I hope this flopped and they didn't make any other entries, that'd be worth a laugh! I havent had any playing this. This mf Simon with his perfectly chiseled chin and wealthiest caveman in the cave rizz can't whip worth a damn. Is he asexual? Why does he think he's him? Call it y = b^x the way shit went off the rails so fast, what a difficulty curve folks. You have to be there to see it. There's not really an enemy to make fun of so I'll focus on that aspect. Except Dracula on steroids but those were different times, the basement dweller community has foregiven Dracula.

Let's breakdown how the game plays. There are no input cancels obviously this ain't no Tekken, once you jump you are vulnerable for around 1 second and approximately 33 threats, you can only walk and slightly crouch, not to mention (I'll mention) the whip having more screentime where it doesnt hit once you press the destroy foes button. So basically you're dead on arrival. Also, sometimes you get hit by a projectile thats been destroyed or a mf who alreafy vaporized. Shit that should only happen in Mexico and I don't wager Simon is having his pilgrimage there.

I've warmed up, but huh no physical activity to follow because I need to say good things about this decent game. The night is dark and the path is.. not always clear, especially stage 17 with those gears but it all looks great. Dracula looks like his breath smells of garlic which makes me worry about his health being a vampire and all, but I won't judge him if he stepped out the hospital just to whoop my ass he's just that guy. Not gonna lie I had to use save states between every hit because I didn't trust myself enough and I was playing the game on break I wanted to finish it today at least (as in friday 22nd march, I'm actually reviewing it on the day I finish a game which I usually never do and condone! But we do this ig)

Did I seriously go out of my way to play through a honestly pretty mid-strategy card game and pay an extra 20 dollars for DLC just so I could get the privilege to enjoy a good version of Deadpool..........well....yeah........... :/

I mean don't get me wrong if you like X-Com and other strategy games I'm sure you'll like this, it's just that I honestly don't personally care for strategy games and if I'm being 100% stright with you the game is beyond easy for like the first 20 hours; I just wanted to see a character I once loved actually done well and not like how's they've been portraying every single medium since the movie. Does this make me possibly the most reddit pilled out of all my friends? OH YEAH 100% UNDOUBTEDLY, but at least for me I can pull out the long time fan card and say I like this character before they became completely insufferable and a tool for Marvel's neverending slop machine of a cinematic universe.

When I say that Deadpool that we have in this game is probably the most well written and suddle he's been since his 2013 run that should probably tell you how dire it's been for the last 10 years. For some reason for the longest time Deadpool has been a hard character for writers to work on for some reason, see most hacks writers looked at the movie as their main influence or they think they've understood the character through cultural osmosis which is pretty the much equivalent of thinking you've understood the character by reading an unfunny bumper sticker. Deadpool at his best is when he's an annoying jackass but everyone around him either hates him or feels some sort of pity, He's not a character you wanna laugh at he's a character that bottles up his emotions and pushes other people he perceives to be his friends away while hiding all of his more nuanced aspects behind a super thick wall of irony so no one can hurt him. He can sometimes get better and in the case of his 2013 run even work on himself to be a better person for him and his kid, but at the core of his character he's a sad pathetic worm that can't die and refuses to go away. The movies kinda did that but as soon as Ryan Reynolds signed on to play the character the films stopped being Deadpool movies and instead became another linchpin in Reynold's adventure capitalist money chasing one note acting nepo career.
The game gets this dynamic down almost perfectly, although it stumbles a little bit here and there at times. He still has traces of his "lol chimichangas aren't I clever that I know I'm in a video game" that gets on my nerves but that dynamic of everyone else in the game just hating Deadpool constantly is still there and it works really well; especially with Blade. He’s pretty much an outcast for a majority of his time in the game and since the game gives you the ability to go on activities and hangouts with him you get to see a much more personal side of him. More a majority of the time you try to make a somewhat tangible connection with him he’ll either bounce off the question with a stupid joke or make a light-hearted threat until you get to the very near end of his relationship arc where he’ll finally open up just a tiny amount but enough to where your words actually get to him and make him care, granted it’s not a lot and he’ll still push you away with his annoying jokes but he’ll care more about you as a friend; which is technically growth for him and you know what that’s better

Out of the other characters in the game and even it’s DLC Deadpool feel ultimately out of place because this a game centered around the supernatural side of the Marvel universe and having a pudo-XMan running around killing vampires, demons, and a supernaturally corrupted Sabretooth with Blade and Ghost Rider is…..well…..dumb..dumb..it………it’s really fucking dumb. But like in a way that’s very camp and comic booky and honestly I’ll take this over any of that MCU coded poorly written Insomniac slop shit (My opinion on Spider-Man 2 has soured in the months I played it in). So yes I did indeed play a 50 hour long strategy card game just for Deadpool, and I will probably never touch this game ever again. Could I have just gotten all my info from clips on youtube instead of paying 20 plus another 20 for the season pass…..probably, but do I regret it? ……………..eh it’s still a better version of Deadpool then last comic run so I’d say it was worth it.

(Also in case anyone was wondering what my thoughts on Deadpool and Wolverine are, it looks like a movie scientifically designed to piss me off and to make Reddit soy. I will not be watching because I have standards and would rather go see Sonic 3 or a real movie instead.)

Picross is great, but this one hasn't aged the greatest. And despite being released closer in time to the 3DS games, it is an old-school Picross at heart. Perhaps Jupiter wasn't quite sure of what to do with the Picross "formula", and/or maybe by Nintendo's request had to utilize various DS features that don't really make that much sense here otherwise (Rumble Pak functionality?). Thankfully, they've since figured out a solid set of modes and options with the 3DS and Switch games, but much of what they added to this one is very hit or miss, as cute as they may be.

The level editor, downloadable packs, online and local multiplayer, introduction of touch controls (with both toggle and hold!), unique level themes and animations for every individual puzzle, rock. The devs took care to really flesh out these features and additional bits of flavor to make the game as accessible as possible. Yet there's a lot of crust. Too much for one pizza. For example, the UI is pretty dated and has this very confused sense of design. Almost as if it was trying to be a pseudo-desktop app with its motifs. There's an X button that shows up with yes or no questions that serves zero purpose of its own. I appreciate being given the option between "Yes", "No", and "Fuck Off", but these weird "extra" things the game does are silly. The minigames are in the same boat, they suck and really hammer in that early-DS-must-use-touchscreen-technology-at-all-costs problem. Though I guess the sketch one is alright and holds some relevance to Picross.

Worse than those though, while the hint number auto check was added to this game (I think?), it only works when you close off all surrounding squares or solve a line of numbers completely. So it becomes rather easy to miss a spot and screw up elsewhere on larger puzzles, especially when a level's theme is visually noisy and especially when the zoom feature gives you insane tunnel vision. Unfortunately, the zoom tool is the only option you have for tackling the larger puzzles with touch controls as well. I honestly found this made touch controls unusable on the 20x20 and 25x20 Free puzzles because it really made making mistakes (and having to fix them) so much more common. And as for visually noisy themes, some of the levels have terrible color choices for the overlays/Try It Out mode, which doesn't help.

Also the music sucks, it's bootleg Pokémon crap that drives you insane after you've heard it loop twice. There are a few nice themes, notably in isolation and not on repeat, but there were three Now Production composers on this, so I'm not sure why the music is as shallow as it is. Picross games usually don't have that much music, so becoming grating is always a possibility, but I can easily listen to Yuka Tsujiyoko's work in the e and S games for hours and Toshiyuki Ueno's songs in the SNES and GB games are great too.

Overall, the sleekness of this game is nice, but Jupiter couldn't quite get it as sleek enough here like they have since. Normal and Free modes are simply not diverse enough and many of the additional adds don't serve to keep me playing much more than they have (I'm looking at you, Daily Picross). Perhaps this is part of the reason it's taken me almost a decade of playing this on and off to 100% it, but hey it's also the first Picross I've finished. So yay!

Shame that it's arguably one of the weakest in the series, because it definitely tries not to be. It's still great!

Between the bleak dystopian setting, the need to rely on your wits more than your brawn to survive in a hostile world, and the complete lack of a UI that helps things feel more immersive, Abe's Oddysee wears the "Another World" influence proudly on its sleeve. It does have much stronger puzzle elements compared to Another World's largely trial-and-error gameplay, and that mostly works in this game's favor.

The puzzle elements largely revolve around manipulating the various hazards and hostile creatures in order to make it through the levels in one piece, whether it be sneaking past two fiercely territorial scrabs as they fight to the death, luring an enemy into a land mine, or 'possessing' a slig to have him take out some of the threats ahead. While some of the puzzles do get quite difficult, the AI is remarkably consistent and the various enemy types will always behave in a very predictable way which means you will actually get better and better at the game mechanics the more you play (as opposed to the rote memorization of 'gotcha' moments that plague many similar games).

The puzzle mechanics are greatly enhanced by the game's great sense of atmosphere, and in how much personality they infused into the enslaved Mudokons (who you spend most of the game trying to rescue). These ugly adorable flatulent dudes with the minion voices retain their spirit and sense of humor even in the face of frankly horrific treatment, and it gives the setting a very distinct and somehow very effective fusion of humor and tragedy. More importantly, it enhances the gameplay by giving you 'puzzle pieces' that you actually care about. Sure, you can get to the next area by using the other slaves as human mudokon shields but it'll also make you feel like a dick; conversely, when you find the perfect solution to set all the slaves free and (often barely) just survive yourself, it's doubly satisfying.

This ties in very well with how the game cleverly sidesteps my frequent gripe with puzzle games: the difficulty. Puzzle games have it tough because unlike other genres, you either know the solution or you don't, and there's no in-between; this makes it difficult for games to find the tiny middle ground between "braindead easy" and "so difficult that you get stuck and consult a guide". Abe's Oddysee has its share of difficult puzzles, but the majority of those are optional and just lead to you being able to rescue more Mudokon slaves (who as we've established, you tend to feel honor-bound to try to save). What this means is that you will want to save as many slaves as possible, but if you find yourself really stuck you can just continue with the main game without having to consult a guide.

Abe's Oddysee unfortunately also suffers from a common issue with similar games: the stiff controls. For the most part they don't spoil the experience, but there are just a few too many time-sensitive situations that you need to rush through and demand near frame-perfect timing that I can't also give the game a free pass on that.

In the end, the frustrating moments were far outweighed by the game's strengths. When I used the experience gained in my first playthrough to save more Mudokons the second time through and was rewarded with a different better ending, it gave me a real sense of accomplishment (and guilt about the two guys I allowed to get beaten to death). I'm looking forward to playing its sequels!