2023
You can go fast in Pizza Tower. Like really fast! I guess not fast enough because my warped little brain wanted to go even faster. I found myself instinctively holding the left or right button on the d-pad with an iron grip so tight my thumb started to hurt. All in the vain attempt to gain more speed.
I've been following this game on and off since 2019 and I'm so glad it turned out as great as it did. I played Wario Land 4 in preparation for this game and boy, its influences are very apparent. The most obvious one being the rush mechanic. In Wario Land 4, jumping on a frog switch activates a timer and you have to race back to the level's starting point. What this also does is change the level's environment; paths originally closed off by blocks are now open, and vice versa. In Pizza Tower this activates after attacking Pillar John and is known as Pizza Time. Just like in Wario Land 4, it's a race to the beginning, but along the way you can do some backtracking for collectables or secrets that you might have missed on the initial run through, the clock is always ticking though! The whole thing is quite exhilarating; making it back to the beginning with just a few seconds to spare is so gratifying.
To aid you in achieving breakneck speed you have a pretty sizable move set, a lot of these pretty much taken from Wario Land. You have the continuous dash, grab, ground pound, and all that fun stuff, but unlike Wario, you have a super jump which can be performed by holding up while in a continuous dash state at max speed. You can do a sick ass piledriver by pressing down in midair while you're holding onto an enemy. Wario doesn't have that (he has a piledriver in Wario World)! Defeating an enemy starts a combo which is maintained by defeating more enemies and collecting toppings scattered around the levels. Defeating enemies also raises your heat meter which increases the points given out; additionally, this makes enemies more aggressive, so make sure you don't drop your combo! Oh wait, you have this taunt which is totally useless right? Well, this totally useless taunt can turn into a screen wipe after accumulating enough points, indicated by you having an electric aura around you. The taunt can act as a parry for enemy attacks and projectiles as well.
This game is just fun and that's really all I can say about it. It's a video game ass video game and I'm all here for it. Side note for anyone playing, after the animated intro sequence, you see Peppino sitting in a dark room. Let this idle for about 40 seconds for a cool reward!
I've been following this game on and off since 2019 and I'm so glad it turned out as great as it did. I played Wario Land 4 in preparation for this game and boy, its influences are very apparent. The most obvious one being the rush mechanic. In Wario Land 4, jumping on a frog switch activates a timer and you have to race back to the level's starting point. What this also does is change the level's environment; paths originally closed off by blocks are now open, and vice versa. In Pizza Tower this activates after attacking Pillar John and is known as Pizza Time. Just like in Wario Land 4, it's a race to the beginning, but along the way you can do some backtracking for collectables or secrets that you might have missed on the initial run through, the clock is always ticking though! The whole thing is quite exhilarating; making it back to the beginning with just a few seconds to spare is so gratifying.
To aid you in achieving breakneck speed you have a pretty sizable move set, a lot of these pretty much taken from Wario Land. You have the continuous dash, grab, ground pound, and all that fun stuff, but unlike Wario, you have a super jump which can be performed by holding up while in a continuous dash state at max speed. You can do a sick ass piledriver by pressing down in midair while you're holding onto an enemy. Wario doesn't have that (he has a piledriver in Wario World)! Defeating an enemy starts a combo which is maintained by defeating more enemies and collecting toppings scattered around the levels. Defeating enemies also raises your heat meter which increases the points given out; additionally, this makes enemies more aggressive, so make sure you don't drop your combo! Oh wait, you have this taunt which is totally useless right? Well, this totally useless taunt can turn into a screen wipe after accumulating enough points, indicated by you having an electric aura around you. The taunt can act as a parry for enemy attacks and projectiles as well.
This game is just fun and that's really all I can say about it. It's a video game ass video game and I'm all here for it. Side note for anyone playing, after the animated intro sequence, you see Peppino sitting in a dark room. Let this idle for about 40 seconds for a cool reward!
I don't know what got into me recently, but whenever I would start up a new game, I would lose interest almost immediately. Could I be experiencing burnout? Instead of going through something new, I opted to replay some games instead. I found solace here; it felt good to play games again. So this game releasing in the midst of my burnout was nice. Katamari is the best kind of comfort food.
I love Katamari! To be more specific, I love Katamari Damacy, the first game. There's something about the original's simplicity that always has me coming back for more. Meanwhile, I only ever played We Love Katamari once. It's a great game, just not as great as the original; at least that's how I remembered it, and after playing this remaster, my opinion still stands, but really, they're both fantastic games. I completely understand when people say this is their favorite Katamari game; the levels have more variety, the soundtrack still goes hard, playing as the cousins is a nice touch, the King's backstory, etc. This remaster also adds a few things, like eternal mode, which was absent from the original's release. Eternal mode allows you to roll around levels without a time limit, which I absolutely adore. There is also an added indicator pointing the player to level goals or a barrier that you are now able to get past. Oh, the Royal Reverie content is there too. It's just five additional levels that let you play as the young King. They're not too great, honestly! A bit underwhelming, in fact.
It really all comes down to rolling shit up, and it's still fun to do so, which is something the games that came after WLK weren't able to accomplish. With Keita Takahashi no longer being involved with the series after the release of We Love Katamari, as corny as it is to say, the series lost a bit of its magic. It just never felt the same afterwards, so that's why I'm glad these Reroll games exist. Now if only we could get a new game that is even remotely comparable to the first two games!
I love Katamari! To be more specific, I love Katamari Damacy, the first game. There's something about the original's simplicity that always has me coming back for more. Meanwhile, I only ever played We Love Katamari once. It's a great game, just not as great as the original; at least that's how I remembered it, and after playing this remaster, my opinion still stands, but really, they're both fantastic games. I completely understand when people say this is their favorite Katamari game; the levels have more variety, the soundtrack still goes hard, playing as the cousins is a nice touch, the King's backstory, etc. This remaster also adds a few things, like eternal mode, which was absent from the original's release. Eternal mode allows you to roll around levels without a time limit, which I absolutely adore. There is also an added indicator pointing the player to level goals or a barrier that you are now able to get past. Oh, the Royal Reverie content is there too. It's just five additional levels that let you play as the young King. They're not too great, honestly! A bit underwhelming, in fact.
It really all comes down to rolling shit up, and it's still fun to do so, which is something the games that came after WLK weren't able to accomplish. With Keita Takahashi no longer being involved with the series after the release of We Love Katamari, as corny as it is to say, the series lost a bit of its magic. It just never felt the same afterwards, so that's why I'm glad these Reroll games exist. Now if only we could get a new game that is even remotely comparable to the first two games!
2023
The original Resident Evil 4 is one of my all-time favorite games. It's not nostalgia. I played it for the first time in 2021. Even before I played RE4, I was of the belief that RE4 never needed a remake and I still stand by that. But Capcom's Resident Evil remakes of the past have been enjoyable, so while I think remaking RE4 is unnecessary, I was willing to bite.
By looking at my rating, I think you can easily guess that I didn't love this game. I won't get into all the specifics. A few of the most liked reviews on this site about this game go over what didn't click with me way better than I could ever have explained it but to summarize it, it just felt like it was missing that oomph. I don't know how else to describe it other than that I probably would have forgotten a lot of the major set pieces if this was my first ever run through of RE4. I don't know what tone the game is going for because the cutscenes are all played out very seriously, but then, in combat, Leon is making dumb (fun) one-liners.
I will mention a few things I did enjoy, like knife parrying. It's pretty rad! I liked that Luis was more present throughout the game and he made for a good AI partner. I really liked what they did with Ashley. She's great in both games, but here the relationship between her and Leon was fantastic. Also, shut up, her redesign is great! What really made me come away from this in a more positive light was whenever a Regenerador was on screen. They're pretty scary in the original but also lumbering to accommodate for your movement in that game. In the remake, however, they're even more terrifying. You have way more open movement, so the Regeneradores are faster; they squirm and jiggle all about. If they're writhing on the floor, they will jump at you. I dunno, I just really liked everything that had to do with the Regeneradores , so A+ there Capcom!
At the end of the day, the game was fine! If I ever need an RE4 fix, then I'll just stick with the original, but glad to see most people are enjoying it. Maybe I'm just jaded.
By looking at my rating, I think you can easily guess that I didn't love this game. I won't get into all the specifics. A few of the most liked reviews on this site about this game go over what didn't click with me way better than I could ever have explained it but to summarize it, it just felt like it was missing that oomph. I don't know how else to describe it other than that I probably would have forgotten a lot of the major set pieces if this was my first ever run through of RE4. I don't know what tone the game is going for because the cutscenes are all played out very seriously, but then, in combat, Leon is making dumb (fun) one-liners.
I will mention a few things I did enjoy, like knife parrying. It's pretty rad! I liked that Luis was more present throughout the game and he made for a good AI partner. I really liked what they did with Ashley. She's great in both games, but here the relationship between her and Leon was fantastic. Also, shut up, her redesign is great! What really made me come away from this in a more positive light was whenever a Regenerador was on screen. They're pretty scary in the original but also lumbering to accommodate for your movement in that game. In the remake, however, they're even more terrifying. You have way more open movement, so the Regeneradores are faster; they squirm and jiggle all about. If they're writhing on the floor, they will jump at you. I dunno, I just really liked everything that had to do with the Regeneradores , so A+ there Capcom!
At the end of the day, the game was fine! If I ever need an RE4 fix, then I'll just stick with the original, but glad to see most people are enjoying it. Maybe I'm just jaded.
2006
Played through the whole thing with a friend, and throughout our playthrough we went through a wide array of emotions, like pure unadulterated joy laughing at the broken physics or the ridiculous amount of loading screens. We also experienced plenty of suffering, like the ball puzzle in Silver's story, but the best moment was my friend popping off at that scene. He had no idea this was coming, and honestly, that made it all worth it in my book. Talking about this game is like beating a dead horse, yada yada. If you can find someone else who is willing to suffer through this with you, I say give it a shot; you might just have a good time with it.
2022
This game is a hodgepodge of ideas and most if not all fail to stick. Playing as Bayonetta is still fun and satisfying, but having to unlock basic moves like the launcher for every weapon is an odd choice I'm not a fan of. Moves are no longer purchased at the Gates of Hell. Now you have a skill tree sub menu found by pressing the minus button, meaning you don't have to wait to find an entrance to the Gates of Hell while traversing levels like in the previous games. You can purchase moves whenever, but at the same time, this kind of renders the Gates of Hell worthless. You get new weapons by just playing normally, you no longer have to find LPs and bring them back to Rodin at the Gates of Hell. Buy the Moon of Mahaa-Kalaa and maybe a costume or two, then proceed to never bother with the Gates of Hell again.
Viola is the new character in the game and first impressions are pretty good! I like her punk aesthetic and she's a big goofball, but that's pretty much all she is. She's given plenty of moments to do a cool thing but ends up flubbing it every time. A complete jobber! Well, if she's not so great story wise, then her fighting style must be good at least, right? Sadly, she's lacking there too. Bayonetta gets plenty of new weapons and demon summons to go along with them. Viola only has one weapon and demon summon. You can buy her entire toolkit early on and even then her playstyle feels completely undercooked. Her parry/witch time blows! She desperately needed at least one other playstyle. At least her battle theme is good?
Another new addition to this game are the huge kaiju battles! Seeing these in the trailers leading up to the games' release had me excited because I'm simple-minded and I love big monsters fighting and destroying shit. Sadly, I didn't get to enjoy these either. The first one with the Font of Devastation: Sin Gomorrah (this name goes hard) felt weighty as it should, but then it just boils down to a game of rock paper scissors. The other kaiju battles play out differently but aren't any better, with the exception of one near the end. All I'm saying is that if No More Heroes 2 does a better kaiju battle than you, then you probably fucked up.
If you've heard anything about this game, then it's probably about how terrible the story is. I never cared about the story in the previous games, but at least there's stuff to appreciate in them, but here there's nothing! Again, just a bunch of ideas thrown in that fall flat or are there just because. I also hate to be that guy, but the game looks rather poor. Looking like a PS3 game should normally be a positive but the environments are so drab and empty. Speaking of drab, the main enemy force is also painfully boring and uninteresting. The angel and demon enemies of the previous games all had an outer shell and attacking them cracks the shell, revealing their true, usually grotesque, form underneath. In this game, the homunculi just explode into toothpaste goop.
I was completely stone-faced throughout most of the game. Even when I should have technically been popping off at hype moments I just sat there, expressionless. I had more emotions playing Dante's Inferno! If I had to describe this game with one word, it would be flaccid.
Viola is the new character in the game and first impressions are pretty good! I like her punk aesthetic and she's a big goofball, but that's pretty much all she is. She's given plenty of moments to do a cool thing but ends up flubbing it every time. A complete jobber! Well, if she's not so great story wise, then her fighting style must be good at least, right? Sadly, she's lacking there too. Bayonetta gets plenty of new weapons and demon summons to go along with them. Viola only has one weapon and demon summon. You can buy her entire toolkit early on and even then her playstyle feels completely undercooked. Her parry/witch time blows! She desperately needed at least one other playstyle. At least her battle theme is good?
Another new addition to this game are the huge kaiju battles! Seeing these in the trailers leading up to the games' release had me excited because I'm simple-minded and I love big monsters fighting and destroying shit. Sadly, I didn't get to enjoy these either. The first one with the Font of Devastation: Sin Gomorrah (this name goes hard) felt weighty as it should, but then it just boils down to a game of rock paper scissors. The other kaiju battles play out differently but aren't any better, with the exception of one near the end. All I'm saying is that if No More Heroes 2 does a better kaiju battle than you, then you probably fucked up.
If you've heard anything about this game, then it's probably about how terrible the story is. I never cared about the story in the previous games, but at least there's stuff to appreciate in them, but here there's nothing! Again, just a bunch of ideas thrown in that fall flat or are there just because. I also hate to be that guy, but the game looks rather poor. Looking like a PS3 game should normally be a positive but the environments are so drab and empty. Speaking of drab, the main enemy force is also painfully boring and uninteresting. The angel and demon enemies of the previous games all had an outer shell and attacking them cracks the shell, revealing their true, usually grotesque, form underneath. In this game, the homunculi just explode into toothpaste goop.
I was completely stone-faced throughout most of the game. Even when I should have technically been popping off at hype moments I just sat there, expressionless. I had more emotions playing Dante's Inferno! If I had to describe this game with one word, it would be flaccid.
Before 2021 I quite actively ignored the "Metroidvania" genre. The idea of constantly backtracking sounded like the complete opposite of what I liked about video games. I guess I really didn't like all that backtracking in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door! In retrospect, I was a complete fool and I realized this after playing Metroid Dread. Going back to previously explored areas but now with a newly acquired power up and filling out your map activates all the neurons in my simple ape brain. Playing Symphony of the Night further cemented that I've been a total idiot for sleeping on this genre for so long. When I got Soul of Bat (ability to fly), I just had a big dumb smile on my face. Everyone knows about the second half of the game where you have to go through the castle again, but this time upside down, right? I thought this would make the game feel stale, but it being upside down really did make it feel fresh again and I was eager to explore it yet again. This game rocks and that's really all I have to say.
2005
Fuck your zodiac sign who's your favorite Smith?
1991
I forget when I first played Super Castlevania IV, but it was quite some time ago, and all I really remember is not enjoying it. I've been on a big Castlevania kick lately, and I knew it would finally be time to revisit SCV4. Will I see the error of my ways, or will all the bad memories come flooding back? Yeah, I still don't like this one.
It's not a bad game; it's just completely serviceable. This game feels like what an AI would spit out if you tasked it to make a Castlevania game based on all the previous titles. Story-wise, it's a retelling of the first game, with Simon Belmont taking on Dracula for the first time. In the North American version, the story was altered to take place after Simon's Quest. The gameplay, on the other hand, is a whole other can of worms. The biggest change here is multi-directional whipping. Sounds cool on paper, right? But I'm going to be a snobby, elitist asshole and say this shit stinks. This trivializes most encounters and makes nearly all of the subweapons practically useless. At least you can flail your whip around if you hold the attack button.
Jumping was also changed. In the previous games, your jump was more methodical; you were committed to your jumps. In SCV4, you can adjust your jump midair. I don't mind this as much, but I really do prefer how your jumps were performed in the previous games. Honestly, the most glaring issue here is that I find the overall package boring. I never cared for this game's visual aesthetic, and the soundtrack was just kind of there. Also, why is this game so long? It wasn't until after I finished stage 9 that I realized the game was still going. I replayed Rondo of Blood the day prior to writing this, and that game is a nice, brisk seven stages with branching paths and a second playable character (I would have used Dracula's Curse as an example instead, but I haven't replayed it yet).
Super Castlevania IV kind of just exists. Again, I don't hate it; I just don't find any aspect of it particularly interesting. I get why people like this; 8-way whipping is cool, and more mobility in the air is nice, but for me, I was yearning to go take a nap instead. Ya know, I also wasn't super (heh) into Contra III; maybe I should give that one a second try as well.
It's not a bad game; it's just completely serviceable. This game feels like what an AI would spit out if you tasked it to make a Castlevania game based on all the previous titles. Story-wise, it's a retelling of the first game, with Simon Belmont taking on Dracula for the first time. In the North American version, the story was altered to take place after Simon's Quest. The gameplay, on the other hand, is a whole other can of worms. The biggest change here is multi-directional whipping. Sounds cool on paper, right? But I'm going to be a snobby, elitist asshole and say this shit stinks. This trivializes most encounters and makes nearly all of the subweapons practically useless. At least you can flail your whip around if you hold the attack button.
Jumping was also changed. In the previous games, your jump was more methodical; you were committed to your jumps. In SCV4, you can adjust your jump midair. I don't mind this as much, but I really do prefer how your jumps were performed in the previous games. Honestly, the most glaring issue here is that I find the overall package boring. I never cared for this game's visual aesthetic, and the soundtrack was just kind of there. Also, why is this game so long? It wasn't until after I finished stage 9 that I realized the game was still going. I replayed Rondo of Blood the day prior to writing this, and that game is a nice, brisk seven stages with branching paths and a second playable character (I would have used Dracula's Curse as an example instead, but I haven't replayed it yet).
Super Castlevania IV kind of just exists. Again, I don't hate it; I just don't find any aspect of it particularly interesting. I get why people like this; 8-way whipping is cool, and more mobility in the air is nice, but for me, I was yearning to go take a nap instead. Ya know, I also wasn't super (heh) into Contra III; maybe I should give that one a second try as well.
If you plan on playing this or any other game published by
Working Designs please do yourself a favor and check if there's an Un-Working Designs patch for said game you're looking for. Working Designs is notorious for increasing in game difficulty to a frustrating degree. Enemies do more damage, items cost more in shops, increased enemy stats, etc. With these patches the frustration and
tedium is mostly gone as they revert the difficulty back to the original Japanese releases. You still have to put up with their shitty ass scripts which added awkward sex jokes, slurs and
references, like Bill Clinton in Lunar and Bob Vila in Magic Knight Rayearth. Suffice to say I'm glad Working Designs is gone. #ripbozo #packwatch rest in piss
The actual game here is a fun little 2D Zelda like. Sprites are cute and the soundtrack goes kinda hard??? Platforming can be a bit awkward at times and maybe I'm just dumb but I found myself getting lost a few times. It also becomes a shmup for a bit at the end.
Working Designs please do yourself a favor and check if there's an Un-Working Designs patch for said game you're looking for. Working Designs is notorious for increasing in game difficulty to a frustrating degree. Enemies do more damage, items cost more in shops, increased enemy stats, etc. With these patches the frustration and
tedium is mostly gone as they revert the difficulty back to the original Japanese releases. You still have to put up with their shitty ass scripts which added awkward sex jokes, slurs and
references, like Bill Clinton in Lunar and Bob Vila in Magic Knight Rayearth. Suffice to say I'm glad Working Designs is gone. #ripbozo #packwatch rest in piss
The actual game here is a fun little 2D Zelda like. Sprites are cute and the soundtrack goes kinda hard??? Platforming can be a bit awkward at times and maybe I'm just dumb but I found myself getting lost a few times. It also becomes a shmup for a bit at the end.
I might have spoiled myself by playing Aria of Sorrow before any of the other GBA Castlevanias. To be fair, I did try Circle of the Moon for an hour before I backed out like a coward. My first few hours of playing this, I kept thinking to myself" Man, I can't wait to replay Aria of Sorrow". That thought soon dissipated after unlocking a few of Juste's abilities, and I was able to enjoy myself a bit more. Even the music, which I wasn't really into initially, grew on me.
I brought up Aria of Sorrow a few times, but really the game I should be bringing up is Symphony of the Night. I was reminded of Symphony a lot, like how you just accumulate a bunch of crap in your inventory that you can't get rid of (not as much as Symphony, mind you). If there's one aspect of this game I'll say is better here than in Aria, it's your dash ability. In Aria, Soma only has a backdash, which has a significant amount of cooldown. Meanwhile, in Harmony, Juste has no cooldown on his backdash (just like Alucard in Symphony) while also having a forward dash. But by far the biggest comparison I can make to Symphony is the second castle.
I had no idea this was in the game, so it came as a nice surprise, but this is also where the game started to lose its steam for me. I just don't think "Castle B" is nearly as interesting as the inverted castle in Symphony. Another castle means more ground to cover, and while I think dashing feels great, all your other movement options feel a bit lacking, especially compared to Aria. I know comparing this to a game that came out afterwards is unfair, but I can't help it. Exploring both castles felt arduous towards the end, so much so that I beelined to the end even though I was around 190% map completion. I also found it quite easy to get lost, but I'm also dumb as rocks, so take that point with a grain of salt.
Despite growing a bit tired of this game towards the end, I still came away enjoying it. With how mixed the reviews are for this game, I went in expecting nothing more than a slight improvement over Circle of the Moon, but it's more than that. I will show Circle of the Moon some respect and finish it, but not now. Instead, I'll say this: don't skip this so you can jump right into Aria like I did. You might appreciate it more.
I brought up Aria of Sorrow a few times, but really the game I should be bringing up is Symphony of the Night. I was reminded of Symphony a lot, like how you just accumulate a bunch of crap in your inventory that you can't get rid of (not as much as Symphony, mind you). If there's one aspect of this game I'll say is better here than in Aria, it's your dash ability. In Aria, Soma only has a backdash, which has a significant amount of cooldown. Meanwhile, in Harmony, Juste has no cooldown on his backdash (just like Alucard in Symphony) while also having a forward dash. But by far the biggest comparison I can make to Symphony is the second castle.
I had no idea this was in the game, so it came as a nice surprise, but this is also where the game started to lose its steam for me. I just don't think "Castle B" is nearly as interesting as the inverted castle in Symphony. Another castle means more ground to cover, and while I think dashing feels great, all your other movement options feel a bit lacking, especially compared to Aria. I know comparing this to a game that came out afterwards is unfair, but I can't help it. Exploring both castles felt arduous towards the end, so much so that I beelined to the end even though I was around 190% map completion. I also found it quite easy to get lost, but I'm also dumb as rocks, so take that point with a grain of salt.
Despite growing a bit tired of this game towards the end, I still came away enjoying it. With how mixed the reviews are for this game, I went in expecting nothing more than a slight improvement over Circle of the Moon, but it's more than that. I will show Circle of the Moon some respect and finish it, but not now. Instead, I'll say this: don't skip this so you can jump right into Aria like I did. You might appreciate it more.
1994
Instead of finishing up Signalis or putting more time into Pokémon Violet, I spent a night getting a CD-I emulator up and running. Kind of a pain in the ass and was not worth it. This is just shitty Elevator Action! Don't know if it's just the emulator, but the controls felt a bit unresponsive. I legitimately did want to finish this, but every world seems to go on forever. Using save states also crashes the game after finishing a level, so fuck it! Maybe I'll come back to this when CD-I emulation gets better. I can at least say I've played Hotel Mario now.
2022
I played the original River City Girls around it's launch date, and while I know it's not a great game, I still found that some enjoyment could be wrung from it (playing with a friend most definitely helped). Everything is better with a friend. The sprite work is gorgeous and I liked a few bits of the soundtrack. The combat felt fine! Not bad, not great, just fine! This is due to enemies being complete damage sponges. That's about it, though. I remember a few things about the game, but its mostly faded from my puny monkey brain. Now onto River City Girls 2.
It's pretty much the same thing, huh? No, really, I have the same exact praises as I did for the first game. Except now that this is still somewhat fresh in my mind, I can mention a few things I didn't like! The writing is groan-worthy. I hope I'm not alone with wanting to roll my eyes when I hear a character in a game utter the word doggo or the phrase "bye Felicia".
Do you like going across the map to collect a macguffin then slowly bring it back to its destination, all the while tanky enemies bum-rush you from both sides? Do you like repeating this process for six to nine hours? Despite reaching the max level and nearly maxing out my attack stat (two points off) enemies still felt like they took a bit too much damage to fully take down. If my fading memory serves me right, a lot of the enemies that are present here are completely carried over from the first game. Even the map mostly feels the same!
I dunno, I think the game is just fine. I played this with the same friend that played RCG1 with me and we both agreed that it felt very samey. I can't help but think this games existence feels unnecessary. Like, sure, this game might be an overall better experience than the first game, but I don't care! Why was this made (aside from the obvious)? It felt like the same exact shit just longer. Besides the pixel art, I don't think it does anything inherently good or bad. It just kind of exists. Going forward, this might be my go-to example of a 5/10 game. Truly the worst fate any piece of art could succumb to, being completely forgettable.
It's pretty much the same thing, huh? No, really, I have the same exact praises as I did for the first game. Except now that this is still somewhat fresh in my mind, I can mention a few things I didn't like! The writing is groan-worthy. I hope I'm not alone with wanting to roll my eyes when I hear a character in a game utter the word doggo or the phrase "bye Felicia".
Do you like going across the map to collect a macguffin then slowly bring it back to its destination, all the while tanky enemies bum-rush you from both sides? Do you like repeating this process for six to nine hours? Despite reaching the max level and nearly maxing out my attack stat (two points off) enemies still felt like they took a bit too much damage to fully take down. If my fading memory serves me right, a lot of the enemies that are present here are completely carried over from the first game. Even the map mostly feels the same!
I dunno, I think the game is just fine. I played this with the same friend that played RCG1 with me and we both agreed that it felt very samey. I can't help but think this games existence feels unnecessary. Like, sure, this game might be an overall better experience than the first game, but I don't care! Why was this made (aside from the obvious)? It felt like the same exact shit just longer. Besides the pixel art, I don't think it does anything inherently good or bad. It just kind of exists. Going forward, this might be my go-to example of a 5/10 game. Truly the worst fate any piece of art could succumb to, being completely forgettable.
1991
Ghoul School can be considered one of the earliest trailblazers of the "Metroidvania" genre. You are dropped right into the game after the title screen (the story can be found in the manual) and are given quite a bit of freedom when exploring the school. You'll find the occasional dead end and roadblocks that can be conquered later by acquiring a powerup. You start out with a pretty shitty weapon, a bat. Its close range and you'll quickly encounter monsters that fire projectiles or are too low to the ground to hit, like the monkeys that throw wrenches or the little annoying eyeball fucks that will follow you all throughout a room. You can hide in lockers, but I found this almost pointless since enemies that follow will just circle around the locker you're hiding in, or some will just stand and wait right in front of it. Why not just jump over them, right? Well, your jump is pretty shit as well; you simply do not get enough momentum to make it over any of the larger enemies; not even standing on tables and shelves will help you much. I swear there are some jumps you can't make without taking damage. Even when you get the spring shoes, which gives you a bigger jump, damage seems unavoidable.
There's no map of any kind, so getting lost is a given, especially since a lot of the rooms and hallways look very similar. The game does indicate which room you're in on the top left, so that's nice at least. It's in these rooms you enter where you'll find upgrades to your arsenal, like the Deweytron gun, which fires straight, or the Digestaray, which will finally allow you to deal with all those pesky ground bound enemies. I mentioned the spring shoes earlier, but there's also suction cup shoes, which makes you stick to the ceiling. You just need to actually be able to reach the ceiling with your pitiful jump while wearing these to attach to it, so they're used very rarely. You'll probably be scrounging for recovery items quite frequently, which are apples. You can't hold onto any of these, so if you currently don't need one, make sure you remember where it was! You might even find the elusive golden apple, which halves the damage you receive (I wish I had found this).
Find power-ups, get lost, find your way to the literal heart of the ghoul-infested school, and defeat the big bad to rescue the cheerleader you were planning to ask out for the school's Halloween dance. The titular Ghoul School then reverts back to its original state, the "Cool School". The game is kind of shit; your jump sucks and the hit detection can be questionable at times, but despite this, I found this game quite charming, and the OST is memorable enough. It's not on the same level as Monster Party (I'll get to this one later this month), but it's pretty close to that vibe. Worth checking out if you're interested in early "Metroidvanias" or want an interesting curiosity for the spooky month of October.
There's no map of any kind, so getting lost is a given, especially since a lot of the rooms and hallways look very similar. The game does indicate which room you're in on the top left, so that's nice at least. It's in these rooms you enter where you'll find upgrades to your arsenal, like the Deweytron gun, which fires straight, or the Digestaray, which will finally allow you to deal with all those pesky ground bound enemies. I mentioned the spring shoes earlier, but there's also suction cup shoes, which makes you stick to the ceiling. You just need to actually be able to reach the ceiling with your pitiful jump while wearing these to attach to it, so they're used very rarely. You'll probably be scrounging for recovery items quite frequently, which are apples. You can't hold onto any of these, so if you currently don't need one, make sure you remember where it was! You might even find the elusive golden apple, which halves the damage you receive (I wish I had found this).
Find power-ups, get lost, find your way to the literal heart of the ghoul-infested school, and defeat the big bad to rescue the cheerleader you were planning to ask out for the school's Halloween dance. The titular Ghoul School then reverts back to its original state, the "Cool School". The game is kind of shit; your jump sucks and the hit detection can be questionable at times, but despite this, I found this game quite charming, and the OST is memorable enough. It's not on the same level as Monster Party (I'll get to this one later this month), but it's pretty close to that vibe. Worth checking out if you're interested in early "Metroidvanias" or want an interesting curiosity for the spooky month of October.
2005
I've seen a few reviews on here that claim Katamari Damacy has terrible controls. In Katamari you need both analog sticks to move; move both sticks up to roll forward, down for backwards, hold the left stick up and the right stick down to quickly move the Prince to the left, and vice versa. Rapidly move the analog sticks up and down for a few seconds to perform a dash and you can press both sticks in to do a 180-degree turn. I personally think these controls are perfect; sure, it may take a while to get used to them, but just because they're weird or different doesn't mean they're bad. I kind of see it like tank controls, except I see more people bitch about that. Katamari NEEDS two analog sticks to work! So, what do you get when you put Katamari on a console with only one analog nub? You get one scuffed Katamari game, probably the worst in the series! Everything the right analog stick used to do is now on the four face buttons. Triangle replaces holding up on the right stick and x replaces holding down. For the dash you need to press the nub up and the triangle button alternatively, and for the quick turn press left on the nub and the circle button twice in quick succession. Just like with other Katamari games, you can get used to them eventually (remapping the face buttons to the right analog stick helps) but there are issues beyond the controls here.
This is the third game in the series and is the first game made without the involvement of series creator Keita Takahashi and it shows. Each level plays out the exact same way. Roll up to this amount, then get transported to a new map, timer resets and roll around again. Now repeat this for about 4 and a half hours. This may sound like a normal Katamari game, but the problem is that every level is the god damn same thing every single time. Rollable objects are always in the same position; the size number you need to achieve is the same, and the order the maps appear in is the same; they could have at least randomized them! I didn't count how many maps are in the game, but there's really not too many. Your objective is always the same, just roll and get bigger; it gets mind-numbing real quick. We Love Katamari introduced a lot of stage variety like rolling a sumo wrestler around so he can eat and get bigger for an upcoming sumo match. A boy got caught up with studying and didn't pay his electricity bill; now go roll up fireflies so he can continue his studies. There's a stage where you enter a race and now your Katamari will automatically accelerate. This game offers nothing of that caliber. There's a few levels off to the side that amount to rolling up as much as you can for a few minutes with no real way to fail.
I saw a comment somewhere that the described this game as soulless and that's completely accurate. I can't even complement the music as most of the soundtrack is ripped from the first two games.
This is the third game in the series and is the first game made without the involvement of series creator Keita Takahashi and it shows. Each level plays out the exact same way. Roll up to this amount, then get transported to a new map, timer resets and roll around again. Now repeat this for about 4 and a half hours. This may sound like a normal Katamari game, but the problem is that every level is the god damn same thing every single time. Rollable objects are always in the same position; the size number you need to achieve is the same, and the order the maps appear in is the same; they could have at least randomized them! I didn't count how many maps are in the game, but there's really not too many. Your objective is always the same, just roll and get bigger; it gets mind-numbing real quick. We Love Katamari introduced a lot of stage variety like rolling a sumo wrestler around so he can eat and get bigger for an upcoming sumo match. A boy got caught up with studying and didn't pay his electricity bill; now go roll up fireflies so he can continue his studies. There's a stage where you enter a race and now your Katamari will automatically accelerate. This game offers nothing of that caliber. There's a few levels off to the side that amount to rolling up as much as you can for a few minutes with no real way to fail.
I saw a comment somewhere that the described this game as soulless and that's completely accurate. I can't even complement the music as most of the soundtrack is ripped from the first two games.
1992
Recommended by FallenGrace as part of this list.
I may never gain the ability to be even halfway decent at shooters, but I think I can recognize a good one when I see one. Immediately, this game does something I found interesting in that you can do the first four levels in whatever order you feel like, similar to Mega Man in a way. I started with level three, which I actually found the hardest of the first four levels. Don't get it twisted though, just because I found this the hardest of the initial levels doesn't mean the others are a cakewalk. This game is quite challenging and some of the later levels felt like an endurance test.
I don't know if this is a common feature in a lot of other shooters, but unlike most of the ones I've played, picking up a powerup doesn't replace the one you're currently using, instead with the press of the C button you can switch between all your collected weapons, five in total! Although dying will result in you losing your currently equipped weapon, but don't fret, as it seemed like powerups were quite plentiful, at least for me. I don't know what I'd do without my beloved blade and hunter shots. You can press the A button to adjust your ship's speed by a multiple of 25 up to 100 speed and by holding the A button you can adjust it to a specific number of your liking (I mostly kept it at 80 speed).
Upon starting a level, you might notice that the screen can scroll vertically down. Most levels are like this and it's great as it gives you more of a chance to avoid oncoming projectiles. By the way, this game is gorgeous! That parallax scrolling used on the ocean in the first level looks so good! I do have to mention this though, the game suffers from quite a bit of slowdown, but this might be a blessing in disguise. The Saturn and the Sega Ages rerelease of the game remove most, if not all, of the slowdown, but in return, might make the game even more difficult for you. Lastly, before I close this off, I gotta mention the soundtrack; it rocks just like the rest of the game!
I may never gain the ability to be even halfway decent at shooters, but I think I can recognize a good one when I see one. Immediately, this game does something I found interesting in that you can do the first four levels in whatever order you feel like, similar to Mega Man in a way. I started with level three, which I actually found the hardest of the first four levels. Don't get it twisted though, just because I found this the hardest of the initial levels doesn't mean the others are a cakewalk. This game is quite challenging and some of the later levels felt like an endurance test.
I don't know if this is a common feature in a lot of other shooters, but unlike most of the ones I've played, picking up a powerup doesn't replace the one you're currently using, instead with the press of the C button you can switch between all your collected weapons, five in total! Although dying will result in you losing your currently equipped weapon, but don't fret, as it seemed like powerups were quite plentiful, at least for me. I don't know what I'd do without my beloved blade and hunter shots. You can press the A button to adjust your ship's speed by a multiple of 25 up to 100 speed and by holding the A button you can adjust it to a specific number of your liking (I mostly kept it at 80 speed).
Upon starting a level, you might notice that the screen can scroll vertically down. Most levels are like this and it's great as it gives you more of a chance to avoid oncoming projectiles. By the way, this game is gorgeous! That parallax scrolling used on the ocean in the first level looks so good! I do have to mention this though, the game suffers from quite a bit of slowdown, but this might be a blessing in disguise. The Saturn and the Sega Ages rerelease of the game remove most, if not all, of the slowdown, but in return, might make the game even more difficult for you. Lastly, before I close this off, I gotta mention the soundtrack; it rocks just like the rest of the game!