Cool game and all, but funny how they waited a month to reveal the microtransaction Tekken shop instead of announcing it at launch. Surely they didn't hide it to bump up review scores, right?
(But genuinely whyyy did they do this, they have much better pricing than SF6 and MK1 and would have been fine if they were up front about it, its the fact that they hid it that's so scummy to me.)

Edit: Lol, lmao
They did the street fighter thing where costumes cost $4 in the shop but you can only buy the premium currency at $5. Also they have single use items (ie fireworks) that cost real money too, arguably worse than what MK1 and SF6 are doing somehow. Not to mention still not fixing one of the games biggest issues - rage quitting - despite pretty much every other fighting game having solved it?

Edit: They're also charging for a battle pass that, just like SF6, has basically nothing worth the cost on it. I'm not surprised but I am disappointed. Plugging problems have not been fixed, recent patches have been widely maligned by players that actually know jack about high level Tekken, so I'm inclined to believe that those arguments are valid.

wao, this is certainly a video game. The girls on the cover definitely jebaited my curiosity only to blindside me with a very ho-hum puzzle game with varying degrees of jankiness.

The game is basically like a weird mixture of pipe dreams and tetris where you stack together these fleshy intestinal tubes and making a completely enclosed section causes it to disappear. There's also occasionally times where a fairy will come down and destroy the bottommost layer of the board, which can honestly hurt things just as much as it helps. I will admit there is SOME layer of sauce that can be found, as i was able to do a few decent combo chains by smartly arranging blocks, but it's all too RNG dependant on block drops to feel all too skill based. It's also the first virtual boy game to actually hurt my eyes after playing for a while, as the entire playfield likes to suddenly pulsate outwards at points for no reason, and that quick having to readjust my focus forward then immediately back to normal is just unnecessary eyestrain. The game has a GIANT message in both english and japanese telling you to take a break and rest your eyes after every two levels and when the game is paused, and I think I understand why they did that. At least they have a girl on the right side of the screen at all times, complete with 3D "jiggle physics" (i am putting that in air quotes because i feel like the occasional one-pixel movement of the girls chest barely qualifies) so I guess that counts for something?

It's just a bizarre release for sure. Apparently it's one of the last VB games to come out and as such is one of the rarest, reaching absurd prices in the secondhand market. I shouldn't have to tell you that shit aint worth it lmao. If I do have to give this game credit, it's that the development history for this game is certainly interesting!

Really, the bad game hall of fame has a better and more detailed writeup about this game and the circumstances that created it than anything I could ever write so give it a read! They even managed to interview the sole developer!

Between 3, 4, and 5, Persona 3 was always my least favourite. Tartarus was a tedious slog, you didn't get to delve very far into your relationships with the people you were closest to, there were bizarrely no option to just be friends with any of the love interests meaning you just didn't get to finish Social Links, and above all there was simply no definitive version of the game with FES and Portable both having features the others lacked. But what Persona 3 did always have was a strong story, a well-defined message, a great main party, and of course, a tremendous soundtrack. While Persona 3 Reload disappointingly lacks a FeMC route, I am happy to say that it features everything else I could want from the game and more, and (unless you want to experience the better main character), the easiest version of the game to point to and say yes, you should play Persona 3.

For the most part, visually it is a stunning upgrade. There are new mo-capped(?) 3D cutscenes for certain moments that feel incredible, and in general the game is also a lot more vibrant while still retaining the colour palette of the original game with lots of blues and greys. You can tell they wanted to adapt a sort of similar style to Persona 5 and it works, with the exception of losing some of the personality in the old character portraits for a more "clean" look.

The soundtrack as expected is fantastic. While many of the less prominent songs are retained in their original version, there are a ton of new remixes. Lotus Juice returns on many of the vocal tracks this time with Azumi Takahashi in place of Yumi Kawamura. It's Going Down Now is introduced as the new advantage battle theme in Tartarus, and Colour Your Night is the new night time theme as Moon's Reaching Out to the Stars is shifted to be only in the day. Colour Your Night in particular is one of my new favourite Persona tracks, I ran around outside at night a bit just to hear it more. While long time fans of P3 might find the new remixes a little hard to adjust to, by the end of the game I definitely loved all of them. Takahashi's voice brings a softer vibe in contrast to Kawamura's, but it is in no way a replacement - they both fit just right.

Similarly, perhaps the thing I was most excited to hear going in was the new voice cast. Many of them feel very similar to their old actors and actresses, while others feel entirely new. Junpei and Akihiko in particular really killed it for me, with the former elevating the character far above what they were previously in my mind. All of the other social links are fully voiced now too, with Yuko and Bebe being big standouts.

P3 Reload also introduces a number of new ways to interact with your party members with new Link Episodes where you spend time with and get to know your male party members better. There's also new activities in the dorm at night that not only are fun little events, but also contribute to their capabilities in battle via their Characteristics. As an example, you can cook or watch DVDs with Yukari enough times, and SP costs of her healing spells are halved, then quartered. These events ALSO will increase your social stats or give you an extra useful consumable, so they do not feel like a struggle to fit into a game with an already tight schedule. It really goes a long way to help them feel like a group of friends who live and fight together, which was sorely missing in the original games.

And finally, we come to Tartarus. It's really hard to make a 200+ floor dungeon feel engaging, and admittedly it still felt a bit rough going in the home stretch, but the new improvements made a world of difference. First off is the visual style. Each block feels wildly different with striking aesthetics so it really feels more like 5-6 different dungeons at times instead of one big tower. Party members have a new theurgy meter which functions as a super and you gain meter for doing something particular to that character (Akihiko having buffs on, Mitsuru inflicting debuffs/ailments, etc.). They are absolutely overpowered and can invalidate a lot of fights, but they look flashy and damn cool so all is forgiven (such is the way in Persona). The Monad depths that used to serve as an end game optional dungeon are now sprinked throughout Tartarus via random doors and fixed passages, offering harder boss fights for reliable major tarot cards in shuffle time and greater rewards/chests. The major tarot cards you can now draw offer a lot of one-time or same-night bonuses in Tartarus such as greater fusion bonuses or getting to draw extra in Shuffle Time. They also even added a catch-up mechanic, where once per-excursion (or maybe Tartarus segment?) you have a chance of having a clock show up after opening special chests. When you touch the clock, you pick two party members that will level up to the MC's current level in the next battle. Something like this is SORELY needed in Persona where most of the time party members will just stay on the bench once they are placed there to avoid grinding. By the end of my playthrough, every single party member was in the mid-70s and I could freely select them as I saw fit for each battle. I remember one full moon fight in particular, I screwed up my team composition and died but that was cool, because I had the freedom to pick a different set of characters in the same night without feeling under-leveled. I really hope we continue to get mechanics like this, because for games with such a good cast as these, it's such a shame to not use more than 3 of them in battle.

There's a lot more I didn't talk about in this massive review of Persona 3 Reload, but above all I can now happily say I consider it one of my favourite Persona experiences alongside Golden and Royal. I'm sure it'll still get a re-release down the road as is the way with Atlus, but for now anyone looking to try out Persona 3 - this is the one to go for. You won't be disappointed.

Like A Dragon's pivot to turn-based RPG fighting finally pays off in the sequel, as the improvements to the combat and job system start to give the battles their own identity. Kiryu's unique job with its fighting styles and beat-em-up finisher is a particular highlight, and I look forward to see if those evolve in future entries. But the strength of the Ichiban games have always been the likeable and well-rounded cast of characters mixed with a compelling crime drama. While the story is ambitious, it can drag at times. Ultimately I don't think it manages to mix these elements or stick the landing as well as LAD7 or 0, though those are extremely high bars that make this criticism a minor one. Either way, the real payoff is in the plentiful character moments for Ichiban and Kiryu, and showing that the true heart of the series is a deep kindness and respect for humanity. It manages to be a great sendoff for Kiryu, truly the best thing that's ever happened to him is being forced to hang out with Ichiban's dumbass friends.

I enjoyed the original Hebereke when I played it back in 2022 and I’m glad to say Hebereke 2 delivers. The game tries to be different with the approach to level design going for more of a linear progression with slight differences and a bit of a new level design in some revisits. The game still does lock some levels behind characters you need to unlock or abilities like the original. It’s clear here that a lot of passion was put into this title. It really does respect the original game with how good it feels like this could have been a game from the 90s outside of the graphics. Even the writing and charm is perfect here outside of the whole schtick of video games sure being different nowadays kind of talk. I also really love seeing more conversations, the group can be really funny sometimes. Freeon Leon and Bop Louie from the PAL version of the original even cameo in this game, I don’t even play that version and that got me excited seeing that.

Going into that early, the game graphically is a treat. I adore how this game looks and while it does in some ways hide the budget the game probably has, I appreciate them going for this rather than something like the usual pixel art. I think one of my favorite details was the text boxes and Famicom sprites of the cast being made out of perler beads. The music is pretty good too in its own way. I wouldn’t say it’s better than the original but think of it more as a nice alternative to the OG soundtrack. I will say though that the Switch version has frame drops so be thoughtful of the version you play, I assume it runs better on Steam.

The only real negative I had with Hebereke 2 was the bosses. Look, the original was not hard and that also went for the bosses. I don’t even mind the game being easy because the journey is just so fun and relaxing at times that I can ignore it being easy. This isn’t the case for the bosses as they feel like a huge afterthought especially with the final boss. It’s a shame they weren’t given more interesting ideas but I guess it’s better than being frustrating.

If you want to play a game that’s fun, has really good graphics, isn’t $40, isn’t using bland 3D graphics and is a remake of a Famicom game, Hebereke 2 is not a bad choice to play. I will say though that you will probably enjoy it all that much if you didn’t care for the original. If you haven’t played the original, I’d recommend loading it on an emulator or waiting for the new rerelease coming this month to Switch to give the Famicom game a try. While the game isn’t $40, it’s still a $25 game and for how short the game is, that will probably be a tough sell for anyone that wasn’t a fan of the original game. I feel like my rating of Hebereke 2 might be too high but for me, I just had a lot of fun playing it and I’m glad it was worth the wait, glad to see Sunsoft return and hope they continue to make more cool games.

Also please Sunsoft, remake Wing of Madoola I’m BEGGING!!

Twelve Minutes, the first game directed by veteran Luis António, frustratingly and miserably uses itself in a narrative and thematic loop in order to achieve unsatisfactory and totally derisory results - even if, above all, it takes itself seriously.

In addition to a plot with several holes and unbelievable twists, the game has one of the worst gameplays Annapurna has ever offered, at least 10 years behind in game design (including critically failing on trivial matters), and never, I repeat, never exploring any of its own points thematically. The loop is a tool, not the object, which is a serious mistake.

This is, of course, not to mention the fact that it doesn't even touch on themes that are crucial to its story, never, for example, mentioning its sadism, violence and abnormality, just accepting them as elements that don't change what it's trying to tell - again, another serious (and, frankly, amateurish) mistake.

If only it made fun of itself, but not even that. Twelve Minutes wants to be taken seriously, very seriously, through art direction that uses morbid tones and cold sets, cinematic acting scenes and, wow, violence and swearing. All of this as if it had no less screen time with minimal depth than its own 12-minute loop, both in narrative and gameplay - it's empty, through and through, however much the passively charming style and dramatic performances may try to manipulate you into believing that it's not.

You, the protagonist, kill all the relevant characters in the game, in one way or another, at one time or another, and the only, only consequence or mention of these events comes in the form of an apology. An apology from the protagonist himself, made hours and hours after the start of the loop - hours that 80% of the time, and that number is no exaggeration, will be incessant repetition without any use.

In other words, it's a game that doesn't even try to care about femicide, murder, suicide or cancer; themes that, since present at alarming levels, could easily be explored to the full, but are treated only as tools to tell a story that doesn't even work in the most basic sense imaginable.

Spoiler warning: Of course, because completely ignoring any emotional sensitivity or social issue was surely the most desirable way to conduct a text about a man who is hypnotized by his father, kills him and marries his own sister, falling, years later, into a hellish time loop to discover that he has done so.

In short: playing Twelve Minutes sucks, with an outdated point-and-click and poor use of the time loop, and what's worse, it doesn't even make a point of hiding this fact behind a minimally decent script - because, in fact, it's as shallow as a saucer. Luis António completely takes away the point of a game being a game and a story being worth telling - especially as he's part of a publisher like Annapurna, capable of casting even Willem Dafoe and giving his protégés freedom of time and creativity.

the bush family is playin with that voodoo bad

bogwater oil company crusader propaganda disguised as the closest to an arcade game people born after 2000 will have statistically experienced. i did try to play it with genuine video game enjoying intentions (best moment was a noobtube headshot across the river and into the house on overgrown) but that desire just went away after getting even more depressed every time i looked at my statistics on the leaderboard, friends or global, it didnt matter. pointless statistics in a scheme run by the powers that be.

in order to fight off this game's primary intent (convincing teenagers to go die for an oil company under the guise of education, in its heyday i almost succumbed to an ammosexual autism spearheaded by this very computer program) i would proceed to nearly become another statistic (victim of the opioid crisis), join a hardcore search and destroy lobby (de_ for the cstrike fiends) attach a rubber band to the right analog stick to spin around, and another rubber band to attach a shitty earbud to the 360 headset mic, load up a soundboard on a laptop and wreak havoc upon the Most Serious G*mer's, absolutely convinced there was another human on the end of that mic, as i spun around rapidly in spawn, letting the rounds drag on as i hear the degrading words degrade into sounds no longer resembling words. that was the most fun i had within the metaverse of call of duty 6 lobbies on microsoft direct-x box three hundred and sixty's Direct-X Box Live Gold Connectivity service. i wouldn't be the f[THIS USER CAN SAY IT!]got i am today without the stern encouragement of the average microsoft Direct-X Box Three Hundred And Sixty's direct-x box live gold connectivity service user.

alteriwnet was alright too