It's a pretty solid collection of board and card games with a spiffy presentation. For the most part the review could probably end there, in part due to the fact that...well...they're board and card games that already existed. Want some Chess and Solitaire? Got it. Mahjong and Hanafuda? Sure. You even get stuff like Hounds and Hares and I feel like for all but true board game affecionados there will be something new for people to discover as they play. You even get some stuff like Tanks or Bowling. Granted this is noooooo Wii Bowling in terms of control, but it still gives some neat options you can't get with a deck or cards or a set of dice.

I do have a few issues with this collection, a big one being a bit of lacking options and how some games are presented / forced. Poker's a big one: You're forced into 10 rounds instead of being able to just play however many you want and with forced bet increments. The end result is that a lot of the skill of Texas Hold 'em such as bluffing and mathing it out is kinda removed. I get having it as a default, but I don't get why you couldn't at least just say endless rounds given there's already an option for rounds but you can only pick between 5 or 10. Blackjack has similar issues. This doesn't hurt toooooo many games but it popped up enough to be kind of a bummer. And stuff like Tanks is no Wii Tanks, much reduced in scope and how it plays kinda deal.

The other thing is just the AI, while it can be tough in some games (unsurprisingly usually mathematical or solved games like Connect Four), there's a lot of games it is just kinda dim. Yahtzee is the main one as it basically always goes for Straights immediately and doesn't seem to understand the top bonus: It'll gladly take a single six in sixes rather than a two in aces even though it is just the wrong play, very easy to beat. Chess has it always use the same moves and be a bit exploitable, I wish there was a bit of a randomization factor just so every game didn't start e4, and it makes it a bit easy to exploit. There's a few other things like that throughout the game, but for some of the games it is more baffling than others. Seeing a computer take a 24 in Chance when it has a 20 in Fives and the top is open is...yeah.

As much as I am dumping on some points, make no mistakes: Most of the games work fine and some of my biggest flaws like the AI are pretty irrelevent in multiplayer, which is what most people will likely use Clubhouse Games for, and even solo you can easily kick this up to play a quick game of Yahtzee, Chess, Tanks or w/e and just kinda enjoy yourself. I also have to say I am quite glad for Clubhouse Games Guest Pass and allowing easier multiplayer without buying 3 copies of the game. I do wish it also worked with online but I can understand how that might just completely destroy sales.

When it comes down to it, Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics is EXACTLY what you'd expect. Good for friends and family who want a more family game oriented experienced, games that have less depth than a full game dedicated to more specific ones would be but have enough, a few stinkers because with 51 worldwide classics would you expect to hit them all and all wrapped up neatly in a nice presentation. It isn't an amazing game, but it is a solid game that accomplishes what it wants to do. So if you're in the market for that then pick it up: You won't regret it!

Is that Alucard with the contra spread gun?? A glorious return to form. After the hard to swallow pill that was Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, I am ecstatic that we are back to simple level by level platforming, with cool bossfights at the end.

Castlevania III is just the first Castlevania but bigger. The game plays exactly the same as the first, but is just 2-3 times longer. There is also branching levels meaning there is a lot of room for replayability.

The biggest difference and my favourite part about the game is the ability to find different playable characters that can be super helpful for some sections. You have a guy that can climb ceilings that has a permanent ranged weapon, or as previously mentioned Alucard that has a Contra spread gun and fucking kills those annoying bats with ease. He can also turn into a bat for a limited time and trivialise some platforming sections. Depending on how you play and which characters you choose to come along with you, there is some room for emergent gameplay which is something I never thought I'd see in a NES game.

The difficulty this time around, while still not perfect, is a little more balanced than the first game due to the fact that you have many different ways to approach a scenario. The game was still challenging, but I never got too frustrated while playing as I felt like I was never locked into a single solution if I was stuck at a problem.

This is probably the best of the three from the NES trilogy, considering there is so much content packed into this little game, and it plays the best. If Simon's Quest brought your spirits down, play this one and your hopes will come back up.

Devil May Cry is a series I knew virtually nothing about before I played this, but if the rest of the series is like this game I can see why people like it so much. The Basic gameplay loop of fighting enemies by executing different moves and combos and collecting the red orbs they drop to get upgrades was pretty satisfying and addictive and the mission level structure felt pretty good and made sure no section outstayed it's welcome. The game's setting and atmosphere reminded me a lot of Resident Evil in ways, a secluded island with a large manor and evil creatures dwelling within it made for a really interesting place to explore and I was always wondering where the game would take me next. Probably my favorite thing about the game was just how damn goofy it was in the best way possible. Though he didn't get many lines seeing as the gameplay was clearly the main focus here, almost every word out of Dante's mouth was a riot, combine that with incredible early 2000s voice overacting, and I can see why people love this silly character so much. Apart from just Dante though, the story, dialogue, and overall vibe of the game felt cheesy in a way that felt endearing and I absolutely loved it. My only real complaint with the game were it's boss fights, some of them were ridiculously easy while others were punishingly difficult and there really was no in between. On top of that the game reused the same four bosses over and over and it just didn't feel that fun to fight the same thing over and over again as opposed to something original. Apart from that the game only allowed you to save at the end of levels (at least as far as I could find) meaning if you died in a level and didn't have any yellow orbs left to revive you then you had to restart the whole level over again which just took me out of the game a few times during difficult missions, overall this is more of a symptom of being an older video game rather than a problem with DMC specifically, but it still wasn't great. On the whole though, I really enjoyed Devil May Cry and look forward to playing more of this series.

I've been playing a lot of Platinum Games lately, and I couldn't stop thinking about how Platinum Games are kinda like the modern version of Treasure Games, where action, style, mechanics and replayability take front row over any other factors in their games.

I'm a big fan of retro games, but having this thought I just realised I have not played any Treasure titles, besides the original Sin and Punishment. So going through their catalog, as I am now playing through a lot of Platinum titles, I will also be playing through Treasure titles alongside them, and there is no better place to start than their first title Gunstar Heroes.

I really liked Gunstar Heroes. It's like any other run and gun like Metal Slug or Contra, but the chaos is dialed up to 10. There's is just so much happening on the screen with shit exploding and effects everywhere that you can't help but feel so much dopamine rush through your brain.

The game has more of a focus on shooting and dodging bullets however, rather than platforming. There is next to no platforming in this game, so it is safer to say this is closer to something like a shmup than it is to Metal Slug/Contra. There are even some cool shmup sections. The bossfights themselves feel like something that was designed in cuphead. So much fun, but definetly more forgiving than Cuphead.

Speaking of difficulty, like every other retro shmup, I was expecting something hard. But surprisingly I never got a game over and just beat the whole game on my first playthrough on Normal difficulty. So I can see myself giving this another try on hard mode.

There's nothing too deep about Gunstar Heroes, it's just pure mindless run and gun action with a lot of effects happening on screen. Where you'll have the most fun is with the bossfights as it requires some level of thinking as you'll need to understand boss patterns in order to dodge their attacks. What a great little arcadey title that I can see myself replaying. I look forward to playing more of Treasure Games.

So you're telling me Platinum at their prime (no pun intended) made this with a budget of $15 and some pocket lint? It's kinda crazy because you can feel how low budget this game is, yet the gameplay is some of Platinum's very best.

Is that Optimus Prime dodging and activating witch time? You bet your ass that is. This is literally a Transformers Bayonetta game. It's crazy how good combat feels here. When you play Bayonetta, the combat is satisfying in a punchy sense. In Transforms: Devastation, the combat is satisfying in the sense where you can feel the weighty 5 tonne metal clash and bash 10 tonne metal. If you want to play the game purley for the combat and vibes, this game will satisfy you. If you're looking for anything else, unfortunately the low budget presents you with copy + paste environments that repeat 2-3 times in a 6 hour game. Yeah game looks cheaper than a McDonalds Big Mac meal, but if you're into Transformers, Bayo Combat and some crazy metal playing during many of the game's bossfights, you will really enjoy this as much as I did.

The bossfights are easily the best fights pitting you against some of the most iconic Deceptions with their own movesets and strategy while the hypest music is playing in the background. And the game is FULL of bossfights to keep you entertained between all the copy pasted "level" sections of the game.

There is also a good replayability factor here since you can play as 5 different Autobots throughout the entire game. Optimus was my favorite, but I am bias.

This is honestly more of a 3.5/5 game because of how ugly everything about the world in this game is, and it's pretty short, but the combat and bossfights are so goddamn good I bumped it up to a 4.

Not really much to say about this one, as it is essentially just Tetris and Dr. Mario, except they look nicer now. There is a new game mode that switches between the two games as you are playing them against another opponent, but it doesn’t really change anything around to the point where it feels like that much of a substantial addition. Not to mention, the music is butchered compared to the originals, to where it makes me wanna down a bottle of Dr. Mario’s pills, so that I won’t have to listen to it anymore from the fact that I’ll be dead.

Remakes #12 and 13

This game is such a product of its time. It falls perfectly in this category of late 7th generation AAA games, where everything is gritty and dark and the characters are in dire situations or struggle more than usual. They are very "serious" (because games are serious now), very "cinematic",  use all these camera effects, absolutely unnecessary long cutscenes and (of course) QTEs. Max Payne 3, Hitman Absolution, Bioshock Infinite, The Last of Us etc etc. And the problem is that all these games do these things reeeeeally badly and unnecessarily. Long cutscenes work only if the story is interesting and characters are not just action guys (and even then there's time and place for them), the ugly shaky-cam aesthetic peaked in Kane & Lynch 2, and QTEs are shit, oh my God, you don't need them anywhere but in Telltale or Quantic Dream games. But all that aside, the game is pretty good, a bit clunky at times and a bit over the top, but I enjoyed it. Platforming still doesn't really fit this kind of game, but it was alright.