Dan_from_Canada
130 Reviews liked by Dan_from_Canada
Completion Criteria: All Collected + Ending
I'm quite surprised this game is good. I expected it to be recommended as a joke but it's a pretty competent and short Metroidvania that by the end may have the most fun spiderman combat I've seen outside of fighting games. It does have a mandatory touch screen sequence but it basically acts as a mini game. Succinct and would recommend.
I'm quite surprised this game is good. I expected it to be recommended as a joke but it's a pretty competent and short Metroidvania that by the end may have the most fun spiderman combat I've seen outside of fighting games. It does have a mandatory touch screen sequence but it basically acts as a mini game. Succinct and would recommend.
I've been pushing this game back further into my backlog for years now. I thought it wouldn't be to my liking, and I had heard that combat wasn't very good. But with Hellblade 2 on the horizon, I decided to give it a shot, both because I was already due for it and as a test to see if I should play the sequel. And as I found out, Ninja Theory had actually made something way beyond my expectations.
Reading comments from people online and hearing from some friends, I was expecting to dislike the gameplay, and as a "gameplay first" kind of guy, I wasn't looking forward to it. But once again, just as with ME: Andromeda, I have learned that the only way to get an accurate opinion about something is experiencing it yourself. Outside of the combat, the gameplay itself is very simple: You just move, look at and interact with things. The loop is also predictable for most of the game, most puzzles involve looking at runes from a certain angle. These puzzles are cool and not very difficult, but it gets a little repetitive by the end. If this was the entirety of the experience, while understandable considering it's a narrative focused game, I probably would've gotten bored eventually. Thankfully, the combat is good, much better than I thought, which I guess makes sense considering Ninja Theory's heritage as an action game studio.
I can understand why people wouldn't like it: It's not flashy, there's no move variety besides the basic action game stuff, and enemy variety is also a little lacking (If it had 3 or 4 other enemies it would've been perfect)... But it feels great. You can feel each hit landing, the weight behind the movements, the impact of a successful block, and so on. This all adds up to brutal encounters, which fits the theme for the series, as it was said in a recent documentary about Hellblade 2, "Senua isn't winning, she's surviving", and it's very engaging. The first time the Furies yelled at me saying "behind you!", it didn't occur to me that enemies could flank me, and all I had time to do was do a short quickstep to the right and watch as a sword barely missed Senua's head; it was after this encounter that this game hooked me for good, and it was a great use of what is probably the main gimmick of Hellblade.
Senua is a troubled individual. She suffers with schizophrenia and psychosis, and has gone through deeply traumatic events throughout her life. She's not alone, but not in a good way; the Furies - voices in her head - are there in every step of the way, whispering into your ears. They often try to make Senua doubt herself, try to hurt her with their words, or make noise in general. Their presence are a highlight, not only are they useful for gameplay purposes, they add a lot to the immersion. With all of her troubles, Senua goes on a journey against her own darkness, and to save the soul of her lover. The story and especially the narrative are phenomenal, and it progresses steadily all the way to the end, it never drags. There's not much else to say besides giving it more praise.
Even as a 2018 game, and with some noticeable blurry textures here and there, Hellblade is still a looker. Both the graphics (I used ray tracing) and the art direction are great. It's a little "gray-ish" in most parts, but this ties into Senua's perception of the world, as colors get a lot more vibrant in flashback moments. Fantastic job for a relatively small studio before they were acquired by Microsoft. Visually, from promotional material, the sequel looks insanely good, let's see how that goes.
Given the nature of the gimmicks and combat, it's no surprise that this game has outstanding audio design. When it comes to music, it's fairly simple, it's there to serve as the background noise, but it's not bad. What really shines here are the sound effects and voice acting, the main example for both being the previously mentioned Furies. Ninja Theory used binaural audio to have them whispering and talking and screaming in your ears. Senua's performance is also scarily good, it's not every day that you see someone do such an impressive and probably realistic rendition of a character with issues such as Senua's.
It's unfortunate for such an experience to end soon, but its relative short size (9 hours to beat getting every Lorestone) worked to its favor, the story and puzzles probably would've felt dragged if it was longer. But what matters is that I loved this game. It's lacking in enemy and puzzle variety, but it makes up for it with everything else. If you enjoy narrative heavy games, this is perfect for you, and I cannot wait to put my hands on the sequel.
SCORE: 9/10
Reading comments from people online and hearing from some friends, I was expecting to dislike the gameplay, and as a "gameplay first" kind of guy, I wasn't looking forward to it. But once again, just as with ME: Andromeda, I have learned that the only way to get an accurate opinion about something is experiencing it yourself. Outside of the combat, the gameplay itself is very simple: You just move, look at and interact with things. The loop is also predictable for most of the game, most puzzles involve looking at runes from a certain angle. These puzzles are cool and not very difficult, but it gets a little repetitive by the end. If this was the entirety of the experience, while understandable considering it's a narrative focused game, I probably would've gotten bored eventually. Thankfully, the combat is good, much better than I thought, which I guess makes sense considering Ninja Theory's heritage as an action game studio.
I can understand why people wouldn't like it: It's not flashy, there's no move variety besides the basic action game stuff, and enemy variety is also a little lacking (If it had 3 or 4 other enemies it would've been perfect)... But it feels great. You can feel each hit landing, the weight behind the movements, the impact of a successful block, and so on. This all adds up to brutal encounters, which fits the theme for the series, as it was said in a recent documentary about Hellblade 2, "Senua isn't winning, she's surviving", and it's very engaging. The first time the Furies yelled at me saying "behind you!", it didn't occur to me that enemies could flank me, and all I had time to do was do a short quickstep to the right and watch as a sword barely missed Senua's head; it was after this encounter that this game hooked me for good, and it was a great use of what is probably the main gimmick of Hellblade.
Senua is a troubled individual. She suffers with schizophrenia and psychosis, and has gone through deeply traumatic events throughout her life. She's not alone, but not in a good way; the Furies - voices in her head - are there in every step of the way, whispering into your ears. They often try to make Senua doubt herself, try to hurt her with their words, or make noise in general. Their presence are a highlight, not only are they useful for gameplay purposes, they add a lot to the immersion. With all of her troubles, Senua goes on a journey against her own darkness, and to save the soul of her lover. The story and especially the narrative are phenomenal, and it progresses steadily all the way to the end, it never drags. There's not much else to say besides giving it more praise.
Even as a 2018 game, and with some noticeable blurry textures here and there, Hellblade is still a looker. Both the graphics (I used ray tracing) and the art direction are great. It's a little "gray-ish" in most parts, but this ties into Senua's perception of the world, as colors get a lot more vibrant in flashback moments. Fantastic job for a relatively small studio before they were acquired by Microsoft. Visually, from promotional material, the sequel looks insanely good, let's see how that goes.
Given the nature of the gimmicks and combat, it's no surprise that this game has outstanding audio design. When it comes to music, it's fairly simple, it's there to serve as the background noise, but it's not bad. What really shines here are the sound effects and voice acting, the main example for both being the previously mentioned Furies. Ninja Theory used binaural audio to have them whispering and talking and screaming in your ears. Senua's performance is also scarily good, it's not every day that you see someone do such an impressive and probably realistic rendition of a character with issues such as Senua's.
It's unfortunate for such an experience to end soon, but its relative short size (9 hours to beat getting every Lorestone) worked to its favor, the story and puzzles probably would've felt dragged if it was longer. But what matters is that I loved this game. It's lacking in enemy and puzzle variety, but it makes up for it with everything else. If you enjoy narrative heavy games, this is perfect for you, and I cannot wait to put my hands on the sequel.
SCORE: 9/10
Mullet Mad Jack
2024
MULLET!!!
Mullet Mad Jack is a first person shooter styled to 90s English-dubbed anime. You are a contestant on a murder cyberpunk game show trying to win a pair of shoes (and save a princess) by killing countless robots in armed combat. And as part of the game, audience approval is hooked up to your bloodstream and you need a shot of dopamine every 10 seconds, which you get by killing robots, or else you die. When you get hurt, it also takes away from your timer rather than a health bar.
The story mode is structured somewhere between a roguelite and a Hotline Miami. You have to run, jump, wallrun, and slide through 10 oneish-minute-long floors in a row (climbing a tower), collecting upgrades along the way. If you die, you have to restart the set of 10 levels and you lose all your upgrades. If you beat the set of floors and the boss at the end (I think the bosses are checkpointed), you move on to the next set of 10 and see a little more story.
For my money, I loved Mullet Mad Jack but I think it's going to be polarizing. It looks and sounds unbelievable, capturing the old anime look and sound pretty much perfectly. It also carries a satisfying ultraviolence in its presentation and feel (there's the Hotline Miami), paired lovingly with some very funny consumerist satire.
The sticking point for many is going to be the structure of running through levels and murdering dudes, because the game doesn't change very much (outside of a steady difficulty increase) over its 3-4 hour runtime. The gunplay feels great and the audiovisual experience is immensely satisfying, but the combat is about as deep as a puddle and you can die in some unfair-feeling ways until you learn how to sift through all the game throws at you.
Still, I really loved pretty much all of what MMJ was doing. If you love Suda 51 games and particularly No More Heroes 3, drop everything and grab this immediately. This is your game.
P.S. Great on Steam Deck!
Mullet Mad Jack is a first person shooter styled to 90s English-dubbed anime. You are a contestant on a murder cyberpunk game show trying to win a pair of shoes (and save a princess) by killing countless robots in armed combat. And as part of the game, audience approval is hooked up to your bloodstream and you need a shot of dopamine every 10 seconds, which you get by killing robots, or else you die. When you get hurt, it also takes away from your timer rather than a health bar.
The story mode is structured somewhere between a roguelite and a Hotline Miami. You have to run, jump, wallrun, and slide through 10 oneish-minute-long floors in a row (climbing a tower), collecting upgrades along the way. If you die, you have to restart the set of 10 levels and you lose all your upgrades. If you beat the set of floors and the boss at the end (I think the bosses are checkpointed), you move on to the next set of 10 and see a little more story.
For my money, I loved Mullet Mad Jack but I think it's going to be polarizing. It looks and sounds unbelievable, capturing the old anime look and sound pretty much perfectly. It also carries a satisfying ultraviolence in its presentation and feel (there's the Hotline Miami), paired lovingly with some very funny consumerist satire.
The sticking point for many is going to be the structure of running through levels and murdering dudes, because the game doesn't change very much (outside of a steady difficulty increase) over its 3-4 hour runtime. The gunplay feels great and the audiovisual experience is immensely satisfying, but the combat is about as deep as a puddle and you can die in some unfair-feeling ways until you learn how to sift through all the game throws at you.
Still, I really loved pretty much all of what MMJ was doing. If you love Suda 51 games and particularly No More Heroes 3, drop everything and grab this immediately. This is your game.
P.S. Great on Steam Deck!
Tails of Iron
2021
Rat souls! Rat souls Rat souls!
A 2D action RPG that is brief on runtime (for the genre...7-8 hours) and features super compelling soulsy action as well as a gorgeously presented narrative with narration by The Witcher's Doug Cockle. Looks like a storybook in motion...there were a few times where the camera was zoomed in and I thought I was still in a cutscene until I realized my character wasn't doing anything.
Super fun combat, good pattern recognition bosses. A smidge of metroidvania but it's more to make the world readable than to be an actual search-action game.
It falters in a bunch of small areas rather than in any one particular major aspect. Issues include:
-Forces you to backtrack somewhat regularly, though thankfully the map is small
-You sometimes have to save more often than you want to because the game will make you do every encounter and watch every cutscene without skipping every time you die. There would be times where I beat a few enemies and watched a cutscene, and then spent a minute backtracking so I wouldn't have to watch it again
-A bit of slowdown and a few crashes on Switch
-The story may expand somewhat in the DLC, but I was kind of disappointed that the villains lacked much in the way of depth. The frogs were basically orc-style "we are the evil race who does evil things." The rest of the story is SO well done that this one bit sticks out
-Some very obvious forced side quest padding
Even still, had a great time. The sequel has immediately jumped up to one of my most anticipated games, and I fully recommend this to anyone who likes their soulsy metroidvanias and wants something a little different.
A 2D action RPG that is brief on runtime (for the genre...7-8 hours) and features super compelling soulsy action as well as a gorgeously presented narrative with narration by The Witcher's Doug Cockle. Looks like a storybook in motion...there were a few times where the camera was zoomed in and I thought I was still in a cutscene until I realized my character wasn't doing anything.
Super fun combat, good pattern recognition bosses. A smidge of metroidvania but it's more to make the world readable than to be an actual search-action game.
It falters in a bunch of small areas rather than in any one particular major aspect. Issues include:
-Forces you to backtrack somewhat regularly, though thankfully the map is small
-You sometimes have to save more often than you want to because the game will make you do every encounter and watch every cutscene without skipping every time you die. There would be times where I beat a few enemies and watched a cutscene, and then spent a minute backtracking so I wouldn't have to watch it again
-A bit of slowdown and a few crashes on Switch
-The story may expand somewhat in the DLC, but I was kind of disappointed that the villains lacked much in the way of depth. The frogs were basically orc-style "we are the evil race who does evil things." The rest of the story is SO well done that this one bit sticks out
-Some very obvious forced side quest padding
Even still, had a great time. The sequel has immediately jumped up to one of my most anticipated games, and I fully recommend this to anyone who likes their soulsy metroidvanias and wants something a little different.
Animal Well
2024
An extremely well made metroidvania that further sets itself apart by having clever, unique powerups that are used in multiple ways to explore. Super eerie, tons to discover under the surface, and capped off with intense 'boss' encounters further elevated by a strict "no combat" design philosophy.
Edit: went back and got all eggs/2nd ending, there's basically double the content in postgame. 10/10
Edit: went back and got all eggs/2nd ending, there's basically double the content in postgame. 10/10
Turbo Overkill
2022
The headline is this: Turbo Overkill is SO FRICKIN FUN. This is an indie (I think) take on a Doom 2016/Eternal -- old school shootin' with HD graphics, big guns and platforming -- but the twist is you have a chainsaw leg that absolutely RIPS through enemies.
Because this is an episodic game with three distinct campaigns taking about 15 hours total to run through, the pacing almost feels like you're playing a trilogy of small games rather than one large one. You can tell the developers learned where they wanted to take their vision for Turbo Overkill as they developed it through the early access process, and in many ways you see improvements in episodes 2/3 over the first.
It packs so much in here. Bosses, platforming segments, vehicular sections, labyrinthian levels with keys, arena style encounters, wave-based encounters, and an enormous breadth of environmental/art design that betrays the cookie cutter cyberpunk story you begin the game with.
While this is impressive, this massive scope is also what holds Turbo Overkill back from being one of the greatest shooters of all time. There's too much of it! Most levels are 30 minutes long and feel like they should be 15-20, and nearly all of the gimmicky sections like boss fights and vehicle sections get overindulgent. At a certain point it just keeps throwing waves of the same enemy types, and while the gunplay feels great, it can get exhausting.
But if you like nu-Doom and want a boomer shooter that feels more like that game than a shooter from 1999, I can't recommend TO enough. The weapons feel great, the alt-fires rock, and ripping through enemies sliding around on a chainsaw leg like a fricked up Tony Hawk feels ethereal. And the story, for as clunky as it can get at times, is a pretty funny take on a grim sci-fi narrative.
So while you have to put up with a bit, I ultimately think doing so is worth it because on the other side of that friction is some of the most fun first person shooting I've probably ever played.
P.S. It works great on Steam Deck now! Set it to 40 fps in your device-level settings and go nuts! But turn off auto-aim. You probably don't need it and I think it's way too aggressive.
Because this is an episodic game with three distinct campaigns taking about 15 hours total to run through, the pacing almost feels like you're playing a trilogy of small games rather than one large one. You can tell the developers learned where they wanted to take their vision for Turbo Overkill as they developed it through the early access process, and in many ways you see improvements in episodes 2/3 over the first.
It packs so much in here. Bosses, platforming segments, vehicular sections, labyrinthian levels with keys, arena style encounters, wave-based encounters, and an enormous breadth of environmental/art design that betrays the cookie cutter cyberpunk story you begin the game with.
While this is impressive, this massive scope is also what holds Turbo Overkill back from being one of the greatest shooters of all time. There's too much of it! Most levels are 30 minutes long and feel like they should be 15-20, and nearly all of the gimmicky sections like boss fights and vehicle sections get overindulgent. At a certain point it just keeps throwing waves of the same enemy types, and while the gunplay feels great, it can get exhausting.
But if you like nu-Doom and want a boomer shooter that feels more like that game than a shooter from 1999, I can't recommend TO enough. The weapons feel great, the alt-fires rock, and ripping through enemies sliding around on a chainsaw leg like a fricked up Tony Hawk feels ethereal. And the story, for as clunky as it can get at times, is a pretty funny take on a grim sci-fi narrative.
So while you have to put up with a bit, I ultimately think doing so is worth it because on the other side of that friction is some of the most fun first person shooting I've probably ever played.
P.S. It works great on Steam Deck now! Set it to 40 fps in your device-level settings and go nuts! But turn off auto-aim. You probably don't need it and I think it's way too aggressive.
This review contains spoilers
Completion Criteria: Credits Rolled
I think most people who go into this game with some knowledge are going to go in with a little with a little bit of bias. I was there for Sticker Star and I disliked that I completely skipped this and Colour Splash. I've heard the "its not so bad" but that's not particularly uncommon given a maligned game. And to my surprise they weren't wrong...sort of.
So ironically the game isn't good but the common narrative is that "the game has no soul" which actually may be it's most saving grace. Because the real soul of Mario RPGs has really been it's writing and this game has some pretty good writing. It messes up in some areas but for the most part it does well. It's just that nothing else in the game really supports it to well. In general, it's combat has somewhat of an identity crisis. No exp and breakable equipment are pullovers from Sticker Star that were hated for good reason. It incentivizes you to dislike combat and leads to you making the game more difficult for yourself. By the final boss, I had not used any legendary equipment as I expected to need it for the final boss. There is a party system in the game that feels like it's was shoved in last minute to people please. They pretty much do nothing because the goal of the combat is to wave clear in. Hitting an enemy before combat also does nothing because you only hit one enemy and, as mentioned before, the goal of combat is to clear the wave in one round.
Combat itself comes in three modes. Normal Encounter, Boss Encounter, and Action game. Normal encounters begin interesting but they take so much time that they are not worth doing by the end. On the flip side, sometimes you just don't have to deal with it, if you are strong enough you can just kill an enemy with an advantage attack. and some enemies you fight by just attacking them in the world until they explode. Bosses on the other hand have you following a maze to line up actions. This is fun in concept but again, it's more just you doing a puzzle and spending the bounty of coins you have to get a bit more time to logic them. Also.
Gameplay isn't the only issue, of course I have to bring up Characters because they have half done it. There are some meaningfully different toads which are fun characters but that only leads to the disastifaction of how many normal toads there are. We are in toad town rescuing the residents so from a world context, it makes sense for there to be a ton of toads, and as a collectible it's kind of great because they are all so homogenous but when you find toads that aren't hidden, or important to distinguish then, please put some effort it. It's not acceptable to think you can design an important npc by giving him a red jacket instead of a blue jacket. It's really weird when it's almost commented on with Bo-omb. They provide a pretty mature story and an extremely unexpected and insane concept of suicide bombing for you. And in the pen-ultimate scenario. Olivia notices they all look the same AND THEN completely ruin any emotional feeling for them by having you shoot them to their death on mass. This wouldn't have so out of tune if you even provided him with a hat, even if I think that's the bare minimum.
So on a more positive note, the world is pretty enjoyable to explore, some of the areas later on especially (maybe due to the reduction of necessary fights due to vehicles. Maybe felt like there was a bit of filler to try make the game longer which it could do without. I imagine the Great Sea would have been a chore if I didn't immediately go back for the upgraded engine. Weirdly there's a lot of instant Game Overs by the end of the game that really dampen the mood for exploration.
Some of my final complaints that I noted down. I lost the initiative to 100% this game early on but I even ignored rescuing all toads due to a few things. First is the lack of meaningful fast travel, I don't mean pipes, just the spin dash. The idea of walking to some of these areas and accidentally messing up a hammer swing was a scary thought. No technical reason due to the breakable equipment keeping me geared for the finale and, ironically too clear on gathering all accessories meant no incentive there either. Thirdly, no visceral reason. Even though the goal is to rescue toads to bring back to toad town, by the time it's mostly full, it still looks so incredibly sparse. Your lucky to get 2-3 toads in the same screen at the same time that I just stopped caring about wanting to see it full.
There are a lot of comfy scenes in the game. Coffee and Rest Areas were a nice breather and I always looked forward to them. This is a good place to note Olivia may be the strongest "companion" character in any game I've played. She acts childish but it feels quite real without being annoying, Mario feels quite fatherly ironically even though he doesn't really do anything which is an achievement to her writing.
So I was debating giving this a 3.5 but I'm not sure I can justify it given that I want to give it to it in spite of the gameplay. I don't think they can get away with being sticker star and super paper mario and more. The platforming RPG has legs still give it another shot in Super Paper Mario 2 and work on improving the base RPG and maybe we can get back on track
I think most people who go into this game with some knowledge are going to go in with a little with a little bit of bias. I was there for Sticker Star and I disliked that I completely skipped this and Colour Splash. I've heard the "its not so bad" but that's not particularly uncommon given a maligned game. And to my surprise they weren't wrong...sort of.
So ironically the game isn't good but the common narrative is that "the game has no soul" which actually may be it's most saving grace. Because the real soul of Mario RPGs has really been it's writing and this game has some pretty good writing. It messes up in some areas but for the most part it does well. It's just that nothing else in the game really supports it to well. In general, it's combat has somewhat of an identity crisis. No exp and breakable equipment are pullovers from Sticker Star that were hated for good reason. It incentivizes you to dislike combat and leads to you making the game more difficult for yourself. By the final boss, I had not used any legendary equipment as I expected to need it for the final boss. There is a party system in the game that feels like it's was shoved in last minute to people please. They pretty much do nothing because the goal of the combat is to wave clear in. Hitting an enemy before combat also does nothing because you only hit one enemy and, as mentioned before, the goal of combat is to clear the wave in one round.
Combat itself comes in three modes. Normal Encounter, Boss Encounter, and Action game. Normal encounters begin interesting but they take so much time that they are not worth doing by the end. On the flip side, sometimes you just don't have to deal with it, if you are strong enough you can just kill an enemy with an advantage attack. and some enemies you fight by just attacking them in the world until they explode. Bosses on the other hand have you following a maze to line up actions. This is fun in concept but again, it's more just you doing a puzzle and spending the bounty of coins you have to get a bit more time to logic them. Also.
Gameplay isn't the only issue, of course I have to bring up Characters because they have half done it. There are some meaningfully different toads which are fun characters but that only leads to the disastifaction of how many normal toads there are. We are in toad town rescuing the residents so from a world context, it makes sense for there to be a ton of toads, and as a collectible it's kind of great because they are all so homogenous but when you find toads that aren't hidden, or important to distinguish then, please put some effort it. It's not acceptable to think you can design an important npc by giving him a red jacket instead of a blue jacket. It's really weird when it's almost commented on with Bo-omb. They provide a pretty mature story and an extremely unexpected and insane concept of suicide bombing for you. And in the pen-ultimate scenario. Olivia notices they all look the same AND THEN completely ruin any emotional feeling for them by having you shoot them to their death on mass. This wouldn't have so out of tune if you even provided him with a hat, even if I think that's the bare minimum.
So on a more positive note, the world is pretty enjoyable to explore, some of the areas later on especially (maybe due to the reduction of necessary fights due to vehicles. Maybe felt like there was a bit of filler to try make the game longer which it could do without. I imagine the Great Sea would have been a chore if I didn't immediately go back for the upgraded engine. Weirdly there's a lot of instant Game Overs by the end of the game that really dampen the mood for exploration.
Some of my final complaints that I noted down. I lost the initiative to 100% this game early on but I even ignored rescuing all toads due to a few things. First is the lack of meaningful fast travel, I don't mean pipes, just the spin dash. The idea of walking to some of these areas and accidentally messing up a hammer swing was a scary thought. No technical reason due to the breakable equipment keeping me geared for the finale and, ironically too clear on gathering all accessories meant no incentive there either. Thirdly, no visceral reason. Even though the goal is to rescue toads to bring back to toad town, by the time it's mostly full, it still looks so incredibly sparse. Your lucky to get 2-3 toads in the same screen at the same time that I just stopped caring about wanting to see it full.
There are a lot of comfy scenes in the game. Coffee and Rest Areas were a nice breather and I always looked forward to them. This is a good place to note Olivia may be the strongest "companion" character in any game I've played. She acts childish but it feels quite real without being annoying, Mario feels quite fatherly ironically even though he doesn't really do anything which is an achievement to her writing.
So I was debating giving this a 3.5 but I'm not sure I can justify it given that I want to give it to it in spite of the gameplay. I don't think they can get away with being sticker star and super paper mario and more. The platforming RPG has legs still give it another shot in Super Paper Mario 2 and work on improving the base RPG and maybe we can get back on track
EarthBound
1994
Completion Criteria: Credits Hit
The old meme "Earthound fan playing the game for the first time" really hits because the aesthetic of the game have still hold up very well. But mechanically this feels like its aged quite poorly mainly just due to the anti-quality of life.
Lets start with good. Aesthetically, I think still holds up as a retro game. It's easy to understand why people still copy it's style to this day. It's vibrant and clear. In terms of music, a lot of it is extremely unique and recognizable, just good stuff. In terms of the setting. I think this is something that may be a bit underrated honestly. The games atmostphere only works so well because it's not entirely modern, its pseudo-modern but alien enough to add aliens. The rolldown is great in concept and even though there are issues with it, it's way better then some alternatives like ATB. Instakill, and advantage/disadvantage systems are also good game systems so I can't complain about that
Ok, postive is done. So what are the issues? The game wastes a lot of time for the sake of form. Inventory management is always tedious and never really gets better. and is made worse by the multiple steps that need to be made to store and withdraw items. Whilst some key items disappear after use, some don't and this leads to more annoyances. You can't even save without money so you have to go to the atm to do even that. I can understand why you might think these things are minor especially in this day you can rewind and use save states but purely from an authentic point of view it's not good. In terms of combat, it feels pretty basic. as a lot of older JRPGs tend to. Use basic attack until the boss and then spam your best stuff until you win. I think by the end the rolldown health also feels against the grain. As if you have a KO incoming you will just attempt to mash through everything. If you get hit first, and you can't mash through it in time it makes you contemplate your luck. A simple fix for that would be being able to interrupt turns to immediately swap to defense.
I think dungeons are probably my biggest let down for the game. I think only three maybe stand out as enjoyable but most feel quite tedious or just bad. Monkey Cave stands out as a great example of what I'm talking about here. Personal preference but when you have bad dungeon designs, visible enemies also feel worse. They feel more frustrating when they get in the way of progress or if you think you get a backhit and it doesn't register, even worse when you lose advantage. Personally, I found some areas to feel like moonlogic, or just not fully fleshed out.
Also, if you have a map function, don't lock it behind an item especially when it comes down to such a limited inventory
Realistically. A lot of problems could easily be fixed by a remaster that fixed inventory and phone calls. It's the old "X will break your immersion in this game about aliens?"
Give them a more modern phone that can save and call escargo express. Give a card that can pay for things on the fly. Seperate Key Items from main inventory. Not necessary but let me sort the inventory, and swap items with others to avoid the rigmarole of dropping something just so I can swap in such a way to pass equipment or Jeff items.
I think there seems to be an overrating of the themes of the game also. It's very easy to suggest that this is a representation of puberty or manhood or enlightenment but I think I could fit that narrative into other games as accurately
I knew I wasn't gonna love this game because I had played it before and didn't enjoy it then. I think the game definitely picks up later on but unfortunately the most enjoyable areas may be early with the exception of some of the dungeons. Luckily this gives me another urge to jump back into Mother 3 which I do think precedes it's reputation and I can finally close the missing hole it my JRPG reputoire
The old meme "Earthound fan playing the game for the first time" really hits because the aesthetic of the game have still hold up very well. But mechanically this feels like its aged quite poorly mainly just due to the anti-quality of life.
Lets start with good. Aesthetically, I think still holds up as a retro game. It's easy to understand why people still copy it's style to this day. It's vibrant and clear. In terms of music, a lot of it is extremely unique and recognizable, just good stuff. In terms of the setting. I think this is something that may be a bit underrated honestly. The games atmostphere only works so well because it's not entirely modern, its pseudo-modern but alien enough to add aliens. The rolldown is great in concept and even though there are issues with it, it's way better then some alternatives like ATB. Instakill, and advantage/disadvantage systems are also good game systems so I can't complain about that
Ok, postive is done. So what are the issues? The game wastes a lot of time for the sake of form. Inventory management is always tedious and never really gets better. and is made worse by the multiple steps that need to be made to store and withdraw items. Whilst some key items disappear after use, some don't and this leads to more annoyances. You can't even save without money so you have to go to the atm to do even that. I can understand why you might think these things are minor especially in this day you can rewind and use save states but purely from an authentic point of view it's not good. In terms of combat, it feels pretty basic. as a lot of older JRPGs tend to. Use basic attack until the boss and then spam your best stuff until you win. I think by the end the rolldown health also feels against the grain. As if you have a KO incoming you will just attempt to mash through everything. If you get hit first, and you can't mash through it in time it makes you contemplate your luck. A simple fix for that would be being able to interrupt turns to immediately swap to defense.
I think dungeons are probably my biggest let down for the game. I think only three maybe stand out as enjoyable but most feel quite tedious or just bad. Monkey Cave stands out as a great example of what I'm talking about here. Personal preference but when you have bad dungeon designs, visible enemies also feel worse. They feel more frustrating when they get in the way of progress or if you think you get a backhit and it doesn't register, even worse when you lose advantage. Personally, I found some areas to feel like moonlogic, or just not fully fleshed out.
Also, if you have a map function, don't lock it behind an item especially when it comes down to such a limited inventory
Realistically. A lot of problems could easily be fixed by a remaster that fixed inventory and phone calls. It's the old "X will break your immersion in this game about aliens?"
Give them a more modern phone that can save and call escargo express. Give a card that can pay for things on the fly. Seperate Key Items from main inventory. Not necessary but let me sort the inventory, and swap items with others to avoid the rigmarole of dropping something just so I can swap in such a way to pass equipment or Jeff items.
I think there seems to be an overrating of the themes of the game also. It's very easy to suggest that this is a representation of puberty or manhood or enlightenment but I think I could fit that narrative into other games as accurately
I knew I wasn't gonna love this game because I had played it before and didn't enjoy it then. I think the game definitely picks up later on but unfortunately the most enjoyable areas may be early with the exception of some of the dungeons. Luckily this gives me another urge to jump back into Mother 3 which I do think precedes it's reputation and I can finally close the missing hole it my JRPG reputoire
Super Mario World
1990
Always a masterpiece.
Valfaris
2019
This is one of those situations where I don't know why this game is in my Steam library, but I've purchased enough bundles over the years and this seems to be one of those games that you get from some bundle somewhere. Either way, if you have this in your library and haven't played it yet, please do.
The pitch for Valfaris is that it's a Contra-style run-and-gun but with metal music, stop motion-style animation, more forgiving checkpoints, and a much greater focus on biomechanical creatures. It looks and sounds wonderful.
This is a pretty tough game -- the end boss took me an hour or so to beat -- but it's very well designed. Valfaris gives me the type of experience I always wanted out of a Contra game. Tough-but-fair action, great-feeling guns, sick bosses, and a rip-roaring power fantasy.
It is a game that gets dramatically close to 5 stars if not for a back chunk that features both a small difficulty spike and a couple levels that go on and on. Worth playing and I fully recommend it, but with that asterisk.
Going to buy its new sequel either at full price or the next time it goes on sale to support the developers.
The pitch for Valfaris is that it's a Contra-style run-and-gun but with metal music, stop motion-style animation, more forgiving checkpoints, and a much greater focus on biomechanical creatures. It looks and sounds wonderful.
This is a pretty tough game -- the end boss took me an hour or so to beat -- but it's very well designed. Valfaris gives me the type of experience I always wanted out of a Contra game. Tough-but-fair action, great-feeling guns, sick bosses, and a rip-roaring power fantasy.
It is a game that gets dramatically close to 5 stars if not for a back chunk that features both a small difficulty spike and a couple levels that go on and on. Worth playing and I fully recommend it, but with that asterisk.
Going to buy its new sequel either at full price or the next time it goes on sale to support the developers.
Balatro
2024
As someone who's somewhat resistant to roguelikes, this one really surprised me. An enjoyment of card games and a rewarding gameplay loop had me really enjoying this.
Solid metroidvania that seems to take a lot of cues from Ori in terms of movement (which means it has good movement).
Streets of Rage 4
2020
Completion Criteria: Story Mode (Normal)
I've played a couple of 2D Beat'em ups. Nothing has really stood out to me outside of Scott Pilgrim Vs the World. Whilst I've enjoyed bits from others, overall I've treated them as, harsh but, brainless.
I want this to be clear because this is the first 2D beat'em up to break my expectations. Maybe this is purely just by the addition of a "trials" mode but the complexity of skill and utility felt immeasurably higher then others of the same standard. Whilst playing the idea of how to attack were more clear. And the risk Vs reward of special skills makes each move feel more engaging. The variation across the cast had me interested in playing many members of the cast and more importantly interested in replaying the games which is something I don't usually have.
Considering the amazing soundtrack, great artwork and great gameplay. It's hard to really find any faults in the game. From a design perspective, it does exactly what it intends to the only reasonable flaw I can throw at it is theres a difficulty spike in the final levels, which may be due to it being designed for a 2 player experience.
I look forward to going back and trying other characters and bumping up the difficulty
I've played a couple of 2D Beat'em ups. Nothing has really stood out to me outside of Scott Pilgrim Vs the World. Whilst I've enjoyed bits from others, overall I've treated them as, harsh but, brainless.
I want this to be clear because this is the first 2D beat'em up to break my expectations. Maybe this is purely just by the addition of a "trials" mode but the complexity of skill and utility felt immeasurably higher then others of the same standard. Whilst playing the idea of how to attack were more clear. And the risk Vs reward of special skills makes each move feel more engaging. The variation across the cast had me interested in playing many members of the cast and more importantly interested in replaying the games which is something I don't usually have.
Considering the amazing soundtrack, great artwork and great gameplay. It's hard to really find any faults in the game. From a design perspective, it does exactly what it intends to the only reasonable flaw I can throw at it is theres a difficulty spike in the final levels, which may be due to it being designed for a 2 player experience.
I look forward to going back and trying other characters and bumping up the difficulty
Islets
2022
Ever since its release on March 22nd, I've been playing Dragon's Dogma 2 nonstop. But DD2 is a very long game, and I needed a break, lest I sacrificed my enjoyment with it. Then, in one of their weekly giveaways, Epic put this game up for free. It looked like a cute metroidvania, and ever since December 2023 I've been on my 2D platformer phase. Still, I needed an extra push to actually give it a try, and it was then that I made a discovery: It is the previous game from the developer of another indie metroidvania I've been keeping an eye on, Crypt Custodian. That was enough for me to pull the trigger and download it, and I don't regret it for a second.
I'll start by saying that, despite not getting a higher score from me, there really isn't a whole lot of negatives to talk about. Part of the reason it doesn't have a higher score are small issues here and there, too small individually to impact the score, and some people might not even notice/be bothered by them to affect their judgement (Myself included), but since I like having some objectiveness in my reviews, I have to take them into consideration. The other part of the reason is that this game follows "How to make a metroidvania 101" a little too much by the book, which in one hand means that it's a good game within the genre, but also a little too safe gameplay-wise. Of course, not every game needs to be revolutionary, and there are unique mechanics, but a lot of them are underutilized, therefore it ends up a mostly textbook example of a metroidvania.
And yet, it compensates its bumps with everything else it offers. The best word I can use to describe Islets is "lovely", it's such a charming experience full of personality. Every aspect of this game blends together in wonderful and colorful vibes, calming and soothing, from the art style to the music. It's a very relaxing experience, even at its most intense moments.
At first, I had to get used to something I don't usually expect from metroidvanias: Momentum. It's something that you'll normally find in 2D platformers, not metroidvanias. But the more I played it, the more natural it felt, and you'll soon be rushing through the map with fluid movement. Exploration is very fun, it never felt like a chore to revisit areas to check new places I couldn't access due to not having a certain skill, or looking for secrets. If anything, it's hard to not be willing to get 100% completion.
Combat is simple, every now and then you'll use a couple of arrows but it's mostly based on poking enemies with your sword. Speaking of enemies, there's a decent variety of them, and sometimes they can be troublesome. Even better than that are the boss fights. They start simple and get more complex as you advance, and are pretty much all fun battles, I never raged at any of them even if sometimes it took me a few tries to beat them. There are also flying boss battles - which block your path towards new isles - in which you use your flying boat to fend them off. These only happen a couple of times and play like a bullet hell, they're pretty cool but half of them were a bit annoying, and I wish there were more of these sections. Other small complaints are that, firstly, the way you get your upgrades, finding collectibles in the map and then picking one of 3 random options, can often give you 3 mediocre options, leaving you with no choice but to pick one of them (Sometimes all the options are the same!). Secondly, the game is a little inconsistent with its difficulty. I played the entire thing on Hard, and yet sometimes things were a piece of cake, and other times enemies were super tough. Bosses do tend to follow a more linear difficulty progression at least.
If you expect a big story and books worth of lore, don't. And you know what? That's not a problem at all with this game! You'll learn most of what you need right as you start, and then get more worldbuilding and character interactions as you play, and the lighthearted and wholesome tone of it all makes for a very nice and positive experience. The characters are all fun too, and they'll have interesting things to say in every encounter, either collaborating with the worldbuilding or guiding you closer to your objectives.
The last two aspects of this game are what gives Islets the chill and wholesome tone it has: The visuals and the music. This game has a very pretty and well animated style, with vibrant colors and cute looking characters and enemies. Meanwhile, the music in this game is super chill, even the ones for battles, which in one hand isn't particularly memorable exactly because it doesn't stand out much, but in the other it is integral to the full experience in my opinion. Sound effects are good too, I don't know how to describe them better than "they totally fit", however I'm pretty sure it uses some borrowed sounds, such as a Minecraft grass sound for rolling and a Star Wars blaster for an enemy's attack.
Islets is a game that I would be willing to play a whole lot more if it was longer, taking me close to 12 hours to get 100%. It's fun, it's cute and it's a lovely experience. I dare say it's a perfect introductory game to the genre, maybe even to people that have never played games before (On lower difficulties) since it doesn't require many buttons or skill. A surprisingly great game and a hidden gem that I must share, even if it does have some lesser issues.
SCORE: 8.5/10
I'll start by saying that, despite not getting a higher score from me, there really isn't a whole lot of negatives to talk about. Part of the reason it doesn't have a higher score are small issues here and there, too small individually to impact the score, and some people might not even notice/be bothered by them to affect their judgement (Myself included), but since I like having some objectiveness in my reviews, I have to take them into consideration. The other part of the reason is that this game follows "How to make a metroidvania 101" a little too much by the book, which in one hand means that it's a good game within the genre, but also a little too safe gameplay-wise. Of course, not every game needs to be revolutionary, and there are unique mechanics, but a lot of them are underutilized, therefore it ends up a mostly textbook example of a metroidvania.
And yet, it compensates its bumps with everything else it offers. The best word I can use to describe Islets is "lovely", it's such a charming experience full of personality. Every aspect of this game blends together in wonderful and colorful vibes, calming and soothing, from the art style to the music. It's a very relaxing experience, even at its most intense moments.
At first, I had to get used to something I don't usually expect from metroidvanias: Momentum. It's something that you'll normally find in 2D platformers, not metroidvanias. But the more I played it, the more natural it felt, and you'll soon be rushing through the map with fluid movement. Exploration is very fun, it never felt like a chore to revisit areas to check new places I couldn't access due to not having a certain skill, or looking for secrets. If anything, it's hard to not be willing to get 100% completion.
Combat is simple, every now and then you'll use a couple of arrows but it's mostly based on poking enemies with your sword. Speaking of enemies, there's a decent variety of them, and sometimes they can be troublesome. Even better than that are the boss fights. They start simple and get more complex as you advance, and are pretty much all fun battles, I never raged at any of them even if sometimes it took me a few tries to beat them. There are also flying boss battles - which block your path towards new isles - in which you use your flying boat to fend them off. These only happen a couple of times and play like a bullet hell, they're pretty cool but half of them were a bit annoying, and I wish there were more of these sections. Other small complaints are that, firstly, the way you get your upgrades, finding collectibles in the map and then picking one of 3 random options, can often give you 3 mediocre options, leaving you with no choice but to pick one of them (Sometimes all the options are the same!). Secondly, the game is a little inconsistent with its difficulty. I played the entire thing on Hard, and yet sometimes things were a piece of cake, and other times enemies were super tough. Bosses do tend to follow a more linear difficulty progression at least.
If you expect a big story and books worth of lore, don't. And you know what? That's not a problem at all with this game! You'll learn most of what you need right as you start, and then get more worldbuilding and character interactions as you play, and the lighthearted and wholesome tone of it all makes for a very nice and positive experience. The characters are all fun too, and they'll have interesting things to say in every encounter, either collaborating with the worldbuilding or guiding you closer to your objectives.
The last two aspects of this game are what gives Islets the chill and wholesome tone it has: The visuals and the music. This game has a very pretty and well animated style, with vibrant colors and cute looking characters and enemies. Meanwhile, the music in this game is super chill, even the ones for battles, which in one hand isn't particularly memorable exactly because it doesn't stand out much, but in the other it is integral to the full experience in my opinion. Sound effects are good too, I don't know how to describe them better than "they totally fit", however I'm pretty sure it uses some borrowed sounds, such as a Minecraft grass sound for rolling and a Star Wars blaster for an enemy's attack.
Islets is a game that I would be willing to play a whole lot more if it was longer, taking me close to 12 hours to get 100%. It's fun, it's cute and it's a lovely experience. I dare say it's a perfect introductory game to the genre, maybe even to people that have never played games before (On lower difficulties) since it doesn't require many buttons or skill. A surprisingly great game and a hidden gem that I must share, even if it does have some lesser issues.
SCORE: 8.5/10
I could write an entire book on just how good this game is. It's a masterclass in story-telling, world design, combat mechanics, graphical design, voice-acting, basically every facet of development of this video game was done well. On top of all that, it somehow managed to capture the spirit of the original game, and still tell its own story that is faithful to the source material.
This is now my favourite game of all time.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is the current pinnacle of gaming.
This is now my favourite game of all time.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is the current pinnacle of gaming.