Kremdanieko
2022
A little to the left is an IQ test disguised as a "cozy" game. As such it's entirely about figuring out the logic behind a pattern and recreating this pattern.
It will occasionally get particularly daring by making you play spot the difference, but that's about it.
The visuals were cute enough and the music was nice. But I would only spend about a dollar on it for the short length and repetition present. If you have gamepass, it's on there so maybe give it a try.
It will occasionally get particularly daring by making you play spot the difference, but that's about it.
The visuals were cute enough and the music was nice. But I would only spend about a dollar on it for the short length and repetition present. If you have gamepass, it's on there so maybe give it a try.
The unique ideas that Crab Souls brings to the formula are an entertaining mixup to be sure, but they don't hide the issues I had with the game.
Enemy stats seem overtuned. Even with a lot of stats put into attack, it never felt like it made a difference. Their damage output is also kind of absurd. Being prone to two-shotting the player at any given time.
Bosses felt the most balanced. Predictable but tricky attack timings and movesets that felt more in line with Dark Souls 1 than the later titles in that franchise. They were the highlight of the experience for me because of this.
The writing was winceworthy to me and I really didn't like the characterization of the main character. The overuse of the word "kiddo" also bugged me as I went on. Seeing as a prominent character will call the protagonist this about 50 times every conversation with her.
The game is on gamepass and I'd probably reccommend playing it there if you really like souls clones. It has some neat ideas, but unfortunate jank and lacking enemy variety prevent it from being something really special.
Enemy stats seem overtuned. Even with a lot of stats put into attack, it never felt like it made a difference. Their damage output is also kind of absurd. Being prone to two-shotting the player at any given time.
Bosses felt the most balanced. Predictable but tricky attack timings and movesets that felt more in line with Dark Souls 1 than the later titles in that franchise. They were the highlight of the experience for me because of this.
The writing was winceworthy to me and I really didn't like the characterization of the main character. The overuse of the word "kiddo" also bugged me as I went on. Seeing as a prominent character will call the protagonist this about 50 times every conversation with her.
The game is on gamepass and I'd probably reccommend playing it there if you really like souls clones. It has some neat ideas, but unfortunate jank and lacking enemy variety prevent it from being something really special.
2007
If there was any proof that video games aren't art, this is it.
Over the years I've seen a lot of this titles implied negatives. How it's best left forgotten, but to be completely honest the Lost Frontier left me feeling a mix of emotions. But I was never left feeling contempt or distaste for the game.
The High Impact logo at the start colours the entire experience. Having experience with both Size Matters and Secret Agent Clank, I thought the stories may be true about this game, however the low bar of being better than those games has been crossed easily. The stench of High Impact is still present. The camera behaves oddly, enemies have spongey health bars, and the core movement just feels stiff and awkward. Jak's moveset has been stripped down from past games. Nothing flows as well as they did in the trilogy, and he lacks the roll, longjump, and highjump. In their place are new Eco powers that were the highlight of the whole experience. Useful for platforming, puzzles, and combat, the Eco powers come in the form of a shield you roll around in, some crystals you can summon, a mine, slow motion, etc. They're better utilized than the Light Jak powers in 3 and I enjoyed using them to my advantage whenever I had the chance.
The new ship combat is another story. It's fine, and never particularly challenging. There's customization of the ship to tailor it to your liking but I never engaged with it much beyond just upgrading the mods I was using and survived just fine. It's just as stiff as Jak's on the ground moveset and never as fun as anything you do grounded.
The final new feature is Dark Daxter. Dark Daxter is a stupid idea with boring gameplay. I got softlocked in one of these stages and had to kill myself to proceed.
Narratively speaking, The Lost Frontier has an alright outline of a story. Jak, Daxter, and Keira travel to the edge of the world to find a new source of Eco because for some reason they need to or the world will die. They're accosted by pirates and eventually meet a man named Skyheed who helps them out and invites them to the city he rules. You do a tutorial for shooting the guns and then leave the city never to return until it appears as the final level of the game. They get some mcguffin there, which is stolen by pirates, and then Keira gets kidnapped, and then you do some dogfighting and they make a truce and become fairly buddy buddy with Jak for the rest of the game. It feels rushed and unfinished, probably because it was just the skeletons of a story given to High Impact of all studios. Things never really advance in a satisfying way, characters are portrayed in bizarre ways, and the game has very little fanfare for some of its bigger twists and turns. Speaking of fanfare, the soundtrack is ok too. It's never memorable but it gets the job done. And visually speaking the game has the same ugly, muddy textures of the Ratchet PSP games, but it manages to stay consistent stylistically with the PS2 games so I have to give credit where it's due.
As the final game of the series I can see why fans would be disappointed however it's not the 0/10 I've been led to believe it is for many years. It's simply mediocre. And maybe that's a worse fate for the final game of this franchise.
The High Impact logo at the start colours the entire experience. Having experience with both Size Matters and Secret Agent Clank, I thought the stories may be true about this game, however the low bar of being better than those games has been crossed easily. The stench of High Impact is still present. The camera behaves oddly, enemies have spongey health bars, and the core movement just feels stiff and awkward. Jak's moveset has been stripped down from past games. Nothing flows as well as they did in the trilogy, and he lacks the roll, longjump, and highjump. In their place are new Eco powers that were the highlight of the whole experience. Useful for platforming, puzzles, and combat, the Eco powers come in the form of a shield you roll around in, some crystals you can summon, a mine, slow motion, etc. They're better utilized than the Light Jak powers in 3 and I enjoyed using them to my advantage whenever I had the chance.
The new ship combat is another story. It's fine, and never particularly challenging. There's customization of the ship to tailor it to your liking but I never engaged with it much beyond just upgrading the mods I was using and survived just fine. It's just as stiff as Jak's on the ground moveset and never as fun as anything you do grounded.
The final new feature is Dark Daxter. Dark Daxter is a stupid idea with boring gameplay. I got softlocked in one of these stages and had to kill myself to proceed.
Narratively speaking, The Lost Frontier has an alright outline of a story. Jak, Daxter, and Keira travel to the edge of the world to find a new source of Eco because for some reason they need to or the world will die. They're accosted by pirates and eventually meet a man named Skyheed who helps them out and invites them to the city he rules. You do a tutorial for shooting the guns and then leave the city never to return until it appears as the final level of the game. They get some mcguffin there, which is stolen by pirates, and then Keira gets kidnapped, and then you do some dogfighting and they make a truce and become fairly buddy buddy with Jak for the rest of the game. It feels rushed and unfinished, probably because it was just the skeletons of a story given to High Impact of all studios. Things never really advance in a satisfying way, characters are portrayed in bizarre ways, and the game has very little fanfare for some of its bigger twists and turns. Speaking of fanfare, the soundtrack is ok too. It's never memorable but it gets the job done. And visually speaking the game has the same ugly, muddy textures of the Ratchet PSP games, but it manages to stay consistent stylistically with the PS2 games so I have to give credit where it's due.
As the final game of the series I can see why fans would be disappointed however it's not the 0/10 I've been led to believe it is for many years. It's simply mediocre. And maybe that's a worse fate for the final game of this franchise.
2004
After reaching new lows with Jak 2, I was expecting very little from Jak 3. So to my surprise, the game is a fairly solid romp despite some flaws that hold it back from being a true favourite.
The guns have been tightened up significantly thanks to the new mods, which lets them design platforming challenges around the fact you can actually deal with enemies while jumping. The jetboard is just as fun as it was in Jak 2, and the leapers taking the mechanics from the flut flut in the first game was a welcome surprise.
Spargus City is a smaller, better designed hub than Haven City. Never taking more than a minute or so to get from point A to point B. And on top of that, the developers placed mission start points where the missions actually take place most of the time.
I wish the game had a heavier emphasis on platforming, but the sections it does have are solid. The minigames are a bit of a mixed bag but I never hated dealing with any of them like I hated sections of Jak 2. And the open world wasteland isn't my favourite part of the game, but it's a fun enough diversion to drive around in.
The Jak series has had an identity crisis and a half with none of the games really sharing an exact ideology in spite of sharing the same core platforming moveset. However I'm glad the trilogy ended off with a good game instead of another Renegade.
The guns have been tightened up significantly thanks to the new mods, which lets them design platforming challenges around the fact you can actually deal with enemies while jumping. The jetboard is just as fun as it was in Jak 2, and the leapers taking the mechanics from the flut flut in the first game was a welcome surprise.
Spargus City is a smaller, better designed hub than Haven City. Never taking more than a minute or so to get from point A to point B. And on top of that, the developers placed mission start points where the missions actually take place most of the time.
I wish the game had a heavier emphasis on platforming, but the sections it does have are solid. The minigames are a bit of a mixed bag but I never hated dealing with any of them like I hated sections of Jak 2. And the open world wasteland isn't my favourite part of the game, but it's a fun enough diversion to drive around in.
The Jak series has had an identity crisis and a half with none of the games really sharing an exact ideology in spite of sharing the same core platforming moveset. However I'm glad the trilogy ended off with a good game instead of another Renegade.
2003
I could write many paragraphs about every little thing that annoyed me about this game. From the mediocre soundtrack where you'll mostly hear the droning alert theme, the cramped open world, or the unsatisfying and frustrating gunplay.
Instead I'm going to say that buried within the muck and filth that is this trend-chasing derivative mess, there's a Jak sequel I wish I was playing instead. The few all too short levels taking advantage of the jetboard. Mixing it in with proper platforming and reasonable enemy spawns.
If Naughty Dog had made that game I would've swallowed the weird edgelord tone no problem. Instead it's a game I never want to return to.
Instead I'm going to say that buried within the muck and filth that is this trend-chasing derivative mess, there's a Jak sequel I wish I was playing instead. The few all too short levels taking advantage of the jetboard. Mixing it in with proper platforming and reasonable enemy spawns.
If Naughty Dog had made that game I would've swallowed the weird edgelord tone no problem. Instead it's a game I never want to return to.
2024
For the record I only played this for 2 and a half hours.
The game is a grinding simulator and nothing about it feels good. Jumping, climbing, attacking, etc. feels like empty air, the sound effects are both bad and also don't work half the time, and the games aesthetics feel messy.
Fighting alongside your pokemon would be novel but there's nothing to it since they just do their own thing, poorly. They get stuck and sometimes disappear into the ether.
The game as a whole feels like it was made with a machine. Just a mishmash of the most popular games and genres out there at the current time. With their own original designs being random aspects of existing pokemon slapped together to create their "original" designs.
If you feel you HAVE to try it out, try it out with gamepass and play something actually good while you're subscribed.
The game is a grinding simulator and nothing about it feels good. Jumping, climbing, attacking, etc. feels like empty air, the sound effects are both bad and also don't work half the time, and the games aesthetics feel messy.
Fighting alongside your pokemon would be novel but there's nothing to it since they just do their own thing, poorly. They get stuck and sometimes disappear into the ether.
The game as a whole feels like it was made with a machine. Just a mishmash of the most popular games and genres out there at the current time. With their own original designs being random aspects of existing pokemon slapped together to create their "original" designs.
If you feel you HAVE to try it out, try it out with gamepass and play something actually good while you're subscribed.
2023
Of the many indie 3D platformers with "retro" visuals I've played so far, Corn Kidz gets the closest to nailing the aesthetic down. With cute and appealing character designs, authentically muddy textures, and very low poly side-characters, the visuals could have come straight from the console it takes its subtitle from. The main characters animations are extremely bouncy, with a hefty amount of squash and stretch that reminded me of Jak & Daxter's wonderful use of the technique.
The soundtrack is alright. It has a few decent songs but the one you'll be hearing the longest is grating, repetitive, and loves to abuse the cowbell.
Unfortunately the gameplay doesn't quite live up to the level of the visuals. The developer decided it would be wise to add 4 separate buttons to activate different camera angles. You need to constantly hold the right stick in a certain direction to keep it facing that way, and this goes for the zoomed in "aiming mode". Making hitting moving targets with the timed projectiles a pain, especially since the projectiles are in the way on screen.
Levels are also fairly spacious, and the game has no fast movement option. The headbutt attack has a delay before and after using it which makes long distance movement with it feel awful. The lockon feature with it also feels like it sometimes has a mind of its own, and during the final level I fell into a pit during a certain section several times with no idea why Seve didn't do his wallrun instead.
The game is fairly short, but as with every one of these games, it is also fairly cheap. It's worth the asking price, but don't go in expecting a masterpiece.
The soundtrack is alright. It has a few decent songs but the one you'll be hearing the longest is grating, repetitive, and loves to abuse the cowbell.
Unfortunately the gameplay doesn't quite live up to the level of the visuals. The developer decided it would be wise to add 4 separate buttons to activate different camera angles. You need to constantly hold the right stick in a certain direction to keep it facing that way, and this goes for the zoomed in "aiming mode". Making hitting moving targets with the timed projectiles a pain, especially since the projectiles are in the way on screen.
Levels are also fairly spacious, and the game has no fast movement option. The headbutt attack has a delay before and after using it which makes long distance movement with it feel awful. The lockon feature with it also feels like it sometimes has a mind of its own, and during the final level I fell into a pit during a certain section several times with no idea why Seve didn't do his wallrun instead.
The game is fairly short, but as with every one of these games, it is also fairly cheap. It's worth the asking price, but don't go in expecting a masterpiece.
2022
This review contains spoilers
Reviewed on version 0.6.2.
Seeing as the game isn't complete, this will be more of a stream of conscious review rather than one with much thought put into how to articulate myself.
Voices of the Void is a spiritual successor to Signal simulator with its own twists on the gameplay and atmosphere. Using source engine sound effects with ps1 styled blocky textures, unreal engine lighting, and models too high definition but too janky to fit neatly into any category, VoTV has a bit of an identity crisis aesthetically.
In spite of these issues the game manages to craft a decent atmosphere, letting the player sink into the workplace and loop of finding signals, writing down hash codes, and fixing up servers and transformers. The game features a myriad of upgrades and items to help smooth out this process, however an issue arises where things go too smoothly. Once you buy kerfur, upgrade the stability, and get any useful upgrades to improve the speed at which you can acquire and process signals, the game becomes rote and formulaic. You'll rarely need to leave the base to fix up the transformers and write down hash codes, but these are quick and easy. There's exploration to be done, but by the point I was getting bored of the core loop, the main alien entities started spawning in. Ones that can actually kill you.
The suns floating around, the occasional ariral bully arriving, and a few events that either just give a visual change or shake your base are all to keep you entertained as you reach into the late 30s all the way until the demo is completed on day 44. There's potential here, but unless there's more to do in the base than decorate while you're trying not to get killed, I don't think the final hours of the game will be worth replaying by the time the game is complete.
Seeing as the game isn't complete, this will be more of a stream of conscious review rather than one with much thought put into how to articulate myself.
Voices of the Void is a spiritual successor to Signal simulator with its own twists on the gameplay and atmosphere. Using source engine sound effects with ps1 styled blocky textures, unreal engine lighting, and models too high definition but too janky to fit neatly into any category, VoTV has a bit of an identity crisis aesthetically.
In spite of these issues the game manages to craft a decent atmosphere, letting the player sink into the workplace and loop of finding signals, writing down hash codes, and fixing up servers and transformers. The game features a myriad of upgrades and items to help smooth out this process, however an issue arises where things go too smoothly. Once you buy kerfur, upgrade the stability, and get any useful upgrades to improve the speed at which you can acquire and process signals, the game becomes rote and formulaic. You'll rarely need to leave the base to fix up the transformers and write down hash codes, but these are quick and easy. There's exploration to be done, but by the point I was getting bored of the core loop, the main alien entities started spawning in. Ones that can actually kill you.
The suns floating around, the occasional ariral bully arriving, and a few events that either just give a visual change or shake your base are all to keep you entertained as you reach into the late 30s all the way until the demo is completed on day 44. There's potential here, but unless there's more to do in the base than decorate while you're trying not to get killed, I don't think the final hours of the game will be worth replaying by the time the game is complete.
2023
Short and fun, but the combat was pretty mediocre and I'm not sure it needed to have metroidvania conventions.
2012
Pretty blatantly style over substance game with some rather frustrating sections and somewhat wonky controls. Akira Yamaoka's soundtrack is solid, and the licensed tracks are fun and appropriate when used.
Suda's name is plastered everywhere as creative director, but the actual director Tomo Ikeda is buried in the generic credits, which is kind of sad.
I wonder how the remake is gonna hold up in comparison.
Suda's name is plastered everywhere as creative director, but the actual director Tomo Ikeda is buried in the generic credits, which is kind of sad.
I wonder how the remake is gonna hold up in comparison.
2003
In recent times, the only memory people seem to put into this game is the ability to piss and shit on command and the bizarrely dark plot, however Dog's Life is more than just these elements.
There was clearly care put into making sure Jake's movements look natural when making turns or going up and down slopes. His legs will move in a believable enough way and his body will rotate accordingly. It's a shockingly good looking system considering the rest of the game. However this makes the platforming frustrating, seeing as he will refuse to make a jump unless it seems feasible and would look natural. I can appreciate the effort put into this in spite of how it makes the game feel to actually play.
The music is wonderful and compliments each area really well. It's a lot of peaceful and relaxing tracks, with a few high tempo ones that are catchy and fun for the appropriate sections they play in.
However, visually, the game is a mess. Human models are gross and low poly and all the textures are muddy even for PS2 standards. The dogs were clearly the main attraction for the developers, but some of them still look just off, like the doberman.
Strangely enough, Jake has a dirt system where the more you run around the more mud gets onto his coat, albeit far too quickly, and you need to clean it off if you want to be presentable to random people.
On Jake's quest, he will need to collect enough bones to get past the dog catchers doberman. To do this, you will need to talk to NPCs and do tasks for them, collect certain scents, and even take control of other dogs. To do this, you need to collect one of two types of scents in the area that has a minigame attached. These range from marking territory, races, tag, and more. Once you complete one of these tasks you get to control the dog whenever you want, however there's a time limit related to how difficult or far away the task is. Completing the second minigame after this gives you a bone. There's actually a shocking amount of bones in the game, and you'll need 90 to get into the finale.
There's enough variation in the tasks, and each NPC adds a little extra spice, so even some mediocre tasks have enough going on to keep me invested until the end.
Ultimately, I think the game is worth playing for anyone into dogs or collectathons. Or just oddities on the PS2 in general. I played it as a very small child so my opinion may be clouded, but I think it's worth remembering past the toilet humour present.
Also there's rampant pedigree advertisement in it.
There was clearly care put into making sure Jake's movements look natural when making turns or going up and down slopes. His legs will move in a believable enough way and his body will rotate accordingly. It's a shockingly good looking system considering the rest of the game. However this makes the platforming frustrating, seeing as he will refuse to make a jump unless it seems feasible and would look natural. I can appreciate the effort put into this in spite of how it makes the game feel to actually play.
The music is wonderful and compliments each area really well. It's a lot of peaceful and relaxing tracks, with a few high tempo ones that are catchy and fun for the appropriate sections they play in.
However, visually, the game is a mess. Human models are gross and low poly and all the textures are muddy even for PS2 standards. The dogs were clearly the main attraction for the developers, but some of them still look just off, like the doberman.
Strangely enough, Jake has a dirt system where the more you run around the more mud gets onto his coat, albeit far too quickly, and you need to clean it off if you want to be presentable to random people.
On Jake's quest, he will need to collect enough bones to get past the dog catchers doberman. To do this, you will need to talk to NPCs and do tasks for them, collect certain scents, and even take control of other dogs. To do this, you need to collect one of two types of scents in the area that has a minigame attached. These range from marking territory, races, tag, and more. Once you complete one of these tasks you get to control the dog whenever you want, however there's a time limit related to how difficult or far away the task is. Completing the second minigame after this gives you a bone. There's actually a shocking amount of bones in the game, and you'll need 90 to get into the finale.
There's enough variation in the tasks, and each NPC adds a little extra spice, so even some mediocre tasks have enough going on to keep me invested until the end.
Ultimately, I think the game is worth playing for anyone into dogs or collectathons. Or just oddities on the PS2 in general. I played it as a very small child so my opinion may be clouded, but I think it's worth remembering past the toilet humour present.
Also there's rampant pedigree advertisement in it.
Style over substance with mandatory grinding to get the most basic of beat em up moves.
If my friend hadn't told me about the infinite money exploit I wouldn't have bothered.
If my friend hadn't told me about the infinite money exploit I wouldn't have bothered.
2008
All the flaws of Size Matters with none of the positives. Soundtrack is just really samey and every part of this game feels half baked and dull at the best of times.
There's a distinct lack of focus and none of the mechanics feel like they got polished enough to stand out as the highlight.
The final boss is actually kind of fun but I wouldn't play the game for that. Everything else drags the experience down too much for it to be worth trying unless you need to beat every game in the series.
There's a distinct lack of focus and none of the mechanics feel like they got polished enough to stand out as the highlight.
The final boss is actually kind of fun but I wouldn't play the game for that. Everything else drags the experience down too much for it to be worth trying unless you need to beat every game in the series.
Ratchet and Clank is finally on PC, and being a longtime fan of the series, I'm glad I can play this without shelling out for a PS5.
Rift Apart is a very solid game. Maybe I have to ruminate on this longer, but I prefer it over any of the ones on PS3. However, as someone that played the PS3 titles, seeing certain sections of levels lifted straight from Tools of Destruction and a suite of enemies that barely feel different from their incarnations in the PS3 games, I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. Bosses are also mostly absent. There are a few unique ones, but most of them are reused minibosses constantly thrown in to cap off sections, and it gets old.
Narratively, Rift Apart is just okay. A few jokes made me smile a little but a majority fell flat. Certain characters were charming, but I quickly got tired of every protagonist being self doubting and lacking in self confidence. Maybe this was just the vibe at Insomniac during development. Dr. Nefarious still feels a bit empty without Lawrence, but he's a welcome change of pace from all the sadsacks you play as.
The PC port is mostly solid, running okay on my old 1050 TI and with swift load times for being put on a HDD over an SSD. However I did experience several crashes and a lot of dropped frames.
The M&KB controls feel fantastic and I would love to play more of these games with them if they were ever to port more.
Overall, I'm happy with the game. It's one of the best post PS2 Ratchet titles and I look forward to playing it again in the future on a stronger PC.
Rift Apart is a very solid game. Maybe I have to ruminate on this longer, but I prefer it over any of the ones on PS3. However, as someone that played the PS3 titles, seeing certain sections of levels lifted straight from Tools of Destruction and a suite of enemies that barely feel different from their incarnations in the PS3 games, I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. Bosses are also mostly absent. There are a few unique ones, but most of them are reused minibosses constantly thrown in to cap off sections, and it gets old.
Narratively, Rift Apart is just okay. A few jokes made me smile a little but a majority fell flat. Certain characters were charming, but I quickly got tired of every protagonist being self doubting and lacking in self confidence. Maybe this was just the vibe at Insomniac during development. Dr. Nefarious still feels a bit empty without Lawrence, but he's a welcome change of pace from all the sadsacks you play as.
The PC port is mostly solid, running okay on my old 1050 TI and with swift load times for being put on a HDD over an SSD. However I did experience several crashes and a lot of dropped frames.
The M&KB controls feel fantastic and I would love to play more of these games with them if they were ever to port more.
Overall, I'm happy with the game. It's one of the best post PS2 Ratchet titles and I look forward to playing it again in the future on a stronger PC.