2017
The foundation is perfect, the core gameplay leaves so much to be developed on top of the base idea. The door is open for so many opportunities.
And yet?
At first, you'll have fun for a bit. The gameplay is refreshing, the mechanics are really neat, etc, etc. After a while you'll realize the forumla barely changes or innovates on itself and eventually you'll realize it's like this for the entire game.
Mr. Shifty decides to rely on redundancy for about 4/5ths of the game. There's the occasional new enemy type, weapon type, or level design which might force you to slightly alter how you go about tackling the game, but a majority of the time there aren't really any major ideas or changes which enhance the teleportation mechanic. No upgrades and no interesting interactions via "shifting," it is what it is. Halfway through the game I was already feeling like getting it over with, they run out of content and new ideas to utilize so quickly and playing the game feels like an absolute chore. Its difficulty is founded on frustrating slop where they place enemies and weapons wherever they felt like without any real second thought to it, stage-design likewise. Some levels are stupidly easy and some levels are obscene in difficulty because there's no real thought behind level design. Some sections might have long periods of fights without a screen transition meaning you have to endure for however long it requires, and sometimes the screen transition happens 5 seconds after entering a room. If/when the game crashes, you're expected to restart from the very beginning of the stage because of an oversight. Fun!
On the topic of enemies, the AI is just fucking stupid. It's completely inconsistent in how it acts and at times just completely broken and unresponsive. They feel so rough and annoying to deal with. It doesn't help that it feels this way for over half of the cast of enemies.
Story doesn't really have anything to offer either, it's very elementary. "Big bad guy has something in his tower and you need to KILL him." The humor doesn't alleviate the boring story because it's just as bland and lame.
And yet?
At first, you'll have fun for a bit. The gameplay is refreshing, the mechanics are really neat, etc, etc. After a while you'll realize the forumla barely changes or innovates on itself and eventually you'll realize it's like this for the entire game.
Mr. Shifty decides to rely on redundancy for about 4/5ths of the game. There's the occasional new enemy type, weapon type, or level design which might force you to slightly alter how you go about tackling the game, but a majority of the time there aren't really any major ideas or changes which enhance the teleportation mechanic. No upgrades and no interesting interactions via "shifting," it is what it is. Halfway through the game I was already feeling like getting it over with, they run out of content and new ideas to utilize so quickly and playing the game feels like an absolute chore. Its difficulty is founded on frustrating slop where they place enemies and weapons wherever they felt like without any real second thought to it, stage-design likewise. Some levels are stupidly easy and some levels are obscene in difficulty because there's no real thought behind level design. Some sections might have long periods of fights without a screen transition meaning you have to endure for however long it requires, and sometimes the screen transition happens 5 seconds after entering a room. If/when the game crashes, you're expected to restart from the very beginning of the stage because of an oversight. Fun!
On the topic of enemies, the AI is just fucking stupid. It's completely inconsistent in how it acts and at times just completely broken and unresponsive. They feel so rough and annoying to deal with. It doesn't help that it feels this way for over half of the cast of enemies.
Story doesn't really have anything to offer either, it's very elementary. "Big bad guy has something in his tower and you need to KILL him." The humor doesn't alleviate the boring story because it's just as bland and lame.
Definitive proof that the PlayStation 3 is the greatest console of all time
2007
Never in my however many years of playing video games has a game caught my attention like TF2. The memories I've made playing TF2 are truly unrivaled, and I have much to thank them for.
TF2 was my first proper introduction to multiplayer shooters, trading, all while harboring a festering desire of mine to become truly great at the game. A feat which I'm yet to surpass, well over 1000 hours into the game. The influence held by this game is so immense, and I have nothing but the utmost level of respect and disdain towards valve for creating a near perfect shooter while simultaneously ignoring and allowing the game to go unloved.
A masterpiece of a class based shooter which deserves much praise for all that it has accomplished within the 15 years it has been alive and kicking.
TF2 was my first proper introduction to multiplayer shooters, trading, all while harboring a festering desire of mine to become truly great at the game. A feat which I'm yet to surpass, well over 1000 hours into the game. The influence held by this game is so immense, and I have nothing but the utmost level of respect and disdain towards valve for creating a near perfect shooter while simultaneously ignoring and allowing the game to go unloved.
A masterpiece of a class based shooter which deserves much praise for all that it has accomplished within the 15 years it has been alive and kicking.
SUITS: ABSOLUTE POWER is a sequel to a game that didn't really need anything more to its story. Already ripping off of other tried and true ideas and mechanics, Absolute Power manages to evoke nothing interesting or innovating. The change in art style strikes me as strange as it tries to juggle between 3 styles. The paper-esque drawn visuals of the combat, the pixel sprites atop a drawn overworld, and the gritter drawn cutscene images. Maintaining absolutely no consistency, simultaneously incapable of honing the craft in any of the 3.
Combat is atrocious, to the point where the entire game is RNG based. The RNG mechanics can primarily be seen in his primary attacking skill, which has a chance to strike upwards of 3 times (at least as I've seen through gameplay). The attack multiplier increases the more times it hits, most of the time during late game if you're lucky enough to strike a 3x gunfire you'll just kill the enemy entirely. I was hitting shots dealing 6k damage, just absolutely trivializing any challenge that came my way. This doesn't help when, once you've reached halfway, every 5 minutes you'll reach a new store with new gear that just overpowers the hell out of your team, making enemy encounters less of a challenge and more of a tedious time waster. Eventually bosses became indistinguishable from regular enemy encounters and I hadn't even realized when I did something that would push the story along. Everything regarding combat and story is so sloppily put together. CEO has a skill that compromises defense for increased attack of equal value. Lose 30 def, gain 30 atk. Simple, right? Not quite, as whatever fucking math they're using just does not work whatsoever and more often than not you will feel absolutely no change in your attack, but you WILL suffer the loss of defense, making the skill absolutely useless. If you keep using the skill, your atk/def rise/decrease will get higher and higher, but you still won't see any noticeable benefits for your attack rising. Skills just in general are so bullshit and seriously not worth the effort of using outside of turn 1 for your other companions, as the hit rates are so egregiously low, you'd be better off just spamming your primary attack until the battle is won.
Combat is also brought down by the way in which the game engages with it, sending you on a fetch quest to end with a battle, then sending you on another fetch quest that ends with a battle, this is the formula for the entire game. All the comedic bits it sends you through are chronically unfunny and just completely annoying to go through as you meander through an ever larger monochrome world, constantly getting lost in the bleak appearance of everything. It isn't fun. Somehow, while upgrading engines, absolutely nothing on the first game was improved. Why was this made?
Music and story I'd like to talk about if there was anything worth talking about at all. Both equally unimpressive and forgettable. It's to the point where I'd argue that spending time talking about either would be a waste of my time thinking and writing about it, and then having someone read it would be just offensive to them and their time.
Combat is atrocious, to the point where the entire game is RNG based. The RNG mechanics can primarily be seen in his primary attacking skill, which has a chance to strike upwards of 3 times (at least as I've seen through gameplay). The attack multiplier increases the more times it hits, most of the time during late game if you're lucky enough to strike a 3x gunfire you'll just kill the enemy entirely. I was hitting shots dealing 6k damage, just absolutely trivializing any challenge that came my way. This doesn't help when, once you've reached halfway, every 5 minutes you'll reach a new store with new gear that just overpowers the hell out of your team, making enemy encounters less of a challenge and more of a tedious time waster. Eventually bosses became indistinguishable from regular enemy encounters and I hadn't even realized when I did something that would push the story along. Everything regarding combat and story is so sloppily put together. CEO has a skill that compromises defense for increased attack of equal value. Lose 30 def, gain 30 atk. Simple, right? Not quite, as whatever fucking math they're using just does not work whatsoever and more often than not you will feel absolutely no change in your attack, but you WILL suffer the loss of defense, making the skill absolutely useless. If you keep using the skill, your atk/def rise/decrease will get higher and higher, but you still won't see any noticeable benefits for your attack rising. Skills just in general are so bullshit and seriously not worth the effort of using outside of turn 1 for your other companions, as the hit rates are so egregiously low, you'd be better off just spamming your primary attack until the battle is won.
Combat is also brought down by the way in which the game engages with it, sending you on a fetch quest to end with a battle, then sending you on another fetch quest that ends with a battle, this is the formula for the entire game. All the comedic bits it sends you through are chronically unfunny and just completely annoying to go through as you meander through an ever larger monochrome world, constantly getting lost in the bleak appearance of everything. It isn't fun. Somehow, while upgrading engines, absolutely nothing on the first game was improved. Why was this made?
Music and story I'd like to talk about if there was anything worth talking about at all. Both equally unimpressive and forgettable. It's to the point where I'd argue that spending time talking about either would be a waste of my time thinking and writing about it, and then having someone read it would be just offensive to them and their time.
2017
Quite honestly, if the devs let this game cook for like another year or however long, I think they really could've had something special on their hands.
“KAMIKO” is a short level based arcade styled beat em' up. The game consists of four(?) short and simple stages. Each stage requiring a tiny bit more of your puzzle solving skills than the last. It takes a good hour or so to beat the game on your first run and around 30 minutes, even less, for subsequent replays with any character. Once you've completed the first run, the maps become super easy to navigate and become even more and more menial. There isn't much replay value to be found to be honest. I didn't notice any storytelling elements that changed with whatever character you chose, though each character has their own unique way of playstyle. I think this is another one of the missed opportunities this game has. Furthermore, I really wish they would have expanded upon the individual selections of the character's more than just gameplay.
Oh! Additionally, one of the puzzles involves you pressing a switch and narrowly making it across a bridge that persists for just the tiniest amount of time. If you get sidetracked for even the slightest moment, you'll have to retry until succession. Meanwhile, enemies keep respawning. Again. And again. And there's nothing you can do to make them not respawn. Wonderful.
Combat in this game is really lacking in depth, progression throughout stages sees character benefits only in health and stamina. While playing the stages, the buffs may seem trivial due to the fact that there's no punishment for dying, as you respawn back to life with full health and stamina at the cost of 5 seconds of waiting. The final boss is really going to require you to have those health bonuses if you play reckless, though. Honestly, I believe that if they had let this sit in development for a bit longer, we would have had a game with a more compelling story and probably even a better combat system. Mashing “A” while dashing between all 4 corners of the map gets boring, in addition to the infinite enemy respawns and limited health spawn points. 4 times. Without any significant changes.
The gameplay also switches between playing like a Zelda-like game to spontaneously becoming a bullet-hell. That switch-bridge puzzle I mentioned earlier? Yeah, there's like 2 or 3 of those. Grabbing a key to open up a door? Great! Just traverse the entire map while the enemies you killed 5 minutes ago respawn again and make your way to the door without getting hit. Grabbing an orb to place on a pedestal? Nice! Just know that you have to do that twice or else you can't progress. Also, the orbs are located in different areas. You'll have to play this pseudo bullet-hell game 3 times in a level. You can't fight back until you place the item in its respective area or until you get hit and drop the orb. Easily one of my most disliked aspects of the game.
On the contrary, the art and music direction is super cute. I think this is honestly the best part about the game. They really nailed the pixel art for what it's worth, to be honest. I wish they had used the style featured on the game's cover as the style of the graphics. I prefer that and the style of the character CG's much more than the actual sprites featured during gameplay. Not going to complain much on that front since the game is absolutely dirt cheap.
TLDR: Short but sweet beat em' up that I personally believe had the potential to be so much more. Pickup when it's on sale, it ends up costing like $2, I think it's worth the +1 hour of playtime.
“KAMIKO” is a short level based arcade styled beat em' up. The game consists of four(?) short and simple stages. Each stage requiring a tiny bit more of your puzzle solving skills than the last. It takes a good hour or so to beat the game on your first run and around 30 minutes, even less, for subsequent replays with any character. Once you've completed the first run, the maps become super easy to navigate and become even more and more menial. There isn't much replay value to be found to be honest. I didn't notice any storytelling elements that changed with whatever character you chose, though each character has their own unique way of playstyle. I think this is another one of the missed opportunities this game has. Furthermore, I really wish they would have expanded upon the individual selections of the character's more than just gameplay.
Oh! Additionally, one of the puzzles involves you pressing a switch and narrowly making it across a bridge that persists for just the tiniest amount of time. If you get sidetracked for even the slightest moment, you'll have to retry until succession. Meanwhile, enemies keep respawning. Again. And again. And there's nothing you can do to make them not respawn. Wonderful.
Combat in this game is really lacking in depth, progression throughout stages sees character benefits only in health and stamina. While playing the stages, the buffs may seem trivial due to the fact that there's no punishment for dying, as you respawn back to life with full health and stamina at the cost of 5 seconds of waiting. The final boss is really going to require you to have those health bonuses if you play reckless, though. Honestly, I believe that if they had let this sit in development for a bit longer, we would have had a game with a more compelling story and probably even a better combat system. Mashing “A” while dashing between all 4 corners of the map gets boring, in addition to the infinite enemy respawns and limited health spawn points. 4 times. Without any significant changes.
The gameplay also switches between playing like a Zelda-like game to spontaneously becoming a bullet-hell. That switch-bridge puzzle I mentioned earlier? Yeah, there's like 2 or 3 of those. Grabbing a key to open up a door? Great! Just traverse the entire map while the enemies you killed 5 minutes ago respawn again and make your way to the door without getting hit. Grabbing an orb to place on a pedestal? Nice! Just know that you have to do that twice or else you can't progress. Also, the orbs are located in different areas. You'll have to play this pseudo bullet-hell game 3 times in a level. You can't fight back until you place the item in its respective area or until you get hit and drop the orb. Easily one of my most disliked aspects of the game.
On the contrary, the art and music direction is super cute. I think this is honestly the best part about the game. They really nailed the pixel art for what it's worth, to be honest. I wish they had used the style featured on the game's cover as the style of the graphics. I prefer that and the style of the character CG's much more than the actual sprites featured during gameplay. Not going to complain much on that front since the game is absolutely dirt cheap.
TLDR: Short but sweet beat em' up that I personally believe had the potential to be so much more. Pickup when it's on sale, it ends up costing like $2, I think it's worth the +1 hour of playtime.
TBD
YOUR OWNERS MAY HAVE NOT FUCKED WITH YOUR SWAG, BUT I DO. I FUCK WITH YOU. I FUCK WITH YOU HEAVY, BRO. RAWEST FIGHTING GAME ON PLANET EARTH.