Lower_Case_M
7 reviews liked by Lower_Case_M
Ain't Mr. Freeze just the coolest? Lame ice pun aside, this DLC was pretty good. Slightly better than the base game for its more focused narrative, and Mr. Freeze alone helps contribute to that half star. All in all, a solid end to my 30 hours spent in Arkham Origins.
Kirby Triple Deluxe
2014
Since this game's release I had always wanted this game and really wanted to play it. As a Kirby fan, I thought it looked fun and really just wanted to play more Kirby games. I never got the game though. I was a little younger, about 12, and I hoped I'd get it, but I never did. It was always on my mind for a couple years after release and whenever I saw it mentioned I would go "Man I wanna play this SO bad, I wish I had it." I saw it as the "definitive" Kirby experience even though I knew absolutely NOTHING about this game. Then I just kinda forgot about it. The last Kirby game I had played was Kirby Super Star Ultra that I'd play over and over as a kid.
This game though.... I went in completely blind and... I was heavily disappointed. I honestly dreaded almost every moment of this game. The level design was cool but I played this on a 2DS XL so.. I didn't get the complete experience with the dimensions. This game was clearly made with the 3D function in mind. Motion control segments were also cool but not really necessary... and they were kinda jank at times. The power ups you get in this game were really lacking and just weren't fun to use. They weren't very strong either and found myself a lot of the times just using the stars during boss fights. The vibes in this game and the floral themes just weren't doing it for me. Also why was this game so hard? It goes from 0 to 100 really quickly.. or maybe I just suck at the game BUT I didn't start dying until maybe the 3rd world? And what's the point of the keychains?? Kind of useless to me to be honest. Another thing, why why whyyy do we need to collect a certain amount of sun stones to unlock levels/bosses? This was my issue in Spyro 2 except here it isn't as annoying. I had to grind sun stones for the final boss which, in the moment, wasn't too bad because I only needed two but still... I'm just trying to beat the game man.
The main power up in this game, I don't know what it's called I forgot, I'm just gonna call it the "super suck".. well the super suck was super sucky. You use it for repetitive puzzles and for the dumbest scripted events in the game to where it doesn't really have an impact. Nintendo thought "Oh Kirby sucks so let's make him suck more" really lame power, especially for it to be the like "super cool", "hyped up" thing. Mini bosses were kind of creative though buuuut got really repetitive when I had to fight them over and over and over and over and over and-
The final boss was a slay I'll give it that. It was difficult but nothing too crazy. Like.. but did girly really have to have like 5 million phases and move sets LOL I get it's the final boss but sheesh.. Also the final blow to the boss was SO predictable, like I just knew Kirby was gonna use his super suck to end her.
This wasn't the worst game I've played but it was still pretty disappointing... I wanted to play more Kirby's other than the pixel-y ones and.. this game has now made me wary of the other "3D" kirbys.. I wouldn't play it again though, that's for sure never happening. I don't think I'd ever recommend the game to others either, it just didn't satisfy. There's too much going on but then not enough at the same time.
This game though.... I went in completely blind and... I was heavily disappointed. I honestly dreaded almost every moment of this game. The level design was cool but I played this on a 2DS XL so.. I didn't get the complete experience with the dimensions. This game was clearly made with the 3D function in mind. Motion control segments were also cool but not really necessary... and they were kinda jank at times. The power ups you get in this game were really lacking and just weren't fun to use. They weren't very strong either and found myself a lot of the times just using the stars during boss fights. The vibes in this game and the floral themes just weren't doing it for me. Also why was this game so hard? It goes from 0 to 100 really quickly.. or maybe I just suck at the game BUT I didn't start dying until maybe the 3rd world? And what's the point of the keychains?? Kind of useless to me to be honest. Another thing, why why whyyy do we need to collect a certain amount of sun stones to unlock levels/bosses? This was my issue in Spyro 2 except here it isn't as annoying. I had to grind sun stones for the final boss which, in the moment, wasn't too bad because I only needed two but still... I'm just trying to beat the game man.
The main power up in this game, I don't know what it's called I forgot, I'm just gonna call it the "super suck".. well the super suck was super sucky. You use it for repetitive puzzles and for the dumbest scripted events in the game to where it doesn't really have an impact. Nintendo thought "Oh Kirby sucks so let's make him suck more" really lame power, especially for it to be the like "super cool", "hyped up" thing. Mini bosses were kind of creative though buuuut got really repetitive when I had to fight them over and over and over and over and over and-
The final boss was a slay I'll give it that. It was difficult but nothing too crazy. Like.. but did girly really have to have like 5 million phases and move sets LOL I get it's the final boss but sheesh.. Also the final blow to the boss was SO predictable, like I just knew Kirby was gonna use his super suck to end her.
This wasn't the worst game I've played but it was still pretty disappointing... I wanted to play more Kirby's other than the pixel-y ones and.. this game has now made me wary of the other "3D" kirbys.. I wouldn't play it again though, that's for sure never happening. I don't think I'd ever recommend the game to others either, it just didn't satisfy. There's too much going on but then not enough at the same time.
Wacca Reverse
2021
battle_no_1.wav
YOU'RE NOW LISTENING TO
"ARE YOU READY"
101.5
"YO DJ PUMP THIS PARTY"
HARDCORE SYNDROME FM
airhorn
THE MOST FUN YOU CAN HAVE AT A GAME CENTER
"EVERY NIGHT, EVERY DAY, EVERY NIGHT, EVERY DAY"
"SOMEBODY SCREAM"
THIS AIN'T NO DAVE & BUSTERS
leaf - mopemope starts playing
YOU'RE NOW LISTENING TO
"ARE YOU READY"
101.5
"YO DJ PUMP THIS PARTY"
HARDCORE SYNDROME FM
airhorn
THE MOST FUN YOU CAN HAVE AT A GAME CENTER
"EVERY NIGHT, EVERY DAY, EVERY NIGHT, EVERY DAY"
"SOMEBODY SCREAM"
THIS AIN'T NO DAVE & BUSTERS
leaf - mopemope starts playing
makes me feel like Ego when he eats the ratatouille that reminds him of his mom's home cooking
Sequels are hard to nail. Super Mario 64 was followed up by Sunshine, Dark Souls was followed by Dark Souls 2. In the opening hours of my trek through Drangleic, I was definitely starting to see why people disliked the game. Coming hot off completing the first one and conquering all its bosses, 2 was chock full of growing pains. What do you mean the enemies follow me around like I stole their last slice of pizza? Adaptability adds iFrames? Wait a sec, I'm losing health each time I die?!
At first, 2 is incredibly frustrating. It asks you to use all the tools in your kit while 1 asked you to stick to what you liked. You didn't need to use a bow if you didn't want to, you could stick to using a sword and shield the whole game. In 2, you can certainly try. But FromSoft wants you to do a lot more with your kit. This is 2's first strong point: Diversity. You don't have to be a mage the whole game like DS1 would want you to be, no. You can be a knight, a Cleric, even a Hexer or Pyromancer. Anything your little heart desires, you can build into it without anything getting screwed up.
Dark Souls 2 has some solid improvements. Find the process of going to a bonfire after popping a humanity to restore it tedious? So does FromSoft. Wanna see a weapon's moveset despite lacking its requirements? Give it a shot, bud. Oh no, your weapon's close to breaking! Sitting at a bonfire fixes this. Multiple consumables, simplified upgrading/enhancements, boss souls turning into weapons without needing to upgrade one weapon, seeing how much equip load you have, and Bonfire Ascetics. This is a shorthand list of the steps FromSoft takes forward, but they equally step back.
Bosses take a drastic hit. While decent, there's evidently a lot more stinkers. Those Bell Gargoyles were a fine fight, right? A challenging hurdle between ringing the first Bell of Awakening at the top of Undead Parish. How about five of them in an area that's a complete nothingburger simply to have a boss fight? For better or worse, Dark Souls 2 has a lot of boss fights. A whopping 41 bosses counting the DLC! Some are great, like the Lost Sinner, others are three skeletons in a trenchcoat with adds that's disguised as a boss fight.
Bosses aren't the worst thing, far from it. DS2's weakest aspects are things that have been talked about til the cows come home, even in this review. Adaptability exists solely since FromSoft noticed people would ignore Resistance in the first game, so why not make an entire stat devoted specifically to upping how many iFrames your dodge roll has? Enemy placement also comes up, slightly alleviated by picking up a bow and using arrows or even throwing knives. My major gripe relating to bosses is the runbacks to some of them. Hope you don't mind killing the same enemies 12 times to stop them from spawning, because boy howdy is it necessary for some of these. Level design is less fluid, sometimes it's too easy, other times it's agonizing and suffers from the enemy placement far more.
Dark Souls 2 is tough for me to rate. It teeters between a 3.5 and a 4, whereas its predecessor was between 4 and a 4.5. Has its rough edges and punishes those coming into it with the Dark Souls 1 mindset, being a slower and more methodical game on the combat front. Being able to build a character into however combined with making consumables and other weapon types far more useful than they were in the first make me adore Dark Souls 2 far more than I should. It's a B-Team sequel that happily wears its crown, as scuffed as it can be. Dark Souls 3 intrigues me, hearing it does do away with some of the QoL improvements from here that I liked, but I'm looking forward to giving it a fair shake. After conquering the DLCs and defeating all 41 bosses, I need a well earned break.
At first, 2 is incredibly frustrating. It asks you to use all the tools in your kit while 1 asked you to stick to what you liked. You didn't need to use a bow if you didn't want to, you could stick to using a sword and shield the whole game. In 2, you can certainly try. But FromSoft wants you to do a lot more with your kit. This is 2's first strong point: Diversity. You don't have to be a mage the whole game like DS1 would want you to be, no. You can be a knight, a Cleric, even a Hexer or Pyromancer. Anything your little heart desires, you can build into it without anything getting screwed up.
Dark Souls 2 has some solid improvements. Find the process of going to a bonfire after popping a humanity to restore it tedious? So does FromSoft. Wanna see a weapon's moveset despite lacking its requirements? Give it a shot, bud. Oh no, your weapon's close to breaking! Sitting at a bonfire fixes this. Multiple consumables, simplified upgrading/enhancements, boss souls turning into weapons without needing to upgrade one weapon, seeing how much equip load you have, and Bonfire Ascetics. This is a shorthand list of the steps FromSoft takes forward, but they equally step back.
Bosses take a drastic hit. While decent, there's evidently a lot more stinkers. Those Bell Gargoyles were a fine fight, right? A challenging hurdle between ringing the first Bell of Awakening at the top of Undead Parish. How about five of them in an area that's a complete nothingburger simply to have a boss fight? For better or worse, Dark Souls 2 has a lot of boss fights. A whopping 41 bosses counting the DLC! Some are great, like the Lost Sinner, others are three skeletons in a trenchcoat with adds that's disguised as a boss fight.
Bosses aren't the worst thing, far from it. DS2's weakest aspects are things that have been talked about til the cows come home, even in this review. Adaptability exists solely since FromSoft noticed people would ignore Resistance in the first game, so why not make an entire stat devoted specifically to upping how many iFrames your dodge roll has? Enemy placement also comes up, slightly alleviated by picking up a bow and using arrows or even throwing knives. My major gripe relating to bosses is the runbacks to some of them. Hope you don't mind killing the same enemies 12 times to stop them from spawning, because boy howdy is it necessary for some of these. Level design is less fluid, sometimes it's too easy, other times it's agonizing and suffers from the enemy placement far more.
Dark Souls 2 is tough for me to rate. It teeters between a 3.5 and a 4, whereas its predecessor was between 4 and a 4.5. Has its rough edges and punishes those coming into it with the Dark Souls 1 mindset, being a slower and more methodical game on the combat front. Being able to build a character into however combined with making consumables and other weapon types far more useful than they were in the first make me adore Dark Souls 2 far more than I should. It's a B-Team sequel that happily wears its crown, as scuffed as it can be. Dark Souls 3 intrigues me, hearing it does do away with some of the QoL improvements from here that I liked, but I'm looking forward to giving it a fair shake. After conquering the DLCs and defeating all 41 bosses, I need a well earned break.
Under Night In-Birth II Sys:Celes is a game for perverts.
Replayed on Series S via backwards compatibility. Honestly? This game barely gets a 4/5. It's a pretty short game I honestly enjoyed, but feel it could've used more time to flesh out its concepts. If they added more weapon variety, did a bit of squad AI polishing, and did a little bit more with the level design, I think RC could've been better.
Overall, Republic Commando is worth the $10 on Steam and the Xbox store. It's a fun romp you could chew through in a weekend and well worth a look if you wanted a Star Wars title that didn't focus on Jedi/Sith characters for once. Still wish we got Imperial Commando to polish these ideas, but alas.
Overall, Republic Commando is worth the $10 on Steam and the Xbox store. It's a fun romp you could chew through in a weekend and well worth a look if you wanted a Star Wars title that didn't focus on Jedi/Sith characters for once. Still wish we got Imperial Commando to polish these ideas, but alas.
