Normally when I play a Shoot 'em up in Japanese it isn't often an issue as menus are mostly in English and it's not often there is enough story for it to matter. Seirei Senshi Spriggan blindsided me a little bit with it's large amount of anime cutscenes and voice acting however as I knew very little about it. Obviously I barely understood a word as the game hasn't had a Western translation officially or by fans. I love the 90's anime aesthetic and cover art the TurboGrafx and other NEC consoles had going on back then regardless and the core part of any shooter will be the action anyway. Having researched a little bit about the game partially for this review but also out of curiosity it seems this was originally developed as part of Compile's Aleste series. Initially developed for the Sega Megadrive as Seirei Senshi Aleste before being changed to Seirei Senshi Spriggan as a new series for the TurboGrafx CD. Having come out a year after M.U.S.H.A Aleste I can see the backbones of that history with the design of the mech suit. That does seem to be where the similarities end however, especially in the gameplay department.

Seirei Senshi Spriggan uses an interesting power up/weapon system. I'll be honest with you of all the shoot 'em ups I've played over the years I think this is one of my favorites. Your mech the Spriggan starts with a basic gun that fires forward. As you fight you will collect a variety of four elemental orbs from either enemy drops or just come onto screen. These orbs are red (fire), green (wind), yellow (earth), and blue (water). You can hold three at any one time and collecting a new one will remove the oldest of the currently held orbs you collected. There are three interesting aspects to this:

Firstly, and the most obviously apparent being that depending on the combination of orbs you hold will dictate what attacks you actually have such as wind blades, fire balls, homing waters beams etc. With four orb types the potential combinations can reach almost 30. These can constantly change on the fly as power ups come fairly fast keeping the action hectic but in an extremely controlled way.

The second aspect being that the super attack isn't a different collectable or charge shot like in other shoot 'em ups though there is a rare flashing orb that will level the screen. Instead you fire one of your orbs as an area elemental bomb dropping down to the lower level of attacks. This is quite a tactically viable option allowing you to launch an orb for area damage before collecting another orb on the screen changing your attack type in the process.

Lastly because when you die you drop the orbs and they also appear generally at a steady pace it rarely feels like the game will be unplayable or extremely punishable on death. Some other Shoot 'em ups when you die losing your power ups feels like an almost impossible climb to carry on but Spriggan never feels that way. There are always weapon options, they just might be different.

Presentation wise to go with the anime scenes mentioned above, Spriggan's pixel art is very good and I'm surprised by the fast pace it keeps up pretty solidly. I haven't played many TurboGrafx games yet to really be able to state the technical points of this being impressive or not but it ran smoothly with a nice usage of colour. Levels are varied with clouds, forests, castles, space. The visuals are a bit basic but honestly I like how it looks. The soundtrack is also excellent using a mixture of up beat tunes that could have been from Super Fantasy Zone but also dropping into more alien like theme tunes or Castlevania feeling gothic tracks depending on the level. The CD quality music is very apparent and something that super stands out on both this and the Sega CD compared with the visuals on display. Not really a bad thing though.

The game plays over 7 acts but really it's 6 and then the final boss. About my only real criticism of it is the sound effects could grate a little at times and lacked any real punch for pretty much any weapon you use. I do wish it was in English though I knew going into it it wasn't but on one of the end levels there is like a two minute monologue from an enemy all voiced I just had to sit through due to my pigeon Japanese. Considering it has been released on the Wii and the TurboGrafx / PC Engine mini in the west and not been updated though it seems unlikely it will be any time soon.

Still it's another great Complie shooter with a really unique and balanced power up system. This game is probably older than a lot of people that use this site but it holds up well and is still very much worth playing today and not forgotten to the annals of time.

+ Cool power up system with variation.
+ Doesn't feel excruciatingly punishing when you die.
+ Colorful sprites, fast paced gameplay.
+ I like the OST.

- Sound effects are a bit rough.
- Without English subtitles the cool scenes and villain monologue are sadly redundant.

Probably the most fun and charm-filled Mario 2D game ever made. Every level is crafted with great care and each of them feels unique in its own way, mostly due to the addition of the Wonder Flower, a power-up based on the idea that you never know what it's going to do, and it works flawlessly, though the effects are better in some levels than other. The fact that the creators had no deadline when it came to brainstorming ideas clearly shows. Every level made me smile, and the bits I've played in multiplayer mode were also incredibly fun. There's really nobody I wouldn't recommend this game to, as it's easily accessible for new players, and has enough challenges to keep experienced players entertained, especially the very last level, which kept me busy for around 2 hours. A game that, gameplay-wise, may not push any boundaries, but does what it wants to do flawlessly.

A really insane game. CRPG-esque character skills encompassing a weird crafting system that begs you to break the game entirely (and tbh I think it demands you to for those superbosses).

The pacing is brisk and never feels like you're spinning wheels (a plus of the PS1/SNES era), the characters are charming, Motoi Sakuraba proves his talent (arranged & original soundtracks? this is what remakes should be like).

One complaint I had turned out to be a skill issue (i thought fishing had no easy indicator of what you could catch but turns out you just stand there) but the only thing I do think is a problem is how hard the combat is to parse at times. Particle effects and clouds can make you lose track of your guy pretty often.

Also love the ability to choose between different art styles but not a fan of how it only matters in the Status menu. And not a fan of the PSP art which looks like shit. How to Draw Manga-ass garbage

Time to be let down by all the sequels!

Just when I thought I was out… they pull me back in!

The idea of playing the (almost) entirety of the WarioWare catalogue this year was one I’m really glad I went through, it turned out to be a fantastic experience and a made me gain new-found appreciation for this series that I never had before, not even after playing Get It Together a few years back, but it was also a very out of nowhere decision, which kinda fits considering what games we are dealing with, but imagine my sheer surprise and excitement when I saw that Move It! was announced; the timing couldn’t be better, and considering this seemed to be heavily be influenced by Smooth Moves, I was extremely excited to see what they pulled of for their third (technically fourth) fully original home-console WarioWare, and after playing it I can say for sure… that they did Jimmy-T dirty as hell this time around, he gets barely any dialogue and some of the most disappointing micro-games are his, how could they do this to him… how could HE do this to ME?!

It feels extremely weird to me that this released only now and after Get It Together, ‘cause this feels like something that would have launched during 2017’s summer or even the console’s launch. I think no other game in the Switch’s library has used the Joy-Cons to their fullest potential other than this one (Aside of 1-2 Switch, I guess…), and the same thing with Smooth Moves repeats here where it feels more gimmicky than any other of the WarioWare games, but similarly to that game, that doesn’t get in the way of it being yet again another dose of the stupidest fun you could possibly have. It once again invites you act stupidly, to be irreverent and whacky, and it that it succeeds, I’d argue to an even greater degree than Smooth Moves ever did; the poses and their explanations return, this time under the context of legends of the island, and the creativity is commendable and, how else, pretty fucking funny. The micro-games are pure fire, specially the first batches, they are as dumb as ever and easy to understand and just a joy to watch a play, and here we have some of the best boss mini-games in the entirety of the series… but also some really weak ones. Yeah, similarly to Smooth Moves, there are some really high highs and really jarring lows, and while the overall quality of micro-games is far better in Move It!, at least in its Wii counterpart it felt like everything worked; one problem with being far more experimental and daring is that trying to use technology that really can’t keep up, it’s gonna be clear as day that something is amiss, and no there are no better examples of it that the joy-con camera and how the things’ gyroscope acts in certain poses; there are some truly inspired and fantastic micro-games and stands, they are the majority in fact, but I can’t deny that the few that feel unresponsive or undercooked left a bad taste in my mouth, and I imagine that the reason that this game is so forgiving even after losing all 4 lives is that they knew all of this but really couldn’t find a way to make it work.

Well, with all of that said, let’s see what else there is to say… uhmmm…. Huh…….. oh……. Oh I see… Here’s the thing, Move It! is very much designed to be a party games, which, let’s ignore that you need a pair of joy cons for each player which makes it hell to play if other people don’t have a switch themselves or you don’t have a spare pair (which makes sense because… you know, 80 bucks is a bit crazy), even ignoring that, right out the bat for most players a huge portion of the game will be immediately impossible to play, which makes that, aside of the story mode, the extra single player modes you have to play are a bunch of I independent minigames, the three difficulty animal towers and… that’s…. it… Smooth Moves divided its content in a very similar manner to this, but at least having two Wii-Motes was far more plausible than having two pairs of joy-cons, and it still have a ton of modes and minigames unlocked right out the gate before you even beat the story mode. I’m not asking content comparable to Twisted and Gold, but I’m asking anything, you could have added the online components that Get It Together had but… not, no they did not. And, again, Smooth Moves has a similar issue to, but to go and try to replicate the exact same structure of that game EVEN more is weird, and not the good kind of weird. It doesn’t feel even like a sequel, but rather like that they tried to replicate a past success and, don’t get me wrong, in a lot of ways it works, but it also leaves Move it! feeling a bit hollow, not derivative, but it does feel devoid of uniqueness aside from its setting, and similarly with the game over thing, I wonder id that change of style and location is also a patch to cover another glaring issue with the game’s… in this case existence, I guess.
Move It! has fantastic micro-games, fantastic style, and it even has dinosaurs and penguins, but that can’t stop it from just feeling like the first game in the franchise that seems just like more of the same, more so than the game that consists on recycling content from past games. It’s still the better of the Switch Wario games and far better than something like Touched, but at least that one felt unique enough to have a ton to talk about, even if it wasn’t that great. I plan on playing every 2-player mode in the future as soon as I can, and I’ll probably talk about it again when that time comes, but for now, as far as WarioWare games and a single player experiences come, it’s still a really good one, but if falls short by its own nature, and even if I don’t regret playing it at all, I can’t see myself coming back to it when there are so many greater options within the same series… and you know, there’s a clear responsible for all of this… JIMMY!

I know he messed with the poses, I knew how they worked; as if I could ever make such mistakes after busting it down in Smooth Moves, never, NEVER! I just… I just can’t check it in the console settings, he covered his tracks and made that stupid-ass boss game terrible to make me look bad on purpose, and that’s not all! The AR Camera… you think a camera just happens to suck fucking doo-doo balls like that? NO! He orchestrated it! JIMMY! He used a shark as a surfboard! And to think I was a fan, I promoted him as the best WarioWare character! But I shouldn’t have… Saved my best shitty jokes for him, what was I thinking?! Ever since the GBA he was planning it, he was planning this take us all down! And HE gets this drawn out really shitty mess of reference?! What a sick joke! I should have switched to play Wario Land when I had the chance, he will always be Tenacious Jimmy, he- HEY, I’M NOT CRAZY, I’M NOT CRA-

a tragedy this game isn't as well received as I want it to be but it stole my heart and fucked me in the ass at the same time youre all big meanies this is a masterpiece the god of videogames told me so I'm gonna trust them

you know me hot and sexy listening to VGM playlists on youtube stumbling onto the vs yinu mix track and I already got my attention at 100% I knew i had to check this game out and im so glad I did it blew me away the fuck

I'm slowly realising that I just love these types of flawed experiences that pour so much love into your heart you may be exploding any time soon and thats what I felt in the very first minutes of NSR

while I don't think the story is that much of a deal breaker its still pretty goofy and tight enough to make a 180 and actually being pretty great disclaimer promare is one of my favorite anime movies ever and I'm a big fan of studio trigger style over substance type of executive approach and that will make you a good idea of why I actually ended up loving this as much as I did

enter mayday and zuke an indie band trying to make a breakthrough in the mainstream music scene but are contrasted by the EDM capitalistic view of dictator tatiana trying to suppress rock music as much as possible so they go on this kind of purifying crusade to convert most of the districts of the cities to rock music instead of EDM

if you think this is a stupid synopsis it's because this is a stupid synopsis but they actually play with this kind of over the top narrative to their advantage the story just gets weirder and weirder to the very end but even though this could be argued as a low point what really carries on the back the entire game is the characters and art direction

don't get me started I'm in love with the character design of this game every single PG has some kind of quirks and that is reflected to how they present themselves in the story mayday is THE ADHD sunshine type of girl always happy and outgoing and therefore gets typically overexcited and stimulated and just loves loves loves chaotic environments (I relate to her I'm ENFP AND ADHD I just vibe with her too damn much) zuke at contrary is a laid back chill type of guy never gets too much words out of his mouth and tries to get the job right as much as possible (I want to fuck him)

these two have a synergy so tight I actually cannot think of one without thinking of the other one they're a duo that complements each other in so many aspects and just make a damn good pair of protagonists I gotta say

the other characters play it safe for their type of archetype and while this may ideally be a problem it is so much funny BECAUSE they over exaggerate their stereotypes and this culminates in another high point of the game: the comedy is pretty fucking funny and pretty fucking dope it actually has that weird mature ish cartoon esque type of comedy that I'm very fond of and I found myself going “chuckles I'm in danger*

adding to all that the art direction has such a distinct and coherent art style mayday and zuke have so many different expressions that personality and when you add the incredible voice acting (japanese one not english you already know I hate english voice acting) you're gonna get some characters that feel both goofy and real to a degree and even some side characters or even just people you talk in the town have a portrait or a 3d models that plays right into the l already established art style and this shines particularly in the bosses designs that are just so grand I'm not gonna lie eve the dj guy yinu they're absolutely incredible character designs they feel straight out of a masterclass in the subject not gonna lie

and this also reflects to the entire city every different district is brimming with personality that reflects the boss of the area every nook and cranny is detailed as shit and at times youre gonna be left just vibing with the booming movida of the entire place and even the boss pre stages and stages are just beautiful to look at

mind you the gameplay is probably the weakest part of the entire experience but that doesn't mean its not worth anything basically this is ideally a fighting game which moves to the sound of the music but you can basically just ignore the music and do whatever the fuck you want tackling the stages with either zuke or mayday but most of the time youre gonna switch between them now its pretty fun how both of them have fundamentally different battle movesets and while this is not incredibly deep its fun as it is you get combos projectiles stickers to put on your instruments (mayday has a sick guitar and zuke plays the drum I love me some drummer bf) to get bonuses upgrades using skill trees (I love skill trees) transform stage elements to your aid and special moves and finishers I genuinely enjoyed this stuff too fucking much my mind says this is mid but it's honestly so good I dont even care and this obviously cultimates in the boss battles now some are better than others due to different gimmicks here and there that may or may not break the entire battle yet I genuinely enjoyed most of them the mermaid one the yinu one and the eve one are just outstanding great great job

now this would not be as good as an experience without the powerful ost banging in your ears for the entire experience and i have this bad habit of putting 20 links to music that nobody listen so I'm gonna just link one later

since this is a tale about rock against edm most of the tunes are gonna surround these genres the town themes are edm tracks but the boss battles have these incredible segments of the song shifting to either more rock or more edm and genuinely augments the entire experience now one of my favorite one of the bunch is the vs yinu theme which is BEAUTIFUL classic rock and edm clashing and trying to shift the song to their favour its absolutely sensational and the last stretch of yinu going fucking crazy on the piano is emotional as shit but honestly all of them are bangers and dabble into different styles of edm so youre gonna find something of your liking in this soundtrack its just phenomenal

so whatever don't wanna bloat this because I'm trying to make some more straightforward reviews or else I'm never gonna log these games that being said this one absolutely stole my heart it's a deeply flawed experience theres probably more issues than praises to be made but I cannot overstate enough how much pure and unfiltered fun and love was poured into this product and it got me playing this with a smile on my face for the entire time playthrough and I'm definitely gonna come back to this one times and times again trust you will be dealt with period period

zuke I'm literally single if you wanna use me as a drum