1992
DETANA!!!!! twin bee is a very adorable arcade shoot-em-up. One which you could, perhaps, refer to as a "cute-em-up." You should not though. It's illegal. I will call the police on you and they will put you on a list of... undesirables.
I digress. DETANA!!!!! twin bee is pretty straight-forward as far as overhead shoot-em-ups go, but it's damn nice to look at. Another review compared the game to an OVA and honestly, I think that's a very appropriate comparison. The game really tries to maintain that sort of a style throughout and it does a damn good job of it. TwinBee is also top tier character design. A goofy looking bulbous ship with gigantic hands and a dang gun, what's not to love?
The power-up system is something you'll either love or hate. Shooting at bells changes their color which then corresponds to different power-ups. The only problem is this is a shoot-em-up and you should be shooting at all times, so you're bound to screw up and run right into power-ups you don't want at the least optimal time.
But the undeniable charm of this game makes it easy to look past things like that, and if you have access to a TurboGrafx (or more likely, an emulator) you should definitely give this game a shot. It's a fun little time waster.
I digress. DETANA!!!!! twin bee is pretty straight-forward as far as overhead shoot-em-ups go, but it's damn nice to look at. Another review compared the game to an OVA and honestly, I think that's a very appropriate comparison. The game really tries to maintain that sort of a style throughout and it does a damn good job of it. TwinBee is also top tier character design. A goofy looking bulbous ship with gigantic hands and a dang gun, what's not to love?
The power-up system is something you'll either love or hate. Shooting at bells changes their color which then corresponds to different power-ups. The only problem is this is a shoot-em-up and you should be shooting at all times, so you're bound to screw up and run right into power-ups you don't want at the least optimal time.
But the undeniable charm of this game makes it easy to look past things like that, and if you have access to a TurboGrafx (or more likely, an emulator) you should definitely give this game a shot. It's a fun little time waster.
1988
Space Harrier II is my favorite game in the Genesis' launch line up. To be fair, the bar was never set very high, and much like Super Thunder Force it gets by on how technically impressive it is for a home console game in 1988.
The scrolling in this game looks nice, though is outshined by later Genesis titles. It's not as "smooth" as the special stages in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and not as flashy or dynamic as Panorama Cotton for example, but there's still something so endearing to me about those checkerboard patterns and utterly surreal looking boss encounters. Of course, looks can only take a game so far, and actually playing Space Harrier II is where it all starts to fall apart.
This is an auto-scrolling behind-the-back shooter, where players must weave Harrier through obstacles while taking out incoming hordes of enemies. It's pretty simple, as is the case for the Genesis' arcade inspired lineup. Severely hampering the experience, however, is poor performance. Slowdown and choppiness make the arcade version the clear winner when comparing the two, and given how easy it is to emulate both versions of the game, you really ought to sit the Genesis edition out.
I was only a one-year-old when the genesis launched, so obviously I wasn't in any state of mind to understand or appreciate how impressive this game must have been at the time, but I can hazard a guess when looking at Space Harrier II's home console contemporaries. I'm sure I would've eaten this up were I only a few years older, as it's perhaps the best argument (again, at launch) that the Genesis might make good on its promise to bring the arcade into the home, albeit with some compromises.
The scrolling in this game looks nice, though is outshined by later Genesis titles. It's not as "smooth" as the special stages in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and not as flashy or dynamic as Panorama Cotton for example, but there's still something so endearing to me about those checkerboard patterns and utterly surreal looking boss encounters. Of course, looks can only take a game so far, and actually playing Space Harrier II is where it all starts to fall apart.
This is an auto-scrolling behind-the-back shooter, where players must weave Harrier through obstacles while taking out incoming hordes of enemies. It's pretty simple, as is the case for the Genesis' arcade inspired lineup. Severely hampering the experience, however, is poor performance. Slowdown and choppiness make the arcade version the clear winner when comparing the two, and given how easy it is to emulate both versions of the game, you really ought to sit the Genesis edition out.
I was only a one-year-old when the genesis launched, so obviously I wasn't in any state of mind to understand or appreciate how impressive this game must have been at the time, but I can hazard a guess when looking at Space Harrier II's home console contemporaries. I'm sure I would've eaten this up were I only a few years older, as it's perhaps the best argument (again, at launch) that the Genesis might make good on its promise to bring the arcade into the home, albeit with some compromises.
The short and sweet version of this review? Batman: The Video Game is a Batman game by way of Ninja Gaiden. If that doesn't sell you on it then I'm sorry, it's probably just not the game for you.
Batman controls just as tightly as Ryu Hayabusa, or even Simon Belmont (though he lacks that Belmont swagger, seeing as he still suffers through the trauma of his parent's death.) Every jump, every attack, every step you make with Batman feels deliberate. Platforming is precise and satisfying, though the game does falter a few times, particularly with segments involving the wall jump, which I found to be a bit finicky. At best this results in a few annoying deaths, and at worst it can roadblock you until you throw Batman at the problem enough that you're finally able to move on. Really though, the Ninja Gaiden games suffered from similar stretches of rough level design, and nothing here is as aggravating as Ninja Gaiden 2.
Of course, Batman is armed with a plethora of gadgets, which all feel like they have good utility, and god knows you'll need to make use of all of them. The boss encounters are difficult, true to form for NES era action-platformers, and act as a true test of skill. I also appreciate the attention this game gives to the D-listers of Batman's rogues gallery. This is a movie adaptation, and it might be easy to forget that since it really doesn't follow the 1989 film closely, but the developers smartly avoided possible sequel villains by instead focusing on weirdos like Firebug.
I may not come back to this one as much as I do other action-platformers on the NES, but it's a fantastic game and definitely worth taking a look at. Just come prepared, because it is as steep a challenge as any of its contemporaries.
Batman controls just as tightly as Ryu Hayabusa, or even Simon Belmont (though he lacks that Belmont swagger, seeing as he still suffers through the trauma of his parent's death.) Every jump, every attack, every step you make with Batman feels deliberate. Platforming is precise and satisfying, though the game does falter a few times, particularly with segments involving the wall jump, which I found to be a bit finicky. At best this results in a few annoying deaths, and at worst it can roadblock you until you throw Batman at the problem enough that you're finally able to move on. Really though, the Ninja Gaiden games suffered from similar stretches of rough level design, and nothing here is as aggravating as Ninja Gaiden 2.
Of course, Batman is armed with a plethora of gadgets, which all feel like they have good utility, and god knows you'll need to make use of all of them. The boss encounters are difficult, true to form for NES era action-platformers, and act as a true test of skill. I also appreciate the attention this game gives to the D-listers of Batman's rogues gallery. This is a movie adaptation, and it might be easy to forget that since it really doesn't follow the 1989 film closely, but the developers smartly avoided possible sequel villains by instead focusing on weirdos like Firebug.
I may not come back to this one as much as I do other action-platformers on the NES, but it's a fantastic game and definitely worth taking a look at. Just come prepared, because it is as steep a challenge as any of its contemporaries.
1993
Just as much as Batman: The Video Game is Batman by way of Ninja Gaiden, Batman Returns for the SNES is Batman by way of Final Fight. And that's just... alright.
The game becomes monotonous fairly quickly given the small roster of mooks to punch. You'll get familiar with them fast, and it doesn't take long before the amount of combinations the game is able to throw at you dries up and starts to repeat. Combat just gets very routine, and in an effort to break that up and keep the player engaged, Konami threw in a few levels where the focus is less on brawling and more on whatever stage gimmick they cooked up. This includes a stage where you need to use the grappling hook to clear gaps and a mode 7 Batmobile chase level, both of which are patently unfun (though the Batmobile level is at least flashy.)
Levels are richly detailed and do a good job of capturing that Tim Burton vibe - drab and grey though it may be - with the soundtrack doing every bit as good of a job emulating Danny Elfman's style as you can expect on 16-bit hardware. Give me a Revolution X style game based on Oingo Boingo, damnit. It would be terrible, I need it!
Boss battles are perhaps the weakest part of this game, which is especially unfortunate as I think boss battles are typically the high points of brawlers, especially licensed ones, which are able to leverage characters from the source material in ways that have more immediate resonance with the player. Catwoman and Penguin are really all you get as far as proper rogue's gallery villains, with the other bosses just being amped up versions of Penguin's goons. They're forgettable, and I wish Konami pulled a Batman: The Video Game and trotted out some d-listers instead.
Batman Returns is a real two-point-fiver, neither stellar nor so incompetent that it's bad. Its positives and negatives stand about equal, making for a perfectly average experience. Not the worst thing to waste an afternoon on, but if you dig even just a little bit deeper, you're bound to find a better brawler to kill time with.
Edit: I initially referred to the developer of this game as Capcom, which is incorrect. I've update the review to reflect that it's a Konami game. Batman should snap one of my legs like a dried twig as penance for this mistake.
The game becomes monotonous fairly quickly given the small roster of mooks to punch. You'll get familiar with them fast, and it doesn't take long before the amount of combinations the game is able to throw at you dries up and starts to repeat. Combat just gets very routine, and in an effort to break that up and keep the player engaged, Konami threw in a few levels where the focus is less on brawling and more on whatever stage gimmick they cooked up. This includes a stage where you need to use the grappling hook to clear gaps and a mode 7 Batmobile chase level, both of which are patently unfun (though the Batmobile level is at least flashy.)
Levels are richly detailed and do a good job of capturing that Tim Burton vibe - drab and grey though it may be - with the soundtrack doing every bit as good of a job emulating Danny Elfman's style as you can expect on 16-bit hardware. Give me a Revolution X style game based on Oingo Boingo, damnit. It would be terrible, I need it!
Boss battles are perhaps the weakest part of this game, which is especially unfortunate as I think boss battles are typically the high points of brawlers, especially licensed ones, which are able to leverage characters from the source material in ways that have more immediate resonance with the player. Catwoman and Penguin are really all you get as far as proper rogue's gallery villains, with the other bosses just being amped up versions of Penguin's goons. They're forgettable, and I wish Konami pulled a Batman: The Video Game and trotted out some d-listers instead.
Batman Returns is a real two-point-fiver, neither stellar nor so incompetent that it's bad. Its positives and negatives stand about equal, making for a perfectly average experience. Not the worst thing to waste an afternoon on, but if you dig even just a little bit deeper, you're bound to find a better brawler to kill time with.
Edit: I initially referred to the developer of this game as Capcom, which is incorrect. I've update the review to reflect that it's a Konami game. Batman should snap one of my legs like a dried twig as penance for this mistake.
Reviewing the Sparkster games is no simple task. Before you can even sit down to commit one word you need to shuffle through a mountain of paperwork, checking off countless boxes, double-checking signatures, cross referencing material and sourcing footage in order to ensure you're prepared to talk about the correct game. It's a laborious task, and a thankless one at that. Unfortunately, I fear my previous review for Rocket Knight Adventures (the first of the two Genesis Sparksters) was colored by my inability to distinguish aspects of these two games. There were a few set pieces I mistakenly believed were from Rocket Knight Adventures, but as I've come to find out were in fact from Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2, and I suppose it's possible maybe a bit of Sparkster (SNES) was peppered into my memory too, further poisoning the well.
I've started drinking again.
One key area of difference between the original Rocket Knight and RKA2 is how each game utilizes Sparkster's jetpack. In the first game, levels were tightly designed around the jetpack, which not only made navigation with it feel fun, but integral to the experience. While it's not rendered worthless or unenjoyable in RKA2, levels do feel less intelligently designed and more focused on rote platforming, with a few particular stages being much more closed off, limiting how you can use your jetpack. The lowest point of RKA2's level design comes somewhat late in the game, in the form of an airship level where you must knock out portions of the ship while jumping through tubes which transport you to other sections of the stage. The maze-like structure of this level isn't helped by the fact that everything kinda looks the same. It's not great and it takes too long to complete, a blemish on what is still a fine game despite the more regressive way it handles one of Sparkster's key features.
Everything else about RKA2 is fantastic, though. The sprite work is bursting with character and looks even better than the original, and the soundtrack is just as energetic as its ever been. Sparkster still feels great to control, and even though the jetpack is under utilized, it still avoids feeling unwieldy even when you're literally bouncing off the walls with it. Combat is swift, has good impact, and the pacing of levels outside of the aforementioned airship is top notch. Odds are, if you liked the original RKA or Sparkster, you'll probably dig Rocket Knight Adventures 2, even if you may not like it quite as much (like me.)
I've started drinking again.
One key area of difference between the original Rocket Knight and RKA2 is how each game utilizes Sparkster's jetpack. In the first game, levels were tightly designed around the jetpack, which not only made navigation with it feel fun, but integral to the experience. While it's not rendered worthless or unenjoyable in RKA2, levels do feel less intelligently designed and more focused on rote platforming, with a few particular stages being much more closed off, limiting how you can use your jetpack. The lowest point of RKA2's level design comes somewhat late in the game, in the form of an airship level where you must knock out portions of the ship while jumping through tubes which transport you to other sections of the stage. The maze-like structure of this level isn't helped by the fact that everything kinda looks the same. It's not great and it takes too long to complete, a blemish on what is still a fine game despite the more regressive way it handles one of Sparkster's key features.
Everything else about RKA2 is fantastic, though. The sprite work is bursting with character and looks even better than the original, and the soundtrack is just as energetic as its ever been. Sparkster still feels great to control, and even though the jetpack is under utilized, it still avoids feeling unwieldy even when you're literally bouncing off the walls with it. Combat is swift, has good impact, and the pacing of levels outside of the aforementioned airship is top notch. Odds are, if you liked the original RKA or Sparkster, you'll probably dig Rocket Knight Adventures 2, even if you may not like it quite as much (like me.)
1996
Everyone's favorite 90's action-platformer is BACK for one final outing on the Genesis and also forever because nobody cares about Vectorman.
I don't have too much to say about this game that wasn't already covered in my review of the first Vectorman. At its core, it's very much the same game. All flash, little substance. There are some new morphs and weapons to play around with, and generally I found them more fun than the original, but levels are a lot less nice to look at and a few stinkers really hold the game back. I suppose it all evens back out for me in the end, because I really don't dislike Vectorman 2, but I don't really want to play it again either.
I do wish Sega did something more with this character, though. His design is great and I think he would've been a perfect fit for Sega's foray into 3D gaming, but all he ever really amounted to was a couple technical showpieces on a dying platform. What a waste.
Anyway they should make this unlockable in Sonic Origins, just pull a real Mega Collection and include this for no reason at all.
I don't have too much to say about this game that wasn't already covered in my review of the first Vectorman. At its core, it's very much the same game. All flash, little substance. There are some new morphs and weapons to play around with, and generally I found them more fun than the original, but levels are a lot less nice to look at and a few stinkers really hold the game back. I suppose it all evens back out for me in the end, because I really don't dislike Vectorman 2, but I don't really want to play it again either.
I do wish Sega did something more with this character, though. His design is great and I think he would've been a perfect fit for Sega's foray into 3D gaming, but all he ever really amounted to was a couple technical showpieces on a dying platform. What a waste.
Anyway they should make this unlockable in Sonic Origins, just pull a real Mega Collection and include this for no reason at all.
1997
I honestly don't even know where to begin with Shock Troopers. This is easily one of the best run-and-gunners you can play, its sense of humor is worn on its sleeve, and the action is as constant as it is insane. There is also just a staggering amount of variety, as if being just plain fun to play wasn't enough of an incentive to come back to it again and again. There's so much here to dive into, but really it might be best if you just skip the review and play it.
Right off the bat you're given eight different characters to choose from, each with their own stats and weapons. While they largely play similar to each other, there's enough meat to each of the characters that it's well worth rotating through them to find your favorite. The game is then divided into three routes: mountain, jungle, and valley. Each run through the game takes you through six stages with one stage shared between each route, making for a total of sixteen levels. If you're crunching the numbers with me, then this must feel like quite a bit of variety for a run-and-gun arcade game from 1997.
Being a mid-90s Neo Geo game, it looks incredible. Animations are incredibly fluid, the action is very punchy, the music is fun yet intense, and the sound effects have just the right amount of crunch. You can tell the folks over at Saurus had a blast making this thing. It's just a shame I missed this in the arcade (in fact, I only heard of it a few years ago), but thankfully it's easily accessible today through Steam or GOG. You can also find it off the back of a truck if you want to avoid supporting current SNK, or more accurately stated: current SNK's owners.
Right off the bat you're given eight different characters to choose from, each with their own stats and weapons. While they largely play similar to each other, there's enough meat to each of the characters that it's well worth rotating through them to find your favorite. The game is then divided into three routes: mountain, jungle, and valley. Each run through the game takes you through six stages with one stage shared between each route, making for a total of sixteen levels. If you're crunching the numbers with me, then this must feel like quite a bit of variety for a run-and-gun arcade game from 1997.
Being a mid-90s Neo Geo game, it looks incredible. Animations are incredibly fluid, the action is very punchy, the music is fun yet intense, and the sound effects have just the right amount of crunch. You can tell the folks over at Saurus had a blast making this thing. It's just a shame I missed this in the arcade (in fact, I only heard of it a few years ago), but thankfully it's easily accessible today through Steam or GOG. You can also find it off the back of a truck if you want to avoid supporting current SNK, or more accurately stated: current SNK's owners.
Following up the original Shock Troopers was always going to be a tall task, one that I question the value of even attempting. 2nd Squad is, unsurprisingly, not as good as the original, but is still a fairly solid little run-and-gunner that's held back by a few unfortunate choices.
The roster of characters and levels is heavily stripped back. You can now select between a more varied yet condensed squad of characters, each of which feel more unique to play when compared to its predecessor's lineup. This is actually one area where I think 2nd Squad is perhaps better off than the original, as the smaller and more thoughtfully designed squad makes each character feel more robust and fun to play as.
On the other hand, the smaller number of levels I think is more to the game's detriment. There are now a total of only 7 levels with the player only going through 5 during any one playthrough. The change in the art direction is also not great, but it was 1998 and by this point you just had to put 3D objects in your arcade game. I'm not entirely against meshing 3D and 2D, but I just don't think it comes together well here. The visual style of 2nd Squad feels noticeably aged compared to the first Shock Troopers.
It's not like 2nd Squad is a bad game, it's just that Shock Troopers is so good it's hard to not feel like its sequel is a step down.
The roster of characters and levels is heavily stripped back. You can now select between a more varied yet condensed squad of characters, each of which feel more unique to play when compared to its predecessor's lineup. This is actually one area where I think 2nd Squad is perhaps better off than the original, as the smaller and more thoughtfully designed squad makes each character feel more robust and fun to play as.
On the other hand, the smaller number of levels I think is more to the game's detriment. There are now a total of only 7 levels with the player only going through 5 during any one playthrough. The change in the art direction is also not great, but it was 1998 and by this point you just had to put 3D objects in your arcade game. I'm not entirely against meshing 3D and 2D, but I just don't think it comes together well here. The visual style of 2nd Squad feels noticeably aged compared to the first Shock Troopers.
It's not like 2nd Squad is a bad game, it's just that Shock Troopers is so good it's hard to not feel like its sequel is a step down.
1994
Sparkster is the first and only Sparkster video game starring Sparkster (AKA Rocket Knight) for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, but it has the SAME box art as Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2 on the Sega Genesis, which is NOT the SAME GAME! It's not!! You can't do that, it's illegal and I'm calling the cops!
While Sparkster doesn't dethrone Rocket Knight Adventures as my favorite game in the series, it is a very solid SNES outing that is well worth picking up today. The aesthetic is overall much more "cute" than the other two games, which is kind of appropriate given what system it's on, and the SNES' vibrant color pallet really makes levels pop. The soundtrack is excellent as well, and it's really hard to say whether or not I have a preference between the score on the SNES or the Genesis. Ports of this era usually sounded distinctly better or worse between hardware, which could be due to familiarity or preference between soundfonts, but pick out any shared tracks between the SNES or Genesis Sparkster games and they'll sound just as good while playing to the system's unique strengths.
Levels are more closed off like they are in RKA2, but also designed to be more vertically oriented, which is well suited to Sparkster's ricocheting rocket boost. It does, however, get a little repetitive, as the more platform-centric levels adhere to a similar design pattern that they rarely deviate from. That's not to say the game is totally lacking in variety, though. My favorite shoot-em-up level of the series is in this version, and I really enjoy the third level as well, which is an auto-scroller that puts Sparkster in an out of control chicken walker.
This also might be the shortest game of the bunch. It's very brief, and feels all that much shorter given the absolute breakneck pace of the action. This isn't a bad thing, of course. A short but very solid game is always welcome, especially as I advance in age. I'm 34 and my kids keep talking about putting me in a home. I hope they'll let me play Sparkster there...
While Sparkster doesn't dethrone Rocket Knight Adventures as my favorite game in the series, it is a very solid SNES outing that is well worth picking up today. The aesthetic is overall much more "cute" than the other two games, which is kind of appropriate given what system it's on, and the SNES' vibrant color pallet really makes levels pop. The soundtrack is excellent as well, and it's really hard to say whether or not I have a preference between the score on the SNES or the Genesis. Ports of this era usually sounded distinctly better or worse between hardware, which could be due to familiarity or preference between soundfonts, but pick out any shared tracks between the SNES or Genesis Sparkster games and they'll sound just as good while playing to the system's unique strengths.
Levels are more closed off like they are in RKA2, but also designed to be more vertically oriented, which is well suited to Sparkster's ricocheting rocket boost. It does, however, get a little repetitive, as the more platform-centric levels adhere to a similar design pattern that they rarely deviate from. That's not to say the game is totally lacking in variety, though. My favorite shoot-em-up level of the series is in this version, and I really enjoy the third level as well, which is an auto-scroller that puts Sparkster in an out of control chicken walker.
This also might be the shortest game of the bunch. It's very brief, and feels all that much shorter given the absolute breakneck pace of the action. This isn't a bad thing, of course. A short but very solid game is always welcome, especially as I advance in age. I'm 34 and my kids keep talking about putting me in a home. I hope they'll let me play Sparkster there...
2020
I really hate musou games, to such a degree that even some IPs that I'm otherwise attached at the hip to (Gundam and Berserk in particular) are still not enough to get me to invest in countless hours of mind-numbingly dull button mashing. Despite my disdain for the genre I wound up picking up Persona 5 Strikers, but only after a tremendous amount of hounding from my friend Larry Davis, a sale that was too good to pass up, and frankly having nothing better to do. It was either this or drill a hole in my head and watch my brains dribble onto the pavement. While the latter has been a cherished Summer tradition, I think (much to my surprise) Persona 5 Strikers has finally supplanted it as the ultimate Summer treat.
It helps that P5S is a MINO (Musou In Name Only), and better described as an action RPG. While enemies attack in large hordes, so much of Persona's battle mechanics are carried over that simply swinging into a mass of bad guys is counter productive. You have to weigh elemental affinities, trigger All-Out-Attacks, and hot swap between characters and Personae rapidly in order to maintain the flow of combat. There's so much to juggle that it may seem a little daunting at first, but when you start to see how the various combat systems work in conjunction with one another and find a good rhythm, it feels incredibly satisfying.
New Persona are gained as random drops during battle, but the Velvet Room also makes a return. While it may be lacking in some of the more complex fusion methods found in Persona 5, I still found fusion to be robust, certainly more than I was expecting going into the game blind. Sacrificing Persona or acquiring duplicates after battle will provide the player with "Persona Points," which can be used to buff other Persona as a method of quickly leveling them up. Some fusions require a Persona to be leveled up past a certain point, so PP quickly becomes another currency that must be used judiciously, at least until the late game where your on hand yen becomes so plentiful that constantly cycling a Persona out of the compendium and sacrificing them for PP makes the whole system little more than an inconvenience.
One of P5S' greatest strengths is in its interplay between the main cast of characters. It's only natural given the series strong focus on interpersonal bonds, which are so deeply woven into the structure of these games that they're every bit as important mechanically as they are narratively. However, both social links and the calendar system (hallmarks of the series since Persona 3) are both absent from Strikers. As such, the gameloop is radically different from what fans of the series have come to expect. In order to dissect that, I'll need to briefly dive into the story of Persona 5 Strikers, though I'll avoid any spoilers.
Joker (the player character) returns to Tokyo after a long absence and reconnects with the rest of the Phantom Thieves, who quickly make plans to spend their Summer break together. However, the group quickly notices that a new smart phone app, Emma, may be involved in cognitive changes similar to those seen in the first game. The Phantom Thieves get sucked into a conspiracy to control the minds of those who download the app, and in order to maintain their innocence have to work alongside Zenkichi, a police inspector whose seems to be manipulating them to his own ends, and Sophie, a mysterious amnesiac AI Joker discovers in the games first jail (Strikers' stand-in for Persona 5's palaces.) Unlike the first game, this cognitive phenomenon isn't localized to just Tokyo, but rather all of Japan, and so the Phantom Thieves have to pack up and go on a Summer road trip, moving from city to city and dungeon to dungeon.
That's... that's the gist of it, man. Obviously the plot goes places, but Persona 5 Strikers best narrative moments come from the more personal moments between the big overarching beats about corrupt corporations and demigods. The game keeps your group moving from location to location, keeping the overworld map just as fresh as the dungeons you explore, and giving the player a little taste of the local culture along the way. You enter into a loop with each location that begins with the characters settling in, only to bump into their next target. This then opens you up to the investigation phase, where you must run around and talk to NPCs while filling up a meter that proves your target's guilt. This is actually a pretty neat way to let the player acclimate to each new map, while getting some shopping done and hearing your party member's thoughts about whatever location you're visiting.
Once you have everything you need, you're then able to jump into that location's jail and knock out the dungeon. As I mentioned earlier, the calendar system is gone, so you're no longer under a time limit to finish a dungeon, and you aren't under the stress of managing a million other tasks inbetween. If you want to go hang out with a party member, or revisit an old dungeon to challenge a super boss, or just do a little grocery shopping and cook a meal for your team, you can do so whenever you wish and without penalty. This goes a long way towards tying the game into that Summer vibe. You're away from home, ostensibly on vacation, you have nowhere you really need to be, so you can take things at your own pace.
Persona 5 Strikers is also a proper sequel, and builds off the themes of the first game. While it ultimately ends up in a very samey place as the original, I was surprised how engrossed I got in the overall plot, and I really ended up liking newcomers Zenkichi and Sophie. Zenkichi in particular, who is the sole adult of the group and has adult-ass problems, which is refreshing to see in a series that has only really viewed its world through an adult lens once. They also gel well with the rest of the group on a mechanical level, and while I feel every character brings something unique to combat, I really found myself leaning on these two hard as I neared the end game.
Of course, even the best Summer vacation is marred by one hideous raincloud, one melted flip flop, one little patch of skin you didn't get enough sunscreen on and now you have to go in to see your dermatologist because there's something concerning growing there. In the case of Strikers, it's the first dungeon. You don't have a reliable means to craft SP recovery items (you cannot cook until the second dungeon) which makes the boss a total slog, one I had to retry probably more than any other boss in the game, optional super bosses included. It also takes a while to get going, which is true of any Persona game, and some cutscenes can stretch on for quite a while. Just be thankful that modern consoles let you throw the system into rest mode and resume mid-scene.
For me, Persona 5 Strikers is the quintessential Summer game. The plot firmly places you in the shoes of a group of friends who want to make the most of their Summer together, sends you to brightly lit locals with their own attractions and cuisine, backed by a bright and jazzy soundtrack and gameplay that can easily be taken at your own pace... It's also mechanically rich, with gameplay that has almost a hypnotic rhythm to it, and provides a great twist on the typical Persona formula that I hope is revisited in the future.
It helps that P5S is a MINO (Musou In Name Only), and better described as an action RPG. While enemies attack in large hordes, so much of Persona's battle mechanics are carried over that simply swinging into a mass of bad guys is counter productive. You have to weigh elemental affinities, trigger All-Out-Attacks, and hot swap between characters and Personae rapidly in order to maintain the flow of combat. There's so much to juggle that it may seem a little daunting at first, but when you start to see how the various combat systems work in conjunction with one another and find a good rhythm, it feels incredibly satisfying.
New Persona are gained as random drops during battle, but the Velvet Room also makes a return. While it may be lacking in some of the more complex fusion methods found in Persona 5, I still found fusion to be robust, certainly more than I was expecting going into the game blind. Sacrificing Persona or acquiring duplicates after battle will provide the player with "Persona Points," which can be used to buff other Persona as a method of quickly leveling them up. Some fusions require a Persona to be leveled up past a certain point, so PP quickly becomes another currency that must be used judiciously, at least until the late game where your on hand yen becomes so plentiful that constantly cycling a Persona out of the compendium and sacrificing them for PP makes the whole system little more than an inconvenience.
One of P5S' greatest strengths is in its interplay between the main cast of characters. It's only natural given the series strong focus on interpersonal bonds, which are so deeply woven into the structure of these games that they're every bit as important mechanically as they are narratively. However, both social links and the calendar system (hallmarks of the series since Persona 3) are both absent from Strikers. As such, the gameloop is radically different from what fans of the series have come to expect. In order to dissect that, I'll need to briefly dive into the story of Persona 5 Strikers, though I'll avoid any spoilers.
Joker (the player character) returns to Tokyo after a long absence and reconnects with the rest of the Phantom Thieves, who quickly make plans to spend their Summer break together. However, the group quickly notices that a new smart phone app, Emma, may be involved in cognitive changes similar to those seen in the first game. The Phantom Thieves get sucked into a conspiracy to control the minds of those who download the app, and in order to maintain their innocence have to work alongside Zenkichi, a police inspector whose seems to be manipulating them to his own ends, and Sophie, a mysterious amnesiac AI Joker discovers in the games first jail (Strikers' stand-in for Persona 5's palaces.) Unlike the first game, this cognitive phenomenon isn't localized to just Tokyo, but rather all of Japan, and so the Phantom Thieves have to pack up and go on a Summer road trip, moving from city to city and dungeon to dungeon.
That's... that's the gist of it, man. Obviously the plot goes places, but Persona 5 Strikers best narrative moments come from the more personal moments between the big overarching beats about corrupt corporations and demigods. The game keeps your group moving from location to location, keeping the overworld map just as fresh as the dungeons you explore, and giving the player a little taste of the local culture along the way. You enter into a loop with each location that begins with the characters settling in, only to bump into their next target. This then opens you up to the investigation phase, where you must run around and talk to NPCs while filling up a meter that proves your target's guilt. This is actually a pretty neat way to let the player acclimate to each new map, while getting some shopping done and hearing your party member's thoughts about whatever location you're visiting.
Once you have everything you need, you're then able to jump into that location's jail and knock out the dungeon. As I mentioned earlier, the calendar system is gone, so you're no longer under a time limit to finish a dungeon, and you aren't under the stress of managing a million other tasks inbetween. If you want to go hang out with a party member, or revisit an old dungeon to challenge a super boss, or just do a little grocery shopping and cook a meal for your team, you can do so whenever you wish and without penalty. This goes a long way towards tying the game into that Summer vibe. You're away from home, ostensibly on vacation, you have nowhere you really need to be, so you can take things at your own pace.
Persona 5 Strikers is also a proper sequel, and builds off the themes of the first game. While it ultimately ends up in a very samey place as the original, I was surprised how engrossed I got in the overall plot, and I really ended up liking newcomers Zenkichi and Sophie. Zenkichi in particular, who is the sole adult of the group and has adult-ass problems, which is refreshing to see in a series that has only really viewed its world through an adult lens once. They also gel well with the rest of the group on a mechanical level, and while I feel every character brings something unique to combat, I really found myself leaning on these two hard as I neared the end game.
Of course, even the best Summer vacation is marred by one hideous raincloud, one melted flip flop, one little patch of skin you didn't get enough sunscreen on and now you have to go in to see your dermatologist because there's something concerning growing there. In the case of Strikers, it's the first dungeon. You don't have a reliable means to craft SP recovery items (you cannot cook until the second dungeon) which makes the boss a total slog, one I had to retry probably more than any other boss in the game, optional super bosses included. It also takes a while to get going, which is true of any Persona game, and some cutscenes can stretch on for quite a while. Just be thankful that modern consoles let you throw the system into rest mode and resume mid-scene.
For me, Persona 5 Strikers is the quintessential Summer game. The plot firmly places you in the shoes of a group of friends who want to make the most of their Summer together, sends you to brightly lit locals with their own attractions and cuisine, backed by a bright and jazzy soundtrack and gameplay that can easily be taken at your own pace... It's also mechanically rich, with gameplay that has almost a hypnotic rhythm to it, and provides a great twist on the typical Persona formula that I hope is revisited in the future.
1990
Way back in the 90s when Blockbuster reigned supreme, you could rent video game consoles for a couple days. You'd get a big plastic case with the system loaded inside, slotted neatly into carved foam like some kind of deadly weapon. I remember my mom coming home with an NES she picked up for a weekend, and two games: Super Mario Bros. 3 and Ghostbusters. Thankfully, something was wrong with the console my mom rented and it refused to play either game, sparing me from forming any early memory of the NES version of Ghostbusters. I only learned about how horrible it was much later, I think through a Seanbaby article in the back of an issue of EGM. It was either that or the AVGN video, which I would strongly attribute to its lasting legacy as once of the biggest pieces of crap to ever hit the system.
This review is not about the NES Ghostbusters, of course, but rather the Sega Genesis game of the same name which is often touted as one of the extremely few good, if not great, Ghostbuster games. Unfortunately, the people who think this have looked directly into the ghost trap and had their brains scrambled, or else have had their opinions so colored by the NES title that any other game with the Ghostbusters branding seems like a revelation by comparison.
To be fair, I may perhaps have my own bias here, as this game reminds me a lot of the Ocean developed Addam's Family game for the Genesis, which is really one of the absolute worst things I ever played as a kid. This is due in part to the super-deformed aesthetic of both games, which I think looks atrocious, but mechanically I find both to be completely unwieldy. The Ghostbusters (Peter, Egon, and Ray. No Winston. Zero respect for a workin' man.) are never on the same level of slippery as Gomez, who plays as if he's bathed in grease and covered himself in banana peels, but making tight jumps feels janky and falling short usually drops you down a fair ways.
Levels take place inside large buildings that are in the midst of a ghost attack. They can be a bit confusing to navigate at times and take entirely too long to finish. I fond the music to mostly be grating throughout, though the rendition of the Ghostbusters theme is fine and about as good as it gets from this era of hardware. Boss battles are a highlight and probably the games strongest suit, and even then it's a pretty mixed bag.
Maybe if I played this as a kid I would've landed better with me. I was way into Ghostbusters at the time and whatever similarities it had with Ocean Soft's Addam's Family might have been easier to handwave due to my affection for the franchise. As an adult, the value of Ghostbusters outside the first two movies has been effectively torched multiple times over, and it's very easy for me to look at this game for what it is: a messy, ugly waste of time.
This review is not about the NES Ghostbusters, of course, but rather the Sega Genesis game of the same name which is often touted as one of the extremely few good, if not great, Ghostbuster games. Unfortunately, the people who think this have looked directly into the ghost trap and had their brains scrambled, or else have had their opinions so colored by the NES title that any other game with the Ghostbusters branding seems like a revelation by comparison.
To be fair, I may perhaps have my own bias here, as this game reminds me a lot of the Ocean developed Addam's Family game for the Genesis, which is really one of the absolute worst things I ever played as a kid. This is due in part to the super-deformed aesthetic of both games, which I think looks atrocious, but mechanically I find both to be completely unwieldy. The Ghostbusters (Peter, Egon, and Ray. No Winston. Zero respect for a workin' man.) are never on the same level of slippery as Gomez, who plays as if he's bathed in grease and covered himself in banana peels, but making tight jumps feels janky and falling short usually drops you down a fair ways.
Levels take place inside large buildings that are in the midst of a ghost attack. They can be a bit confusing to navigate at times and take entirely too long to finish. I fond the music to mostly be grating throughout, though the rendition of the Ghostbusters theme is fine and about as good as it gets from this era of hardware. Boss battles are a highlight and probably the games strongest suit, and even then it's a pretty mixed bag.
Maybe if I played this as a kid I would've landed better with me. I was way into Ghostbusters at the time and whatever similarities it had with Ocean Soft's Addam's Family might have been easier to handwave due to my affection for the franchise. As an adult, the value of Ghostbusters outside the first two movies has been effectively torched multiple times over, and it's very easy for me to look at this game for what it is: a messy, ugly waste of time.
1990
Dear God, please watch over me and bless my writing so I can turn in a really kickass review of ActRaiser, and also give me a gamer girlfriend and a copy of Shadow the Hedgehog for the Nintendo Gamecube because mine has a scratched up disc and won't load Mad Matrix. Amen.
I feel like only a few years ago nobody knew about this game, but by now I probably don't even need to explain ActRaiser's main hook to you. As every other review on this page points out, the blend of action-platformer and city builder should not go together, but Quintet was able to take these two radically different genres and blend them so well that ActRaiser never for a moment feels like it lacks cohesion.
The gameplay loop is also very focused despite juggling two totally divergent gameplay styles. The player assumes the role of The Master, one part gladiator and one part community planner. Each location opens with an action stage where The Master is tasked with cleansing the land of its demonic presence. Once the area boss and its minions are defeated, the player can begin building a new human settlement. Laying down roads, performing miracles, and closing demonic portals helps your civilization develop and grants The master additional HP and SP. After a certain point in a settlement's progress, you'll hop into another action stage, fully liberate the land, and then move on to the next location.
The action stages play great. Some really solid and at times challenging platforming, great boss encounters, and excellent level design make these every bit as engrossing as the city building that breaks them up. Performing well in stages provides additional benefits to building your city, which in turn levels up the player for subsequent action stages. It's a really satisfying way to tie the two gameplay styles together and reward the player for excelling in both.
City building is nowhere near as complicated as other city builders of the time, cutting out a significant amount of micromanagement, though it never becomes a totally brainless affair. If anything, this speeds up the rate at which your city develops while giving the player tasks that can be completed quickly. This helps the game maintain a fairly snappy pace, and it never feels like you go too long between action stages, or vise versa. It's this more concise system of city building that makes ActRaiser work.
It's unfortunate that the recent return of ActRaiser screwed up this formula so badly, but then that was also true of its direct sequel (which I'll get to soon.) If you really sit down and break the games systems apart it's not hard to see why it works, but whether through over thinking or just plain buffoonery, nobody has been able to replicate it since. Thankfully, ActRaiser is pretty easy to play today, and it's not like it's hard to figure out SNES emulation (but that would be stealing and stealing is wrong and if you do it you're going to get a visit from The Master and you are NOT going to like it.) If you're looking for a good platformer or a good city builder, you can't go wrong here.
I feel like only a few years ago nobody knew about this game, but by now I probably don't even need to explain ActRaiser's main hook to you. As every other review on this page points out, the blend of action-platformer and city builder should not go together, but Quintet was able to take these two radically different genres and blend them so well that ActRaiser never for a moment feels like it lacks cohesion.
The gameplay loop is also very focused despite juggling two totally divergent gameplay styles. The player assumes the role of The Master, one part gladiator and one part community planner. Each location opens with an action stage where The Master is tasked with cleansing the land of its demonic presence. Once the area boss and its minions are defeated, the player can begin building a new human settlement. Laying down roads, performing miracles, and closing demonic portals helps your civilization develop and grants The master additional HP and SP. After a certain point in a settlement's progress, you'll hop into another action stage, fully liberate the land, and then move on to the next location.
The action stages play great. Some really solid and at times challenging platforming, great boss encounters, and excellent level design make these every bit as engrossing as the city building that breaks them up. Performing well in stages provides additional benefits to building your city, which in turn levels up the player for subsequent action stages. It's a really satisfying way to tie the two gameplay styles together and reward the player for excelling in both.
City building is nowhere near as complicated as other city builders of the time, cutting out a significant amount of micromanagement, though it never becomes a totally brainless affair. If anything, this speeds up the rate at which your city develops while giving the player tasks that can be completed quickly. This helps the game maintain a fairly snappy pace, and it never feels like you go too long between action stages, or vise versa. It's this more concise system of city building that makes ActRaiser work.
It's unfortunate that the recent return of ActRaiser screwed up this formula so badly, but then that was also true of its direct sequel (which I'll get to soon.) If you really sit down and break the games systems apart it's not hard to see why it works, but whether through over thinking or just plain buffoonery, nobody has been able to replicate it since. Thankfully, ActRaiser is pretty easy to play today, and it's not like it's hard to figure out SNES emulation (but that would be stealing and stealing is wrong and if you do it you're going to get a visit from The Master and you are NOT going to like it.) If you're looking for a good platformer or a good city builder, you can't go wrong here.
2011
Sonic the Hedgehog is back for another mediocre handheld outing that only gets a passing grade because having anything to do while waiting for your tires to be rotated and aligned is better than sitting alone with your thoughts. Horrible intrusive thoughts...
Like its console counterpart, gameplay is split between two distinct Sonics: Classic and Modern. Classic's style attempts to mimic the gameplay of the original Genesis games via modifications to the same engine that drives Modern Sonic, ultimately resulting in a fairly poor approximation. Jumping feels distinctly off and lacking a certain weight that the classic games had, which results in some platforming segments being trickier than they ought to be. After the disastrous Sonic 4, it is nice to see Sonic has some sense of momentum to his movements, but there's an inescapable feeling here that it's only a simulacrum, divined from an engine that was clearly not made for this.
Modern Sonic feels a lot better by comparison. Unlike the console version, Modern's zones feel a lot closer to the Sonic Rush games. Managing your boost gauge and performing split second jumps is a lot more engaging, but the garbled graphical quality of the 3DS and a lack of adequate screen space coupled with high speeds can make it more difficult than it needs to be to pull off the jumps you're intending to make. Whereas the console version of Generations is good at pulling the camera back and giving you a sense of where you're going, the 3DS version too often throws Sonic into blind jumps and boosts that can send him careening into traps or, worse yet, a bottomless pit. It would really be one thing if botching a jump dropped you onto a lower path, it's entirely another when it just kills your ass.
There's some major structural changes to this game as well, for better or worse. Generations for the 3DS reduces the total zone count by 2, but balances this by doubling the amount of bosses. The races against rival characters feel underbaked, and are mechanically indistinguishable. The more combat-centric bosses are a lot more fun, if a bit drawn out. Chaos Emeralds are now earned in proper special stages, which are based on those that appeared in Sonic Heroes. I found these almost painfully easy and S-ranked them all on my first attempt, which is a bit funny considering how absurdly tight it is to S-rank some of the actual zones. There's no red rings to collect and side missions are no longer baked into the overworld. In fact, they're not even mandatory, which allows the game to be more focused on level-to-level progression. It certainly improves the pace of the game and I'm glad they stripped those out into their own separate things.
It's more of a personal thing, but I do find it disappointing that the game largely focuses on levels from Sonic's console outings. Being that this is a handheld game, it feels like missed potential to askew levels from Sonic's portable past for more picks from the Adventure games or even the classic trilogy. Even though I disagree with the general consensus here, the Advance trilogy is well loved and it's just bizarre to not base an era around those. There's also a preoccupation with introductory levels. Four out of the seven zones are based around the first levels of their respective games. Granted, these do provide more variety in level tropes than the console version's predilection for city levels. Still, I feel like both games could've had a better selection of levels. I mean, you have Radical Highway in here but nothing from Shadow the Hedgehog? C'mon, man. Get real.
If you're like me and you picked up this up for dirt cheap during the last (probably ever) Sega eshop sale and have absolutely nothing better to do with your life, then it's hard to be mad about this game. It's the perfect portable game for short trips or sitting around in a doctor's office, but I really wouldn't recommend anyone play this at home where they probably have better stuff to do.
Like its console counterpart, gameplay is split between two distinct Sonics: Classic and Modern. Classic's style attempts to mimic the gameplay of the original Genesis games via modifications to the same engine that drives Modern Sonic, ultimately resulting in a fairly poor approximation. Jumping feels distinctly off and lacking a certain weight that the classic games had, which results in some platforming segments being trickier than they ought to be. After the disastrous Sonic 4, it is nice to see Sonic has some sense of momentum to his movements, but there's an inescapable feeling here that it's only a simulacrum, divined from an engine that was clearly not made for this.
Modern Sonic feels a lot better by comparison. Unlike the console version, Modern's zones feel a lot closer to the Sonic Rush games. Managing your boost gauge and performing split second jumps is a lot more engaging, but the garbled graphical quality of the 3DS and a lack of adequate screen space coupled with high speeds can make it more difficult than it needs to be to pull off the jumps you're intending to make. Whereas the console version of Generations is good at pulling the camera back and giving you a sense of where you're going, the 3DS version too often throws Sonic into blind jumps and boosts that can send him careening into traps or, worse yet, a bottomless pit. It would really be one thing if botching a jump dropped you onto a lower path, it's entirely another when it just kills your ass.
There's some major structural changes to this game as well, for better or worse. Generations for the 3DS reduces the total zone count by 2, but balances this by doubling the amount of bosses. The races against rival characters feel underbaked, and are mechanically indistinguishable. The more combat-centric bosses are a lot more fun, if a bit drawn out. Chaos Emeralds are now earned in proper special stages, which are based on those that appeared in Sonic Heroes. I found these almost painfully easy and S-ranked them all on my first attempt, which is a bit funny considering how absurdly tight it is to S-rank some of the actual zones. There's no red rings to collect and side missions are no longer baked into the overworld. In fact, they're not even mandatory, which allows the game to be more focused on level-to-level progression. It certainly improves the pace of the game and I'm glad they stripped those out into their own separate things.
It's more of a personal thing, but I do find it disappointing that the game largely focuses on levels from Sonic's console outings. Being that this is a handheld game, it feels like missed potential to askew levels from Sonic's portable past for more picks from the Adventure games or even the classic trilogy. Even though I disagree with the general consensus here, the Advance trilogy is well loved and it's just bizarre to not base an era around those. There's also a preoccupation with introductory levels. Four out of the seven zones are based around the first levels of their respective games. Granted, these do provide more variety in level tropes than the console version's predilection for city levels. Still, I feel like both games could've had a better selection of levels. I mean, you have Radical Highway in here but nothing from Shadow the Hedgehog? C'mon, man. Get real.
If you're like me and you picked up this up for dirt cheap during the last (probably ever) Sega eshop sale and have absolutely nothing better to do with your life, then it's hard to be mad about this game. It's the perfect portable game for short trips or sitting around in a doctor's office, but I really wouldn't recommend anyone play this at home where they probably have better stuff to do.
1993
It didn't need to be like this.
I've never sat down to research the development of this game, though I suspect the city building mechanic in the first game wasn't viewed in as favorable of a light as it is today. Tastes of course change, and it's certainly plausible that early 90s audiences just weren't receptive to ActRaiser's balancing act of sim and action the way folks are today. It's also possible there was a gas leak in Quintet's offices. I don't know, who's to say!
In any case, ActRaiser 2 abandons the unique identity of its predecessor in favor of mediocre action. Even using just the action stages of the original as a guide, ActRaiser 2 falls short by a mile. Level layouts just aren't as fun to navigate, and given how punishing the difficulty is, I often found my patience being tried on repeat attempts. It's not like trial and error is something I inherently have an issue with, after all I love the Castlevania and Souls games, but this is a fine case of a game that struggles to maintain the balance between difficult and fun, often falling on the wrong side. Ultimately, I was never able to fully find my footing here, and whether that's due to poor design of the game simply failing to grip me, I couldn't say.
I'm sure this game has its defenders, but when it comes to action games on the SNES, there's a long list of other titles I'd rather play before going back to this one. It's also a hard game to approach as a proper sequel to ActRaiser. Perhaps my opinion is a bit too colored by that, but it does make it really hard to get into this game when so much of what I liked about the original just isn't here.
I've never sat down to research the development of this game, though I suspect the city building mechanic in the first game wasn't viewed in as favorable of a light as it is today. Tastes of course change, and it's certainly plausible that early 90s audiences just weren't receptive to ActRaiser's balancing act of sim and action the way folks are today. It's also possible there was a gas leak in Quintet's offices. I don't know, who's to say!
In any case, ActRaiser 2 abandons the unique identity of its predecessor in favor of mediocre action. Even using just the action stages of the original as a guide, ActRaiser 2 falls short by a mile. Level layouts just aren't as fun to navigate, and given how punishing the difficulty is, I often found my patience being tried on repeat attempts. It's not like trial and error is something I inherently have an issue with, after all I love the Castlevania and Souls games, but this is a fine case of a game that struggles to maintain the balance between difficult and fun, often falling on the wrong side. Ultimately, I was never able to fully find my footing here, and whether that's due to poor design of the game simply failing to grip me, I couldn't say.
I'm sure this game has its defenders, but when it comes to action games on the SNES, there's a long list of other titles I'd rather play before going back to this one. It's also a hard game to approach as a proper sequel to ActRaiser. Perhaps my opinion is a bit too colored by that, but it does make it really hard to get into this game when so much of what I liked about the original just isn't here.
I need to be very clear from the outset that this is a review of the Playstation 4 version of the game, which I picked up while on sale recently out of morbid curiosity. Being the fifth installment in a series of PC point-and-click horror games, I had to know first hand how they adapted the controls to console. The answer: not well! BOO!
The left analog controls the mouse, with L2/R2 providing a secondary slowed down mode to make more precise selections. I am going to tell you right off the bat that this game is impossible to beat without jumping into the menu and altering every single movement option on a per-night basis. The first three nights are more or less manageable, but nights 4 and 5 play like total dogshit. Night 4 finds you trapped inside a suit with ten dials that must be wound or else the suit will close shut and kill you. Complicating matters are two animatronics that are attempting to sneak into your suit from the left and right in an attempt to spook you. They must be shaken off, but shaking causes the dials to move as well, and as the night progresses the dials begin to tick away faster and faster... The only problem is, the controls can only be tuned to be too slow or too unweildy, and the only way I was able to effectively navigate the puzzle was by checking a box to allow screen wrapping that is unchecked by default.
Similarly, night 5 requires you to input a randomly generated code into a number pad. The slightest error or delay results in a scare, but the pad is microscopic in size and a total pain in the ass to navigate with a controller. I imagine on PC both puzzles are challenging but fair, as a mouse would mitigate a lot of the issues I have with lack of precision and movement speed, but on console these puzzles simply are not timed to the default controls and require far too much fine tuning in menus to be enjoyable.
Adding to my agony is a hyper-fixation on story and some truly atrocious checkpointing. I'm not 14-years-old, so I don't give a crap about the lore of Five Nights at Freddie's. Having to sit through five minutes of whispered dialog just to get to three minutes of actual gameplay is bad enough, but when failure sets you back to before that dialog, forcing you to listen to it alllll over again, jump scares stop being scary and start eliciting groans. This is what broke me in particular. Going for the hidden ending requires you to lumber through a room, solve the keypad puzzle (which, I must reemphasize, sucks), lumber to another room, then endure 9 minutes of Five Nights 1 gameplay. Fail at any point of that and you're going all the way back.
This hidden ending is further locked behind a 2D platforming minigame that appears randomly (though it can be accessed from the extra menus after seeing the normal ending.) You need to shoot cupcakes at kids until they're happy, pick up an ice cream cone, then go all the way to the start of the level. You're under a very tight time limit and your character loves to catch against platforms, which doesn't make the very specific routing through the level any easier. Your game controls like shit, Scott!
The more self-serious stretches of story did not resonate with me whatsoever, but I do like this games sense of humor. There's some pretty funny stuff in here! Really, Five Nights has always been at its weakest for me when it focuses on serial killers and the supernatural, but excels when being a dark comedy about shitty part time jobs.
Sister Location is also a much more linear game. Each night is centered around a different specific puzzle with only one real solution. The conditions for solving the puzzle are tight and the game builds its horror through stress and anticipation. I appreciate that they're trying something new with this installment and I do think I would've enjoyed it a lot more if I played on PC, but due to the aforementioned issues I had and the fact that each night really only has one specific solution that just needs to be executed upon precisely, Sister Location loses a lot of its power fast.
If you do decide to pick up this game, do yourself a favor and skip getting this on con-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!
spooked ya!
The left analog controls the mouse, with L2/R2 providing a secondary slowed down mode to make more precise selections. I am going to tell you right off the bat that this game is impossible to beat without jumping into the menu and altering every single movement option on a per-night basis. The first three nights are more or less manageable, but nights 4 and 5 play like total dogshit. Night 4 finds you trapped inside a suit with ten dials that must be wound or else the suit will close shut and kill you. Complicating matters are two animatronics that are attempting to sneak into your suit from the left and right in an attempt to spook you. They must be shaken off, but shaking causes the dials to move as well, and as the night progresses the dials begin to tick away faster and faster... The only problem is, the controls can only be tuned to be too slow or too unweildy, and the only way I was able to effectively navigate the puzzle was by checking a box to allow screen wrapping that is unchecked by default.
Similarly, night 5 requires you to input a randomly generated code into a number pad. The slightest error or delay results in a scare, but the pad is microscopic in size and a total pain in the ass to navigate with a controller. I imagine on PC both puzzles are challenging but fair, as a mouse would mitigate a lot of the issues I have with lack of precision and movement speed, but on console these puzzles simply are not timed to the default controls and require far too much fine tuning in menus to be enjoyable.
Adding to my agony is a hyper-fixation on story and some truly atrocious checkpointing. I'm not 14-years-old, so I don't give a crap about the lore of Five Nights at Freddie's. Having to sit through five minutes of whispered dialog just to get to three minutes of actual gameplay is bad enough, but when failure sets you back to before that dialog, forcing you to listen to it alllll over again, jump scares stop being scary and start eliciting groans. This is what broke me in particular. Going for the hidden ending requires you to lumber through a room, solve the keypad puzzle (which, I must reemphasize, sucks), lumber to another room, then endure 9 minutes of Five Nights 1 gameplay. Fail at any point of that and you're going all the way back.
This hidden ending is further locked behind a 2D platforming minigame that appears randomly (though it can be accessed from the extra menus after seeing the normal ending.) You need to shoot cupcakes at kids until they're happy, pick up an ice cream cone, then go all the way to the start of the level. You're under a very tight time limit and your character loves to catch against platforms, which doesn't make the very specific routing through the level any easier. Your game controls like shit, Scott!
The more self-serious stretches of story did not resonate with me whatsoever, but I do like this games sense of humor. There's some pretty funny stuff in here! Really, Five Nights has always been at its weakest for me when it focuses on serial killers and the supernatural, but excels when being a dark comedy about shitty part time jobs.
Sister Location is also a much more linear game. Each night is centered around a different specific puzzle with only one real solution. The conditions for solving the puzzle are tight and the game builds its horror through stress and anticipation. I appreciate that they're trying something new with this installment and I do think I would've enjoyed it a lot more if I played on PC, but due to the aforementioned issues I had and the fact that each night really only has one specific solution that just needs to be executed upon precisely, Sister Location loses a lot of its power fast.
If you do decide to pick up this game, do yourself a favor and skip getting this on con-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!
spooked ya!