OrangeRight
The last good Tony Hawk game that isn’t a remake or a straight port, this is American Wasteland reimagined as a classic Tony Hawk game (at least, that’s what I think, I never played Wasteland), complete with a 3 minute timer for each level. With fond memories of playing THPS3 on the PS2, I had a lot of fun playing through this one.
2008
A neat little game where you play as a tiny little robot that can shoot a ton of missiles and, uh, collect fruit? Not much of a plot outside of what is essentially a tongue in cheek tutorial, but there’s a big variety of levels and a great level editor. Good fun!
2017
A slightly enhanced rerelease of Fast Racing Neo on the Wii U running on a portable system, and is very impressive looking for something running on what is essentially a tablet. It’s not quite F-Zero (honestly, it’s more like the Wipeout games), but it’s a great arcade racer with a color change gimmick.
2022
The game just felt slower and bogged down by them pulling out every idea in the book. Big Kaiju battles that are slow as molasses (but still cool!), sub-missions with Jeanne where she plays Elevator Action with more stealth elements, and a brand new character named Viola that I have to constantly get used to. Even Bayonetta is slower in this game due to the new demon slave mechanic, which did grow on me but not to the point where I sometimes went through battles forgetting I even had the ability (again, it’s still cool, and the cutscenes know it). The last part of the game drags on and on, too.
Even with the slowness, playing as Bayonetta is as fun as ever, and Viola was a decent change of pace once I got used to her mechanics. Not sure if I could get used to her character and her role in the story and potential future stories, but I guess we'll see if they ever make a 4. 2 is good, 1 is also good, and 3 is just alright. This is the one I would want to replay the least.
Even with the slowness, playing as Bayonetta is as fun as ever, and Viola was a decent change of pace once I got used to her mechanics. Not sure if I could get used to her character and her role in the story and potential future stories, but I guess we'll see if they ever make a 4. 2 is good, 1 is also good, and 3 is just alright. This is the one I would want to replay the least.
1983
See the Pole Position review, but add three more tracks, make the player car more of a blueish color, and there's more debris in the explosions. It's also a classic, and the additional tracks give this game more replay value to justify an additional half a star.
Technically played this through Namco Museum Volume 3 on the PlayStation, but that wasn't one of the choices.
Technically played this through Namco Museum Volume 3 on the PlayStation, but that wasn't one of the choices.
1982
"HEEEEEEY! YOU LOOK LIKE A REAL JERK! YOU'RE GOING TO PLAY POLE POSITIOOOOOOON!"
The Ms. Pac-Man plug-n-play joystick had this game, and they actually had the joystick turn left and right to simulate the analog steering wheel. It was actually quite fun for the novelty of it all. I also played this on the Atari 2600, and, considering it's the Atari 2600, it's actually a good port for what it is. Also, it's in Return of Arcade on Windows.
The game itself is an early racing game. It's got some good sprite scaling, it's got some weird turning I could never get used to (especially at the really sharp left turn), and the other racers are just glorified obstacles. It is a huge leap over older racing games, but racing games will only get better from here with games like Out Run. It's a classic.
The Ms. Pac-Man plug-n-play joystick had this game, and they actually had the joystick turn left and right to simulate the analog steering wheel. It was actually quite fun for the novelty of it all. I also played this on the Atari 2600, and, considering it's the Atari 2600, it's actually a good port for what it is. Also, it's in Return of Arcade on Windows.
The game itself is an early racing game. It's got some good sprite scaling, it's got some weird turning I could never get used to (especially at the really sharp left turn), and the other racers are just glorified obstacles. It is a huge leap over older racing games, but racing games will only get better from here with games like Out Run. It's a classic.
2014
My favorite of the Bayonetta series, essentially Bayonetta 1 but better. It's just so fun to activate the Umbran Climax and just tear through the enemies with ease.
1992
Really short, very breezy beginner platformer with a lot of charm but not much substance. It's a great way to spend 30 minutes of your time, maybe a bit more to beat the game's Extra Mode with bosses that require some thought to beat, but the Kirby series would only get better from here.
This was the F1 game I grew up with as a kid, alongside Domark's F1 game for the Genesis. The sound of the engines, which don't really sound like F1 cars and the title screen music are etched into my brain. Haven't played this in forever so I can't really rate this one.
2022
This game may have some jank, but it was still fun going through each world, collecting all those collectibles, going through those levels.
It can get really frustrating to get stuck in a never ending police chase as the game seems to love spawning cop cars or helicopters right in front of you, or right next to a subquest. Other than that, pretty decent racing game to play through with a easy drift mechanic and a ton of leeway when it comes to going off the track. Don't expect this to be Forza Horizon 5 (or even Burnout Paradise), and I would also wait for a sale and not buy this game at full price.
They sure knew how to turn Kim Possible and a bunch of the live action Disney Channel stars, including Kyle Massey, into DDR dancers. Too bad this game's timing is utterly broken; even if you like covers of Disney Channel songs or want to play the handful of Konami Originals (and hey, there's some Xbox Ultramix/Universe material in here that isn't in any other PS2 game, so that's something!), the game's way of grading each step just feels arbitrary. The kids might not mind, though, and this is the only game where Cory can dance to DoLL.
Out of all the Disney versions of DDR, this is the one with the most appeal to major DDR fans. It's not just Disney songs in this game, it's Eurobeat versions of Disney songs, and Eurobeat and DDR go together very well. Also, it has Night of Fire.
The American version trades out a few covers (no Macarena for you!), that great remix of Electrical Parade, and one of the most ridiculous unlock methods I've ever seen to unlock Maniac for some random DDR songs and a much easier Maniac unlocking method. Kind of odd to see B4U in this, really. But hey, they managed to keep all of the Disney Eurobeat and Night of Fire, so at least everything important is here.
The American version trades out a few covers (no Macarena for you!), that great remix of Electrical Parade, and one of the most ridiculous unlock methods I've ever seen to unlock Maniac for some random DDR songs and a much easier Maniac unlocking method. Kind of odd to see B4U in this, really. But hey, they managed to keep all of the Disney Eurobeat and Night of Fire, so at least everything important is here.
This was the first fighting game I ever played. I guess I started from the bottom, and now we're here.
1993
A Mortal Kombat knockoff from Japan. One thing it has going for it is that the sprites are huge. As in, Art of Fighting huge. Back in 1993, screenshots of this would have impressed a lot of people, and seeing in it motion...let's just say this game has a very distinct presentation. Gameplay-wise, it's a total mess, up there with Angel Eyes.
Balance is pretty much nonexistent. Poor Tasha, the ninja girl, only has a dragon punch and nothing else. Meanwhile, Mongo has way more special moves than everyone else, including a move where he drops a bunch of bombs on the opponent, taking off almost half of the opponent's lifebar if they're unlucky! There's also Gunner's 100% gun combos, Hanna's strange ability to throw anyone even if they're far away, and Hiryu pretty much says "screw this game's rules, I'm a ninja. And not one of those one special move ninjas either!"
It's not a particularly good game, but the jank was entertaining for a playthrough to the point where I had to give it at least 2 stars.
Balance is pretty much nonexistent. Poor Tasha, the ninja girl, only has a dragon punch and nothing else. Meanwhile, Mongo has way more special moves than everyone else, including a move where he drops a bunch of bombs on the opponent, taking off almost half of the opponent's lifebar if they're unlucky! There's also Gunner's 100% gun combos, Hanna's strange ability to throw anyone even if they're far away, and Hiryu pretty much says "screw this game's rules, I'm a ninja. And not one of those one special move ninjas either!"
It's not a particularly good game, but the jank was entertaining for a playthrough to the point where I had to give it at least 2 stars.