element, since some heroes can fly (and there are flying vehicles), and the map will show which items are above or below you, which is nice. It does mark a few races which aren't actually required for completion (they award a purple stud), which feels kinda pointless. They don't disappear once you do them either. I think they should've marked unimportant races with a unique icon. Speaking of, these races can be a bit rough. When it's a race with (ground) vehicles you should make sure it's a competent car, like a Go-Kart for speed advantage. The main issue is the traffic, which can heck you up. On the other hand, if it's a race against an NPC, the traffic can mess them up too, giving you an advantage. Funny how that works. There are also a bunch of flying races, and I don't find the flying mechanics that great to control. I don't know, feels a little clunky. There’s a decent variety of NPC quests, like feeding ducks with a bread cannon, or a few taxi missions, or those that involve mind control and a bit of platforming. There are a few dominant types of quests. There are escort missions, which aren't very interesting as is. The characters you escort can catch up with you, thankfully, though you don't want to get too far from them, or you'll have to go back to them and make them move again. It's just a back-and-forth, there's nothing added to make these interesting. There are also fetch quests, but at least you can fly and fast travel to get to and fro quick. There are fighting missions where you and the quest giver fight a bunch of enemies. The first time I activated this quest, it bugged out, the quest NPC somehow despawned, and the enemies started to bug out. I have never encountered that bug ever since. And aforementioned NPC races. I’d say there’s enough content variety so it doesn’t become boring to do after a while.

The main levels are relatively lengthy with multiple checkpoints. There are also small Deadpool levels which I’m fond of, they provide a quick snack, only a single section long with few extra collectibles to go for. And Deadpool provides intro and outro narration for these, which is cool. 100% completion experience is one of the better ones I’ve had with a LEGO game. Again, the levels are enjoyable enough and there’s decent variety. You also get to rescue Stan Lee a bunch. He’s got himself into all sorts of trouble. Apparently, there’s a glitch that locks you out of 100% completion. I don’t know the specifics, all I know is that it’s there. I imagine it sucks if you encounter it, and it’s a potential blow to this game compared to others (I don’t know of any other LEGO game that prevents you from mastering it). Thankfully, I didn’t encounter that, getting that sweet sweet 100%.

The humor in this game is pretty good. I like the pedestrians’ lines, and there are some specific ones when you play as a particular character. Like how Mister Fantastic is misnamed as “Mister Mediocre”. Makes NYC lively. Also, I have to say, I don’t know that much about Marvel characters, I thought the NPCs were joking about Squirrel Girl. I was surprised to find out it’s an actual character! I think this is the kind of game that anyone can enjoy, but if you’re a Marvel super fan, you’ll get a particularly strong kick out of this game. It’s fun, charming and faithful, this game is up there as one of the best TT LEGO games ever produced.

The portable version of LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 is pretty alright. I admit the first time I tried to play it, it gave me a pretty bad impression. A strange isometric perspective? That's not the LEGO I know! But once I really got into, I thought it was actually kinda enjoyable. This DS version makes heavy use of the touch screen gimmicks (and even microphone), and there's a decent variety. That being said, the game does become a bit repetitive with the touch screen shenanigans towards the end, and 100% completion is nothing special. It's not just the gameplay being repetitive by the way, the music selection is pretty lacking too. I do want to mention the game's story, specifically the dialogue. During the gameplay, the characters use quite a bit of text dialogue, which is kinda surprising. Feels like a precursor to the voice acting that TT Games will stick to for a while. Maybe some earlier portable TT LEGO game used text dialogue, but I have yet to play those. The game also mixes some video clips from the PC/Home Console version. If you thought PC version wasn't very good at following the movies' plots, then this version will hold your horses hostage. There are many cuts where some things aren't explained or glossed over, and if you aren't familiar with the Harry Potter, you may get confused at some points. These games probably shouldn't be your introduction to the wizarding world is what I'm saying. Anyway, this is a fine version of LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4, it is different but that isn't a bad thing, especially considering how portable LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7 turned out, and is enjoyable in its own right.

Note that I played the PSP version, which is an identical experience to the DS and 3DS versions. Anyway, so far I think this is the weakest TT's LEGO game I've played. Unlike portable LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4, this game plays much closer to the PC and Home Console big brother, but something about this game is just not as enjoyable. On the other hand, I actually enjoyed the game MORE when I went for 100% and freeplay all the levels. The 100% completion of any TT's LEGO game is arguably a chore. Not an unenjoyable endeavor mind you, but you're still going through the same levels with maybe a few sections that you haven't seen before for a few extra thinanigans. I think the fact that I just breezed through the levels and didn't even have to finish them, collect all items and quit the level and they will be saved. This is an improvement over portable LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4, and something pretty much every Home Console/PC version of LEGO games had since LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga or even earlier. There is another innovation that won't see it's implementation in big brothers until LEGO The Hobbit. Instead of starting the level from the very beginning, you can choose certain parts of the level to start at, which is a welcome addition and saves time. Honestly surprised they didn't add this feature sooner. 100% completing this game is actually a fairly quick process... however, it is ruined by one thing. Simply going through all the levels again and collecting and buying all the stuff isn't enough. The game locks about 15% of the completion percentage... behind duels. I don't remember how dueling works in PC version, but in this portable version, it isn't much fun. You can cast left or right, charge a spell and play pong with your opponent by deflecting the spell until one eventually misses and gets hit or the deflect is triggered too late or too early that it bounces away. It's not very difficult, but it's just not a very engaging system. And you're tasked to do it more than 50 times. It actually feels like padding. Not a good thing when you have to pad 100% completion like that. It makes for one of the worst 100% completion experiences in any of TT's LEGO games, and as a result makes this game even worse in my eyes. There are definitely better portable LEGO games than this.