Plokster
A frustrating game with horrible controls that make the experience miserable from start to end. Sometimes the game tells you exactly what to do, other times it leaves you completely alone to figure out a crucial mechanic that you have no idea exists. Sometimes there are so many things on the screen that it's impossible to see where your character is and you just walk off to your death. There are lots of funny cutscenes and sounds, but the novelty wears off quickly. A game like this would've been impressive in the early 90's but just falls completely flat for 1998.
I have a love-hate relationship with this game. Kart racers are one of my most favorite genres, so the thought of a User Generated Content kart racing game sounded amazing. On the surface, LBPK is a LBP themed reskin of Modnation Racers which came out about 3 years prior. ModNation Racers was pretty good, but I felt they could've given you a bit more control over your tracks. When I learned that this game was being made and the main focus was giving you more tools to get more out of your tracks, I was super excited.
Upon release, it's evident that something went wrong. Right away, you can tell Media Molecule had no hand in making LBPK. It's unpolished, quite buggy, and the editing mode has an immense learning curve, dwarving the learning curve compared to previous LBP entries. It crashes frequently, which means there will be lots of times you lose work in the editor unless you’re constantly saving. Compared to ModNation, it feels like you had more track customization options but far less character and kart customization options. You can't customize the NPCs you race against in your own levels, so it was difficult to make anything story-driven. When the online was working, you were constantly booted from races. You were also only allowed to favorite a certain amount of tracks before it started taking older ones off your list. At some point, it just stopped recording your new favorites altogether. The online tracks in the "Cool Levels" section (New and Popular levels) never changed since Day 1.
Whoever was in charge of the servers was fully aware of the reception to this game, as the online servers only lasted a little over 5 years. That's also unfortunate, considering the main attraction of LBP is usually the online levels. It's a shame that some of the coolest tracks in this game are only viewable on YouTube now while others are just completely lost to time. I wish they had some sort of end-of-life plan for this game so that it was easier for players to keep playing their favorite online levels while offline. I don't know how large each level file is, but if they're relatively small, I think it would've gone a huge way if the devs patched in an "All-Time Community Favorites" section that you could access offline once the online was killed off.
As for the actual racing itself, it’s alright. The controls feel a little floaty but you can get used to them pretty easily. I like that they kept the weapon system from ModNation, where you can use any weapon to block a weapon homing in on you. The only trade off is that there's probably three times as many leader seekers (blue shells) than most racing games. In your own levels, you can make completely custom weapons that function differently from the base set. There's also a Story Mode, but it's not very memorable at all. The levels are tightly crafted and offer a variety of different gameplay styles, which makes it seem like a demo of what the Creation Mode can do. Some people have dug through the files and found that there was potentially going to be more Story Mode content and prizes available to the player, but it appears to have been cut due to time constraints.
It should also be noted that this game doesn't just offer racing. You can make battle arenas, though I tend to find them half-baked in most racing games and this one is no exception. However, using the Battle Arena game type in your own levels offers a huge variety of other activities. The game gives you the ability to set win conditions based on score, weapon targets, racing gates, and more. This means you could make a King of the Hill style game mode, a ring-rally race, freeze tag, Keep Away, Shine Runners and Balloon Battle from Mario Kart, Cops and Robbers, and so, so much more. Albeit it's a pain to program in this game compared to LBP2, the mantra remains the same: if you can think it, you can make it.
Despite the low points, I find myself loading this game up every once in a while to make a new track. There's just something so satisfying about drafting an idea, building it in-game, and tweaking it to perfection, even if I’m going to be the only person to ever play it. It's sad to see an idea for a game like this flop; if given more time and resources for its development, this game could've been endless fun. This is probably the closest thing to my personal dream game that we'll ever get.
Upon release, it's evident that something went wrong. Right away, you can tell Media Molecule had no hand in making LBPK. It's unpolished, quite buggy, and the editing mode has an immense learning curve, dwarving the learning curve compared to previous LBP entries. It crashes frequently, which means there will be lots of times you lose work in the editor unless you’re constantly saving. Compared to ModNation, it feels like you had more track customization options but far less character and kart customization options. You can't customize the NPCs you race against in your own levels, so it was difficult to make anything story-driven. When the online was working, you were constantly booted from races. You were also only allowed to favorite a certain amount of tracks before it started taking older ones off your list. At some point, it just stopped recording your new favorites altogether. The online tracks in the "Cool Levels" section (New and Popular levels) never changed since Day 1.
Whoever was in charge of the servers was fully aware of the reception to this game, as the online servers only lasted a little over 5 years. That's also unfortunate, considering the main attraction of LBP is usually the online levels. It's a shame that some of the coolest tracks in this game are only viewable on YouTube now while others are just completely lost to time. I wish they had some sort of end-of-life plan for this game so that it was easier for players to keep playing their favorite online levels while offline. I don't know how large each level file is, but if they're relatively small, I think it would've gone a huge way if the devs patched in an "All-Time Community Favorites" section that you could access offline once the online was killed off.
As for the actual racing itself, it’s alright. The controls feel a little floaty but you can get used to them pretty easily. I like that they kept the weapon system from ModNation, where you can use any weapon to block a weapon homing in on you. The only trade off is that there's probably three times as many leader seekers (blue shells) than most racing games. In your own levels, you can make completely custom weapons that function differently from the base set. There's also a Story Mode, but it's not very memorable at all. The levels are tightly crafted and offer a variety of different gameplay styles, which makes it seem like a demo of what the Creation Mode can do. Some people have dug through the files and found that there was potentially going to be more Story Mode content and prizes available to the player, but it appears to have been cut due to time constraints.
It should also be noted that this game doesn't just offer racing. You can make battle arenas, though I tend to find them half-baked in most racing games and this one is no exception. However, using the Battle Arena game type in your own levels offers a huge variety of other activities. The game gives you the ability to set win conditions based on score, weapon targets, racing gates, and more. This means you could make a King of the Hill style game mode, a ring-rally race, freeze tag, Keep Away, Shine Runners and Balloon Battle from Mario Kart, Cops and Robbers, and so, so much more. Albeit it's a pain to program in this game compared to LBP2, the mantra remains the same: if you can think it, you can make it.
Despite the low points, I find myself loading this game up every once in a while to make a new track. There's just something so satisfying about drafting an idea, building it in-game, and tweaking it to perfection, even if I’m going to be the only person to ever play it. It's sad to see an idea for a game like this flop; if given more time and resources for its development, this game could've been endless fun. This is probably the closest thing to my personal dream game that we'll ever get.
2013
When it comes to the WarioWare series, I often see people refer to this one as the worst. I’ve only played a handful of games in the series, and to be honest, the single player mode isn’t anything too special. I can see where people are coming from when they write this one off.
But then you get to the multiplayer minigames.
There are 4 multiplayer minigames and each one is very unique in its execution:
- Disco, where one player makes a rhythm and another player tries to match it, like a very simplified Guitar Hero. This one is easily the weakest of the 4.
- Sketch, which serves as a rapid-fire Pictionary. Each player takes a turn sketching a word they receive on the WiiU gamepad. The drawer gets one point each time a player gets it correct and the guesser also receives a point. You’re on a time limit that continues with each drawing, so you don’t want to spend much time on each one. Before playing, each player has to take a picture of themselves for their icon. These pictures aren’t saved and allow you to apply tons of dumb little filters, which is fun in itself.
- Fruit, which is similar to Gmod Guess Who. The player with the WiiU gamepad picks an unsuspecting guy and then gets inserted into an environment full of mindlessly wandering NPCs. The gamepad player has to steal 3 fruits within a time limit while the other players have to work together and find out which NPC the gamepad player is. Every 30 seconds or so, the game gives a highlight of which corner the gamepad player is in.
- Islands, which is my favorite one. You launch little creatures called Fronks onto giant buoys floating in the ocean and gain points depending on where they land. There are multiple maps, each one with a specific mechanic designed to shake each round up and keep it fresh. One of the most challenging maps is a gigantic, vertical buoy that tips if too many Fronks are on one side. If far too many accumulate in one spot, the buoy tips over and the game ends in a draw.
- There’s also a single player game I’d like to give a shoutout to: Design. Dr. Crygor needs your assistance to build blueprints for a robot. As a result, he’ll ask you to draw seemingly random things, like a 5cm line or a circle with an 8cm diameter. You have to guesstimate how much to draw, and neatness counts.
I cannot tell you how many times I busted out this game at parties for the multiplayer minigames. The Rhythm game was okay, but people couldn't get enough of the other games. I had so many countless nights of people laughing and shouting at the Islands minigame, people using insane logic to discover who the thief is in the Fruits minigame, and people excitedly racking up points in the Sketch minigame. They even really loved the single player Design game, too. This was a game easily brought people together for hours of fun and I'll never forget that. I would love to see a more fleshed out minigame collection like this. Arguably, I think the multiplayer minigames do a better job introducing the WiiU to casual players than Nintendo Land does. Simplicity goes a long way, and while NL games are fun, I feel they can be a bit too complicated for the average person sometimes. The G&W minigames are incredibly easy to understand and almost anyone can pick them up in no time.
And then of course, there’s Miiverse Sketch, which was fun in its own regard. People on Miiverse would enter prompts and you had to sketch them as quickly as possible. Afterward, you can see what other people drew, going through a gallery of strange scribbles with the occasional amazing art piece that leaves you confused as to how someone accomplished it on a gamepad in 60 seconds.
Overall, I have a ton of respect for this game even though more than half of it isn’t very engaging. It comes off as a bit of a WiiU tech demo, for better and for worse. Either way, I think the multiplayer minigames do a great job showcasing how the different the WiiU was compared to the Wii. If you’ve never played the multiplayer minigames, I urge you to get some friends together and try it out.
But then you get to the multiplayer minigames.
There are 4 multiplayer minigames and each one is very unique in its execution:
- Disco, where one player makes a rhythm and another player tries to match it, like a very simplified Guitar Hero. This one is easily the weakest of the 4.
- Sketch, which serves as a rapid-fire Pictionary. Each player takes a turn sketching a word they receive on the WiiU gamepad. The drawer gets one point each time a player gets it correct and the guesser also receives a point. You’re on a time limit that continues with each drawing, so you don’t want to spend much time on each one. Before playing, each player has to take a picture of themselves for their icon. These pictures aren’t saved and allow you to apply tons of dumb little filters, which is fun in itself.
- Fruit, which is similar to Gmod Guess Who. The player with the WiiU gamepad picks an unsuspecting guy and then gets inserted into an environment full of mindlessly wandering NPCs. The gamepad player has to steal 3 fruits within a time limit while the other players have to work together and find out which NPC the gamepad player is. Every 30 seconds or so, the game gives a highlight of which corner the gamepad player is in.
- Islands, which is my favorite one. You launch little creatures called Fronks onto giant buoys floating in the ocean and gain points depending on where they land. There are multiple maps, each one with a specific mechanic designed to shake each round up and keep it fresh. One of the most challenging maps is a gigantic, vertical buoy that tips if too many Fronks are on one side. If far too many accumulate in one spot, the buoy tips over and the game ends in a draw.
- There’s also a single player game I’d like to give a shoutout to: Design. Dr. Crygor needs your assistance to build blueprints for a robot. As a result, he’ll ask you to draw seemingly random things, like a 5cm line or a circle with an 8cm diameter. You have to guesstimate how much to draw, and neatness counts.
I cannot tell you how many times I busted out this game at parties for the multiplayer minigames. The Rhythm game was okay, but people couldn't get enough of the other games. I had so many countless nights of people laughing and shouting at the Islands minigame, people using insane logic to discover who the thief is in the Fruits minigame, and people excitedly racking up points in the Sketch minigame. They even really loved the single player Design game, too. This was a game easily brought people together for hours of fun and I'll never forget that. I would love to see a more fleshed out minigame collection like this. Arguably, I think the multiplayer minigames do a better job introducing the WiiU to casual players than Nintendo Land does. Simplicity goes a long way, and while NL games are fun, I feel they can be a bit too complicated for the average person sometimes. The G&W minigames are incredibly easy to understand and almost anyone can pick them up in no time.
And then of course, there’s Miiverse Sketch, which was fun in its own regard. People on Miiverse would enter prompts and you had to sketch them as quickly as possible. Afterward, you can see what other people drew, going through a gallery of strange scribbles with the occasional amazing art piece that leaves you confused as to how someone accomplished it on a gamepad in 60 seconds.
Overall, I have a ton of respect for this game even though more than half of it isn’t very engaging. It comes off as a bit of a WiiU tech demo, for better and for worse. Either way, I think the multiplayer minigames do a great job showcasing how the different the WiiU was compared to the Wii. If you’ve never played the multiplayer minigames, I urge you to get some friends together and try it out.
I had vague memories of playing this in 2004 or so and thinking the first third of the game was cool and the rest felt like torture. It didn't last long in my library until I traded it in. Around 15 years later, I found it for dirt cheap online and decided to give it one more try.
I understand why it was dirt cheap.
The game is pretty much Bootleg Klonoa. You use your umbrella to "bubblize" enemies and use them as projectiles. You also have a few platforming moves, like a glide, a shield, and a ground pound. Overall, it has a few cool things going on, but not enough to save it. Like I said earlier, the first third of is pretty decent and varied. After the first boss though, you start getting the creeping realization that you've already seen everything this game has to offer. Most obstacles are just "do you have the patience to wait for this hazard to turn off" or "push this button and wait through an unskippable 20 second cutscene showing you that the path 2 feet away from you is now open."
It gets very repetitive very quickly. It gets worse as it goes on because the levels get longer which means more obstacles to wait through. You also need increasingly more collectibles from each level to progress through the hub, so if you don't collect enough in your first run through a level, you'll have to play it again. Each level also has a bonus round where you have to run through an obstacle course with some sort of time limit. You get an excruciatingly long cutscene that pans through the course and you have to watch it every time you die. Even the bosses are repetitive; each time you fight him, he just adds 1 new phase. The whole thing just feels like a waste of time. Your mind will go numb while you physically feel each minute ticking by while you play this game.
I understand why it was dirt cheap.
The game is pretty much Bootleg Klonoa. You use your umbrella to "bubblize" enemies and use them as projectiles. You also have a few platforming moves, like a glide, a shield, and a ground pound. Overall, it has a few cool things going on, but not enough to save it. Like I said earlier, the first third of is pretty decent and varied. After the first boss though, you start getting the creeping realization that you've already seen everything this game has to offer. Most obstacles are just "do you have the patience to wait for this hazard to turn off" or "push this button and wait through an unskippable 20 second cutscene showing you that the path 2 feet away from you is now open."
It gets very repetitive very quickly. It gets worse as it goes on because the levels get longer which means more obstacles to wait through. You also need increasingly more collectibles from each level to progress through the hub, so if you don't collect enough in your first run through a level, you'll have to play it again. Each level also has a bonus round where you have to run through an obstacle course with some sort of time limit. You get an excruciatingly long cutscene that pans through the course and you have to watch it every time you die. Even the bosses are repetitive; each time you fight him, he just adds 1 new phase. The whole thing just feels like a waste of time. Your mind will go numb while you physically feel each minute ticking by while you play this game.
1998
I think it was kind of ambitious of them to create a game based on such a lackluster movie. The movie itself is cheesy but it's a fun watch, especially with friends. The film revolves around a line of futuristic "Cowboys Vs Indians" toys gaining sentience with the help of artificial intelligence. The violent, militaristic Commandos will stop at nothing to wipe out the nature-loving, pacifist Gorgonites simply because they were programmed to do so. I actually had the game and played it as a child long before I ever saw the movie. In fact for a long time, I thought the movie was based on the game.
In terms of the concept, I think they took it in the best possible direction you could take a movie tie-in like this. Rather than having the movie context of being a toy in 90's suburbia blowing up other toys, you play as the actual characters the toys are based on in their homeland. Gorgon is being invaded by the Commandos and you play as Archer, the Gorgonite leader, to drive them out. As you progress, you begin encroaching on the Commandos' heavily-armed outposts. If anything, this game feels like it could be a product that existed in the universe of the movie; it's kind of cool in a way.
As for the actual game itself, it's okay. The combat is pretty standard and the controls are very stiff. This game uses tank controls and while many people discuss if/when tank controls are appropriate in shooters, it just doesn't service this game well, in my opinion. On top of that, I feel this game doesn't use some of the basic concepts a shooter-platformer should have. You really don't have any dodging moves and there's barely any cover to hide behind. This becomes a problem late game, since the game will just start spamming enemies at you in wide, open areas. You can summon helpers sometimes, but most of the time, you're just one guy with a dinky gun and tank controls while the Commandos run circles around you with their automatic assault weapons. Eventually you realize there's hardly anything stopping you from progressing, so you just start running past enemies rather than fighting them. If combat is the main focus of your game, I feel running away shouldn't be the optimal solution. I think this game could've been much cooler if it released in like the early 2000's.
In terms of the concept, I think they took it in the best possible direction you could take a movie tie-in like this. Rather than having the movie context of being a toy in 90's suburbia blowing up other toys, you play as the actual characters the toys are based on in their homeland. Gorgon is being invaded by the Commandos and you play as Archer, the Gorgonite leader, to drive them out. As you progress, you begin encroaching on the Commandos' heavily-armed outposts. If anything, this game feels like it could be a product that existed in the universe of the movie; it's kind of cool in a way.
As for the actual game itself, it's okay. The combat is pretty standard and the controls are very stiff. This game uses tank controls and while many people discuss if/when tank controls are appropriate in shooters, it just doesn't service this game well, in my opinion. On top of that, I feel this game doesn't use some of the basic concepts a shooter-platformer should have. You really don't have any dodging moves and there's barely any cover to hide behind. This becomes a problem late game, since the game will just start spamming enemies at you in wide, open areas. You can summon helpers sometimes, but most of the time, you're just one guy with a dinky gun and tank controls while the Commandos run circles around you with their automatic assault weapons. Eventually you realize there's hardly anything stopping you from progressing, so you just start running past enemies rather than fighting them. If combat is the main focus of your game, I feel running away shouldn't be the optimal solution. I think this game could've been much cooler if it released in like the early 2000's.
As a kid, I grew up with the original Spyro trilogy on PS1 and to this day, those games remain as some of my favorite games of all time. Later down the line, my family got a PS2 and I was so excited when I learned that a brand new, next-gen Spyro game was on the way. Just think of it: bigger levels, better graphics, more silly-looking Muppet-y characters, more potential for a story, more challenges, more minigames, more mystical and magical worlds to explore, so on and so forth. What kind of grand adventure was Spyro capable of having now?
Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly was the game that personally slapped me across the face and taught me that video games can be bad sometimes.
Just the way this game performs is a dead giveaway that it needed more time in the oven. The framerate is wildly inconsistent and you can probably count the amount of areas where it manages to reach 30 on one hand. The loading times are so bad that you’ll want to keep a book nearby to keep you entertained while you wait. There are so many glitches that I’m actually kind of surprised that Enter the Dragonfly even managed to get released. You can charge and clip right through the gates holding you back from progressing to the next areas. If you're underwater and you surface quickly enough against a wall, you can swim in the air to anywhere you want and beat the game in like 2 minutes. Sometimes enemies will just break, stand there, and do nothing as you approach them. Plus, there many questionable design choices that lead you to conclude that this game is just simply not finished; like as annoying as Moneybags is in the previous games, he only shows up once. Hunter shows up maybe 2 or 3 times. There are hardly any cutscenes outside of the intro and ending, so there's barely any story or interactions involving the main villain. Some of the NPC dialogue is awkward and non-nonsensical. There's absolutely zero indication as to when the final boss is available; you just go to the middle of the hub sometimes and maybe you'll see the gate open. I could go on, but mainly what I'm getting at is that it's so obvious the developers were not given the support this game truly needed.
Obviously no one wants to make a bad game. I really wanted to know what went wrong with this one. To my findings, this game was apparently Hellish to work on. It mainly consists of problems you could easily expect from this kind of mess. The deadlines were tight and were supposed to be on-track for a holiday release. Supposedly there were a few instances of higher-ups throwing out ideas and replacing them with their own without the lead designers being consulted. The developers often spoke with Insomniac – the developers of the original trilogy – to gain insight as to what makes a Spyro game a Spyro game. Once they came up with something, they would pitch it to the publishers only to be told “No, that’s not a Spyro game. Make it feel like a Spyro game” and they would not articulate any further. There’s even a hidden credits menu displaying all the developers who left during production for better gigs. To top it all off, this game was supposed to have about 2-3 times the amount of content it ended up with. If you’re genuinely curious about all this, you can check more out here.
It would've been so cool to see this game at its full potential. Instead, you're left with a half-baked disappointment. The publisher ought to be embarrassed that they let something in this state get released. It's certainly a bad look for your company, the series, and even the console to take a well-received PS1 series and make it worse in every conceivable way. Even with the lukewarm handheld titles, I think this is easily Spyro’s worst game. Though honestly, I would love to see a "remake" of this game where they make it into what it was supposed to be.
Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly was the game that personally slapped me across the face and taught me that video games can be bad sometimes.
Just the way this game performs is a dead giveaway that it needed more time in the oven. The framerate is wildly inconsistent and you can probably count the amount of areas where it manages to reach 30 on one hand. The loading times are so bad that you’ll want to keep a book nearby to keep you entertained while you wait. There are so many glitches that I’m actually kind of surprised that Enter the Dragonfly even managed to get released. You can charge and clip right through the gates holding you back from progressing to the next areas. If you're underwater and you surface quickly enough against a wall, you can swim in the air to anywhere you want and beat the game in like 2 minutes. Sometimes enemies will just break, stand there, and do nothing as you approach them. Plus, there many questionable design choices that lead you to conclude that this game is just simply not finished; like as annoying as Moneybags is in the previous games, he only shows up once. Hunter shows up maybe 2 or 3 times. There are hardly any cutscenes outside of the intro and ending, so there's barely any story or interactions involving the main villain. Some of the NPC dialogue is awkward and non-nonsensical. There's absolutely zero indication as to when the final boss is available; you just go to the middle of the hub sometimes and maybe you'll see the gate open. I could go on, but mainly what I'm getting at is that it's so obvious the developers were not given the support this game truly needed.
Obviously no one wants to make a bad game. I really wanted to know what went wrong with this one. To my findings, this game was apparently Hellish to work on. It mainly consists of problems you could easily expect from this kind of mess. The deadlines were tight and were supposed to be on-track for a holiday release. Supposedly there were a few instances of higher-ups throwing out ideas and replacing them with their own without the lead designers being consulted. The developers often spoke with Insomniac – the developers of the original trilogy – to gain insight as to what makes a Spyro game a Spyro game. Once they came up with something, they would pitch it to the publishers only to be told “No, that’s not a Spyro game. Make it feel like a Spyro game” and they would not articulate any further. There’s even a hidden credits menu displaying all the developers who left during production for better gigs. To top it all off, this game was supposed to have about 2-3 times the amount of content it ended up with. If you’re genuinely curious about all this, you can check more out here.
It would've been so cool to see this game at its full potential. Instead, you're left with a half-baked disappointment. The publisher ought to be embarrassed that they let something in this state get released. It's certainly a bad look for your company, the series, and even the console to take a well-received PS1 series and make it worse in every conceivable way. Even with the lukewarm handheld titles, I think this is easily Spyro’s worst game. Though honestly, I would love to see a "remake" of this game where they make it into what it was supposed to be.
2017
I wouldn't say this game is bad, but I wouldn't say it's great either. If anything, I think this is one of the most "average" games I've ever played.
When I was younger, I never played Banjo. I was a Playstation kid, so I had access to platformers like Ratchet & Clank, Jak & Daxter, and Sly Cooper. I'm also no stranger to the multi-platform... platformers of the time like Ty the Tasmanian Tiger, Tak, Battle for Bikini Bottom and more. I love platformers, so when it was announced that the people who made the highly-regarded Banjo games were coming together to make a new adventure, I was pretty excited. After it came out, I found it to be... alright. I made it to about World 3 and then just put it down because I just wasn't getting anything out of it.
Around 2021, I finally gave Banjo a try and I loved it! Immediately after finishing it, I went on to try Tooie and came to a realization: it introduced a lot of similar problems I found in Yooka Laylee. The levels are huge and sprawling yet they have nothing in them. In their enormity, many of the landmarks look so similar that you just end up wandering forever looking for something to do. You have so many powers that if you put the game down for too long, you forget what moves you can do.
After putting down Tooie, I waited a bit and then later decided to go back to Yooka to give it another chance. I started a new save file and made it a little farther the second time, but I still ended up stopping after completing World 4. This time, I tried to pay attention to what made me disinterested. In addition to the above, I found a few more things:
- Most of the Rextro minigames are fine but not very interesting.
- The minecart sections are okay. I feel they don't really add much to the experience. I don't get much out of just speeding up or slowing down for obstacles.
- Most of the bosses are underwhelming, forgettable, and monotonous to fight.
- There's a single power meter linked to almost every move you can do. I think maybe it would be better if every move had its own cooldown. But my biggest question is why would you ever put a limit for running in a 3D collect-a-thon platformer, especially in one where the worlds are huge and empty?
- Some of the moves are awkward and don't work a good portion of the time. Yooka's tongue grapple move just refuses to work even when you're 3 feet away from your target, leaving you to fall to your death.
- Between every other world, you have Dr. Quack's Quiz Shows that are obvious callbacks to Grunty's Furnace Fun and Tower of Tragedy in the Banjo games. The difference between these is that the latter two are at the end of the each game, and they make it feel like the ultimate test; you've spent enough time in each level to actually remember them. In Yooka, the quizzes feel disjointed by being in the middle so you feel obligated to remember the most mundane things about the levels you just played for what's probably your first time.
When you take a step back and look at the game as a whole, it just seems like an unfocused mess. It relies so heavily on calling back to Banjo that it feels like it barely has its own identity. Despite all the negative things I've said, I get a feeling that there's a great game lost in here somewhere. Playtonic just needs to go back to the drawing board and find it. I very badly want to see them try again and succeed.
When I was younger, I never played Banjo. I was a Playstation kid, so I had access to platformers like Ratchet & Clank, Jak & Daxter, and Sly Cooper. I'm also no stranger to the multi-platform... platformers of the time like Ty the Tasmanian Tiger, Tak, Battle for Bikini Bottom and more. I love platformers, so when it was announced that the people who made the highly-regarded Banjo games were coming together to make a new adventure, I was pretty excited. After it came out, I found it to be... alright. I made it to about World 3 and then just put it down because I just wasn't getting anything out of it.
Around 2021, I finally gave Banjo a try and I loved it! Immediately after finishing it, I went on to try Tooie and came to a realization: it introduced a lot of similar problems I found in Yooka Laylee. The levels are huge and sprawling yet they have nothing in them. In their enormity, many of the landmarks look so similar that you just end up wandering forever looking for something to do. You have so many powers that if you put the game down for too long, you forget what moves you can do.
After putting down Tooie, I waited a bit and then later decided to go back to Yooka to give it another chance. I started a new save file and made it a little farther the second time, but I still ended up stopping after completing World 4. This time, I tried to pay attention to what made me disinterested. In addition to the above, I found a few more things:
- Most of the Rextro minigames are fine but not very interesting.
- The minecart sections are okay. I feel they don't really add much to the experience. I don't get much out of just speeding up or slowing down for obstacles.
- Most of the bosses are underwhelming, forgettable, and monotonous to fight.
- There's a single power meter linked to almost every move you can do. I think maybe it would be better if every move had its own cooldown. But my biggest question is why would you ever put a limit for running in a 3D collect-a-thon platformer, especially in one where the worlds are huge and empty?
- Some of the moves are awkward and don't work a good portion of the time. Yooka's tongue grapple move just refuses to work even when you're 3 feet away from your target, leaving you to fall to your death.
- Between every other world, you have Dr. Quack's Quiz Shows that are obvious callbacks to Grunty's Furnace Fun and Tower of Tragedy in the Banjo games. The difference between these is that the latter two are at the end of the each game, and they make it feel like the ultimate test; you've spent enough time in each level to actually remember them. In Yooka, the quizzes feel disjointed by being in the middle so you feel obligated to remember the most mundane things about the levels you just played for what's probably your first time.
When you take a step back and look at the game as a whole, it just seems like an unfocused mess. It relies so heavily on calling back to Banjo that it feels like it barely has its own identity. Despite all the negative things I've said, I get a feeling that there's a great game lost in here somewhere. Playtonic just needs to go back to the drawing board and find it. I very badly want to see them try again and succeed.
My sister received this game for her birthday when this first came out and at first glance, neither of us were interested. Once I gave it a shot though, it was surprisingly good!
This game a 3D Metroidvania full of spooky settings and interweaving secret passage ways. Scooby collects silly power ups to help him navigate the Graham Estate, fend off monsters, and rescue the gang. You can collect springs to double jump, an umbrella to glide with, plungers to walk up slippery surfaces, and lots more. The controls are super solid and the camera is usually set up to be at just the right angle. There is a lot of backtracking in this game, but there are warp gates littered throughout to make sure you don't have to redo entire areas very often.
Additionally, this game is an absolute love-letter to the original series. From the characters, to the cheesy writing, to the environments, and the enemies, this game is 100% Scooby-Doo. Even the music sounds like it's taken straight from the show, including the boss themes that sound like the 70's-esque vocal tracks that would play during the chase sequences. They did a good job of translating the art style of the characters and enemies into 3D, as well. The voice actors deliver exactly how they would in the show, including guest voice actors Tim Curry as the main villain and even Don Knotts as one of the side characters. There's even canned laughter that occasionally plays when Scooby performs a move, which might sound like it gets annoying, but it's so quiet that you're able to tune it out after a while. One of my favorite aspects is the Monster Gallery; throughout the game, you can find hidden Monster Tokens. When you find one and bring it to the gallery, you can view one of the enemies up close while the game gives you details about which episode of the series it came from along with a bit of trivia.
However, this game isn't without its flaws. Lots of the level geometry and collision is a bit janky. Even though the levels are pretty small, some of the checkpoints can get annoying; resetting all progress on a tedious task after you die. The bosses are a bit odd and not very satisfying to fight against. I think the worst aspect is the artificial roadblocks you'll run into; the end of each area has a "Scooby Snack Machine" that requires an increasing amount of snacks to progress. If you don't have enough, you have to backtrack and find more. Given that there are a set amount of snacks in the game, it can be a pain to find some you missed.
Overall, this game is just plain, simple fun. This game is why I even bothered to find out what the original show was like to begin with. When I completed this game as kid, I started seeking out more Scooby games to play, but quite honestly (and to this day), none of them have ever compared to this one. With THQ doing remakes of their older licensed games, I'd like to see this one get some love. I'm absolutely biased in giving this game 4 stars, but that's honestly how much I enjoy it.
This game a 3D Metroidvania full of spooky settings and interweaving secret passage ways. Scooby collects silly power ups to help him navigate the Graham Estate, fend off monsters, and rescue the gang. You can collect springs to double jump, an umbrella to glide with, plungers to walk up slippery surfaces, and lots more. The controls are super solid and the camera is usually set up to be at just the right angle. There is a lot of backtracking in this game, but there are warp gates littered throughout to make sure you don't have to redo entire areas very often.
Additionally, this game is an absolute love-letter to the original series. From the characters, to the cheesy writing, to the environments, and the enemies, this game is 100% Scooby-Doo. Even the music sounds like it's taken straight from the show, including the boss themes that sound like the 70's-esque vocal tracks that would play during the chase sequences. They did a good job of translating the art style of the characters and enemies into 3D, as well. The voice actors deliver exactly how they would in the show, including guest voice actors Tim Curry as the main villain and even Don Knotts as one of the side characters. There's even canned laughter that occasionally plays when Scooby performs a move, which might sound like it gets annoying, but it's so quiet that you're able to tune it out after a while. One of my favorite aspects is the Monster Gallery; throughout the game, you can find hidden Monster Tokens. When you find one and bring it to the gallery, you can view one of the enemies up close while the game gives you details about which episode of the series it came from along with a bit of trivia.
However, this game isn't without its flaws. Lots of the level geometry and collision is a bit janky. Even though the levels are pretty small, some of the checkpoints can get annoying; resetting all progress on a tedious task after you die. The bosses are a bit odd and not very satisfying to fight against. I think the worst aspect is the artificial roadblocks you'll run into; the end of each area has a "Scooby Snack Machine" that requires an increasing amount of snacks to progress. If you don't have enough, you have to backtrack and find more. Given that there are a set amount of snacks in the game, it can be a pain to find some you missed.
Overall, this game is just plain, simple fun. This game is why I even bothered to find out what the original show was like to begin with. When I completed this game as kid, I started seeking out more Scooby games to play, but quite honestly (and to this day), none of them have ever compared to this one. With THQ doing remakes of their older licensed games, I'd like to see this one get some love. I'm absolutely biased in giving this game 4 stars, but that's honestly how much I enjoy it.
About a decade ago, I watched a Cinemassacre review for this game and it stuck in the back of my mind for the longest time. Every so often, I like to pick out a few PS1 games I've never played before and give them a try. Eventually, I made my way around to this game and I had an absolute blast.
Normally, I'm not a huge fan of puzzle games. However, this game is one of the exceptions. You play as Ralph Wolf on a game show hosted by Daffy Duck. In each level, your goal is to steal a sheep from the ever-watchful Sam Sheepdog. To do this, you have to use items delivered by ACME through a combination of platforming, stealth, and puzzle-solving. There's a quite a few items and each level is built around using one or two as a primary mechanic while a few more might play a smaller role. Many items are used multiple times throughout the game, but despite this, you end up discovering some items have more than one main use or can be used with different items for different results. If you've watched Looney Tunes, you can just think "how would Wile E. Coyote use this to catch Road Runner?" and it'll usually steer you in the right direction. Overall, it's a solid, silly and unique experience.
Normally when you get to the end of a console's lifespan, you start to see developers really understand and push the boundaries of the console. This game is a perfect example of that concept. The environments in this game are vibrant and look like they're straight from a Looney Tunes episode. The low-poly models are delightfully charming and look right at home in the environment. As for the animations, they're super snappy and expressive, taking full advantage of the medium and calling back to the chaos of the original cartoons. Speaking of, you get to see a few familiar faces like Elmer Fudd, Road Runner, Gossamer, and more as they help or hinder your progress. As many other reviews pointed out as well, this game's soundtrack is astoundingly great. It's not the kind of music you would normally associate with Looney Tunes, but it holds up on its own just as well. It's a low-key score that offers a chill, grooving vibe that never gets old despite how long you take on a puzzle.
As for some of the puzzle solutions, I feel a little conflicted. On one hand, I like that they don't give you much information to go off of. On the other hand, some of the mechanics are so obtuse that you would never think to try them. The game gives you "hints" on each item on the inventory screen, but they're honestly useless and tell you nothing. I don't think it would be as satisfying if it told you what every item was capable of, but would help if it gave you a small nudge in the right direction. This ties in with another minor complaint I had, which was a boss that shows up toward the middle of the game. It was the only time I had to break out a walkthrough because I had no idea what the game expected from me. Otherwise, those were my only gripes I had throughout the experience.
I truly miss this era of licensed games. This exact sentiment isn't original by a long shot, but not only were you able to find diamonds in the rough with these sorts of titles, but I miss the strange, yet memorable experimentation of genres that licensed games would go for sometimes. This is one of those licensed games that meets this exact criteria. I feel if you asked several people to come up with an idea for a Looney Tunes game, hardly anyone would've ever thought of the "Ralph vs. Sam" cartoons, but I'm glad somebody did. I'm especially glad that it came out as well as it did. If you're ever looking for out-of-the-ordinary PS1 games to try, put this one on your list.
Normally, I'm not a huge fan of puzzle games. However, this game is one of the exceptions. You play as Ralph Wolf on a game show hosted by Daffy Duck. In each level, your goal is to steal a sheep from the ever-watchful Sam Sheepdog. To do this, you have to use items delivered by ACME through a combination of platforming, stealth, and puzzle-solving. There's a quite a few items and each level is built around using one or two as a primary mechanic while a few more might play a smaller role. Many items are used multiple times throughout the game, but despite this, you end up discovering some items have more than one main use or can be used with different items for different results. If you've watched Looney Tunes, you can just think "how would Wile E. Coyote use this to catch Road Runner?" and it'll usually steer you in the right direction. Overall, it's a solid, silly and unique experience.
Normally when you get to the end of a console's lifespan, you start to see developers really understand and push the boundaries of the console. This game is a perfect example of that concept. The environments in this game are vibrant and look like they're straight from a Looney Tunes episode. The low-poly models are delightfully charming and look right at home in the environment. As for the animations, they're super snappy and expressive, taking full advantage of the medium and calling back to the chaos of the original cartoons. Speaking of, you get to see a few familiar faces like Elmer Fudd, Road Runner, Gossamer, and more as they help or hinder your progress. As many other reviews pointed out as well, this game's soundtrack is astoundingly great. It's not the kind of music you would normally associate with Looney Tunes, but it holds up on its own just as well. It's a low-key score that offers a chill, grooving vibe that never gets old despite how long you take on a puzzle.
As for some of the puzzle solutions, I feel a little conflicted. On one hand, I like that they don't give you much information to go off of. On the other hand, some of the mechanics are so obtuse that you would never think to try them. The game gives you "hints" on each item on the inventory screen, but they're honestly useless and tell you nothing. I don't think it would be as satisfying if it told you what every item was capable of, but would help if it gave you a small nudge in the right direction. This ties in with another minor complaint I had, which was a boss that shows up toward the middle of the game. It was the only time I had to break out a walkthrough because I had no idea what the game expected from me. Otherwise, those were my only gripes I had throughout the experience.
I truly miss this era of licensed games. This exact sentiment isn't original by a long shot, but not only were you able to find diamonds in the rough with these sorts of titles, but I miss the strange, yet memorable experimentation of genres that licensed games would go for sometimes. This is one of those licensed games that meets this exact criteria. I feel if you asked several people to come up with an idea for a Looney Tunes game, hardly anyone would've ever thought of the "Ralph vs. Sam" cartoons, but I'm glad somebody did. I'm especially glad that it came out as well as it did. If you're ever looking for out-of-the-ordinary PS1 games to try, put this one on your list.
2003
I find myself conflicted in describing the timing of this game's release. I find it unfortunate because this was released in the early 2000's, where there was a weird stigma against Japanese-made games. With the market changing and leaning towards things like Halo or GTA3, anything that was remotely strange, colorful, or cartoony would make media outlets and Gamers™ roll their eyes and dismiss it. On the other hand, this was released at a time of experimentation and risk, where companies were just throwing anything at the wall to see what sticks. As a result, you got tons of bizarre, yet charming games that went under the radar quite frequently. Games from a period where if they weren't made back then, I doubt they would be made today. Ribbit King is one of these games. As unique, heartful, and silly as it is, I just don't expect any big companies publishing something like this again, though I could be wrong. In fact, I hope I am.
Ribbit King is a golfing game but with a few twists. First of all, you use a frog instead of a ball. Second, the objective is to get the highest score, not the lowest amount of strokes (though it can help). You get points by launching your frogs onto obstacles, most of which are good to encounter. Some are passive, some make you do a very small QTE, or some will just hinder your progress. If you're able to chain these obstacles in one turn, you can multiply the points you receive. There's lots of fun stuff like trampolines, bodies of water your frog can swim through, cannons, equippable items, and lots more. You just have to be careful with what you do, as your frog can tire out and not go as far in your next turn.
Like myself, I often see people compare this game to Katamari despite them being completely different games. This is because in terms of the design, both games use fairly novel concepts and are extremely simple to pick up and run with. You could easily give Ribbit King to little kid or an old person and they'll find it easy enough to play. They might not understand what's going on at all times, but as long as they get their funny little frog hopping towards the goal, they're going to have fun. In my own experience, I've showed this game to tons of people who are hesitant to play it at first because of how weird it looks. Once they start playing though, they always have a great time.
In terms of how the game is built, the collision can be a little janky sometimes, but it's reliable most of the time. There are also some visual bugs that occasionally happen, but they go away shortly. Those are my only real complaints. Otherwise, the characters are likable and goofy, the soundtrack is awesome, and there's a story mode that'll keep you busy for a while. There aren't too many courses; only about 20 in total. However, they make full use of each course by having 2-4 different starting points so that you aren't always playing the same courses in the same layout each time. There are also frogs with abilities, like some that can swim in lava, some that can dive deep underwater for more points, and some that never get tired. There's a whole array of items that once you master, you can use to get a hole-in-one if you shoot at just the right angle.
This game desperately needs something to bring it to the modern era. A remake, a remaster, a sequel, or whatever. I think this game would blow up if there was a modern version with online multiplayer. Despite this game not doing too well when it first released, it's gathered a big cult following in the past decade and the market has changed enough to where something like this would be widely welcomed. Either way, I imagine someone in the indie scene is going to take a stab at making a spiritual successor to this game eventually, which I would very much like to see.
Ribbit King is a golfing game but with a few twists. First of all, you use a frog instead of a ball. Second, the objective is to get the highest score, not the lowest amount of strokes (though it can help). You get points by launching your frogs onto obstacles, most of which are good to encounter. Some are passive, some make you do a very small QTE, or some will just hinder your progress. If you're able to chain these obstacles in one turn, you can multiply the points you receive. There's lots of fun stuff like trampolines, bodies of water your frog can swim through, cannons, equippable items, and lots more. You just have to be careful with what you do, as your frog can tire out and not go as far in your next turn.
Like myself, I often see people compare this game to Katamari despite them being completely different games. This is because in terms of the design, both games use fairly novel concepts and are extremely simple to pick up and run with. You could easily give Ribbit King to little kid or an old person and they'll find it easy enough to play. They might not understand what's going on at all times, but as long as they get their funny little frog hopping towards the goal, they're going to have fun. In my own experience, I've showed this game to tons of people who are hesitant to play it at first because of how weird it looks. Once they start playing though, they always have a great time.
In terms of how the game is built, the collision can be a little janky sometimes, but it's reliable most of the time. There are also some visual bugs that occasionally happen, but they go away shortly. Those are my only real complaints. Otherwise, the characters are likable and goofy, the soundtrack is awesome, and there's a story mode that'll keep you busy for a while. There aren't too many courses; only about 20 in total. However, they make full use of each course by having 2-4 different starting points so that you aren't always playing the same courses in the same layout each time. There are also frogs with abilities, like some that can swim in lava, some that can dive deep underwater for more points, and some that never get tired. There's a whole array of items that once you master, you can use to get a hole-in-one if you shoot at just the right angle.
This game desperately needs something to bring it to the modern era. A remake, a remaster, a sequel, or whatever. I think this game would blow up if there was a modern version with online multiplayer. Despite this game not doing too well when it first released, it's gathered a big cult following in the past decade and the market has changed enough to where something like this would be widely welcomed. Either way, I imagine someone in the indie scene is going to take a stab at making a spiritual successor to this game eventually, which I would very much like to see.
1999
This was my own personal Roller Coaster Tycoon when I was growing up. Looking back, it doesn't seem as robust at all, but it scratched the itch.
It's a fairly simple park creator / management game. You drop in a few pre-made rides, put in a few custom coasters and sprinkle in some shops here and there. You can ride the rides in a first-person perspective and you can even play a lot of the minigames you install in your park.
Overall, it's a pretty repetitive and sluggish experience. Without cheats, it takes a very, very long time to progress to opening your next park. Even so, it almost feels zen to just pop in a few attractions, sit back, and watch the park come to life. As long as you're able to drown out the messenger guy who quite literally informs you about something every 5 seconds. Either way, I find myself coming back to it every few years. I'd almost like to see a modern sequel to this, but the developer has become one of EA's many victims.
Oh, and don't get the PS2 version. It has more features but it runs like complete ass.
It's a fairly simple park creator / management game. You drop in a few pre-made rides, put in a few custom coasters and sprinkle in some shops here and there. You can ride the rides in a first-person perspective and you can even play a lot of the minigames you install in your park.
Overall, it's a pretty repetitive and sluggish experience. Without cheats, it takes a very, very long time to progress to opening your next park. Even so, it almost feels zen to just pop in a few attractions, sit back, and watch the park come to life. As long as you're able to drown out the messenger guy who quite literally informs you about something every 5 seconds. Either way, I find myself coming back to it every few years. I'd almost like to see a modern sequel to this, but the developer has become one of EA's many victims.
Oh, and don't get the PS2 version. It has more features but it runs like complete ass.
The original CTR is my favorite game of all time. I was super hyped (yet somewhat cautious) to learn that it was going to be remade with the addition of the CNK tracks and characters, new tracks and characters, and online multiplayer. For the most part, Beenox did a fantastic job making this game and keeping it faithful to the original and adding improvements across the board.
I always praised the original for having tight controls and the developers somehow found a way to improve upon them and make the original’s controls feel outdated. The visuals of the karts’ exhaust give you a better indication of how fast you’re going and how well you’re chaining drift boosts. Almost every Crash Bandicoot character ever made is playable (supposedly there were going to be even more before Covid threw the development time off). The amount of tracks will keep you busy for quite a long time. Any kart parts you pick are purely cosmetic and you can swap engines, meaning all of your favorite characters are competitively viable. There are multiple levels of time trial ghosts for you to beat and train with. You can play the story mode with any character and swap out at any time. There’s a new Ring Rally Mode that’ll add additional hours of fun to your experience. There were Grand Prix Cups with daily challenges that were fun to just check out everyday. Suffice to say, the improvements and additions to this game will you keep you playing much longer than the original. However, you’re going to be playing longer for a number of negative reasons, as well.
The loading times on this game are absolutely abysmal. It can take around 30 to 45 seconds to load a track and maybe about 15 to 20 seconds to go back to the menus. This might not sound too bad but keep in mind, this is a racing game. There are some races that are going to take like 1 minute and 30 seconds. You’re going to be loading for about one third of that. If I remember correctly, someone actually measured play time vs loading time and if they’re correct, you are going to be spending quite literally 30% of your time with this game loading assets. I’ve clocked in 220 hours on this game. That means I’ve spent roughly 66 hours just sitting there, loading. That’s insane.
Additionally, this game has a Fortnite-esque shop along with a virtual currency, Wumpa Coins. Depending on the track you play, you get a set number of Wumpa Coins, with longer tracks giving you more and shorter tracks giving you less. On weekends, you get double the coins. If you play online, you get 1 hour a day of 5 times the amount of coins. If you play online on the weekend, you can stack both multipliers for 7 times the amount of Wumpa Coins. You can also play daily and monthly challenges to get more coins. You also must be connected to the internet at all times to collect any at all.
I do not like this system.
The items in the shop are expensive. It’s going to take you several, several hours of playing to unlock everything you even want, let alone getting everything. While they Grand Prix Cups were the equivalent of Fortnite “Seasons,” they didn’t go for the “Fear of Missing Out” route, as all of the items you got from doing challenges in the Grand Prix are available in the shop. Either way though, it’s just a gigantic time sink designed to make you buy Wumpa Coins via microtransactions. When this game released, there were no microtransactions. People kept asking Activision up and down “will there be microtransctions?” to which they’d respond “no, there will not be microtransactions.”
After the game released and all the major reviewers scored the game, they immediately put in microtransactions.
Thankfully as I’ve said, everything in the shop is purely cosmetic. Still, that doesn’t forgive these lousy, predatory additions to the game. I’d much prefer to be unlocking things just by completing time trials, CTR challenges, Relic Races, Ring Rallies, and even daily challenges, but I suppose that wouldn’t be as profitable. That’s just the Activision way.
As for the online, it works well enough. There is one caveat though: trying to race with your friends is a fucking nightmare. I don’t know how it is on other consoles, but playing with friends on the Switch version just doesn’t work. Your friends will be online and waiting for an invite and the game will say they’re either offline or just “not joinable.” Don’t even bother trying. Just give up and pretend it’s not even a feature in the game.
Like the original game, if you’re new to CTR and are just coming from Mario Kart, you’ll probably struggle with this game. The weapons don’t work like how they do in Mario Kart and they will not save you if you are losing. Instead, you need to drift boost as much as possible. The tracks are wide enough for the most part and are fully designed for you to be drifting and snaking as much as possible. If you’re in first, you don’t have to constantly worry about getting pelted with items from all directions. As a result, this makes it more based around skill than RNG. I kind of like it this way, personally; it makes for a different experience than Mario Kart. This becomes a major issue online though, because players are not separated by skill level like Mario Kart. If you’re a new player, chances are there’s going to be a veteran in your race who’s going to break away in the first 15 seconds and be a lap ahead of everyone by the time the race is over.
I suppose maybe it’s unfair to give this game 4 and a half stars. Especially with all the complaining I just did. My issue is that, if you look at just the game itself, it’s almost flawless. Unfortunately, it falls victim to a (to say the least) greedy corporation gluing crappy, predatory, mundane, anti-consumer businesses practices onto an otherwise great game. As much as I like this game, I think my time with it might be over. I’m tired of waiting for the game to load, I’m tired of grinding coins for dumb little decals of Crash’s face, I’m tired of not being able to play with friends online, and I’m tired of Activision. With people cracking open and beginning to mod the original CTR, it’s possible the original might catch up with the amount of features this remake has.
I always praised the original for having tight controls and the developers somehow found a way to improve upon them and make the original’s controls feel outdated. The visuals of the karts’ exhaust give you a better indication of how fast you’re going and how well you’re chaining drift boosts. Almost every Crash Bandicoot character ever made is playable (supposedly there were going to be even more before Covid threw the development time off). The amount of tracks will keep you busy for quite a long time. Any kart parts you pick are purely cosmetic and you can swap engines, meaning all of your favorite characters are competitively viable. There are multiple levels of time trial ghosts for you to beat and train with. You can play the story mode with any character and swap out at any time. There’s a new Ring Rally Mode that’ll add additional hours of fun to your experience. There were Grand Prix Cups with daily challenges that were fun to just check out everyday. Suffice to say, the improvements and additions to this game will you keep you playing much longer than the original. However, you’re going to be playing longer for a number of negative reasons, as well.
The loading times on this game are absolutely abysmal. It can take around 30 to 45 seconds to load a track and maybe about 15 to 20 seconds to go back to the menus. This might not sound too bad but keep in mind, this is a racing game. There are some races that are going to take like 1 minute and 30 seconds. You’re going to be loading for about one third of that. If I remember correctly, someone actually measured play time vs loading time and if they’re correct, you are going to be spending quite literally 30% of your time with this game loading assets. I’ve clocked in 220 hours on this game. That means I’ve spent roughly 66 hours just sitting there, loading. That’s insane.
Additionally, this game has a Fortnite-esque shop along with a virtual currency, Wumpa Coins. Depending on the track you play, you get a set number of Wumpa Coins, with longer tracks giving you more and shorter tracks giving you less. On weekends, you get double the coins. If you play online, you get 1 hour a day of 5 times the amount of coins. If you play online on the weekend, you can stack both multipliers for 7 times the amount of Wumpa Coins. You can also play daily and monthly challenges to get more coins. You also must be connected to the internet at all times to collect any at all.
I do not like this system.
The items in the shop are expensive. It’s going to take you several, several hours of playing to unlock everything you even want, let alone getting everything. While they Grand Prix Cups were the equivalent of Fortnite “Seasons,” they didn’t go for the “Fear of Missing Out” route, as all of the items you got from doing challenges in the Grand Prix are available in the shop. Either way though, it’s just a gigantic time sink designed to make you buy Wumpa Coins via microtransactions. When this game released, there were no microtransactions. People kept asking Activision up and down “will there be microtransctions?” to which they’d respond “no, there will not be microtransactions.”
After the game released and all the major reviewers scored the game, they immediately put in microtransactions.
Thankfully as I’ve said, everything in the shop is purely cosmetic. Still, that doesn’t forgive these lousy, predatory additions to the game. I’d much prefer to be unlocking things just by completing time trials, CTR challenges, Relic Races, Ring Rallies, and even daily challenges, but I suppose that wouldn’t be as profitable. That’s just the Activision way.
As for the online, it works well enough. There is one caveat though: trying to race with your friends is a fucking nightmare. I don’t know how it is on other consoles, but playing with friends on the Switch version just doesn’t work. Your friends will be online and waiting for an invite and the game will say they’re either offline or just “not joinable.” Don’t even bother trying. Just give up and pretend it’s not even a feature in the game.
Like the original game, if you’re new to CTR and are just coming from Mario Kart, you’ll probably struggle with this game. The weapons don’t work like how they do in Mario Kart and they will not save you if you are losing. Instead, you need to drift boost as much as possible. The tracks are wide enough for the most part and are fully designed for you to be drifting and snaking as much as possible. If you’re in first, you don’t have to constantly worry about getting pelted with items from all directions. As a result, this makes it more based around skill than RNG. I kind of like it this way, personally; it makes for a different experience than Mario Kart. This becomes a major issue online though, because players are not separated by skill level like Mario Kart. If you’re a new player, chances are there’s going to be a veteran in your race who’s going to break away in the first 15 seconds and be a lap ahead of everyone by the time the race is over.
I suppose maybe it’s unfair to give this game 4 and a half stars. Especially with all the complaining I just did. My issue is that, if you look at just the game itself, it’s almost flawless. Unfortunately, it falls victim to a (to say the least) greedy corporation gluing crappy, predatory, mundane, anti-consumer businesses practices onto an otherwise great game. As much as I like this game, I think my time with it might be over. I’m tired of waiting for the game to load, I’m tired of grinding coins for dumb little decals of Crash’s face, I’m tired of not being able to play with friends online, and I’m tired of Activision. With people cracking open and beginning to mod the original CTR, it’s possible the original might catch up with the amount of features this remake has.
2019
Hypnospace Outlaw is unlike any other game I've seen before. It's a simulator and somewhat of a puzzle game that lets you experience what the Internet was like in the late 1990's. This is also an alternate history game. In this timeline, people used something similar to the internet called "Sleepspace," where you had to use a special headband to browse online while you sleep. The leading company in this field is MerchantSoft, and they just released their newest corner of Sleepspace, Hypnospace, only available on HypnOS.
In Hypnospace Outlaw, you play as a volunteer moderator, where it's your job to keep the users of each community in line and well-behaved. You have a number of communities to patrol at your own pace. Much like a massive forum, each community has different topics of discussion, like older people reminiscing about the "good old days" or kids and teens posting about drama or the latest new video game craze: Squisherz, an alternate history Pokemon. Some people post about conspiracies, some people post about religion, some post about music, and so on. Some people will keep to themselves as they make reviews, blogs, or just post about their interests. However, just like real forums, not everyone will get along. Despite not being allowed to talk to them, you have to make sure no one is harassing other users, using copyrighted content, or distributing malware. Once you find someone breaking the rules, you can delete it from Hypnospace and make a little bit of Hypnocoin, the official currency. When you get enough Hypnocoin, you can spend it on little downloadables like stickers to decorate your desktop, mp3s to listen to, or virtual pets. Just be careful you don't download any viruses or click on any sketchy links. Listing things off like this, It may sound overwhelming but like I said, the game allows you to tackle literally everything at your own pace. As you progress, the tougher the tasks will get; some people end up breaking the rules, but not exactly out in the open. It's up to you to sleuth around and figure out how they were able to snake around getting caught. At the end of the game, something big happens and you have to take it upon yourself to piece together what took place.
The writing in this game is so good that each user feels real, like there's an actual person on the other side of the monitor. Each page you encounter on Hypnospace seems so silly yet genuine, as everyone has their own distinct taste in visuals and writing styles. Some people are very paranoid, some people love drama, some people spend their time trolling, some people are only in it to sell things, some people write sloppily with lots of spelling errors, some people can't figure out how to use the page editor, and some people are a bit too comfortable laying out all their personal info on their page. Most pages in this game aren't even relevant to the plot but are there to make it seem more broad like the real internet. Some people have entire pages dedicated to cryptids, others use their pages as art galleries, some people have entire websites dedicated to showcasing how Squisherz are demonic, and there's even a website that serves as a cringe compilation as they post about other users who are being weird or awkward. Nearly every kind of person you see online today is represented in some way.
This game is loads of fun. It's really interesting to see how people react to everything you're doing and the problem-solving aspect keeps it engaging. Once this game was finished, the developers put out tools you can use to make your own Hypnospace page. It inspired me to make a Neocities website right after playing. Also, there's already a sequel in the works, Dreamsettler, which takes place in the early 2000's. I can't wait to play that one as well. I highly recommend Hypnospace Outlaw if you're looking for something weird, unique, or silly.
Also, I stand with Gooper.
In Hypnospace Outlaw, you play as a volunteer moderator, where it's your job to keep the users of each community in line and well-behaved. You have a number of communities to patrol at your own pace. Much like a massive forum, each community has different topics of discussion, like older people reminiscing about the "good old days" or kids and teens posting about drama or the latest new video game craze: Squisherz, an alternate history Pokemon. Some people post about conspiracies, some people post about religion, some post about music, and so on. Some people will keep to themselves as they make reviews, blogs, or just post about their interests. However, just like real forums, not everyone will get along. Despite not being allowed to talk to them, you have to make sure no one is harassing other users, using copyrighted content, or distributing malware. Once you find someone breaking the rules, you can delete it from Hypnospace and make a little bit of Hypnocoin, the official currency. When you get enough Hypnocoin, you can spend it on little downloadables like stickers to decorate your desktop, mp3s to listen to, or virtual pets. Just be careful you don't download any viruses or click on any sketchy links. Listing things off like this, It may sound overwhelming but like I said, the game allows you to tackle literally everything at your own pace. As you progress, the tougher the tasks will get; some people end up breaking the rules, but not exactly out in the open. It's up to you to sleuth around and figure out how they were able to snake around getting caught. At the end of the game, something big happens and you have to take it upon yourself to piece together what took place.
The writing in this game is so good that each user feels real, like there's an actual person on the other side of the monitor. Each page you encounter on Hypnospace seems so silly yet genuine, as everyone has their own distinct taste in visuals and writing styles. Some people are very paranoid, some people love drama, some people spend their time trolling, some people are only in it to sell things, some people write sloppily with lots of spelling errors, some people can't figure out how to use the page editor, and some people are a bit too comfortable laying out all their personal info on their page. Most pages in this game aren't even relevant to the plot but are there to make it seem more broad like the real internet. Some people have entire pages dedicated to cryptids, others use their pages as art galleries, some people have entire websites dedicated to showcasing how Squisherz are demonic, and there's even a website that serves as a cringe compilation as they post about other users who are being weird or awkward. Nearly every kind of person you see online today is represented in some way.
This game is loads of fun. It's really interesting to see how people react to everything you're doing and the problem-solving aspect keeps it engaging. Once this game was finished, the developers put out tools you can use to make your own Hypnospace page. It inspired me to make a Neocities website right after playing. Also, there's already a sequel in the works, Dreamsettler, which takes place in the early 2000's. I can't wait to play that one as well. I highly recommend Hypnospace Outlaw if you're looking for something weird, unique, or silly.
Also, I stand with Gooper.
A perfect follow-up to the original Chibi-Robo. The first 2 games didn’t do too well in America, so I can kind of understand why Nintendo didn’t bring this one overseas. But man, I really think this could’ve turned the fate of series around if they did.
This one goes back to the absolute basics of the first game, adds a bunch of cool new ideas, and fixes up some old ideas. There’s a much bigger focus on Chibi’s plug. This time, Chibi can use their plug and cord as a weapon or as a means of transportation by tossing it like a lasso. You can upgrade your cord to make it longer to throw and climb to higher outlets or to charge from far away. There’s a vacuum cleaner where you can empty the dust panel and find bits of gold or gemstones for money. Picking up trash serves a purpose as you can now recycle it and convert it into energy. You can climb up furniture to easily access higher areas. There’s no more fall damage so you don’t have to be extremely careful in high places. You can even play Blackjack with ghosts. I could go on and on about all the improvements and cool mechanics, but I’ll leave some surprises for you.
As for the story, it’s a lot like the first game, possibly even more sad. It takes place about 20 years after the first game. A different Chibi-Robo and their Telly are now considered retro and are bought by a very poor family in a thrift shop. In their home, the wallpaper is peeling off, many appliances are broken or missing, and there’s trash everywhere. The mother is constantly working overtime to be able to afford the house, the son skips school to work a job delivering papers for extra money, the family dog is perpetually dirty, and the father is no where to be seen. As a cleaning robot and the newest member of the family, it’s up to you to tidy up the house and make some money to make their lives a little better. They can’t afford electricity, so you can’t recharge all the time; instead you have to recycle garbage to resupply the house with power. As you progress, you make the family happier and learn a bit more about each member. You’ll also meet lots of little side-characters with interesting personalities and problems to solve. The further you progress, the happier and sillier the main story gets.
Off the top of my head, I don’t really remember any glaring issues with this game. The controls are a bit odd; you have to use the touch screen to move Chibi around but you get used to it pretty quickly. I played this with a controller in one hand and a screenless drawing tablet in the other and it surprisingly felt okay. I suppose the sifting minigame gets a bit boring after a while, but you can just throw the dust bags away for tons of energy, so it isn’t mandatory.
Overall, this is a very charming game and it’s pretty impressive for the DS. It’s an absolute shame that Nintendo never brought this one to the west. Thanks to the efforts of some dedicated fans, there’s an English translation floating around. I highly recommend this game, even if you haven’t played the original; you can understand and enjoy it without any prior knowledge.
This one goes back to the absolute basics of the first game, adds a bunch of cool new ideas, and fixes up some old ideas. There’s a much bigger focus on Chibi’s plug. This time, Chibi can use their plug and cord as a weapon or as a means of transportation by tossing it like a lasso. You can upgrade your cord to make it longer to throw and climb to higher outlets or to charge from far away. There’s a vacuum cleaner where you can empty the dust panel and find bits of gold or gemstones for money. Picking up trash serves a purpose as you can now recycle it and convert it into energy. You can climb up furniture to easily access higher areas. There’s no more fall damage so you don’t have to be extremely careful in high places. You can even play Blackjack with ghosts. I could go on and on about all the improvements and cool mechanics, but I’ll leave some surprises for you.
As for the story, it’s a lot like the first game, possibly even more sad. It takes place about 20 years after the first game. A different Chibi-Robo and their Telly are now considered retro and are bought by a very poor family in a thrift shop. In their home, the wallpaper is peeling off, many appliances are broken or missing, and there’s trash everywhere. The mother is constantly working overtime to be able to afford the house, the son skips school to work a job delivering papers for extra money, the family dog is perpetually dirty, and the father is no where to be seen. As a cleaning robot and the newest member of the family, it’s up to you to tidy up the house and make some money to make their lives a little better. They can’t afford electricity, so you can’t recharge all the time; instead you have to recycle garbage to resupply the house with power. As you progress, you make the family happier and learn a bit more about each member. You’ll also meet lots of little side-characters with interesting personalities and problems to solve. The further you progress, the happier and sillier the main story gets.
Off the top of my head, I don’t really remember any glaring issues with this game. The controls are a bit odd; you have to use the touch screen to move Chibi around but you get used to it pretty quickly. I played this with a controller in one hand and a screenless drawing tablet in the other and it surprisingly felt okay. I suppose the sifting minigame gets a bit boring after a while, but you can just throw the dust bags away for tons of energy, so it isn’t mandatory.
Overall, this is a very charming game and it’s pretty impressive for the DS. It’s an absolute shame that Nintendo never brought this one to the west. Thanks to the efforts of some dedicated fans, there’s an English translation floating around. I highly recommend this game, even if you haven’t played the original; you can understand and enjoy it without any prior knowledge.
2000
This one took me a while to get to. As a kid, I never played Banjo simply because I didn’t have an N64. Many years later, I tried out Yooka-Laylee when it finally released and found it to be a bit underwhelming. Seeing as how everyone loved Banjo, I put down Yooka-Laylee and I finally decided to give Banjo-Kazooie a try. I had a great time with it! Immediately upon completing the game, I decided to give Tooie a try as well. While it’s still very cool, I began to notice that this game is where most of Yooka-Laylee’s problems start to creep in.
Tooie overall is a very fun game. After all, it’s just more Banjo-Kazooie! However, if you were to draw a line in the sand and label it as “tedious,” Tooie would not hesitate to cross that line. There are a few major issues with this game, but I think they all loop back into what I think is, fittingly, the biggest problem of all: the levels are simply too big. All the characters (minus solo Kazooie) move so slowly that it takes forever to get anywhere. Switching between all the playable characters and transformations is a process and a half. You’ll switch to a character, do everything they need to do, run all the way back, switch back, and then realize “oh! I missed something!,” then run to wherever you have to switch characters, switch back to the other character, do whatever it is you need to do, then run back, then switch again. There are lots of sub-areas which is fine, but there are very few visual indicators as to where they’ll take you, meaning you’ll get lost quite a bit. Then you have the massive array of moves you can learn. In some cases, the game straight up tells you when you don’t have the proper move yet. Other times, you hit a roadblock without any notice and your only thoughts are “am I being dumb or do I just not have the right move yet.” You combine all these factors and a good amount of your time will be dedicated to running back and forth in large, almost-empty landscapes while accomplishing barely anything. With that in mind, little things start to become more grating, like watching Banjo slooowly transform into something or watching Chuffy the Train slooowly switch levels. Or sometimes an enemy will knock you off a cliff and kill you instantly, meaning you'll respawn a mile away from where you were. I’m grateful for the warp pads, because the whole thing could’ve been much worse, but it almost feels like a band-aid solution. Either making the characters faster, making the levels smaller, or even just giving some sort of map system could’ve gone a long way with Tooie.
Those are the main issues I had with Tooie. I have a few minor ones listed below mainly because I feel they don’t need too much explanation:
- Notes are no longer used as breadcrumbs. They’re grouped in bundles of 5 and almost feel unnecessary.
- Many of the new moves feel underutilized or redundant.
- Some of the most annoying enemies in the game respawn after like 10 seconds which defeats the purpose of killing them at all.
- Upgrading your health is no longer automatic, you have to go to an NPC in the hub to do it.
- There are many parts where Wonder Wing SHOULD be a viable solution but you end up taking damage anyway.
To be fair to the game, I didn’t take note of just the bad things. Tons of people love this game and I wanted to see the good in it as well. While playing, I took note that there were quite a lot of improvements from from the first game along with generally nice additions as well:
- You start with all the moves from the first game.
- No lives system. Hugely appreciated since many 3D platformers at the time were still using lives. Having no lives system lets players play more dangerously, allowing them to have more fun AND you can use death-warps as a fast-travel in some scenarios.
- You no longer lose your Notes upon death. I know this was removed in the Xbox versions, but it was still a general pain to lose Note progress if you died in B-K.
- The bosses feel more like actual bosses with proper fights this time.
- The new method of shooting eggs with an aiming reticle. It's a little janky, but still miles better than shooting eggs in B-K.
- Eggs and feathers are plentiful and you no longer pick 1 up at a time (minus the Clockwork eggs).
- Grenade eggs are pretty fun to use and are arguably the most useful of the new moves.
- I’d argue that Minjos are an objectively funny addition to the series. Jinjos are funny themselves, but to occasionally have an evil one chase after you while going “grr” is inherently hilarious.
- The minigames are super simple and don’t last very long compared to Rextro’s in Yooka.
- Playing as Banjo and Kazooie separately is a really cool idea in general, it just needed better execution.
- The NPCs and writing are genuinely charming and funny.
- Doing puzzles to unlock each world is a fun and clever way to use Jiggies.
- You can do a weird double jump with Banjo by himself. I don’t think it was intended but it saves a lot of time.
- The world themes are pretty creative this time around.
- Grant Kirkhope is back at the helm in the music department and delivers some of the most memorable tunes you’ll ever hear in a video game.
- The sound design in this game is awesome, almost every single sound is so silly that you’ll find yourself repeating them without even thinking about it.
Tooie is a testament to how bigger isn’t always better, which is a concept many modern games are still struggling to grasp. It’s a good game, but I would be lying if I said it didn’t feel like an absolute slog at some points (Grunty Industries, smile). Even when it comes to my most favorite video games of all time, most of them have sections that make me say "oh god, not this part," and this game is chock full of them. Though in the same vein that I ended my Yooka review with, I’m excited to see what this team does in the future. I think if they really take some of the common criticisms to heart, they could make something amazing.
Tooie overall is a very fun game. After all, it’s just more Banjo-Kazooie! However, if you were to draw a line in the sand and label it as “tedious,” Tooie would not hesitate to cross that line. There are a few major issues with this game, but I think they all loop back into what I think is, fittingly, the biggest problem of all: the levels are simply too big. All the characters (minus solo Kazooie) move so slowly that it takes forever to get anywhere. Switching between all the playable characters and transformations is a process and a half. You’ll switch to a character, do everything they need to do, run all the way back, switch back, and then realize “oh! I missed something!,” then run to wherever you have to switch characters, switch back to the other character, do whatever it is you need to do, then run back, then switch again. There are lots of sub-areas which is fine, but there are very few visual indicators as to where they’ll take you, meaning you’ll get lost quite a bit. Then you have the massive array of moves you can learn. In some cases, the game straight up tells you when you don’t have the proper move yet. Other times, you hit a roadblock without any notice and your only thoughts are “am I being dumb or do I just not have the right move yet.” You combine all these factors and a good amount of your time will be dedicated to running back and forth in large, almost-empty landscapes while accomplishing barely anything. With that in mind, little things start to become more grating, like watching Banjo slooowly transform into something or watching Chuffy the Train slooowly switch levels. Or sometimes an enemy will knock you off a cliff and kill you instantly, meaning you'll respawn a mile away from where you were. I’m grateful for the warp pads, because the whole thing could’ve been much worse, but it almost feels like a band-aid solution. Either making the characters faster, making the levels smaller, or even just giving some sort of map system could’ve gone a long way with Tooie.
Those are the main issues I had with Tooie. I have a few minor ones listed below mainly because I feel they don’t need too much explanation:
- Notes are no longer used as breadcrumbs. They’re grouped in bundles of 5 and almost feel unnecessary.
- Many of the new moves feel underutilized or redundant.
- Some of the most annoying enemies in the game respawn after like 10 seconds which defeats the purpose of killing them at all.
- Upgrading your health is no longer automatic, you have to go to an NPC in the hub to do it.
- There are many parts where Wonder Wing SHOULD be a viable solution but you end up taking damage anyway.
To be fair to the game, I didn’t take note of just the bad things. Tons of people love this game and I wanted to see the good in it as well. While playing, I took note that there were quite a lot of improvements from from the first game along with generally nice additions as well:
- You start with all the moves from the first game.
- No lives system. Hugely appreciated since many 3D platformers at the time were still using lives. Having no lives system lets players play more dangerously, allowing them to have more fun AND you can use death-warps as a fast-travel in some scenarios.
- You no longer lose your Notes upon death. I know this was removed in the Xbox versions, but it was still a general pain to lose Note progress if you died in B-K.
- The bosses feel more like actual bosses with proper fights this time.
- The new method of shooting eggs with an aiming reticle. It's a little janky, but still miles better than shooting eggs in B-K.
- Eggs and feathers are plentiful and you no longer pick 1 up at a time (minus the Clockwork eggs).
- Grenade eggs are pretty fun to use and are arguably the most useful of the new moves.
- I’d argue that Minjos are an objectively funny addition to the series. Jinjos are funny themselves, but to occasionally have an evil one chase after you while going “grr” is inherently hilarious.
- The minigames are super simple and don’t last very long compared to Rextro’s in Yooka.
- Playing as Banjo and Kazooie separately is a really cool idea in general, it just needed better execution.
- The NPCs and writing are genuinely charming and funny.
- Doing puzzles to unlock each world is a fun and clever way to use Jiggies.
- You can do a weird double jump with Banjo by himself. I don’t think it was intended but it saves a lot of time.
- The world themes are pretty creative this time around.
- Grant Kirkhope is back at the helm in the music department and delivers some of the most memorable tunes you’ll ever hear in a video game.
- The sound design in this game is awesome, almost every single sound is so silly that you’ll find yourself repeating them without even thinking about it.
Tooie is a testament to how bigger isn’t always better, which is a concept many modern games are still struggling to grasp. It’s a good game, but I would be lying if I said it didn’t feel like an absolute slog at some points (Grunty Industries, smile). Even when it comes to my most favorite video games of all time, most of them have sections that make me say "oh god, not this part," and this game is chock full of them. Though in the same vein that I ended my Yooka review with, I’m excited to see what this team does in the future. I think if they really take some of the common criticisms to heart, they could make something amazing.