Take me on home to the asylum,
Never alone in the asylum
Anarchy ruled,
It was wild!
But through it all,
You never smiled
Joke’s on you,
I’m in your head
Look who’s laughing now!

Remember in Arkham City?
I killed your girl, so… pretty.
That was the night you let me die,
But when you looked me in the eye
That’s when I knew we’d be together,
Look who’s laughing now!

I’m stuck in your head and I’m laughing,
I fill you with dread, and I can’t stop laughing,
Your parents are dead, and I can’t stop laughing! HAHAHAH
What else can I do?
Now I’m part of you!

I am the clown prince of crime,
And we’ve had a hell of a time!
you’re part of me,
I’m part of you
Now there’s nothing we can’t do!
I can’t wait till I’m in control
Who’ll be laughing then?

I drove you round the bend and I’m laughing,
I’m with you till the end, and I can’t stop laughing,
I killed all your friends and I can’t stop laughing! HAHAHAH

Oh yeah!

Think I can taste your fear,
Now that my time is near
I’m in your blood, I’m so alive,
I only wish you’d let me drive
It won’t be long till I make you kill
Who’ll be laughing then?

Barbara’s dead, and I’m laughing,
Jason Todd’s dead, and I can’t stop laughing,
I’m even dead and I can’t stop laughing HAHAHAH
What else can I do?
Now I’m part of you.

I drove you round the bend and I’m laughing
I’m with you till the end, and I can’t stop laughing
I killed all your friends and I can’t stop laughing! HAHAHAHA
I’m cock-a-doodle-do!
All because of you.

I’m stuck in your head and I’m laughing
I fill you with dread, and I can’t stop laughing
Your parents are dead, and I can’t stop laughing! HAHAHA

I’m stuck in your head and I’m laughing,
I fill you with dread, and I can’t stop laughing,
Your parents are dead, and I can’t stop laughing!
What else can I do?

Now I’m part of you.

Im not a big fan of Telltale or this style of game, and Borderlands only barely works in this format - but Tales From The Borderlands is captivating for one real reason: it is meta-commentary. I have no clue if its on purpose but Rhys running around haunted by the literal ghost of Handsome Jack seems to curiously mirror how the series struggled to get out from under the shadow of Jack itself. Its a very poetic observation.

Its even more poetic considering that it doesnt seem like its worked out for Borderlands as a franchise quite as well as it did for Rhys. I also personally mourn the loss of mystique for Hyperion, made all too mortal and comprehensible by the events of Tales (made partially as a companion to the events of Pre-Sequel). Something of a bittersweet feeling emerges here: yes, Tales From The Borderlands is entertaining but its also…. not really Borderlands.

At this point in 1992, the Contra franchise was killing it, not only having two successful titles for both arcades and the NES, as well as one moderately successful one for the Game Boy, but it also had a brand spanking new installment for the SNES that, needless to say, was praised for being the best game in the series up to that point, as well as possibly the best Contra game ever made. Meanwhile, elsewhere, Konami was developing a separate game for the NES in Japan known as Arc Hound. Not much was known about this title, but it was originally supposed to come out sometime before Contra III, and based on screenshots from magazines, you could tell that it was pretty much just another Contra game in all but name. However, somewhere along the way, the game was ultimately canceled in Japan, but would see the light of day exclusively in North America, where it would take on the Contra name, thus resulting in the third and final game in the Contra series for the NES, Contra Force.

Out of all the early Contra games, this is definitely the one that is the least talked about, as most people, even fans of Contra, probably don’t know it exists. I myself didn’t know about it until earlier this year when I saw an incomplete playthrough of it, and judging from what I saw, I was pretty unimpressed. It looked like every other Contra game, except somehow worse, and it definitely made me not wanna touch it any time in the near future. But hey, it has been almost a year since I initially saw that playthrough, so who knows, maybe my past judgment was a little harsh. After all, you don’t know how good a game is until you actually try it for yourself, right? So, I tried it and… yeah, it is very mediocre. It is not necessarily terrible by any means, and it does do some things differently from the other titles, but if you have already played either of the other NES Contra titles, then you have no reason to seek out this one.

The story is to take down an evil terrorist organization threatening the city of… Neocity, so hey, if you didn’t like killing aliens, but you LOVE killing terrorists, then this game is right up your alley, the graphics are pretty good, but then again, they look about as good as any other game on the NES at the time, and when compared to the previous two games for the system, it isn’t much of an upgrade, the music is also pretty good, being on the same level as the previous two games, but it is pretty standard stuff for the series, so no reason to go any further then this, the contra is about the same as every other Contra game on the system, but with some extra features that don’t really change things up too mechanically, so no need to worry, and the gameplay is pretty much what you would expect from Contra at this point, but with a few more bells and whistles added on to it.

The game is a run ‘n gun platformer, where you take control of either Burns, Irons, Smith, and… Beans (well, that’s the worst name for a military soldier I have ever heard), take on a set of five levels, ranging from the regular side-scrolling ones and the top-down ones seen in Super C and Operation C, and they are varied, but blend in enough with each other without much of a difference, take out many different soldiers that will try to take you down along the way, gather plenty of powerups to help you upgrade yourself and get an advantage on the enemies along the way, and take on several bosses that will test your skill in either standing completely still and shooting in one direction, or actually providing a challenge that will keep you on your toes. Yes, it is very standard stuff, especially for a Contra game, but there are some things that make this game stand out from the others, even if these elements aren’t too exciting.

As mentioned before, you do get powerups in this game, which, rather than upgrading you immediately, they instead work in a similar way to Gradius, where it highlights a bar at the bottom left that you can activate any time you want. To be honest, I prefer this style of upgrades much more than the typical style in Contra, as it allows you to choose the powerups you want rather than accidentally grabbing one you didn’t want. Unfortunately, the upgrades themselves are pretty lackluster, such as one that allows more bullets on screen, one that allows you to hold down the button for constant fire (which isn’t available right from the start, WHY), and one where you are invulnerable to damage when jumping. But, there is more firepower to be found with the other characters, who each have their own individual stats, and who you can swap with anytime, and take control of in the stages. Not only that, but you can also temporarily spawn a partner in with you to help you out during fights, which can be pretty handy in dire situations.

Now, all of that is fine and dandy, but is any of that enough to save this game? Honestly… not really. It is more or less just another Contra game, and while it is neat that we have all these neat new bells and whistles added on, it is all clearly just more of the same, and while that is usually not a bad thing, it doesn’t help that this game doesn’t feel that good to play. It feels very sluggish and clunky, almost like you are in complete control, but not really, and what doesn’t help it is the sheer amount of slowdown that is present here. You will rarely see instances where the game will function at a proper speed whenever action is taking place on screen, and you could argue “Oh, it’s an NES game, so slowdown is inevitable”, but this was made after two previous Contra games for the system, both of which had little slowdown compared to this, so there is no excuse for this. Aside from that though, it doesn’t have that many problems, so if you somehow played this as your first Contra, you’d probably love it, but for others, not so much.

Overall, despite a lot of neat little gameplay changes, as well as having the spirit and energy of Contra, this game really pales in comparison to the previous two NES titles, and simply just stands as being “ok” and nothing more. I would recommend it if you are a die-hard Contra fan, but for those who have already played plenty of Contra beforehand, or are unfamiliar with the series, then you’d best stick to the other games. We can leave all of those soldiers out to die in their battle, especially Beans. You know what you did, you son of a bitch.

Game #358

Daymare 1998 started off as a Resident Evil 2 fan remake before becoming its own thing. So it is heavily inspired by older Resident Evil games and survival horror, but plays like something a bit more modern, and is crammed full of 80s and 90s references. It is very ambitious but also unfortunately very rough and doesn’t come close to what it is trying to copy. I kind of like it though, maybe even love it a bit.

Jank, awkward and occasionally frustrating, Daymare 1998 is in severe need of more time and polish. The environments and objects look good but they are let down by everything else. The zombies stumble towards you, limbs passing through things they shouldn’t, with weird rubber necks causing funny and unpredictable reactions to head shots. That’s if these zombies figure out which direction to move in, as they regularly spin on the spot and struggle to navigate doorways. And that’s if they’re not quietly hiding right behind a corner ready to try and jump scare you for the 20th god damn time when it didn’t work the first time. The best scare in the game came when I killed a zombie in a doorway and then as I walked through the doorway the zombie somehow got caught on the door and dragged upwards to become face to face with the character. The tougher zombies, who I think are known as Correct Form, just look goofy in movement and appearance. The Melted Man is generic and the bosses aren’t much better. There’s not much enemy variety here and none of them are intimidating or scary. The whole game isn’t scary or atmospheric either. The humans in this game aren’t a whole lot better. They just look low budget. Things get worse when you hear the dialogue and voice acting too. Anything emotional or dramatic falls flat not that these characters and their choices could be taken seriously anyway. Sadly the game never achieves a charming style of bad. A lot of it is just subpar and bland.

The gameplay has problems too. Exploration is often very straight forward. It rarely has that satisfying survival horror experience of slowly working your way deeper into a location by finding keys, solving puzzles and backtracking. Daymare 1998 is more linear but with roadblocks, there is nothing here that comes anywhere near close to the mansion from RE1 or the police station from RE2. The hospital is probably the area that comes closest to this except it still feels rather simple. Things are made worse by how long and tedious the game can feel at times; some of those chapters just drag on. It has a limited inventory, inventory management and its own brand of save rooms and items boxes but they don’t feel well implemented. Save checkpoints plus a small number of save rooms? Just pick one and do it right. There’s limited item space but not limited enough that I cared. It has a very basic hacking game that requires an item that will break if failed. It is pointless when you have checkpoints to abuse not that you’ll fail the hacking often anyway. There are pointless items and crafting and trading that don’t really add anything or get used well.

Shooting enemies doesn’t always go well because of the enemy issues I already described and other weird little things like a shot will go off but then there is a strange delay before the enemy gets hit. The enemies grab attack is a very long lunge that is a god damn homing missile that pretty much always requires sprinting to avoid. Don’t even get me started on the three stage tedious final boss that can be completely broken and silly in stage one and three if you take advantage of the pathetic enemy AI. The game never feels natural to control and this is coming from someone that loves tank controls and thinks they are excellent. There’s more to go through (bugs, technical issues, animations, gameplay issues) but I’ll stop here. You get the point – Daymare 1998 is not a completely awful, broken mess of a game, it’s just not very good in many ways.

However, I never once considered dropping it. Not only that I actually played through it twice. It’s rough, low budget, not great and was Invader Studios first game. On the other hand it is a likable game that is so ambitious, overflowing with passion and has good ideas. Imagine making your first survival horror game and not just focusing on a single location and character. Imagine going, nah we’ll have a few playable characters, multiple locations and shoot for something as good as our favourite game series. This is where all the problems come from. A tiny team shot for the moon on their first try and I can’t help but love and appreciate that even though Daymare 1998 ended up like this.

I really liked a bunch of the puzzles. I loved a lot of the ideas in the story and loved the effort put into the lore and documents. I liked the reveals at the end and the way things came together. I liked the environments and the zombies (when nothing is going wrong with them). I enjoyed the references throughout and that it is set in the 90s. One of the characters has a condition that causes hallucinations, which means getting attacked by false enemies. I loved that it’s viable and encouraged to try to dodge enemies and run past to save ammo. There is even a little melee attack that lets you clumsily bonk zombies, pushing them back and stunning them so you’ve got time to shoot or get away. I like that one type of the collectables and the secret rooms are found by sound. I like that they offer multiple difficulties and two modes. There is a classic mode and a modern mode that is a bit simpler and doesn’t use the games ammo management. Ammo and reloading is interesting as it requires you to combine bullets with the magazine, then when reloading there’s a slow reload and a fast one. The fast reload will drop the magazine on the ground and you need to pick it back up. It’s a cool idea that can add tension and could add to inventory choices and it feels like it belongs in survival horror.

These good ideas, and the ambition, the passion and that it is a type of game I like was enough to carry this experience for me. Daymare 1998 isn’t a very good game but it’s worth playing and there was more than enough here that I am going to purchase Invaders Studios follow up, the prequel Daymare 1994. Don’t let my score or the many other less than impressive scores this game has received scare you off. While I wouldn’t recommend this to everyone I would say that if you like survival horror then you should give this a try.

5.0/10

I feel so sorry for all non-Spanish speakers who will never understand just how funny the name ‘’Señor Chirridos’’ is; like… is not a bad translation of Mr. Scratch by any means, but it’s so fucking funny and it surprises me even more they just didn’t keep the original name… but I’m so glad they didn’t.

If Alan Wake is the main TV series, then American Nightmare feels like a Halloween special, which seems to be exactly what they were going for. Despite the original game having such an open finale and this going directly after it, it doesn’t really build upon the pre-established narrative beyond Alan’s character and his conflict with his doppelgänger, and that’s fine! I’m totally up for a shorter, more fast-paced story in this world, and American Nightmare does have a super interesting premise.

I actually liked how the combat worked in the first game, so expanding on that with more weapons and enemies while using the backdrop of a Night Springs episode and introducing a time-loop is the kind of craziness I can get behind, and AM does succeed at creating more interesting combat encounters than the original game ever did… but doesn’t try to go for more than that despite its many opportunities.

It does show a promising start; the three main areas of Arizona are interesting and fun to go through and a perfect excuse to battle the Taken, getting more manuscript pages, see more of Mr. Scratch and the little interactions with each of the characters, while not as natural as any of the conversations with the fellas of Bright Falls, are pretty neat. With the addition of a couple of weapons and enemies, this feels like the kind of combat sections they wanted to make the first time around; they even took out the driving section! We are freed from this accursed blight!

And we even get to hear how Barry and the Old Gods of Asgard are doing, glad to know they are still putting out pure fire!

It’s a pretty good time, a simple one, but it has some cool moments, I really liked the battles, and overall is just an entertaining time!... and then the second loop begins.

I absolutely love the idea of time-loops as a gameplay system, getting to learn more of the world and levels and using that knowledge to do tasks way faster and m is the best, however, poorly implemented time-loops can turn into doing the exact same thing x amount of times only with a different objective or two and with some new enemies… guess what American Nightmare decides to do. Each time loop is shorter than the last one, but not because you actively take decisions that make things speed up, but because either what were multiple objectives is only one now or because a NPC did the thing way before you. It doesn’t help that the major set-pieces don’t change at all; watching the petrol extractor is a cool sequence, but not one I would have liked to go through three times, and no, putting rock songs, as good as hey sound, doesn’t make it different or better.

Going through the motions the first time was fine, but having to walk through the same rope two other times is a chore, even if gets shorter every time. Worst part is that they really could have given you more openness if they really wanted; the NPCs you encounter also remember the time loops and no matter what, you can only truly win at the end of the last one, so diving you more lenience on how you deal with things wouldn’t have really affected thing at all, and we have here is just an excuse to turn 3 levels into 9.

As the loops go on, more enemies get introduced, and… listen, I really do like the combat way more on here, and some of the new enemies are pretty interesting; the Taken that throws projectiles and explosives and the one that divides each time you shine light on him are super cool ideas from a gameplay-wise and as ideas on their own but the rest of them… in many ways they feel like a waste. The enemies that replace the birds from the original game are faster to deal with but just as annoying, the giants are bullet sponges with no interest move-sets on their own, and the spiders are cool story wise, since they apparently are not part of the Taken perse and instead are part of the Dark Place fauna, but they being just big spiders feels like a wasted opportunity to create something way more cool and alien, and alsoWHY THE FUCK DID THEY HAVE TO BE SPIDERS OH MY GOD-

American Nightmare doesn’t create challenges by throwing enemies with interesting sets of moves, it just throws at you guys that really know how to take damage or a ton of them at the same time, best exemplified on the Arcade mode. I do know and understand that this is a more gameplay-focused entry, but when in the main story you go through the same beats over and over with some minor alterations, and the arcade mode —which by the way, has some unique level themes that I would have preferred to see much more in the main story instead of going through the Observatory three times — is just Wake against waves of enemies and see what score you can get… at a certain point the game loses me, and it doesn’t pull from the creativeness that I know it has and can have to keep me glued to it.

The Taken stay completely silent, and the creepy charm that was found on hearing their grunts and lines amongst the trees is completely gone; the manuscript pages are way less interesting this time around, and the opportunity of this being based around and taking place in a Night Springs episode Alan wrote isn’t taken advantage of at any point, making for a way less interesting story, and use of the reality- bending pages.

In the end, the thing that really kept me more intrigued and wanting to see the game to the finale was, who else, Mr. Scratch himself. I enjoyed most of the villains in the original Alan Wake, but NONE feel like Mr. Scratch; the sound distorting every time Wake says his name, the way he taunts Alan and how he ENJOYS being the worst of him, a true monster all the way through, it’s a disturbing delight every time he’s on screen (literally) and the uneasiness he carries is one I didn’t expected to be done so well. I wished he and Alan had more opportunities to bounce each other, ‘cause every time they did it was a delight, and luckily it seems that American Nightmare isn’t that important to the overall Alan Wake narrative, so hopefully he didn’t kick the bucket, I’d love to see more of him…

There’s still that Alan Wake attention to detail and story in here, but it didn’t go as deep as it could have, and we have is a story that, while fun at times and with some cool extras and secrets, it still is what is: a Halloween special that doesn’t want to be a real successor or groundbreaking, but it also doesn’t take advantage of the potential it itself sets, and it can drag on at times… Still fun and funny at times, tho!

We’ll meet again, Champion of Light

I’ll see you soon, Herald of Darkness

Hearing that new video game system you’re about to buy comes with a free title designed to show off its special capabilities likely calls to mind some paltry minigame compilation à la Welcome Park on PS Vita. Sony has actually preloaded their latest home console with a full-fledged 3D collect-a-thon platformer of remarkable quality though! It may not end up being as iconic as Wii Sports, but is a very welcome member of the PS5’s library nonetheless.

It feels like a gleeful celebration of the company’s long history. Not in a supercilious, self-aggrandizing way, but in a manner more akin to sitting down with an old friend and reminiscing fond memories. Everywhere you look there’s an Easter egg or deep cut reference that’s been lovingly placed there to bring a smile to the face of any abiding PlayStation devotee while reminding them of the types of experiences they can’t get anywhere else.

As delightful as all of that is though, it’s the gameplay that matters most and if that didn’t hold up then this package would carry no value. Astro’s Playroom manages to succeed due to spacing out the stages meant to make use of the controller’s unique functions with excellent traditional ones that you can explore and grab things in at your leisure. The levels that see you tilting the DualSense and playing around with its touchpad and adaptive triggers admittedly are a tad gimmicky (especially those dang frog suit sections), but remain fun in spite of that by never outstaying their welcome.

Another aspect that really impressed me was the sheer amount of interactivity. In the starting hub area alone, you can smack all of the little Bots to have them tag along behind you and amass a huge horde of followers. What purpose does this serve? None as far as I can tell! It's just a single example of the many neat little features the devs have included that allow you to find extra amusement in engaging with your surroundings. It's something I wish more games would do.

This might also be the perfect length, striking that nice balance between charming demo you spend a little time with before moving on to the games you actually bought the console for and a more fulfilling offering that can keep you coming back for a few additional hours via the healthy amount of collectibles to hunt down. AP won't be on any top ten of the PS5's lifespan lists when all is said and done, yet is a fantastic freebie regardless that there's absolutely no reason for you to not check out if you own the hardware.

9/10

The platforming is serviceable, but the lack of overall visual polish severely diminished my desire to spend significant portions of time within the game. There's a handful of levels that felt like they were still partially in the grey-box stage.
For reference: Mario Galaxy had me marathoning the entire game in a single sitting. This has me taking breaks every ~3 hours.
I'll definitely return periodically to finish Demon Turf though. The actual movement is quite good imo, but few of the levels proved memorable.

I can definitely see why this game is hailed as a classic by many, that being said though there were many things about the game design that I found frustrating and hold the game back a lot. For one thing the game is really slow, Alucard cannot sprint or move faster than a walking speed at all and it just kind of slows down the pace of the game a lot, on top of that the controls are really stiff and unresponsive at times and that bogs down gameplay as well. Another gripe of mine is the difficulty, the game just feels unfair at times due to the enemy placement, literal death traps of rooms, and absurd amount of knockback and stun when you're hit by anything, it just makes the deaths feel unearned a lot of the time and it can be frustrating. Add onto this the fact that when you die you go back to the last place you saved and will have to slowly trudge back to where you were from that save room only for you to potentially die to the exact same things again and it's just not fun. And then there's the old metroidvania factor, and by that I mean the inevitability of getting lost, confused and frustrated by the way the game just drops you in and gives you no way at all to know if you're going the right way. The game doesn't even have a readily available map from the start, you have to buy it from a merchant if you want to have the slightest hint of where you're going. All these problems detract from the game for me and don't make it quite the masterpiece that many people make it out to be, but there are plenty of good aspects here as well. The 2D sprite artstyle looks really good and is very well detailed, the boss fights are pretty fun, the story and characters are interesting, the music goes hard, and for the most part the moment to moment gameplay is pretty fun. Despite all it's flaws I think Symphony of the Night is still a good game, just one that hasn't aged quite as gracefully as it's reputation.