Legolas_Katarn
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Has the usual positives of the series with great animation and detail, more simple but fun gameplay and stage design, and fun characters.
This time along with the usual magic and hair attacks there are multiple creature transformations you can take with different attacks and dance abilities. You can also easily farm money for upgrades if you want an easier time and you can switch off upgrades and skills to make it more difficult. A hardcore mode for more of a challenge.
Like the previous game, this one has some issues with backtracking but going back to stages can change enemies and the transformations can make things a bit more interesting in how you get around. Unfortunately, some of those transformations are really only used to get extra items and are either fairly useless for anything else to begin with or are made mostly useless by other forms. The game is also very short and feels it and the DLC is very overpriced unless you have just gotten the Ultimate Edition.
This time along with the usual magic and hair attacks there are multiple creature transformations you can take with different attacks and dance abilities. You can also easily farm money for upgrades if you want an easier time and you can switch off upgrades and skills to make it more difficult. A hardcore mode for more of a challenge.
Like the previous game, this one has some issues with backtracking but going back to stages can change enemies and the transformations can make things a bit more interesting in how you get around. Unfortunately, some of those transformations are really only used to get extra items and are either fairly useless for anything else to begin with or are made mostly useless by other forms. The game is also very short and feels it and the DLC is very overpriced unless you have just gotten the Ultimate Edition.
Has the usual positives of the series with great animation and detail, more simple but fun gameplay and stage design, and fun characters.
This time along with the usual magic and hair attacks there are multiple creature transformations you can take with different attacks and dance abilities. You can also easily farm money for upgrades if you want an easier time and you can switch off upgrades and skills to make it more difficult. A hardcore mode for more of a challenge.
Like the previous game, this one has some issues with backtracking but going back to stages can change enemies and the transformations can make things a bit more interesting in how you get around. Unfortunately, some of those transformations are really only used to get extra items and are either fairly useless for anything else to begin with or are made mostly useless by other forms. The game is also very short.
This version comes with the previously very overpriced DLC. The DLC basically allows you to play as Shantae but as the developer's Mighty Switch Force character or in other costumes that alter your abilities, as three of Shantae's friends that have to use their abilities together, or as the pirate and usual antagonist Risky with her own narrative elements as she tells an exaggerated story to her minions. None of these are that great by themselves but they do give some varied content and amusing narrative moments in what was a very short game.
This time along with the usual magic and hair attacks there are multiple creature transformations you can take with different attacks and dance abilities. You can also easily farm money for upgrades if you want an easier time and you can switch off upgrades and skills to make it more difficult. A hardcore mode for more of a challenge.
Like the previous game, this one has some issues with backtracking but going back to stages can change enemies and the transformations can make things a bit more interesting in how you get around. Unfortunately, some of those transformations are really only used to get extra items and are either fairly useless for anything else to begin with or are made mostly useless by other forms. The game is also very short.
This version comes with the previously very overpriced DLC. The DLC basically allows you to play as Shantae but as the developer's Mighty Switch Force character or in other costumes that alter your abilities, as three of Shantae's friends that have to use their abilities together, or as the pirate and usual antagonist Risky with her own narrative elements as she tells an exaggerated story to her minions. None of these are that great by themselves but they do give some varied content and amusing narrative moments in what was a very short game.
A solid and unusual combination of a superhero, card, and character relationship driven RPG. As a Marvel game shows a knowledge of the history of the comics and characters but, like the first XCOM remake, it's a good first effort but every area falls just short of greatness.
You will create the character of The Hunter who will act as your main character in your homebase for exploration and as one of the needed characters on story missions and a useable character in side missions. Your time is spent going on story or side missions accessible from a map you can bring up in your base, with you being able to go on as many side missions as you want while story missions might require a general mission to be completed between them or something plot related to be researched over the course of one side mission. Your base allows you to explore and find information on the history of the area, characters, and yourself while also allowing you to converse and spend times in "hangout" events with each of the heroes you can recruit. Unlocking new areas of the base can allow you to find bonuses for your character and raising your friendship level with allies improves each of their passive abilities and eventually allows them to unlock their ultimate skill. Even if you spend a lot more time playing through the game than is needed, the base area frequently has new conversations between characters, new social media posts by the news or character discussions, hangout dialogues between Hunter and each of the other heroes, and each character tends to have comments on each of the main story missions if you approach them afterwards sometimes changing depending on if there were with you or not in that mission.
Each hero has their own playstyle that tends to fit well with their characterization. Hunter is the most customizable able to focus on a mixture of attack, tanking, healing, support, etc. Spider-Man has bonuses and a card focused on making the most use of environmental attacks and an ultimate that allows him to play his next three cards for free. Blade is focused around attacking multiple enemies and applying bleed effects to them. Captain America can easily gain block and taunt enemies to protect his allies as well as having some support abilities to protect allies or to draw cards. Doctor Strange has skills that become strong the more heroism you have and has buffing abilities that can improve or influence the cards in your hand and give you an extra card play next turn. Iron Man's cards give a focus to his ego with some doing more the more cards of his you have in your hand and many become more powerful and going right back into your hand if you redraw them. Nico's abilities are more randomized with different powerful buffs available at random, mid to high damage that might effect random enemies, and an ability to lower the heroic costs of the cards in your hand. Magik can create and launch enemies through portals with knockback attacks that you can position the exit direction of and can more easily reposition enemies to set them up for AoE attacks. Wolverine and Captain Marvel act as a mixture of tank and damage dealer. Scarlet Witch more easily effects enemies and allies that are near her with AoE attacks and buffs. Hulk does more damage as you build his rage with certain skills or through taking damage. Ghost Rider has powerful attacks that often damage himself or that might discard your cards but also gains a higher maximum HP value as he defeats enemies.
Gameplay involves you going on a mission with three characters who each have eight cards equipped to them. You are trying to defeat all enemies while at times trying to complete an objective either before time runs out or before you are worn down by enemy reinforcement after each turn. Each turn you draw a hand of cards and can play three of them, with some being free to not count to your limit or having the property quick which allows them to be free if you defeat an enemy with the card. Each turn gives you two redraws and any cards saved in your hand at the end of a turn carries over to your hand next turn. Character cards can give them or allies passive buffs, do damage to enemies or areas, knock enemies into objects or each other, allow for more card draw, etc. Using attack and skill cards generates heroism which allows for you to use your heroic cards, combo cards, (strong attacks between two characters unlocked as you increase friendship levels), and in some cases to use objective based cards. Heroism can also be used to interact with parts of the environment that can damage or cause status effects to enemies like explosive barrels, throwing a boulder or crate, kicking an object at enemies, pulling an object on top of your enemies, etc with these costing heroism but not counting against your card plays and being a secondary way to move characters around. Each turn gives you one move action where you can either move a character to a spot that might have them avoiding an enemy attack or give them a better spot to use one of their abilities or a move action can be used as a free way to do some damage by shoving an enemy into a wall, another enemy, off a cliff, into a hazard, and eventually into another one of your allies for bonus damage.
Skill cards can be upgraded between missions with two of the same cards being able to be combined once to give a stronger version of the base ability either improving damage or added a new side effect to the card. Once a card has been updates you can spend the attack, skill, and heroic points you gain to roll two random modifiers you can then pick one of for the card. On the one hand this system is interesting as it gives you some added customization for cards with some of these modifiers pairing very well with certain heroes or cards but it is also random, would require grinding for resources if you do it too much, and there are certainly some very highly valued options you can get as well as some very mediocre ones. You might roll a modifier that does doubles the cards damage, makes it free to play, has it generate one or two extra heroism, has if give you heroism if you choose to redraw the card or you might gain a minuscule amount of block or taunt on a character you don't want taking damage or get added damage against full health enemies on a card that you will only be using against minion enemies 99% of the time who die to any damage they take already.
As you complete missions you are given a 1-3 star rating and getting enough 2-3 stars will unlock higher difficulty settings that you can switch between at any time between missions. The game tends to be very easy unless you start getting to those last three unlockable settings, and that's without me really making use of much skill rerolls, I tended to just take one of the first results I got or reload and take nothing if it was nothing useful to save resources.
There isn't a large amount of variety when it comes to mission types, some do change things up or give bonus objectives in different ways but too many of them revolve around big enemy shields an objective and you either break the protection then use a card/destroy what was being protected. By the end of the game there also just aren't that many different enemy types either, by the end you start to see a very similar variety. The lack of variety also applies to character abilities to some extent between the attack, skill, and heroic moves each character only has 10 different cards (with the exception of Hunter who has 40) and one of these is always their final ultimate skill you get when you max their friendship and complete a puzzle challenge mission with them (Hulk being an exception as his is only available after you compete the game). Not only does having ten total cards and eight equipable slots where you might want to equip multiple cards with the same abilities become a bit limiting variety wise but each character also tends to have somewhere between 1-3 skills that are either just terrible or much worse than anything else they have even if they would be ok otherwise. Some characters even have bad ultimate skills. As good as the main ideas behind the combat can be, things can start to get a bit repetitive.
There are a lot of good moments between the characters at your base but most of these tend to come from your one on one conversations with them or through the conversations you overhear. There a bit too much high school drama TV show style moments with character infighting, not trusting people, or jealously. Most of the actual in mission conversations are also quite poor, often having a feel that it would be from a comic book but a bad comic book. There are frequent references, both through subtle to obvious visuals and conversations, to the wider Marvel universe, pointing out more obscure elements, highlighting creators, or references real world connections like things actors who have played the characters have done that can be fun for fans of the comics to spot. Where some of these come from is the missions you can send lone characters out on that give you text information on the event or what other nonplayable characters are doing before you send a character to aid them, getting back from your mission gives you a follow-up with what happened with the character you assigned as well as giving them new skill cards.
The game is greatly improved with all of the DLC with the four new characters to play as (Deadpool, Morbius, Storm, and Venom), those characters each adding to the already high number of conversations and media posts in the game with them interacting to events with almost the same frequency of main characters, some new enemy types, and Blade having a narrative role in many of the DLC stories and getting to fulfill his role as a vampire hunter when he felt like he didn't have as much to do in the main storyline. Once you complete the game you are able to play through again in a new game plus mode where the level cap is raised, you will have access to your unlocked and customized abilities, and where you can use any heroes before they would be unlocked (though they will not appear in the hub area before they would be introduced through the story). The only negative to the DLC is Deadpool is an oddly designed character with a strangely limiting playstyle that most of his abilities revolve around, a passive ability that regenerates HP each turn which fits his character but taking damage is completely against how he is meant to be played, some poor abilities, and a lot of very dull animations to go with his skills, though his story and base scenes are great.
Videos:
https://youtu.be/d0G3y6yWUAw?si=adnC93Qhp_TemWMW
https://youtu.be/cMSeo-xWa90?si=5FGML161k3DbCkfH
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1738649828744409312
You will create the character of The Hunter who will act as your main character in your homebase for exploration and as one of the needed characters on story missions and a useable character in side missions. Your time is spent going on story or side missions accessible from a map you can bring up in your base, with you being able to go on as many side missions as you want while story missions might require a general mission to be completed between them or something plot related to be researched over the course of one side mission. Your base allows you to explore and find information on the history of the area, characters, and yourself while also allowing you to converse and spend times in "hangout" events with each of the heroes you can recruit. Unlocking new areas of the base can allow you to find bonuses for your character and raising your friendship level with allies improves each of their passive abilities and eventually allows them to unlock their ultimate skill. Even if you spend a lot more time playing through the game than is needed, the base area frequently has new conversations between characters, new social media posts by the news or character discussions, hangout dialogues between Hunter and each of the other heroes, and each character tends to have comments on each of the main story missions if you approach them afterwards sometimes changing depending on if there were with you or not in that mission.
Each hero has their own playstyle that tends to fit well with their characterization. Hunter is the most customizable able to focus on a mixture of attack, tanking, healing, support, etc. Spider-Man has bonuses and a card focused on making the most use of environmental attacks and an ultimate that allows him to play his next three cards for free. Blade is focused around attacking multiple enemies and applying bleed effects to them. Captain America can easily gain block and taunt enemies to protect his allies as well as having some support abilities to protect allies or to draw cards. Doctor Strange has skills that become strong the more heroism you have and has buffing abilities that can improve or influence the cards in your hand and give you an extra card play next turn. Iron Man's cards give a focus to his ego with some doing more the more cards of his you have in your hand and many become more powerful and going right back into your hand if you redraw them. Nico's abilities are more randomized with different powerful buffs available at random, mid to high damage that might effect random enemies, and an ability to lower the heroic costs of the cards in your hand. Magik can create and launch enemies through portals with knockback attacks that you can position the exit direction of and can more easily reposition enemies to set them up for AoE attacks. Wolverine and Captain Marvel act as a mixture of tank and damage dealer. Scarlet Witch more easily effects enemies and allies that are near her with AoE attacks and buffs. Hulk does more damage as you build his rage with certain skills or through taking damage. Ghost Rider has powerful attacks that often damage himself or that might discard your cards but also gains a higher maximum HP value as he defeats enemies.
Gameplay involves you going on a mission with three characters who each have eight cards equipped to them. You are trying to defeat all enemies while at times trying to complete an objective either before time runs out or before you are worn down by enemy reinforcement after each turn. Each turn you draw a hand of cards and can play three of them, with some being free to not count to your limit or having the property quick which allows them to be free if you defeat an enemy with the card. Each turn gives you two redraws and any cards saved in your hand at the end of a turn carries over to your hand next turn. Character cards can give them or allies passive buffs, do damage to enemies or areas, knock enemies into objects or each other, allow for more card draw, etc. Using attack and skill cards generates heroism which allows for you to use your heroic cards, combo cards, (strong attacks between two characters unlocked as you increase friendship levels), and in some cases to use objective based cards. Heroism can also be used to interact with parts of the environment that can damage or cause status effects to enemies like explosive barrels, throwing a boulder or crate, kicking an object at enemies, pulling an object on top of your enemies, etc with these costing heroism but not counting against your card plays and being a secondary way to move characters around. Each turn gives you one move action where you can either move a character to a spot that might have them avoiding an enemy attack or give them a better spot to use one of their abilities or a move action can be used as a free way to do some damage by shoving an enemy into a wall, another enemy, off a cliff, into a hazard, and eventually into another one of your allies for bonus damage.
Skill cards can be upgraded between missions with two of the same cards being able to be combined once to give a stronger version of the base ability either improving damage or added a new side effect to the card. Once a card has been updates you can spend the attack, skill, and heroic points you gain to roll two random modifiers you can then pick one of for the card. On the one hand this system is interesting as it gives you some added customization for cards with some of these modifiers pairing very well with certain heroes or cards but it is also random, would require grinding for resources if you do it too much, and there are certainly some very highly valued options you can get as well as some very mediocre ones. You might roll a modifier that does doubles the cards damage, makes it free to play, has it generate one or two extra heroism, has if give you heroism if you choose to redraw the card or you might gain a minuscule amount of block or taunt on a character you don't want taking damage or get added damage against full health enemies on a card that you will only be using against minion enemies 99% of the time who die to any damage they take already.
As you complete missions you are given a 1-3 star rating and getting enough 2-3 stars will unlock higher difficulty settings that you can switch between at any time between missions. The game tends to be very easy unless you start getting to those last three unlockable settings, and that's without me really making use of much skill rerolls, I tended to just take one of the first results I got or reload and take nothing if it was nothing useful to save resources.
There isn't a large amount of variety when it comes to mission types, some do change things up or give bonus objectives in different ways but too many of them revolve around big enemy shields an objective and you either break the protection then use a card/destroy what was being protected. By the end of the game there also just aren't that many different enemy types either, by the end you start to see a very similar variety. The lack of variety also applies to character abilities to some extent between the attack, skill, and heroic moves each character only has 10 different cards (with the exception of Hunter who has 40) and one of these is always their final ultimate skill you get when you max their friendship and complete a puzzle challenge mission with them (Hulk being an exception as his is only available after you compete the game). Not only does having ten total cards and eight equipable slots where you might want to equip multiple cards with the same abilities become a bit limiting variety wise but each character also tends to have somewhere between 1-3 skills that are either just terrible or much worse than anything else they have even if they would be ok otherwise. Some characters even have bad ultimate skills. As good as the main ideas behind the combat can be, things can start to get a bit repetitive.
There are a lot of good moments between the characters at your base but most of these tend to come from your one on one conversations with them or through the conversations you overhear. There a bit too much high school drama TV show style moments with character infighting, not trusting people, or jealously. Most of the actual in mission conversations are also quite poor, often having a feel that it would be from a comic book but a bad comic book. There are frequent references, both through subtle to obvious visuals and conversations, to the wider Marvel universe, pointing out more obscure elements, highlighting creators, or references real world connections like things actors who have played the characters have done that can be fun for fans of the comics to spot. Where some of these come from is the missions you can send lone characters out on that give you text information on the event or what other nonplayable characters are doing before you send a character to aid them, getting back from your mission gives you a follow-up with what happened with the character you assigned as well as giving them new skill cards.
The game is greatly improved with all of the DLC with the four new characters to play as (Deadpool, Morbius, Storm, and Venom), those characters each adding to the already high number of conversations and media posts in the game with them interacting to events with almost the same frequency of main characters, some new enemy types, and Blade having a narrative role in many of the DLC stories and getting to fulfill his role as a vampire hunter when he felt like he didn't have as much to do in the main storyline. Once you complete the game you are able to play through again in a new game plus mode where the level cap is raised, you will have access to your unlocked and customized abilities, and where you can use any heroes before they would be unlocked (though they will not appear in the hub area before they would be introduced through the story). The only negative to the DLC is Deadpool is an oddly designed character with a strangely limiting playstyle that most of his abilities revolve around, a passive ability that regenerates HP each turn which fits his character but taking damage is completely against how he is meant to be played, some poor abilities, and a lot of very dull animations to go with his skills, though his story and base scenes are great.
Videos:
https://youtu.be/d0G3y6yWUAw?si=adnC93Qhp_TemWMW
https://youtu.be/cMSeo-xWa90?si=5FGML161k3DbCkfH
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1738649828744409312
2020
Side scrolling shooter with a cyberpunk theme and visuals on par with the Metal Slug series. A corporation hires a bounty hunter (or two if you play co-op) to go after four gangs that have been increasing their territory lately. Each gang has five stages where you fight one of the gang's captains at the end of the level. Each character has a different main weapon and throwing weapon and can pick up a variety of secondary main or throwing weapons and dash which gives you a brief dodge window, take cover behind crates/cars or background objects, and kick nearby enemies. It controls well, fun gameplay, some great animation and backgrounds. Some good moments where bosses interact with you before their fight either in amusing ways or by attacking you with helicopters or robots through windows and walls that have you seeking cover in the stage while fighting through regular enemies. Each gang introduces some different enemies and weapons so there is always something new as you are playing through the stages.
Never really that funny with its mostly reference filled humor and with no real unlockables or extra characters or weapons to start with, doesn't give you as much replayability as some similar games that have released recently and this gives you no reason to try to complete the stage challenges which are always to kill a certain number of enemies, not die, and to find three hidden briefcases (which don't seem to do anything). Each character will have different dialogue before you start each gangs missions, and their own dialogue in stages and quips.
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1264477991901356033
Never really that funny with its mostly reference filled humor and with no real unlockables or extra characters or weapons to start with, doesn't give you as much replayability as some similar games that have released recently and this gives you no reason to try to complete the stage challenges which are always to kill a certain number of enemies, not die, and to find three hidden briefcases (which don't seem to do anything). Each character will have different dialogue before you start each gangs missions, and their own dialogue in stages and quips.
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1264477991901356033
1995
Mission Critical is a first person point and click adventure with some minor RTS gameplay and a more hard science fiction focus and more logically designed puzzles. In the year 2134 you are part of an Alliance fleet who are in a war against the United Nations and are the last person on your ship after being knocked out by your Captain (Michael Dorn) after they surrender to an enemy ship and blow it and themselves up in the transport shuttle. It might initially be assumed that a primarily US lead Alliance of factions that have seceded from the UN due to the limitations placed on unrestricted AI research stating they would rather everyone die than limit freedom and research progress, and who just killed everyone by suicide bomb after their surrender was accepted after they invoked the Geneva Conventions while discussing the treatment of their crew, would probably put you firmly on the side of obvious bad guys, but the guide book that comes with the game (on GOG at least, don't know what was in the original game box) details the last 115 years of history of the UNs dealing with third world countries, population control, use of security forces, and nuking Atlanta and you can find a short narrative version of the history of the conflict on your ship narrated by Dorn, though you do find some of the negative view of your side and what banned research has created through some of the crew notes you can find.
You are left to attempt to repair the ship and to finish the mission of exploring an alien ruin which leads to you getting involved in events bigger than the war as your actions can save humanity and the galaxy as well as having your exploration on your ship reveal more about your crew and a spy that was on board. When you wake up you soon find a message left for you by the ship's second in command and notes from the captain that give you some guidance and codes to bypass locked doors into crew quarters, you also have the ship's messages telling you that you should probably deal with the hull breach on your current level.
The interface is simple and works well. You click on things to interact with them and to be given new options related to the object and can move by clicking when you have a forward arrow to advance or one to turn left or right. Moving has your character walking in first person to the next spot but clicking again will speed through the animation so you don't have to watch your character slowly walk through a corridor again and again if you are backtracking. Mousing over something in the environment can give you text near the bottom center of the screen that tells you what is is called or more information about it, and trying to interact with a screen to get a message to play might leave you with the helpful hint on that same text screen to interact with the nearby control panel instead, this helping to avoid pixel hunting or accidentally thinking that you can't do anything with a useful object.
The music is good throughout and it looks good for the time and fine now with one of the more important part of the look being that it is never an issue when it comes to finding things you can interact with. You can create as many save games as you want at a time when a lot of games were more limited in that regard. The minor RTS elements have you controlling drones against the drones of enemy ships in a 3D space battle with a unique look to it for the genre, though this is a minor part of the game and can basically be skipped with a difficulty setting that pops up and allows you to set it to being fully controlled by the computer if you aren't interested in that aspect.
Once you get off your ship things tend to start moving quickly, puzzles become more obvious and the areas you can travel to more limited. You also enter a much more dialogue heavy portion of the game where you aren't doing as much, the plot takes on more fantasy elements, and your interactions on the planet until the games end all seem a bit rushed. You also don't get to see that much of any of the actors, so those interested in seeing Michael Dorn's role aren't going to get much out of that element.
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1738936486836494804
You are left to attempt to repair the ship and to finish the mission of exploring an alien ruin which leads to you getting involved in events bigger than the war as your actions can save humanity and the galaxy as well as having your exploration on your ship reveal more about your crew and a spy that was on board. When you wake up you soon find a message left for you by the ship's second in command and notes from the captain that give you some guidance and codes to bypass locked doors into crew quarters, you also have the ship's messages telling you that you should probably deal with the hull breach on your current level.
The interface is simple and works well. You click on things to interact with them and to be given new options related to the object and can move by clicking when you have a forward arrow to advance or one to turn left or right. Moving has your character walking in first person to the next spot but clicking again will speed through the animation so you don't have to watch your character slowly walk through a corridor again and again if you are backtracking. Mousing over something in the environment can give you text near the bottom center of the screen that tells you what is is called or more information about it, and trying to interact with a screen to get a message to play might leave you with the helpful hint on that same text screen to interact with the nearby control panel instead, this helping to avoid pixel hunting or accidentally thinking that you can't do anything with a useful object.
The music is good throughout and it looks good for the time and fine now with one of the more important part of the look being that it is never an issue when it comes to finding things you can interact with. You can create as many save games as you want at a time when a lot of games were more limited in that regard. The minor RTS elements have you controlling drones against the drones of enemy ships in a 3D space battle with a unique look to it for the genre, though this is a minor part of the game and can basically be skipped with a difficulty setting that pops up and allows you to set it to being fully controlled by the computer if you aren't interested in that aspect.
Once you get off your ship things tend to start moving quickly, puzzles become more obvious and the areas you can travel to more limited. You also enter a much more dialogue heavy portion of the game where you aren't doing as much, the plot takes on more fantasy elements, and your interactions on the planet until the games end all seem a bit rushed. You also don't get to see that much of any of the actors, so those interested in seeing Michael Dorn's role aren't going to get much out of that element.
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1738936486836494804
2023
A less melee and tactics focused Hotline Miami with some roguelike elements that gives you a quick to recharge slow motion toggle and dodge move to fight quick reacting enemies.
Your characters puts on a mask and suddenly finds themself washed up on a beach near a mansion where he is told he can't leave or die and that he needs to fight his way to the deeper part of the mansion to destroy the heart. You will fight through rooms where you will need to kill all enemies to proceed. To do that you pick up, shoot, reload, and throw guns at enemies, kick enemies and doors with doors near enemies being able to kill them, toggle on slow motion, and perform a dive move that can avoid bullets. The base mechanics are fine but I don't enjoy the enemies that take multiple hits to kill and your own large health bar. Mostly all your trying to avoid doing is destroy too many doors or glass windows that can lead to larger groups of enemies engaging you or sneaking up on you, as long as you don't break open a door or window enemies are unable to get through them.
Every three areas and in the first area of a new run is a bar where you can spend coins (first one of the run is free) that you get from killing enemies and maintaining a high combo for higher rewards on different types of alcohol that give you passive bonuses. The abilities you can gain from the bars might do something like allowing you to do more damage when stationary, reload faster, recharge your slow motion ability faster or they can give more targeted buffs to certain types of weapons or give you abilities that allow for unique playstyles like allowing you to block bullets, gain a kunai if you roll while holding no weapon, transform kunai into a throwing axe that you can summon back to you, etc. As the bars are limited to only three kinds of drinks unless you spend even more to restock you could easily thing that your likely to be stuck with completely useless or contradictory things for your runs most of the time but one of the only positives I can give the game is that if you get to a bar and choose to save and go back to the main menu and then reload it will change the drink menu, actually allowing you to pick up skills that might make the game more fun or interesting for you, if you don't mind rerolling drinks as many times as needed.
The available weapons can also be changed up by toggling what guns are available or not in your next run which also means it effects what weapons enemies will use. Trying to do an all pistol or sniper rifle run might be fun but you do have to keep in mind that doing so might make boss fights much more difficult. Once you get through six stages you will fight a boss before moving to another area with six stages and a boss, the new area might introduce a new enemy or give enemies a bonus like having extra armor. Every boss is a tedious bullet sponge with a small number of attacks that become easy to predict over time, while the main enemies aren't as much fun as they lack the more visceral nature of the kills of your opponents in something like Hotline Miami or even other slow motion using top down games like The Hong Kong Massacre, these bosses have no reaction to being shot at all and are some of the worst bosses I've seen in a genre like this.
Fighting the main enemies is ok but not as much fun as similar games I've played in this style. The bosses are terrible. I personally hate the music. A lot of the guns and abilities just aren't that fun to use. You can, in an inefficient way, tailor a run to work more in a way you find interesting which seems more like an unintentional feature or engine issue (like not being able to use the mouse on menus, not being able to save Steam screenshots, not being able to change the mouse sensitivity that are related to the game engine) as it certainly isn't something the game tells you. If you don't reload for abilities you end up with frequent terrible choices that can have either nothing to do with your playstyle or you might want to play in a certain way but it requires having multiple abilities together that can take too long to find otherwise. There also just isn't that much content and what there is it pretty much wants you to do all of in one run, by the time I was done I didn't even have anything practical left to buy as an upgrade and the logical endpoint of the run should have come around three sets of stages prior.
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1739140204244652227
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2nNEv7kCco&t=335s&ab_channel=Legolas_Katarn
Your characters puts on a mask and suddenly finds themself washed up on a beach near a mansion where he is told he can't leave or die and that he needs to fight his way to the deeper part of the mansion to destroy the heart. You will fight through rooms where you will need to kill all enemies to proceed. To do that you pick up, shoot, reload, and throw guns at enemies, kick enemies and doors with doors near enemies being able to kill them, toggle on slow motion, and perform a dive move that can avoid bullets. The base mechanics are fine but I don't enjoy the enemies that take multiple hits to kill and your own large health bar. Mostly all your trying to avoid doing is destroy too many doors or glass windows that can lead to larger groups of enemies engaging you or sneaking up on you, as long as you don't break open a door or window enemies are unable to get through them.
Every three areas and in the first area of a new run is a bar where you can spend coins (first one of the run is free) that you get from killing enemies and maintaining a high combo for higher rewards on different types of alcohol that give you passive bonuses. The abilities you can gain from the bars might do something like allowing you to do more damage when stationary, reload faster, recharge your slow motion ability faster or they can give more targeted buffs to certain types of weapons or give you abilities that allow for unique playstyles like allowing you to block bullets, gain a kunai if you roll while holding no weapon, transform kunai into a throwing axe that you can summon back to you, etc. As the bars are limited to only three kinds of drinks unless you spend even more to restock you could easily thing that your likely to be stuck with completely useless or contradictory things for your runs most of the time but one of the only positives I can give the game is that if you get to a bar and choose to save and go back to the main menu and then reload it will change the drink menu, actually allowing you to pick up skills that might make the game more fun or interesting for you, if you don't mind rerolling drinks as many times as needed.
The available weapons can also be changed up by toggling what guns are available or not in your next run which also means it effects what weapons enemies will use. Trying to do an all pistol or sniper rifle run might be fun but you do have to keep in mind that doing so might make boss fights much more difficult. Once you get through six stages you will fight a boss before moving to another area with six stages and a boss, the new area might introduce a new enemy or give enemies a bonus like having extra armor. Every boss is a tedious bullet sponge with a small number of attacks that become easy to predict over time, while the main enemies aren't as much fun as they lack the more visceral nature of the kills of your opponents in something like Hotline Miami or even other slow motion using top down games like The Hong Kong Massacre, these bosses have no reaction to being shot at all and are some of the worst bosses I've seen in a genre like this.
Fighting the main enemies is ok but not as much fun as similar games I've played in this style. The bosses are terrible. I personally hate the music. A lot of the guns and abilities just aren't that fun to use. You can, in an inefficient way, tailor a run to work more in a way you find interesting which seems more like an unintentional feature or engine issue (like not being able to use the mouse on menus, not being able to save Steam screenshots, not being able to change the mouse sensitivity that are related to the game engine) as it certainly isn't something the game tells you. If you don't reload for abilities you end up with frequent terrible choices that can have either nothing to do with your playstyle or you might want to play in a certain way but it requires having multiple abilities together that can take too long to find otherwise. There also just isn't that much content and what there is it pretty much wants you to do all of in one run, by the time I was done I didn't even have anything practical left to buy as an upgrade and the logical endpoint of the run should have come around three sets of stages prior.
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1739140204244652227
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2nNEv7kCco&t=335s&ab_channel=Legolas_Katarn
Solid horror visual novel that has some issues but offers a bit more player involvement than normal and has some good character moments and details on the backstory of the game's mysteries.
Set in the 80s with a plot that deals with people coming into possessions of curse stones with each having a different trigger to activate them, when used to kill people or other curse bearers their stone is powered and can allow them to resurrect someone. Split between playing as five different characters (some partnered with another person) as they use or attempt to stop others from using curse stones and solve the mystery of what started the curse and how it might be stopped or if there is a way to revive their loved ones.
There's more expression and movement to the characters than is typically in visual novels (though frequent odd duck face lip movements) and the player has a more active role needing to interact with game options or giving knowledge only you would know to a character for them to proceed at times. Your ability to look around the environment can also be used for jump scares, moving characters around, looking at certain areas or avoiding looking at certain things to progress a scene, etc.
The story and characters are good and so is discovering the associated information with each legend but there are issues with some obvious plot twists, overly quick resolutions to a character's story and the goal they have been aiming for previously, and neither the main ending or true ending is particularly satisfying. I saw a lot of, "Make sure you go into the game blind," style posts and reviews and on top of not being someone who cares about spoilers in general there really isn't any major reveals, mechanic shifts, or game changing plot twists here that would be ruined if you already knew some plot details. Probably would have been an improvement to play out conversations naturally rather than the frequent odd way the game did it where you need to ask every question or finish all dialogue with one character at a time but you have to keep picking the same choice or person usually 2-3 times to get through everything with breaks in between, that was an area of player control the game didn't benefit from.
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1739447022992986262
Set in the 80s with a plot that deals with people coming into possessions of curse stones with each having a different trigger to activate them, when used to kill people or other curse bearers their stone is powered and can allow them to resurrect someone. Split between playing as five different characters (some partnered with another person) as they use or attempt to stop others from using curse stones and solve the mystery of what started the curse and how it might be stopped or if there is a way to revive their loved ones.
There's more expression and movement to the characters than is typically in visual novels (though frequent odd duck face lip movements) and the player has a more active role needing to interact with game options or giving knowledge only you would know to a character for them to proceed at times. Your ability to look around the environment can also be used for jump scares, moving characters around, looking at certain areas or avoiding looking at certain things to progress a scene, etc.
The story and characters are good and so is discovering the associated information with each legend but there are issues with some obvious plot twists, overly quick resolutions to a character's story and the goal they have been aiming for previously, and neither the main ending or true ending is particularly satisfying. I saw a lot of, "Make sure you go into the game blind," style posts and reviews and on top of not being someone who cares about spoilers in general there really isn't any major reveals, mechanic shifts, or game changing plot twists here that would be ruined if you already knew some plot details. Probably would have been an improvement to play out conversations naturally rather than the frequent odd way the game did it where you need to ask every question or finish all dialogue with one character at a time but you have to keep picking the same choice or person usually 2-3 times to get through everything with breaks in between, that was an area of player control the game didn't benefit from.
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1739447022992986262
1998
An interesting survival horror title where you are hunting by a single monster that can kill your companions before killing you, a dead companion is replaced with a new character with their own personality, story elements, and that leads to different endings.
Good sound design for the environment, the monster, footsteps, and the sound of your breathing and heartbeat. Monster can appear near you and attempt to rush you or it might wait around a corner while holding its breath potentially making the silent moments as tense as when you are being actively chased. Able to replace or get the NPCs, 4 total, that can follow you around killed can change the story and multiple endings, difficulty, increase replay value. Interesting setting as you descend further into "The Mesh" and meet people who have their own society underneath Tokyo. Not the best translation unfortunately.
Good sound design for the environment, the monster, footsteps, and the sound of your breathing and heartbeat. Monster can appear near you and attempt to rush you or it might wait around a corner while holding its breath potentially making the silent moments as tense as when you are being actively chased. Able to replace or get the NPCs, 4 total, that can follow you around killed can change the story and multiple endings, difficulty, increase replay value. Interesting setting as you descend further into "The Mesh" and meet people who have their own society underneath Tokyo. Not the best translation unfortunately.
A side scrolling action adventure mood piece about a hitman in the 1970s. The developer's previous game The friends of Ringo Ishikawa dealt with Japanese Yankii culture and a lead with friends and events to interact with and at times and still at a point where there could have been a chance for his future to lead him in a different direction than the gang brawls he is drawn into as his friends begin to abandon that lifestyle through misfortune or wanting something better. The protagonist here begins as a man who has nothing and no longer cares for anything except for the time when he is doing a job that briefly pulls him away from the meaninglessness of his life. In between jobs you spend your time wandering through a lonely city with the only abilities being to take out and light a cigarette, put on sunglasses, wander the town, visit a lover who is never shown spoken to or doing anything to change the music or atmosphere presented, or to buy a drink, cigarettes, a new coat, and sleeping pills. There are no friends to interact with, books to read, new fighting moves to learn, or teachers attempting to make you work towards a different life for yourself all you have is the wait until your next job, just lying on your bed staring at the ceiling watching the smoke come out of the cigarette until there is nothing left of it.
Each job begins with you and your target, seemingly someone in a position of power, before you raise your gun and shoot them then work your way to the exit of the areas or to your escape vehicle. In your paths are never-ending waves of enemies coming from both sides. You maintain your slow movement pace but can rapidly shift your aim in front, behind, or on both sides of you as you continue to push your way forward as the action becomes a slower moving John Woo film. You can walk forward while firing your gun or guns at a slower rate, hold up to remain still but fire your guns much faster, or crouch down to prioritize enemies that are currently aiming at you. You start with a pistol and when you need more ammo your only way to get more is to break the arm of a nearby enemy before taking their gun, doing this can get you a pistol, a second pistol, or a shotgun that can hit multiple enemies at once. Some enemies will rush towards you being the ones you want to leave alive to disarm while others will draw their pistol or shotgun sooner and will remain station to aim or slowly walk towards you while aiming, enemies with rifles that try to aim and shoot shortly after appearing at each end of the screen are also frequent threats. There is no health bar or indicator of remaining ammo and while every shot you fire will kill an enemy that may or may not be true for them.
When a job ends it's back to a life of nothing. Only brief conversations with the man who gives you your assignments over time revealing that they both consider that they aren't living life how they thought would or ever want to, that there is nothing but the work, and what they will do once there are no more jobs left to take.
The developer keeps a somber atmosphere outside of the moments of actions while also giving a well detailed city environment and an excellent and mood fitting music. When fighting starts it is a simple but fun and fast and while your movements are limited there is a variety of ways that you maneuver your gun and arms while aiming that reminds of a variety of action film shootouts.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCFVVd0MRWc&ab_channel=Legolas_Katarn
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1740050010077831666
Each job begins with you and your target, seemingly someone in a position of power, before you raise your gun and shoot them then work your way to the exit of the areas or to your escape vehicle. In your paths are never-ending waves of enemies coming from both sides. You maintain your slow movement pace but can rapidly shift your aim in front, behind, or on both sides of you as you continue to push your way forward as the action becomes a slower moving John Woo film. You can walk forward while firing your gun or guns at a slower rate, hold up to remain still but fire your guns much faster, or crouch down to prioritize enemies that are currently aiming at you. You start with a pistol and when you need more ammo your only way to get more is to break the arm of a nearby enemy before taking their gun, doing this can get you a pistol, a second pistol, or a shotgun that can hit multiple enemies at once. Some enemies will rush towards you being the ones you want to leave alive to disarm while others will draw their pistol or shotgun sooner and will remain station to aim or slowly walk towards you while aiming, enemies with rifles that try to aim and shoot shortly after appearing at each end of the screen are also frequent threats. There is no health bar or indicator of remaining ammo and while every shot you fire will kill an enemy that may or may not be true for them.
When a job ends it's back to a life of nothing. Only brief conversations with the man who gives you your assignments over time revealing that they both consider that they aren't living life how they thought would or ever want to, that there is nothing but the work, and what they will do once there are no more jobs left to take.
The developer keeps a somber atmosphere outside of the moments of actions while also giving a well detailed city environment and an excellent and mood fitting music. When fighting starts it is a simple but fun and fast and while your movements are limited there is a variety of ways that you maneuver your gun and arms while aiming that reminds of a variety of action film shootouts.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCFVVd0MRWc&ab_channel=Legolas_Katarn
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1740050010077831666
A rookie CIA analyst gets involved with assassinations, traitors, and nukes in a partially more realism focused puzzle and investigation game that surprisingly presents a more negative portrayal of the CIA despite a former director's involvement.
Spycraft is a somewhat more realism focused puzzle FMV game where you play a rookie CIA analyst. After your instructor is somewhat hilariously killed you take over the hunt for an assassin of a Russian presidential candidate who is now targeting the US president. Perform tasks like looking up licensee plates, using voice/facial recognition software, analyzing ballistic data, doctoring photos, tracking fund transfers, reading through files, making the right conversation choices based on information you've discovered about the people you meet, etc. These mini-games are typically handled on your in game computer and each its own kind of mini-game puzzle, typically none are anything you would want to do for an entire game but the majority only come up once and they tend to work well like that. One of the more unusual ones that would make for an interesting game if it was better designed is a brief moment where you control a four man team on a raid to rescue an informant and you are viewing a simple building plan of the environment where each of the four is a different color figure with their one specialty in disabling phone lines, stun grenades, breaching, or surveillance. There are a few FMV point and click shooting scenes, and scenes with a photo background with interactable objects. The FMV actors aren't overused and are acted well for the time.
While keeping some elements of realism things do become a bit ridiculous with your formerly rookie analyst going from part of a team looking into a foreign assassination to being the head of it, to it becoming a threat to the US president, dealing with MI6 and and former North Korean agents and defectors and traitors, three or four CIA traitors, terrorists attempt to acquire a nuclear weapon, usually you are passing information onto other teams that attempt to make arrests but at one point you have two options when dealing with a situation that can include you starting a gunfight and shooting your way through the situation. Your decisions can lead to some events playing out differently or certain characters being killed or escaping but these rarely influence the main plot and getting something wrong that would prevent progression typically just has something coming back to telling you that your report was wrong and to look over whatever you were doing again.
I didn't get what I expected from the plot, as the game was developed with former CIA director William Colby and former KGB Major-General Oleg Kalugin having roles in the game (narratively Colby acting as a frequent advisor to your character and Kalugin just kind of appearing once) I was expecting something more insane and offensive, like when Sierra and Ken Williams brought on a psychopath like Daryl Gates as an advisor on Police Quest Open Season and made one of the worst, most offensive, and propaganda filled adventure games I've played. Instead you get an opening with a CIA credo about performing at the request of the president and acting with integrity and honor to protect American values while a voice over explains that it can be best not to tell people or the president what they are doing. You can edit a photo to succeed in questioning someone or you can torture someone while your boss advises you against it, and the ending has you getting a vacation and medal if you follow orders to murder the Russian agent that has been helping you when he tries to arrest a politician for working with the mafia and would support the US or you can let him arrest him and get fired.
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1740833331556872636
Spycraft is a somewhat more realism focused puzzle FMV game where you play a rookie CIA analyst. After your instructor is somewhat hilariously killed you take over the hunt for an assassin of a Russian presidential candidate who is now targeting the US president. Perform tasks like looking up licensee plates, using voice/facial recognition software, analyzing ballistic data, doctoring photos, tracking fund transfers, reading through files, making the right conversation choices based on information you've discovered about the people you meet, etc. These mini-games are typically handled on your in game computer and each its own kind of mini-game puzzle, typically none are anything you would want to do for an entire game but the majority only come up once and they tend to work well like that. One of the more unusual ones that would make for an interesting game if it was better designed is a brief moment where you control a four man team on a raid to rescue an informant and you are viewing a simple building plan of the environment where each of the four is a different color figure with their one specialty in disabling phone lines, stun grenades, breaching, or surveillance. There are a few FMV point and click shooting scenes, and scenes with a photo background with interactable objects. The FMV actors aren't overused and are acted well for the time.
While keeping some elements of realism things do become a bit ridiculous with your formerly rookie analyst going from part of a team looking into a foreign assassination to being the head of it, to it becoming a threat to the US president, dealing with MI6 and and former North Korean agents and defectors and traitors, three or four CIA traitors, terrorists attempt to acquire a nuclear weapon, usually you are passing information onto other teams that attempt to make arrests but at one point you have two options when dealing with a situation that can include you starting a gunfight and shooting your way through the situation. Your decisions can lead to some events playing out differently or certain characters being killed or escaping but these rarely influence the main plot and getting something wrong that would prevent progression typically just has something coming back to telling you that your report was wrong and to look over whatever you were doing again.
I didn't get what I expected from the plot, as the game was developed with former CIA director William Colby and former KGB Major-General Oleg Kalugin having roles in the game (narratively Colby acting as a frequent advisor to your character and Kalugin just kind of appearing once) I was expecting something more insane and offensive, like when Sierra and Ken Williams brought on a psychopath like Daryl Gates as an advisor on Police Quest Open Season and made one of the worst, most offensive, and propaganda filled adventure games I've played. Instead you get an opening with a CIA credo about performing at the request of the president and acting with integrity and honor to protect American values while a voice over explains that it can be best not to tell people or the president what they are doing. You can edit a photo to succeed in questioning someone or you can torture someone while your boss advises you against it, and the ending has you getting a vacation and medal if you follow orders to murder the Russian agent that has been helping you when he tries to arrest a politician for working with the mafia and would support the US or you can let him arrest him and get fired.
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1740833331556872636
2022
Marvel Snap is one of the better card games I have played with a variety of valid deck types to use and frequent updates, a snap system I have mixed feeling about, and an odd monetization system.
Each player creates a deck of 12 cards, draws three to begin, and then draws one card each turn over the course of a six turn game. Every turn gives players a total energy value that matches the current turn and the goal is to play your 1-6 cost cards that each have an associated power value and ability into three different lanes to try to end up with the most power in two of those three lanes (or more total power if you tie). You and your opponent play cards at the same time with your board only be visible to you until both players hit the end turn button (or when the turn timer runs out). Both players taking their turns at the same time solves a major problem a lot of card games have where the person that goes first can often end up with a major advantage, while the added strategy of the currently winning player having priority in showing their cards first can add another layer of strategy based on what you and your opponents cards do when it comes to effecting other cards on the board. From the beginning of the game you can play cards to any location but only the location on the left is revealed with the middle being revealed on turn two, and the right on turn three. Revealed locations will show a specific location that has their own game altering text. A location might increase or decrease the power of cards, prevent cards being played their, have players draw cards, and 0 power rocks to the location, turn all cards into The Hulk, duplicate a card played on the spot, have the game last only four turn or last for seven turns, etc with the locations that have the biggest effect on games being the ones that show up less often.
There are three game modes that can be played. You can play normal matches where you play one round against an opponent, winning can see you gaining higher rank for 1-100 with each season giving you either credits, gold, card variants, card backs, and avatars every 10 ranks. For every rank you pass divisible by 10 you have three ranks added to your total. Each rank requires you to gain seven cubes. When a game starts the cube count is at one, on the final turn the current cube value doubles, if someone retreats the current value is given to the winner, if someone hits the snap option the current value doubles and the opponent can either retreat before the increase, do nothing so it doubles, or snap themself so it doubles again. This means that games can end with cube values of 1, 2, 4, 8. The losing players loses the cube number and can go down in ranks. At the end of each season your rank is dropped by 30. Once you reach rank 100 you are playing for cubes and can see your total ranking among other players but you will not lose rank until the monthly season ends. The other main mode is the challenge mode where you play multiple matches against the same opponent with whoever takes 10 cubes from their opponent being the winner. These matches don't effect your rank but gain you points that can be spent on a card, avatars, credits, gold, card boosters, card variants, etc that are available on the challenge store for the season. The challenge mode has a proving ground, silver, gold, and infinite section where you have to win a ticket in the previous area to play matches in the next with the higher areas offering more points. The proving grounds being a great place to just mess around or test out a deck since you can't lose anything and can only gain a silver ticket if you win. Challenge mode otherwise can be a bit odd as for a fast game people can really drag out matches and when it comes to decks having multiple games with the same person can mean you can take time to see what cards people have and how they play but it also means that you run into a deck that will easily counter yours in a mode that wants you to beat multiple people in a row multiple times and having more than one match makes it even less likely you will win against a deck that is even an adequate counter to yours. The final mode is a mode with no stakes where you can just invite a friend to a private match played in the challenge style.
The opponents that you play against are actually not based on your rank, they are based on your collection level which is the progression system of the game. This means that when you start, if you are any good at card games, it is actually a good idea to try to focus on reaching max rank because you will be paired against a lot of terrible players just trying the game because of the Marvel name or bots to fill the low level games that are easy to beat. As you go up in collection level you will enter new tiers that match you with opponents who have access to the same kind of cards.
The progression system is based on acquiring credits, gold, card boosters, spotlight cache keys, and cards that are in pools 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 that can effect how you unlock them. When you start you have the pool one cards and very quickly gain the pool two cards by gaining collection level. You gain collection level by spending credits on cards that you have boosters for to raise your level. Upgraded cards gain a different colored border and 3D and animated details on the main card. Card boosters aren't a thing that really prohibits progression they are just points assigned to a card you used at the end of every match or gained for a random card you own through the progression system that allows you to upgrade that specific card (or a variant of the card) with credits. Credits are gained from completing very easy daily challenges of which you have a maximum of six with two being added every eight hours, you can also go to the store to gain 50 credits free a day, doing the six challenges and getting the free 50 gets you 500 credits a day that can roughly raise your collection level by 10 a day, with you gaining something something every two level for the first 200 or so ranks then at every four level afterwards. Each week also gives you additional credits, gold, and season pass points by completing 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 daily challenges. These are some of the easiest and less time consuming daily and weekly challenges I've seen in a game like this that makes progression pretty easy if you can spare a couple minutes for around 2-4 matches a day.
There are issues with the system where once you reach the pool 3 cards that gaining them becomes random and can take a lot longer while you are now playing against people that have a wider variety of cards, you do unlock one free to gain pool 3 card a month that you can somewhat choose but it is chosen by offering a random one you don't have in the store and then switching it every eight hours so you can't just easily choose the one you want or need most as soon as the month begins. The rarer pool 4 and 5 cards can only be gained in two ways (these aren't necessarily the best cards they are just the newer cards). By getting tokens that are much more random to acquire or require gaining some points by buying the monthly season pass for $10 or once you reach around 1000 collection level you gain gain a spotlight key every 120 levels (about a weeks worth of progression if going solely by challenges) that can be used to unlock one of three weekly options or a random pool 4 or 5 card (or a variant for one if you already have one of the three on offer and roll them or some tokens if you pull a random card you already own with the random option). You can certainly play the game as a free player, though it would have been much easier to be one in the earlier days of the game, but I would recommend a fan of the game at least buying the $10 monthly season pass as it will get them a new card and easily completed season pass levels whose unlockables are a decent value for the price, and is much better option than doing anything crazy or needless like paying $50-100 for some terrible bundle that offers some variant and a weeks progression.
I have mixed feelings on the snap mechanic. On the positive side it adds a potential bluff mechanic to the game that adds additional strategy, it also adds another layer of strategy to cards where things that are more obviously powerful might cause someone to leave while things that might appear weak but a combo you have your opponent is either unaware of or hoping you don't draw or an unusual combination of cards they aren't expecting can lead to opponent to thinking they have an easy win that gains you more cubes. There are also cards, like Kang, that are put in an interesting spot where they are bad and will likely lower your chance to win in almost all situations but they can give you information that might actually increase your cube gains by letting you know if you should retreat or snap. On the negative side I don't have a gambling addiction so I don't feel any personal excitement over the use of the feature, it tends to keep you in the challenge area proving grounds if you just want to test things out, and the option to retreat obviously leaves who would have won the game open which is kind of a dull way to end a card game never knowing what would have happened if you both played that last turn.
Deck can be built around a variety of archetypes with a usual focus on cards that synergize well with each others for strong combos, having two types of plans that can set you up for a likely win state in case you don't draw what you need or the locations don't allow for your main goal, or including cards that might not help you get the biggest power ratings on the board but will cause troubles for your opponents cards or combo activations. You can build decks based around destroying your own cards to create different effects, discarding cards from you hand to power up or summon with other cards later, control focused decks that might move your opponents cards around or lock down locations to prevent card plays earlier in the game, decks that try to fill your opponents side with low power or negative power cards, using a lot of on reveal ability cards that work together well, using cards that can move around to different locations and gain buffs when moving or when cards move onto their location, using ongoing ability cards that work together well, playing cards that allow you to buff all of your cards with a certain power or cost value, and then there are certain cards like Thanos and High Evolutionary that edit your cards or deck in a way to make them a playstyle by themselves. There are some poor cards in the game but for the most part things are balanced fairly well and getting frequent new balance buff and nerf patches and as new cards have been released there have been formerly mediocre cards that have paired well with those new cards. While there tends to be a popular metagame, that meta is frequently changing as new cards come out and things get patched, and having a lot of people trying to do similar styles of decks can allow for decks built to go against that meta or that are just doing something not seen often or very unexpected to shine as well. When it comes to representing the Marvel characters there are a few misses or odd ability choices but many of them do something that fits well with the character and certain character types like the Spiderverse characters (Peter, Ghost, Miles, Silk, 2099) do things that synergize with each other.
The base card artwork is usually ok to good with some beautiful and extremely varied card variant options available with multiple styles done by different artists. These can be earned through progression, buying bundles with earned or bought gold currency, or just buying variants that change in the store multiple times a day with gold. A bad side about this is in addition to being styles you just won't like, the developers have intentionally flooded the variant options with pixel art card variants that are 95% awful looking versions that took no effort to make. That there are over 200 of these and growing means that when it comes to random gains you will frequently earn these variants that you never will want to use. They also have a massively overused artist with Dan Hipp who has around 140 cards, if you don't like his style or you just find them ok and not really your thing like I do then prepare to be disappointed as you will be seeing a lot of Pixel and Dan card variants. Even if you earn or buy one of the premium random card variant packs that exist to specifically say you won't get a pixel variant, good chance you will be getting a Dan Hipp. In the actual game certain cards are paired with effects when you move them around, when you place them, when they activate an ability, and a voice line might play during one of those situations.
The store for the game features changing bundles that can be bought with money or gold, gold that you can buy if you haven't earned enough for what you want, a rotating offering of card variants for cards that you have that if you buy enough can eventually gain you tokens and a random non pixel card variant, credits that you can spend gold on but that it's always better to wait for a bundle for a better value, offering of upgrades for cards you already have ignoring boosters but for for a larger credit price that is always a terrible option, and a changing pool 4 or 5 card that earned tokens can be spent on. If you like the game and want to spend money the season pass is the best value and there are a few reasonable acceptably priced bundles a month or ones that are bought with gold that are a good value to spend earned or bought gold on. It is odd that you can't just directly buy cards with money or spotlight cache keys unless you were to spend 100s-1000s on variants for the tokens you get every 10 buys but I suppose that does keep things more even for new free to play or low paying players.
Recently a well made feature and a poorly made feature have been added to the game. The positive feature is an automated deck builder where you can just click on a card and hit the build me a deck option and from the cards you have it will put together a deck that, through the statistics the game has recorded, should work well (unless you just have nothing that goes well with the cards you wanted to use). A more controlled version is to go into the deck builder and add cards and then hit the button when you want to fill the empty slots. Even if you don't want to use the exact cards added it might find something you missed or give you a strategy to think about. It's a fairly well implemented and accurate system for something so recently added. On the other side there is a very poorly implemented new albums collection feature that I think most people are hoping they will rework after getting back from the holidays. Right now it only has four styles of card art or art by a specific artist and you gain bonuses for every three of the 12 chosen card variants in that style that you own. Some of these are new and rare to see and would need you constantly checking the store to buy them and then you have problems like one of the styles being Dan Hipp with 12 of his 140 cards included so you have people with 90 variants of his that only have seven of the 12 for the collection. It's not a good way to show off or look up an art collection, and it is a terrible way to get rewarded even if the rewards for every three were better (right now it tends to be a card variant, an emote, some credits, a splotlight key, etc). Because of the random way variants show up in the store and an inability to buy them through the album I can't imagine it is even a good way to get money out of the player, it just seems like an odd unfinished feature that was put out before they left for vacation.
Marvel Snap is a great card game that you can ignore a lot of the more negative or odd features for while still enjoying the game as a free or low paying player. If you are someone who looks at a game like League of Legends and wonders why someone would pay 10, 20, 50, 100 for a massively overpriced character model skin that might have its own animations, voice lines, visual changes, etc you are probably not someone who is going to be interested in dropping that same kind of money on a barely animated card variant but to enjoy the game that isn't something you have to do or engage with.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya2YGdkfIkY&t=2s&ab_channel=Legolas_Katarn
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1741249271830331861
Each player creates a deck of 12 cards, draws three to begin, and then draws one card each turn over the course of a six turn game. Every turn gives players a total energy value that matches the current turn and the goal is to play your 1-6 cost cards that each have an associated power value and ability into three different lanes to try to end up with the most power in two of those three lanes (or more total power if you tie). You and your opponent play cards at the same time with your board only be visible to you until both players hit the end turn button (or when the turn timer runs out). Both players taking their turns at the same time solves a major problem a lot of card games have where the person that goes first can often end up with a major advantage, while the added strategy of the currently winning player having priority in showing their cards first can add another layer of strategy based on what you and your opponents cards do when it comes to effecting other cards on the board. From the beginning of the game you can play cards to any location but only the location on the left is revealed with the middle being revealed on turn two, and the right on turn three. Revealed locations will show a specific location that has their own game altering text. A location might increase or decrease the power of cards, prevent cards being played their, have players draw cards, and 0 power rocks to the location, turn all cards into The Hulk, duplicate a card played on the spot, have the game last only four turn or last for seven turns, etc with the locations that have the biggest effect on games being the ones that show up less often.
There are three game modes that can be played. You can play normal matches where you play one round against an opponent, winning can see you gaining higher rank for 1-100 with each season giving you either credits, gold, card variants, card backs, and avatars every 10 ranks. For every rank you pass divisible by 10 you have three ranks added to your total. Each rank requires you to gain seven cubes. When a game starts the cube count is at one, on the final turn the current cube value doubles, if someone retreats the current value is given to the winner, if someone hits the snap option the current value doubles and the opponent can either retreat before the increase, do nothing so it doubles, or snap themself so it doubles again. This means that games can end with cube values of 1, 2, 4, 8. The losing players loses the cube number and can go down in ranks. At the end of each season your rank is dropped by 30. Once you reach rank 100 you are playing for cubes and can see your total ranking among other players but you will not lose rank until the monthly season ends. The other main mode is the challenge mode where you play multiple matches against the same opponent with whoever takes 10 cubes from their opponent being the winner. These matches don't effect your rank but gain you points that can be spent on a card, avatars, credits, gold, card boosters, card variants, etc that are available on the challenge store for the season. The challenge mode has a proving ground, silver, gold, and infinite section where you have to win a ticket in the previous area to play matches in the next with the higher areas offering more points. The proving grounds being a great place to just mess around or test out a deck since you can't lose anything and can only gain a silver ticket if you win. Challenge mode otherwise can be a bit odd as for a fast game people can really drag out matches and when it comes to decks having multiple games with the same person can mean you can take time to see what cards people have and how they play but it also means that you run into a deck that will easily counter yours in a mode that wants you to beat multiple people in a row multiple times and having more than one match makes it even less likely you will win against a deck that is even an adequate counter to yours. The final mode is a mode with no stakes where you can just invite a friend to a private match played in the challenge style.
The opponents that you play against are actually not based on your rank, they are based on your collection level which is the progression system of the game. This means that when you start, if you are any good at card games, it is actually a good idea to try to focus on reaching max rank because you will be paired against a lot of terrible players just trying the game because of the Marvel name or bots to fill the low level games that are easy to beat. As you go up in collection level you will enter new tiers that match you with opponents who have access to the same kind of cards.
The progression system is based on acquiring credits, gold, card boosters, spotlight cache keys, and cards that are in pools 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 that can effect how you unlock them. When you start you have the pool one cards and very quickly gain the pool two cards by gaining collection level. You gain collection level by spending credits on cards that you have boosters for to raise your level. Upgraded cards gain a different colored border and 3D and animated details on the main card. Card boosters aren't a thing that really prohibits progression they are just points assigned to a card you used at the end of every match or gained for a random card you own through the progression system that allows you to upgrade that specific card (or a variant of the card) with credits. Credits are gained from completing very easy daily challenges of which you have a maximum of six with two being added every eight hours, you can also go to the store to gain 50 credits free a day, doing the six challenges and getting the free 50 gets you 500 credits a day that can roughly raise your collection level by 10 a day, with you gaining something something every two level for the first 200 or so ranks then at every four level afterwards. Each week also gives you additional credits, gold, and season pass points by completing 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 daily challenges. These are some of the easiest and less time consuming daily and weekly challenges I've seen in a game like this that makes progression pretty easy if you can spare a couple minutes for around 2-4 matches a day.
There are issues with the system where once you reach the pool 3 cards that gaining them becomes random and can take a lot longer while you are now playing against people that have a wider variety of cards, you do unlock one free to gain pool 3 card a month that you can somewhat choose but it is chosen by offering a random one you don't have in the store and then switching it every eight hours so you can't just easily choose the one you want or need most as soon as the month begins. The rarer pool 4 and 5 cards can only be gained in two ways (these aren't necessarily the best cards they are just the newer cards). By getting tokens that are much more random to acquire or require gaining some points by buying the monthly season pass for $10 or once you reach around 1000 collection level you gain gain a spotlight key every 120 levels (about a weeks worth of progression if going solely by challenges) that can be used to unlock one of three weekly options or a random pool 4 or 5 card (or a variant for one if you already have one of the three on offer and roll them or some tokens if you pull a random card you already own with the random option). You can certainly play the game as a free player, though it would have been much easier to be one in the earlier days of the game, but I would recommend a fan of the game at least buying the $10 monthly season pass as it will get them a new card and easily completed season pass levels whose unlockables are a decent value for the price, and is much better option than doing anything crazy or needless like paying $50-100 for some terrible bundle that offers some variant and a weeks progression.
I have mixed feelings on the snap mechanic. On the positive side it adds a potential bluff mechanic to the game that adds additional strategy, it also adds another layer of strategy to cards where things that are more obviously powerful might cause someone to leave while things that might appear weak but a combo you have your opponent is either unaware of or hoping you don't draw or an unusual combination of cards they aren't expecting can lead to opponent to thinking they have an easy win that gains you more cubes. There are also cards, like Kang, that are put in an interesting spot where they are bad and will likely lower your chance to win in almost all situations but they can give you information that might actually increase your cube gains by letting you know if you should retreat or snap. On the negative side I don't have a gambling addiction so I don't feel any personal excitement over the use of the feature, it tends to keep you in the challenge area proving grounds if you just want to test things out, and the option to retreat obviously leaves who would have won the game open which is kind of a dull way to end a card game never knowing what would have happened if you both played that last turn.
Deck can be built around a variety of archetypes with a usual focus on cards that synergize well with each others for strong combos, having two types of plans that can set you up for a likely win state in case you don't draw what you need or the locations don't allow for your main goal, or including cards that might not help you get the biggest power ratings on the board but will cause troubles for your opponents cards or combo activations. You can build decks based around destroying your own cards to create different effects, discarding cards from you hand to power up or summon with other cards later, control focused decks that might move your opponents cards around or lock down locations to prevent card plays earlier in the game, decks that try to fill your opponents side with low power or negative power cards, using a lot of on reveal ability cards that work together well, using cards that can move around to different locations and gain buffs when moving or when cards move onto their location, using ongoing ability cards that work together well, playing cards that allow you to buff all of your cards with a certain power or cost value, and then there are certain cards like Thanos and High Evolutionary that edit your cards or deck in a way to make them a playstyle by themselves. There are some poor cards in the game but for the most part things are balanced fairly well and getting frequent new balance buff and nerf patches and as new cards have been released there have been formerly mediocre cards that have paired well with those new cards. While there tends to be a popular metagame, that meta is frequently changing as new cards come out and things get patched, and having a lot of people trying to do similar styles of decks can allow for decks built to go against that meta or that are just doing something not seen often or very unexpected to shine as well. When it comes to representing the Marvel characters there are a few misses or odd ability choices but many of them do something that fits well with the character and certain character types like the Spiderverse characters (Peter, Ghost, Miles, Silk, 2099) do things that synergize with each other.
The base card artwork is usually ok to good with some beautiful and extremely varied card variant options available with multiple styles done by different artists. These can be earned through progression, buying bundles with earned or bought gold currency, or just buying variants that change in the store multiple times a day with gold. A bad side about this is in addition to being styles you just won't like, the developers have intentionally flooded the variant options with pixel art card variants that are 95% awful looking versions that took no effort to make. That there are over 200 of these and growing means that when it comes to random gains you will frequently earn these variants that you never will want to use. They also have a massively overused artist with Dan Hipp who has around 140 cards, if you don't like his style or you just find them ok and not really your thing like I do then prepare to be disappointed as you will be seeing a lot of Pixel and Dan card variants. Even if you earn or buy one of the premium random card variant packs that exist to specifically say you won't get a pixel variant, good chance you will be getting a Dan Hipp. In the actual game certain cards are paired with effects when you move them around, when you place them, when they activate an ability, and a voice line might play during one of those situations.
The store for the game features changing bundles that can be bought with money or gold, gold that you can buy if you haven't earned enough for what you want, a rotating offering of card variants for cards that you have that if you buy enough can eventually gain you tokens and a random non pixel card variant, credits that you can spend gold on but that it's always better to wait for a bundle for a better value, offering of upgrades for cards you already have ignoring boosters but for for a larger credit price that is always a terrible option, and a changing pool 4 or 5 card that earned tokens can be spent on. If you like the game and want to spend money the season pass is the best value and there are a few reasonable acceptably priced bundles a month or ones that are bought with gold that are a good value to spend earned or bought gold on. It is odd that you can't just directly buy cards with money or spotlight cache keys unless you were to spend 100s-1000s on variants for the tokens you get every 10 buys but I suppose that does keep things more even for new free to play or low paying players.
Recently a well made feature and a poorly made feature have been added to the game. The positive feature is an automated deck builder where you can just click on a card and hit the build me a deck option and from the cards you have it will put together a deck that, through the statistics the game has recorded, should work well (unless you just have nothing that goes well with the cards you wanted to use). A more controlled version is to go into the deck builder and add cards and then hit the button when you want to fill the empty slots. Even if you don't want to use the exact cards added it might find something you missed or give you a strategy to think about. It's a fairly well implemented and accurate system for something so recently added. On the other side there is a very poorly implemented new albums collection feature that I think most people are hoping they will rework after getting back from the holidays. Right now it only has four styles of card art or art by a specific artist and you gain bonuses for every three of the 12 chosen card variants in that style that you own. Some of these are new and rare to see and would need you constantly checking the store to buy them and then you have problems like one of the styles being Dan Hipp with 12 of his 140 cards included so you have people with 90 variants of his that only have seven of the 12 for the collection. It's not a good way to show off or look up an art collection, and it is a terrible way to get rewarded even if the rewards for every three were better (right now it tends to be a card variant, an emote, some credits, a splotlight key, etc). Because of the random way variants show up in the store and an inability to buy them through the album I can't imagine it is even a good way to get money out of the player, it just seems like an odd unfinished feature that was put out before they left for vacation.
Marvel Snap is a great card game that you can ignore a lot of the more negative or odd features for while still enjoying the game as a free or low paying player. If you are someone who looks at a game like League of Legends and wonders why someone would pay 10, 20, 50, 100 for a massively overpriced character model skin that might have its own animations, voice lines, visual changes, etc you are probably not someone who is going to be interested in dropping that same kind of money on a barely animated card variant but to enjoy the game that isn't something you have to do or engage with.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya2YGdkfIkY&t=2s&ab_channel=Legolas_Katarn
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1741249271830331861
1992
Mediocre on rail shooter that as similar environments between stages and mostly reuses the same enemies throughout the game. You have a fast shooting gun that when not fired for a short time covers a wide area but quickly shrinks to a small target as you shoot. You are meant to use bombs to do some damage but also protect yourself with brief invulnerability, you start with three bombs but after using your last it quickly recharges one use.
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1741450999955611707
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1741450999955611707
2019
A newer series in the Kunio franchise that has some elements and characters from the SNES beat em up Shin Nekketsu Kōha: Kunio-tachi no Banka (or River City Girls 0 being the name for its recent English release). This time starring only Misako and Kyoko until you finish the game and unlock Kunio and Riki. Each character has their own animations and moves to unlock but the gameplay between the remains similar with a block and parry button, dash attacks, light and heavy attack, jump attacks, and a variety of special moves that lower your special meter that recharges on its own fairly rapidly. You can also find a variety of weapons lying around. While it is a linear game plot wise there are RPG elements where you can go back and forth between areas fighting random enemies on the map for XP and money. As you level up stats will increase and you can learn or have access to new moves you can buy at a dojo, money can also be spent on food items that can be stored in your inventory for healing, and you can buy mostly near useless accessories that you can equip two of for barely noticeable passive benefits. Like some of the old Kunio games, like River City Ransom/Street Gangs outside of Japan, the first time you eat a new food item you will also increase your stats.
It's a fun, responsive, well animated beat em up with some good music, funny story moments that reference older titles, and can be good for co-op. Though it doesn't do anything too interesting for the genre and with a lot of palette swapped enemies it can last a bit too long for a beat em up. One somewhat interesting feature is that the last enemy in a wave can surrender to you and you can then recruit and summon them to perform an attack when a meter charges, after the attack they will either leave or take a hit from an enemy. They can withstand three hits before you have to recruit a new ally or you can replace them when another person surrenders. The actual attack they do tends to not be that useful and be a bit awkward to aim since they need to jump on screen and do their attack in time to connect with someone. Not really that well implemented but something different.
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1741715555562963064
It's a fun, responsive, well animated beat em up with some good music, funny story moments that reference older titles, and can be good for co-op. Though it doesn't do anything too interesting for the genre and with a lot of palette swapped enemies it can last a bit too long for a beat em up. One somewhat interesting feature is that the last enemy in a wave can surrender to you and you can then recruit and summon them to perform an attack when a meter charges, after the attack they will either leave or take a hit from an enemy. They can withstand three hits before you have to recruit a new ally or you can replace them when another person surrenders. The actual attack they do tends to not be that useful and be a bit awkward to aim since they need to jump on screen and do their attack in time to connect with someone. Not really that well implemented but something different.
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1741715555562963064
A shorter game in the series with a story that deals with Kiryu's actions in 2019 during the events of Yakuza Like a Dragon before his encounters with Ichiban and an ending that sets up his future reunion with Ichiban in 2023 in Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth. There are not many surprises in the plot but it does well enough with the shorter length it has to set up your new allies and to give a good continuation of Kiryu's story. Even having one of the better endings and progressions of a final boss fight in the series. Many of the expected side activities make a return and are well done, though most don't have much in the way of new elements. You can find the usual assortment of gambling games, pool, golf, a slightly further improved pocket car racing circuit. With the smaller cast you are a bit more limited when it comes to karaoke partners but the colosseum arena fights are a strong point for the series both giving a variety of solo fights and having larger battles where you recruit a team of up to 10 people with different abilities to fight alongside you (or to play as in the arena) who level up as they fight in more battles.
Sidequests are given out in a similar fashion to the Judgment spin of series where you accept them as cases from a supporting character. They are linear and can not be failed unlike in some of the older titles. While a few can have some amusing moments they are mostly very dull, the series has never matched Yakuza 0 and this one barely has any worth mentioning. There are also timewasting mini sidequests to be found where random people on the street might ask you to give them an item from a store, find something, take a picture of something, talk to them while wearing a costume, etc where the best thing I can say about these is they give you almost nothing of value for completing them and aren't needed for achievements/trophies. The overly ridiculous nature of the new agent fighting style that you can swap to is not really what I like in a beat em up style game and somehow the series continues to lack in a wide variety of good heat combat actions that have been an issue with the series since Yakuza 6, which is more unfortunate as the agent style could have done very well in creating some great ones.
A shorter version of a mainline Yakuza game with the obvious highs and lows expected of the series but a worthy continuation of Kiryu's story worth playing through for longtime fans.
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1743903100124188891
Sidequests are given out in a similar fashion to the Judgment spin of series where you accept them as cases from a supporting character. They are linear and can not be failed unlike in some of the older titles. While a few can have some amusing moments they are mostly very dull, the series has never matched Yakuza 0 and this one barely has any worth mentioning. There are also timewasting mini sidequests to be found where random people on the street might ask you to give them an item from a store, find something, take a picture of something, talk to them while wearing a costume, etc where the best thing I can say about these is they give you almost nothing of value for completing them and aren't needed for achievements/trophies. The overly ridiculous nature of the new agent fighting style that you can swap to is not really what I like in a beat em up style game and somehow the series continues to lack in a wide variety of good heat combat actions that have been an issue with the series since Yakuza 6, which is more unfortunate as the agent style could have done very well in creating some great ones.
A shorter version of a mainline Yakuza game with the obvious highs and lows expected of the series but a worthy continuation of Kiryu's story worth playing through for longtime fans.
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1743903100124188891
The Ninja Warriors was one of the best beat em ups on the SNES and this remake makes it ones of the best I've played.
An excellent side scrolling beat em up with good art, mechanics, animations and a well made remake that adds a lot to the game. The remake includes different music options to use, a larger playing field with updated backgrounds, two new characters for a total of five, new moves for each character, uses both the Kunoichi and Monkey enemies that were in different region versions of the original game, and adds a two player mode. Each of the five characters plays in a very unique way with very different focuses to their playstyle and how they move, with one of the new characters being the largest character I've seen available in a beat em up that can transform between two different modes and who is so large that they use a button combination just to turn around. One of the few beat em ups to both include an option to block and being even rarer among games by having it be both useful and responsive and holding block allows you to still move around and gives access to quick dodges that can avoid or block attacks and put you behind or closer to enemies. A fairly rapidly recharging battery meter allows you to perform a screen wide damaging bomb attack to deplete the full charge or to use a portion of it for a special move unique to each character either done from a stance or by altering the final blow of a combo, taking a harder hit that knocks you down will drain your battery back to nothing giving even more incentive to block and dodge.
There is both a normal and hard mode with the hard mode changing up enemy numbers and variety and the game unlimited continues that start you at a stage checkpoint with the option to change character. Three problems I had come form of there being no ability to save or continue from where you left off so you need to finish in one sitting or keep the game left on (though beaten stages can be replayed by themselves and it is not a long game so this isn't too much of an issue), there is no ability to rebind block to a button instead of holding attack which I've always found an awkward way to block (though this might be the only game I've played to use that method while still being responsive), and enemies love moving off screen and just staying there frequently backing away to leave the screen or trying to attack while out of sight.
Video: https://youtu.be/VJpmE7hdghs?si=xBmAh-cY8MgEZnKX
An excellent side scrolling beat em up with good art, mechanics, animations and a well made remake that adds a lot to the game. The remake includes different music options to use, a larger playing field with updated backgrounds, two new characters for a total of five, new moves for each character, uses both the Kunoichi and Monkey enemies that were in different region versions of the original game, and adds a two player mode. Each of the five characters plays in a very unique way with very different focuses to their playstyle and how they move, with one of the new characters being the largest character I've seen available in a beat em up that can transform between two different modes and who is so large that they use a button combination just to turn around. One of the few beat em ups to both include an option to block and being even rarer among games by having it be both useful and responsive and holding block allows you to still move around and gives access to quick dodges that can avoid or block attacks and put you behind or closer to enemies. A fairly rapidly recharging battery meter allows you to perform a screen wide damaging bomb attack to deplete the full charge or to use a portion of it for a special move unique to each character either done from a stance or by altering the final blow of a combo, taking a harder hit that knocks you down will drain your battery back to nothing giving even more incentive to block and dodge.
There is both a normal and hard mode with the hard mode changing up enemy numbers and variety and the game unlimited continues that start you at a stage checkpoint with the option to change character. Three problems I had come form of there being no ability to save or continue from where you left off so you need to finish in one sitting or keep the game left on (though beaten stages can be replayed by themselves and it is not a long game so this isn't too much of an issue), there is no ability to rebind block to a button instead of holding attack which I've always found an awkward way to block (though this might be the only game I've played to use that method while still being responsive), and enemies love moving off screen and just staying there frequently backing away to leave the screen or trying to attack while out of sight.
Video: https://youtu.be/VJpmE7hdghs?si=xBmAh-cY8MgEZnKX