compared to games of modern day, kung-fu doesn't exactly hold up on the surface. it can be beaten in about 5 minutes, there's next to no mechanical depth, and it's low difficulty is extreme to a fault. even looking at other games of it's era like super mario bros. and donkey kong, there's a clear disparity between these titles. however, i feel as though kung-fu captures the humble nature of it's time better than anything i've played up to this point. another member on backloggd named Uni (someone i'd highly recommend you follow) put it best in that "it offers toy-like fun" and i feel as though that's the perfect summation of this game. it gets in, provides quick fun, and gets out. i think many bloated triple-a games of today could learn a thing or two from kung-fu.

how did kids beat this back in 1986? no amount of nintendo power is gonna help you here. outside of a rather high difficulty spike in the last third or so, castlevania stands tall in an era riddled with games that were simply hard for the sake of it. outside of it's impressive atmosphere and excellent soundtrack (both nothing new from konami) the thing that really sets castlevania apart from the crowd is it's commitment to it's core design elements. it would be easy to look at your restrictive movement and sluggish whip and call the game sloppy on the face of it, but for the most part everything is built well around this core set of mechanics. enemies are placed in fair locations, checkpoints are well placed, bosses have limited movesets, and in general it's all balanced around the weight of simon. i suppose an argument could be made that more control is always a good thing, but given the popularity of such restrictive titles as dark souls and other games like it, i don't believe it's always a necessary aspect to a good game. the worst of it is easily getting knocked into an instant death pit or being stuck on a staircase. stairs in particular present the most persistent challenge in the whole game, funny enough. all in all, i was rather impressed with this game despite some rough spots. i can't wait to see what the series will eventually blossom into from here.

usually when it comes to stylish action games, the first thing you look for are crazy combos, long move lists, and insane movement to navigate the battlefield. viewtiful joe doesn't follow this traditional approach. as an example, a game like devil may cry uses 3 different subsequent commands are used to launch an enemy, and in viewtiful joe you only need 2. despite an overall simplified approach to combat however, the game is not lacking in depth. using the vfx gauge (your main resource in combat) you can slow down time, speed up joe, or zoom the camera in and show off some unique actions. all have their time and place, and for the most part don't feel underdeveloped. none of these actions are nearly as cool as the primary scoring tool however, in which you stun an enemy, slow down time, and use every enemy on screen as makeshift projectiles that multiply your score with each successive hit. on their own these mechanics already make viewtiful joe a refreshing action game, but the thing that really pulls the game together is the visual presentation. taking place in the world inside a theater screen, everything feels like it's being filmed on a movie set. the cardboard cutout backdrops, the film grain when draining your vfx, the camera shutter sound effect that plays when you land a hit, or even the edges of film that appear in cutscenes or during combat. nothing feels out of place. i've only mentioned a few examples, but there's so many little touches that really bring the whole piece together that i’d be here all day if i mentioned them all. i think if anything could have been touched up, it would be the bosses. none of them are outright bad (beating a boss is usually one of the most satisfying feelings in the game) but they usually end up falling apart from one dominant strategy and never really get the chance to shine. this is especially unfortunate as a boss rush near the end of the game is concluded by arguably the best fight in the game, but we didn't see the game go beyond that (i think the final boss was great in it's own right, but not without its own issues). for all i know, these issues could be resolved in the sequel, it's a game i know so little about but I'm incredibly interested to see what it has in store. i would highly recommend any action fans check this game out, it's sharp, it’s witty, and it's not an experience you can really find anywhere else.

nostalgia is a very powerful thing. on one hand, it can be used to further enhance our favorite games by associating fond memories to them during our formative years. maybe they were there for you during a hard period of your life or even helped form a powerful bond with another person. on the other hand, it can cloud your better judgement and warp your perception on things you may not enjoy otherwise. not that there's anything inherently wrong with that, but it is something to keep in mind when critiquing your favorite forms of art. before this month my only experience with crash bandicoot consisted of scattered sessions of the wrath of cortex as a child, and if you asked me how i felt about the game i would have nothing but positive to say about it. i recently decided i would marathon every major crash game in preparation for the newly released crash bandicoot 4: it's about time, and it was a rather enlightening experience. it wasn't without it's bumps in the road, but the highs of the ps1 trilogy were that of pure platforming bliss. my journey was not over however, one game remained. let's just say nostalgia could only assist me so much here. if i could be totally honest for a second, my experience with this game wasn't totally awful, in fact there were some genuinely great things in here. the level variety was top notch, and the music was spectacular all the way through (i might go as far as to say this game has the best soundtrack in the series up to this point) and some of the crash levels were genuinely great. but past that, there isn't much good to pull from this game. traveler's tales was allegedly put under intense crunch to complete this game and it's clear in the final product. major structural notes were clearly taken from crash bandicoot warped when assembling this game, but instead of refining the solo crash levels, they put an insane amount of time and energy into the gimmicky vehicle sections. i didn't outwardly dislike those sections in warped, probably due to their scarcity compared to standard levels, but in this game it feels so schizophrenic in its structure. all the time the game is throwing something new at the player and seeing if it sticks (whether that be a ball rolling level, a car level, a plane level, etc.) and this really creates two major issues. for one, it's likely none of these sections will have time to blossom into something worthwhile or stick to its players in any meaningful way. secondly, it runs the risk of taking space away from the standard crash levels. of course, the game ends up suffering from both of these. everything simply feels half baked in the wrath of cortex. from the visuals, to the gameplay, to the enemies, nothing feels quite right. the developers clearly loved a lot about warped, but they didn't have the time or resources to fix its flaws or learn from its mistakes. i couldn't think of a more flaccid way to end this era of crash. quite frankly i was on autopilot for most of this experience, and i can't see myself returning to it in the future.