iv1632
2010
This is a bit of a disappointing game. It looks pretty fine at surface level, there's the bloody presentation, a charming Terror Mask and you gotta go save your girlfriend from this house of horror. However, the presentation is a bit odd to me. We got the gratuitous amount of blood and gore, but we don't really have the clear homages to the slasher films that Splaterrhouse started with in the arcade, there's a bunch of meh licensed music and the framerate is constantly dipping. That said, they really tried to make a complete story for this game and the characters have great voice acting with Jim Cummings as the Mask being the highlight, but I really appreciate Josh Keaton's Rick too.
The gameplay starts out HORRIBLE. The start of the game is probably the least polished, poor performance combined with mechanics that are explained well after you need the explanation really sour the beginning of the game, it takes like an hour to really pick up. However, when you figure out how to make combos and guarantee your glory kills it becomes pretty fun!
You get upgrades to expand your moveset and get more health or better weapons, which does help the game keep the fun alongside the introductions to new environments and enemies, but that really slows down when you're around the middle of the game and there's barely much of it by the end.
You'll get thrown into areas with unexplained mechanics or forced platforming without warning and probably die because you don't know what you're doing, then wait for loading screens that can take entire minutes to finish, and the game starts to become a chore. The final stage has a horrible objective that I had to do by turning the game down to easy to tolerate it and I was just tired. This is one of those games that really needed some more polish and time and maybe it would have been great, but as it is, its saving grace is that it's short enough for the flaws to not accumulate so much that you REALLY want to quit, and I still felt like quitting when there was just a few minutes of game left.
I really want something that can follow up on what Splatterhouse was doing in the 80s-90s, a homage to some horror and slasher classics, but without the average game design and unfair difficulty. This game isn't quite there, but it gets close to having the right attitude at points, and I still had fun through most of it but really wish another chance for something like this could still happen. If you do play this, please set it to easy during phase 11 or 12, but also look into its development and cut content. Some of the cut dialogue is great, and it helps contextualize where this game was on the right track but why it didn't get there. I really do recommend it if you're interested, but it won't win you over if you have no tolerance for the issues I brought up.
The gameplay starts out HORRIBLE. The start of the game is probably the least polished, poor performance combined with mechanics that are explained well after you need the explanation really sour the beginning of the game, it takes like an hour to really pick up. However, when you figure out how to make combos and guarantee your glory kills it becomes pretty fun!
You get upgrades to expand your moveset and get more health or better weapons, which does help the game keep the fun alongside the introductions to new environments and enemies, but that really slows down when you're around the middle of the game and there's barely much of it by the end.
You'll get thrown into areas with unexplained mechanics or forced platforming without warning and probably die because you don't know what you're doing, then wait for loading screens that can take entire minutes to finish, and the game starts to become a chore. The final stage has a horrible objective that I had to do by turning the game down to easy to tolerate it and I was just tired. This is one of those games that really needed some more polish and time and maybe it would have been great, but as it is, its saving grace is that it's short enough for the flaws to not accumulate so much that you REALLY want to quit, and I still felt like quitting when there was just a few minutes of game left.
I really want something that can follow up on what Splatterhouse was doing in the 80s-90s, a homage to some horror and slasher classics, but without the average game design and unfair difficulty. This game isn't quite there, but it gets close to having the right attitude at points, and I still had fun through most of it but really wish another chance for something like this could still happen. If you do play this, please set it to easy during phase 11 or 12, but also look into its development and cut content. Some of the cut dialogue is great, and it helps contextualize where this game was on the right track but why it didn't get there. I really do recommend it if you're interested, but it won't win you over if you have no tolerance for the issues I brought up.
2016
The original UNDERTALE
2015
Have no idea what happened but I'm satisfied with it.
Might be the best of the Shovel Knight games, not only am I a big King Knight fan now but these were the most fun levels I played through, the new dash and spin mechanics make for more dynamic platforming that makes the levels more elaborate.
The soundtrack is full of remixes that, for someone that hasn't played Shovel Knight in a while, filled me with memories, there's new background for a bunch of other characters with great writing and the merit medals are fun to collect too.
I wasn't a fan of Joustus, the card game, but it's completely optional if you don't want to 100% the game which I'm fine with, so it doesn't get in the way if you don't enjoy it and just want to play through a good platformer.
A very humorous, polished, fun and nostalgic journey, loved it a lot.
The soundtrack is full of remixes that, for someone that hasn't played Shovel Knight in a while, filled me with memories, there's new background for a bunch of other characters with great writing and the merit medals are fun to collect too.
I wasn't a fan of Joustus, the card game, but it's completely optional if you don't want to 100% the game which I'm fine with, so it doesn't get in the way if you don't enjoy it and just want to play through a good platformer.
A very humorous, polished, fun and nostalgic journey, loved it a lot.
2005
This game's cool and awesome, Ultimate Spider-Man is a smaller scale Spider-Man 2 but with so much style.
The visuals are comic book stylized, including cutscenes that play around with different cameras shown as comic panels, using onomatopoeias for flavor as well.
The story is simple, switching from the perspective of Spider-Man and Venom every couple of missions and eventually connecting them both, apparently the game can be considered canon to the Ultimate comics which is cool to know but I haven't read them myself.
The music is great, makes me think of the word bopping which probably makes no sense but you might see what I mean if you listen to it.
The controls are a little odd at first, may be a mouse and keyboard thing, but took me some more than an hour to really get a hang of them. After getting used to the controls though this is the fastest Spider-Man game I've played, you can combine web slinging, web zips and double jumps to traverse the map and it can go so so fast, there's races to do to practice this and I'd recommend doing so to get a better hang of the controls.
My problem with Spider-Man gameplay comes from the combat, it's pretty simplistic with a punch, kick and grab button as well as covering enemies with webs, but the game encourages comboing by switching targets each hit for extra damage. Switching targets to be more efficient is great but bosses are all single targets, which means you'll just spam your attacks without that much strategy and win most of the time.
However the shortcomings of playing as Spider-Man get balanced by the fact that you also get to play as Venom, he can't web sling but can jump far and do a web zip but with his symbiote tentacles, combat with him isn't that different but the symbiote suit needs to be fed, so you'll need to consume people to make sure you don't run out of health. Asides from that Venom combat is honestly more satisfying because he's kinda more violent, the symbiote tentacles are very powerful to use, and they actually can make boss fights less annoying.
I don't care much for completing the open world but going through it is fun in itself, the simple story works well enough for playing through the missions featuring a bunch of recognizable villains and characters, at its core this game is pretty standard but it's just very fun and stylized so it's worth the 3 or 4 hours to play through the main game.
The visuals are comic book stylized, including cutscenes that play around with different cameras shown as comic panels, using onomatopoeias for flavor as well.
The story is simple, switching from the perspective of Spider-Man and Venom every couple of missions and eventually connecting them both, apparently the game can be considered canon to the Ultimate comics which is cool to know but I haven't read them myself.
The music is great, makes me think of the word bopping which probably makes no sense but you might see what I mean if you listen to it.
The controls are a little odd at first, may be a mouse and keyboard thing, but took me some more than an hour to really get a hang of them. After getting used to the controls though this is the fastest Spider-Man game I've played, you can combine web slinging, web zips and double jumps to traverse the map and it can go so so fast, there's races to do to practice this and I'd recommend doing so to get a better hang of the controls.
My problem with Spider-Man gameplay comes from the combat, it's pretty simplistic with a punch, kick and grab button as well as covering enemies with webs, but the game encourages comboing by switching targets each hit for extra damage. Switching targets to be more efficient is great but bosses are all single targets, which means you'll just spam your attacks without that much strategy and win most of the time.
However the shortcomings of playing as Spider-Man get balanced by the fact that you also get to play as Venom, he can't web sling but can jump far and do a web zip but with his symbiote tentacles, combat with him isn't that different but the symbiote suit needs to be fed, so you'll need to consume people to make sure you don't run out of health. Asides from that Venom combat is honestly more satisfying because he's kinda more violent, the symbiote tentacles are very powerful to use, and they actually can make boss fights less annoying.
I don't care much for completing the open world but going through it is fun in itself, the simple story works well enough for playing through the missions featuring a bunch of recognizable villains and characters, at its core this game is pretty standard but it's just very fun and stylized so it's worth the 3 or 4 hours to play through the main game.
2013
I'm gonna be honest, out of the endless sea of open world games that we got nowadays, this one gave me the most fun there is.
From the impressions I've got of seeing this game series in passing, they were competitors to the GTA games with a slightly more unhinged tone, possibly jankier as well. This game is just completely bonkers, the story and characters constantly going off the rails and the setting being inside an alien crafted simulation to have an excuse for the chaos.
What makes it fun though? Superpowers, already starting the game off you'll only have a super speed and jump power, but trust me this helps so much into how fun it is to navigate around the map and get to your tasks. The speed at which you can go feels amazing, and once you get more powers and upgrades to help in combat you'll WANT to go through all the side missions and sometimes rampage about.
I did all the side missions because of how simply fun it is to play through this game and the setting actually helps the jankiness of the experience, as it is all happening in a shoddy simulation anyway and everything goes. The main story was just kinda weird for someone that hasn't played the other games, as callbacks to them are of course made, but I ended up enjoying the character interactions nonetheless.
Really this game is the definition of simple fun and I wouldn't have it any other way, it feels like Volition made it with that vision without much regard for how different it would feel. I understand why people that come from the previous entries wouldn't be into it, but I really think they're just closing themselves off to a very fun time. It makes me sad that the reception this game got pretty much ensures nothing like it will get made again, as it could still be better, but I'll take what I can get.
I possibly wouldn't rate this game this high if there were other games that could compete with it but there really aren't, Prototype and Infamous feel nothing like this.
From the impressions I've got of seeing this game series in passing, they were competitors to the GTA games with a slightly more unhinged tone, possibly jankier as well. This game is just completely bonkers, the story and characters constantly going off the rails and the setting being inside an alien crafted simulation to have an excuse for the chaos.
What makes it fun though? Superpowers, already starting the game off you'll only have a super speed and jump power, but trust me this helps so much into how fun it is to navigate around the map and get to your tasks. The speed at which you can go feels amazing, and once you get more powers and upgrades to help in combat you'll WANT to go through all the side missions and sometimes rampage about.
I did all the side missions because of how simply fun it is to play through this game and the setting actually helps the jankiness of the experience, as it is all happening in a shoddy simulation anyway and everything goes. The main story was just kinda weird for someone that hasn't played the other games, as callbacks to them are of course made, but I ended up enjoying the character interactions nonetheless.
Really this game is the definition of simple fun and I wouldn't have it any other way, it feels like Volition made it with that vision without much regard for how different it would feel. I understand why people that come from the previous entries wouldn't be into it, but I really think they're just closing themselves off to a very fun time. It makes me sad that the reception this game got pretty much ensures nothing like it will get made again, as it could still be better, but I'll take what I can get.
I possibly wouldn't rate this game this high if there were other games that could compete with it but there really aren't, Prototype and Infamous feel nothing like this.
2011
For how much it made fun of "modern FPS design" the game it was promoting was actually not very retro.
While the gameplay itself is more polished than Shattered Dimensions', the game is overall not as much of a challenge, it lacks the diverse stylized looks and diverse level design from its predecessor and has a story that's in concept pretty good but it's filled with questionable moments and characters that didn't need to be included.
Challenges as a means to get more upgrades come back but different, upgrades can be purchased throughout the game but some require golden spiders, they are obtainable in lesser quantities throughout levels but most may only be given to you when you do challenges PERFECTLY which actually crosses over to being too hard most of the time, but as the game isn't so hard only some of the upgrades feel essential so it isn't that big of a deal.
All that said I still really enjoyed my time with the game, the fluid combat using the abilities of Amazing and 2099 Spider-Man is great despite them keeping the tedious free fall sections from 2099, and while I don't care for most of the story, Peter and Miguel developing more together was really nice. I'd still recommend this game for anyone that wants to play it, don't expect it to be as amazing but it'll be a really good time regardless.
Challenges as a means to get more upgrades come back but different, upgrades can be purchased throughout the game but some require golden spiders, they are obtainable in lesser quantities throughout levels but most may only be given to you when you do challenges PERFECTLY which actually crosses over to being too hard most of the time, but as the game isn't so hard only some of the upgrades feel essential so it isn't that big of a deal.
All that said I still really enjoyed my time with the game, the fluid combat using the abilities of Amazing and 2099 Spider-Man is great despite them keeping the tedious free fall sections from 2099, and while I don't care for most of the story, Peter and Miguel developing more together was really nice. I'd still recommend this game for anyone that wants to play it, don't expect it to be as amazing but it'll be a really good time regardless.
2000
Decent fun, nice middle ground between something slower like Counter-Strike and something like Halo. Definitely delivers the "fun over realism".
Lots of cool maps to play on, servers rarely inactive, game's doing pretty good for a somewhat niche Open Source project.
Lots of cool maps to play on, servers rarely inactive, game's doing pretty good for a somewhat niche Open Source project.
This is the first Spider-Man game I've played proper. Having no good contact with the other ones I didn't have any expectations for it and I ended up enjoying it a lot.
You play through 4 dimensions, each dimension has different Spider-Men and villains selected from the corresponding comics and some original ones, each one also sporting a different visual style and even gameplay gimmicks. There's simple character upgrades like unlocking combos and enhancing health, they need to be unlocked through the completion of challenges each level but none of them are too difficult to get so it is never a chore.
First is the Amazing Spider-Man dimension, with an outlined cel shaded art style and fun villains, gameplay during it is pretty much a basic brawler with Spider-Man powers but it's fun regardless.
Next up comes the 2099 dimension, this one is the biggest reason this game doesn't get 5 stars for me. It has the least interesting villains out of them all (in game, don't know about the comics) and the least interesting visual style with the same color palette everywhere, a futuristic style stereotypical from what people in the 80s thought future technology would look like, not exactly pleasant to the eyes. The gimmick for 2099 Spider-Man is moving fast while time slows down, but it's only situationally useful and doesn't save it from the most dull and least open levels from the game.
Luckily, Noir Spider-Man fairs better, the visual style is pretty much... Noir, and the gameplay gimmick is that you must sneak around in the shadows and take down enemies one by one without being spotted to get through the levels. It's not a very in depth stealth system, but it gets the job done and there's a variety of ways in which you can take down enemies, however there's still some brawling sections and the game doesn't punish you hard at all for being seen in case that kind of stuff bores you too much.
Finally we have the Ultimate Spider-Man dimension, this one sports Spider-Man with the black symbiote suit and has really flashy attacks alongside it, it has the best villains in the game and while the gimmick of powering up strenght with rage that's built up as you fight is simple, it's still pretty much engaging. This dimension also contains the most open levels in the game and they're the ones I had the most fun on as a result.
Lastly, the final boss stage is unfortunately very much a scripted section with kinda dull small fights as you wait for the QTE to defeat the big bad to happen, but it wasn't frustrating or too boring at least so I won't complain much.
Overall the game was fun throughout, only a single 2099 stage made me feel like quitting but completing it was worth it, I'll probably replay it some time in the future just to have some fun.
You play through 4 dimensions, each dimension has different Spider-Men and villains selected from the corresponding comics and some original ones, each one also sporting a different visual style and even gameplay gimmicks. There's simple character upgrades like unlocking combos and enhancing health, they need to be unlocked through the completion of challenges each level but none of them are too difficult to get so it is never a chore.
First is the Amazing Spider-Man dimension, with an outlined cel shaded art style and fun villains, gameplay during it is pretty much a basic brawler with Spider-Man powers but it's fun regardless.
Next up comes the 2099 dimension, this one is the biggest reason this game doesn't get 5 stars for me. It has the least interesting villains out of them all (in game, don't know about the comics) and the least interesting visual style with the same color palette everywhere, a futuristic style stereotypical from what people in the 80s thought future technology would look like, not exactly pleasant to the eyes. The gimmick for 2099 Spider-Man is moving fast while time slows down, but it's only situationally useful and doesn't save it from the most dull and least open levels from the game.
Luckily, Noir Spider-Man fairs better, the visual style is pretty much... Noir, and the gameplay gimmick is that you must sneak around in the shadows and take down enemies one by one without being spotted to get through the levels. It's not a very in depth stealth system, but it gets the job done and there's a variety of ways in which you can take down enemies, however there's still some brawling sections and the game doesn't punish you hard at all for being seen in case that kind of stuff bores you too much.
Finally we have the Ultimate Spider-Man dimension, this one sports Spider-Man with the black symbiote suit and has really flashy attacks alongside it, it has the best villains in the game and while the gimmick of powering up strenght with rage that's built up as you fight is simple, it's still pretty much engaging. This dimension also contains the most open levels in the game and they're the ones I had the most fun on as a result.
Lastly, the final boss stage is unfortunately very much a scripted section with kinda dull small fights as you wait for the QTE to defeat the big bad to happen, but it wasn't frustrating or too boring at least so I won't complain much.
Overall the game was fun throughout, only a single 2099 stage made me feel like quitting but completing it was worth it, I'll probably replay it some time in the future just to have some fun.
2022
Play it
After playing and feeling disappointed by Curse of the Moon 2 I moved onto this game to see if Inti Creates had done any better.
Generally it has the same core formula as Curse of the Moon, but instead of controlling a variety of characters you unlock throughout a few levels you start with 2 characters to use until the end, with the unlocks being new subweapons that are always available in your inventory to quickly switch through.
The level design is smaller, but offers some more compelling alternate paths upon revisiting as well as giving you more freedom to backtrack, the game focuses more on choosing the right subweapon in the moment rather than picking up individual ones trying to predict when you'll need them.
The game is easier than both CotM games for the most part as if one of your characters dies, you can go reach their corpse after respawning and resuscitate them to continue, preventing you from losing a life unless both characters die. The levels are also less punishing for the most part, feels like there's a lot more healing, and also less opportunities for knockback to kill you, but I honestly didn't mind this especially after CotM 2.
What keeps me from giving a higher rating is 2 issues I have with the game, for one while the game generally being easier didn't bother me I wished the bosses had some more challenge to them, still prefer easier bosses over health taxes like there is in CotM 2. The other issue is that unbeknownst to me at first, this is a Gal Gun spin-off, the game doesn't lean into this until after you do the second playthrough for the real ending but I found it to just be weird, I guess they're playing into their audience but I really don't think it fits a Castlevania-like and I would have rather the game kept on with the slightly more serious tone of the first run.
Overall though if they make another Curse of the Moon game, I hope it's like this one, using more focused level design and balancing as well as 16-bit style visuals, because I think the first game already perfected the NES style.
Generally it has the same core formula as Curse of the Moon, but instead of controlling a variety of characters you unlock throughout a few levels you start with 2 characters to use until the end, with the unlocks being new subweapons that are always available in your inventory to quickly switch through.
The level design is smaller, but offers some more compelling alternate paths upon revisiting as well as giving you more freedom to backtrack, the game focuses more on choosing the right subweapon in the moment rather than picking up individual ones trying to predict when you'll need them.
The game is easier than both CotM games for the most part as if one of your characters dies, you can go reach their corpse after respawning and resuscitate them to continue, preventing you from losing a life unless both characters die. The levels are also less punishing for the most part, feels like there's a lot more healing, and also less opportunities for knockback to kill you, but I honestly didn't mind this especially after CotM 2.
What keeps me from giving a higher rating is 2 issues I have with the game, for one while the game generally being easier didn't bother me I wished the bosses had some more challenge to them, still prefer easier bosses over health taxes like there is in CotM 2. The other issue is that unbeknownst to me at first, this is a Gal Gun spin-off, the game doesn't lean into this until after you do the second playthrough for the real ending but I found it to just be weird, I guess they're playing into their audience but I really don't think it fits a Castlevania-like and I would have rather the game kept on with the slightly more serious tone of the first run.
Overall though if they make another Curse of the Moon game, I hope it's like this one, using more focused level design and balancing as well as 16-bit style visuals, because I think the first game already perfected the NES style.
This is a great pirate game: upgrading up your ship, assaulting ships or strongholds, sailing while your crew sings, switching up your weaponry, boarding... somehow no other pirate game has as much to do as this one despite it not being fleshed out that much.
The only issue really is that it's still an Assasisn's Creed game, where you're taken out for present day sections or have to land into cities to do collectathons and barebones missions. It's not that there's no fun to be had in that, but it's something that you really have enough of pretty quickly and we already had a few games full of it before this one, it's not exactly exciting.
Kenway is an interesting protagonist but he can't carry the mediocre gameplay on his own, so instead of focusing on going through the story I'll only pick this game up for piracy shenanigans and I'll have my fun with that. Nobody else seems interested in using this game's sailing and pirate mechanics so it'll probably be as good as it gets.
The only issue really is that it's still an Assasisn's Creed game, where you're taken out for present day sections or have to land into cities to do collectathons and barebones missions. It's not that there's no fun to be had in that, but it's something that you really have enough of pretty quickly and we already had a few games full of it before this one, it's not exactly exciting.
Kenway is an interesting protagonist but he can't carry the mediocre gameplay on his own, so instead of focusing on going through the story I'll only pick this game up for piracy shenanigans and I'll have my fun with that. Nobody else seems interested in using this game's sailing and pirate mechanics so it'll probably be as good as it gets.
If you think RtCW is still the best Wolfenstein game, you didn't actually play this
Writing: Awful.
Story: Confused in itself.
Graphics: Ugly.
Gameplay: Best combat ever made in a Spider-Man game.
Seriously, for everything bad about this game the answer is just "but the combat is fun". Switching between regular and symbiote Spidey on the fly, chaining combos on the ground, walls and air, web zipping over enemies without stopping, it's almost Devil May Cry like to the point where I forgot that most characters had awful voice casting, that the framerate is less than ideal and that the side missions are also just combat with MMO checklists of "Kill X".
Should also mention that the web slinging controls are the best in any Spider-Man game I played, but you need to get some collectibles to level it up to its full potential which is nice but honestly tedious.
All in all though... this game is way too fun, I don't have much else to say about it, but if you can ignore the presentation you can really find lots of enjoyment on it. If it had better writing, like say from Edge of Time, and some more variety in the activities so you also do get a little break from combat and more cool slinging, I may have even situated it as my favorite Spidey game.
Story: Confused in itself.
Graphics: Ugly.
Gameplay: Best combat ever made in a Spider-Man game.
Seriously, for everything bad about this game the answer is just "but the combat is fun". Switching between regular and symbiote Spidey on the fly, chaining combos on the ground, walls and air, web zipping over enemies without stopping, it's almost Devil May Cry like to the point where I forgot that most characters had awful voice casting, that the framerate is less than ideal and that the side missions are also just combat with MMO checklists of "Kill X".
Should also mention that the web slinging controls are the best in any Spider-Man game I played, but you need to get some collectibles to level it up to its full potential which is nice but honestly tedious.
All in all though... this game is way too fun, I don't have much else to say about it, but if you can ignore the presentation you can really find lots of enjoyment on it. If it had better writing, like say from Edge of Time, and some more variety in the activities so you also do get a little break from combat and more cool slinging, I may have even situated it as my favorite Spidey game.